Walter Scott
Through auto-biographical elements, Walter Scott navigates the slippery states between the fiction and reality of being the artist.
Walter Scott, Spectre of the Subject (2019). Acrylic, ink, colored pencil, collage on paper. 40.64cm X 48.26cm.
Walter Scott is an interdisciplinary artist working across comics, drawing, video, performance and sculpture. Contemporary questions of representation, cultural production, popular culture and narrative construction are central to his practice. His comic series, Wendy, chronicles the continuing misadventures of a young artist in a satirical version of the contemporary art world. The broad range of media that Scott works in allows him to manipulate and move between modes of representation according to the subject matter he is addressing. Through auto-biographical elements, Walter’s work navigates the slippery states between the fiction and reality of the “artist,” of aesthetic representation, and of the self.
AGO: What was the inspiration for this artwork or series?
Scott: When I arrived as an artist-in-residence at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York last year, I didn't have much artwork available to present for the Open Studio event, save for a few drawings, and copies of my graphic novel, Wendy, and Wendy's Revenge. To give an impression of the different facets of my art practice, I printed out some images of pre-existing sculptures and pinned those to the wall, too. As I worked away in my studio for the next six months, at some point, I ripped one of the images off the wall and it ended up collaged into one of my drawings. I was interested in the "reality" and "fiction" of an artwork, and these collages expanded on that realm of inquiry in a really direct way.
AGO: Tell us about a place or a space where you most love making your work?
Scott: I have been able to adapt to a lot of different working spaces over the years, depending on my lifestyle at the time. When I was subletting a lot, I learned to work out of a sketchbook. My comic practice, in that way, kind of formed out of necessity. Now that I have a studio, it's the first time I feel like I have a permanent home for my works to grow. If I'm going to be honest with myself, even if it feels glamorous to be able to work in a studio, I will always feel most comfortable drawing at home at my kitchen table. I spent years drawing in my bedroom as a younger person, and it's a hard habit to break. Cartoonists are inherently shut-ins, and I'm slowly learning to embrace that about myself.
AGO: Are you in dialogue with any other artists or creative peers about your practice? If so, how does this dialogue feed your work?
Scott: Since the pandemic, it's been harder to have those kinds of conversations. I have had zoom artist talks, but they don't feel the same! On the plus side, I have made a series of new, weird, meandering drawings that came out of all of the time and space I had especially early on in the pandemic. And because travelling and performing is not possible right now, I adapted a comic-reading performance into a recorded zoom video, and this has actually opened up new ideas and avenues for my video art practice. It's just a reminder to myself that being an artist is about responding to a present moment.
Follow Walter @walterkscott, who was also in residence at the AGO in the fall of 2016.