ART Habens Art Review, Winter 2015

Winter 2015

H A B E N S

ZOITA JENNII BOOTH DAVID GRANADOS MARIJA GRADEČAK SANDRA HUNTER GEMMA PEPPER ALEKSANDR TISHKOV CECILIA NERCASSEAU GIBSON Gemma Pepper (United Kingdom / Switzerland) Self portrait, 2014

ART H A B E N S C o n t e m p o r a r y

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We are glad to announce the winners of the third edition of ART Habens: this season edition has focused on a recurrent paradox in contemporary art: the vague and ambiguous but thoroughly entrenched boundaries between the different practices of new media.

In particular, we have selected artists dealing with process-driven changes in our society, who pair their observations with new media technologies to produce their art projects: this competition aims to give the impetus and opportunity to artists (fine art, media, architecture, design, music, theatre, visual communication etc.) to work between the boundaries of Contemporary Art. arthabens@mail.com

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Gemma Pepper (United Kingdom) "Photography is my passion and shapes nearly every aspect of my life. I am inspired to create images in order to receive a better understand myself and of reality. I seek the stories untold and the uncommon in the common.

My subject matter focuses on the institutional space and the relationship between social control, social structure and the preconceived notions that surround particular institutions.

The series “Gaol� was created in The Galleries of Justice Museum in Nottingham which was once a working prison and now functions as an educational experience and considers the history of British prisons in the 18th century. "

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Sandra Hunter (USA) "Poetry and photography are combined to access layers of response to written and visual languages.

The text leads the viewer into the image and captures how visual and written languages overlap. The photograph and the poem move between each other, between the viewer and the poem, and between the viewer and the photograph. Women are often victims, not just of past events, but of societal messages that may cause them to believe that they are still victims."

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Zoita (Romania) One concept consists of many ideas. These ideas are sorted, redefined, contextualized in such a way that in the end of the process, the message is unique, clear and consistent.

Based on this small scheme I commence by defining concepts and ideas.

I like to think of myself as a hybrid, ambivert artist. My concepts are sought both in people and myself, and then, through analysis, they get shaped in different ways. When I start a new project I pre-set all elements necessary for keeping the red tape of my inner states and ideas, for documentation, music and light, atmosphere and silence.

Marija Gradečak

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(Slovenia) As a person who aspires to integrate my way of living and thinking into my work, I very much care about my own growth and development, that is what becomes very important – and not stagnation.

I put myself into each and every project I start and, at the same time, I also try to open some new fields that are yet to be explored and given my “existentialist's” criticism.

Cecilia Nercasseau Gibson

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(Chile) The most important part of the projects is the context. The way how the person will interact with the environment. From the place the idea come out. The ideas are always based on a concept, an experience, an observation that then takes form to realize the intention.

Somehow I start from the vacuum, the space, to transform it in outline, into the guide, into the full.When an idea occurs to me it is almost instant, becomes the intention and then I think how could achieve it in the most effective way formally.

David Granados

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(El Salvador / Belgium) David Granados works with fragments of very concrete reality which he reorganizes within a certain construction. In this process, intuition and coincidence play an important role.

The fragments used originate from seemingly worthless, often thrown away items from everyday life, such as magazine ‘rippings', leftover posters and other materials. But they all constitute our daily environment.

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(United Kingdom) Jennii Booth is an emerging artist specializing in drawing, photography & videoart.She also occasionally dabbles in painting, but avoids Printmaking and sculpture when possible.

Some of her favourite artists include Wolfgang Tillmans, Hundertwasser, Eggleston and David Shrigley.Jennii has an honours bachelor of visual art & a bachelor of education. Currently living in London, UK and working as an art teacher.

Aleksandr Tishkov (Estonia) As for the artist, especially for painter the main aim for me is the colour and form.Every physical object that exists has its own light mixed with the colours and light that comes from surroundings, especially the light that comes from people and nature, since they have protogenic origins of existence in space.And the form is opportunity to define and emphasize this light on surface. These subjects became the headline of my research about influence of light and color of our perceptions.

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Gemma Pepper Pepper Photography is my passion and shapes nearly every aspect of my life. I am inspired to create images in order to receive a better understand myself and of reality. I seek the stories untold and the uncommon in the common.

My subject matter focuses on the institutional space and the relationship between social control, social structure and the preconceived notions that surround particular institutions. The series “Gaol” was created in The Galleries of Justice Museum in Nottingham which was once a working prison and now functions as an educational experience and considers the history of British prisons in the 18th century.

The traditional role of the museum in today’s society is to collect items, specific objects with cultural or historical importance. These objects are preserved and maintained and presented to the public to educate and as a pleasurable experience.

I have attempted to document the arrangements of items and objects in this staged setting in order to slow down the viewing process of the image and to question the preconceived notions of looking at a photograph Living in a hyper real world that moves along side as at an exceptional speed, we repeatedly get a feeling of disorientation and false reassurance as we try to adjust to a post-modern society in which the boundaries between image and referent, reality and appearance are uncertain. Unlike in traditional photography in which an instant of reality and the so called objective truth is recorded, these recorded Mise en Scenes deal with the theatre of the constructed space and aim to present a platform in which the border between reality and fiction are blurred.

The camera functions as a tool to observe and explore the constructed, theatrical settings. A play of light, shadow, empty spaces, textures and the artefacts of the museum results in a balance act that captures the essence and mood of the constructed spaces which could be viewed as a “reflection on solitude” in a minimalist approach.

I draw inspiration from various sources, including art, music, poetry, paintings and in recent years the idea that reality is not as it appears to be, life is not about what we see but about how we see it. James Casebere and Lori Nix are two artists that deal with this construction of new realities. Focused on photographing 3D models in architectural settings, these artists create non-traditional photography by constructing theatrical environments and photographing them to appear realistic and in doing they question the conventional myth of the photograph being the objective truth. „I believe in the invisible. I do not believe in the definitive reality of things around us. For me, reality is the intuition and the imagination and the quiet voice inside my head that says: isn’t that extraordinary? The things in our lives are the shadows of reality, just as we ourselves are shadows“.

From "Forgotten Spaces" 2012 Photography No 1

Ralph Eugene Meatyyard

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video, 2013

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untitled 2013 collage

From "Gaol" 2013 Photography

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Gemma Pepper

An interview with An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator

As soon as I had got to know Gemma Pepper's works, I have been struck with the way her refined Photography goes beyond the boundaries of common perception: the production parameters of the medium itself, such as its ability to capture minute details as well as the technical possibilities of the long take, mark out her aesthetic. Hello Gemma, and a warm welcome to ART Habens: to start this interview would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and you hold a Bachelor (hons) of Fine Art Photography that you recently received from the Derby University: how much has this experience influenced the way you currently produce your artworks and has impacted on your evolution as an artist?

First of all thank you for inviting me to be part of this new edition of Art Habens Art Review.

I graduated with a first Bachelor (Hons) from Derby University in June 2013, during my time at art college in North Wales and University I had great pleasure experimenting with various types and genres of photography.

I feel privileged to have gained a deeper understanding of art during my studies alongside some amazing tutors such as Tom Wood, Tim Williams and Graham Hembrough at Llandrillo College in Rhos on Sea, North Wales who amongst many other talented artists and mentors have given me a great foundation to start my career as a fine art photographer.

Gemma Pepper

with the world. I became interested in the medium of photography as a teenager, starting out by documenting family, friends and my surroundings; although by the age of 20 I knew I wanted to become a photographer it took me nearly ten years to actually begin my studies.

However my greatest influence regarding my work derives from my late grandfather David Arthur Rogers and his practice using the medium of photography and oil based paint. We are a family of artists and my earliest memories include painting and drawing with him and my mother and his landscapes of North Wales still inspire me today.

Obviously art at school was my favourite lesson and my destination was probably set the day my teacher exhibited some of my work in the school hallways. That was when I knew my goal was to exhibit my work in galleries and other public places in the future in order to share my work

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks?

