a slap in the face...

“Dead Factories” Statement

Stuart — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:41:44 +0000

In an abandoned factory by the ocean near the mouth of the river Douro in Gaia I have also been intervening using already present material.

Creating objects that resemble ancient celtic structure out of breeze blocks from collapsed factory walls. Standing lonely on the empty and roofless shopfloor.

Using timber from the collapsed roof and rearranging it into symbols such as the dragon rune.

Essentially this is about the juxtaposition of preindustrial symbols into a postindustrial landscape. Celebrating the victory of nature over industry, of Zion over Babylon. In the short years since these factories were abandoned, nature has almot completely reconquered them. The land is returning to its original state. Proving that the cyclical is stronger than the linear.

Concrete is no match for even the smallest weed?

“Revolution of the Car Nations” Statement

Stuart — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:36:49 +0000

Porto. 26th April, 2001.For this work, weearing a dust mask, I walked along a main road in the city, placing single red carnations in the exhaust pipes of cars.

This an entirely contextually specific work.

The 25th April was the 27th anniversary of the Portuguese revolution which overthrew the Salazar dictatorship.

This revolution is known as the “Revolution of the Carnations” because a woman gave people red carnations (cravas in Portuguese) which the people then gave to the soldiers and placed in the barrels of their guns.

Given the timing and location of this work the iconography I have appropriated is explicit within the piece.

Equally obvious (especially due to the use of the mask) is the issue of pollution and damaging emissions from cars.

The effects of global warming are currently high in the public consciousness in Portugal. The winter of 2000/01 saw some of the worst flooding on record in the North of the country. This is widely known to be due to global warming.

In the UK approximately 30 000 people die every year as result of the pollution caused by cars. The figure is likely to be comparable in Portugal.

This figure excludes those killed in car crashes etc. The mortality rate in Portugal’s road accidents is 500% higher than in England.

Countless people die every year because of other sections of the auto industry. In factories, mines, in wars over oil fields etc. etc.

During the enire period of the Salazar regime it is estimated that around 1000 people were killed. Without wishing to minimise the the evils of fascism it is clear that as long as the petro-industrial complex remains the revolution remains unfinished…..

“Chwarae yn y Chwarel” Statement

Stuart — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:31:28 +0000

took the canvas to the old roman quarry and slid down the slopes on it. Sometimes I slid on it like a sledge, others I attempted to ride it as if the canvas was some kind of snowboard. It was fun and an exuberance and sense of play rapidly infected my actions. The canvas picked up traces of the natural elements of the quarry (long since disused and overgrown with grass).The most prevalent pigment is that of the earth. It was raining and had been all day. Those areas used as paths (either by people or sheep) had become muddy tracks, and those areas where the gradient left the earth exposed were also muddy.

The rain tended to wash away the more ephemeral pigments and marks; sliding on grass wiped much of the canvas clean. The grass itself left little discernable marking. It was wet and therefore didn’t create the necessary friction to break down to release its pigments. It was tough grass on exposed hilltops, and not yet being spring the new sap had not risen.

As a mark making process it did however capture some of the momentum and motion of my interaction with topography of the old quarry.

The canvas acted as a physical mediation between my body (and its actions) and the landscape. Extracting a visual representation of this relationship and capturing it in a framed (literally and culturally) object.

“Pedras Esculturas” Statement

Stuart — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:22:34 +0000

Recently I have started to build small piles of stones in selected places. These examples are from whilst I was living in Portugal.It is, however something I have done sine I was a small child. It is a creative act common to many cultures. In the deserts of the South West USA they are used to mark trails.

For me it is an act of recognition of the beauty of a place, an offering of reverence to nature. A minor intervention on my part, using already present materials in an acknowledgement of its intrinsic beauty.

Like Fernando Lanhas’ Pedras Pinturas, or Julia Ventura’s Untitled Landscapes, this work highlights the beauty of nature whilst minimising the role of human authorship. For me, my role is perhaps most importantly simple presence and recognition.

