“Being a sculptor leads everything I do. Every project I take on starts from that point. I believe that an artist must be an ideasmonger responding to all kinds of physical location, social and political environments, to materials, to processes, to timescales and budgets. I also believe that sculpture just about encompasses everything – a painting can be a sculpture, a TV ad can be a sculpture, a dance, a performance, a film, a video – all of thse kinds of art and many more can be sculpture.
When I have ideas I want to make them, and not just some of them, but all of them. As a result of that my sculpture covers a multitude of sins. I like to work in as many different materials as possible. It’s no understatement to say I am a materials junkie – jumping from highly-painted realistic cast fibreglass pieces to sculpture with coathangers, to a thatched barn roof laced with fibre-optics to designs for camera obscures (or at least the buildings to house them) and layouts for parks.
Recently, collage has had a huge influence on my sculpture. I spend so much time on collage, looking at, sorting out, re-arranging, and sticking thousands of images a week that ideas for sculpture will pop into my head whole, complete with a list of materials to make them with and a take on the different environments, museums and galleries they will inhabit.” — David Mach