Planning My Escape

(Yellow Eye, Devilish Smile)

Tom Buckland

Interview by L. Valena

September 15, 2022

Can you start by describing the prompt that you responded to?

The prompt that I responded to reminded me of a kind of detective/noir story. A “dark and stormy night” kind of thing. I thought the descriptions were really great; the descriptions of the character really caught my imagination. It was a really fun little bit of writing, and I really enjoyed responding to it.

What was your first reaction to it?

Reading it, I envisioned a comic book sort of thing. I saw each paragraph as a panel of the story.

Where did you go from there?

I had to let it sit in my brain a little bit. I was thinking about the best way to bring it to life. I was thinking about making little theater set-ups, or little photographs. But then I thought maybe I would do a 2D collage since I hadn't done that for awhile.

Is that something that is normally part of your creative practice?

My main practice is as a sculptor. I mainly work with 3D collage and assemblage with found objects and junk found on the side of the road. I play around with 2D occasionally. It's not my main area, but I really do love it. I have stacks and stacks of books and magazines, all sorts of things that I love to chop up and assemble.

This piece is awesome. I love how much the eye draws you in. You have no choice but to make eye contact with this character.

Eye contact for the eye. It's like a black hole that sucks you in.

Do you have any thoughts about eyes? Is that something that comes up in your work?

It does. I've made quite a few eyes in the past. I'm in possession of lots of eyes and brains. I have an older work of mine which is a giant microscope. You stand under the microscope and look up, and there's a giant eye blinking and looking down at you. I have a couple of little silicone eyes that I made. And in my studio there's an entire drawer full of dolls’ eyes that I've collected over the years. You never know when you're going to need some dolls’ eyes!

What is the deal? What's with the eyes? Do you know? Where does that come from?

I'm not sure exactly. There's just something fascinating about eyes. The organ that we perceive the whole world with. They're like fleshy orbs of jelly.

I agree, there are so many things that seem so mysterious about the eye. For example, that jelly is called aqueous humor. And I'm like, "humor?” Otherwise, people don't talk about humors anymore. That whole idea about how the body works fell out of fashion a long time ago. And how about snakes? Did that trigger anything for you?

Quite often my work includes animals. I definitely have a fascination with animals. I think it comes from growing up on a farm and being so close to animals all the time.

Did you grow up in Australia?

Yes I did.

It seems like you've got some pretty wild animals there! At least to me.

That's kind of how I look at America! You have bears and giant cats. I think our wildlife is pretty tame compared to yours.

But you have the mantis shrimp! Talk about eyes!

They are the fanciest shrimp of all. Fancy and deadly.

How do you go about starting a collage piece like this?

Mainly just flipping through the bits and pieces I've collected. Flipping through books and magazines, cutting things out, placing them around and just playing. Seeing what fits and what doesn't. Subtracting and adding. Something is working too well, and then you have to remove it because it doesn't work with anything else and you have to start over.

Do you have a narrative for this character that you've created? What do you think is going to happen next?

That's a good question! I was thinking about that comic strip idea – how could I build on this? Thinking about a series of portraits of this character, or similar characters, and making a sort of rogue's gallery. This was a fun little activity. It got me out of my comfort zone.

What haven't I asked you about yet?

I can talk about the sources for all of the bits. The eye came from a medical book. The background is from a book about Leonardo da Vinci. I can't remember where the snakes came from. They may have been a digital image I found and chopped up. The suit came from an advertising catalog, just a bit of junk mail. I really enjoy working with found objects, because each piece you find has its own little history and story. You're kind of bringing them together into one story, one narrative, which is really nice. These little lost bits come together to form a whole.

That's a great point about found objects that I hadn't really considered. Here are all of these different things that each were on their own unique trajectories, and you kind of rein them in and give them a new job.

I’m like an object herder. Like an object sheepdog, bringing them all together into one little home.

Do you tend to have a plan when you start out, or do you just go with it?

Mainly a bit of both. With this one, I had a very rough idea. I could see the character in my head, and with all of the collected bits and pieces I was just pushing them in, herding them around until they worked. Usually I start with a whole bunch of random pieces and join them together until they start to talk to me.

Do you have any advice for another artist approaching this project for the first time?

I think play is important. Don't get too caught up, just have fun, experiment and play.

Call Number: M55PP | M58VA.buPla

Tom Buckland is an Australian visual artist who deals in a correspondence of imaginary worlds. With sculpture, performance, and video he creates work heavily influenced by his own fascination with science fiction and fantasy, topped off with a refined joyful absurdism. He enjoys playing with audience interaction, taking much enjoyment in transporting his audience to other worlds across space and time.