Throughout 2024, we spoken to pioneering artists about their careers, works and creative inspirations. They’ve had work exhibited in some of the most revered galleries and received prestigious award across the world, including the Venice Biennale, Carmignac Photojournalism Award and the C/O Berlin Talent Award 2024. The artists we’ve featured address the most timely and urgent issues of our time, like the oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan, the preservation of cultural histories and the realities of living in poverty. These 10 eye-opening quotes will bring a new perspective on the creation of art.
“When I first started making this body of work, I felt it was imperative to communicate with the doom and destruction that I felt was coming, but not in a dogmatic way. At some point during the process, however, there was a tipping point. I realised I had to focus on beauty and hope, and that was the most meaningful statement I could make about of the global situation in which we are living.”
“My show is about reframing [rural] places to show that they are important. There’s a whole generation of young people who are having to leave due to the lack of affordable housing options and not being able to partake as a citizen. Middle of Somewhere is the story of rural young women, the issues they face and the future they have to navigate. The work asks: who gets to live here and whose future matters?”
“My approach focuses on repetition, which is evident in both my artwork and exhibition installations. I draw inspiration from oral histories, which are a vital part of my heritage. These stories are always at risk of disappearing, but remain adaptable to change. I think repetition helps to preserve them.”
“As visual storytellers, we believe it’s not about speaking for them but about providing space for their stories to be seen and heard. In Afghanistan, where so much of women’s lives have been repressed, where they cannot show their faces any longer, nor have their voices heard in public, it’s more important than ever to keep their experiences alive, ensuring they don’t disappear into silence.”
“Approaching strangers is an incredibly nerve-wracking thing to do, and I fell in love with the awkwardness of it. Having a camera gives you an excuse to talk to people. I made a very conscious decision to talk to people and ask to take their picture, and that really informed The British Isles project because I spent the next 12 years doing just that.”
“It was raw curiosity that led me into photography. I Ioved drawing and painting as a kid, but when my older sister Alice started doing courses in black-and-white photography at high school, that piqued my interest. She was making these beautiful, ethereal landscapes and her cameras were always around. I recall thinking, from the very start, that photography is just as much an art as any other visual medium.”
“[My work] questions how to break through the lines of social division, and separation between humans and nature, as well as disciplinary boundaries, to imagine new ways of collectively, of coming together. It is about a collective, ecological, and historical reflection – where the boundaries between different areas of artistic knowledge blur, proposing a space of discursive, decolonial, and radical solidarity.”
“Cross Road Blues is a series of large-scale photographs of people caught in moments of contemplation at cross roads in urban cities across the globe from London to Mexico City and numerous across North America. The series took on a universal significance. It captures moments of stillness where individuals question the direction they take and the life they make.”
“Engineering is a key part of the solutions to climate change. Artists are not often seen as technically minded but it is becoming increasingly so as technology advances. It is this blend of innovative thinking and mastery of skills where progress can be made. The energy revolution requires society to come from all walks of life and come together with a collective solution.”
“The stories I tell are of the everyday; they are stories you hear in the pub or at parties, where your friends recount their lives with laughter or tears. These tales are usually lost in time, but I wanted to hold onto and share them. I believe everyone’s lives and histories – not just those of the rich and famous – are important and need to be celebrated and documented.”
Image Credits:
- Image courtesy Todd Hido and Bruce Silverstein, New York.
- Joanne Coates: Middle of Somewhere © 2024 Joanne Coates.
- Silvia Rosi, Disintegrata di Profilo, 2024. stampa Fine Art su carta Baryta / Fine Art print on Baryta paper. © Silvia Rosi. Realizzata con il supporto di Collezione Maramotti / Realised with the support of Collezione Maramotti.
- Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, February 23, 2024. A group of teenage girls dance at a birthday party of their friend. Music and dancing have been forbidden by the Taliban but women continue to dance and celebrate in the privacy of their homes and behind closed doors. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac.
- Image courtesy Jamie Hawkesworth, from the series The British Isles, 2007-2020.
- George Byrne, Red Fence, 2024.
- Mónica de Miranda, Creole Garden, 2024, Inkjet print on cotton paper, 120×80 cm © Mónica de Miranda, Courtesy of the artist.
- Grand Ave, Chicago, 2017.
- © Images courtesy of Torus Torus Studios.
- Thoughts of Life and Death, Life and Death in Hackney, Tom Hunter.
