"What does the sensual world mean to him?"

Israel, Nico. “Running on Light Feet.” Hot Pants in a Cold Cold World: Works 1987-2007, Auckland: Artspace & Clouds, (2008): pp. 6-21.

Mitchell, W.J.T. “Iconology, Image, Text, Ideolody.” What is an Image?, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Featured as an interview in the catalogue for Meg Cranston’s Artspace show Hot Pants in a Cold Cold World: Works 1987-2007, Running on Light Feet is a dictation of an informal interview with the artist of the show conducted by Nico Israel. As an accompanying piece of writing for the retrospective show the interview is a less direct method of addressing the concerns and interests of the artist, as it touches on relevant ideas, directed by the interviewer, in the form of dialogue.

A concept only quickly referred to in passing during this dialogue is Conceptualism’s suspicion of the image. To expand on this further; the idea that true meaning lies in linguistic definitions and that the image is not fundamentally truthful. Being taught under Conceptualism’s wing Cranston feels her work is concerned with the basic question of what constitutes knowledge (Israel, 14). Although, the generally outright suspicion of the image among the Conceptual artists that Cranston mentions is something she sees herself working against (14). Along with the anecdote of Joseph Kosuth viewing a David Hockney painting she asks “what does the sensual world mean to him?” (14) I then ask “what does the sensual world mean to Meg Cranston?” It seems to mean more to her than what is explained through language theory. She mentions Christianity’s view that truth exists after death or a deconstructivist view that all truth is based upon language constructs and then states “I think the body does matter… Death may be a concept but it surely isn’t only that” (14). We may have linguistic concepts that define the states of life and death but we can’t claim all meaning starts and end with them.

What seems interesting about Cranston’s artistic position is how it sits between the purely conceptual concerns of conceptual art and her own body. The physical act of theatrical performance appeals to the senses and an experience in both the performer and the viewer that couldn’t simply be reduced to a product of a linguistic concept. Materiality and the audience’s experience of the materiality could be said to act out a form of truth or knowledge. Or at least a type of experience that’s fundamentally physiological. Considering W.J.T. Mitchell’s arguments for the linguistic inner workings of the pictorial image (43) it could be interesting to consider if Cranston views her images or performances with the same academic rigor.

Although, to avoid a strict conceptual position, as Cranston does, drawing influences from a variety of sources, keeps her work active and engages this debate. It is the job of the academic to design clear arguments for the field of their research but the artist is in the position to avoid settling on a conceptual position which can potentially awaken many sides of the debate.