Nothing At Stake is a series of large format weathered prints pasted on the wall with glue, that are are primarily anti-minimalist and anti-conceptual and anti-language gestures. The compositions are constructed intuitively from Theo Michael’s personal image archive, with minimal use of rational thinking. They go against the currents of formulaic art making, by reversing the common recipes of art making (where the artist has an idea and then produces the object). What happens if you avoid ideas? Can non intellectual ways of thinking produce content? Interpretation and linear narrative are constantly sabotaged here. Subsequently the works deal with the glitch in the relationship between appearance and significance. By putting together incongruous images with superficial resemblances, the effectiveness of drawing conclusions from formal associations is undermined. An intuitive double bluff of association and disconnection takes place. Conclusions regarding meaning are rendered worthless. Ultimately these works are experiments in bypassing language as the key to understanding art and encouraging alternative ways of thinking and processing visual material.
Nothing At Stake by Theo Michael
