Absurd Narratives: The work of Alex Wilmoth.

Alex Wilmoth disconnects symbols, objects and histories from their existing realities. Distorting them through his own experiences, Alex guides the viewer through bizarre and spontaneously constructed narratives that are as much a reflection of his subconscious as it is of the viewer’s attempt to decipher meaning. Exploring the absurdity of everyday life, Alex talks to us all about his creative process and multimedia practice. 

Where would you position your work? Within the realm of reality, fantasy or in between the two? 

I feel as though it is a mixture of both. A lot of my objects are influenced by artefacts that exist in reality but then they’re warped into a new fiction that combines multiple histories. Ultimately, they are based in the fantasy of my own mind, they are sort of these false histories. Not being a historian, they lack actually historical accuracy and are instead burdened by my own historical understanding and prejudices that I possess from the culture and environment that has surrounded me.

The environments and encounters you create in your work are very surrealist, are there any particular associated artists that inspire you?

I always used to be obsessed with surrealist artists, especially Rene Magritte. They were my sole inspiration at one time, so this has clearly influenced my work to this day. However, more recently I have taken influence from a whole range of artists, one big inspiration is David Altmejd. He creates these crazy installations in which very surreal narratives occur and you can sort of see them unfold as you look around the work. I’m not only interested in his bizarre narratives but the way he works as well which is very intuitive. He builds from one idea to the next as he goes along, and I feel this is the sort of approach I take. This then I suppose relates to this surrealist idea of automatism where you supress conscious thought and let the subconscious guide you through your work, which I feel is something I try and employ in my own practice.

How do you get into the creative mindset? 

I think a lot of the time I just have to force myself to start working which is always the hardest part whether I’m in a creative mindset or not. I find my process to be quite intuitive so once I start making something then one idea builds from the next, it just comes as I go along. I get days where I’m not at all inspired, but I find the best way to cultivate inspiration is just by doing and making. I also find a lot of planning and thinking beforehand often stunts my creative flow, so I have to jump into the work with a loose idea and just see how it forms.

As your mixed media sculpture Patriot is part of an installation currently in the making, how do you envisage the final piece?

I am currently in the final year of my Fine art degree and the Patriot is part of my final project which is going to be a fairly large installation. I’ve currently been working on lots of other components to be included in this, a lot of working with ceramics and plaster at the moment. The plan is to show it all together like a museum display where there’s all of these bizarre artifacts that are rooted in existing history and culture. However, it’s as though they are made by an alien who has observed human history and culture but doesn’t actually understand all the intricacies and context of how things are placed and function within our society. 

Patriot follows ‘an on-going exploration into the way we analyse objects and symbols, and search for meaning in the world around us’ and, as you say, this often leads to appropriation and misrepresentation as we try to reposition things within our own context. Do you think this ritual behaviour is to do with our desire to not only understand but control our surroundings? 

Yes, I think so. For example, once an object is taken from its original context and shown in a museum as an artefact, the museum then have the power to control an artefacts narrative and therefore push their own ideals onto the viewers. This may not even be done deliberately but I suppose it can just naturally happen as the people creating the exhibits have also been conditioned by the society they live in. So there is this sense of control and obviously a museum is visited by so many people and the viewers are all led to believe that what is shown and said by the museum is absolute fact. 

‘Patriot’

Your representation of fairly mundane but recurring symbols and objects is intriguing, amusing and slightly confusing. What do you aim to achieve, or evoke among viewers, in utilizing them so ambiguously?

I’ve always been quite interested in symbols and motifs and the way we draw meaning from them especially when they are repeated, and how they hold significance in different ways to different cultures and communities. So I like using these reoccurring symbols throughout my work and in repeating them I am trying to give them a certain power. Because I feel like the more we see a certain symbol the more significant and understood it can become. In a way I’m giving them meaning without particularly knowing what they mean. I like this idea of them being like ancient unknown symbols that archaeologists would uncover and then through comparing them to other similar symbols found on different artefacts they could then begin to theorise what they mean and how they connect. Yet I am the one creating these artefacts, so maybe they could be seen as subconscious clues I am laying down pointing me and the viewer towards an answer that has not been answered or even asked yet. 

‘Cubicle Friends’ was created during lockdown. Do you think the bizarre situation you found yourself in parallels the bizarre situation you depict in this piece?

I think in a way yes, like the characters featured in the piece I also started to feel slightly deranged. I got very sucked into making the piece as well, it’s all I knew for a good three weeks. I was very invested into it and it definitely created a bit of escapism for me which I think was really needed in that situation.

‘Cubicle Friends’

You seem particularly interested in how the viewer responds to your work as you push them towards deciphering meaning or relevance and allowing absurd narratives to unravel in their mind. Would you say the viewer’s engagement with your art is an important part of your process?

I think it is important. If the viewer isn’t slightly confused and has to spend a while looking at the piece trying to figure it out, I don’t feel it’s been successful. I feel observing how a viewer reacts to a piece definitely helps to inform how I approach future projects. People often ask me what it all means, and I don’t have a guide which translates all these symbols and tells me how they are all connected. I am more interested in hearing a viewer’s insight into what they think it means and how it connects. Because they often come out with some really interesting perspectives and insights that I would never have thought of. I was quite inspired by curiosity cabinets especially in my recent installations. Originally these curiosity cabinets were used as a form of intellectual exercise. Instead of giving the viewer an explanation of the artefacts displayed, the point was to discuss them with others and try to decipher them. The conclusions they come out with might not necessarily be the right answers, but it allows you to really look at these artefacts and explore the possibilities of what you’re seeing. So, I want my work to have a similar sort of effect as a curiosity cabinet.