Throughout 2010 University of the Arts London is focusing attention on the practice of sculpture. Developing a programme to take place over the course of the year Shaping Sculpture aims to critically engage in the production and medium of sculpture as it exists today. Through an interrelated series of publications, exhibitions, artist discussions, and conferences Shaping Sculpture is an examination into the act of making aimed at revealing new methods of supporting current and future artistic practice.

 

 

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Martin CreedArtist TalkWednesday 24th November 2010, 630pmCentral St. Martins College, Cochrane Theatre Martin Creed was born in Wakefield, England, in 1968, and from 1986-90 attended the Slade School of Art in London. He lives and works in London. He has exhibited worldwide and his work is featured in many public collections, notably the Tate in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2001 he won the Turner Prize for ‘The lights going on and off’. Creed’s art is characterised by a gentle but subversive wit and by a minimalism rooted in an instinctive anti-materialism. His often extremely self-effacing works, all titled by number, have been characterised as ‘attempts to short-circuit the visually overloaded, choice saturated culture in which we live’. They also take their place in the honourable tradition within the avant-garde of making work which appears to have no material value - which resists or defies commodification, even if in vain. Hence his conscious use of modest and everyday materials. Whatever the materials, his work is always arresting and can be visually spectacular, as for example his neon works, or what is probably his most celebrated piece, Work No.200 1998, ‘half the air in a given space’. Widely exhibited, this consists of a sufficient number of twelve inch white balloons filled with air to half-fill the gallery space. A central theme of Creed’s work is the relationship art and life and he explores the boundaries in funny, interesting and sometimes unsettling ways. Ultimately, however, Creed seems to want to do what art has always been supposed to do: ‘I want to make things. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s got something to do with other people. I think I want to try to communicate with other people, because I want to say “hello”, because I want to express myself, and because I want to be loved’.

Martin Creed
Artist Talk
Wednesday 24th November 2010, 630pm
Central St. Martins College, Cochrane Theatre

Martin Creed was born in Wakefield, England, in 1968, and from 1986-90 attended the Slade School of Art in London. He lives and works in London. He has exhibited worldwide and his work is featured in many public collections, notably the Tate in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2001 he won the Turner Prize for ‘The lights going on and off’. Creed’s art is characterised by a gentle but subversive wit and by a minimalism rooted in an instinctive anti-materialism. His often extremely self-effacing works, all titled by number, have been characterised as ‘attempts to short-circuit the visually overloaded, choice saturated culture in which we live’. They also take their place in the honourable tradition within the avant-garde of making work which appears to have no material value - which resists or defies commodification, even if in vain. Hence his conscious use of modest and everyday materials. Whatever the materials, his work is always arresting and can be visually spectacular, as for example his neon works, or what is probably his most celebrated piece, Work No.200 1998, ‘half the air in a given space’. Widely exhibited, this consists of a sufficient number of twelve inch white balloons filled with air to half-fill the gallery space.

A central theme of Creed’s work is the relationship art and life and he explores the boundaries in funny, interesting and sometimes unsettling ways. Ultimately, however, Creed seems to want to do what art has always been supposed to do: ‘I want to make things. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s got something to do with other people. I think I want to try to communicate with other people, because I want to say “hello”, because I want to express myself, and because I want to be loved’.