Page 23 - The Documenta issue of World of Art magazine (2002)

THe TeRROR
THe TeRROR PROjeCT marlie Burton-roche
PROjeCT CANADA

The poor of el Salvador continue to die of malnutrition-12, 000 where I am going with it but I always know when I get there. I do not know
children per year! And thousands of people die unnecessary how this happens but that is how I decide a work is completed. Primarily I
deaths due to lack of medical attention, education and potable work in series, although frequently these overlap. Sometimes an individual
water. At a time when the human condition should be put at the piece can stand on it’s own and sometimes things only make sense as part
center of the agenda of the Free Trade Agreement with Central of a series. I do not worry about this.
America, the U.S response is to establish a military base near the
International Airport in el Salvador. Condoning, supporting and I never think about the market value of my art while I am working. In fact
profiting from a neo-liberal political process that impoverishes, I try to never get into a situation where I have to produce art for a specific
starves, and marginalizes 48 to 60 percent of the people in el market. I find that working towards such an end somehow changes the
Salvador is terrorism, in my opinion. quality of the work and takes focus away from whatever it is I am doing.
What a morning But once work is in the market one has to be astute. I would never sell
My pursuits in solidarity with the popular socio-political anything for less than what I think it is worth. I would rather keep work
movement in el Salvador and my artworks have increasingly than sell it below price.
coalesced, merging a very private career with what I call ‘the is here!
nightmare of history in the making.’ Two pieces, MORNING I also try not to get caught up in working towards a pre-arranged show,
ABLAZe WITH SOMe SACRIFICe and LLeNA De DIeNTeS Y What a milk probably because I am never sure how long it is going to take to complete
ReLAMPAGOS (Full of Teeth and Lightening) are from a series a piece or a series of artworks. I need time to do whatever is required and
entitled I HAVe HeARD THe ReD HORSeS. Aspects of past horrors this can vary tremendously because of the size of the work that I do and
are still evidenced in these works, but the past is evoked in a heavy glow in the way I work. As well, I need space to do other things, for example in
juxtaposition that illuminates the present. This is not an art of el Salvador, if the need comes up. But I do think it is important once one
exposure but of synthesis wherein wholeness is constructed the air, has a body of artwork to present that work one way or another: Online, in
out of fragments and discord. The whole represents what I call exhibitions, in publications. As a form of universal communication art needs
the radical unconscious – a reconciling of unity with diversity integral, to be out there in the world. A positive secondary reason for presenting
that reflects the contemporary need to create a conscience. ones artwork is that it requires one to sit down and make a statement,
The political situation in el Salvador becomes a symbol of the which clarifies to ones-self what one has been doing.
current unconsummated moment, highlighting our apprehension all of a piece,
of reality but at the same time perhaps strengthening our Clarifying to myself what I am doing is particularly important to me because
intending some Canada, and while I did become part of a larger community as a university
sympathy for our fellow man. I work in relative isolation. I grew up in isolation on a farm in rural Alberta,

But, having said all that, I do not set out to make ‘political art’. student and at art school and of course I have been influenced by the work
I do not begin a work with a preconceived idea or preliminary good! of other artists, in particular Hans jenny, Piotr kowalsky and joan Miro (not
sketch and then transpose that to canvas. The challenge for me necessarily in that order!) and as well by the work of First Nations Peoples
is to stand in front of a blank canvas (at times massive!) and I have heard its of this region-especially in regard to their way of using space and light in
just start painting. This is the most exciting part of the process. their artworks, I have gradually gone back to a life of personal isolation.
In that sense I guess my work is intuitive. Of course as soon Now I just do what I do and I am not sure if it relates to other artist’s work
as I begin putting paint on the canvas then things start to be red horses, or not. So it is important that I sometimes analyze what I am doing.
controlled as shapes and colours relate and change relative to
one another. It is a slow way of working, not only technically naked to bridle Working in the way I do probably means that my work is overlooked but I
- using layers of glazes, but also because at times I have to do not worry about this or even notice. The isolation is important to me. I
put work away for awhile and come back to that piece later. I and iron, just work away and when I am ready to exhibit artwork, something always
often work on two or three paintings at any one time so they comes up. I am not saying this is the best way to work but that is what I do.
have a chance to mature or something during the process. I am
currently working on two paintings that are probably the start shimmering, Concerning art as a form of universal communication –I find this is a very
of a new series, which I have not named yet, and one of those exciting topic and while I totally do not think about this when I am making
paintings has been turned to the wall because I am not sure art, it is something I am interested in theoretically. To me the spatial and
where it is going. Later when I look at it again it will probably whinnying there temporal concepts used in art express a codification of the reality in which
make sense. When I work, I rotate the canvas so for a while we live and the cultural attitudes that are inherent to that reality. Spatial
there is no up and down orientation. In fact sometimes, but codifications develop instinctively, usually unknown to the authors, and this
not always, I do not decide which side is up until the work is unconscious manifestation provides an acute insight into man’s attitude to
finished. And I almost never name a piece until it is done. When I his environment and fellow human beings.
am involved in the making of a new work I am never sure exactly
Translation of Pablo Neruda poem
by Ben Belitt WORLD of ART 21