I think that I ought to make it clear at the start that what I have in mind, by talking about art as having some kind of “prophetic” role, does not have to do with Nostradamus or anything like that. I have no expectation that artists have a gift of foresight. What I doing have in mind here is much closer to the Biblical notion of prophecy, whereby the prophet makes some kind of condemnation of the current state of society and culture, in the general expectation that “there will be tears before bed-time”. The “prophetic” function of art is diagnostic rather than predictive. Although this has been an important feature of art throughout history, sadly it appears to have atrophied in our own day.
The current obsession of art with the process of communication itself diverts attention from any likelihood that it can comment relevantly or effectively on its social or cultural context. I was reminded of this recently when I came across a quotation from the musician John Cage, who is reputed to have said that “I have nothing to say, and I’m going to say it.” Until now I have never believed that my own work had any prophetic element, although today I started to reassess that belief.
It only occurred to me yesterday, as I began (very belatedly indeed) to begin preparation for a revision of this website, that there is a theme of increasing coherence and clarity in my work, although its beginnings can be traced back for some time. The series of studies to which I have been giving the general working title of Beyond hold the key to it.* The image that reoccurs with increasing frequency and clarity in my work is one in which some kinds of peaceful but incoherent distance is glimpsed from within a context of relative disorder and threat. The idea emerges not only in the group of pictures to which I have given titles that make reference to it, but also in my Maltese series, where the viewer is separated from a distant (future) by a wall of cacti, or it is hidden around a corner, or there is a spatial chasm between the here/now and the beyond.
I admit that it is not either clear nor profound, but I do believe that I convey to some extent and in some respect the general view of our society and age as chaotic and threatening, and a future that is distant, even if potentially tranquil, but to which access is unclear, and its content formless.
*There is a “gallery” with this title elsewhere in the website.