artist talk: steven perkins

Stephen Perkins gave a wonderful artist talk on his work and projects he has been deeply invested in throughout his career as an artist. The way Perkins approaches his art is often in guerilla format. This unorthodox approach reminds me of how the artists like Chris Burden and John Cage and how they use their environments to produce content in an alternative way. 

"The poet, the artist, the sleuth--whoever sharpens our perception tends to be antisocial; rarely 'well adjusted,' he cannot go along with currents and trends" (McLuhan)

McLuhan couldn't have said it any better. Stephen Perkins is someone who sharpens our perception. And he does so by creating irregular environments for an audience to see. But also by leaving things behind in his environments. There is no current trend of creating a gallery in the bathroom or photographing airplanes. These types of things do not fit into 'current' trends. And that is what makes them so unique.

The work of Stephen Perkins is deeply related to many other artists we have learned about in Art in New Media. The artists, that we have been exposed to in our classroom setting, work in ways that are contrary to the tradition. This is very similar to the ways that Stephen Perkins approaches his work. He ranges from institutional academic to troublemaker as noted in his introduction to the talk. Perkins asks more of us, he wants his audience to consider materiality in our environments as well as what we can get away with as artists. Thinking about this now, I can now put more thought into slipping little messages into the everyday cracks of life, as Perkins would put it.