David Sequeira Q&A
Were you a creative child?
I am not sure if this answers your question, but when I was about 6 years old I remember looking at a painting and thinking that a piece of green paint could be a tree and a piece of green paint at the same time. It does not sound like a big deal, but after 50 years, this idea continues to sustain me. The idea that any thing is never only one thing has been a very dynamic space for me since I was little. In a sense, my work can be understood as an enquiry into the multiplicity of meanings that can emerge through the combination of colour and geometry.
What drives you to create art?
Making art removes me from the trappings of written and spoken words. I am interested in art processes that allow me to engage in a poetic and nuanced visual language that is nourishing and sustaining…not just for me, but for the people who choose to allow it to impact them. For me, creating art and being an artist is the lens through which I experience the world. People don’t stop being parents when they are in their workplaces. Similarly, I don’t stop being an artist when I am cooking, eating, paying bills etc.
How would you describe your relationship with colour?
I don’t think about the materials I use as being fabric or paint etc. I think about them as colour. For me, colour has an energetic quality that is not bound by its descriptive function. Another way of saying this is that I am more interested in ‘the red’ than ‘the red cardigan’. There is something magical about the vibrations and resonances that are possible through the process of selecting and combining colour. There is a deeply personal sense of reality associated with colour. More specifically, the experience that I have of blue is not necessarily shared by others.
What excites you about the work you do?
There is always something to learn and experience about colour. I don’t think I will ever stop selecting and displaying combinations of colour and the idea that there is no end to what I do is empowering and expansive for me. I get excited when I am making art or engaging with art that leaves me with the experience that I am part of something bigger than myself.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
People might be surprised to learn that I like dressing up and going out as well as slobbing around watching bad reality TV and eating takeaway.
A tough question, but if you had to choose just one work or aspect featured in this exhibition that is a ‘must-see’ or your favourite, what would it be and why?
I am going to avoid answering this question by proposing that all three of the works in the exhibition are disparate manifestations of the same idea that colour, combined with geometry, has the capacity to articulate human experience.
How has the experience of developing an exhibition for Bunjil Place Gallery been for you?
It is exciting, challenging and humbling to work with a team that has taken such a profound interest in my work and what it might provide for the City of Casey and beyond. It is extremely affirming to develop the exhibition with an organisation that understands the themes, ideas and possibilities that underpin my art practice.
David's exhibition All the things I should have said that I never said opens at the Bunjil Place Gallery on Sunday 8 May.
