Counselling

Over the past few months, I have conducted a series of private sessions with artists under the working title Counselling (2026). The sessions were framed as confidential conversations addressing professional, personal, and existential concerns within contemporary art practice.

Each session has been recorded and transcribed. Participants have been informed that excerpts may be used in anonymised form. Participants have also agreed to a basic non-disclosure agreement (NDA), establishing mutual terms of confidentiality and governing my use of the material.

The transcripts will be released as a series of textual works over the coming weeks.

Interview ID: P03-03

Participant ID: P03

Interviewer: MW

Date: 12 March 2026

Duration: 45 minutes

Excerpt: 17:06 – 19:12

MW: Do you think your work could function in a different context at this point in your career?

P03: (pause) I mean, I think it already does, just not in the way anyone says it does. But really it only function as repetition. That’s basically it. I set something up a few years ago and now I just do that. It behaves. (laughs)

MW: (slight pause) When you say it behaves - what do you mean exactly? Like it’s just a means to an end?

P03: Yeah. I don’t have to fight it anymore. I know what it’s going to look like before I make it.

MW: Right. And I mean - on paper that sounds ideal for any practising artist. Things working. But I’m guessing that’s also where it starts to feel off? It works for you I’m guessing? At least for the most part.

P03: It does work. Maybe that’s the problem. I don’t really have to explain anything anymore. Which does sound ideal but (long pause) it means I’m not really thinking much either. I admit I am a bit bored.

P03: Not in any meaningful way, anyway. It’s like I’ve outsourced the decision-making to an earlier version of myself.

Interview ID: P03-04

Participant ID: P03

Interviewer: MW

Date: 12 March 2026

Duration: 45 minutes

Excerpt: 27:16 – 28:55

P03: (laughs) There’s a general concession in what I’m supposed to deliver and I can meet it very easily.

MW: Do you feel any pressure to change that? Maybe you should initiate a shift in your studio practice or something. Sounds boring.

P03: I don’t feel any pressure externally. (laughs) but internally it’s - (pause) I don’t know, it feels like I’ve lost the capacity to misstep. Which is where anything interesting used to happen. My work is kind of a regurgitation of my early vigour I guess. I just don’t resonate with it anymore. I’m getting too old for this shit man.

MW: I guess that’s natural. They do say your early years are for experience and your later years are for consolidating that experience. Maybe you are just old.