Ups and downs

I guess there are parts of my story that have been predictable. I’ve been at times engaged, serious, militant, disillusioned, bored, ‘give a fuck? As if I give a fuck!’ I’ve taken an interest in politics, policy, people and I’ve dumped them all. I’ve escaped for the arts, only to use art as a medium for understanding political and philosophical systems, and an avenue for meeting the challenges of cultural communication. Like critical thinking, I find art equally important for personal health and development, and a fantastic antidote to the banal. Creating something telling or intriguing from the pragmatic trappings of existence is a conscious act and requires an engagement with the world around us. For me, art in fact marked a return to the very frictions of political and societal complexities I’d tried for a time to avoid, but found impossible to ignore. Love it or hate it, ups and downs, my occasional faith in art’s political project has been rewarded with eye popping insight and the best and worst in people – lessons better learnt.

Watch Ai Weiwei’s Never Sorry and see what I mean.