Art is Magic

Last week it was my birthday and one of my presents was a book, Art Is Magic by Jeremy Deller. Jeremy is my favourite living artist. I first became aware of him about twelve years ago. I saw him interviewed on the telly, not knowing who he was, and I really liked what he was saying. His ideas about art and how he made art seemed very much in line with my thinking and the way I approached my art. It made me want to find out much more about his work. I’ve since visited quite a number of his exhibitions and enjoyed every one of them.

I don’t do reviews really, I’m pretty useless at it when I try. The trouble is I’m fairly illiterate but also it’s to do with the way I think. I think mostly in feelings and images, so I’ll let Jeremy’s words from the book speak instead:

“Chapter 4 

It’s time to lose control

To some extent art is an experiment, where you introduce two elements together and then stand back and see what transpires, ‘this plus this equals, what?’. Often, I look to the public to improve the work by taking it in directions that I was not expecting. In public, you can lose control of the work… “

I really like this idea of art having a life of its own. Many people can’t really grasp this notion. Then there’s:

“Chapter 6 

Don’t fuck with bats”

A real slogan for our times.

Art is magic. Art is fucking magic. Go out and get yourself a piece of the action. Everyone is a special kind of artist, and, remember kids, don’t fuck with bats!