Certainly, we know that our biggest challenge right now is to save this planet and make it more liveable and more enjoyable for every one of us. And it’s a big statement because there are endless problems to be solved in order to slowly make our world a better place. And yet here we are under so many layers of cultural references, political ideas in disguise, so many tools to be closer to each other but we are still somehow stuck. The notion of value has so many readings, but we are facing a crisis in which we have lost the sense of respecting our value, and values, as a collective society.
Then, put art in the picture. Believing a conversation with an artist can change how you think, to see the world in a different way, and provide that tool the system is withholding for us is, to say the least, hopeful. Nonetheless, if the role of an artist is to play with ideas, we’re in luck speaking to
Gavin Turk. The famous British artist and Doctor Honoris Causa in Art, Gavin Turk is living proof of the saying never settle. He is skilled in fresh artists starts. His work has dealt with themes of authorship, authenticity and identity, and has spanned many different artistic disciplines. His new show,
In Search of Ariadne, opened at the beginning of October at the Heong Gallery (Cambridge) giving visitors the tools to unpack the form, context, and narratives wrapped up in a sculpture.
Is art really necessary? Can art change the world? Can culture stop this crisis? We have a lot to learn. One of the best things about hearing Gavin Turk address these topics is that he captures the imagination of the art world and public with his accessible ideas, and most importantly, hope.
“We are never looking at one thing; we are always looking at the relationship between things and ourselves”, said John Berger in
Ways of Seeing (1972). Maybe we need to go back and remember some things we have forgotten. Perhaps art is not only beautiful, but challenging, playful and fun, and in Turk’s case, it brings all these characteristics together to make it constructive and useful.