ROKEN - Material Sequences in the State of Now
BY LUI MACRAE WOLSTENCROFT
I am a Multi-Disciplinary Artist, currently based in The Hague, NL, concerned with producing soundscapes, films, installations, sculptures, paintings, performances and often hybrids of all the above. Art has always been my guide to personal freedom, my overall vision is for this inner freedom to be spread throughout all of humanity. Organization has never been central to my process - this approach presents a certain chaos, unreliant on thought, in where I am almost continuously creating and in doing so constantly anchoring myself to the present moment. In fact the process can only be acknowledged in hindsight when a stimulating result has been reached. In this way the themes in my work can be the result of a material openneness.
I started painting and drawing colourful compositions at the age of 6 in Tarifa, Spain and have continued to do so ever since. My adolescence spent in Tanzania, East Africa has also been a stable undercurrent in my practice. The natural habitats, sounds and communities of this third culture upbringing fully permeate the content (material) and concepts brought forward by my practice. For this reason my audience is not intended to be particular to a demographic, my Art should reach as far and wide as possible. Every conversation is important just as much as I believe that everyone in the world is an Artist.
Conceptually I tend to focus on human themes such as vitality, destruction, addiction, hallucination and the sensations that come with being truly present. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is Biblical to my philosophy and will always be central to my living and working method. My passion for music and poetry present other stimuli - writing songs since the age of 14, my efforts in the realms of Alternative music and hip hop are reflected throughout my oeuvre. Recording sound and film comes naturally to me and has underpinned many of my creative endeavours thus far, manifesting albums and collaborative projects at several points in my career.
As I develop I want my work to take more of a political and globally contextual stance, I truly believe Art can remedy this toxic paradise that we (humanity) have poisoned. Furthermore I would like to fully practice body art and enhance my ability to perform. I have exhibited in Moshi Tanzania as part of a group graduation show at International School, Edinburgh, Scotland at the Fruitmarket Gallery in the John Byrne Award and a mechanical sculpture group exposition in The Hague, Netherlands. This only marks the beginning as I aspire to carry my work to a much larger international stage and vitalize oneness through our vastly over populated planet.