At the age of 8 Stuart Semple came face to face with Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers.” It was — the British-born artist, curator and gallerist says — as if “a bomb went off in my head.” This early experience sparked an interest that would define his youth and inevitably inspired him to be an artist as an adult. In the years after his Sunflowers moment, adolescent ill health and a naturally reclusive nature would lead him to spend large amounts of time on his own. The sense of isolation and remoteness that this engendered formed Semple’s aesthetic and in his current show, “IT’S HARD TO BE A SAINT IN THIS CITY," provides its main narrative too.
Whether he is working on canvas or paper, with foam sculptures or with readymades, Semple draws a picture of a loner shouting back at an unjust world in vivid, hyper-real language. Referencing song lyrics and movie quotes, his angst is palpable. Semple took ARTINFO HK on a guided tour of the exhibition.
Tell me about the title of the show, “IT’S HARD TO BE A SAINT IN THIS CITY?”
Well it comes from a Bruce Springsteen song. When he sings it he says "it is hard to be a saint in the city,” but I changed it to "it is hard to be a saint in this city." I am not specifically speaking about Hong Kong, I am more talking about London because that is where I made it. And thinking about sometimes how it is hard to be yourself and maybe your experience of the world is different from how everyone else sees it. There is this idea that someone is trying to do something but the environment that they are in is at odds with it.
Do you think that is a common sentiment in major cities nowadays?
They can be very lonely places, big cities. You can have millions of people and you can feel quite alone. A common theme in my work is isolation and atomization and what I mean by that is, you have mass culture and at the end of the day you are a singular person and rather then bringing us together it often works to isolate, because we have become passive consumers of culture.
But yet your work is very in touch with pop culture and what is happening in the media at this time.
I actually have a further belief that popular culture can be utilized as a language that we can all share. So pop culture, as a language, is something that we can share about how we feel emotionally. So I use that as a visual language to talk about other stuff.
I believe it is an individual thing. I think it is like a cultural DNA. You might be two-thirds Lady Gaga, one-third MGMT with a bit of a David Lynch movie. Everyone has their own mix. It is like your iPod playlist versus my iPod list. They may be very different but there will be commonalities and that is the bit where we find the link and I think that I am lucky because that is the way that people can find a way into the work.
Do you feel like you are sort of a social scientist?
Yeah, there is a definite sociological aspect to the work. My mum is a sociologist. I was brought up with a lot of talk about how societies work and how communities assemble. I have always found the products of societies interesting, i.e. the culture and the bi-products. The things that rise to the surface.
Has that always been your basis for creativity? Is that something you ever see your self moving away from?
For me it would be like trying to learn another language. I grew up watching MTV and pop videos and cover art. That is my language, like the way I speak English. If I were to do something else it would not come naturally. I feel like it would be dishonest.
Is there any section of media that engages you particularly? Is it music or film?
I think the experience of each is unique. But for me music is the most emotive. I think there is something about music that cuts straight to my emotional wires. When I paint I use different music to make me feel different things and you can see it in the gesturing.
How is making a show like this? Is it a work in progess?
If I am honest, I never really like what I make. They are all very personal things. Sort of hanging pages of your diary on the wall. It all grows organically. I have a massive blackboard in my studio and everything that comes up is written there and it becomes the building blocks of something and then slowly images might get attached to them. It all grows from there. It is the first few that are always hard and then you find a rhythm and then it is normally the last few that I am pleased with the best.
How has your perception of what it means to be an artist changed from when you first graduated?
Completely different. Totally different! When I was in college becoming an artist wasn't a job. You would cut your ear off and die drinking meth. It wasn't a respectable thing to tell anyone. Not like it is now. This was before Hirst put a shark in a tank. Now it is really exciting. There are so many things to experience. Being into art is a lifestyle now.
“IT’S HARD TO BE A SAINT IN THIS CITY” opens today and runs through March 16 at The Cat Street Gallery at The Space, 210 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Click on the slideshow to see some of Semple’s works and read his commentary on how they were made.