As part of FADs support for emerging artists we have teamed up with The Other Art Fair to showcase 14 of the exhibiting artists at Boxpark.
The Artists were chosen by Ryan Stanier (Fair Director TOAF) and Mark Westall ( Creative Director FAD) and they will have a piece of their work exhibited by poster In an exhibition at The Boxpark Gallery.
There will also be an art opening on Thursday May 3rd which will have live + performance art, Music + free drink + much more.
In the lead up to this event FAD will be showcasing each of the 14 Artists who were chosen
#FOUR: Lennie Lee
1.If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
I would almost certainly be dead but, given a choice, I would love to set up a museum dedicated to the preservation of counter-culture.
2. Can you tell us more about your work and what are the main ideas you would like to express?
I have no idea, at least, I despise the Platonic idea that artists are duty bound to specialise in one particular field of activity but I’m fascinated by the ways in which modern societies cannot help but echo the rituals and behaviours of older, more primitive, cultures. This fascination leads me to accumulate art and other fetishes, to make ritualistic performance combined with story telling, to delve into social and political taboos, to make giant photographs of people at dress-up parties, to decorate my home or vehicle, to work with underground squat art collectives, to make things out of everyday or found materials, to use or remix popular icons and to paint linear pictures which combine aspects of contemporary pop culture with primitive pictograms.
3. How do you start the process of making work?
That depends entirely on the kind of work I’m making. There are no rules except the rules I define for myself at any given moment.
4. Do you consider the viewer, when making your work?
Again, that depends on the kind of work I’m making. If I’m exploring social or political taboos then I will need to confront the viewer to analyse his or her response but if I’m drawing in the sand or making an arrangement of found materials, in a disused building, or drawing in my sketchbook, then , no. If I am Painting, I sometimes consider the viewer but, for me, painting tends to be a more private activity than say video or performance. That’s probably why I never bothered to show my paintings until I had a life threatening illness.
5. Name 3 artists that have inspired your work?
I could name 3,000. I am inspired by so many different kinds of art I couldn’t possibly limit the number to 3. I never throw away even the tiniest doodle by an artist whose work I admire.. I like a lot of anonymous art, religious stuff from Bali, murals from Mexico, sculptures from outsider artists, installations or murals in squat parties and street art of all kinds. I find myself looking again and again at the paintings of Velazquez and Caravaggio. Picasso and Leger, Warhol and Lichtenstein. I love early photography by Hill & Adamson as well as transgressive work by Joel Peter Witkin, Ron Athey and Zhu Yu. Man Ray and Duchamp, at the Tate Modern, was inspiring but no more so than great films from the 1920s to the present day. If I had to pick one artist who had an influence on me, it would be Johnny Rotten. In 1976, listening to “Anarchy in the UK” and “God save the queen”, in a small country town, changed my life. It summed up the rage I felt at the lies and rigid social structures with which I grew up.
6. Name 3 of your least favourite artists.
It’s ungenerous to put down other artists’ work. I’m not a big fan of sculpture or 3D animation. I like pop culture in general. I would pick Jeff Koons stainless steel replicas of balloon animals over the work of Rachel Whiteread any day.
7. What defines something as a work of art?
Like Humpty Dumpty, when I use the word “art”, it means just what I choose it to mean. That is the only definition that does not lead to pointless argument.
8. In times of austerity, do you think art has a moral obligation to respond topically?Not necessarily. The more oppressive the society, the more likely it is that an artist will make work that is critical of the state. A lot of art, in the UK, that is topical is done purely to get funding and is utter shite.
9. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
Well it would be quite nice to inhabit God ‘s. As creator of the Universe it would be pretty satisfying but there is no God and, if there were, God would not have a body so I’ll stick with my own.
10. What is your favourite ‘ism’?
A cross between anarchism, primitivism and jism.
11. What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?Not sure. The local police referred to me as “the painter and decorator of Sandringham Road”. It was not intelligent but I found it amusing
12. And the dumbest?
The bishop of Valencia once said I should be arrested for my performance “Sacrilege”. That was pretty stupid as it would, inevitably, have led to lots of newspaper articles criticising the church and demanding I be allowed freedom of speech.
13. Which artists would you most like to rip off, sorry, I mean appropriate as a critique of originality and authorship?
I can’t think of an appropriate answer. I am influenced by everything I see and do.
14. Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
At the age of thirty, I would have preferred my art to be free but that would only work if food, paint and property were free also.
15. If Moma and the Tate and the Pompidou wanted to acquire one of your works each, which would you want them to have?
That changes with my mood. I do like some of my more elaborate performances I also like some of the work I made with found materials. I like my paintings but I prefer to see them on the walls of someone’s house.
My collection of other artists’ work as one, big piece. I would love to find a place to house it and display it, permanently, along with some pieces of my own
16. What’s next for you?
The inevitable journey down into the arms of “The Grim Reaper” which inspires me to produce art more than anything I know.
www.lennielee.com/
www.theotherartfair.com www.boxpark.co.uk
The Other Art Fair + FAD pre fair party Thursday May 3rd 2012 from 6pm at Boxpark
Join The Facebook Event for more info and a free drink: www.facebook.com/
