Artist's Statement / Short Stories | Rex Turnbull

I am often criticised for beginning a book, and for some reason or another, never being able to finish it. Too busy, too tired, too hard or too lazy! I far prefer to read short stories. My entire life is made up of a series of them.

These can last for minutes, hours, days, weeks or sometimes months. Many of them are captured on the canvasses of this show which is titled ‘Short Stories’. And some of them are other people’s stories.

I had a show in New Zealand recently. On the third day of the show I took a moment to see it by myself - apart from a couple of wimmen who were there also. They were quite animated and enthusiastic about my work and interestingly, one of them seemed to speak with authority about it. I had never seen her before.

She told the story about one of my works, which featured a young man standing in front of a barn. Her image had absolutely nothing to do with the actual subject - but it engaged her and the image allowed her to use her imagination - and for that moment in time - it was her story. She went on to tell her friend, "Oh, I know the artist well".

Basically she lied through her teeth, but I couldn’t blow her cover because for her interpretation of my story, I was truly grateful.

 

Rex Turnbull