Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1239894
20 Martin Creed b. 1968 Martin Creed was born in Wakefield, England in 1968 and grew up in Glasgow. Today he lives and works in London. He has exhibited extensively worldwide, and in 2001 won the Turner Prize for The lights going on and off. Creed is playful with this artwork. As we are so used to reading from left to right, this piece initially makes no sense. It does make sense when you realise vertically it reads MUMS, DADS, KIDS and GODS. We may, however, be none the wiser. Is he saying that society is made up of these four groupings and that our Gods are as important as our parents and children? To explain his work, Martin Creed has created this unique written piece titled Work No. 3389. TRYING TO TALK ABOUT IT There's really only one word for it: family. Sorry, that's eight words. No, I mean twelve. Wait, it's actually thirty-two words, including this one and this one and this thirty-two. (Counting there's and it's as one word, thirty-two as two words, but not counting this sentence.) With so many footnotes and ifs and buts and ands and it's easy to lose track of it. It's a mystery. It never ever seems to add up. There's always more of it. Words can help to get a handle on it, but they can run away from it too and get out of hand. They can just make it worse. But they don't mean it, it's not their fault: they can't help it. It's a very vague tangly-wangly piled-up melt-down mix- up, a super-soup with ingredients you can't make out and can't count. And there's a ship sailing on it, a big ship of inter-relationships, and more and more people are getting on it. It's like one big family. Work No. 3389 Since 1987 Creed has numbered each of his works and at times given them a title as well. In an interview published in 2002, Creed explains that he makes art works not as part of an academic exploration of 'conceptual' art, but rather from a wish to connect with people, "wanting to communicate and say hello". His work is primarily emotional. Work No. 2663 MUMS DADS KIDS GODS, 2016 White Neon 114 x 114 cm Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth www.hauserwirth.com Might this work also suggest that a cathedral can tell us that human beings have a divine quality if only they can read the signs correctly?