Fraser Stewart

My work is an exploration of my interests in the everyday. I use simple actions and scenarios, dealing with themes of inevitability and humour. These actions reference Minimalism and stress the importance of simple structure and stripped back conceptual approaches. I strive to work spontaneously with immediacy and concision.

Through these minimalist actions I hope to question the general matters of social behavior. These undertones communicate a message of the fear of the mundane, mortality, and the torpor of ‘nine to five’ existence.

"It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do." Moliere.

The question behind what I do is often, whether we gain humour from the misfortunes of others. Can we live on the satisfaction of getting one over on another person? Is this the source of a lot of the British sense of humour? Is it now socially acceptable or shocking to laugh at someone’s downfall? I make for me, I make what I make to keep me sane and to transform what is in my head into something that describes what makes me tick.

"Jokes have not received nearly as much philosophical consideration as they deserve in the view of the part they play in our mental life" Sigmund Freud, 1905

My films and performances are about the inevitability of a particular moment. In this I am trying to comment on the similarity between entertainment and art. Does art practice draw upon the methods of entertainment, and is this reciprocal? I’m trying to make people think about the nature of entertainment and its longevity and how our attention is held, consciously or sub-consciously, by advertisement. The speed of audiovisual media and its fleeting yet memorable quality is something I attempt to mirror and parody in my work.

www.fraserstewart.com