ArCHiTeCTure, DISPATCHES ArT, MuSiC, ArCHiTeCTure, FiLM, SHoPPiNg, NeWS ANd THiNgS To MAKe ANd do… ArT, MuSiC, ArCHiTeCTure, FiLM, SHoPPiNg, NeWS ANd THiNgS To MAKe ANd do…
uNder THe iNFLueNCe
JoHN iSAACS oN LoVe ANd HATe
portrait robi rodriguez
It Is ImpossIble to answer a questIon lIke thIs wIthout feelIng constraIned to a sIngle vIewpoInt, as though a
camera flashes in darkness and momentarily illuminates 10.45 pm Saturday 22 September 2007: me holding a Townes
Van zandt album, the present passion. Ah, so there it is! The single biggest influence, but in the end, no,
there is no such secret motivational ghost that sits upon my shoulder whispering me on. in fact it could well
be the opposite: it could well be that, as a kind of coming-of-age, the moment i turned my back on the biological
sciences i once studied, on the practice that sought the pure and ‘definitive’, influenced me most. it was not
a direct criticism of science – things like that are far too hypocritical. Merely that the notion of a truth
revealed itself to me as a far more convoluted being than the laboratory could explore, and that in art
there is at least an opportunity for ambiguity and clarity to share the same status. initially in my attitude
towards art, the work of the scientist cast a long shadow, which i grappled with for many years, existing
in both ‘camps’. it is only recently that this didactic need has been sublimated into the practice of making.
That knowing and not knowing have an equal right. it could merely be the natural process of getting older:
that the things that once aggravated me are easier to deal with and hold less power, and that importance is
placed on inclusion rather than conflict, and that intuition and knowledge share an even hand in the process.
There are really too many inspirational things from nature – things that just get on with their existence
and improve the world by being there. And of course many influential people, such as Axel Heil, gregor Mendel,
Muhammad Ali and Paul Thek. i suppose their common trait is love: love made manifest in a generosity of words
and deeds. Perhaps it is best symbolised by the heron plucking its own flesh to feed its infants, a need
through often painful emotions to find the right path. These people, guided by a faith in humanity that they
all believe in and can communicate, do the same. So like the preacher in the Night of the Hunter (1955) grappling
his hands together to represent the forces of love and hate, and their eternal battle, so it is. The good ones
become like our parents showing us the way.
once, lost in Mexico, driving through a pitch-dark night, guided by the bleached bones of dead whales along the
roadside caught in the car headlights, i pulled up by the front porch of a house and asked the man who came out
of the door to greet me if he knew of anywhere to stay. He said that he didn’t, and that there was no hotel for
miles around. He invited me into the house, gave me some food and offered me a little old caravan behind the
house for the night. A total stranger, i stayed with him and his family for nearly a week. Though they had very
little, they insisted that i eat with them. He would take no money from me. i think of him and his five children
often, and in whose caravan they would be invited to stay should they be lost. it breaks my heart.
JoHN iSAACS iS AN ArTiST LiViNg ANd WorKiNg iN berLiN. HiS SoLo SHoW A Perfect Soul iS AT MuSeuM 52,
NeW yorK, uNTiL 22 deCeMber
ArTrEvIEw 36
Dispatches_John Issac.indd 36 2/11/07 12:40:52
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