Martine Syms

Artist

82 Quotes

Representation is a sort of surveillance.

Los Angeles is an uncanny place to live. It has many science fiction qualities. For example, when I'm standing in line at the supermarket and I recognise the person in front of me, but I can't figure out how I know them. Suddenly, I realise I saw them in some random commercial six years ago.

I feel like there are actually a lot of relationships between a website and a film in terms of designing an experience for a screen.

I'm so voracious with books, movies, TV, and I'm always interested in the way that different cultural values are presented or, in their absence, are present.

I have said it before and I will continue to say that I don't think art is the most effective form of protest. I don't think it changes policy; I think it changes discourse, and discourse can change ideas, and for me, that's what it's about: having that space for conversation.

A lot of my work, the subject is film and television itself, and history, and how that kind of coincides with larger cultural history and memory.

I just have a deadpan sense of humor, I guess.

Growing up in a specific area has a certain sociological and economic reason, so I'm interested in using myself as a case study to look as those things.

People act like art is a white thing - or not for people of colour - when, really, so much culture and art comes from people of colour. I want everyone to get into what I am doing. So sometimes I don't like to work just in an art context because it feels like a lot of people aren't going to see it. I like it to be a part of everyday life.

It's weird how the Internet changes everything. The kind of narrow casting... instead of reaching for a broad audience, you are reaching for a more targeted audience.

People act like art is a white thing - or not for people of colour - when, really, so much culture and art comes from people of colour. I want everyone to get into what I am doing. So sometimes I don't like to work just in an art context because it feels like a lot of people aren't going to see it. I like it to be a part of everyday life.

I was very conscious of the film industry - a lot of people, neighbors, worked in it. I actually grew up doing a bit of extra work myself. I was homeschooled, and it was a way that I could make money. My parents let us do these jobs, and I never got very far, but I was much more interested in what everybody else was doing, and I liked being on set.

I grew up watching tons and tons of television. It was all I would do, especially during summer vacations.

If some things don't make me feel good, I stop them. How simple, yet so hard to do.

I guess I can be a little mischievous!

My family, my background... it just parallels really nicely with a lot of social and cultural movements.

If some things don't make me feel good, I stop them. How simple, yet so hard to do.

There's no reason to be ashamed of feeling good.

My family, my background... it just parallels really nicely with a lot of social and cultural movements.

I definitely think an on-screen experience is universal, in a way.

1 of 5
1 2 3 4 5