in life there’s a lot of things we
pretend to understand
but we really don’t like what the hell’s
an arranged marriage and crossfit and
taxes and bit coin and Contemporary Art
I’m like you though
I like to understand how things work
I’m very logical everything needs to fit
inside a box for me to understand it I’m
the type of person that goes to sleep
safe at night knowing that two plus two
equals four
I’m also the type of person that when I
go into McDonald’s and order a
cheeseburger
I’m gonna get a
cheeseburger not a kale salad I’m also
the person that when I’m watching a
murder mystery and at the film ends I
like to know who the murderer is but I’m
also an artist and I work or I live in
the wild wild west of the art world
where there are no answers to anything
in in the wild wild west
two plus two can equal 444 or 890 3.54
there’s no answers so I’m gonna take you
on a very roundabout journey my journey
but I’ve tried to make sense of this
whole of this world that I live in so
I’m gonna I’m gonna tell you a little
story it’s an art story there was an
artist in the 60s whose work kind of
explored the relationship between art
and human production anyway his father
didn’t love his work and he told him on
a number of occasions on number of
occasions your work is and he kind
of took that to heart and he was
inspired to make an artwork that
consisted of 19 tin cans filled with his
own feces he even went so far as to put
little white labels on the front that
red artists
30 grams net freshly produced and
1019 1961 but the thing that gets me
about this it’s not the art production
that’s one thing the thing that gets me
is that when he made the artwork in the
60s he went and sold each tin for the
equivalent price of gold and only last
year one of those tins remember they’re
in ninety one of those tins sold for two
hundred and seventy five thousand euro
you can’t make this up I’m gonna
give you a less shitty example another
less shitty story sorry
an English artist her name is Tracey
Emin and the the artwork is titled my
bed and it was kind of inspired by a low
phase in her life she was she spent many
days in bed she didn’t eat all she did
was drink and smoke cigarettes if you
were to go in view my bed at a museum or
a gallery you would walk into a room you
would see an unmade bed perfectly
arranged in the middle of the room kind
of tousled a monk’s stained sheets and
cigarette butts and beer bottles and
slippers and underwear and it’s an
unmade bed and what was so fantastic
about it the critics came out in droves
they thought it was an absolute sham you
know they said anyone can exhibit an
unmade bed
– which Tracey responded but they didn’t
did they when she made the artwork in
the late 90s it sold for a hundred and
fifty thousand pounds and recently
resold at auction for two and a half
million I don’t know if this part of the
story is true but I’ll tell it anyway
apparently Emmons on sorry apparently
Emmons ex-boyfriend is sorry he her
ex-boyfriend had an all better hers and
was apparently willing at women willing
to sell it to a keen buyer for $20,000
on the side what a cheeky bugger
and there’s one one more story I really
want to tell it’s a very short and sweet
story it by an artist called Felix
gonzalez-torres and it’s an untitled
artwork and the artwork is 200 pounds of
carefully wrapped blue candy very very
neatly arranged in a pile sold at
auction for four and a half million US
dollars a pile of candy and there was a
Museum in New York who recently
exhibited a similar pile of candy by
Gonzales and there was a viewer who came
took a photo of the artwork posted it to
Instagram and said quick the maps giving
away free candy on the 4th floor so I
don’t know
well actually of course you noticed this
I kind of inserted those price tags in
and amongst the story not for your
benefit for mine it’s sometimes it is so
much easier to talk about the money than
it is to talk about the art good art
expensive art also expensive and it
kind of puts into play this really
wonderful saying by Andy Warhol he said
art is whatever you can get away with
and these three artworks kind of have
something really wonderful in common
they’re kind of so blatantly simple they
kind of so defiant and a little bit
disobedient they’re a bit funny and very
cheeky but they kind of they kind of
dare you to think that the whole thing
is a bit of a sham and it probably is
the fact that I’m even up here on stage
talking to you about these artworks was
probably their goal all along but no
matter how much you try and dress up
McCann at the end of the day it’s
still McCann and unmade bed and a
pile of candy so I’ve tried to kind of
unpack these artworks and kind of see
what the artist has done and what I can
see is that they’ve kind of tested the
boundaries broken the rule
fools crossed the line and got away with
it now I don’t even hate them for it
it’s brilliant so so I I’m an artist
and the kind of work I make is very very
different from the art I’ve just
explained it’s the opposite like the
complete opposite you know and you you
will you might walk into a museum or a
gallery and you’d see an artwork let’s
say it’s a colorful polka dot painting
and you kind of say you whisper to your
friend under your breath well I kind of
make the work that gets a different
reaction you know when your mum tells
you when you’re younger that you know
you only have to be good at the one
thing well this is the one thing that
I’m good at I’ve peaked
it it’s downhill from here for me my art
is relatively traditional its
conventional the drawings I make look
like a photo and I kind of go stroke for
stroke with a Xerox printer and my art
kind of sits in a very neat in the
confines of what you would consider art
when people explain my art the general
feedback I get is it’s amazing I can’t
