LandE scape
Christopher Reid
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Chapel of Rest has an intrinsic symbolic feature for its reminders to the elusive notion of death : German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that " nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological , narrative elements within the medium instead ". What is your opinion about it ? And in particular how di you conceive the balance between the functional aspects of the symbols and the visual unity for the narrative of this series ?
Art has to touch you in one way or another ; it speaks to all of us in different ways . I want my work to grab the viewer and make them confront the work . By having a very objective viewpoint of the Chapels of Rests , the viewers are thrown straight into that room without any visual distractions . The narrative and psychological elements of the work can start to speak for themselves . I don ’ t edit my photographs and I am not interested in trying to add narrative elements in that way . My images do not lie ; they aren ’ t a fabrication , they are real life . This is what these rooms are like .
When conceiving Minutes you visited many crematoriums to find out for yourself about what happens behind the scenes : this has allowed you to capture the essence of the process in all its concreteness . So we would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process ... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience ?
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