EPISODE 11
CAN ART CHANGE THE WORLD? CONTROVERSY MEETS CREATIVITY
BRITISH ARTIST, STUART SEMPLE
Art is for everyone. That’s a mission that drives Stuart Semple, an artist renowned for poignant, thought-provoking installations who continues to give back to the art community.
The emotional weight of his remarkable career so far is only intensified by the journey that led him into art - a frightening near-death experience.
With government’s lack of appreciation for art’s rich social value, its involvement in recent protests and the supposed rise of ‘cancel culture’, Stuart weighs in on pieces shrouded in controversy, bad art for a good cause, and the experiential nature of art.
This episode covers:
Stuart’s childhood dilemma of academia vs art
Experiences with mental wellbeing and being an ambassador for Mind
The staggering near-death experience that committed him to art
Reacting to controversial pieces and ‘cancel culture’
Art’s social value, accessibility and wider impacts
The fine line between liberating ideas and copying them
Whether we should accept ‘bad art for a good cause’
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
“I put three pictures a day on eBay, and they sold. By the time I was 21, I'd sold 3000 original works of art on eBay to people all over the world. They weren't expensive things, like 30 quid each, but I always had the money. I felt like I was a professional artist.”
11:40 - Stuart Semple
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“My whole childhood was spent sort of in two worlds. So I had this passion for art, which came from my grandmother more than anything else, and then this super high achieving academic thing, where my parents wanted me to be a doctor. I almost sort of hid the art for most of my childhood, but it was the thing that I really loved.” - 2:05 - Stuart Semple
“I don't believe in God, but in moments like that you find yourself bargaining with some higher power. I was like ‘I tell you what: if you make me live, I'll make art. How about that?’ So then I was in this mad situation where I'd made this odd deal with some sort of weird divinity that this is what I was going to do.” - 14:50 - Stuart Semple
“The thing that people who haven't experienced anxiety might not understand is that the actual symptoms are extremely physical. Your throat closes, your breathing increases, it's hard to swallow, you sweat. It's exactly like an allergy, it's indistinguishable.” - 17:55 - Stuart Semple
“I actually believed fundamentally that me making things was keeping me alive, and that was this deal. I spent a long time with a therapist unpicking this, because I said, ‘This isn't healthy’. It’s a really strange root of a lot of weird behaviours, that I've put my personal power in the hands of this thing that I don't even believe exists to start with.” - 25:10 - Stuart Semple
“I think that art can be useful. I've sort of seen that in the mental health thing, but also, in society. Artists are obviously not more important than a doctor, nurse or school teacher, but they're important because they hold a mirror up to the world we're in, and they document how it felt to be here now.” - 31:00 - Stuart Semple
“The ‘Artists’ Job Centre’ looked almost too real. People thought it was real, and we had real artists like lead violinists for a Symphony Orchestra pressing the buzzer to apply for a job as an onion peeler. It was like, ‘What on earth have we stepped into’, they actually would peel an onion.” - 38:10 - Stuart Semple
“The most criticism I get is when I don't behave how people online think I am. In their mind, I'm within these parameters. The other day I made some shirts with a friend of mine. I thought they were funny, they’re artworks and were accessible. The Stewart Semple they had in their mind would never do that, so how dare I break the idea?” - 44:35 - Stuart Semple
“The problem we have with some art that looks like it's about an important issue, is that we accept bad art because it's about a good cause.” - 49:45 - Stuart Semple
“I don't think art is an object, I think art is an experience. I've stood in front of the David Hockney swimming pool paintings, and I've cried real tears. I've also stood in front of that painting on another day and felt nothing.” - 52:55 - Stuart Semple