Art for Artists
International Arts and Culture Forum
Interview Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney
Art, Life - Paradox and Enigma
Written by Researcher JPD
20 January 2020
Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney is renowned and
infamous Artist, Curator and Author. She does not fall under any
criteria of the established and nor does she pander to the elitist
Arts market. Always an Artist to step forward autonomous on her on
creative journey. While many follow the enclaves of socio-political
trends she has not ever and a path burner.
She has been described as an enigma and
paradox. Not falling into any box to satisfy any assumptions that
shape and determine many cultural paradigms. As an Artist, she holds
very strong values on many diverse issues, but equally she spreads
her wings and her independence a strength and liberty that enables
her a vision and expression.
She has worked in the professional Arts
for several decades and now at 52 years she is still as diverse and
unpredictable in all she does and breaking down barriers. When you
speak to her she is very unassuming. She describes her
practice: “Creativity. A moment, a breath. A sense of being.
Time and place”. Although in sharp contrast is her propensity
to go the opposite way when others fall to the remit of predisposed
conventions in Contemporary Arts she will shift and turn
unexpectedly.
She is very much a realist and
pragmatist even though on the surface of her Art so conceptualised
many interpret otherwise. Her Art a critical analogy of circumstance
and action. Hence, why many can not categorise her, as happens with
the majority in the Arts market. “I will not be attached to
any one specific assumption in Contemporary Arts. I do not belong to
any one niche and nor ever and neither will I”. Her
independence is what enables her to be free of institutional
constraints that can suppress and undermine creativity.
Her interests she explains: “Although
I am an Artist and I enjoy the freedom it allows me in life I am
passionate on subjects of Children Rights, Human Rights, Disabled and
more and I will explore these themes at times in my Art. Not merely
the more alternative at the fore front. I am not restricted to any
one subject and nor media”.
She has been commissioned and explored
many interdisciplinary initiatives, ranging from Science, Medicine,
Optical Engineering, Genetics, Linguistics, New Media and much more.
As she describes “a cross-pollination to evolve as a means of
expression and possibilities”.
Her most recent research and work has
been in sound works, performance and abstraction. “This is to
bridge the past and present creative processes and socio-political
models in a rapidly changing world. The conventional versus the
transitional. Nothing is static. Society assumes many things are set
in place. They are not and everything is forever changing and even in
the most subtle of ways while in contrast other aspects more
blatant”.
She concludes: “Many believe
everything is new. Nothing is new. It is just reformed to seem and
appear as something else. Even though science and technology has
advanced significantly. The humanity behind it and equally the
ideologies that shape it have changed very little. Some would assert
otherwise, but in truth the human condition is unaltered and prone to
its own cliches and cycles of demise. Life is a paradox. Life is an
enigma. I am product of it. I am a spectator. I am born of it. As is
every person”.
For 2020, her work will be presented in
the UK and international programme: www.gaynorevelynsweeney.webs.com
(JPD)