In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much

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From "Gaol" 2013 Photography

From "Gaol" 2013 Photography

preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

Usually it will take me several months to fully develop a project although the length of time put into my research and collection of ideas can vary greatly. The largest part of my work “Gaol” consisted of such research and preparation. I enjoy diving into a project with an open mind, “feeling” locations by spending time there and imagining what can be taken from these places I visit, when I have some ideas and have collected the relevant background of the locations, the practical work begins.

What I have learned during the various projects I created while studying is to follow a certain organised style of working. The focus lies on detailed, exact compositions, which emphasise, texture, light, shadow and the objects within the frames. Technically I mastered the art of correct exposures in difficult lighting situations using long exposures. In terms of the editing and selecting process I am quite a perfectionist and very particulate. I like to take my time over a period of weeks revisiting the images and focusing on creating certain connections on a deeper level between each photograph in a series.

After several preparation shoots I will select the best frames, sometimes sketch out an idea and then revisit the settings with an exact idea of what objects, subjects and places I wish to document and in what way.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Gaol, an extremely interesting series that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to

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From "Gaol" 2013 Photography Winter 2015

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are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a wayto decipher them.

Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

our readers to visit your website directly at http://www.gemmapepper.com in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project?

What was your initial inspiration?

The greatest impact and inspiration for the series “Gaol” have come from my own personal experiences. Reflecting on the beginning of the project I feel this work forced me to look at some of my greatest fears in life. I strongly believe that for many people art functions as a way to not only express one’s self but is also a beneficial way to work through past traumas and challenging situations.

This idea of information and idea’s encrypted into images played a large part in my dissertation and my final year at university.

I spent months looking at the way we perceive an image and how much it can vary from person to person.

I feel as though art is the perfect way to express one’s inner nature, yes there are codes and information in my work “Gaol” but I would never try to push my interpretation onto anyone. Only very few people know what the certain objects or compositions in my series symbolically mean to me and I am content to leave it that way.

Initial inspirations derived from poems I wrote and the project I was working on in preparation to “Gaol”. The series “Forgotten Spaces” is a series of photographs I created in derelict spaces in the UK at the beginning of my last year at University in 2012. It forms the starting point for my meticulous approach to exploring intentionally and unintentionally staged locations. These places I photographed reminded me that there is beauty everywhere we look even in decay and darkness. While I was working on “Forgotten Spaces”, new ideas were forming in my mind and during the post production work I came up with the idea of creating “Gaol”.

With regards to Gaol, you have once remarked that the real is made unreal again with harmonious results... In your investigation about the blurred boundaries between Reality and Fiction, I can recognize that your approach reveals a desire to create a concrete aesthetic from imagination: at the same time, I daresay that you seem to suggest an investigation about the oniric dimension of the way we perceive the environment... so I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

Although these locations and institutions are no longer used for the initial purpose, I found buildings that were a very close representation to those prisons that once existed and became fascinated by the idea of creating images that would challenge the way we perceived a photograph. I photographed many such locations but the most interesting place was The Galleries of Justice in Nottingham which became the setting for the series “Gaol”.

I am open to all forms of creative processes and yes I am sure it is possible to create some kind of “disconnected” art however I am not sure what the impact of this art would be. Art that has been created based on personal experiences, situations or past trauma, has in my opinion a deeper level to it, a deepness which lacks in a standard landscape for example, except of course if you are Ansel Adams.

One of the features of Gaol that have particularly impacted on me is the way you have been capable of bringing a new level of significance to the an image, and I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense your works force the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive not only the outside world, but our inner dimension... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas

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From "Gaol" 2013 Photography Winter 2015

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Another interesting series of yours that has impressed me and that on which I would like to spend some words is entitled Ballenberg: I can notice that the pieces from this interesting project are not marked with a strong pictorial sensibility, as the ones that we had admired so far. The focus of the project seems to be the attempt of re-contextualizing the main ideas behind images: you successfully convey the gap between the imagination and experience, underscoring the human subjectivity and individual perception at the basis of his work... do you agree with this analysis?

my work. Creating the work titled “Ballenberg” was important to me as I wanted to manufacture a series in Switzerland using similar ideas from my previous work. The constructed spaces in the largest outdoor museum in Switzerland offered some amazing (maybe use 'spectacular' sounds a bit more professional) opportunities to create interesting images and for months I was immersed in the history of the buildings.

Individual perception is always important in my work, I strive to present the viewer with only the most basic information allowing for each person’s imagination to be challenged.

For me art is all about the idea behind the work and the way in which the artist aims to convey the message. Re-contextualising (UK spelling with s not z) forms a large part in all of my projects, I enjoy allowing for varied meanings to

Your works are intrinsically connected with the chance of creating a deep interaction with your viewers, urging them to follow your process and pushing them to not play as a passive audience... By the way, although I'm aware that this might sound a bit naïf, I have

From "Forgotten Spaces" 2012 Photography No 2

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Sandra Hunter

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onetwo, from the series inside/out

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From "Ballenberg / Constructed Spaces" 2014

From "Ballenberg / Constructed Spaces" 2014

Photography "Lebertran"

Photography "Tinte"

Another interesting series of yours that has impressed me and that on which I would like to spend some words is entitled Ballenberg: I can notice that the pieces from this interesting project are not marked with a strong pictorial sensibility, as the ones that we had admired so far. The focus of the project seems to be the attempt of recontextualizing the main ideas behind images: you successfully convey the gap between the imagination and experience, underscoring the human subjectivity and individual perception at the basis of his work... do you agree with this analysis?

part in all my projects; I enjoy allowing for varied meanings to my work. Creating the work titled “Ballenberg� was important to me as I wanted to manufacture a series in Switzerland using similar ideas from my previous work.

The constructed spaces in the largest outdoor museum in Switzerland offered some spectacular opportunities to create interesting images and for months I was immersed in the history of the buildings. Individual perception is always important in my work; I strive to present the viewer with only the most basic information allowing for each person’s imagination to be challenged.

For me art is all about the idea behind the work and the way in which the artist aims to convey the message. Re-contextualising forms a large

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Your works are intrinsically connected with the chance of creating a deep interaction with your viewers, urging them to follow your

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Sandra Hunter

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onetwo, from the series inside/out

From "Ballenberg / Constructed Spaces" 2014 21 06 4

Winter 2015 Photography "Kuhglocken"

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process and pushing them to not play as a passive audience... By the way, although I'm aware that this might sound a bit naïf, I have to admit that I'm sort of convinced that Art especially nowadays- could play an effective role in sociopolitical questions: not only just by offering to people a generic platform for expression... I would go as far as to state that Art could even steer people's behaviour... what's your point about this? Does it sound a bit exaggerated?

The main goal of creating my work is to provoke a deeper interaction with the viewers and to touch people on an emotional level, although I wouldn’t want to push or force them into perceiving the images as I do. That is one of the reasons why I include only a small amount of information in form of text or titles to describe an image. I am convinced that art is one of the greatest platforms in order to “steer” people’s behaviour although I prefer to distance myself from influencing anyone too much with my work.

Now I would like to pose you some questions about the relation with your audience. During these years you have been awarded and your works have been exhibited in several occasions: you recently had your solo Ballenberg in Sursee, Switzerland... It goes without saying that feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist: I was just wondering if an award -or just the expectation of positive feedback- could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? I sometimes wonder if it could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art...

I have been lucky to receive many exhibition opportunities, but it also has been very challenging to organise solo shows by myself. The majority of my work was done with little help and the tasks of organising logistics, framing, marketing and presenting the work was never ending, this is one of the reasons why I am currently focusing on more group shows and exhibitions organised by galleries and other similar organisations. The relationship with my audience whilst I am carrying out my work and during an exhibition is important to me and I have been very lucky to receive so much positive feedback during my years of studies and after.

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Graduation Exhibition "Best of the Best" University

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Gemma. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

Thank you very much for your interest in my work it was a pleasure taking part in this interview. I am currently working on two new

Gemma Pepper

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of Derby Series "Gaol" May 2013

projects in Switzerland and I am in the stage of research and preparation.

structed spaces are what captivate me the most.

One of the new series will be a follow up on the constructed spaces I have created in “Gaol” and “Ballenberg”.

You are cordially invited to visit my website www.gemmapepper.com and Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/#!/Gemma.Pepper.P hotography where you can find more information and future exhibition dates.

