Page 75 - Wax Fusion Spring 2022 Issue 6 WIP v19

The theme for our Spring 2022 issue is “avant-garde,” and we are

inviting artists to explore “What is avant-garde in the 21st
Century?” and share their most avant-garde art, techniques, and

materials.

As applied to art, avant-garde means art that is innovatory,

introducing, or exploring new forms or subject matter. From your

perspective, what is avant-garde in the 21st Century?

There’s such diversity in contemporary practice that in some
ways the term ‘avant-garde’ itself seems out of date. There’s

no clear trajectory or narrative where one clearly defined art
movement is succeeded by another – that belongs to art

history.

Many people associate the avant-garde with the digital, be that
NFTs or artworks created on or by computers. For me,

however, the true avant-garde has got to be the place where
the digital can’t go. If our world is to be run by AIs, we need

our art to speak to what remains irredeemably human. In this
sense, the dance between mastery and accident that happens

when a painter picks up her brush – or a sculptor presses a
piece of soft wax in her hand – can represent something both
avant-garde and timeless.

75