IMAGE CREDIT: Jacqui Stockdale, The Hoo, 2018, C Type Print, 100 x 86 cm. (Image courtesy of the artist.)
I don't stalk artists. You do.
Artist challenge conventions and do interesting things. You see them on social media. It's the nature of their work. They ask questions. About everything. Drawing from their own stories, and others. Sharing experiences and reflecting on our present human existence with all kinds of questions. Questions about popular culture, consumerism, politics, climate change, technology, gender, and much, much more. Any subject is open, and all of it is explored with passion through their work.
I use the term artist in its broadest sense, and creatives, because we all are, or at least once were. Artists are multi disciplined, creative all the time, in many forms and mediums. Both artists and creatives are similar, but there are associations, industry connotations, and everyone has an opinion on what you are, or should be. That's a whole different conversation. My point is, that both artists and creatives ask questions. Sometimes the hard, confronting and human soul crushing questions. Sometimes the weird, wondrous and feel good distracting questions.
Not many jobs do that. What's more, the end result often provokes other people to ask more questions.
They often don't provide an answer either. Someone else might go on to seek the truth or to find the answers. An artist or creative’s remit is to curiously explore and prompt you to do the same. They are the innovators. Questioning what we do and why we do it. Challenging why we do what we do as a result.
A good example of this is the pivotal 1960's conceptual art movement. It ‘contested the aesthetic definition of the artwork by highlighting the role of ideas’.[1] Questioning the what, why and how notions of art were qualities that artists of that time, like John Baldessari and Yoko Ono had. Baldessari is humorously quoted as saying, ‘I was basically seeing what I could get away with’.[2] Ono’s more considered response was, ‘(the)“Idea” is what the artist gives, like a stone thrown into the water for ripples to be made’.[3]
The Wunder Gym is my stone, and I established the Wunder Gym to stalk artists in person.
Actually, I established the Wunder Gym for a lot of really good reasons. Including the amazing list of leading artists and creative mentors I'm looking forward to working with. Starting with Jacqui Stockdale, Troy Emery and Hannah Mathews.
Each ‘mentor’ comes from a diverse established artistic or creative background. They each deliver a project that Wunder Gym members can curiously explore, develop responses to and exhibit. Three mentors, three projects, three artworks and three exhibitions, over a three month term.
Getting curious, being creative and sharing their work to encourage more people to ask more questions.
Come stalk an artist in person with me too!
IMAGE CREDIT: Jacqui Stockdale, The Hoo, 2018, C Type Print, 100 x 86 cm. (Image courtesy of the artist.)
PLEASE NOTE: The Wunder Gym currently has limited capacity initially, however won’t be short on questions.
[1] Peter Osborne, Conceptual Art, Edited, Peter Osborne, Phaidon Press Limited, 2002, Preface.
[2]Sidra Stich, Conceptual Alchemy: A Conversation with John Baldessari. American Art, 10739300, Spring2005, Vol. 19, Issue 1
[3] Alexandra Munroe, Spirit of YES: The Art and Life of Yoko Ono, May 11, 2000 Originally published in YES YOKO ONO