Beschreibung:

Martin Creed Work no. 230 (Don’t Worry) 2000–03 White neon. 15 × 144 × 4.5 cm (6 × 57 × 1 3/4 in). This work is from an edition of 3 and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Provenance Cabinet Gallery, London Catalogue Essay Martin Creed's art is characterized by a gentle but subversive wit and by a minimalism rooted in an instinctive anti-materialism. His often extremely self-effacing works, all titled by number, have been characterized as ‘attempts to short-circuit the visually overloaded, choice saturated culture in which we live'. They also take their place in the honourable tradition within the avant-garde tradition of making work which appears to have no material value – which resists or defies commodification, even if in vain. Hence his conscious use of mundane and modest materials, his work however is always arresting and can be visually spectacular, as for example his neon works. A central theme of Creed's work is the nature of art itself, the relationship between art and reality, art and life, a preoccupation of much modern art, and he explores the boundaries in interesting and unsettling ways. His Work No. 143, installed on the façade of Tate Britain in 2000, set out in blue neon the equation ‘the whole world + the work = the whole world'. This work could suggest that art makes no difference or even does not exist. This questioning comes from deep within the artist who has said ‘I don't think of myself as an artist' and suggests the intensity of his reappraisal of what art is. In 2001, Creed won the Turner Prize exhibition with Work No. 227: The lights going on and off. Nothing is added to the space and nothing is taken away, but at intervals of five seconds the gallery is filled with light and then subsequently thrown into darkness. Realizing the premise set out in Work No. 230 (Don't Worry), Creed celebrates the mechanics of the everyday. Neon works are typical of Creed's gentle subversions of everyday reality or ideas. Work No. 230 (Don't worry) is certainly one of the most emblematic in his extensive list of works. Despite the title, the work is intended to remind us to worry, also flashing on and off in a manner that is worrying in itself. Ultimately, however, Creed seems to want to do what art has always been supposed to do: "I want to make things. I'm not sure why, but I think it's got something to do with other people. I think I want to try to communicate with other people, because I want to say ‘hello', because I want to express myself, and because I want to be loved" (Martin Creed Works, London, 2010, p. 7) Read More