Robin Page (b. 1932, UK – d. 2015, Canada)
Standing On My Own Head, 1972

Firstly, there is some nice nonsensical humour that I quite appreciate. Why? I don’t know. Psychoanalysts would certainly find some deep explanations, but I think that I like disarming unpretentiousness combined with a deeper intent than just shocking or being crazy. I believe, that humour plays part in many of my works, while rarely – if ever – only aiming to solicit a laugh, but rather to seduce the audience’s attention with something funny and then to confront them with something much more serious.

Secondly, when this piece was aired on TV in Germany, Page invited the audience to make a drawing of it and send it to the TV station, eventually receiving some 3000 replies. I very much appreciate this interactive element that I also try to employ frequently myself – e.g. in the “Yellow Piece” my instructions for how to watch my video finished with a request of a yellow selfie to be taken and shared. I am interested to trigger the audience to engage with the work more actively, contributing to its meaning, but also, if possible, to the formal properties of the work. I am interesting to explore what the work can do in the world besides “encapsulating a message” and how it can trigger other actions or creative activities, transcending that imaginary border of “fine art” and bleeding into everyday where it is always inescapably embedded anyway. To start of an artwork that can keep growing beyond my immediate control… And no, I will not indulge in psychoanalytics of loss of control either, as I do not really care “why”, but rather “what if”… what if we would accept indefinite change, permanent flux, things being outside of our control while nevertheless participating in what is going on and how…