Troy Hourie
Peripheral ARTeries
an interview with
Troy Hourie Hello Troy, and a warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Let's start this interview with our usual ice breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? By the way, what could be in your opinion the features that mark an artworks as a piece of Contemporary Art? Do you think that there's a dichotomy between tradition and contemporariness?
A work of art is the creative process and/or artifact produced by an individual or collective striving to render an expression that reflects on the world around them. This can be technical, emotive, theoretical or abstract in nature. I am equally awed by a Dutch Master’s painting of a cool daylight streaming through an open window onto the hands a woman sewing, as I am by a James Turrell installation illuminated by unseen bright neon light diffusing the edges of space. An artist must remain inquisitive through the continual practice of exploring various mediums and tools as a means of building an artistic practice. The evolution of a body of work is formed by innovations and discoveries made through this kind of personal contemplation. I would speculate that contemporary art is simply something produced today. The media and tools available to artists have changed over time but artists have always reflected on the world around them. I believe that art, like theatre, exists in relationship to its viewer.
Troy Hourie
background? Besides a Master of Fine Arts, Scenic Design, you hold a MA of Master of Arts, Scenography, that you have recently received from the Central School for Speech and Drama, University of London. How have these experiences impacted on the way you currently produce your artworks? By the way, I sometimes I wonder if a certain kind of formal training could even stifle a young artist's creativity... what's your point of view?
As a spectator, the work I am drawn to evokes wonder or some sort of emotive response. Art has the ability to transport us elsewhere and I enjoy being absorbed into a work when an artist provides the opportunity to ruminate on musings beyond what my mind normally expects. So as an artist, I attempt to not define meaning for the observer but to build work that provokes the viewer to participate in his or her own reflective journey. The role of the artist becomes that of the provocateur, as someone searching for new or hidden value in things unnoticed in the world.
Masters study should be undertaken by students to refine their craft. I sought to attain both my masters degrees as mechanisms to transition my creative practice into new mediums. My undergraduate degree had been a modernist training in architecture and it was during this formative time that I developed an interest in Cassandra Hanks Alfredo Garcia
Would you like to tell us something about your 80