Following on from my trip to Utrecht, one of the things I’ve been working on is my artist’s statement – we learned on the workshop that this is essential, not only for promoting your work, but as a point of self-reflection, to clarify to yourself what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. We had to submit them ahead of the workshop and I’m now trying to revise my (very short) statement based on Rob’s feedback. As snow stopped play this week, I thought it would be a good opportunity to have a go at the re-write. No sooner had I committed the first sentence to paper, when Harvey Benge’s latest blog-post landed in my in-box; and by coincidence, it was about artists’ statements. If you’re struggling, he suggests trying out the artybollocks generator; so I did. And here’s the next version of my statement;-)
My work explores the relationship between Bauhausian sensibilities and emotional memories. With influences as diverse as Machiavelli and John Lennon, new variations are crafted from both opaque and transparent layers. Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by the unrelenting divergence of relationships. What starts out as triumph soon becomes corroded into a cacophony of lust, leaving only a sense of failing and the prospect of a new beginning. As wavering phenomena become distorted through frantic and diverse practice, the viewer is left with a testament to the darkness of our condition.
And yes, it is complete tosh, but I then tried the concise bollocks for Twitter, and rather alarmingly, this version was: “My work explores the relationship between Critical theory and life as performance”, which, if you add the word ‘discourse’ between ‘critical’ and ‘theory’, was uncannily in the direction of where my statement was heading. Back to the drawing board …