20090729

hello brooklyn

this is a revised statement that i sent with some pictures to a call for entries from 3rd ward gallery in brooklyn. forewarning: i think i might be crazy/full of nonsense. 


"My name is Taylor Martin. Unfortunately, as it stands, we are nothing but “other” to each other. To break this proverbial ice, instead of calling myself an "artist", I would prefer to introduce myself as a river. Immediately after conception, I fell from the sky. From there, for some time I wallowed in and around the dirt in search of crevices that needed to be filled. Following my intuition, I then moved on to the next empty riverbed, and I have been repeating this process ever since. To some I am known for making canyons. To others I am infamous for destroying civilizations. In certain places that I exist, I am called “home” by many schools of fish with tiny, razor-sharp teeth selected naturally for the evolutionary purpose of nibbling at your toes. You will need a boat if you wish to navigate my thoughts. You will need a vacation afterwards.

 

To begin, consider that if were both to accept vision as being the closest sense tied to knowledge, and we were to equally consider language is a tool used to articulate this knowledge and share it with others; If we don't consider either of these statements to be bullshit, we can then and only then safely assume that the work I make relies on a consciousness of these two ideas, along with a realization towards the shortcomings of both. These two statements are what I like to think compose the ideology of my "work", and what inform the process by which it is made.

 I am interested in cultivating a visual symbolism to which anyone can relate. In my attempts to do this, I borrow quite a bit of iconography and other various imagery (that was at one point in history or another thought of as being culturally relevant). Quite often, I will use this information I gather to create new symbols that can be seen in the light of the globalized contemporary society of which we are currently subject to. 

 

Essentially, I am a performance artist using the photograph as a stage, as well as a director to the performance of others. The photographic image, in general, possesses a certain "black magic" that conjures a barrier between the viewer of the image and the reality of documented performance. This inherent connection with true "reality" that is perceived through the photograph quickly subverts itself the moment the "lying camera" is itself "lied to." Because of these mentioned properties, by following this logic I  can see only this photographic means of creating visual fiction (that poses itself as fact) as the suitable vehicle for what I am trying to communicate.

Through my process, I arrange these elements of performance, along with the aforementioned notions of symbolism within my images. I intend for this marriage between process and content to provoke narrative and encourage a wider, more in-depth discourse. The conversations within this discourse will inevitably vary, but I like to think that in some way they revolve around themes such as: Personal, cultural, and physical memory, the relation between language and mythology, the chaotic state of identity politics today, and the shortcomings of our psychological disposition, and how this informs our human condition at all times. Risking idealization, as i often do, I would like to mention that "I want my work to exist as a sort of amalgamation of all that I have seen and can remember, while at the same time can be used as a tool to deconstruct the fabric of time and space."