believe it’s not a photo it’s amazing I
hate the word amazing
nonetheless my art doesn’t really hang
out with controversy and heated debate
it’s just amazing so here I am with my
amazing art and here they are
sorry over there we’ve got the artists
with that it’s not art art and I don’t
know what it is but I kind of love it I
can’t explain it it’s almost like an
opposites attract kind of situation you
know and it’s like when you mixed fried
chicken and chocolate ice cream together
it’s like I’m looking at something I
probably shouldn’t be looking at but I’m
looking anyway
you know when there’s like a car crash
and you kind of drive really slowly past
and you know you know you’re not meant
to but you do and you’re doing it to
kind of assess the damage you’re not
meant to go slow they meant to just keep
on driving that’s what it feels like for
me and this art another example is like
being back at high school my arts like
that annoying good kid who on the
surface always does the right thing so
in my arts like the the guy who kind of
waited until turning the right age
before going to buy a beer at a bottle
shop and these guys are over here the
underage kids got a fake idea and got
tons of beer and got away with it
and I’m kind of I think I’m a bit
jealous like oh I don’t know if I want
to be part of that gang and I’m kind of
but these artists are kind of what I
find so extraordinary about them is I
think maybe it’s not the art I think
it’s the artists themselves this they’re
so inspiring because of the balls the
size of their balls it’s unbelievable
so these artists kind of quite
extraordinary because they kind of draw
a line in the sand and they say this is
art and then another artist pops up and
they say no this is art and they’ve
constantly pushing the boundary of what
we think art is the line called art and
that’s what I find probably the most
extraordinary thing about them and at
the end of the day I think the thing for
me in a very roundabout way these
artists inspire me to believe that I too
can get close to line what line is that
it’s the invisible art line and they
also inspire me to believe that with a
big enough set of balls I too can have
the confidence to get away with it and
what is it
it for me is creating something more
than amazing so I’m not gonna lie I
didn’t get it and I probably still don’t
but I’ve found inspiration in an unusual
place I found inspiration in art I had
once disregarded so I challenge you next
time you go to a gallery or museum and
you kind of walk through the door and
you try to understand why you try to
read the wall plaque and still scratch
your head you kind of walk out more
confused I challenge you to walk in
expecting to be inspired be inspired by
the confidence be inspired by the
cheekiness and at the end of the day if
you still don’t get it
never forget that some dude
sold in a can for cash money
thank you
[Applause] [Music]
pretend to understand
but we really don’t like what the hell’s
an arranged marriage and crossfit and
taxes and bit coin and Contemporary Art
I’m like you though
I like to understand how things work
I’m very logical everything needs to fit
inside a box for me to understand it I’m
the type of person that goes to sleep
safe at night knowing that two plus two
equals four
I’m also the type of person that when I
go into McDonald’s and order a
cheeseburger
I’m gonna get a
cheeseburger not a kale salad I’m also
the person that when I’m watching a
murder mystery and at the film ends I
like to know who the murderer is but I’m
also an artist and I work or I live in
the wild wild west of the art world
where there are no answers to anything
in in the wild wild west
two plus two can equal 444 or 890 3.54
there’s no answers so I’m gonna take you
on a very roundabout journey my journey
but I’ve tried to make sense of this
whole of this world that I live in so
I’m gonna I’m gonna tell you a little
story it’s an art story there was an
artist in the 60s whose work kind of
explored the relationship between art
and human production anyway his father
didn’t love his work and he told him on
a number of occasions on number of
occasions your work is and he kind
of took that to heart and he was
inspired to make an artwork that
consisted of 19 tin cans filled with his
own feces he even went so far as to put
little white labels on the front that
red artists
30 grams net freshly produced and
1019 1961 but the thing that gets me
about this it’s not the art production
that’s one thing the thing that gets me
is that when he made the artwork in the
60s he went and sold each tin for the
equivalent price of gold and only last
year one of those tins remember they’re
in ninety one of those tins sold for two
hundred and seventy five thousand euro
you can’t make this up I’m gonna
give you a less shitty example another
less shitty story sorry
an English artist her name is Tracey
Emin and the the artwork is titled my
bed and it was kind of inspired by a low
phase in her life she was she spent many
days in bed she didn’t eat all she did
was drink and smoke cigarettes if you
were to go in view my bed at a museum or
a gallery you would walk into a room you
would see an unmade bed perfectly
arranged in the middle of the room kind
of tousled a monk’s stained sheets and
cigarette butts and beer bottles and
slippers and underwear and it’s an
unmade bed and what was so fantastic
about it the critics came out in droves
they thought it was an absolute sham you
know they said anyone can exhibit an
unmade bed
– which Tracey responded but they didn’t
did they when she made the artwork in
the late 90s it sold for a hundred and
fifty thousand pounds and recently
resold at auction for two and a half
million I don’t know if this part of the
story is true but I’ll tell it anyway
apparently Emmons on sorry apparently
