Art as (partially unintended) transgression
This is my initial submission to a conference exhibition some years ago. Within it, I make the first forays into Art Brut as pedagogy. From within a sense of outsiderliness comes a desire for recognition and to be part of the discussion, if not be welcomed 'inside'. It was a fascinating experience and one that allowed me to feel included if, more than ever, not altogether part of the dialogue around what art is, who it involves. This was not 'taking the piss', and it is important to see in these early submissions that the work had a serious intent. Through film and through the canvas, I wanted to play with the forms I was expected to take with a thesis. I did not submit to the elements of this conference that requested the usual routes of thesis (although I have done that elsewhere).
I see in Art Brut a space to move, think and become other than the conventional would embrace. One of the most challenging components of this leaving the expected tramlines is that there is no embrace, no welcome. That is the point, in a crude nutshell, that we leave the familiar to learn and to acquire other forms of knowledge. Once we do that, we also leave the intended and accepted spaces of recognition, acclaim and celebration.