Motivations is a series of questions seeking real people to reveal
their dreams, and methods of following them regardless of the current
stage in life.
They arose through conversations with friends, people.
Alix Marie (MFA at the Royal College of Art, London) kindly allowed me to ask her seven questions which seem vital to the understanding of motivation as an artist.
Alix, what do you do?
I do sculpture and photography. Sometimes mixed
together, sometimes independently. Im interested in how they inform
each other and their hybrid practice. I believe that the future of
photography in the art sphere is in its sculptural aspect, in the
photograph as object. I'm interested in photographic installations, how
to explore the medium further rather than the idea of a print on the
wall. This is for the material aspect, on the subject matter you could
put my work under the broad umbrella of the bodily.
I cast with plaster,
clay, light and make imprints to explore our flesh.
What are your daily struggles?
Id
say time and money, as for so many of us. I get so many ideas a day i
never have the time to try them all out. Outside of the art school
bubble id say sometimes its hard to find the right people to bounce
ideas off, your peers are so important. But i know ive been very lucky
so far, no major struggle in my life or work so im happy (but im also a
baby; so touch wood.)
How do you get over them?
The
selection of ideas comes naturally and instinctively i think. If you
dont have the time right now and it really is an important subject /
project, it will come back to you later, under an another form. Thats
what i like to believe but it doesnt keep my from making lists and
keeping thousands of sketchbooks to rot on shelves...
What are your motivations?
Err.
life ? Neurosis ? Surviving ?
The urge to make things is not something I
asked for, its just there. If I had not been so lucky and had the
freedom to go to art school, if I had been born in another time and
place I would probably be a weird housewife obsessed with craft, and
making creepy stuff at night in a shed at the back of the garden, but
thats just a guess.
I do art cause I was confronted very early on by
images that struck me and influenced me, made who I am.
Maybe in a
weird way its my revenge or offering to reproduce this and change
peoples vision of things by showing them something different ?
What would you die for?
The last meal.
What makes you laugh?
All
of the people around me, I think humour is very important is
relationships (family, love, friendship). People are crazy, life is a
bitch, so things make me laugh when they dont make me cry.
What has been the most inspiring advice you ever received?
Always be yourself unless you can be a unicorn then always be a unicorn.
Everything that needs to happen, will.
And when it does it will be in due time.
Try and be a good person.
On
an artistic level ?
Remember that creating will be 20 % of your time
and all the boring stuffs 80 %.
Follow your instinct. Never stop
producing. Concentrate on the present rather than worry about the future
because in our work, a project feeds into another.
Ask for things, don't
be shy, no one is waiting for you.
Don't be a pretentious prick either,
its tiring.
