Introduction to the work

The contingency of the creative act and the potential of the repetition are core concerns in my work. Going beyond the simple appropriation of material as a form of remixing or a questioning of authorship, my work is an investigation into the nature of repetition itself, repeating not printed matter, but gestures which can be both radical in their intent, and playful in their rupturing of our relationship with the photographic image.

The photographic reproduction is a major form of communication of the artwork, one which is notable for its mutedness. The photographic reproduction silenty displays the work, forming in effect a direct window to the object. By repeating specific gestures on photographic surfaces, this can be examined and undermined. Our relationship to the photographic image is active, and not passive, and by subtle interferences on the photographic image, it is possible to create both gestures which interrupt our entry into the representational space of the image, and to undermine the potential of the work to capture thought provoking gestures (by repeating gestures, the photographic device is disabled, unable to render the traces of repetition, and only its divergences).

Most recently, this work has expanded out to look into devices (some photographic or optical, others simply mechanical), which are implemented in the creation of mass produced goods with a difference: the turn towards the customized mass-production processes, which promise forms of individuality to the consumer. These comes with their own restrictions, and this custom/mass production paradox is explored by utilsing processes and placing stress on the capabilities of the process to deliver both accurate and yet individual results (an example of which would be using spectrophotometer colour scanners and paint mixing machines in DIY stores to try to recreate the distinctive International Klein Blue colour patented by Yves Klein in the middle of the century (and thus challenging the wisdom of this gesture of commodification) - see the project DIY IKB for some of these outcomes.

Singular Forms, Continually Repeated

In an investigation of the creative act, it is necessary to go back to held assumptions about what creativity is, or where it comes from. This is most clearly seen when we ask precisely what is not creative: it would seem normal to suggest that any kind of repetition, any act of copying which evidences those things which we already know or know to exist, as an example of a lack in creativity. In this view, creativity is that which does not come from any kind of copy or repetition.

Although in the creative act we can locate the singularity of a gesture, which is to say, a gesture that could not performed in any way other than through a particular being at a particular time, we can see that this singularity arms us with two important insights into the creative possibility of the repetition. Firstly, there is a natural divergence from the original taking place, which isolates the gesture in time, if not in space, and so this makes us aware that repetition diverges naturally in its taking place. Although an identical object could result from a gesture, it is determined as a repetition only in our willing of the repetition as repetition, as a copy that causes some insecurity about the potential to distinguish one object from another. This leads us to the second point: whilst we attribute value to objects of obvious difference and distinguishability, this very distinction is little more than a denial of the contingency involved in production. Creativity stems from the repetitive act, whether it is in an attempt to get away from that which exists (which typically fails, ending up with something only vaguely distinct, and certainly not beyond our conception), meaning that this prizing of originality is little more than something akin to hiding your head in the sand, when in truth you would not the be the first there either. An alternative to this is to recognise the many contingent elements involved in the thinking and working through of ideas, and to see how this can be developed.

My work is very much about investigating the creative potential of the repetition, instigating new ways of thinking about the copy, in order to have a critical and creative

approach to the image and object. I place a great emphasis on a clearly defined contingency in my work, and to maintain this, the gestures I enact usually take place on reproductions of artworks, and are often visible in only the most minimal way. The production of this work comes about through a fascination with the history of minimal and conceptual practices, and my prolonged relationship with the processes and theories surrounding the photographic image.