I did an exclusive, comprehensive interview with San Diego City Beat some weeks ago for my book, with the view that it was scheduled for the following issue.
It never materialized.
Whither it ever finds it's way into print, is on the bewildering whims of that particular papers editorship and a continuing indication of the support (or lack there of) that I receive from the media here in my adopted home town.
Sad but true.
Here nether the less it is, in it's full unedited glory.
I must give credit to journo Michael Misselwitz for his great vainglorious attempts to get it in last/last/this/next weeks/years issues.
Upon moving from the UK to the US, why did you chose San Diego specifically?
I wish I could say it was arbitrary, except we moved here purely because it was my wife’s home-turf, and since she had roots here, we thought it would be easier to make that transition from anglophile to American. Of course the reverse proved to be true.
It says in your press release that you were effected by what you saw as “extreme fundamentalism” in the media. Can you tell me more about this? In your opinion, what is extreme fundamentalism and how is it affecting media?
Having gotten my news from the good old stoic BBC for most of my life, the shocking thing for me was to suddenly be confronted with news that was delivered as opinion. It wasn’t news relayed as factual, dry reportage-it felt filtered through some scary party rally cry, where the fires of nationalism are stoked through paranoia and the fears of McCarthyism. In some respects, I think a lot of if has a certain amount to do with recapitulating the news as a theater, a sort of aspiration to be the Peter Finch character in Network-”mad, and not going to take it anymore”, but certainly if you look at what’s happening with Murdoch and his crew, the sense is that there is an underlying corrupt agenda beneath the surface that goes beyond mere ratings.
What do you think compelled the San Diego Art Institute to label you their featured artist for 2010?
Firstly, I felt extremely honored when I was approached, although I must admit that when I was told that they felt my work had a certain youthful appeal, there was a small niggling doubt in the back of my mind that I might be recast as some ghastly Ed Hardy knock off. Of course, that’s not giving the faculty or the students enough credit, because as it turned out, the exhibit was received with a great deal of reverence, and in fact I was told that often the kids would come and sit in quiet contemplation through out the day, almost as if they were meditating in church, which I thought was a delicious irony.
When you transitioned the emphasis of your series from the themes of The Theothanatos to the themes of Dead/Ends, you shifted focus from themes of “human origin” to themes death, death’s aftermath, and post-apocalypse. Your book describes the transition as a natural evolution, part of art’s ever-changing intention.Tell me more about this. What inspired the 180 shift?
Particularly with this series, the questions seemed so intrinsically part of journey-both personally and conceptually-one question seemed the counterpoint of the other, so: “where do I come from?” would always segue into “how long have I got?”, and those questions became more emphatic, the more I considered loss and grieving-in this case three friends who had expired over a fifteen year period. Eventually one looks inward, and as I had just tured the cusp of 40, all the questions of my own mortality were brought to the fore.
In some ways the work was mercurial, the result of its own rational equation, although the emphasis for me was always more emotive than from a logical standpoint.
Did you abandon the work from The Theothanatos Series completely? If not, what elements were carried on into Dead/Ends, and why?
The series actually culminated in the Ghost pieces, once I’d painted “Is there life after death?” the question seemed to be about decay and legacy. Dead/Ends was the thread-tying them together, plus with the book in mind, there was the connotation that it sounded like dead friends. I suppose if there is one residual element to it, it’s that there was an arc because with an end there is always a beginning that follows, so were back to some framework of origin.
Do you truly believe that God is dead, as implied by the Theothanatos titling? Why or why not?
In less the Nietzschian view that implies-for me it was, do I believe in a God at all-an omnipotent figurehead-and sadly I would have to say no. Faced with that realization,the question for me became how does one mourn the passing of something that never existed? The series and the book then I suppose is a reconciliation, but also in doing so makes the assertion that one has an abiding need to supplant one God -or spiritual epicenter-for another.
How long have you been working on The Theothanatos Series and Dead/Ends?
The pieces themselves were produced over a three year period,the book was a year, although I like to think I’d been working towards this series my whole life.
If you had to title yourself professionally, what would your title be? How would you describe yourself as an artist?
Titles sound a little too groomed for the nine to five, I’m just a working man trying to survive by doing something I love.
Can you give me a list of your most popular past works?
That’s tough-I don’t know that one could ever label my work as populist, since popularity in any contemporary sense feels like the antithesis of what I do. People have a soft spot for “Incarceration”-I think that piece really speaks of the human condition. Before that, it was probably “Killing Time” (2006) or “Gods and Monsters” (2004). I don’t really know.
When is the exact date for the expected release of Dead/Ends
Currently its available online from the link below as a limited signed edition until September 30th, after which it shall be available from October through Amazon and various specialist outlets. http://davidgoughart.com/Dead_Ends.html
Any news on the book tour? When will it begin?
No venues confirmed as yet, but books will be available at the Momento Mori show at Oceanside Museum of Art, where I am showing Oct 15th. Just to say that there will be three or four appearances in the fall here and possibly in LA. I’ll be posting regular updates through my site.
What do you see yourself doing in future with your professional artwork?
Aspiration will be my undoing- the disappointment can be so crushing. I know the work i am doing right now has no agenda beyond the journey, which is utterly fulfilling and enough to me for now. Beyond that-its as unknowable as an afterlife.
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