M - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

J M W Turner
Landscape with Distant River and Bay, Oil on canvas, 94 x 124 cm � Musee du Louvre, Paris
What do you mean by this?
Artists to a large degree use public space in their
communication. To my understanding this involves ethics
and a certain responsibility in what you communicate. By
this, the artists have to define their own social role as
artists in public space, meaning in itself a stronger social
participation. I believe the social possibilities and impact
of art is highly underestimated in general.
A lot of the art that I have recently seen in
public exhibition spaces offers no clue as to what
the social role if it is.
A large percentage of the art production is produced for
the market, which actually has nothing to do with art. It
has to do with economy. From my experience art
reflecting social-political issues are often in contradiction
to the market.
You were involved in a project in Greenland
documenting the Inuit culture of Greenland. Was
this out of curiosity? What brought you there?
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Well, me, and the Arctic is a long story. Maybe it began
in early childhood because my father was an outfitter and
he supported people who were going to the Arctic, to
Alaska and elsewhere. So from my early age I began to
collect various kinds of literature on the Arctic. After a
while you get tired of reading about it, and you want to
see the real thing. I got a grant and that is how it all
practically started. At that time I had been withdrawn
from the art scene because I was tired of everything
connected to the art market. I did not have a clear idea
at that time but it seemed that a documentary approach
could make a difference. From this point of view I made
a series of documentary woodcuts from daily life in
Greenland and made some 500-600 documentary
photographs from the area.
So you moved towards a more educational or
social role for your artistic practise.
You can say that, but it was more like trying to tell a
story that had something to do with reality, because I
think that reality was a really interesting and terrific place,
and I agree, it changed my attitude and approach to art.