Hans Clausen Enough, 2012
Hans Clausen Generous, 2012
Hans Clausen Theft by Finding, 2011
Vend-a-Wish, 2011 Hans K Clausen
Hans Clausen The Hole World, 2011
Hans Clausen Airmiles 2012
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 fifth is Hans K Clausen
1.If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
Prior to arriving at my present incarnation as an artist, I had a variety of other careers, including; social worker and mental health counsellor, with roadie and florist thrown in along the way. Early ambitions that have thus far eluded me are circus clown and stunt man.
2.Can you tell us more about your work and what are the main ideas you would like to express?
Ultimately the aim of my work is to generate a response in the viewer, whether that be emotional or intellectual. The symbolic or metaphorical potential that I see in the work is not prescriptive, at most it’s suggestive.
3.How do you start the process of making work?
This process commonly starts in the early hours of the morning when my head fills up with ideas, some creative and some nonsense. I seldom work with the traditional notion of a sketch book but regularly jot things down and doodle on pieces of paper which gather in pockets and drawers. This reservoir of ideas provides the inspiration for work. The catalyst that transfers those ideas into making tends to happen when I’m playing with materials and objects, exploring their capabilities, possibilities and connections.
4.Do you consider the viewer, when making your work?
I do, I believe that visual art should be seen, experienced and interacted with and I believe creativity and its fruits should be shared. When I’m making I’m thinking about the context and environment the work might be shown in and the interface between the work and the audience.
5.Name 3 artists that have inspired your work?
Christo and Jean Claude, Jannis Kounellis, Robert Rauschenberg. Pioneers who believed we could all look harder and see more.
6.What defines something as a work of art?
The viewer, everything is subjective.
7.In times of austerity, do you think art has a moral obligation to respond topically?
I don’t think artists have any greater moral obligation than anyone else. We need artists that shout and artists that whisper, we need protest art and we need art that lifts the spirit.
8.Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
There’s nobody that I’d trade places with, here and now is good. However, if we’re talking time travel I’d be hanging out in the Cote d’Azur with Picasso in the 50’s and in California with Rauschenberg in the 60’s.
9.What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
The ‘review’ that I’m most proud of was during my degree show at Edinburgh College of Art earlier this year. A little boy walked into my studio holding his mother’s hand and looking fed-up, catching sight of the centre piece of my show he froze to the spot and exclaimed in a loud voice ‘wow! Staring with his mouth still open he refused to move…my work was done.
10. Which artists would you most like to rip off, sorry, I mean appropriate as a critique of originality and authorship?
I wish I had wrapped the Reichstag.
11. Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
If Edinburgh Council didn’t care if I paid my council tax, Scottish Power didn’t care if I paid my direct debit and TalkTalk let me phone for free I’d care less about the monetary value of my art. I am mystified by the crass sums of money that art can be traded for but at the opposite end of the economic scale I can’t understand why an hour I spend on my laptop should be worth any less than an hour an estate agent spends on their laptop.
12. What’s next for you?
A little less conversation a little more action….. think deeper and work harder. With the 2014 referendum on Scottish Independence looming I am working on ideas around the national identity of objects, themes of Scottishness and Britishness and the place of souvenirs in contemporary culture.
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).
