“I am convinced that art is a relationship and not a commodity. This effects my decisions, motivations, output and income.”
Dundee-based conceptual artist David McCulloch (‘Cully’, to those in the know) is a maker and a curator, using multi-media formats and experimental galleries in the hopes of rediscovering a healthier role for artists in society: one defined, perhaps, by connection and communication, rather than a commodified experience within a ‘white cube’.
David’s work takes many tones: in Father and Son (video below), David’s own father and son are part of a ‘performance’ where they look at, and are interviewed about, Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, investigating knowledge, interpretation and faith through three generations. In the darkly comic Last One Standing (featured photo) a giant stone ‘book’ strung precariously from a scaffolding is imprinted with the slogan ‘You could die reading this’.
Whether it’s his own work, or involvement in wider circles with Nomas* Projects and Sharing Not Hoarding, David’s approach is both generous and generative; he lives up to his own artistic creed by creating work that manages to be inviting and personal while still being deeply conceptual – a harder feat than it looks.
Check out more of David’s work at else-where.org