↑ Tom Motley, fet][ (2023)

Tom Motley is an artist whose work defies simple categorisation, blending a masterful command of traditional techniques with an inventive, often irreverent approach to subject matter. Their pieces reflect a deep engagement with both art history and contemporary culture, offering a rich tapestry of influences ranging from classical mythology to modern comics. Tom’s practice is grounded in a dedication to craft and a relentless curiosity for storytelling through visual art. In this interview, we explore the philosophies, processes, and inspirations that drive their unique creative vision.

Your piece titled “Mother Shipton is in a Hole” suggests an engagement with historical or mythical figures. Could you elaborate on the inspiration behind this work and how it fits into your broader artistic narrative?

Mother Shipton was a witch from Yorkshire, near where I was Born. Her as a figure came out of an interest in alternative history figures and the narratives that came along with them. So much of our understanding of witches comes from different narratives for the sake of power and control. I feel like we are so unable to fully understand history and creating new, relatable (in a sense) stories in relation to these figures is a way of reading the past and ourselves.

The “Sordid Arena” series appears to explore complex themes. What motivated you to create this series, and what message or experience do you aim to convey through these works?

The Sordid Arena period initially came from a want to understand England, it sort of widend and led to a rejection of the nation eventually. However, it also became a sort of publishing organisation creating simple but emotive zines, print runs and websites. It was a way for me to deal with symbols and images in a period when I was rejecting words and formal language, an attempt to break through those rules and create my own communication.

Your portfolio showcases a diverse range of mediums and styles. How do you approach selecting the appropriate medium for a particular concept, and what role does experimentation play in your creative process?

It’s kind of all experimentation. Firstly I view everything I make as spaces. That’s in the broadest sense, more of psychosocial spaces than purely literal, physical ones. The viewer is subject to the residue of a post-action place, a haunting. I figure things out through making, sometimes that is the core of an image or physical space or literal words. I’m attached to things that I find, see, remember, feel and to understand them the work gets made. The shape that the work takes only exists to embolden the work with more of itself, its medium enhances the ‘message’. Is this an intense physical space, is this a sound, is this an image, is this a video on your phone. Rules of form are only important until they aren’t. The work is more poetry than an essay.

You’re active on platforms like Instagram and YouTube, which isn’t always common for visual artists. How has being online shaped the way you share your work and connect with people?

So much of the work is born of the digital realm, I grew up on the internet. Especially places like youtube, liveleak, etc. ARG easter egg hunting as a way of finding meaning in art to me, is a natural way of understanding it. It would be false to not inhabit those places.

I also think that understanding the work and its ethos is more possible by its online presence. The real and the hyperreal speaking to each other. I think more about making art from perspective than the work being something that I have enacted on the world, these things already exist and I (along with my digital self) am a channel that they come through. I put it all in context. My work generally, and its existence online is innate.

What do you think is the primary idea or goal of art in general? If there is a specific goal, what would it be? 

Personally I believe in the disruption of individuals through art. That’s my desire but I don’t think art itself has such a lofty goal. Art is communication, a diverse collection of referential languages that speak in ways deeper than formal language can, removed of its structures and control. Free in its best moments. But art is not a positive in this sense, it just is. Art’s role is to emanate through and infect all modes and mediums. Art is a parasite.

Tom Motley website