I see my work evolving in a similar style as I have implemented so far as it took me over two years to find what I wanted my work to focus on. I feel that an artist should love their work and still-life photography, architecture and con-

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator arthabens@mail.com

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Sandra Hunter Hunter Poetry and photography are combined to access layers of response to written and visual languages.

By using language in unexpected shapes and places, and placed on a translucent medium, I hope to make language “hang� in the air.

As the viewer looks "through" the language, they see the photograph differently and form their own poem-image relationship.

The text leads the viewer into the image and captures how visual and written languages overlap.

The photograph and the poem move between each other, between the viewer and the poem, and between the viewer and the photograph. Women are often victims, not just of past events, but of societal messages that may cause them to believe that they are still victims.

My work asks for forward motion, for independent decisive first steps, to move beyond the past.

Whatever happened before has the potential to lead to strength, compassion, endurance, and creative light.

These qualities make us capable of anything.

There is only one thing to do: step forward.

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video, 2013

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stretch from the series breakthrough

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An interview with An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator

Hello Sandra, and a warm welcome to ART Habens. To start this interview would you like to tell us something about your background?

Are there any particular experiences that have impacted on you and have influenced the way you currently produce your artworks?

Thank you: it’s an honor to join you here. So, here’s my background. I’m a fiction writer sneaking into strange territory—visual art! I was at a writer’s residency in the Winter of 2012 at the Vermont Studio Center when I first began examining interstitial moments between ice, snow and water.

The writing wasn’t going well. I was experimenting with lifting language off the page.

Was it possible to write further than the margins? Was it possible to remove, pare down narrative to engage the reader more immediately? Was it possible to make the reader forget the act of reading?

I eliminated dialogue tags, articles where possible. I distanced myself from descriptive language. I tried writing beneath the bones of language. Usually, I can sit down and write. This time nothing worked. The story’s first pages stared back at me. Outside my studio, the tempting almost frozen over river was too much to resist. I went out with my camera.

Sandra Hunter

I liked the photographs, but I didn’t know what to do with them. I thought this might just be a way of distracting myself, of using another art medium to find my way back into the story. I wasn’t a visual artist and I didn’t want to become a photographer. And yet, I couldn’t stop taking the pictures. Close-ups of new snow on top of ice, of the iced edges of the river, of the frozen waterfall with water still moving beneath, of melt water moving beneath ice sheets, of deep dental holes, ice-jaws in the river. My pictures became more focused on the intersections of ice, snow and water. It seemed a natural progression since I explore the interplay of tensions in my writing. But I wasn’t interested in writing stories or poems about the pictures. They existed on their own. They depicted something more than narrative or description could provide. They were,

essentially, beyond recognizably sequential language: the sort that makes sentences.

Meanwhile, I got out a drawing pad and sat in front of one of the photographs. I can’t draw either. My drawings are so pathetic that my daughter takes them away and finishes them.

And then the words started coming. When I say they started: they came in single letters, a dental fricative, a plosive, a labial. Perhaps two letters, “sh” or “gr”. I wrote them on the pad where they made their own contours. I wrote without looking down. I stared at the photograph and, for the first time in my life, language arrived without a deliberate cognitive idea. The letters looped in circles, ran across the page, jumped off the page

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without finishing themselves. Sometimes they were only iterations; sometimes they led into words or even rhymes. They never made what I would, in my fiction writer role, think of as “sense”. Now that I’ve been doing this for a while, I can recognize that some of the images’ content correlate to themes in my fiction: the immigrant or outsider, the loss of identity, of home, the edges of experience.

selected the pictures I want, I begin by looking at them, one by one. This takes a while—sometimes weeks—because I have to become the recipient “channel”. This part of the process becomes like a mutual observation. As much as I look at the picture, it also gives back something, something about itself that I have to wait for. Much of this initial stage is observation and waiting: a lot of waiting! I have to get the editing self, the organizing self out of the way and focus completely on the image.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your works? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

As a writer, I craft and manipulate language. It’s vital that the language doesn’t get in the way of the story. My art is similar in that I don’t want the language to get in the way of the picture. Other than that, the process is completely different. I am not in charge of what happens after I start looking at the picture. I have to wait for it to provoke some kind of response. I don’t know

First I take close-up photographs of the intersections of ice, snow and water. After I’ve

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onetwo, from the series inside/out

whether that will be in complete words, phrases, or a reiterating, stuttering letter or series of letters.

from the piece at this stage. It needs to “breathe� by itself.

This leads into the process where the picture begins to evoke letters or words. As I draw them on the pad, I maintain visual contact with the image. This part also varies in length.

Sometimes the stage of transferring the patterns to Illustrator goes quickly. Other times I will make and re-make a line of lettering. I have to be careful not to lose the initial and often ephemeral intention.

Once that stage is complete, I transfer the letter patterns into Adobe Illustrator. In this first draft I have to recognize pattern, intention, what is at the point of departure, but I also must be careful not to force the words or letters to make something. In the second draft, I move the words or letters apart, together. I experiment with opacity, font size, shape. The placing of the text over the image takes time. The text is placed on different layers. This is where the parsing of the piece takes place. I go away a lot

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Inside Out an interesting experimental series that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to visit your website directly at http://sandrahunterportfolio.strikingly.com in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this

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interesting project? What was your initial inspiration?

where they go or how they are broken apart or iterated.

In May 2014, in an Uttar Pradesh village, a gang of men, including two police officers, gangraped two young Dalit girls, strangled them and hung them on a tree. There was widespread outrage, this became a high profile event, and five men were arrested. Initial reports indicated multiple sexual assaults.

In Inside Out you have focused on the rape crisis in India. The x-rays as backgrounds allow to the viewer to identify with the rape victims: as you have remarked, photographs provide a sense of "other", but x-rays can be anyone. I agree with this point and I definitely love the effective social criticism revealed by this work. By the way, although I'm aware that this might sound a bit naïf, I have to admit that I'm sort of convinced that Art -especially nowadays- could play an effective role in sociopolitical questions: not only just by offering to people a generic platform for expression... I would go as far as to state that Art could even steer people's behaviour... what's your point about this?

Does it sound a bit exaggerated?

A November report form India’s Central Bureau of Investigation claims that the girls weren’t raped and murdered, but committed suicide (AFP). This directly contradicts evidence from the initial investigation. There is wide-spread doubt about the CBI report, including the Delhi Commission for Women, the all India Democratic Women’s Association, UP politician Mayawati Kumari (Pokharei and Hunt), the girls’ family and the villagers, including a neighbor who saw the girls being harassed (BBC News Asia). Low-caste women who often face indifference or abuse from police, are particularly vulnerable. Rape and sexual molestation, called “Eve-teasing” or “street harassment”, is endemic. According to Ruchira Gupta of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, “incidents of rape have gone up by 873% in India in the past 60 years” (Gupta).

Art is the axle tree in interpreting, reflecting, refracting, and expanding the discussion of sociopolitical issues. Vik Muniz’s famous examination of the garbage pickers in Jardim Gramacho resulted in a significant sale of art contribution to the rag pickers. It’s fantastic that Muniz is fortunate to have deep pockets and influential contacts so that those who were most in need did benefit.

Why it spoke to me: My writing and art focus on the points of intersection where there is fluctuation in growth and diminishment. The increase or reduction of, for example, power or dominance is constantly in flux. This can be elemental, such as the interplay between ice, snow and water, or human, such as the subjugation of people. This interplay is often clearly demonstrated in sociopolitical issues. As an immigrant with a mixed cultural heritage it feels natural to combine artistic mediums. They inform one another and each supplies what one cannot do alone.

Tammam Azzam explores memory and conflict in the Syrian civil war, and his work will stand as essential sociopolitical commentary. If such artists were introduced to children during elementary education, there is some hope that this next generation’s behavior might be influenced. More often, the reality of sociopolitical artist is to raise consciousness.

Artists reflect their worlds. They may actively seek reaction from the viewer whether the expression is Open or Definitive (Pruitt). My work is more Open Expression. I prefer to allow the viewer to arrive at the piece on their own terms, to have their own interaction, and draw their own conclusion. This may have nothing to do with the rape crisis in India or elsewhere. I only hope that the viewer reaches a some discovery about their world.

