Derek Kreckler
“In regard to the making of art, I enjoy Dubuffet’s assertion of the value of the idea over the means of production, and of a “simple violence” toward the object. I trained as a sculptor but gradually switched to working with people, mostly in intimate groups based around one-off performances. Performance Art introduced a human dynamic that, to some degree, eliminated the contrivance of object-based media including camera and paint. My interest in performance evolved from my ongoing study of sound and its temporal base; the grammar, rhythm and timing of sound played an important part in how I developed my performance works. The moment became a central concern within my work; how to get there, what it is, how you know you’re there and how to leave it.
Recently these considerations have led me to return to photography (which I studied briefly) as a way of bringing together many of the technical and conceptual rationales I use to produce art. Photography has allowed me to frame and extend my sense of the performative and to realize different narrative forms. I often think that art’s content is governed by a range of complex and often rhetorical antecedents associated with, and within their form or discipline. Content for me is governed by my social and political environment. Being Australian immerses you in a complex web of often unsustainable belief, great natural beauty and a constantly forgotten past.”
(Derek Kreckler 2006)
