Tique asks six questions to an artist about their work and inspiration.
This week: William Mackrell.
How do you describe your own art practice?
I work out of performance, activating materials and surfaces that blur a sense of beauty with a sinister unraveling of thoughts that lay within the work. Within this fragile assemblage of language, I delve into sensations of absence, sexuality, waiting and rebirth.
William Mackrell, Rage rage against the dying of the light, 2020. (Detail)Rayograph and texts, 245 cm x 126 cm
Which question or theme is central in your work?
The Body, how we ingest and experience ourselves through images and the imagined.
William Mackrell, Interruption (Duo) 2017Performance
Installation view, Krinzinger Project Space, Vienna
What was your first experience with art?
Very small, going to the open vast landscape of Hampstead Heath in London with a sketchbook.
William Mackrell, Sleep Pillow (Melatonin Blue) 2020Performance on carbon paper, 61 cm x 48 cm
What is your greatest source of inspiration?
The overlooked and the disregarded.
William Mackrell, Cover Up (Set yourself on fire) 2020Etching on magazine print, 30 cm x 22.5 cm
What do you need in order to create your work?
Good light and peaceful tranquil space.
William Mackrell, Sunflower Melatonin (Study in black, Fire flies) 2020Paint on Canson black archival paper, 40 cm x 30 cm
What work or artist has most recently surprised you?
Eva Jospin’s Forêt Palatine in ‘Among the Trees’ at the Hayward Gallery earlier this year.
William Mackrell, Cover Up Installation view, The RYDER, London / ARCO Madrid
Photo: Agnese Sanvito
