Conversation with a Modern Artist
ROBBIE
twenties, currently involved in setting up her first exhibition. As I'm
researching a play about modern artists I decided to interview a Modern
Artist who was there: white, upper middle class, aged 28, balding,
bespectacled; BA, MA, some shows behind him, on his way to being
etsablished. Next to him, during the interview, a goggled eyed student of 21
slobbered through an ecstasy and booze high whilst spitting obscenities
about Blair and Bush. 'What do you want to do?' I asked, 'I'm joining the
U.N' he returned, dead seriously. 'International Diplomacy's going to be my
career.' The Modern Artist and myself lit up Marlboro Lights, drank vodka
tonics and I switched the minidisc recorder on; I see from the transcription
that he could be seen to be posing and having a 'wind up' but he answered
thoughtfully, pleasantly and openly with a desire to communicate and be
helpful:
R: What sort of art do you make?
M.A Conceptual spaces mainly. Places where you walk in and 'feel' something.
R: Have you got a sort of philosophy of your art?
MA Heh, well...um...Minimalism really.. its about sterility and feeling
something which is nothing and how you can never really feel anything
R: What artists do you like at the moment?
M.A Not many. I'm one of the few people actually that I know, who likes
Damien Hirst. I mean not as a person, he's a complete bullshitter but I like
the work.
R: What about Tate Modern, that lot?
M.A It's okay, a lot of it's just crap.
R: You have no artist or artists that you greatly admire? That you've
learned from?
M.A No, not really.
R: What do you think of for example Rembrandt?
MA He was okay at what he did.
R: Van Gogh?
MA: um...it doesn't have much relevance to me.
R: What do you think of Painting?
M.A: Painting?
R: Yes
M.A: Its dead; finished. Nothing you can do with paint can be original;
professors will just shoot you down, it's all too tied in with what's gone
before. Its okay but it's dead, finished.
R: What aspects of culture do you enjoy?
MA: Um..I like noise.
R: Noise?
MA: Yes noise I see your smiling but I can enjoy just listening to noise. I
have CDs of it.
R: Music?
MA: It doesn't really interest me.
R: What things, culturally speaking, give you joy?
MA: Erm...<smiles> Nothing much...joy is more a chemical thing really isn't
it?
R: What is your opinion of the Beatles?
MA: They're good tune writers but I hate how everything is judged in their
light.
R: They're part of a heriarchy? A pantheon?
MA: Yeah exactly, that's what I hate. Why do you need heirarchies?
R: You'd like to see an end of that kind of thing?
MA: Well, I think we're moving to a point where artists are being exposed as
being no more special than anyone else, this is the theme of that 'Days'
thing at Tate Britain. Y'know, that it's all a kind of trickery; this is
good because it allows *anyone* to pitch in kind of thing; you know, the kid
that is good at drawing becoming an 'artist' and all that sort of thing,
that's obvioulsy had its day which is a good thing. So like with the Beatles
who is anyone to say that Aphex Twin for example is worse than the Beatles?
Who has the right to determine whether I'm a worse artist than...i dunno,
Titian?
R: What is your opinion of television?
MA: Um...<shrugs> dunno I think its getting interesting, more so than
before. It could get good, with the interactive thing happening.
R: What writers do you admire?
M.A: um...dunno I'm not that into writers. I read some things. There's no
real like 'i really like this writer' thing going on with me.
R: Art books?
MA: Not really my cup of tea; very dry.
R: Shakespeare?
MA:(Snoring noise, then laughs) He's not talking the same language is he? I
mean obviously he has merits but how much relevance has he got to kids now?
Also he's so crusty.
R: How do you see Literature?
MA: I don't really; it's a bit like painting in a way; it's pretty much
dead. I mean I liked The Alchemist...
R: Ben Jonson?
MA: No Paolo Kwalo.
R: Were there any books or films or music you experienced as a child or
adolescent that inspired you to become an artist?
MA: Um...not really...uh...nothing that made much impression...I was more
into sport and games really.
R: Do you want to be famous?
MA: <laughs> well I mean I think everyone wants to be famous in a way and
I'm no exception i mean I don't want to be *famous* famous though I have
done I suppose in that way of thinking that Saatchi Gallery could make you
*famous* famous I think that it could be way unhealthy to be famous but that
in itself is part of the attraction I suppose. You need recognition for what
you do obviously- that should be more realised by the public I think. I
don't neccessarily want to be famous americanly-
R: Americanly?
