You don't often get a lot of people unabashedly lauding their mothers for being elemental supporters in their creative pursuits. We paid a visit to Winnipeg residing artist, writer, poet John Patterson at his studio back late last summer and among various points of conversation were his mother’s influence at an early age to just freely make and make whatever he wanted. A pivotal part of why Patterson creates to date. Patterson shared with us some of his in-progress projects, why self-referencing seems to be a reoccurring inclination in his work, why he ran into problems as a result while in art school, and his ongoing search for squash playing partner. You can read the record of our visit below.
"The beauty of having a studio outside of school is being self-directed. It allows you to slowly make these connections between your work that you can’t do within an institution because of policies, or a fear of plagiarism, or something... I did experience that a lot when I was in school. I got in trouble for repurposing elements, even things I had created myself, because self-plagiarisation is an academic issue."
What have you been working on recently?
Lately I have been creating work influenced by the idea of lift - not necessarily measured altitude, more focused on the sensation of lifting. I just came across this study online that correlates a significantly higher suicide rate among people who live at higher elevations. It’s quite weird. It seems like there is no reason, even if they control for things like demographics (age or rates of mental illness). Regardless, it’s still higher. And I don’t think it is related to oxygen levels.
What got you interested in lift and elevation?
It is kind of a dumb conceptual pathway. Most of the time when I come up with an idea it originates out of what feels like an obvious starting point, but I think you have to work through that to get anywhere. In this case, I began thinking about lifting/rising and what effect those have emotionally or physically. It correlates a physical change with an emotional one. Like the relation to the sea level actually affecting your emotional disposition, which I find quite strange.
I don't usually make work based on an internal or personal sensation, but with lift I liked the idea that it is measurable externally but occurs internally. The sensation itself can act as an illustration of a way to sense objects within our environment.
For this series of work, I’ve been working with small (8.5" x 11") ink-jet print outs, made on a little home office printer and scanner. I start with iphone photos and stock images and 'collage' them with the scanner. It is a method of sketching my work.Working digitally lends itself to quickly making something, multiplying it and then cropping it. Then, I use that newly modified version to work on the next thing. The process is sequential.
Is this a familiar way of working for you?
It is. In comparison to the processes used in sculptural work, it's so easy. When making objects multiplication is much more laborious whereas digital copying is, essentially, instant. I find that gratifying in a certain way.
Previously you've primarily been working through sculptures…
That’s almost exclusively what I was doing in school. Partially that inclination was born out of the structure and schedule which art school allows- a demand to make art that's insular and conclusive. In school it felt uncommon (maybe even discouraged) to develop a project for anything more than one semester. Being out of school, it has been really nice to make something, take it apart, and then keep developing it.
I like how you lay out your work in the binder and on the wall. What purpose does that serve you?
It's pretty intentional but it's also very temporal. It's just the product of how I like to consume media. I rearrange and circulate how things are laid out. I have a pretty huge level of impatience for how I view my work. It is probably self-destructive.
Do you find it easier to focus on one project, develop it, and see it through without external direction?
The beauty of having a studio outside of school is being self-directed. It allows you to slowly make these connections between your work that you can’t do within an institution because of policies, or a fear of plagiarism, or something... I did experience that a lot when I was in school. I got in trouble for repurposing elements, even things I had created myself, because self-plagiarisation is an academic issue.
"Self plagiarising" as in appropriation of your own previous works as part of new works?
Even though I used the same elements within a work over and over again, that sort of self-reference is something that I lean towards, although I don't trust that it is inherently good. There's a lot of hype about being self-referential in your work. It's not a cliché, but it is used widely. Usually it is used as a way to be clever or sometimes snarky. I think it is a stylistic left-over from earlier conceptual art and people are still attracted to it.
Self-reference is often present within music as well. Sound references itself more effectively partially because, if done nicely, it feels like a natural side effect of the way music is naturally created. You hear the same sounds repeated and they make the work more cohesive. In visual art it can get disjointed or arrhythmic. It's super problematic, but I still do it all the time.
Why do you think people keep going back to that same self-referencing way of making work?
I think it can self-canonize your body of work. You can create a character and it builds narrative around a series of objects, but less like novel and more like a reality TV show. A recurring set of characters that act autonomously. It gives the elements freedom.
When these questions of appropriation became an issue for you, was it something you had to go back through your work and justify to yourself?
I don't think so. In a certain way, I have never thought of plagiarism as inherently immoral. When making work it is freeing to have a license to repurpose anything you want. Obviously that action is disrespectful, but when you are developing new work, to limit yourself and say "I'm not going to highjack the ideas of another artist" can be suffocating. I hope that in my work that influence will always be suitably filtered - I am not condoning the direct stealing of other artist's ideas!
Is there any work in recent memory that frustrates or interests you in relation to self-reference?
It doesn't frustrate me, but when I look through a Martin Kippenberger catalog, I do like how he is so apparently present, even though the entirety of his practice could be described as style-less or disparate. It very hard to pick out an aesthetic quality but it's all definitely of him.
Would you say that what he did was self-referential?
Yes and no, depending on the definition of reference you subscribe to. He had such obsessive control over every part of an exhibition - micromanaging everything he did and the people he worked with. It seems to me that he treated his work holistically as one narrative. It always seemed like this continuation of a story even though it was often single portraits of other people.
I feel even when an artist tries to move away from themselves, or work indirectly, it always comes back to you, the creator of the work.
True. There is always a biographical element, but it can be emphasized or de-emphasized. It is how fundamentally present they are in the work. Counter-intuitively, that sort of became a prevailing theme in the mid-twentieth century: remove yourself as the artist. First with formalism, then pop art and so on, with a lot of the work seemingly manufactured anonymously, although under the artists' name.
Do you think of that removal as a way of getting away from the artist's ego?
I'm not sure. It's complicated. I wish I knew how to fully immerse or remove myself from my work. That would be really convenient.
Lastly, what are your earliest memories of making anything creative or things you did as a kid and look back now and think it had hints of creativity?
My mom was especially supportive of me making anything when I was very young so I don't have a specific memory, just a consistent understanding and validation that there is inherent value to an object which you have made. These terms are ambiguously broad, but I think that attitude is essential to promoting creativity.
Did you do any extracurricular activities outside of school?
I love to play squash. If anyone out there plays I'm still looking for a partner...
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Special thanks to Robyn Adams for her Photo Contribution