My Function as an artist is only a minor rearrangement of components that are already there. Nothing is added to, or removed from, the elements that nature herself has already provided.

The fragility of the structures ensures that in a relatively short time after my departure from a place, nature will once again arrange the stones according to her wishes, and the traces of my presence will be swept away.

Unlike many works that seem to celebrate, or emphasise human attempts to dominate or capture the landscape, my intention is the exact opposite.

A recognition that nature is not only more powerful than humanity, but also that she is capable of creating far greater beauty than we could ever acheive. Our role is, therefore, to acknowledge and celebrate this. To attempt to reintegrate ourselves harmoniously back into the beauty from whence we came.

2001

“Topograffi” Statement

Stuart — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:17:54 +0000

Landscape artists have for far too long been content to be mere spectators. This separation from the earth has led to to an inability to engage with site. More seriously, landscape art has been a contribution towards the commodification of the place. Even today’s land artists often turn their works into objects for sale. The logic of capital pollutes landscape art as surely as it pollutes the landscape itself.It is time, as Camille Pissarro urged over a century ago, to be humble before the earth. To dispense with mediation. To allow the earth to draw on us when we draw on it. To regain our senses of joy and play and restore a relationship as old as humanity.

2003

The Geography of Making

Stuart — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:42:09 +0000

The “Geography of Making” cannot be separated from the“Geography of Capital”.

The dominant economic paradigm constructs, and moulds all our environments for its own benefit. In the industrialised world virtually everything thatsurrounds us is a product of capitalism. Indeed, the vast majority of the world around us is a conscious
and deliberate creation of capitalism:

“Unlike earlier forms of social activity, everyday life in capitalist society systematically transforms the material conditions to which capitalism originally responded…

At a high level of industrialisation, practical activity creates its own material conditions as well
as its social form.”

(Fredy Perlman “The Reproduction of Daily Life”)

What is true for our physical environment is equally true for our human (or social) environment(s). Capital has colonised every aspect of our lives and culture.

With the globalisation of neo-liberal capitalism the same economic system now encompasses the whole of the world.

From Portugal to England, the USA to Russia, the same battle to the death is being fought between life and Capital. With the same consequences; the same social problems, the same ecological meltdown. With the same drive towards “homogenous multiculturalism” by the
transnational corporations (as typified by the recent week of McMexican, McSaharan, McJapanese, McGerman etc. “meals” at the McDonalds outlets here in
Portugal).

Of course, this story isn´t over yet. Vestiges remain of the old colonial and nationalist capitalisms
remain, giving individual states their own “unique” national iconography.

Equally it takes two sides (at least) to make history. Resistance continues to develop, what remains of genuine popular folk culture (that has managed to survive industrialisation) is combining with the traditional antagonist of Capital – labour, and with the emerging anti – capitalist and environmental movements.

Ancient spirits are rising. Indigenous struggles are finally being recognised by the opponents of
capitalism in the industrialised world as a truly revolutionary current (as well as by capital itself,
which has long acknowledged this, and acted accordingly).

“yo te vi, te vi por la ventana” statement

Stuart — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:36:09 +0000

This is not a painting. The production of a painting merely acts as an alibi for an accion of refusal and celebration. Throwing paint out of the window is an action of exorcism. The casting out of demons. A physical extension of abandoning the past and dumping its baggage into the dustbin of history. At the same time, this action is a covert representation of a political act of refusal. The negation of the social reproduction of capital. This refusal takes the form of a celebration of living a life that denies the economic imperative of capitalist society. A life that is laughing in the face of common sense and prefers instead the subversive values of beauty, joy and uncommodified friendships. In this balcony scene Juliet is life herself. This accion is inspired by time spent singing, dancing, living and laughing. By a life as transnational as capital. This life, joyful and wild can be seen translated onto the canvas. It is a work recording living without dead time, and right now as I write these words I am sitting by the ocean smiling. Espinho, Portugal 20/06/01