'If I'm going to spend four, five hundred hours working on something, I want it to count'
Sculptor Stefan Rogenmoser doesn’t want you to just think, 'Oh, it's pretty,' and keep walking by
Stefan Rogenmoser isn't against abstract art, but sometimes he isn't sure about how it reflects what our society values. "There is some really good abstract out there, but we have in our National Museum a painting that's a canvas with three stripes.
"Our government, I guess, or we paid $4.2 million on taxes for that thing, and that is in our National Museum of the Arts. That represents us and in my opinion, that's a shame."
"We only evolved to three stripes. What can I say?"
For his work, Rogenmoser strives to make people think and communicate a message about issues in our society. He wants to make people think, and not just look at something and think, "Oh, it's pretty," and keep walking. "I want to leave a statement. I want to make people think about these issues that our society is facing and our environment is facing."
"If I'm going to spend four, five hundred hours working on something, I want it to count. I don't want it to just look pretty."
Art Minute is a CBC Arts series taking you inside the minds of Canadian artists to hear what makes them tick and the ideas behind their work.