Brilliant Ideas Episode #36: Martin Creed

Within the white walls of the exhibition space, there is not a single object placed. The flicker of the light hanging from the ceiling is the only thing that changes the environment. Entering the exhibition space and seeing the light that keeps flickering every five seconds, viewers all feel strange. When <Work no.227: The lights going on and off>(2000) was first presented, it immediately drew people’s attention. The work confused many people, making them wonder about what they should see or what they should do as they came into the exhibition space. The artwork was granted with the Turner Prize, Britain’s prestigious art award, resetting the concept of contemporary art. Creed confesses that he did not know what to do when he first tried to make an artwork to submit for the prize. Soon, he remembered that he liked the prank of turning the light off and on, which was represented in the artwork.

Creed believes that the most important thing in a creative process is “feelings.” Saying that ideal works are those that express the artist’s vivid feelings, he makes natural and honest works. <Work no.2630: Understanding>(2016) is a huge installation piece with the height of 25 feet, standing above Manhattan, New York. The work is in such a large scale that the word “understanding” can be seen from a distance. The start of the work, however, was very private. The artist remembered the time when he first met his stepdaughter when making this work. While getting to know and respecting each other, he realized the importance of understanding and created the artwork hoping that more people could understand and communicate with each other. <Work no. 2553: Border Control> reveals his point of view on the world. On the background of the video of border controls around the world, a song is played, where the only lyric “It’s a border control” is repeated. Saying that the problems between people and states are not solved by crossing a border, and what matters is people’s minds, he expresses that he feels sorry about the incidents and issues in all parts of the world through the video.

Martin Creed has presented multimedia artworks based on objects and situations that can easily be seen in our daily lives. For the last 30 years, having surprised or excited viewers as well as critics, the artist is referred to as a conceptual artist. He denies, however, to be called this title and rather introduces himself as an expressionist artist, for the reason that all the conceptual sources demonstrated in his artworks start from “emotions.”
Born in 1968, in Wakefield, U.K., Martin Creed now lives and works in London. After graduating Slade School of Fine Art, London, he has had solo exhibitions in the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Tate Britain, London, Park Avenue Armory, New York and many other places. Additionally, he won the ‘Turner Prize' in 2001. He acts also as a musician and has released four albums including the ‘Thoughts Lined Up.’