NICOLA MCCARTNEY
Interviewed
by Nicola McCartney: Nicola McCartney is the first Rosalie Solow
Professor of Modern Art at the Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo University.
Her book Female Artists, No Longer The Guerillas will be
published by Thames
& Hudson later this
year. N.M You’re one of a few artists whose practice explicitly confronts the challenge of creating original work in a megamodernpostmodern era. When did this become a central focus of your work? N.M Having graduated in the mid noughties, a period of cultural explosion, you didn’t know the difference between irony, pastiche or sincerity. There was an infinite field to resource for influences but too vast to know where to begin. Artistic culture was multi-meta faceted. Not only had Fine Art recycled, so had all the Arts and people included. Celebrities in one week, out the next, all to feed the hungry A.D.D public. You can blame the advance of technology, the comfort of a time without major war, (out of sight, out of mind) or attempt to explain it within the realms of late 70s early 80s Postmodernism conversation.Irrespective of that, we were caught between fighting against it, trying to preserve the prestige and being an active member of the vulture consumer, never satisfied. You see “Art’ as we knew it no longer existed. It was replaced by a black hole discussing everything and therefore nothing simultaneously. Technique and materials became arbitrary, practically obsolete, more of a subsidiary subject. There were greater questions to be asked. What was to be considered ‘art’? What was its significance? Determining what was ‘good’ seemed irrelevant and value, well, it was completely abstract. Who were the artists? “I am an artist therefore I am”. It was open to anyone. Having no parameters isn’t necessarily easier. The noughties was an unmediated time of existence, we were trapped by our own freedom. N.M And it was this rapport that instigated your
well-known debut work “The Interview”? N.M Yes that work was a direct result of how I was
feeling at the time. Frozen Snap Art Mediated Space Magazine. Issue 266.
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N.M What happens when this Interview becomes the
present or further still, history? N.M I was always aware of that. I think it will
fulfill the prophecy of postpastpostmodernism. It all becomes an extension
of the dialogue set out by the fatal mistakes of Hegel, and the historians
of the late 20th century. They should never have claimed the
death of all original art, now there is no escape; we are stuck on the
repeat button. Art about art about art about art..........
Triple Turner Prize, Best Beck’s Futures Nominee and current Carnegie winner Nicola McCartney is an artist who lives and works in Reykjavik. She is currently working on a new film and photographic series addressing the experiences of artists in the 2000s. Nicola McCartney will be representing Scotland in the Baghdad Biennale later this year.
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