Biggi's challenge
Hi all,
here are the questions I am currently fighting with in regards to my practice and the images I have posted earlier.
1. Am I using people as a decoy to deal with my own shit?
My subject matter seems universal. Everyone is fighting with anxieties on basic levels. I find it boring to only put myself through it - for others to watch - it's too easy to detach yourself as a viewer and deal with it in a theoretical way. I think it is interesting because we think we know everything about ourselves but are then sometimes surprised how we react under "unusual" conditions. Maybe I want to draw us out of our own securities [Tino Seghal - ICA piece] and give us a space to explore ourselves in a secure environment. [Roman Ondak - Tate Modern piece]. I think that I don't have to answer the question why I do that kind of work to others but not myself - because I do work that puts myself into the spotlight as well [Eat Art Party] while others are the catalysts of both their and my experience. I guess it is a kind of experimential space. My intention is that no-one is forced to participate - although I don't want to give too much leaway for everyone to be able to avoid it. I don't want to make comfortable work - I want to challenge.
2. Is there a moralistic stance to it?
No, because I am not judging anyone. I am not asking anybody else to judge. Maybe my work is more about the encouragement to accept that no-one is perfect and there are things we can't predict. Neither do I help people to overcome their particular fears, nor is my work a therapy option. I am using set-ups that are based on my personal experiences on a very basic level - so I assume the work is not really about my personal shit but the relatively universal shit. It works for some people - for others it doesn't, depending on a lot of factors.
3. What do I do that work for and why?
We are living in a fast society where we rarely get any time for reflection - if we have that window we often don't take the chance but occupy ourselves with other matters. I guess I am trying to open a time window for personal experience and for reflection. Art is for reflection - you enter a space - to have an experience - not an every day experience. You expose yourself to whatever you encounter. It seems my work has to live in an environment where people are ready to experience something less ordinary - or better an "experience out of context". It will already narrow the participants down to those more willing to participate. I want the visitors to take away an experience which is hopefully thought provoking. A painter can do this too - I am choosing a different medium.
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Now to everyone who read these questions and answers - please feel free to dig into those and ask further questions - give suggestions - or challenge me. I want to get ready for my MA applications in Winter - so need to squeeze my brain and need to explore some valid essentials to my work.
Thank you all.
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here are the questions I am currently fighting with in regards to my practice and the images I have posted earlier.
1. Am I using people as a decoy to deal with my own shit?
My subject matter seems universal. Everyone is fighting with anxieties on basic levels. I find it boring to only put myself through it - for others to watch - it's too easy to detach yourself as a viewer and deal with it in a theoretical way. I think it is interesting because we think we know everything about ourselves but are then sometimes surprised how we react under "unusual" conditions. Maybe I want to draw us out of our own securities [Tino Seghal - ICA piece] and give us a space to explore ourselves in a secure environment. [Roman Ondak - Tate Modern piece]. I think that I don't have to answer the question why I do that kind of work to others but not myself - because I do work that puts myself into the spotlight as well [Eat Art Party] while others are the catalysts of both their and my experience. I guess it is a kind of experimential space. My intention is that no-one is forced to participate - although I don't want to give too much leaway for everyone to be able to avoid it. I don't want to make comfortable work - I want to challenge.
2. Is there a moralistic stance to it?
No, because I am not judging anyone. I am not asking anybody else to judge. Maybe my work is more about the encouragement to accept that no-one is perfect and there are things we can't predict. Neither do I help people to overcome their particular fears, nor is my work a therapy option. I am using set-ups that are based on my personal experiences on a very basic level - so I assume the work is not really about my personal shit but the relatively universal shit. It works for some people - for others it doesn't, depending on a lot of factors.
3. What do I do that work for and why?
We are living in a fast society where we rarely get any time for reflection - if we have that window we often don't take the chance but occupy ourselves with other matters. I guess I am trying to open a time window for personal experience and for reflection. Art is for reflection - you enter a space - to have an experience - not an every day experience. You expose yourself to whatever you encounter. It seems my work has to live in an environment where people are ready to experience something less ordinary - or better an "experience out of context". It will already narrow the participants down to those more willing to participate. I want the visitors to take away an experience which is hopefully thought provoking. A painter can do this too - I am choosing a different medium.
/////////
Now to everyone who read these questions and answers - please feel free to dig into those and ask further questions - give suggestions - or challenge me. I want to get ready for my MA applications in Winter - so need to squeeze my brain and need to explore some valid essentials to my work.
Thank you all.
xxxxxxxx
posted by Biggi at 3:13 pm
1 Comments:
hi Biggi, I have at long last had time to sit down and read through your blog and some of the questions you ask. I agree with you about reflection. I love being in this world where I can look out of the mundanity of life for instance shopping, housework, folding my underpants after taking them of the washing line ect. I believe I may reflect to much. I have a sense of inner security that no matter what shit I have been through I try to channel it into positive energy. this may be through the work I make, the poems I write, the food I cook, the garden/house/family/friends i attend to. I have had some traumatic experiences in my life and some how I stay focused on the nicer things. The flowers in the Gardens. Long walks in all weathers, Nature at large.
People need time to sit down and digest their own thoughts and feelings and taking them outside their comfort zone sets off the adrenaline and other theromones which ofetn ends in something unintangible. That's half the fun of it.
Some people I come across are to serious. when you get to know something about them they are often in a state of depression and do not realize this.
there are other areas of reaction
are your audience
passive, active or versatile?
there are those who like to bumble along and those who like to be in the situation
Insecurities are a fond finding. Fears are more powerful than anxieties.
I hope this is making some kind of sense. As for myself, after being diagnosed HIV+ at the age of 21 your just learn to live life and all that it may throw at you.
I'm going to close this rambling of mine. However I suggest you speak with the live art development agency as a starting point. My visit there whils on residency was very informative,
hugs for now, Jon
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