An interview with the creator of this picture.
In a mere direct message on Instagram I asked Georgie if I could feature her post. She graciously accepted and I asked a few questions expecting a few sentences back. What I got instead was something much more and was so interesting it had to be made into a blog.
My first question was not one of the deepest questions or really a question at all: ‘ tell me about your post’
Georgie replied in voice notes, instead of paraphrasing I decided to write what she said and so here it is: ‘It’s hard to tell what they are, I don’t even know what they are, they are a record of a chemical reaction on a photo emulsion, I used urine, vinegar, salty water and lemon, made a paste with deadly mushrooms from the garden, it made a paste that looked quite unattractive I put it onto the photo emulsion, that was allowed to sit and simmer in this jar of disgusting mushroom urine, then took it out after 7 days of it festering.’
While listening I’m sure I was thinking what you are. ‘Huh’.
She carried on: ‘I processed this, and found a chemical reaction between all the chemicals, mushrooms reacting with the urine, etc. and on top of that they’ve been exposed as a photograph. And seeing them out of context they are completely abstract work. And they are almost heaven like, especially the second one, almost like you’re literally looking into heaven. I had no idea what the outcome would be, it was almost like a little test, I was shocked was not expecting this outcome at all.’
No neither was I, looking at the pictures I was surprised to think how something so beautiful can come out of something so… gross! I started to think about it and realised isn’t that the world we live in though? Almost everything beautiful comes from something not so beautiful. But that’s a whole other blog post isn’t it!
My second question was : ‘what does art mean to you?’
Her response is not something I can describe its better if you just read it!
The voice notes continued: ‘The biggest question in the world is what does art mean to you? And in all of my years of studying art I have never been asked it.’
I couldn’t believe that! Surely someone must have asked, but then I guess it’s not a question easily answered, so not easily asked.
‘I think for me, it defines that moment that every artist gets, when they’ve finished a piece, sort of like déjà vu, of like oh my god this is what I’ve been visualizing this whole time, like a euphoric moment and that’s what art means to me. The word art isn’t enough it’s this moment that happens in your brain, that your idea that was in your brain you have it as a physical thing that is now in front of you. I don’t think with any form of academia you can get that, maybe you can get it but I’m not an academic person so maybe I haven’t experienced that,’
Again that’s a whole other blog!
‘But that is the thing that makes me keep going back to art, keep chasing that high but a healthy high, I just want to keep coming back to the moment of omg my brain has come up with something and now I can show people and I can see it in the flesh because in the beginning of making things you cant show other people, its difficult to explain pieces before they’ve been made.’
‘Pieces of art are little peaks behind the curtain into someone’s brain and they’re copies of parts of people brains, and definitely my work shows a lot of me within it.’
So there we have it, it’s amazing what art means to different people, and I’ve definitely never thought of art as a feeling.
So, what’s art to you?
Creatively Constipated 