"art now" artist quotes (a-f)
but first, one of my favourite art quotes:
"Being an artist is like being awake when the rest of the world is asleep. It is also like being asleep when the rest of the world is awake."
- Gregory O'Brien's opening from his book Welcome to the South Seas: Contemporary New Zealand Art for Young People.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
complete "artist statements"* from the book Art Now, vol. 2: the new directory to 136 international contemporary artists, ed. Uta Grosenick. Taschen, 2005.
ackermann, franz
the place itself is the trigger and never the image
ahtila, eija-liisa
although my intention is to break up the linearity of a story, namely by using elements of the expressiveness produced by motion pictures, I want to preserve the narrative's central meaning. I am interested in the structure of the story, the narrative, the generation of meaning by means of motion pictures, and the relationship between narration and space.
aitken, doug
each work I make is an experiment. I'm not interested in creating projects that illustrate and define; I would rather make departure points, stimuli for questions, provocation.
almond, darren
you can't lose the sound of your own heart and you can't lose the sound of your central nervous system. Put yourself in isolation and you're still left with those two signatures.
alÿs, francis
sometimes, to make something is really to make nothing; and paradoxically, sometimes to make nothing is to make something.
amer, ghada
what is going on now politically is like a mirror of what has always gone on in myself, because I am a hybrid of the West and the East. It's a clash between civilizations that of course don't understand each other. I've lived with these contradictions all my life.
assume vivid astro focus
giving people pleasure and making them conscientious of what gives them pleasure is extremely political.
ataman, kutlug
identity is a dress that other people put on you and make you wear - but then talking is a form of rebellion because you can work against those perceptions.
barney, matthew
it's like opening a valve, being inside a closed system and using either extreme physicality or violence or humour to release pressure.
beecroft, vanessa
I try to make each of my performances more abstract, harder, more artificial, less embodied than the one before.
bock, john
…the language I'm using is not made of words but art. Art is a language. You can tell something with objects, actions, and paintings.
bonvicini, monica
I want to demystify the aura that is still around art, despite all the attempts that have been made to break it.
breitz, candice
if the work of the global business commuter is to spread the myth of global connectivity, then the work of the artist […] is to counter this and similar myths.
brown, cecily
figures are the only thing that I've ever painted. I'm interested in the human need or desire to represent itself. I'm fascinated with human narcissism and obsessions with bodies. […] and I love the trick of painting. You can have a moment within the still thing, but it is completely fixed. and that illusion is constantly exciting.
brown, glenn
I am fully aware of the contradiction between the beautiful and the ugly. I like something to be both figurative and abstract, looking dead but still being alive, being of ambiguous sex.
bruguera, tania
for me, making art is a way of acquiring and processing knowledge. Trying different points of view on a subject, whether artistic, social or political.
butzer, andre
I am the exhilaration of hearts and clocks on both sides.
miguel calderon
to me, art reflects chaos. Sure you can be political, but being obviously so is not my cup of tea. […] making art has no rules […], you can basically do anything you want and that is something that works for me.
carpenter, merlin
painting is a feeble, unsuccessful activity
cattelan, maurizio
whatever comes after you've done your work, it doesn't belong to you. You can't control it. The work has to fight for itself and define itself.
chapman, jake and dinos
art suffers the responsibility of having to have idealistic things to say about the world. We are intensely pessimistic about the job of being an artist and about what art does socially.
currin, john
the subject of a painting is always the author, the artist. You can only make an illusion that it's about something other than that. I think that's what the function of representation is: to give a painting the illusion of a subject.
deller, jeremy
warhol said that pop art was about liking things, whereas for me folk art is about loving things.
demand, thomas
the surroundings that I portray are for me something untouched, a utopic construction. No traces of use are visible on their surfaces, and time seems to have come to a stop.
dijkstra, rineke
for me it is essential to understand that everyone is alone. Not in the sense of loneliness, but rather in the sense that no one can completel understand someone else. […] I want to awaken definate sympathies for the person I have photographed.
doig, peter
you can ask what the paintings are about but I can't really tell you. They're really just ciphers for your own imagination.
douglas, stan
the work has an ethical, political task, which is ongoing and it is doubtful that it will be resolved. But that strategy opens the space for thought about the social and political to take place.
dumas, marlene
painting is not a mass medium made for mass distribution. Paintings need to be seen, one by one, eye to eye.
eder, martin
I like to play. I like to surround myself with clichés. A porn magazine functions like the cute little animals, according to a simply coded system. All of the poses can be understood right away. That points up the way we think and how quickly everything is pigeonholed.
eitel, tim
for me a photo is nothing more than a sketch […] I don't mirror photographs. I try to design pictures that […] are not mere illustrations. These are inner pictures, which I compile with the help of photographs.
eliasson, olafur
you relate to space; you see it, you walk in it, or you do something in it, and the space, due to its disclosed ideology, has the ability to show you that you are in it.
elmgreen & dragset
by challenging what might seem to be very authoritarian and static structures, we want to underline these structures' actual fragility - within both the cityscape and the art institutional system.
emin, tracey
I'm standing at the edge of a precipice, but it's a wonderful view.
esser, elger
ama et fac quod vis - love, and do what you want.
fudong, yang
a concept that still preoccupies me: one wants to accomplish big things, but in the end it doesn't happen. Every educated Chinese person is very ambitious, and obviously there are obstacles - obstacles coming either from 'out there', meaning society or history, or from 'inside', from oneself.
*"artist statement" is how they are decribed in the book's preface, there is no other indication of how they were obtained or edited but this phrase implies they were solicited (a scattered few artists in the book don't have any such quotes).
