I’ve always admired and loved Waldemar Januszczak aka ArtyWaldy’s sharp-witted mind, penetrating the art world with his insights and engaging opinions. For example, in this article, Sick of Modern Life?, he writes about one of my all time heroes, Richard Long's 2006 exhibition "The Time of Space";
“Nobody in art has sought as strenuously to escape the rubbish tip of the modern urban experience, or tried so doggedly to walk his way back to reality, as dear old Long. Serious, hard-working, slow-burning, poetic, resonant, unsensational, unfashionable, uninterested in sex or clothes or money or celebrity or Jodie Marsh’s nose, in love with the landscape, obsessed with effort, bursting with affection for an old pair of boots, this superbly uncompromising purveyor of action art is a living antidote to all the bullshit that passes in our times for stuff of value.”
This quote could indeed be transferable to my current obsession, William Morris. A man seeking to walk back to reality, through his art and activism. William Morris, the father of the Arts & Crafts movement, was born in 1834. He dug deeply into each of his many interests, leaving a rich seam of inspiration for artists and thinkers.
He may be known as the wallpaper guy but his ideas are still relevant today, as a model for sustainable living and a critique of overconsumption, industrial production and eco-socialism.
"Viva William Morris!" Watch this space.