|
C.K. Well you can tell what kinds of ideas are behind the craft.
Conrad Atkinson is a good example of a Conceptualist who is working
with materials that are relegated to the crafts, and what’s he doing with
them? He’s making a global statement about what he feels is something
that should be stopped.
M.V. Have you ever felt you would like to make art that made more
of a global statement? Or do you feel that, that is what you actually
are doing?
C.K. I think I’m doing that. However I also believe in something called
‘resurgent regionalism’. Now as art becomes homogenised globally, I think
it is important to have areas where the artists who live there are represented
as having come from that place, so that we don’t always see the same stuff
wherever we go. So I’d love to go outside the capitals to see what’s going
on in these provincial museums, and that’s where you’ll find more of that
country’s culture on display than you would in a big museum in town, because
they’re just trading on big names and reputations as far as contemporary
art goes. So "resurgent regionalism" is the idea of a regional
ethos becoming unique, making it different from that of some other place.
Taking pride in where you come from, not trying to be completely global,
or national. That's the thing about this regionalism. It's an important
aspect of 1990's culture, that people are looking for an identity. Identity
at a certain level swings over into the national, but if you're good enough
you can be both. You can be a regionalist and an international art star.
It's possible.
M.V. Who are these people? Are there people whom you could say you
really admire?
C.K Morris Graves is one. He’s a favourite
guy from where I come from and he’s an international painter. His time
was back in the ‘40s but he made his mark.
M.V Can you think of younger people?
C.K. Younger people I admire? There’s
a group called NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst) in Slovenia who I think
are extremely provocative and sophisticated. In America I think that there
is a 'low brow' culture coming out of Los Angeles, headed by Robert
Williams. It’s interesting in that they’re going to the popular culture
for their images and ideas. It’s not academic so much as what we’re sort
of surrounded by living in this society. I’m going to tell you about Spone.
Spone is a combination of the word Bone and Spode, and my idea is that
if a person would like to be memorialised as a piece of china, I would
be more than happy to take their remains, add them to a porcelain mixture
and cast them into anything that they want . Bone china was invented in
the 1700’s by Josiah Spode II, the son of Josiah Spode I. It’s vitrified
animal bone ash, so it’s feasible to do the same thing with human bones.
I’m presently trying to launch the idea onto the Internet.
M.V.With funeral parlours?
C.K. Yes. Mortuary Management Magazine is doing a feature on me
so I’ll be involved in the business end of that, as an 'alternative deposition
service'. The only place you can’t send your ashes in the USA is in California,
so people that live in California are going to have to check into their
laws to find out whether or not they can send me their cremains.
|