Speaking with Matthew Monteith: What makes particular artwork resonate? Why create art at all?

Back in 2012, I spoke with Matthew Monteith about his show, Matt Ducklo & Matthew Monteith: Mind’s Eye, which examined how people experience and perceive art. Below are a few of my favorite comments from Matthew Monteith from that conversation.

Monteith on why we connect or don’t connect with a piece of artwork: “It’s this complex amalgamation of all kinds of things—your temperature, how much coffee you drank that morning, what happened to you the day before. All these different things play into the perception that when you walk into a museum and you look at something, you either have an incredible experience with it or it doesn’t resonate with you at all.”

Monteith on the purpose of creating art in the first place: “Understanding yourself better and the way that you see the world may be the real reason for making work.”

The images included are photographs from Monteith's Guardare series.