Joe Webb Antares & Love I
Absent Minded Joe Webb
Joe Webb Kissing Magritte
1.If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
Rich?
2. Can you tell us more about your work and what are the main ideas you would like to express?
Some of the collages are political while others try to hold a mirror up at conflicting cultures… then sometimes I just get really surreal, revealing alternative realities through cut away areas. I prefer the ideas to be subtle but to have decipherable messages woven within them…I’m a bit suspicious of ambiguous art.
3. How do you start the process of making work?
I start by searching second hand bookshops for an image that provokes an initial idea. From there I search through a collection of images in my studio…looking for potential matches which will somehow convey a story within the work.
4. Do you consider the viewer, when making your work?
Yeah I guess I do, although there’s a danger the work can end up looking too commercial doing that… I can sometimes find myself thinking, ‘well lots of people might like this’. I try to make art I would enjoy seeing.
5. Name 3 artists that have inspired your work?
Rene Magritte, Gerhard Richter, Rolf Harris. Seriously.
6. Name 3 of your least favourite artists.
Tracey Emin, and anyone else who makes scrawled/neon angsty poems.
7. What defines something as a work of art?
It has to be on the wall with a nice frame around it. Gotta love limitations. I only really like looking at paintings and prints when I visit galleries. I like the idea of the ‘Stuckist’ movement. There’s some funny stuff in their manifesto. I particularly like ‘Art that has to be in a gallery to be art isn’t art.’
8. In times of austerity, do you think art has a moral obligation to respond topically?Depends on the artist. It’s important for me to say something about what’s going on in the world around us. But then it’s a bit of a contradiction to make art about austerity then sell it for thousands of pounds. You can’t eat a picture. Especially mine, which are covered in glue.
9. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
Rene Magritte!
10. What is your favourite ‘ism’?
STUCKISM
11. What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
It’s genius!
12. And the dumbest?
It’s genius!
13. Which artists would you most like to rip off, sorry, I mean appropriate as a critique of originality and authorship?
Tracey Emin. Maybe a nice tidy, clean bed though with a cup of hot chocolate next to it. A really un-shocking version of hers.
14. Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
Yes, I want people to be able to afford the work if they like it…but I also need money to buy more magazines to cut up.
15. If Moma and the Tate and the Pompidou wanted to acquire one of your works each, which would you want them to have?
‘Antares and Love II’ or ‘Barbara’
16. What’s next for you?
Back to the studio to produce new works. I want to try out some paintings and have just found a new studio space to work from. I’ve had a break from making new collages as have been busy producing large scale prints for Whisper Fine Art.
See more of Joe’s work here www.whisperfineart.co.uk/
