An Artist Tale
By Shaquelle Whyte
An Artist’s Tale
Creator, originator, designer, thinker; the synonyms to describe what an artist is are endless. So are the forms that art takes. The spoken word in comparison to painting and writing contrast greatly, despite this they all sit within the same sphere of creation.
Art differs from artist to artist. The thing they have in common? Despite contrasting lines of enquiry, subverting the idea of perceived perception allows for true freedom in creation.
Artists idiosyncrasies within the formulaic establishment force us to acknowledge that which holds us back and often can’t be helped: continuity, comfort and an acceptance of the status quo. Mindless group consciousness breeds mediocrity.
Art teaches us not to accept everything that we are told, not everything that we see is true, even within the art Artist present to us. Enjoying art is much like a car; all parts must be working in order for it to work. Learning to think for yourself is a very important quality that one must peruse when engaging in art. Conviction in your own exploration of the piece allows for more of a decisive stance on work. Finally, in order to make the ‘car’ move is to take note of others opinion. Although you should not allow them to cloud your own, arts ability to evoke emotion, curiosity, wonder and conversation, dialog is the key to higher understanding.
Acclaimed artist Sam Lock would like you to consider all of this then viewing his new collection of work entitled ‘Now/here’. Multimedia is at the heart of the epic that Sam has voyaged out on: sanded, stained, distressed and torn his paintings are treated as if they are the battle ground. Much like a conductor he instructs his materials, going through the exposition, development and recapitulation all in order to make a cacophony of paintings and sculptures; different but cohesive all the same.
When creating this set of work, he first explored the work of Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. At the core of their work is double meaning. Language having more than one meaning, the overlap between perception, reality, and overlapping of past and present. Locks language within creation is governed by these ideas, equating to work that explores the ambiguity of life and in turn what that revels.
Says Freddie Burness, Director of Cadogan Contemporary: ‘While it is formed of three elements, all of the featured works in Now/here are united by Sam’s overarching fascination with excavating what lies under the surface of things, with the layers of life and meaning reflected quite literally in the architecture of each painting, sculpture and drawing. We are delighted to be staging a show by one of the most compelling abstract artists of his generation.’
On show from the 9th– 27thSeptember at the Cadogan Contemporary Gallery, the ‘Now/here exhibition is set to encourage a fresh perspective on how we are able to depict art, what it is and how to quantify its success and failures.
cadogancontemporary.com/artist/sam-lock/