Production: Because I wanted the viewer to identify with the image, I used x-rays of my hand and elbow. I incorporated fragments of Hindi nursery rhymes. This is the first time I’ve used words that already exist. However, I process them in the same way as I do with the other images. I may choose a word or two, but the stage of waiting for them to move onto the image is the same. I don’t consciously decide

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Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest make sociopolitical events readily accessible. There’s

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palm, from the series inside/out

made of snow, or a spine made of water running across sand. This seems like a natural progression. Also, I’m running out of x-rays!

They’re hard to access.

immediacy, an excitement, in knowing about something as it happens.

Injustice, such as the current police vs. civilian issue in America, can be made available through a different lens controlled by the public and not the media. This has obvious positive effects, but it can also work negatively, such as jumping to conclusions. This is where the artist is invaluable in integrity, research, judicious observation, in addition to her or his artistic response.

One of the features that has mostly impacted on me of your approach, is the way you have been capable of re-contextualizing the dichotomy between visuals and sound: I would go as far as to state that you Art in a certain sense forces the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive images and our environment... I'm sort of convinced that some informations and

inside/out: I’m expanding this series to include images that are based in nature, such as a skull

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Sandra Hunter

in/sea

ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a wayto decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides

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of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

I hope to use a type or artistic synesthesia to imbricate visuals and the anticipation of

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people have too much time to look for connections where they don’t exist. If you’re looking for patterns, patterns tend to emerge.

I am used to recognizing the borderlands of intersections so I am more attuned to how those manifest. Where I see inadequacy, inconstancy, imbalance, fragility someone else may merely see a hole in the ice. But once I start seeing these things it’s impossible not to: it’s as if I’ve just decoded something. The entire world becomes canted, fragile, and so on. Despite the eye’s obvious desire to see a certain thing, it’s fabulous when it happens—like recognizing fractals for the first time. Metal sculptor Richard Serra re-forms your personal environment as you walk through his huge architectural steel works. It’s been called meditative but I find it exhilarating. I suppose exhilaration might be form of meditation. From one moment to the next you never know are going to feel.

I hope that’s what my art does: by interrupting anticipation the viewer should arrive in the language in that moment. The unexpected placing of words and letters has an interruptive, maybe a disruptive effect. I hope people puzzle over the poems in my work and speak words or collections of letters aloud. They might find connections between those words and other letters, or form their own words and meanings.

Linguistic anarchy! But also an anarchic sense of being freed from predictability.

Another interesting work of yours that has particularly impressed me and on which I would like to spend some words is entitled Spider: in particular, I would like to discuss the way you interrupt the anticipation of language and disrupt the language flow in your work.

We are accustomed to receiving written language in linear forms: the essay, paragraph, sentence, statement and, in the most casual context, a series of letters or numbers in texting. Most studies examine the linearity in the written forms of language that are completely unlike the spoken forms. With linearity comes the anticipation of meaning. Anticipation is part of human survival. A says to B: “I could really go for a nice …” And B says: “cup of tea”. It depends on who A is. For example, if A is Ghengis Khan, the

articulated sound. I love this idea of hidden or encrypted, perhaps even semiotic ideas. At one weird end of the spectrum we have the theory that Taylor Swift is a free-mason. Perhaps some

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spider from the series breakthrough

blank might be filled with “massacre”. If A is President Obama, the blank might be filled with “peaceful day in Congress”. The anticipation of meaning may involve knowledge of the other

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person and common associations that allow us to finish each other’s sentences or predict conversational patterns. We also rely on knowledge of idioms specific to the culture. The

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street names, freeway signs, traffic and building signs, and international symbols, such as bathroom signs. This isn’t a matter of reading, which would take too long: but of instant recognition. It’s received and processed in milliseconds. A pivotal moment for me as a writer came with the realization that writing didn’t have to be on the page but could be viewed in more than one dimension. Numerous forms of language, including spoken, body, and gesture, have multi-dimensional and crossdimensional impacts on sensory and intellectual responses. This helps us question where we are, in what strata we move, and how we connect and react to our worlds, and to others’ worlds.

By introducing language interruptively/disruptively I hope to break up existing ways of receiving language and force the viewer to slow down, to have awareness of language portals and to arrive, finally, at the image. The text leads the viewer into the image and back again. The overlap makes the viewer question how visual and written languages overlap. The photograph and the poem move between each other, between the viewer and the poem, and between the viewer and the image.

Multidisciplinarity is a crucial aspect of your art practice: you work with close-up digital photography layered with text printed on clear acrylic sheets. If I have been asked to sum up in a single word your artistic production, I would say that it's kaledoiscopic... while crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a symbiosis between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

Because artistic mediums overlap, art is frequently and naturally multidisciplinary.

Rhythms, colors, and patterns in one may easily manifest in another. Because writing often doesn’t precisely express the imprecision I need it to, I use it in a more imagistic way. That sounds pretentious. So, in certain ways language can be precise. For the moment, let’s leave aside using language as emotional camouflage, or struggling to convey difficult ideas!

perception and processing of language happens very quickly. Other than formal reading, we experience and process other types of language reception constantly: advertising, signage such as

For example, let’s look at nouns. You use the word bread. To you, it means Bauernbrot. To me it means Focaccia. We are consistent.

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lunar ranger, from the series breakthrough

Bread will always mean Bauernbrot or Focaccia whether it is midnight on Monday or Midsummer madness. But the image is mutable. It has moods and shadows and languages that are not

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articulated. There are moments certain parts of it are clearer than others. Image is unique in this way. It may have a title but it will be a different image to virtually everyone. Image becomes

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languages. This layering is a way to help us slow down and see, to question where we are and how we connect and react to our worlds. It is a kind of meshing where one meets the other, allowing each to be its own entity but simultaneously creating a dual identity.

I daresay that your works, as the interesting Stand in Grass, often refer to what I would define our immanent reality: so, is in your opinion personal experience an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process? Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

The fiction writer would tell you that it’s perfectly possible. “Write what you know” is a common saying, but it’s more interesting to write what you don’t know. You discover so much more. So it becomes a combination of what you know, for example, writing in sentences, with what you don’t know: writing in half-phrases to discover and express raw experience.

Making these art works definitely comes from what I don’t know. I’m making it up as I go. The decision to place the text on clear acrylic sheets came from the need for dimension and a slowing down.

I approach my work from the liminal. Being of mixed race provides an interesting perspective.

Nothing is complete. Everything is seen from the edge, the beginning, the portal. Sometimes it’s like standing at the back of a crowd, not knowing what’s happening onstage. This allows a focus on the energy of what is about to happen.

During these years your works have been exhibited in several occasions and you recently took part to the Dublin Biennial. It goes without saying that feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist: I was just wondering if an award -or just the expectation of positive feedbackcould even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? I sometimes wonder if it could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art...

something else again with the addition of language.

I layer language over image as a way to access layers of response to written and visual

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Captions

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On a practical level, the relationship between business and Art is necessary.

In this sense, it’s genuine. I’ve only received one award and that was so elevating! However, in America there aren’t many awards and grants that actually support an artist, especially an emerging artist.

However, someone may use a specific project that is or was received well in order to generate future cash flow. I don’t know that it necessarily influences their art or art trajectory. For me, positive feedback is encouraging, especially when it facilitates the next artistic step, but it doesn’t influence my process. I truly love hearing from people.

It’s always fascinating to hear what other people get—or don’t—from the pieces.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Sandra.

Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

I’d like to work with installation. I have a project outline for an image to be wallpapered around a room. Projectors placed at the center of the room at ceiling height would beam the series of words and letters onto the steam.

Viewers would walk through the steam/language to the image and back.

Another project is a collaboration with with a dancer/choreographer. The image would be projected onto the back of the stage and over the wings or, if outdoors, on buildings or on traffic. Words would be projected from smaller projectors and the dancers would move through them.

Thank you so much for this opportunity!

