Tom Wilmott

Touch the sun or die trying.

 

Or not. Whatever.

 

I do take this painting/image making thing fairly seriously. I'd like to think that I've shown enough 'give-a-shit' for this to be evident. I think it's important for anyone doing anything for fun that they commit to it, however insignificant it may be. For the 30 minutes a week that I play football (enthusiasm easily trumps ability) I really do care about the result and work hard to win. There is a parallel to be drawn with my painting here. In both cases I am capable and keen to throw myself in with passion, determination and a fierce will to succeed, however I can just as easily see either for exactly what it is. Completely meaningless.

 

After what on reflection appear to be 3 relatively involved texts I thought it a good moment to lighten up and make it clear that I'm well aware it's actually just a load of old bollocks. Pictures, paintings, art, artworld. It's the most pointless, least useful business in both senses. None of it actually 'does' anything. It just sits there looking nice (we hope) while lots of people talk quite a lot of vague, pretentious blabber about it. It's the epitome of indulgence and that makes me very happy to be involved.

 

I do occasionally try to address this in the paintings themselves, mostly through the titles. I like to throw in a comical phrase now and again to break the mood. If I can make people chuckle, that's as good as any other response. And let's be honest, if all I'm doing is painting a canvas in one flat, blank colour a lot of people will think it's a joke anyway, so why not make them right?

 

It may seem contradictory given the issues I highlighted previously. I care and can make an impassioned arguement in one breath and then discard the entire thing in the next, but for me it's the perfect escapism. To be able to throw oneself into an idea and think it the most important thing for a time, and then be completely unaffected by the result if you so choose is of great value. A critically important, completely irrelevant cause. Passion without risk. Ultimately, the conscious ability to pick and choose which emotions to keep and which to let go.

 

Or whatever gets you through Frieze week anyway.

 

Open containers that sing songs.