Yep...It's time...
I've been asked this question a lot over the last couple of decades, often by people gazing in confusion at some monolithic Rothko, a self-shredding Banksy, Cattelan's gaffa-taped banana or, most recently, Pak's 'Alpha', a single white pixel...
Actually, the conversations often go straight to "That's not art!..." and then the whole 'what IS art?' rabbit hole opens up before us.
The act of creating is 'Art' to me, and it is one of the most beautiful and hopeful of human activities.
'Nocturne No.1', 2020
Often, I find it helpful to take a step back and look at it from a broader context,
because context matters. Perspective matters. And the truth of our predicament is so remarkable that we often overlook these things. So, let me start by taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture (pardon the pun)...
but from the government of my thought.
I shall have no more if i possess worlds. By space,
the universe encompasses me and swallows me up like an atom;
by thought I comprehend the world. "
We live on a thin crust of rock, floating over the surface of a ball of molten magma... circling a giant, flaming ball of fusion... and we're hurtling through space at mind-numbing speeds. We are a speck of dust on the spiral arm of a galaxy filled with hundreds of billions of stars. Our galaxy is one among trillions...And yet we are remarkable and, as far as we know, unique...
'Nocturne No.3'
It takes the death of a star, and billions of years, to make us. These intricately evolved bodies that carry our thoughts are filled with the remains of dead stars - we are literally made of stardust and time. And each thought fires up a whole constellation of neurones in our ape brains that rivals any complexity the universe may show us. We are a part of the universe that can gaze upwards and contemplate such concepts as infinity, eternity and our own mortality.
How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty!
In form and moving how express and admirable!
In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!
The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals.
And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"
Our creativity and intellect allow us to play with, and mould, ideas that are separate from the real world - abstract thoughts of things that have never and may never be. And we have been doing this way back into our prehistory (the first intentional burial some 130,000 years ago, the first cave paintings, 64,000 years ago).
'Nocturne No.2', 2020
This creativity, this curious exploration of ideas, is a uniquely human conversation that spans generations, from prehistory through to the future. It’s a conversation of our hopes, fears, desires and dreams, through the prism of our individual experiences. It is the human condition, writ personally and writ large. This art is our shout into the void. It is our torch, held up against the dark.
So, what is art to me?
Art is what results when a small, endlessly curious part of the universe, tries to understand itself. We struggle, we fall and we rise again, and through our explorations and enquiries, one day, we might find ourselves. This gives me hope.
suffer the first vision that set fire to the stars"
Thanks for reading!
If you're interested, you can see and buy my artwork using the following links...
NFT Showroom
Rarible
SuperRare