Martin Creed
Martin Creed found fame in a flicker when he won the Turner Prize in 2001. His Work No. 227: The lights going on and off is a study of darkness and light within an otherwise empty room. Every five seconds, the pattern repeats over and over again. Lights on. Lights off. The work confounds what one expects to see in an art gallery and becomes an intervention, a meditation about the act of looking itself. In the process, Creed makes art that reveals itself self-reflexively, in concert and collaboration with the viewer, a strategy he continues to the present day.
Work no. 1000, 2009-2010. Martin Creed, What's the point of it, Hayward Gallery, 2014 Installation view, photo: Linda Nylind
Born in 1968 in Wakefield, England, Martin Creed was raised in Glasgow, Scotland. His parents were Quakers, and the practices of respectful listening and silent worship permeate his work. Creed studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, 1986-1990. Over the years, his work has taken many forms. Still, even from his earliest paintings, Creed was fascinated by how any medium could become a subject of exploration rather than needing to represent something anew. Creed allows the medium to speak for itself with the most minimalist of interventions.
In 2014 the Hayward Gallery, London, mounted the first major survey of his work. Large-scale installations and wall paintings interacted with ordinary objects, subtly reimagined. The exhibition’s title, What’s the point of it? is a question asked repeatedly of the artist to describe his work, only this time, he cleverly lobbed it back to the viewer to consider.
Martin Creed (b. 1968)
Work No. 3396, 2020
Lithograph on 300gsm Somerset Satin White
22 x 30 in (sheet)
Edition of 30
The subject matter of Work No. 3396 was inspired by a piece he created for the Hayward. Creed began with 500 heads of broccoli, hewn crosswise into unique stamps. He then dipped each half into different colors of paint to create a unique, colorful forest of 1000 trees. Each plate size individually framed print becomes immersive and monumental as it furiously grows, much like Jack’s magic beans, to cover the gallery wall from floor to ceiling.
As with much of Creed’s oeuvre, the work is humorous. Work No. 3396 is as much a nod to his “favorite vegetable” as it is a playful encounter with the everyday. It’s work that makes itself in front of you. Creed reminds us every moment offers the opportunity to return and see what has always been quietly, curiously beneath our nose with wonder and delight.
What’s the point of it?
Indeed.
—
This edition of Collecting in Context was written by Sarah E Webb. She is the co-editor of Singular Women: Writing the Artist.