MA: Yeah sort of to the extent of Andy Warhol but Brit Famous would be nice
I suppose though that is a position that you can't become obsessed with
because again its unhealthy I think. I'd like to be mentioned by other
people in critical essays I think that would be nice-
R: Part of a pantheon kind of thing?
MA: Well yes... um no um like a kind of reference point to something else,
you know he inspired or rather influenced this or that you know?
R: What do you think about film?
MA: I'm very interested in film. I want to make one. I like narratives that
don't go anywhere. My film would be a series of people ending up in there
own spaces. Sort of making the audience think that something is going to
happen and then of course it doesn't happen. Which is very exciting I think.
A man gets stuck in a shop. A woman decides to go out and then stays in.
Camera stays on her ear for like ten minutes <laughs> yeah! That kind of
thing. Narratives that lead nowhere. Concentration on tiny areas of ignored
life.
R: What is your opinion on multiculturalism?
MA: I think its good; it broadens horizons of ordinary people I think.
R: What is your opinion of this war?
MA: It's Bullshit. Just oil.
R: The 'Days Like These' catalogue mentions that the artists being exhibited
are 'Aesthetic Atheists'.
MA: What?
R: Aesthetic Atheists. Would you consider yourself to be one?
MA: I haven't heard that before...um...probably.
(At this point the music was too loud to continue.)
--
"..sometimes I will and then again I think I won't.."-- Chuck Berry, Reelin'
& Rockin'
jmc
"ROBBIE" <famousfatboydanc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b5msa7$baa$1...@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...
> Last night I was at the birthday party of a female art student,
>clip long and interesting story<
It's extraordinary how expected it all is. I was going to say, did you make
this up? But I am sure that if you were to make it up, it would be a lot
less predictable! What the guy doesn't understand is that "Aesthetic
Atheism" leads to things like the current war. It leads to fascism. Deaden
people's imagination, their ability to be inspired and watch (& live)
narratives which lead somewhere, and the deadening of people's bodies will
follow, as sure as night follows day...
Tom Deveson
>R: What do you think of for example Rembrandt?
>
>MA He was okay at what he did.
>
>R: Van Gogh?
>
>MA: um...it doesn't have much relevance to me.
"O dear Mother outline, of knowledge most sage
"What's the First Part of Painting?" she said: "Patronage."
"And what is the second?" to please & Engage,
She frown'd like a Fury & said: "Patronage."
"And what is the Third?" she put off Old Age,
And smil'd like a Syren & said: "Patronage."
Wm. Blake
c/o Tom
--
Tom Deveson
Martha Bridegam
Tom Deveson wrote:
"outline"?
/M
bayle
"jmc" <jamesmart...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b5nm63$smj$1...@hercules.btinternet.com...
You're right. The left is responsible for this war.
Because the above leads to moral abdication. The inability to make
judgments: of true and false, right and wrong, good and bad, quality and
crap, The replacement of moral reasoning with moral equivalence. And the
replacement of historical reasoning with self-indulgent feel- good nonsense.
The enshrinement of the equivalence of all cultures, as long as they are the
"correct" ones.
And a loss of reality. The replacement of the real with the ambiguous, the
ironic and the paradoxical.
And finally the replacement of the act by the thought. The deed by the word.
I'm thinking of a nice sensible world, therefore it exists. You called me a
nigger, that is the same as lynching me.
You will note that we have examples of all of this on ABGO.
But it also leads to three more phenomena: cowardice, withdrawal and
nitpicking. People who should know better are silent, or oppose only
sporadically. Or they assemble critiques of the unimportant while allowing
the more egregious nonsense to remain unchallenged.
The next 20 years will be a fight against these attitudes. It is not clear
how the winning coalition will proceed or what positions in will include
(hopefully some form of libertarianism), but what is clear is that the
behavior displayed by the anti-war, multi-cultural, moral relativistic left
will be repudiated. And it will be repudiated on multiple levels
comprehensively.
I'm looking forward to the fight.
jmc
"bayle" <nob...@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:_iOfa.7376$dE2....@newsfeeds.bigpond.com...
>
>
> You're right. The left is responsible for this war.
>
and factional right-wing/left wing cloven fiction. I've never seen anything
in any of your posts which point to you having any faith, hope or charity
towards anyone...
The responsibility for this war largely lies with the Military-Industrial
Complex running the States. My point is that these spiritually opaque people
and their war-mongering attitudes can only be challenged by Inspirational
and Visionary insights and productions. When people realise the truth, that
it is only through a profound opening up of the heart centre and a rejection
of greed, power, selfhood and militarism, then humanity will have a hope of
surviving and evolving.