What's the point of Martin Creed? Rosalind Ormiston went to find out

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From the moment I edged my way past Work No. 142, 1996–2002, a three-seater sofa partially blocking the gallery entrance, I sensed that Martin Creed’s first major retrospective ‘What’s the Point of It?’ (on now at London's Hayward Gallery) was going to be a bit different.  A split-second later I ducked as Work No. 1092, 2011, a vast top-of-a-building white neon sign saying ‘MOTHERS’ whirled around a few feet above my head. Standing beneath it one becomes aware of ticking sounds. A gaggle of 39 metronomes, Work No. 112, 1995–2004, placed on the floor along the walls, are beating time, one at every speed. And, on a wall, Work No. 299, 2003, a self-portrait photograph of a smiling, youthful Martin Creed looks out, directly at you. This artist knows how to disrupt and how to capture your attention. And his humour makes you laugh with him.

Martin Creed (b.1968, Wakefield, England), grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied art at the Slade School of Art in London (1986–90).  Since graduation he has chosen to number his works as one in a sequence, or process of work. At the Hayward Gallery curator Carl Lauson displays over 160 pieces dating from Self Portrait, 1984 to the 2014 Work No.1816, a monumental wall made of bricks and mortar featuring 80 different types of brick. And by now you may be thinking ‘what’s the point of it?’ And that is the point, does there have to be one? All the works are the product of Creed’s imagination made real. If one accepts that his imagination takes many forms, the show becomes even more pleasurable to take in.

The 30-year survey of Creed’s works includes the installation that people most closely associate with him, Work No. 127, ‘The Lights Going On and Off’ (2000), with which he won the Tate’s Turner Prize in 2001. Tate paid £136,095 for this piece of conceptual art: the idea, not the light bulbs. Yet Creed states that he is not a Conceptual artist and does not know what that means.... Cassone subscribers Click here to read on...

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