"Untitled (Pilgrimage to St Catherine of Bologna in search of artistic inspiration)" by Neil Wiseman,
Slide, Photography and Paper Documentation (2005)

We often talk about 'inspiration', but rarely consider what this might mean. The notion of inspiration, and its 'source' is a complicated issue, often thought to be something spiritual. The artist decided to seek the advice of the patron saint of art as to what art he should make for this show.

"It is a pilgrimage I feel I need to make. Finding inspiration to make artworkcomes less readily to me now that I am not always surrounded by it, and I now need to search for inspiration. Although I am not 'religious', I am fascinated by religious 'mythology'. The Christian saints are characters who are rooted in a historical context but have mythical abilities - they are sources of 'magic'. I believe that the extraordinariness of St. Catherine of Bologna (the patron saint of artists) will inspire me to be able to make some artwork for this show; so I am going to make a pilgrimage to Bologna to ask for her help. It is important to note that the pilgrimage, and all related documentation cannot be considered an artwork - it is purely a pilgrimage." (N. Wiseman)

This journey is not a work in itself, but an exploration of trying to find inspiration in the search for inspiration. There is documentation of the pilgrimage, however it is not yet known whether the search for inspiration will result in a piece for the show, or not.

Neil Wiseman is based in Market Harborough and graduated from his BA Fine Art degree at Birmingham Institute of Art & Design (UCE) in 2002. He is interested in the peripheries of art, and has run a gallery from his studio space, painted and sanded gallery walls for a week as a performance, and is now investigating where our ideas come from, with works that appear in dreams and in flashes of inspiration.

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