David Liddell
Anton Beaver
David Liddell is a painter in his late 40s, born in Liverpool, he has lived in the countryside outside Dundee, Scotland since 1990.
Anton Beaver: Your work at City Quay was very much one painting, a lot of repetition in that work!
David Liddell: Yes. Patterns and sequences, like in an audio program, or programming samples, in terms of painting it implies decoration, which I think is fine.
AB: Isn’t that making wallpaper?
DL: (pause)…. It’s a way of combining different aspects of my painting; you can put different unconnected elements together. What’s wrong with wallpaper?
AB: Your painting installation was cluttered and chaotic. Is pattern just a way for human beings to make order out of chaos?
DL: …I don’t know about chaos….
AB: Are you trying to communicate?
DL: I don’t know about that either…I suppose I should say yes to that one.
AB: So is it a language, or pattern?
DL: Well it’s both, words are a sequence of symbols that make patterns we can read and recognise as having meaning. Numbers, genes and molecules have patterns, I don’t just mean in their shapes I mean in their behaviour as well. Why do you think supermarkets and websites spend so much on finding out what we spend our money on, spending patterns repeat too!
AB: That’s a question of function, painting has grey areas. Do you think the act of painting has a political/social significance?
DL: Yes, I get very envious of artists who do that, I wish I could.
AB: What I mean is, do you think the act of being an artist, or just doing the work is a political choice?
DL: I don’t know…I have a problem with that.
AB: Did you vote at the last election?
DL: Yes, but my paintings didn’t.
AB: So, are you saying your work is beyond that?
DL: No, my paintings are beneath it, that’s more like it. They’re not statements, or if they are they’re not intelligent enough!
AB: Is your work saying anything then?
DL: Well, (laughs) that’s not high on my list of priorities.
AB: What I’m getting at then, is the question of why you do it.
DL: Ermm. I’ve a bit of a dilemma about that. I don’t know. I suppose I can paint if I want to or I don’t have to. I don’t know why.
AB: You have to be honest with your self, is that it? Is your idea of doing painting a kind of Zen approach?
DL: I see what you’re getting at–no, I’m just lazy. It’s Taoist anyway, isn’t it? I’m wary of some kind of spiritual approach, just as much as involving politics.
AB: In defining your work, what is it about?
DL: I don’t know.
AB: Is your painting like a subculture?
DL: I have to go along with that but I’m not sure.
AB: Is your work tapping into a subconscious?
DL: Yes, it’s a chain of thought sometimes, the trouble is I’m not sure what my thoughts are.
AB: Why do you make paintings?
DL: You’re not letting that one go are you? You would never ask a lawyer, football player or a mechanic why they do what they do.
AB: Don’t artists have other responsibilities in terms of a cultural perspective?
DL: No more or less than anyone else. I’m not very responsible.
