Leo in conversation with...

Daryl Clover

LP: What was your first reaction when the theme was introduced?

DC: Well I didn’t necessarily have an immediate reaction to it - I was making that work [Madonna painting], I was in the process of making it but I didn’t really know why. I didn’t change my direction because of this theme, but I do think that it’s important not to enter something that is intentionally for the show.

LP: In relation to art, where does your other thing sit? Do you view this work as part of your practice?

DC: I don’t view it any less - to me its art that I made and I cherish it. But I have complexes about it, and I know its low art and that it’s embarrassing. I heard that you need to fill out a health and safety form for certain photographs in this show. Like if their 'raunchy' or something. I think that’s absolutely terrible for an art show. Isn't a part of art breaking down barriers?

LP: [hmm] well I guess the reality is that if you want to do whatever you want, you can't do so within an institution like this one. Something I've become very aware of since trying to organize part of this show is just how restricted we are in terms of how, when, and what we display or do. We only have three days in that gallery in which the public will actually see any work.

DC: I think it’s weird the way they mark creativity. You could have a year in which you don’t make anything - then your screwed, aren’t you?

LP: There is a kind of strangeness in being made to generate artefacts within a timeframe. It alters what they are to some extent as art is so heavily influenced by its context, in both the making and reading of it.

LP: In regards to the theme, I was just wondering about your response to what it might be asking of you- like you said, you do consider your painting as art, but this is an opportunity to present that maybe?

DC: I think it helps me think in a different way as well, I think it’s an important thing: I’ve been doing these pieces for a year [videotape weaving and painting/sculpture], but I need to get out of doing that, and throwing this painting into this spectrum opens something up for me.

LP: Well with one persons work, they do writing of some kind but they keep it to themselves- this show opens up a forum to show that. With another person’s work, the show is an opportunity to expand into other fields or disciplines whereas before there may have been a restriction felt in terms of a consistent oeuvre or style.

DC: For me it is a chance to develop it. I mean I always make things, but it’s completely different to bring it in here and show it to other people, to other artists, and especially to show it in a gallery. The response I get to it will change my next work, the piece I will do. So, the theme wouldn’t change what I do, but the response to the thing I put up on the wall might.