“It takes a lot of experience and mental discipline to be this unsuccessful.”
Visual. Art. Expect to see simple, raw materials like charcoal and oil paint, or objects made from found, discarded or recycled products. These objects become sets and props in animated films. The gap between paint and film is a very productive one for me. It also frames my exhibitions, where I use film to give a public life to the static work.
The paintings and film appear all together for one night only, in a unique, immersive, interactive art event. I design my shows to be welcoming group experiences. I’ve always valued active audience engagement over passive browsing. For me, the magic begins when the audiences have seen the connections between the work, and go on to discover the sightlines between each other. It’s the audience who completes the work I make.
Art, for me, has never been a product but a social utility. It’s a borderless grid of energy that each of us share and sustain with our attention. This is why my shows are always for one night only. The connections that really matter for the work are between the people who shared the experience, and in the echoes and traces they leave on social media.
As the Czech animator Jan Švankmajer said ‘film gives objects the time to find an audience’. For me film completes the transformation process that was begun by painting and drawing. It turns objects into actors, who can go on to find their own audiences. I like the idea that while the drawings, paintings and objects are unique and vulnerable, the films can be distributed and repurposed by others.
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