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator arthabens@mail.com

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Zoita “I am an artist. To describe myself and my relationship with art, I would say that myart is based on sincerity. I paint what my eyes see, what I feel and what I think ofthe world. Inspired by these things, I produce art without following a certainstylistic line. My image as an artist is one of continuous change of opinions. I liketo live my experiences and translate them into art. I see the world in colors,silencing it through black and white and then letting it scream through sound, imageand color. Myself and the world are ONE.'

Selected solo shows & personal projects: 2014 - “ Geometrical Perseption” paintings, 30202 Gallery, Bucharest RO 2013 – “That hands that are not mine” performance @ GoldenFrame, 30202 Gallery, Curator: MihaiZgondoiu, Bucharest, RO “Wings for Paradise” Paintings TCI, Victoria Plaza, Bucharest, RO “ The hands that are not mine” Atelier 030202 Bucharest, RO “Open Air Art Street Museum” POP UP Bucharest, RO “Ciclop Street Art Project”, Work in Progress 3, Bucharest, RO 2012 – “Painting series at Tempo Art Gallery, Bucharest, RO "To much skin for a hard life" performance, Bucharest, RO 2011 ”Perspective” Irecson Institute, Bucharest, RO “I am” Romanian Embassy, Washington, USA “Identitati” French Institute, Bucharest, RO

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An interview with An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator

As soon as I have got to know Zoita's works, I have been struck with the way she goes beyond the boundaries of common perception, getting it free from its most primordial parameters: by avoiding to focus on a single discipline, she successfully breaks down the intrinsic barriers that often prevent people to snatch the spirit of a work of Art...

Hello Zoita, and a warm welcome to ART Habens. To start this interview would you like to tell us something about your background?

You have a solid multidisciplinary training, both in Painting and in Design and you hold a Master Degree from Academy of Visual Arts “N. Grigorescu”: how much has this experience impacted on the way you currently produce your artworks and on your evolution as an artist?

I’d like to start by thanking you for the opportunity to be together at ART Habens!

For starters, I confess my stylistic diversity roots in the continuous change and the pleasure that comes with it, feature which I believe is native.

Due to the social background I’ve had when shifting from childhood to adolescence - in the period of the Romanian Revolution from 1989 this desire, which I try to express in my projects, is basically encrypted in my memory.

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mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

Academia disciplined me regarding my appetency for knowledge. It is important to know which is the first book one will read. I remember my childhood mostly spent in libraries…

One concept consists of many ideas. These ideas are sorted, redefined, contextualized in such a way that in the end of the process, the message is unique, clear and consistent. Based on this small scheme I commence by defining concepts and ideas.

Through knowledge, I manage to accomplish the concepts, as I desire. Each discipline of art, be it painting, photography, video, performance, graphics or drawing, becomes an instrument in the equation of my art.

I like to think of myself as a hybrid, ambivert artist.

My concepts are sought both in people and myself, and then, through analysis, they get shaped in different ways. When I start a new project I pre-set all elements necessary for keeping the red tape of my inner states and ideas, for documentation, music and light, atmosphere and silence.

This pursuit to learn and experiment defines me, offering the freedom to be myself completely in each creative process.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you

Working means for me isolation from the daily environment. I hunger for art and myself. After having completed my projects, I return to people.

Regarding my art, I find time highly relative.

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Depending on the chosen subject, I can burn spontaneously or extend the time for creation in a painfully pleasant manner.

I am permanently attracted by humane / social, by powerful feelings, forces, limits and change as a continuously process.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Wings of Paradise, an extremely interesting series that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit your website directly at http://www.zoita.ro in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration?

“Wings of Paradise” is inspired from a particular aspect of my life and also from the way I connect to the existence. I feel both artist and woman and naturally, I’ve always differentiated between the two aspects of my identity. As an artist, I am not woman, nor man - I don’t have a sexual identity. Thus, I can love the world as it is, without being biased.

In this project I created an interior bridge (symbolised by wings) between the two personalities, Paradise representing the interior peace given by this process of symbiosis between my art with my femininity, in which creation is my child, transposed as paper aeroplanes that transcend from me towards ether (the work Genesis from the series Wings of Paradise).

I have been particularly impressed with the way you have been capable of bringing a new level of significance to the image, re-contextualizing the ideas behind it: and I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense your works force the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive not only the outside world, but our inner dimension...

By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some information & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we

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live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them. Maybe one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

I invite the audience to regard beyond the descriptivism of the image and not reduce their analysis to a first impression. In this process, first, we must desire to get to know ourselves. It is not comfortable to accept our lack of knowledge and prepare for knowledge and the change of your own landmarks.

I’m glad we share the same idea! Nature, in general has multiple meanings. Beyond its image we find hidden messages – multiple truths – which I call universal matrix.

One cannot contemplate art without reading him / herself beyond body and state of the soul. Selfknowledge is an important matrix in this infinite chain of existence.

Such universal matrix are those landmarks that define sequentially identity elements linked to existence in general: “the inner self”, “belief”, “evolution”, “change”, “time”, “feeling”, “construction and reconstruction”, “concept / idea”, “knowledge”, “dimension”, and so on.

I’ve always built my artistic demarche based on these ideas, and desire that the audience will read and feel what I hid in my work.

Nature is in a continuous change, becoming itself matrix. Ever since the beginnings of art, artists had embedded beyond images truths meant to be discovered through contemplation.

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Multidisciplinarity is a crucial aspect of your art practice: your approach ranges from painting to performance and video as well as

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Captions

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street art. Moreover, you are also a performer, and I would take this occasion to introduce our readers to your recent When Black Means Mistery, a recent project in which you explore Organic Art: if I have been asked to sum up in a single word your artistic production, I would say that it's kaledoiscopic... while crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a symbiosis between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

I am a multidisciplinary artist.

I find important in designing my own concepts the need for documentation regarding the symbiosis of the chosen artistic processes to express the message, and also the design of a strategy for knowledge and assimilation of such manners.

This “growing” process is assumed in my solo projects. I my solo projects in which I combine disciplines (The hands that are not mine – video, street art & performance) the splitting process has an important role. I also use this process in self-analysis.

Regarding organic work, my need of assimilation leads to a near symbiosis. In my project “When Black Means Mystery” I develop this synergy that leads to multi-disciplinarity.

A first step in this direction is represented by the performance I made in the beginning of 2014, whose photographic document is presented here to your audience. My interest for organic art will continue, with volumetric painting, organic street art, video experiments and performances.

Related to my performances, I allow myself the pleasure of not knowing what I will do, until the moment I start the performance. I let the emotions of the beginning to guide the entire moment. Often I am asked before the event what I will do and I always answer: “I don’t want to know.”

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Dealing with another multidisciplinary project entitled The hands that are not mine, what has mostly impacted on me is the way this work express a deep symbiosis between apparently different art practices: you have created this interesting work of Live Art with Sorin Rotaru... I do believe that interdisciplinary collaboration today is an ever growing force in Contemporary Art and that that most exciting things happen when creative minds from different fields of practice meet and collaborate on a project... could you tell us something about this effective synergy? By the way, I can clearly remember the well-known Peter Tabor's quote, when he remarked that "collaboration is working together with another to create something as a synthesis of two practices, that alone one could not": what's your point about this? Can you explain how your work demonstrates communication between several artists?

I find collaboration with artists from other art fields, a natural option. It is interesting for me to meet different visions on the same subject and reach a perfect homogenization of content with others through exclusion of my ego.

Again, in The hands that are not mine, I collaborated with Sorin Rotaru. This project is part of Golden Frame series, whose curator is Mihai Zgondoiu, manager at Atelier 030202, visual artist.

Working together with Sorin was memorable.

Each part of music, performance, video and stencil have been homogenised out of hand, based on a studied improvisation. We allowed ourselves to not have studied each other’s work.

It was wonderful how we “met” stylistically and aligned to each other.

I also worked together with Anda Bolohan – photographer (When Black Means Mystery, The Hands That Are Not Mine), Franz Galo – painter and photographer (discussions, working together in the studio), Dragos Dumitrescu – photographer (Dualism – project in progress) and with many other artists in collective projects and expositions.

