The Way Things Are

For David Ireland, “art” is a state of mind. He suggests that any object, any situation, can be art, if so experienced. “I have this notion,” he explains, “that art occurs in the process of life itself, and you don’t have to go outside of the context of your own life. It’s all there, and you just tap into it. You open up to it. You have to make yourself available to possibilities.”

As Ireland makes clear, his entire creative energy has been aimed at expanding human awareness of the art in life. Above all, he wants to awaken within himself and the viewer the capacity to see, feel, and think very differently from the way one normally does, especially when looking at art. The commonplace, could we but see it, he suggests, is just as extraordinary as the highest aesthetic creation. Ireland’s outlook is based on an unending curiosity about the world and his ultimate acceptance of the way things are.

Karen Tsujimoto
Senior Curator of Art
Oakland Museum of California