If any exhibition is going to demonstrate the vast parameters of contemporary art today it is the current Martin Creed show at the Hayward Gallery.
At a point where my confidence regarding my artwork was not particularly high, this exhibition space offered an array of work which opened my eyes up to the possibilities. From a screwed up paper ball to a massive rotating neon sign, Creed’s work is certainly successful in questioning the extent to what art can be.
Walking around the exhibition I find myself relating more to these works than many others I have seen at the exhibitions discussed previously. The familiar aspect of many materials used by Creed, such as lego and balloons, injects a sense of playfulness into the artwork, reminding the viewer that art does not always have to be taken so seriously. This point can be further unravelled when taking on board Creed’s view on conceptual art which can be found printed within the exhibition leaflet;
‘I don’t believe in conceptual art. I don’t know what it is. I can’t separate ideas from feelings…Work comes from feelings and goes towards or ends up as feelings. It is a feeling sandwich, with ideas in the middle.’
This point, I think, relates greatly to many in the artistic community. Many times I have heard the phrase ‘I did this because I wanted to. Why does there have to be a complicated reason for it?’ What Creed does therefore is make it ok to do something just because you felt like it. The randomness of the collective work shown at ‘What’s the Point of it?’ I believe further illustrates this, referencing a vast amount of different ideas and feelings.
If what Creed intended was to make the viewer feel a certain way with his work, there is no piece where this is more evident than Half the air in a given space (1998). In this installation, the artist captures half of the air in the room in white balloons, challenging how the space can now be perceived by the viewer. In all honesty, as I waded through the sea of balloons my thoughts did not even turn to the effect Creed had created. Overcome with a feeling of happiness, I found the experience just really enjoyable, like the artist had created a bubble closed off from the outside world where the only thing you were permitted to do was have fun.
My experience within the installation, therefore, reiterates the importance of being able to have feelings about an artwork instead of desperately attempting to decipher the complex meaning to it all. This is a principle I can definitely take on board during my current project given the nostalgic nature of my sourced material.
As mentioned, I believe in one of my very first posts on here, I need to consider whether I am making the work for me, to discover myself, or making the work so the viewer can make their own discoveries. I suppose when using family photographs the viewer will always inherently make some connection between these familiar images portraying family life and the ones they too own.
I think it is integral for me now to really deliberate how I feel about certain photographs and to create work from the ones I feel most strongly about. Up until now, many of my decisions have been based upon the compositional nature of photographs and focusing on how they will come out when, for example, transposed into a dry point etching. I am beginning to find my way out of this maze, however, since my recent epiphany regarding my feelings towards my family trips to the seaside. I plan to keep focusing upon photographs which epitomize these particular memories in the hope that whoever views my work will also relate to these in some way.
