Dazed Digital | Inside Art | Martin Creed


Martin Creed Video Interview by Freire Barnes Film by Roland de Villiers. Watch the interview here.

For the final show at Hauser & Wirth Coppermill, they have let 2001 Turner Prizewinner, Martin Creed transform the space into a haven for his work. Creed is a very methodical and mathematical artist whose work highlights the rediscovery of a moment that may have been dismissed or not considered. Concerned with creating beauty and beautiful things, Creed’s work ultimately comes together with the involvement of the viewer whether that’s interaction or experience. The work is about the physical reaction to things and the audience completes the work through their interaction with the gallery space and the objects.

Creed presents 10 quite dramatically different pieces of work for his solo show, that could be seen as an installation as well as a curated show of the individual works. You have the gallery lights going on and off, a flashing neon sign, painting, sculptural interventions, musical performance, film and a rare representational drawing; a reversion to his early student preoccupations or full circle of his artistic practice? The show brings together all the elements of his work; his use of multiple mediums refers to his desire to encompass the entire world. The rhythmic nature of his work was prominent on the opening night as an 18-piece orchestra lined one behind each other playing a Creed composition instructed by a conductor. All the works resonated a different voice with the music accompaniment that was to be a one off performance.

The unexpected element of Creed’s work comes to a literal and abstract crescendo in Work 657 as extremely sexual imagery is projected on to a large screen. Surprisingly the pornographic nature of the couple in the act of love is removed and replaced by the contemplation of a beautiful act, the ultimate Creedian aspiration.

Martin Creed 4 May – 29 July 2007, Hauser & Wirth London, Coppermill