I've been asked to write an ‘artists statement’ for my forthcoming tour of cathedrals of my installation In Other People's Skins.The matter of art has become a complex one. On the one hand the time-honored wisdom concerning the silence of the artist in response to questions about the work still holds: The work is the statement - any words spoken should be from others. Yet for some while now we have been in the grip of the latter end of the modernist project where it's strongest impulse is to obscure through over intellectualising the art itself - those that now comment have ritualized the act so that no one can possibly understand the art without engaging with concepts. An end result of this, in the hands of lesser artists, is that the art becomes, as one curator said to me recently, 'like watching paint drying'. Curators were schooled to understand and also promote this kind of art.
For me that is not the point.
I recently understood that there is a very simple explanation of what art is. An artist uses inspiration to make art. The word ‘inspire’ derives from the Latin ‘spire’ meaning to breath. Inspire alludes to an in-breath, inner whisperings, inner tales told. In making an art work, if the artist is listening well and then acting clearly, then the work contains a resonance of that inspiration which prompted the work in the first place and the work then communicates to the viewer that very inspiration. In a work like in Other People’s Skins I simply wanted to communicate what I’d learned about making art and being with people. As an artist I am inspired by people coming together to eat and talk and commune - for me this is an important act. The more diverse the people the better, because then we generate an understanding that transcends difference and this understanding might just get us beyond the violence we do to eachother; especially if that understanding becomes a realisation. If you sit down and partake in this work then you will understand something of what I am saying. Listen to your own intuition and you will hear the same thing I have been understanding this kind of art.
So, the paragraph above is what I shall try to offer the people who are asking for a statement because that is the truth of the understanding I now have. Of course, the re-write is the way they will receive it:
In making In Other People’s Skins, I was inspired by the kind of feelings I get when people come together to eat and talk and commune – and the more diverse the people, then there is the possibility of developing an understanding that transcends difference, and this might just get us beyond the violence we do to each other. I used the word inspiration when talking making art: the word ‘inspire’ derives from the Latin ‘spirare’ meaning “to breathe”. Inspire alludes to an in-breath, inner whisperings. If the artist is listening well and then acting clearly, the work will contain a resonance of that inspiration which prompted the work in the first place. It is important to me that more than one person sits at the table at any one time, that it is a shared experience, as it is when people meet and share food for real. If you sit down and partake in this work, and listen to your own intuition, then you will understand something of my inspiration for doing the work. When people sit down and try to touch this work they of course cannot, because all of the images are virtual – I am trying to lead the viewers attention away from the material of the piece to where we each intuitively understand the values held within a shared experience.
