FAD have hooked up with our favourite guide to the art stars of the future The Catlin Guide to give you a sneak preview of some of the 40 artists that will be featured in this years guide.
Up second is Hollie Mackenzie:
If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
A philosopher.
Can you tell us more about your work and what are the main ideas you would like to express?
Through my artistic practice, I explore the notion of the impossible utopia and hence resulted dystopia by creating my own version of a dystopian landscape in the form of installation. I create this form of art to engage my audience in reading my presented dystopian reality to interpret its proximity to the reality we live in. By doing this I aim to provoke questions about the presented impossible utopia and why it is conveyed as unattainable within our society.
How do you start the process of making work?
My artistic practice is informed by my theoretical learning, through this I develop different and new ideas of which I then choose to take further in sketches and experiments.
Do you consider the viewer, when making your work?
Yes, my aim with any artwork is to create an experience for the viewer to engage in. By encountering my presented deviant reality, the viewer can question and interpret the artwork’s meaning. Stimulating thought and discussion about the dystopian landscape/installation.
Name 3 artists that have inspired your work?
Saskia Olde Wolbers, Los Carpinteros and Lyubov Popova to name but a few.
What defines something as a work of art?
An encounter to experience as an event which causes/forces us to think.
In times of austerity, do you think art has a moral obligation to respond topically?
Absolutely, art is constantly responding to changing social conditions.
Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
Vladimir Tatlin, not only because he was an important social visionary for Soviet Union and the Russian avant-garde, but also because he designed Tatlin’s Tower (The Monument to the Third International), a utopian project and symbol of the Soviet Union’s utopian dreams.
What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
“The staircase seems a symbol of transition and change; a necessary in-between that binds the spaces of the present and the future together. The staircase implies positive connotations of development and opportunity as it would do in the work place for women attempting to climb the career ladder. But the melting drips and droplets almost mockingly represent the dissolution of change and the prevention of this prophecy. Unable to pursue change and confined to current reality one is left feeling disorientated and dismayed by the lost prospect of an evolutionary ideal society. Instead one is reduced to a disheartened state; alone with the realisation that they ate up the illusion of change and equality in hungry spoonfuls.”
– Ami Bowyer 2012
Which artists would you most like to rip off, sorry, I mean appropriate as a critique of originality and authorship?
Vladimir Tatlin, Saskia Olde Wolbers and Pussy Riot. What a revolutionary piece of artwork I would create!
Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
It’s extremely difficult to say that you couldn’t care! A lot of time and hard work goes into creating an artwork. Obviously, you want everyone to see your work and have the chance to buy it. I’ve heard many people say work out how long it took you to make it and then times that by the minimum wage. It is very hard to put a price on something so subjective as art, but I believe the price should reflect the how the artist regards the quality of the piece.
What’s next for you?
Right now: I am continuing to push the boundaries of my imagined deviant realities and absurd logic within my art and am currently in the midst of developing new and different ideas for the next big sculpture.
During my current year of MA: I wish to further extend my political knowledge and the conceptual quality of my art in order to beckon utopian ideals and change through artistic expression to make a positive impact on my audience, and thus society.
www.mackenzieartist.co.uk
Follow me on Twitter: @MackenzieArtist
The Catlin Guide 2013: New Artists in the UK is launched at the London Art Fair 2013, 16 – 20 January. It will also be available from Amazon, Culture Label and selected book sellers (£12.99).