Emmons ex-boyfriend is sorry he her
ex-boyfriend had an all better hers and
was apparently willing at women willing
to sell it to a keen buyer for $20,000
on the side what a cheeky bugger
and there’s one one more story I really
want to tell it’s a very short and sweet
story it by an artist called Felix
gonzalez-torres and it’s an untitled
artwork and the artwork is 200 pounds of
carefully wrapped blue candy very very
neatly arranged in a pile sold at
auction for four and a half million US
dollars a pile of candy and there was a
Museum in New York who recently
exhibited a similar pile of candy by
Gonzales and there was a viewer who came
took a photo of the artwork posted it to
Instagram and said quick the maps giving
away free candy on the 4th floor so I
don’t know
well actually of course you noticed this
I kind of inserted those price tags in
and amongst the story not for your
benefit for mine it’s sometimes it is so
much easier to talk about the money than
it is to talk about the art good art
expensive art also expensive and it
kind of puts into play this really
wonderful saying by Andy Warhol he said
art is whatever you can get away with
and these three artworks kind of have
something really wonderful in common
they’re kind of so blatantly simple they
kind of so defiant and a little bit
disobedient they’re a bit funny and very
cheeky but they kind of they kind of
dare you to think that the whole thing
is a bit of a sham and it probably is
the fact that I’m even up here on stage
talking to you about these artworks was
probably their goal all along but no
matter how much you try and dress up
McCann at the end of the day it’s
still McCann and unmade bed and a
pile of candy so I’ve tried to kind of
unpack these artworks and kind of see
what the artist has done and what I can
see is that they’ve kind of tested the
boundaries broken the rule
fools crossed the line and got away with
it now I don’t even hate them for it
it’s brilliant so so I I’m an artist
and the kind of work I make is very very
different from the art I’ve just
explained it’s the opposite like the
complete opposite you know and you you
will you might walk into a museum or a
gallery and you’d see an artwork let’s
say it’s a colorful polka dot painting
and you kind of say you whisper to your
friend under your breath well I kind of
make the work that gets a different
reaction you know when your mum tells
you when you’re younger that you know
you only have to be good at the one
thing well this is the one thing that
I’m good at I’ve peaked
it it’s downhill from here for me my art
is relatively traditional its
conventional the drawings I make look
like a photo and I kind of go stroke for
stroke with a Xerox printer and my art
kind of sits in a very neat in the
confines of what you would consider art
when people explain my art the general
feedback I get is it’s amazing I can’t
believe it’s not a photo it’s amazing I
hate the word amazing
nonetheless my art doesn’t really hang
out with controversy and heated debate
it’s just amazing so here I am with my
amazing art and here they are
sorry over there we’ve got the artists
with that it’s not art art and I don’t
know what it is but I kind of love it I
can’t explain it it’s almost like an
opposites attract kind of situation you
know and it’s like when you mixed fried
chicken and chocolate ice cream together
it’s like I’m looking at something I
probably shouldn’t be looking at but I’m
looking anyway
you know when there’s like a car crash
and you kind of drive really slowly past
and you know you know you’re not meant
to but you do and you’re doing it to
kind of assess the damage you’re not
meant to go slow they meant to just keep
on driving that’s what it feels like for
me and this art another example is like
being back at high school my arts like
that annoying good kid who on the
surface always does the right thing so
in my arts like the the guy who kind of
waited until turning the right age
before going to buy a beer at a bottle
shop and these guys are over here the
underage kids got a fake idea and got
tons of beer and got away with it
and I’m kind of I think I’m a bit
jealous like oh I don’t know if I want
to be part of that gang and I’m kind of
but these artists are kind of what I
find so extraordinary about them is I
think maybe it’s not the art I think
it’s the artists themselves this they’re
so inspiring because of the balls the
size of their balls it’s unbelievable
so these artists kind of quite
extraordinary because they kind of draw
a line in the sand and they say this is
art and then another artist pops up and
they say no this is art and they’ve
constantly pushing the boundary of what
we think art is the line called art and
that’s what I find probably the most
extraordinary thing about them and at
the end of the day I think the thing for
me in a very roundabout way these
artists inspire me to believe that I too
can get close to line what line is that
it’s the invisible art line and they
also inspire me to believe that with a
big enough set of balls I too can have
the confidence to get away with it and
what is it
it for me is creating something more
than amazing so I’m not gonna lie I
didn’t get it and I probably still don’t
but I’ve found inspiration in an unusual
place I found inspiration in art I had
once disregarded so I challenge you next
time you go to a gallery or museum and
you kind of walk through the door and
you try to understand why you try to
read the wall plaque and still scratch
your head you kind of walk out more
confused I challenge you to walk in
expecting to be inspired be inspired by
the confidence be inspired by the
cheekiness and at the end of the day if
you still don’t get it
never forget that some dude
sold in a can for cash money
thank you
[Applause] [Music]
Please follow and like us: