365museums:

2013.11: Institute of International Visual Arts
For: Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation with Peter Clarke

I go to artist talks with the expectation of becoming inspired in a professional sense, but Clarke was inspiring on a personal level, as well. My biggest takeaway was that obstacles in the way of one’s aspirations should be overcome and embraced in equal measure. Clarke spoke about becoming an artist despite lack of time, money, and space in which to work; he quit his job as a dockworker in order to focus on his art, but utilized low materials and worked on a small scale, allowing these limitations to shape his body of work. 

I think I was one of the few people in the audience who did not have a personal connection to Clarke or South Africa. The lady sitting behind me was wearing a pendant Clarke had made, and during the Q&A she asked him to tell its story. He asked to see it, and for a moment this sort of atypical, ephemeral work of his was returned to the artist. The pendant was made from a shard of pottery that a shopkeeper had given him on his birthday. Earlier in the talk, he had encouraged artists to make art that could be held, carried, and shared— and here was an example.

Bottom image:
Peter Clarke, Any Which Way But Where (1986)
Diptych Mixed Media on Paper
Copyright the artist, courtesy of Stellenbosch Modern and Contemporary (SMAC) Art Gallery; image via iniva website.

(via blackcontemporaryart)