Adam Bachelor answer a few questions for the Wake-up-now, project. The Chromosome of Creativity.
Adam Batchelor produces intricate, evocative drawings with a subtle political punch. His work explores the breakdown and conflict between humanity, the man-made and the natural world, and the transition of developing cultures, introducing themes of capitalism, consumerism and global issues into the mix. Recent exhibitions include group shows in Miami and Paris and The Other Art Fair in London. Adam's work has also been featured in numerous publications including Kult3d, Popshot Magazine, O.K periodicals, Beautiful/Decay and is soon to be featured in a book on drawing by Elephant Magazine due to bepublished this year.
1- When did you decide to pursue art/illustration as a career? I studied Illustration at Art School, but i made completely different work, i made a lot ofmodels and sculptures about consumerism, i passed the course but afterwards it didn'treally get me anywhere. The year i graduated a lot of bad stuff happened at once andput me in a really bad place, i needed to do something, everything that was happeningwas completely out of my control, i applied to this volunteering program where I wouldbe sent with a group of similar young people from the UK to live and work in acommunity in a developing country, I was sent to Nepal, the 15th poorest country inthe world and it changed my life. The things i saw in Nepal, both the good and the badwill stay with me for the rest of life, when i returned i decided i had to make artworkwith real meaning, to talk about real issues and show others what is going on in the world.
2- What are your goals as an artist? To be able to make artwork for the rest of my life that will challenge the way peoplesee the world around them.
3- What's your favourite place to developed your ideas? I live in the countryside, and when i'm stuck on an idea, i will either think about it wheni go for a run or when i'm walking my dogs through the woods. The peace and quietand the space, gives me the room to think.I live in rural part of east England and to many it's very boring with nothing to do andlots of farmers, but i find it to be a really interesting place, just because of how differentit is to who i am as a person, the people who live where i live do not like the kind ofartwork i make, they are very conservative, they don't like change, they like art liketraditional landscapes that kind of thing.
4- Where in the world is your favourite place to see art? When i was 18, I went to New York with my housemate at the time, we stayed withfriends of my housemates family, on couches and floors. I remember going to theWhitney and seeing the work of Gordon Matta-Clark and it completely blew my mind,before that my perceptions of art were completely different. seeing cut sections ofbuildings in that way seemed so sophisticated to me, It was something i'd never expectto see.
http://vernissage.tv/blog/2007/02/21/gordon-matta-clark-retrospective-whitneymuseum-new-york/
http://vernissage.tv/blog/2007/02/21/gordon-matta-clark-retrospective-whitneymuseum-new-york/
5- What exhibit, that you have seen within the last year, has most influenced you? I 've been unable to see his work exhibited as of yet, but the work of Michael Joo hasinfluenced me a lot lately, in relation to the way he views the natural world, and howhe discusses form and space in his work, something i haven't thought too much aboutbefore i've always been too subject driven. I'm not a conceptual artist and i find makingthat kind of art very unfamiliar. But it has so many strong qualities to it that I just can'tignore, I've always been a big fan of Minimalism, and I can see many of those kind ofthemes running throughout his work.For example he has an ongoing series entitled Improved rack, where he exhibitsvariations of different modified Deer and Elk antlers, and the way he describes theantlers is so poetic, he says the antlers are like the ready-made of the natural world, asign of strength and sexual prowess, they are a ready-made a weapon. And after thedeath of the deer the antlers remain to serve a secondary function, as a souvenir.
6- Do you collect anything? I collect National Geographic magazines, the images in each issue are unrivalled intheir uniqueness and quality, I'm starting to get quite a decent collection, most of whichI inherited from my Granddad.
7- If you could choose anyone to see your work, who would he or she be? Someone with the opposite opinions and outlook on life as me, or a CEO of a corporation, a banker, a conservative politician. It would be interesting to see how they feel about the work, and what they get from it, whether they care about what they are seeing.
8- What is the greatest compliment anyone has ever paid to you regardingyour artwork? A man once bought one of my drawings because he was having a really bad day, andwhen he saw this drawing, he thought he was being completely selfish, being in agrump about a few things that didn't go right, when there will always be someone elseworse off. I guess if i can make people care then that is important. I've donated mydrawings to a few charity auctions, one of which was for a charity working to protectthe Rainforest and my two drawings bought two GPRS trackers for tracking illegallogging, It felt good knowing that the drawings contributed to actually making changehappen rather than just talk about it.
9- In which walls would you like to see your work exposed in 10/20 years. On the walls of as many young collectors, forward thinkers and interesting, happy, kindpeople as possible. That would be the greatest achievement for me.
10. Last one, Who would you love to see answering this same questions? Azuma Makota! His work is amazing.
