Mx.D.P

As always, it was a productive combination of discussion with liberal amounts of questions and answers.

Art, for me, in the last 4 years has been a constant stream of surprises of self-discovery and unexpected outcomes.

Nonetheless, I am now starting to see Art as some form of nonlinear energy transfer, a Schrödinger like theorum. It is made up of expressions, equations, and developing formulas. Knowing how to work with them is key to understanding myself within the world in which I live.

The variable is Art; I have only begun to understand and appreciate this recently. Art becomes a placeholder for an unknown value. Here, within my art practice, lay the variables because there is no value for them until I recognise and accept them.

Art maths is addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, and more. An expression is a combination of seemingly fixed and in-flux scenarios, a mathematical art operation.

There are many problems in the world. My focus is, after all, geopolitical climate chaos and its intersectionality with gender identity and ableism. I also now see my understanding of any focused attention to be biased within my situated knowledge. For good or bad, my lived experience will always affect my art, and to have that understanding is necessary for my practice.

Real-world problems are not expressed initially as an equation, and someone has to take the situation and model an equation after it. Art becomes the translation skills necessary to expose a problem and perform it as an art equation, e.g.

Addition – the climate shit show

Multiplication – political power grabs, hyper-capitalism, ablism and transphobia, my physical decline.

Subtraction from the problem – sitting and making some art!

Division – a problem shared is a problem halved, community connection, [though that can be tricky, as variables add and subtract at will]

X is the variable because it is Art!

The real power of art becomes the Non-linear Energy transfer developed by art unpredictability and even, dare I f*king say it, art ambiguity… I am choking on that admission.

These all form an art expression, and the equation is my art practice. In reality, the equation probably looks more like this: