Mixed Media by Stuart Harry Taylor
Vaccine
Stuart Harry Taylor
“Seeing comes before words”. John Berger ‘Ways Of Seeing’
Stuart’s work humorously explores the frailty of language and our corresponding attempts to label, codify or categorise things at the Altar of the Golden Calf called ‘Identity’ - particularly as we age in life and try to form personal narratives of meaning and value with the shifting sands of time.
His art pieces point towards calculated intervention, the sourcing and collecting of certain materials, the act of making and subsequent completion within the gaze of surveillance-referencing societal systems of power and control. Labels, receipts, times, dates, places and ‘found objects’ find a place within his collections as he tries to come to terms with life.
‘I struggle with man made fictions of alphabets, numbers, symbols and words which actually have no origin in nature’ he says.
His motive as a practitioner is visual ‘life writing’ using things collected of personal value. The objects are personal but presented de-personally allowing the viewer to form narratives of interest to make the art pieces personal to them likewise. He gives a majority of his art pieces banal and seemingly obvious titles however his intention is to allow the viewer to question their experience between what they see and what they know. The titles simply reinforce his intention to present the viewer with a choice to either engage and question or to dismiss Stuart’s perspective. A dismissal is just as valued as an engagement within the exposure of learning.
As Stuart says “Objects by the mere existence have a presence which speak louder than words and form an unspoken visual dialogue which can be deeply personal and gratifying”
He adds further “seeing and relating to this world precedes the experience of doing”
Mixed Media | Painted Model and Book
22x21x15cm