Helio Oiticica

Helio Oiticica's work is very influential upon my work at the moment. The Brazilian artist created installations that he called penetrables in that the viewer could interact with them. These large installations were themselves influenced by spatial concepts and colour, the De Stijl movement and the creation of Concrete Art and the short lived Grupo Neoconcretro.

I am interested in his concepts of human interaction and his paintings in particular. There are very bold and contains the elements of art that excite me such as the spatial awareness and the interactiveness of his pieces.

With my new piece, I want the viewer to interact and create an almost spiritual bond. I create monoliths and monuments and hopefully this will become one in a series of monumental assemblages.

As a footnote, on October 19 2009 a fire destroyed at least 90 Percent of his work at his brother's residence in Brazil. The brother was distraught and proclaimed that he wished he had died in the fire.. Quite sad news really, we have a piece in Tate Modern at least.