‘In reality the spotlight on any “ism” depends on the zeitgeist’, Alice Maher tells Brian McAvera, in response to questions of feminist or political overtones in her work
Brian McAvera: Alice, in 1986 you described your work as follows: ‘I use paint and charcoal to “tease out” rather than “lay down” images. The process is organic … the work shows some of the untold fears and “pathological” desires of a perfectly ordinary being’. How far is that description still valid today?
Alice Maher: Yes, that sounds about right! Well it certainly was twenty-two years ago, but remember that we are in a different era in terms of art language now. In recent years my drawing has become more planned and conceptual in its origins, like the big drawings for ‘The Night Garden’ last year. The ‘pathological desires’ are still there though, in the small pencil drawings, where a more intimate, subversive little world holds sway. But playing with, and teasing ideas out (without being didactic about it) that is still there, and applies to my approach to sculpture and object-making as well.
