Art is said to be an expression, and a means to truth and knowledge. Great art can emerge from social catastrophes. So, by tapping into a creative mind during COVID times, this sense of ourselves and our values may be just the antidote we need to inspire, smooth and offer unity, harmony and clarity. These powerful empathetic expressions give art the reality in the shared message that HOPE never looked so hopeFULL!
As we still have a call-out to artists to express this, we took this opportunity to direct some questions to this year’s HarbourSculpture Judge, Michael Snape. What we got back was not only enlightening, but raw and characterful. His words speak volumes of the reality that we are confronting and give direction to our curatorial policy.
Michael’s words offer a totally surprising and encouraging perspective that we hope will ignite those creative utterances!
Ingrid Tkatchew
[In his own words…….]
What am I looking for? What makes asubmission stand out?
Like everyone, I am looking to be moved, inspired, taken away. I am looking for signs of life. Art takes us ‘out of it’.
That sounds kind of obvious, but it is rarer than you’d think.
I would prefer not to be shocked into taking my attention, and political intent is probably mostly better applied elsewhere.
One-liners are out. Two sentences ok, but three-dimensional paragraphs are preferred.
I would be moved by the depth of feeling expressed in a work. I would be absorbed by that which required being absorbed to make it. Anything too ‘licked’ is out.
The sculptor speaks on behalf of the capacity of the culture to be conscious and alive. The more that culture is reflected, the better the show will be. A good sculpture reflects a cultured community.
Sculpture is not new. It’s ancient. A work which reflects hard-won values will be noticed!
How can our life reflect on that history? Not much, but it should try, and not chuck the baby...! (terrible expression)
A sculpture should show the virtuosity of a musician. It should be able to play the material. There should be coherent language visible. The work needs to be visually audible.
Sentiment, didacticism, and vanity will be noticed and resisted!
Evidence of surrender will be sought. Surrender to material, to idea, to process. How much can you give of yourself before you give in?
A sculpture only exists in the tradition it represents. No work free-stands independently. If it attempts to, it will fall over. Or be noticed for five minutes, or a year or ten, but not twenty!
In summary:
Signs of life. A voice. An urgency. Anything which catches, holds, from which I cannot turn away. Anything which employs the principles of unity, harmony, and clarity. That has genuinely asked itself, ‘What does it mean to be alive?’.
Can sculpture yield to the pressuresimposed by the present?
This is the challenge. This is what I will be hungry to see.
We have talked about the happeningsshaping our world for many artists, how doyou perceive it? Has the currentenvironment projected/changed yourcreativity – has it inspired you?
Has the world changed recently? Does the changing shape of the world inform the artist? Is trauma useful?
I would suggest the more we have to turn away, the more we need to be mesmerised by what we do. The extent that we are transfixed by that distraction is useful.
Often though, we are disabled by troubles, and worries dry us out and exhaust us. The artist, we all, must muster strength as circumstance saps us. COVID though, has woken us from our immobility, our stupefied comfort, our sense of entitlement. I believe it is timely, terrible, and sad for many, but important to make us ask again, ‘what are our values’?
We are more awake, which must be a good thing.
What does HOPE look like to you?
By HOPE, in caps? HOPE is a rock we cling to, that stops us going down the creek. Better down the creek, so much stuff to see. HOPE serves to keep the dishes done and the bills paid.
As a local of 40+ years, what is Balmain today?
Balmain is what it has always been. A peninsula somewhat removed even with all the transport and road opportunities provided to join with a broader community. We are consequently peninsular in our thinking and responses. Thankfully, we speak the same language as the mainlanders. Balmain has been spared the general abandonment of the village and the community.
The middle class has invaded Balmain but not changed it. Balmain changes all those who come to it. Balmainers generally do not care for their appearance as others might, people from Chatswood, or Punchbowl or Woollahra. In the seventies we used to go up the shops in our pyjamas. It’s less relaxed now, but still generally anything goes.
Balmainers ultimately intuit left while advocating Howard, Abbott and Morrison.
Strangely, while advocating locality and community, Balmain people tend to be solitary, philosophical, and melancholy. They have cerebral inclinations, literary rather than artistic and have not noticed, with some exceptions, the removal of my ‘Balmain Traffic Song’!
Thanks Michael. We look forward to the re-instalment of the ‘Balmain Traffic Song’, with ever-more traffic closing us into the peninsula. Most of all, we look forward to Michael joining the HarbourSculpture committee to critique the entries and judge this year’s exhibition.