https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gilbert-george-1163
While thinking about artists who in general have inspired me over the course of the last couple of years, at first I came out blank. However I had this burst of an image which really stuck with me after a CTS session in my first year, and really relates to what I am doing now, and how when seeing this work even though its a completely different style to mine, however the process and the conceptual work behind is very similar to myself.
I am really wanting to pursue an autoethnographic practice, using my images as a mirror to make viewer the emote, and explore the wider problems of the wider world around them. Gilbert and George did this with their experience, within their community, and my community of LGBT when the AIDS crisis came to a head in the late 20th century.
They used their personal experience of loss, from the epidemic, and loosing so many people around you from your own community, and transformed this into art, making the viewer emote with a problem, which many people would say ‘not my problem’ because it doesn’t affect them and their community but it also affected a community which people didn’t have much care or like for.
But also the use of print inspires me with their work. In the era of becoming an artist hugely entailed being in a gallery and if I remember correctly from my CTS sessions, print in this form wasn’t common. However the use of print, in the area of fine art and contemporary, is important, and is a useful tool. Because it makes the work accessible and in an era of homophobia, it’s hard to make the problem of aid relate to a wider audience, however we all interact with print on a daily basis, well not so much now in the age of screens, but in the 80s-90s it makes it stand out but also feels on a level same with every day people.