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Your works are intrinsically connected with the chance of creating a deep interaction with your viewers, urging them to follow your process and pushing them to not play as a passive audience... By the way, although I'm aware that this might sound a bit naĂŻf, I have to admit that I'm sort of convinced that Art -especially nowadays- could play an effective role in sociopolitical questions: not only just by offering to people a generic platform for expression... I would go as far as to state that Art could even steer people's behaviour... what's your point about this?

Does it sound a bit exaggerated?

humane, and bring it closer to its roots. Art, generally speaking and social art in particular, will always be a means of communication, of liaison. Art represents an image of the actual society. An eternal source of inspiration, the world from within and outside ourselves, will be profoundly reflected in art. One cannot ignore these facts.

Your question leads me to the thought of conceptual differences between the image of violence and the violence of the image. It is important to delicately set bounds between the subject of our art (the image of violence) and the general message perceived by the audience (the violence of the image). It is my belief that this difference has the greatest impact in shaping up the behaviour of a society.

I like to believe that the audience can’t simply stay passive to my work, the themes and subjects being chosen to raise awareness of the

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I have highly appreciated the way your approach reveals a desire to create a concrete aesthetic from memories: at the same time, I daresay that some of your previous works, as the ones from the stimulating Motherland series seems to suggest an investigation about the onirical dimension of the way we perceive the environment... so I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

I believe that art in its evolution, made this disconnection between the creative process and the direct experience, more and more possible.

In lack of a direct experience, documenting over social collective memoires manages to fill in and plays a decisive role in the creative process.

Motherland is the result of such documenting regarding the evolution of the main political doctrines and the impact they had on the social environment. The concept of the project reminds us of the socially cyclic character which marks the beginning and the end of flagship political regimes.

In 1989, I lived the Romanian revolution over the communist totalitarian regime. In my vision, Motherland involves two forces: that of the dictator – hunter and that of the collective masses, represented by the symbol of the deer – hunted.

These two forces are complementary, and generate a continuous exchange of roles: the deer become hunters and the hunter, hunted.

Now I would like that you tell us something about the evolution of your "palette": in particular I noticed that the recurring use of dark tones seems to create such a prelude to bright colors, a feature that suggests me an intense struggle, but at the same time gives me a sensation of balance between opposite forces that gives life and especially dynamism to the canvas, in a way that has reminded me the so called de-subjectivisation of the brush stroke eloquently expressed by the British painter Merlin Carpenter...

In this step of my career, I find myself more sincere in black and white, and I am looking to express a monochromic coherence, counterbalanced by diversified techniques. For the moment I rediscover myself in the powerful contrasts between black and

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feedback of your audience? I sometimes wonder if it could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art...

white and tonalities of grey. I am very careful with balancing between them. My chromatic quest represents a triumph to the powerful emotions who have followed me so far.

Momentarily, I am monochrome …..

Feedback can influence an artist’s work; however this depends on his level of confidence in his work. I remember my project Bazu from a few years ago; people did not understand why I was painting in that violent, “grotesque” manner. However, I kept painting in that style, knowing that it was what I wanted to experiment and it was bringing me joy. Time passed and years later opinions positively changed. As the artist must be prepared to understand certain processes and aesthetic philosophies, so must the public, in order to understand the artistic approach.

Now, as usual, I would pose you some questions about your relation with your audience. During your over fifteen years career your works have been extensively exhibited in several occasions and you had more than sixteen solos... It goes without saying that feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist: I was just wondering if an award -or just the expectation of positive feedback- could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the

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Currently I enjoy the appreciation my works get.

Beyond this feedback lies a lot of work in relation to the visibility I have, the cultural policy built around me and the merits of my work.

Connection between art and its specific business can be in harmony if it based on cultural and aesthetic education, as well as freedom of expression.

Iordan. I will continue the project When Black Means Mystery by shifting from performance to canvas. I will finalize my project Pattern, with a political subject, using painting with resin.

Regarding short films, I plan on having one related to Copsa Mica former industrial plant. By the end of 2015 I will exhibit two video installations projects: Mobile Plugging and Moonlight.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Zoita. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects. How do you see your work evolving?

2015 will be a year full of textural and organic experiments. This spring I prepare a new solo exhibition in Paris, where I will expose organic street art paintings, whose curator is Anca

In the end, I’d like to thank you for the interview and the way it was made; it is a great joy to see how close ART Habens is to me and my art.

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator arthabens@mail.com

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Marija Gradečak As a person who aspires to integrate my way of living and thinking into my work, I very much care about my own growth and development, that is what becomes very important – and not stagnation. I put myself into each and every project I start and, at the same time, I also try to open some new fields that are yet to be explored and given my “existentialist's” criticism.

Conversation I have with myself in a way of brainstorming is an unavoidable part of the process so I can easily say that “Zebra” is nothing but a natural consequence. In my previous works I was concerned with animation of space, performances and installations that undoubtedly found their spiritus movens in hinduism and budhism, although, I have to admit, any kind of emphasizing and labeling of orientation is not my cup of tea. By reading the books of mentioned religions I found some intriguing symbols that inspired me to add to my ideas some deeper meaning and message.

Sometimes they come in a form of a mythical creature, sometimes in symbolics of c colours and at times even through a geographical location.

The idea transforms into a form, enters the space and becomes a part of some new tale of some abstract realization. “Zebra” project is connected to my other authorial projects of a similar topics but is different in realization

project "Zebra", public installation in Varaždin (Cro

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An interview with An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator

Hello Marija, and a warm welcome to ART Habens. To start this interview would you like to tell us something about your background?

In particular, you have a solid formal training Bachelors of Fine Art in Interior Design, that you received from the Famul Stuart School of Applied Arts, in Ljubljana: how much does this experience impact on the way you conceive your works and on your evolution as an artist?

Thank you for inviting me. The very process of creative artistic expression, from its idea to realization, has been something I thought about and nurture since my earliest age. As a child, I used to think of ways to keep my talents together, to combine them somehow, and not to separate them. I could say that were “sweet” worries that projected an honest wish into the reality of life and also into my later professional concern about something I like most – the art.

With years, of course, certain ideas get filtered, especially when you are institutionally guided. I believe theoretical knowledge is definitely needed to be able to transform an idea into a working process. Otherwise, the whole presentation becomes nothing but a bad picture of us. Professional knowledge I attained through schooling can be seen best in ways I approach my projects, in technicalities like analyzing, developing of presenting. But creativity itself, I believe, is something you cannot learn. The need to express ourselves is not conditioned by theoretical knowledge as it is exclusively the freedom of unlimited ideas. Therefore, I could say, regardless of my college training, I genuinely started enjoying my creativity after graduation. All that was just a process of maturity when many crucial realizations were gained, and which eventually set me off into a “dangerous artists’ crowd”.

Marija Gradečak

Marija Gradečak was born on 8th April 1986 in Varaždin ( Croatia ) where she completed her elementary and secondary schooling. After graduating from high school she went to study History of Art at the Faculty of Philosophy in Ljubljana ( Slovenia ) and graduated in Interior design at Famul Stuart School of Applied Arts.

During her college years starts her long lasting fascination and experimenting with recycled materials leading to her brand of unique products and accessories made from leather. Innovative in recycling pieces of old furniture she also expresses her creativity through interior design. Conceptualism as a main theme is present in all her work, in product design as well as in visual arts in which she incorporates her own poetry and writing. By observing deeply ingrained dogmas, she trys to play with people's perceptions and through indirect criticism provoke and prove a possibility of avoiding and challenging conventions.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your works? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation

Her expression through words, palpable materials and concepts, is a reflection of her profound and complex need for expressing herself through different media.

At the moment her work is focused on product design, making of tapestries, from art installations to the unique and commercial carpets made from wool.

