This fall at Stockholm´s Spritmuseum, David Shrigley was chosen to create an installation for the museum´s annual exhibition dedicated to an artist in their Absolut Art Collection. This collection features 850 multimedia works featured in marketing Swedish brand Absolut Vodka. Shrigley´s artwork, titled Exhibition of Giant Inflatable Swan-things, has been made specifically for the Spritmuseum. Barnebys sat down with Shrigley to discuss his inspirations, his favorite medium to work in and why comedy is so important to art.
Explore David Shrigley on Barnebys here.
Barnebys: Congratulations on your exhibition in Stockholm! Do you have a particular relationship to Sweden?
David Shrigley: Stockholm is one of my favorite cities. I did a residency program here in 2009 with IASPIS (the International Artists Studio Program for international artists) for three months so I know it well. I watched a lot of football while I was here and started to follow AIK. I still look out for their results and try to see games when I´m back.
You’ve done a number of oversized installations and sculptures before, like the work Life Model II, presented earlier this year. What are your inspirations for this?
I think the first job of the artist is to make an exhibition fill the space. If you make big things then it’s easier to do that. There is a lot more to it than that, but the manner in which the art occupies the space is very important.
Your work is incredibly versatile and over the years you've used many different mediums. What is your favorite?
Drawing is the easiest medium for me. It’s economic and I get to say what I want to say very quickly. I have worked in many different mediums perhaps because I’m not held back by craft. Maybe if I were a really talented figurative painter, for example, then I’d find it difficult to do something in a media that I was not expert in.
I was asked to make a work in 1996 for which I got paid £500 as I remember. It was just a small drawing. My knowledge of the collection has really just been informed by visiting Spritmuseum. It’s a very large collection and unique in terms of its fine art and marketing initiatives.
Your drawings have a kind of childish quality that makes your art very approachable, but at the same time it portrays serious, sometimes political, subjects. What in your work do you think engages people?
I think that comedy is useful in communicating with people. The fact that my work is often funny helps people to engage with it. If you laugh at it then you have understood it on some level.
Are the reactions to your art usually what you had anticipated?
It’s not something I really think about. I don’t read reviews or look at comments on social media. I think you have to make work for yourself first; if you don’t like it then you can’t expect anyone else to.
David Shrigley’s Exhibition of Giant Inflatable Swan-things, at Spiritmuseum in Stockholm opened on September 27, 2018 and continues through March 31, 2019.
