Alastair MacLennan
About the artist
A performance art classic. Studies: 1960-1965 Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Scotland, 1966-1968 School of Art Institute in Chicago. Interested in ethical, aesthetic and political topics. He conducts teaching activities at many art schools. Member of the international group of performers “Black Market”. He lives and works in Belfast. He often addresses the political situation in Northern Ireland. As he says, ‘Art is the demonstrated linking and defusing of conflicts in action, be it spiritual, religious, political, personal, social or cultural. To heal is to merge.’
Characteristic since the 1970s are his many-hour performances (up to 144 hours, usually the artist did not eat or sleep for the entire duration). He has presented his performances in Poland several times.
” IN STILL” Actuation (performance/installation)
“A primary function of art is to bridge our mental and physical worlds. Through crass materialism we’ve reduced art to cultural real estate. ‘Actual’ creativity can be neither bought nor sold, though its husks, shells and skins often are. It’s possible for art to use meta systems without over – reliance on physical residue and attendant marketplace hustling, jockeying and squabbling.”
“Art is the demonstrated wish and will ‘towards’ resolving inner and outer conflict, be it spiritual, religious, political, personal, social, cultural…or any interfusion of these.”
“As well as ecology of natural environment, there’s ecology of mind and spirit, each an integrated aspect of the ‘other’. Our challenge today is to live this integration. Already we’re late. Time we have is not so vital as time we ‘make’.
“Issues remain:
Ethics–Aesthetics
The ‘Outsider’–Political/Social Institutions
Religious/Political Bigotry–Inclusive Tolerance
‘Dereliction’–Public/Private Responsibility
Oppositional or Consensus Means of Political/Social Improvement
Death–Decay
New Life and Mutation
Transformation”