Country: United Kingdom
Alice’s general practice is about trying to answer art’s unanswerable questions and investigating the notion and difficulty of making art whilst not knowing what exactly art is; her pieces often involve using the process and documentation as the art itself.
Her projection work speaks of these notions but in a more playful way than some of her previous work and the title is very important in connecting the concept to the physical piece. “Have I been here before?…” relates to physically recording the video in the space and projecting it back into the same space- but also to the never ending cycle of investigation and failure an artist undertakes while making and exhibiting their work - sarcastically pointing out that these ideas and Alice’s own thoughts have previously been investigated.
Artist Statement:
“I’m going to be honest,
I know art exists, but I don’t know what it is. Ask me:
“what is art?”
“what is an artist?”
“what is an artist statement?”
And I won’t have an answer.
Artists are not relied upon to figure out problems. They are free to make anything from their imagination. But if art is questioned itself, investigation becomes even broader, opening up themes of the unimaginable. To make us question what we DO NOT know and CANNOT imagine. Art can easily turn logic into the illogical, the improbable and the impossible.
… art is a way of seeing, art is a state of mind, art is an object, art is a collection, art is an abstraction, art is a urinal, art is a body, art is a narrative, art is an expression, art is.
I struggle to accept the ambiguousness of what art is.
I struggle to accept that I simply do not know the answer.
But, that is exactly what I aim to do in my practice. To accept that I do not know. So that my failure in not understanding can become productive; and so that the never-ending investigation becomes exciting. In doing this I can be free from the mental frustration of not being able to find answers and form conclusions. To simply say, “I do not know” and keep on investigating anyway…”