Alexander Dodgson – Artist Statement

Art is experience: if embraced, the audience will surrender the passivity of a detached perspective and instead function as a distinct element in the art making process. By adopting this philosophy and developing a crucial understanding of artistic history, the principles of interaction, participation and performance have provided invaluable methods of experimentation in the diverse consideration of material practice. This project remains firmly rooted to performance art history and a wealth of artists (Abramovic, McCarthy, Viennese Actionists) that have used their body and actions in similar ways to challenge the social dynamic of the artist/audience relationship.

Throughout studio practice the comprehensive contemplation of portraiture, painting and photography has given way for an expanding canon of work outside the typical means of production. The development of aesthetic quality alongside the context of a flawed human psyche has allowed the overall process to mature into a complex amalgamation of creation and destruction.  The process is purposefully initiated by the artist alone however does naturally lend itself towards the collaborative effort of many individuals, with the audience having a direct stake in the artwork’s production. The visceral application of paint has extended into a striking distortion of material/medium, which serves to emphasis the chaotic and disturbing nature of the content despite any misleading interpretations of colour. Principally this self-reflective odyssey attempts to paint the sacrificial anxieties of human action through a series of portraits and transgressive live performances.

The extended performances and their subsequent documentation are the culmination of a desire to unite the artist and   the audience collaboratively in the art making process. This narrative is representative of the artistic sacrifice of identity, the need for passing over from egotism into shared experience and the celebrated death/birth of the artist. The undisclosed agenda of this event prompts the viewer to re-consider the rules of cohabitation within the gallery institution and promotes an awareness of how individual action can translate through to many. The performance relies on a distinct inter-activity for its full realization yet there is a clear separation between both parties, one without the other and the work would cease to function. This artwork presents a paradoxical symbiosis within the gallery institution that captures raw emotion and presents the artist (self) as a wholly vulnerable concept.