SMA RECS: Luca George
Luca George is an artist based in London. lucageorge.co.uk
Friends
I remember having a conversation with a friend years ago who was saying if he was stranded on a desert island he wouldn’t be thinking about art, he’d just be thinking about how to get off the island. I like to think if I found myself in that situation I’d just stay there and make art. He’s a much more successful artist than me now.
Sometimes I dream of building myself a metaphorical desert island and cutting myself off from the art world completely. I’d cover the island in Land Art that no one would ever see—before eventually uploading it all to Instagram.
I like Land Art. If you haven’t watched the Andy Goldsworthy documentary Rivers and Tides, I highly recommend it. There’s a great bit when he’s about to balance a large rock on top of this Jenga-like stone circle he’s made, it’s a very tense moment, he’s clearly spent hours on it and you can sense it could all fall over easily, as he bends down to place the rock on top of the stone circle it collapses like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange and you hear him say “shit” under his breath. It doesn’t get much better than that for me.
Instagram
I think I made some kind of Faustian bargain with social media - specifically Instagram - about ten years ago. It involved me using the platform to elevate my practice, so all the work I have produced since needs to be viewed with that ‘deal with the devil’ in mind. It has taken root in my practice—and it thrives.
Cycling
In 2012, while a 21-year-old art student at The Glasgow School of Art, I attempted to break ‘The Hour Record’—the furthest distance a cyclist can cover in sixty minutes. I drummed up as much online publicity as possible, visited every bike shop in the city to promote the event, and invited everyone I knew to watch me take on the world record at the Bellahouston Park outdoor velodrome.
In the months leading up to the attempt, I trained every day, overhauled my diet and adjusted my sleeping patterns to ensure I was in peak condition, both physically and psychologically. With Glasgow preparing for the ‘Commonwealth Games’ at the time, I emailed a prominent official to ask for their support. This was their response:
“Hi Luca,
You’re planning to make a serious attempt on the UCI Hour Record? Because I was in Manchester in ’96 when Boardman took the record, and I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that the chances of a non-professional getting anywhere near it are infinitesimal.”
On the day, I failed miserably. But the dream has never died...
These days I live in London where I have a few different jobs to facilitate the pursuit of being an artist with a studio. The cycle to my studio usually takes about an hour. Often when I get to the studio I don’t even make any art, I just sit there for a while and look forward to getting back on my bike.