2007.10.16 - 11.15
Charles Sandison

 

Charles Sandison Interview

1. How do you come up with the ideas when you start making out?
Sometimes I try to visualize the journey of a word as it leaves the lips of a speaker and moves towards a listener, or imagine, when standing in a public library, that all the books are quietly talking. The vision that occurs in my mind is indeed that of a vast flock of birds, which seem to move chaotically yet somehow, manage not to collide. I just respond to the things around me, a lot of my works begin life as abstract thoughts; “what if I could catch a spoken word in my hand…”, “How many words have I spoken since I was born?...”. The computer lets me make some of these abstract ideas possible.

2. You said, “My technique is to paint with light, time, and elemental characters”. Can you explain in the concrete?
For me the projector is a light source that reveals what is already there. Like walking into a cave with a pocket lamp, as the beam penetrates the darkness we discover where we are. I work very directly with location, I try hard to relate the projected information to the surface upon which the projection falls. I don’t like the idea of using a screen and I prefer the projection to appear as if it is a natural part of the fabric of the building. I have just returned from Rome where I made some ‘sketch’ projections amongst the ruins of ancient Rome at night. There were no street lights around and the garden had been closed to the public some hours before, I was only able to see the forms in the architecture by virtue of the light of the projector and the white words that fell on the surface of the ancient columns and arches. I was fascinated by the metaphor of a primitive use of new technology to reveal an ancient civilization. I think that we are constantly at the intersection of these three points throughout history, in fact it may be that we don’t ‘progress’ as we think we do, some things are revealed to us while others return to darkness.

3. What’s your subject or question in your whole work?There is a theory that we have lost authenticity to the ‘white noise’ of what has already been written or spoken; words only refer to other words. I disagree, by looking for patterns and structures in the swirling ether of images, symbols, and history, we have a chance to move beyond ourselves, find a shared meaning, truth, or ‘authenticity’.

4. Are you satisfied with what you’re doing now?
As long as each work opens new doors and exhibitions take me to places I would have never imagined going (physically and mentally) then I think my mind is relatively healthy. This I think is what I understand to be satisfied with the relationship you have with your own work. I know I can do better work, this is not a negative comment. I only get to understand this because I value what I have done so far.

5. What is the greatest satisfaction so far in your current?
The greatest satisfaction has been realizing that I can do almost anything if I just try. It is entirely up to oneself. This may sound very simple but I think for many artists some the restrictions we face are self imposed. There are so many things you ‘could’ make if you had more time, or more money, or less responsibility. In the end you have to accept the limitations that you work within and then do something extraordinary. I really like the expression in English;  ‘extra ? ordinary’, you could interpret to mean ‘really boring’ or something fantastic. So far working in places like the Catacombs under the streets of Paris with projectors and computers was very challenging.

6. Do you have any future project to share with us?
At the moment I am waiting for winter and the lakes where I live in Finland to freeze so I can make a series of projections on the ice. Also next spring I will realize a work in the Musee d’ Orsay, Paris. This will be a direct correspondence with a water lily paining by Monet. I will build an installation around the painting, it is a amazing to be able to work closely with an artist from another era. Even though he no longer exists when you approach his work in the context of making it a part of your own work you begin to understand what the painter himself experienced.

7. Do you have an idea about the land of dreams, kinds of Utopia?
I think that a form of Utopia is possible. I can’t say clearly what that would be but I know that it would be a fairly simple matter. It would just take a moment to achieve if we just stopped being so ‘human’ for a second. I think we are the way we are because we probably like it like this, so maybe this is already a ‘utopia’ for someone.