David Shrigley

I recently visited the Cornerhouse in Manchester to have a look at David Shrigley’s ‘How Are You Feeling?’ exhibit which lasts until Sunday 6^th of January. Cornerhouse also has an interview with the man in regards to the exhibit on their website, found here: http://www.cornerhouse.org/art/art-news/an-interview-with-david-shrigley  and his website here: http://www.davidshrigley.com/

 What I really like about his images is how raw and rough it all is, very much like the man’s work is made in a sketchbook before it’s ported straight to the gallery wall. It has less to do about good draftsmanship and more to do with just communicating ideas and it’s because of this that his illustrations are plentiful and can gather as a large library, being at the exhibition on Saturday I almost got lost in his illustrations, also it shows that his illustrations do come from the heart, there’s something cathartic behind them.

His work as a finished product works like the whole meme generators you see on a google image search, not taking any power away from his work with that comparison but just so you know, that simple line of text accompanied with a straight up drawing just gets to the point in terms of illustrative quality.  I am very much concerned about the whole appeal of Shrigley’s illustrations. Its outsider art and looks rather naive, although I do find his vehement creativity and his hands on attitude to being a creative mind inspiring.

However the lack of draftmanship skill opens itself up to something more expressive and impressionistic, some of the figures I can only describe as the opposite of anthropomorphism in how they look and that’s rarely seen in my opinion. I recall Scott Mcloud brought up the issue on illustrating ideas using symbolic means in his book ‘Understand Comics: The Invisible Art’, Shrigley’s very much the same in his sensibilities, he’s makes cartoons that have a basis on clever and humorous ideas and thus such a roughly drawn, freehand style of his is very appropriate to what he communicates. This also raises further questions for me on what constitutes as a signifier within an image and also how much does the balance between conveying idea and conveying aesthetical skill outweigh each other?