Alex Bunn answers FADs Questions
1 If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
I’m a fucking incredible cook though I wouldn’t consider a career blubbing into beure blanc. No-
no Whenever I ponder this question I feel like a cold empty expanse swelling inside my ribcage
and conclude is that if I wasn’t an artist I wouldn’t be me. I honestly can’t imagine, I’d vanish!
People would say, “can you smell something?”
2 Name 3 of your least favourite artists.
Prince Charles, Marc Quinn, Banksy
3. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
If were talking body/carnality, maybe Hans Bellmer whilst liasing with his muse Unica Zurn
4 What is your favourite ‘ism’?
The International Solidarity Movement
5 What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
“Alex Bunn’s work can be seen as an attempt to reconcile the various models, modes and
statuses we employ to navigate and engage with the cosmos without compromising it’s natural
disorder.” – Richard Adamson, smart!
6. And the dumbest?
“A photograph is not a real thing” anon (but it might be the smartest)
7 Which artists would you most like to rip off, sorry, I mean appropriate as a critique of originality
and authorship?
Do we need yet another critique of originality and authorship? Not my bag. Luther Blisset?
8 Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
I would hope my art has another value but its cost is personally relevant because I want my art
to pay for its own production and so I can be free to produce without compromise.
9 What are the three big ideas that you would like your work to express?
Merde! Its very hard to say when my overarching interest is our attempts to make sense of
things. That’s pretty bloody broad, but Ill have a go:
What is complete or incomplete?
How is information corrupted by the tools we devise to make use of it?
And – its probably just an intrinsic part of the job, but – how can I represent thought processes?
10 Are you a political artist?
Kinda – in the sense that, within my artwork, hierarchical authority of knowledge is leveled.
Perhaps treating all ontologies as equal is the state in which I make my work because it permits
fresh perspectives. Its not an ideology – There are prevalent, self-critical epistemologies that
approximate truths better than others. Mathematical or Philosophical proofs or scientific method
for example, but these are powerful abstractions beyond our direct experience. I bundle any
system into my artwork, from basic reptilian nervous reaction to higher collective knowledge. I
give none seniority which is, in a sense, political…..maybe.
11 How do you start the process of making work?
Mulling things over, chewing on ideas without imagery, then asking my brainmind to come up
with a visual counterpart to that very action.
12 What next?
Ill probably conjure up an image that’s impossible to make so I then have to figure out how to
drag it into the realm of the possible before actual production. It’s a bit like chasing ghosts with
nets but occasionally they drop their spooky pants and I nail their nuts to the canvas.
13 If Moma and the Tate and the Pompidou wanted to acquire one of your works each, which
would you want them to have?
Ill plump for the next few artworks I’m producing.
14 Complete the following sentence “Blessed art the artists, for they shall……”
claw in the molasses from behemoths sucking gape and ruin the carpet.
15 Complete the following sentence “Blessed are the curators, for they shall…”
Make threads of their cells to build an invisible spire to Zarathustra before teatime.
16 Complete the following sentence “Blessed are the art critics, for they shall….”
Hide in your porridge and kick at your spoon.
17. What is your favourite cheese?
Epoisses
18. What’s next for you?
Improve my work. I’ve got a tanker-load of work to make: better assemblages of props, photo-
montages, drawings etc.
See Alex Bunn at The Aubin Gallery
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