If you try to copy something exactly you won't get it correct, because you don't share the same tradition and context.
Michael Craig-MartinI came to painting through sculpture, to images through objects. I think that images sit in the middle, somewhere between objects and words.
Michael Craig-MartinI think from an artist's point of view, everything in art, in fact everything in the world is available as material.
Michael Craig-MartinI look at the character of the exhibition and I treat it as I would a painting or an installation. When I did the Summer Exhibition at Royal Academy, I did it exactly as I would when making a new work.
Michael Craig-MartinI think that the exchange is very important. Before I did the exhibition in Shanghai, I was a judge for the John Moores Painting Prize and that was very interesting for me, because some of the judges are Chinese and some are British, and we look at the work together. It was fascinating that most of the time we were in complete agreement, but some of the time we were not. People send their works from all over China. For a foreigner, this gave me a very good picture about what is happening in China and its art today.
Michael Craig-MartinIn the late 70's I started to make drawings of the ordinary objects I had been using in my work. Initially I wanted them to be ready-made drawings of the kind of common objects I had always used in my work. I was surprised to discover I couldn't find the simple, neutral drawings I had assumed existed, so I started to make them myself.
Michael Craig-Martin