Julian Sharples lives and works in Peckham. He came to art through science, studying first at Oxford University. Julian’s work is experimental, reflecting his broad range of interests. Julian has shown at the Royal Academy, some galleries and has made artworks seen around public spaces in South London.
Art, whatever it takes – RomeArtProgram has made interviews with people involved in art, living in Italy, the USA and the UK, to know their feelings during these hard times.
-> Julian Sharples Interview:
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#1 RomeArtProgram: What is your definition of “art” today?
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->Julian: The definition of Art has a very broad scope. It could be about chance such as the work of John Cage and Marcel Duchamp. It could also be about the technical skill of flowing lines, such as Alex Katz or Jackson Pollock. It could be the development of a tradition such as Mondrian emerging from Bauhaus and there may be a spiritual background influencing the work too.
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#2 RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself… how does it change, and how did it change us?
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-> Julian: My knowledge goes back only to Egyptian times, so I will pick up the theme of change from there. At that time art depicted deities, which themselves were personifications of nature. They were in temples and facilitated spells for good harvests and resurrection. The Greeks used the deities for decoration. Titian used deities such as Bacchus, to depict powerful moments between two or more individuals, usually derived from wonderful poetry such as by Ovid. Abstraction was clearly a step away from figuration, but the constant transformations in these myths is still there in abstract work.
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#3 RAP: When (and how) did you understand that art was becoming very important in your life?
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-> Julian: I used to go to the Tate with my mum. We once went with childhood friend Sam Taylor-Johnson, cool even then and another influence, and I just remember feeling really engaged with the work. There was a big Roy Lichstenstein painting that really caught my eye.
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#4 RAP: What role does art play today? What are the “great figures” who have recently changed it? Do you feel close to any of these figures?
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-> Julian: Art can make people feel engaged with the world around them. I think one of the “great figures” at the moment is Keith Tyson. He won the Turner Prize in 2002. His use of chance to produce unlikely images has influenced my work considerably. He once offered to swap one of his Table Top Tales with me, in which he turned worn and pitted desk tops into mythological maps. But I just remember being mesmerised by the artwork and not wanting to take it off the wall, so the swap never happened !
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#5 RAP: Are there still traditional figures such as collectors, muses, mecenate and patrons, in today’s art and society interaction model?
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-> Julian: There must be traditional figures, but I rarely come across them myself. Some of my early photography was collected and it paid my way through art college. Then some art installation works for local authorities supported me after I graduated. So I have come across collectors and patrons in my work and it has always felt that these were individuals with their own interests and personalities which added another element of fun to the process of making art.
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#6 RAP: How have the new technologies and media culture changed art today, improving or worsening it…? What do you feel are your biggest challenges?
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-> Julian: Large format digital printing has changed the possibilities of art. I used our large printer to make large public artworks in an art partnership for a number of years. We produced mural-sized works. Such technology broadens the scope of art. My own biggest challenge is making paintings that have the sense of presence that the photography had.
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#7 RAP: Art as a mirror of man, in this moment of emergency seems to be shattered …what do these fragments reflect now?… Shadow or light of the moment?
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-> Julian: Everything is fragmented that’s true. We are adapting to this and piece the fragments together continually. Even my dreams have cuts to new scenes every few seconds, it seems. I wonder if my unconscious is now replicating the technologies around me and whether that might be having some powerful effect on my sense of self.
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#8 RAP: Understanding, interpreting, and then possibly judging the work of art; which is the right path when we are in front of a piece of art?
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-> Julian: The artwork, the artist, the bodies of work that precede this one, the artist’s gallery and the gallery that preceded that one, are all things I think about. I used to do something I called Gallery Running, where I had a marathon route around London and visited about 10 galleries. Then you have physical exhaustion, the friendliness of the front desk, the overlapping of the day’s artworks all added to the mix.
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#9 RAP: What is the real role of Academies and Art schools today? What can artists learn from these institutions today?
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-> Julian: Art Colleges are very important today because there is such a wealth of knowledge about art all in one place. You would have conversations with other students who would introduce you to a new artist, almost as a rite of passage, or give you tips about the college you are trying to get into. I think the Royal Academy is great too and have enjoyed showing in their Summer Exhibitions.
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#10 RAP: Art too has undergone a complex process of globalization; can having an authentic and genuine style be an advantage or a drag for an artist?
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-> Julian: I’m not sure on this one. I suppose globalisation makes an artist’s style more recognisable, but style is such a complicated thing to understand. There is the whole subjective layer too, that if an artist changes their style in some way, we as viewers may just subsume that new turn under a slightly altered and broader style, that was never really different from the original one.
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#11 RAP: How do Art Galleries and Museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?
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-> Julian: Art galleries and Museums always try to show good art. There are many interconnections between them and between collectors, critics and commentators. I don’t think I can say how it should be, because it is a complex set of relationships that has evolved.
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#12 RAP: “Figurative” or “Abstract” ? Which of the two is better descriptive of the period we live in? Which one will have a better future?
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-> Julian: I don’t know which is a better description of our present age. I try to do both and find them very challenging in different ways. A figure, you have to get right and an abstract painting has to break those logical links between cause and effect that rules every day life. I just admire it when I see beautiful lines in figurative works and complex images emerging for no reason in abstract painting.
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#13 RAP: Today we often speak of “emerging artists”; what advice based on your experience do you feel you can give to young artists?
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-> Julian: Work hard and try to earn a bit of money as well. I was a bit of an outlier, having come to art college with a science degree. I enjoyed the richness of the experience, juggling these things together, but would have liked to have spent more time socialising as well, so definitely keep in touch with your fellow artists and comrades !
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#14 RAP: Art as a lens for reading the present, can it modify the space and time we pass through? …will art save us?
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-> Julian: This is a question with surprising scope. Maybe I answer that as an outlier too. I studied philosophy as well as Greek, Latin and Egyptian. Time is really long when things are on these scales, so on that measure nothing changes. We all want the same things as they did. But there are new timeframes linked to the nano-spaces of cells and computers, that I feel will change the way we think about time and space. Art is already starting to show these.
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juliansharples.com
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@juliansharplesart
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