"Being an artist is like being awake when the rest of the world is asleep. It is also like being asleep when the rest of the world is awake."
- Gregory O'Brien's opening from his book Welcome to the South Seas: Contemporary New Zealand Art for Young People.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
complete "artist statements"* from the book Art Now, vol. 2: the new directory to 136 international contemporary artists, ed. Uta Grosenick. Taschen, 2005.
ackermann, franz
the place itself is the trigger and never the image
ahtila, eija-liisa
although my intention is to break up the linearity of a story, namely by using elements of the expressiveness produced by motion pictures, I want to preserve the narrative's central meaning. I am interested in the structure of the story, the narrative, the generation of meaning by means of motion pictures, and the relationship between narration and space.
aitken, doug
each work I make is an experiment. I'm not interested in creating projects that illustrate and define; I would rather make departure points, stimuli for questions, provocation.
almond, darren
you can't lose the sound of your own heart and you can't lose the sound of your central nervous system. Put yourself in isolation and you're still left with those two signatures.
alÿs, francis
sometimes, to make something is really to make nothing; and paradoxically, sometimes to make nothing is to make something.
amer, ghada
what is going on now politically is like a mirror of what has always gone on in myself, because I am a hybrid of the West and the East. It's a clash between civilizations that of course don't understand each other. I've lived with these contradictions all my life.
assume vivid astro focus
giving people pleasure and making them conscientious of what gives them pleasure is extremely political.
ataman, kutlug
identity is a dress that other people put on you and make you wear - but then talking is a form of rebellion because you can work against those perceptions.
barney, matthew
it's like opening a valve, being inside a closed system and using either extreme physicality or violence or humour to release pressure.
beecroft, vanessa
I try to make each of my performances more abstract, harder, more artificial, less embodied than the one before.
bock, john
…the language I'm using is not made of words but art. Art is a language. You can tell something with objects, actions, and paintings.
bonvicini, monica
I want to demystify the aura that is still around art, despite all the attempts that have been made to break it.
breitz, candice
if the work of the global business commuter is to spread the myth of global connectivity, then the work of the artist […] is to counter this and similar myths.
brown, cecily
figures are the only thing that I've ever painted. I'm interested in the human need or desire to represent itself. I'm fascinated with human narcissism and obsessions with bodies. […] and I love the trick of painting. You can have a moment within the still thing, but it is completely fixed. and that illusion is constantly exciting.
brown, glenn
I am fully aware of the contradiction between the beautiful and the ugly. I like something to be both figurative and abstract, looking dead but still being alive, being of ambiguous sex.
bruguera, tania
for me, making art is a way of acquiring and processing knowledge. Trying different points of view on a subject, whether artistic, social or political.
butzer, andre
I am the exhilaration of hearts and clocks on both sides.
miguel calderon
to me, art reflects chaos. Sure you can be political, but being obviously so is not my cup of tea. […] making art has no rules […], you can basically do anything you want and that is something that works for me.
carpenter, merlin
painting is a feeble, unsuccessful activity
cattelan, maurizio
whatever comes after you've done your work, it doesn't belong to you. You can't control it. The work has to fight for itself and define itself.
chapman, jake and dinos
art suffers the responsibility of having to have idealistic things to say about the world. We are intensely pessimistic about the job of being an artist and about what art does socially.
currin, john
the subject of a painting is always the author, the artist. You can only make an illusion that it's about something other than that. I think that's what the function of representation is: to give a painting the illusion of a subject.
deller, jeremy
warhol said that pop art was about liking things, whereas for me folk art is about loving things.
demand, thomas
the surroundings that I portray are for me something untouched, a utopic construction. No traces of use are visible on their surfaces, and time seems to have come to a stop.
dijkstra, rineke
for me it is essential to understand that everyone is alone. Not in the sense of loneliness, but rather in the sense that no one can completel understand someone else. […] I want to awaken definate sympathies for the person I have photographed.
doig, peter
you can ask what the paintings are about but I can't really tell you. They're really just ciphers for your own imagination.
douglas, stan
the work has an ethical, political task, which is ongoing and it is doubtful that it will be resolved. But that strategy opens the space for thought about the social and political to take place.
dumas, marlene
painting is not a mass medium made for mass distribution. Paintings need to be seen, one by one, eye to eye.
eder, martin
I like to play. I like to surround myself with clichés. A porn magazine functions like the cute little animals, according to a simply coded system. All of the poses can be understood right away. That points up the way we think and how quickly everything is pigeonholed.
eitel, tim
for me a photo is nothing more than a sketch […] I don't mirror photographs. I try to design pictures that […] are not mere illustrations. These are inner pictures, which I compile with the help of photographs.
eliasson, olafur
you relate to space; you see it, you walk in it, or you do something in it, and the space, due to its disclosed ideology, has the ability to show you that you are in it.
elmgreen & dragset
by challenging what might seem to be very authoritarian and static structures, we want to underline these structures' actual fragility - within both the cityscape and the art institutional system.
emin, tracey
I'm standing at the edge of a precipice, but it's a wonderful view.
esser, elger
ama et fac quod vis - love, and do what you want.
fudong, yang
a concept that still preoccupies me: one wants to accomplish big things, but in the end it doesn't happen. Every educated Chinese person is very ambitious, and obviously there are obstacles - obstacles coming either from 'out there', meaning society or history, or from 'inside', from oneself.
*"artist statement" is how they are decribed in the book's preface, there is no other indication of how they were obtained or edited but this phrase implies they were solicited (a scattered few artists in the book don't have any such quotes).