Darren Sylvester

Prior to the lecture, Sylvester’s name did not ring a bell, that is until he began to showcase his works which was recognisable as one of his works is displayed within the UTS Design & Architecture Building. Once Sylvester began speaking, it was evident that this man was quite charismatic character as he hinted on little jokes here and there, but most importantly, his accidental rise to fame within the music industry.

Apart from the funny adventures Sylvester had stumbled upon, it was great to see the work processes of creating his artwork. Sylvester brought along the photo documents that showcased how he created his work from when he started to categorise potential future ideas, and eventually the final artwork. The way that Sylvester explained his processes to us, as second year students, in my opinion was such a great asset as it show me personally the real (and I stress the word ‘real’) processes of creating art outside of university. It is easy to sit in class and learn about the theories of art, however, the personal journey in creating a final artwork is equally or possible more important.

Although Sylvester is now a musician, it in some way does take away from how we portray him as an artist as in my eye, he has gone way to commercial. However, who has the right to dictate who is or isn’t an artist. Sylvester in the end does create great work that is somewhat better than many artist featured in this series, and also based on his preparation and thought processes he puts in his work, it is hard to argue this man is any less of an artist.