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and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

It all depends on the way and the media of expression. If we consider product design, the start is an idea that I work out in detail by investigating... Before the process of manufacturing, the whole project i.e. all its necessary aspects must be distinctively set up and the message it brings must be clear. It should also be precisely technically defined, because there is no room for improvising once the manufacturing starts. When there is an inspiration to write poetry, I usually let the words freely flow onto the paper. What comes out are very personal inner feelings and reflections on current life situations. I could say they are the needs of accumulated and unspoken to come out and bring a relief. When I recycle objects, be it a piece of furniture or some fabrics, the approach is quite different. I let the material, the shape or their associations to guide me first. Only after I know what I want to achieve or what the idea I want to convey is. In that process I allow myself no limitation, and without any previously made sketches I let my hands to be freely led only by momentary inspiration. And if I design an interior for a client, I give my suggestion first and then, in agreement with a client, the realization of the project starts. Here, the creativity is sometimes limited by given space conditions.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Zebra an interesting experimental project that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to visit your website directly ( www.marijagradecak.com ) in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration?

project "Zebra", exhibition "O za osmijeh" in Split (Croatia),

a possibility. I added symbolism to it, or so to say, integrated a higher meaning, only to induce them to think about themselves and about the amount of quality time they spare on themselves daily.

One of the features that has mostly impacted on me of your approach, is the way you have been capable of giving a new life to recycled materials, as old stories that rebirth in the present: and I would go as far as to state that you Art in a certain sense forces the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive symbols as well as our environment in general... I'm sort of convinced

The idea initially sprang out of the awareness how alienated from each other we became, and how genuine life rituals are lost in our day-to-day fight for survival in this money-oriented world. Thinking about how to make people stop and take some minutes for themselves to relax and reflect, the idea of an “attractive� chair or a seat came out as

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recognized in their full capacity or meaning.

Because of my “professional conditioning” I recognize symbols everywhere, and then I transform my impression into some material form. I believe the role of an artist is an endless investigation into and acceptance of Nature as our spiritus movens. Our perceptive abilities deposit all received information and process the idea that later becomes a stylization of what was seen.

Artistic creativity should be neither superficial nor some aesthetically oriented way to use “colors and techniques”. It is all about an honest search for the secret bond that connects our inner Nature with the world around us. Every single piece of my work is a reflection of the relationship that forms between me and the object that inspired me, and sometimes they are just symbols of the moments that made a significant impact on me. In my opinion, art has an endless possibility to be a critic, a teacher, a good or a bad picture of society. The understanding of artists’ messages can be a reflection of one’s own state of mind and can lead to a completely different realm of comprehension. That is the interaction process we look for.

Your work is intrinsically connected to the American Idol, chance of creating a lively interaction withdetail your audience, and as you have remarked once, the aim of the Zebra project is to become a selfconscious being... So I daresay that it reveals such an Ariadne's thread that lead the viewers to evolve from a passive audience to an actively involved part of the piece of Art itself... so I would ask you if in your opinion personal experience an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process, I mean both for conceiving a piece and for enjoying it... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

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that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them.

Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

I would say – creative process is necessary. Only that here the question is what a “creative process” means to different people and what it contains?

Take my Zebra project for example: there would be a possibility of interactive exchange even if a plain, common chair was placed at desired public spot, containing the same message. But the creative process took me a few steps forward to conclude that in a mass of what is available and already seen, a common chair is just another everyday

First of all I would like to say that I always start from within myself and make the analyses of my personal relation to a certain given topic, object or a situation. I definitely agree we are surrounded by symbols that are often not

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Marija GradeÄ?ak

carpet installation "Root", gallery Regalerija in Regeneracija Zabok (Croatia), 2014

techniques, manipulating language and recontextualizing images and concepts: while crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

object used to serve its purpose. Designing a special chair with the same symbolism induced all kind of reaction from attraction, laughter, wondering, delight ...to actually taking time to observe. The chair became an object to break free from current duties and was accepted as a piece of Nature, or awakening of human Nature, in the midst of concrete structures.

Conventional became unconventional.

As I have already mentioned at the beginning, I have always expressed myself in different ways and through different media which helped me to develop in a few closely connected fields of art. In a context of artistic creativity it is difficult for me to separate and divide. Due to a great inquisitiveness to know and discover myself through something new, I investigate with new materials, building my knowledge and growing in capacity to express my creativity.

Multidisciplinarity is a crucial aspect of your approach and besides installations, you also design interesting pieces of jewellery, as our readers can admire at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n3wzu6x tX4 as well as commercial carpets made from wool. I have highly appreciate the way you are capable of creating such an effective symbiosis between elements from different

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Marija GradeÄ?ak

ceiling lamp made from recycling material - tablecloth, flat decoration, Ljubljana (Slovenia)

The stimulating combination that your work accomplishes between design and nature, reveals the strong but often hidden bond between Nature and human footprint... And

Sometimes I stick to a certain technique and think of it as the only possible way to attain the wanted, but I never exclude a possibility of an idea to be presented in a different way.

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would ask you: do you think that nowadays still exists a dichotomy between Art and Technology?

By the way, I would go as far as to say that in a way Technology is assimilating Art and viceversa... what's your point about this?

In a conceptual sense, dichotomy between art and technology has almost invisible border. I believe it is important to give art a freedom and not to flirt or lean on trend-modern only because “it exists”, or better to say, we should follow our inner urge for expression. In the world of mass production, many art works loose their values and are often unjustified copies of what was already seen, with a forceful attempt to gain a status of “an art object”.

Modern technology facilitates artists to express their ideas faster, and then they wrap their explanation with an argument – “this is a concept”.

Product design also looses its function when we use certain object in a way it was not meant to be used.

All these are interventions and investigations into where the borderline between art, design and technology is, and I would say the answer lie within each individual’s capability of comprehension.

Many contemporary artists as the Edward Burtynsky and Michael Light have some form of American Idol, detail environmental or political message in their works. Do you consider that your pieces are in a certain sense "political"or do you seek to maintain a neutral approach? By the way, although I'm aware that this might sound a bit naďf, I have to admit that I'm sort of convinced that Art -especially nowadays- could play an effective role in sociopolitical questions: not only just by offering to people a generic platform for expression... I would go as far as to state that Art could even steer people's behaviour... what's your point about this? Does it sound a bit exaggerated?

Art can, and it certainly has a big influence on people. It changes their perception, or at least provokes some reaction. I would not consider myself in any way politically oriented, although I am neither immune nor indifferent to what is happening in the world. My reactions, or to say my work definitely reflects my dissatisfaction, my need for a change and my wish for turning to genuine values, which are slowly being buried under the pressure of globalization, nonsensical wars, desire

since I have a scientific background myself, I cannot do without saying that I appreciate the way you proficiently combine your studies of Design with your deep passion in Art... So I

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Marija Gradečak

bag "Fish" made from recycling material - leather, Varaždin (Croatia)

Now let's deal about the relationship with

to possess and disrespectful attitude towards the life and living in general. Moreover, loosing our very “selves” and our true contentment should alone be enough to start ringing the bells of alarm loudly. I think collective consciousness can influence and change the environment, for better or worse - depends on us! ... And so can Art! I hope my work and my artistic expressions are seen as manifestation and a document of an eco-environmentalconscious orientation (or policy).

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your audience: it goes without saying that positive feedback, although are not definitely indespensable, are capable of providing an artist of an important support. I sometimes wonder if the expectation of positive feedback- could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your

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ceiling lamp made from recycling material - tablecloth, flat decoration, Ljubljana (Slovenia) 21 61 4

video installation "Acivilizacija", library Metel Ožegović in Varaždin (Croatia), 2013

ART Habens

Marija Gradečak

video installation "Acivilizacija", library Metel Ožegović in Varaždin (Croatia), 2013

overstated. But, as per se, it is not always crucial. I try to maintain my convictions firm and use them as an argument to justify my work, no matter the feedback or the audience. The most important to me is to concentrate on inducing some interaction ... a positive one is as welcomed as a negative.

audience? I sometimes wonder if it could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art...

I could not say that the feedback of the audience is of no importance to me. It actually helps me to evaluate whether I have succeeded, and to what degree, to provoke the desired reactions.

Besides, the importance of a positive feedback, in a business sense particularly, cannot be

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Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Marija. Finally, would you like

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American Idol, detail

reading poetry, happening "Acivilizacija", library Metel Ožegović in Varaždin (Croatia), 2013

to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

moment I am working on my next-exhibition project which is going to experiment with recycled materials only. And I am also intensely engaged in preparing my new book of poetry for publishing.

