If Everybody had an Ocean came about because listening to the Beach Boys kept reminding me of contemporary art, particularly art from the West Coast, with which it shares a social milieu. Around half the works in the exhibition date from the 1960s and more than half are by artists of different generations from Los Angeles. The title is taken from the first five words of ‘Surfin’ USA’.
While I hope the artworks offer fresh approaches to Brian Wilson’s extraordinary music, the project also came about from the feeling that his work offers ways of understanding qualities in art since the 1960s, that evade orthodox art historical perspectives. In particular the exhibition implicitly challenges commonplace distinctions made between the avant-garde and popular culture.
The exhibition can be read as a biography, an art history or a socio-cultural history in three or four chapters, but it isn’t any of these things in a strict sense. Though it contains a number of artworks that make direct reference to Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, for the most part they were selected intuitively to evoke the feeling and form of the music and something of the world from which it arose. The exhibition is an invitation to visitors to bring their own associations to these relationships.
At Tate St Ives I wanted to bring the beach into the gallery and imagine Cornwall in summer as southern California. Pae White, who lives in LA, probably makes this connection most explicit with her new installation, Song of the Daybirds, made for the large showcase facing the Atlantic Ocean. I hope there will be surfers shooting the curl on the day you visit.
Besides anything else, If Everybody had an Ocean is finally about the pleasure and challenge of responding to a thing one loves.
Alex Farquarson, Curator