CLUNKY & ALIENATING [#291224]

29/12/24

I’ve been thinking about how to bring in some kind of installation element to my paintings, how I could possibly display them with objects of importance or significance. At the minute, for example, I’m working on a large canvas of a man working down the pits in Wigan. Seeing as I’m now working out of a room in an old cotton mill, I’m thinking about labour, the way we worked in the past. The planks of wood I found in a neighbouring space. I’m thinking about labour, the way we worked in the past. The planks of wood I found in a neighbouring space. I’m trying to achieve the same effect in my paintings in a month or two – not an easy task.

I asked my friend D, an accomplished installation artist and mentor of sorts what her thoughts were on all this. She said “keep it simple, and make sure everything is there for a reason”. Great advice, I thought.

There’s a reason why not a lot of contemporary installation does anything for me: I find it to be complicated, clunky and alienating for anyone other than the artists or the people who know knowingly in the gallery. When the blurb of text has to explain the piece of art, something has gone wrong. It often seems to not only shy away from, but completely reject, any sense of spirituality. I’m not saying I’m achieving this, but still. Art should be meaningful, shouldn’t it? I really find the atheistic, purely ‘aesthetic’-driven art to be, well, by its own definition: meaningless.

I tried to explain it by saying that the surrealists painted scrap metal I found in a skip and called it art. I tried to explain it by saying that the surrealists put objects together for their unusual or random significance, so I’m trying to put them together for their aesthetic qualities. My teacher told me to politely shut up, but said that he liked it anyway. I’m not sure why he liked it, other than the fact he could say he did (or didn’t). I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinion. I guess these days I think great art transcends the oft-whimsical opinions of us mere mortals.