A: I think it is important to understand things, and that takes time. Today we seem to think we can do multiple tasks simultaneously and that we should be able to suss information up immediately. We fool ourselves. This does not give us the chance to really know something deeply. I leave this to Blaise Pascal who said, " We never keep to the present. We anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that are not ours and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is that the present usually hurts.” The short answer to your question, the importance of quiet contemplation and looking, is, to be present in the moment and take the time necessary to carefully and thoughtfully consider all that around us. This is what it means to me to just look.
Q: How do you think “art” is defined? What is “art” to you and how do you think your work contributes to that definition?
A: I tend not to think of my work in these terms. Instead I view the act of making as a form of inquiry, a way of coming to know and understand the world. The process of making is simply another way of thinking.
Q: Do you feel your work contributes to a more personal internal level of understanding or a greater awareness of the general human condition or neither?
A: I don't think my work is any more personal than any other form of investigation is personal to the individual carrying it out. If I am a scientist I am curious about X and therefore that is what I investigate. If I am a writer then I figure out my way of being and understanding the world through the act of writing. As a sculptor I tend to need to investigate the world physically by making objects and at other times through drawing. We are all seeking, each in our own way, a greater awareness and understanding of the world at large.
No comments:
Post a Comment