Reflecting
I started out with the question of what is Art? I questioned why do I need to make Art? when Art all originates from an idea? I felt by making something physical would only be an interpretation of my idea. I felt interpretation was the viewer’s job
As far as other people were concerned I did not exists in the Art world even though I had all these thoughts and ideas. I needed to find a way to exist in the Art world, as an original source and make “Art’ which could be my language. I looked at Sol LeWitt’s series of Wall Drawings as he encapsulates the idea of the idea and removed the Artistic hand to highlight the idea.
The more I thought about the idea the more it turned into something new with out even making something physical. I learned that it was becoming impossible to capture the purity of an idea, as I explained this as a form of Chinese whispers.
I found that language would be the best way to encapsulate these questions and ideas I have about Art. Language does not exist until the viewer has read the words, so because of using words as my Art made my work conceptual but existent. I looked at language and words with examples of Barbra krugger.
Joseph Kosuths is my main influence. He talks about interpretations of Art. He quotes that “A work of Art is a tautology” were he explains that Art can only be a statement of what the Artist thinks Art is. Kosuth claims Art, are different propositions as to what Art is. As a role of a viewer, they are only analyzing the proposition that the artist has presented in a form of Art, as to what Art is. Art with numbers and Glass Bottles were direct references to Kousth although throughout my work I have maintained a relation from the way he talks about Art. I then started to develop into finding answers through making Art about Art, with my orange canvas and my Art canvas, which were tautologies within themselves.
By making physical things, I was answering my questions I have about the Art world. I didn’t want to answer the questions, I wanted to ask the questions. I expressed this phase as “feels like soup”. It made me take a step back and figure out what it is that I want to achieve so I reverted to my words.
While I was producing my quotes, I started to find that there are other elements to be addressed in Art, like presentation and aesthetics. I found this hard to come to terms with as I felt presentation was the death of the idea. It was important for me to bring my idea to exist without killing it through appearance. I decided to use appearance to my advantage and use it to highlight the idea rather then using appearance to represent the idea. I used coloured card and glitter to gain an attraction. I looked at Bruce Nauman, who used neon lights to present his ideas of “One hundred ways to live or die”, Christopher Wool, Jenny Holzer and Bob and Roberta Smith.
Skill was another element i found hard to deal with because its hard to make sure the viewer dose not appreciate the skill. By using the process of cutting out every single letter individually, brings an element of skill and hard work into my work discreetly and not as an obvious thing to be appreciated. For example when viewing a painting, there is a danger the skill of the Artist, like how they applied the paint to the canvas, being appreciated rather then the idea and purpose of the painting.
I have now come to a mutual point and used skill and aesthetical pleasing elements without existing. Not to exist as a piece of “Art” was my original aim. I find this very important and something I feel is a driving point to my work. The reason it does not exists is because the viewer has to read the words for the work to exists, so basically I addressed Artistic elements by not existing?
