Michael Barclay
Michael Barclay is interested in the way that an idea is as capable of being as many things as there are forces capable of seizing it. He sees the audience as integral to the construction of meaning and considers them a formal part of any composition. Whether this relationship is intellectual or emotional it can generate literal readings alike, but participation also involves transference of history of the viewers' previous experience with the object or idea. Instead of reading what the object is you end up asking what it remembers, is there a story? His work for g39 was a patented magic power tool. In effect it is a wand giving the owner the opportunity to manipulate outcomes at will. He potentially puts the opportunity to control outcomes in the hands of the general public by wording the patent in prosaic language that could as easily be applied to any of a number of household gadgets. Michael lives and works in Glasgow.
The artist was in the following exhibition:Possible, not probable
