Artist Talk; Hetain Patel

- Works in sculpture, media, animation.

- Graduated from Nottingham Trent, Fine Art Course, in 2003.

- Self-Motivation when being an artist is often hard.

- Projects often influenced by budgeting, still makes low budget/diy work because that’s what suits the work.

- Still makes work on the assumption that no one knows who he is, how does the audience, and the location influence the type of work?

- Reminder that Western galleries are predominantly visited by white, middle class audiences.

- To Dance Like Your Dad (2009), Video Work.

- Imitation of his dad giving him a tour of his factory, to do with empathy, listening with ears, eyes and body. Way for him to connect with his dad in a way he couldn’t in conversation.

- Manual labor comes up in his work a lot, working class background, engaging with it through imitation.

- Imitation is something which we all have access to as an art material.

- Intention didn’t always come when he was making the work, often takes a long time to properly understand the work. Takes into consideration people’s own interpretations of the work.

- Goes to deeply personal places through his work.

- Humor in the work, took a lot to embrace it and realize he would be taken seriously.

- Idea of art making life better. Something is invested in the artwork.

- Sculpture made with his dad over 3 months, out of a replica of his first car, of a robot figure crouching down. Meant to be from the 1986 Transformers film.

- Heritage and physicality our bodies hold.

- Labour intensive work; making a spiderman costume. Letter To Peter Parker.

- The Jump- Part Two (2015) Film made in his grandma’s home in Boulton, where all of his family have lived at some point since the 1960s.

- Don’t Look at The Finger; Shot Over 3 days, big expense. 3 Weeks of Rehearsals, worked with dancers, and choreography.

- Operate in the visual language that feels right, working with moving image and making a rough version first.