charles wu / www.charleswu.co.uk

METAMORPHOSIS

Metamorphosis is the act and process from an intuition, to plasticity, and to theory - to make, to process making, to organise the process of making. 

‘To make’ tends to come first, like a hunch, an intuition, a desire to come into being. Making is the fundamental act of existence, it is the need to create and respond. To make is plastic, and is a continuous process of self- reflection and criticism. It works with the fundamentality of material, whether they are words, paper, light, water, ink, and frequency in air. It’s the most irrational but conscious act, an act that creates most excitement. It’s also the act that requires most determination, stamina, patience, perseverance, passion and hard work.

Then comes the work of critics, including the maker himself, of re-tracing the process of making (in order to make again, or make better), and to theorise the process of making (to bring the act to a universal level). This, unfortunately, is what’s most accessible to others who receive the work. While the act of making is intimate and introverted, and that the actual process very personal, the re-tracing and theorising of the process is didactic and at some point, almost lacks suspense. We all know the masterpiece reflects extensive knowledge and countless sleepless nights, but what we see is what really matters.

We could simply dismiss, then, the power of making, and the actual progress from the impulsive act of make to metamorphosis. This material consciousness is only for the brave ones, and hides in the dark, where it always wanted to be.

Quote a short episode from one of my favourite book, THE CRAFTSMAN, ‘The painter Edgar Degas is once supposed to have remarked to Stephane Mallarme, ‘I have a wonderful idea for a poen but I can’t seen to work it out,’ whereupon Mallarme replied, ‘My dear Edgar, poems are not made with ideas, they are made with words.’’