David Medalla described himself as a ‘poet who celebrates physics’ and was an artist with a long career that focused on a playful and individual approach to making work, his work was based around many themes (namely personal experience) and he was an important artist in the exploration of kinetic, installation and participatory art.
His works like Cloud Canyons and Stitch in Time are well known and he was also one of the founders of Signals, an influential 1960’s gallery in London that was open 24 hours a day. I think the main reason for this popularity is because of the purity of Medalla’s mind and ideas, from hearing interviews with him he was as interested in enjoying his life as he was in making art and art was his life.
Having grown up near Manila Bay which was decimated by war Medalla saw a mixture of contrasting imagery from the land and water to the war torn area and then afterwards the regrowth and rebuilding. I feel Medalla greatly understood life (since art is all about life he also understood art well) which allowed him to clearly and thoughtfully take advantage of chance and change to make impactful work, it is also undoubtedly linked to his Filipino heritage where legacy and community are important to the people.
My practice and his are similar in the sense that our lives and our art aren’t really separate, one informs the other and they both turn in a never ending cycle. I also strongly relate to his interest in participation (despite a certain coronavirus limiting this…) and in art as an experience to be shared or given. I also relate myself to Medalla in the sense that we are both concerned with connections between things, most prominently between humans, nature, and the machine.
Moving forward with his influence I would like to make more pieces that require participation to be completely effective and also lean into things that are kinetic or changing. I also want to try and work with other people and artist in making work, to experiment with not being the sole author or creator and to be part of a community or collective piece.
His use of fabric and textiles is also interesting and I want to explore this further in my work, perhaps stitching things together to make connections between objects or places, perhaps go on walks and collect materials and bring them to the studio like a migration of materials. I would also want to emulate his and many other artists’ methodology of capitalising on change and chance wherever possible and having a confident hand and open mind.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jan/08/david-medalla-obituary
https://cnnphilippines.com/life/culture/arts/2019/02/20/david-medalla-interview.html