{"id":962,"date":"2023-09-06T12:53:20","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T12:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/?p=962"},"modified":"2024-01-10T08:06:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T08:06:36","slug":"962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/index.php\/2023\/09\/06\/962\/","title":{"rendered":"Sebald Sandwich"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
sebald 001<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This photo might not seem like much, it’s from 2012, but I think it was one of the turning points where, having almost given up on the idea of being an artist after university, I made something, just for myself, that really entertained me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shot everything back then on a Fuji 645 medium-format camera, who’s autofocus was never great but the vibes were good, and I chuckled when I saw this image emerge, line by line on the screen, as it scanned in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between the slices of bread is the book ‘On The Natural History Of Destruction’ by W. G. Sebald. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was reading a lot of Sebald back then, I was 24, and my brain felt nourished by it after many years of being forced to consume things it didn’t really care for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put this into context, at university, I went deep with the critical theory. The image of being an intellectual artist appealed to my vanity, and I wanted ANSWERS! And I liked the politics. I still like the politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the theory I was reading never really stuck. I never really read Marx. I tried. I loved the communist manifesto (who doesn’t? Come on it’s great). But Capital just didn’t stick around in there, didn’t even really hang out for a bit, just seemed to pass straight through, a gossamer fog, a spectre if you will. In brief, I started university as a keen painter and ended it as a bad Marxist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, during my early twenties, reading was hard going as I would only plough through the type of things that would help me become, or at least be perceived to be, a serious artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And becoming a serious artist felt so impossible once I had a job, and the vision I had of what being an artist would entail was so grim, that I almost gave up. Because I wasn’t enjoying myself anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter Sebald! His intertwining of history, thought, narrative, images, emotions, reflections, rejections, was a revelation! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only did it stick, it blossomed, it grew, and gave me new ideas, whole new ways of thinking about what art is and what it could be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure, his prose can be a bit slow, but before you know it, he’s woven this narrative around you and you look up and you comprehend the emotional gravity of a historic moment for the first time. It’s incredible! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, so here’s my photo that was somehow in homage to him to say, sir, you are as nourishing as food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was at this point I started to more knowingly use humour in my work and to make things that I, at least, enjoyed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This photo might not seem like much, it’s from 2012, but I think it was one of the turning points where, having almost given up on the idea of being an artist after university, I made something, just for myself, that really entertained me. I shot everything back then on a Fuji 645 medium-format camera, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1057,"href":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions\/1057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackburton.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}