Card tricks and venision stew

Andrew (Sneddon) asked me a question in my tutorial yesterday that I'm not sure I answered. I was showing Andrew a clip I have made of me performing a 'back-palm,' that is repeated manipulating a playing card so that it vanishes and reappears. Andrew's question was... "What is the difference between this as contemporary art and this as a magic trick?"


I floundered on this question for a little while and then said something about how this wasn't a magic trick as such, rather a 'move' which would be part of a bigger picture. Needless to say this is answer is twaddle and I have been pondering the question for the past 24 hours...


I discussed it briefly with Dean (Hughes) over a post college pint in the Blue Blazer and Dean brought up Matthew Higgs's 20 questions with John Baldessari in which the latter is asked "what is art?" Apparently the answer given, (and this is 3rd hand because I have yet to listened to the interview... I will after this blog,) was that art is a lie and that as an artist your job is to be convincing about it. If this is the case I definitely failed in my tutorial... but thats ok, it's why I'm at school.


After some consideration I think my answer is that there is no difference between a back-palm as a magic trick and a back-palm as an art work. Rather the difference is whether it is presented as a magic trick or as an art work.


My interest in magic is providing me with some thing to do and something to think about whilst in my studio. There are interesting correlations between the two practices but it is important to acknowledge my tendency to work with what is to hand. My playing cards have been close to hand lately because of a rekindled interest in magic but I am here because I am interested in how to make art...

The Great Cardini

On a wild tangent, I'm going to make a venison stew this evening...