Taylor Martin's Page

My name is Taylor Martin. Unfortunately, we are nothing but “other” to each other. To break this proverbial ice, instead of calling myself an artist, I would rather introduce myself as a river. Post conception, I fell from the sky. From there, for some time I wallowed in and around the dirt in search of crevices that needed to be filled. Following my intuition, I then moved on to the next empty riverbed needing to be filled, and I have going over and over with this process ever since. To some I am known for making canyons. To others I am infamous for destroying civilizations. In certain places that I exist, I am called “home” by many schools of fish with tiny, razor-sharp teeth selected naturally for the evolutionary purpose of nibbling at your toes. You will need a boat if you wish to navigate my thoughts. You may need a vacation afterwards.

To start this off, I’ll state that “If we accept vision as being the closest sense tied to knowledge, and language as being the tool we use to articulate this knowledge and share it with others, we can then and only then safely assume that the work I make relies on a consciousness of these two ideas, as well as a realization towards the shortcomings of both. These two statements compose the ideology of, while also informing the process by which I conceive and make said “work”.

I am interested in cultivating a sort of visual symbolism to which anyone can relate. In my attempts to do this, I borrow quite a bit of iconography and other imagery. that was culturally relevant at one point in history or another. I often use this gathered information to create new symbols I can see as being relevant in the light of the globalized contemporary society of which we live.

Essentially, I am a performance artist using the photograph as a stage. I am also a director of the performance of others.

The photographic image possesses a certain “black magic” that conjures a barrier between the viewer and the reality of performance. The inherent connection to reality that is perceived through the photograph subverts itself the moment the lying camera is lied to. This described means of creating visual fiction (that poses itself as fact) makes for what I see as the only suitable vehicle for what I am trying to communicate.
I arrange these aforementioned elements of performance, along with the aforementioned notions of symbolism within images that I intend to provoke narrative, and hopefully encourage wider discourse. The conversations within this discourse is intended to vary, but in some way I hope it revolves around themes such as: Personal/Physical and cultural memory, the relation between language and mythology, the chaotic state of identity politics today, and the shortcomings of humna psychology and how this informs our condition at all times. To risk idealization, I would like to say I want my work to exist as a sort of amalgamation of all that I have seen and can remember, while also serving as a tool that can be used to deconstruct the fabric of time and space.