Catalogue > At random

In Plato’s “ Ion ”, poets are portrayed as passive and irrational instruments of the Muses and their craft created in a state of frenzied ecstasy and madness. The Muse has entered them and taken possession of them, using them as a mouthpiece. The poet being a chain of influences, just as the Muse takes possession of the poet, so the poet causes the rhapsode who recites the poetry and also enters into a frenzied state and in turn the rhapsode will put the audience into a wild Bacchic state. Thus a chain of magnetic influence leading back to the Muse. The Muse is likened to a magnet, which has an attractive force on the poet, who has an attractive force on the rhapsode and so on down the chain to the audience. Therefore a chain of creativity is established, with creativity only occurring if the poet is found in a passive irrational state. During this chain of influences under a frenzied state, the poet does not comprehend what he/she utters within his/her craft and thus unable in understanding the nature of the poetry. One could apply Plato’s notion of the Muse’s magnetic force and coupled with effects upon the poet in a chain of influences, to that of social media. Wherein the subject is drawn to the magnetic forces at play through the interaction with technological devices in the palm of the beholder “ The Muse performs for the technological device, the technological device performs for the muse ”. Within our digital age of the 21st century, the notion of the Muse as magnetic force, becomes blurred through an opiate-like state of influence, through our interaction with the technological device. “ Estuary a la mode ” attempts to evoke Plato’s notion of the Muse set within the febricity of our digital age.

Born Essex, UK 1962 1990-95 Studied Kunstakademie-Düsseldorf, Germany. Studied under Nam June Paik/Nan Hoover 1996 Videokunst Preis Bremen 1997 Kunstfonds Stipendium, Bonn 2000 Artist Residency, Bemis Centre for Contemporary Arts, Nebraska, USA 2003 Arts Council England Artist Grant 2013 CCA Andraxt, Mallorca, Spain, Artist Residency 2014 Arts Council England Artist Grant 2016 18th St Arts, Santa Monica, CA, Artist Residency CCA Andraxt, Mallorca, Spain, Artist Residency Arts Council England Artist Grant Berlin Senate for Cultural Affairs, Artist- Research Grant 2018 Berlin Senat Artist Catalogue- Grant