Carl Truscott

Using fine art as a vehicle for broader philosophical explorations, Carl Truscott’s work is concerned with fundamental questions about the nature of art itself. What constitutes art? What is it for? How do we understand it?

Using a multi-disciplinary approach, Truscott attempts to tackle the universal challenges of artistic representation and channel them through a personally constructed philosophy that cynically groups art theory with ‘superstition’ and our natural tendency to draw lines of significance between unrelated things. The readiness of those in the art world to engage in this sort of ‘magical thinking’ demonstrates a fascinating phenomenon in the minds of both creator and viewer, and offers an opportunity to explore the possible tensions between an artist’s intent and the viewer’s subjective interpretation.

Truscott’s current work attempts to navigate that tension by concentrating on the importance of context when viewing art. How much of our analysis of a piece in a gallery is primed by the other works around it? Or by the curator’s vision for the show? Or even by the information we already know about the artist and their work? Truscott explores this relationship by engaging personally with the artists he exhibits alongside, amalgamating their myriad influences, compounding them with his own, and attempting to create an expansive ‘art-object’ out of the exhibition itself.

@carltruscott.art