MANIFESTO
Mark Spybey is a musician, of sorts, whose career started in the 1980’s in the north-east before he moved to Vancouver, where he formed Dead Voices on Air and worked with Download. He has collaborated extensively and now lives in his native Yorkshire.
MANIFESTO
I make art because I think I have to, not because I have to.
I have always tried to approach the creation of art with the eyes and ears of a child and I don’t feel compelled to use a formula.
No concepts. Concepts create triple albums about elves and oceans.
Not for me. So anything and everything is used to make art.
I have little sentiment for art, I only have sentiment for people. I mistrust art that relies on mastery of a technical skill. The iPhone is a great leveller, as a ‘photographer’ it creates a level playing field. Anyone and everyone can use it to create art, as long as you can afford it! I happen to believe that technical mastery create dull art. I do want to communicate through my work, even if the message is unclear, abstract and at best tangential: the beauty is in the way the message is received by others and as Joseph Beuys once said, “one should resort to interpretation only in an emergency.”
I seek to explore how I relate to the environment around me. We learn about our world, our reality, ourselves and others by creating. It is a powerful learning tool.
Taking pictures from a moving train or a bus created an opportunity to capture the beautiful accident. The photograph either works or it is a mess. That’s how I work as a musician too. I don’t strive to create anything that is perfect. The concept is absurd. It is the prospect of failing or falling a little better that inspires me.