Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Michael Condron
L Hello Michael, if you hadn’t of gone down the ‘Fine Art - sculpture’ route what would you have done?
M Who knows? When choosing A-level subjects, I half had in mind being an architect as I enjoy the technical side of making things too. Whenever choices came in life, I always followed what I enjoyed doing best, which was making things. Fine art offered the most individual scope for creativity.
L When did you get your first artistic stirrings? What first made an impression on you? What has been your strongest influence?
M As early as I can remember, I've always loved drawing, which started off as monsters and spaceships. I was addicted to Meccano as a child, and loved dismantling things to see how they work. At school I first started making mechanical sculptures, but it was on my foundation course (a 2 year BTEC at Suffolk College) that my creativity was really stoked. Staff, students and facilities were inspiring, and that two year period has made the biggest impression on me artistically.
Or maybe it was doing my first public art commission.
M Who knows? When choosing A-level subjects, I half had in mind being an architect as I enjoy the technical side of making things too. Whenever choices came in life, I always followed what I enjoyed doing best, which was making things. Fine art offered the most individual scope for creativity.
L When did you get your first artistic stirrings? What first made an impression on you? What has been your strongest influence?
M As early as I can remember, I've always loved drawing, which started off as monsters and spaceships. I was addicted to Meccano as a child, and loved dismantling things to see how they work. At school I first started making mechanical sculptures, but it was on my foundation course (a 2 year BTEC at Suffolk College) that my creativity was really stoked. Staff, students and facilities were inspiring, and that two year period has made the biggest impression on me artistically.
Or maybe it was doing my first public art commission. M Strong influences include: The Science Museum, scrapyards, Len Lye, Rebecca Horn, Jean Tinguely, Antony Gormley. I also really like Thomas Heatherwick's work.
L So, do you remember your first sculpture you did?
M - The first sculpture I can properly remember was a pirate puppet at primary school - kind of a voodoo doll as it had my own hair.
L Tell me more about your work
M I mainly work to commission, making public artworks. Usually chrome polished stainless steel constructions, though other techniques I use are concrete, video, mosaic, kiln formed glass and laser cut Perspex. I've started to include interactive kinetic elements to my public artworks, which is a real challenge. Through these commissions I've gotten more involved with participatory art projects in schools and communities.
L Tell me about some of your community work - do you get a lot out of this - and does the community?
M The community work tends to be attached to public art commissions - my focus is to make good connections between the artwork and its environment, and working with local site users is a great approach. The community work contributes to the creative process and helps awareness of the project locally. The more people that understand what's going on, the better the sense of ownership when the public artwork is installed. I also do quite a lot of schools projects, making permanent or temporary artworks. These allow me to experiment with new techniques on a smaller scale, which I can later introduce into my public art practice. The greatest thing about participatory work is the positive feedback.
L What are the best/worst/funniest/silliest moments of your career?
M The best moments are: winning a commission; when the work is really steaming on and looking good; unveiling a commission; the holiday after a big commission
Worst moment: My degree show piece was an installation of home-made steam powered sculptures. It blew up during its assessment."
Funniest: This sounds like a Family Circle article, but it's The Things Kids Say. During a school workshop an eight year-old asked me if I had a girlfriend. I said yes, and a devastated look crossed his face as he asked "But what about your Mum?"
Silliest: I don't know. A lot of the silly things always seem like a good idea at the time. I once very seriously put in a completely nuts kinetic art proposal for a £100K commission. When I didn't get the job, I was outraged of course, but slowly a feeling of relief crept in as I started to realise how impossible the whole thing would have been to complete within budget. However - the attitude was right, and I try to carry that forward in all my proposals.
L If you could give a tip to an artist who is working their way through College or University what would it be?
M Make lots of things. Be ambitious. The best results I have had are from biting off more than I can chew. Make good use of the resources available to you: people, spaces, materials, facilities. There're loads of opportunities after college and the freedom is delightful/daunting.
L And Finally, any other advice?
M Whenever possible, save up a pot of cash and go travelling.
L Great advice!
http://www.mcondron.co.uk/
Labels: Artists
# posted by Lisa : 14:19
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