I also want to thank you for the time and effort you put in analyzing my work.

Now, I do not mean to sound too ethereal by admitting --- I mostly let myself go with the flow ... but with my aims always in clear focus. At the

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator arthabens@mail.com

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Cecilia Nercasseau Nercasseau Gibson

Fon贸pticos in Valpara铆so

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video, 2013

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Fon贸pticos

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Cecilia Nercasseau

An interview with An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator

Hello Cecilia, and a warm welcome to ART Habens. To start this interview would you like to tell us something about your background?

In particular, how have your studies of Architecture at the Universidad Diego Portales impacted on the way you currently produce your artworks and on your evolution as an artist?

The studies of architecture were very inspiring, fundamental for my training. Architecture gave me a new point of view or position of observation in the world. I started to look more the environment, see how related parties inside at all. Also, I was aware of the importance that has the architecture in the world and humanity; in the form of how the people live. In the background, is shaping the space to connect or create new spaces, resulting in different relationships, either from people to people and people to environment.

At the end of the college career, I realized that these fundamental principles of relationship do not apply at the time of developing a project of architecture, but there are other priorities that govern, for example; the money. To take the money as the most important part of a project and work for it, many of the spatial relationships of quality are already out, so it projects and construction type turns into a "Rock", which hinder and slow down the movement more than it helps.

Cecilia Nercasseau Gibson "My work is related to the senses, the perception.

Is to make architecture with little things, artifacts; to create new spaces and situations by modeling the sound, connecting by the sound, everything in a mechanical way. I like to work in the public space, the city, where things happend, where the rutine is running and the people need to see and feel the real life. "

Then, in opposition to that, I started to think in small urban interventions, only artifacts that accentuated and related spaces and instances that already exist in the city. So for me, every idea is a project of architecture, with measurements, with materials, with a context, with a user (the sensitive part), except that the scale of the object is smaller.

preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

The most important part of the projects is the context. The way how the person will interact with the environment. From the place the idea come out. The ideas are always based on a concept, an experience, an observation that then takes form to realize the intention. Somehow I start from the vacuum, the space, to transform it in outline, into the guide, into the full.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much

When an idea occurs to me it is almost instant, becomes the intention and then I think how could achieve it in the most effective way formally.

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Fon贸pticos

scale. Somehow, with this work I could resolve, concrete ideas and some philosophies aforementioned. The idea born in Valparaiso, I was in the Concepcion Hill looking towards the valley of the city and the Alegre Hill in front. I realized that elevator Queen Victoria was leaving many people towards the runway and I could see the movement of the people; I imagined as a scene. Then I thought how to do that the people who are there realizes that there is this here, how to connect the two places and in the same way, emphasize how that scene, how be beyond being here, as a live film.

From my mind to the paper (2D) and from the paper to a model (3D), then with the help of experts such as sculptors, tinsmiths, etc. moves on to reality, trying to solve structural problems without losing sight of the first intention, the idea.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Fon贸pticos that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit your website directly at https://www.flickr.com/photos/96951278@N04/ in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of these interesting pieces? What was your initial inspiration?

And well, the "key" is the sound, is the way of communicating and connecting spaces and people. Already it had been working on that issue previously. I inspired in the first radar that the army made, that worked just with sound, in a mechanical way.

The Fon贸pticos, are the first that really reflect my intention within the artistic field on an urban

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Fon贸pticos

One of the features that has mostly impacted on me of Fon贸pticos, is the way you have been effectively capable of re-contextualizing the idea of landscape and of environment itself, so, I would like to stop for a moment to consider the "function" of the landscape suggested by your works, as the ones from your Composici贸n series: most of the times it doesn't seem to be just a passive background... and I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them.

Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

universe and the territory that we inhabit. Then, at the end, the art is the means to relate from the depths towards the world, outward and vice versa. Art is the last sense that helps us to perceive reality from all points and intersections imaginable. In the end the works are the result of a reflection process of any kind, so, is an assimilation, is a digest, it is perception. And of course, I agree entirely with what you say, the answers are in nature, and thus also, the larger mysteries, and it is here where the intersection is produced; in the creation, in creativity and imagination, which is deep water, not to say infinite.

In the composition series, I wanted to highlight colors and settings, playing with reality, because I saw them at that time, as surreal places. Simple, natural places, but having that magical touch, movement and sinuous lines that speak of a living and a communicative nature.As you have

Yes. I think that art is something inherent in human beings and to be something that includes everyone, it also has to do with the

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Cecilia Nercasseau Gibson

stated once, your work is related to the senses, the perception: you like to work in public spaces, where things happen and people need to see and feel the real life... So I would like to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

space, by frequency. From nature to the human, from human to nature; there is no limit, there is just movement, frequency, sound that leads to vibrate and move, which leads to perceive.

I think the sound is fundamental to understand the world, to understand its structure, different rhythms, movements and processes that exist.

To learn how to live here.

No, I think that the creative process cannot be disconnected from the experience, even more so if the issue is the perception and the senses.

Phenomenology, the science of experience, is the most important part for the creation in general. To be aware, conscious of what it feels like, when it does and be, doing whatever; takes you to this immense journey that is life. And there we go back to the previous point, which is that everything works as a great symbiosis, as large permeable layers, which are joined by

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Multidisciplinarity is a crucial feature of your approach, and I have appreciated the effective synergy that you create between different materials, that allows you to create new spaces: while crossing the borders of different techinques have you ever happened to realize that a synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

Yes, of course. I believe that it is essential to

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ART Habens

Technology is assimilating Art and viceversa... what's your point about this?

work multidisciplinarity, simply because nothing works as a single item. It is not natural in an individual way. Phenomena in sand, for example, are experiences or influences from each other.

I believe that art and technology are increasingly closer together, which seems to me very well as a tool to experiment and to concretize the thoughts that lead to the art. I also believe that science and art are coming together and I think that’s even better, because the science turns to art and thus, philosophy comes into the game also.

The weight of the dog, which leaves a footprint of such depth, because at that time and that quickly left that scar. The force of the sea and its movement to leave such marks, such drawings, which shows how can one react to other, speaks of a relationship-joint; nothing is independent.

The creation, creativity, is not separated by areas; the ideas come from the abstract level to be carried out in the best way possible and that will only become so if you have knowledge of the largest number of possible tools.

And since I have a scientific background myself, I cannot do without saying that I appreciate the way you proficiently combine your studies of Architecture with your deep passion in Art... So I would ask you: do you think that nowadays still exists a dichotomy between Art and Technology? By the way, I would go as far as to say that in a way

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Cecilia Nercasseau Gibson

During these years your works have been exhibited in several occasions, and you recently participated at the FAV Festival where Fon贸pticos has been shown... It goes without saying that positive feedbacks are capable of supporting an artist: I was just wondering if the expectation of positive feedback- could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? I sometimes wonder if it could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art...

Well, with the Fon贸pticos the response was very good. The truth is that my artifacts only are a means for people to express themselves, communicate, play, interact and reflect on what surrounds them, in that specific moment. So, the center of the work, the living and sensitive part, were themselves.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Cecilia. My last question deals with your future plans: what's next for you? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

I think that feedback (not in the sense of populism and less in the sense of market) is important, because in the end what du you want to do is open a question and an answer, open a topic of discussion and share a reflection. Suddenly from that other things can come out that you will never know, but in the end it is the human feedback, the response of saying that we are alive, as thinking, imaginative and creative beings we are.

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Now I have several projects in mind, but not one with a specific date. Right now I'm in Berlin, developing my ideas and, as always, learning from the people and the tools to make, to concrete and to communicate daily reflections.

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David Granados Granados David Granados works with fragments of very concrete reality which he reorganizes within a certain construction. In this process, intuition and coincidence play an important role. The fragments used originate from seemingly worthless, often thrown away items from everyday life, such as magazine ‘rippings', leftover posters and other materials. But they all constitute our daily environment.

The partial deconstruction of the materials is needed to obtain a new image construction and so reinvent reality. The final form of the collage is not only dictated by coincidence. Indeed, every step in this rebuilding involves a degree of mutilation. Every piece, scrap or shred constitutes to some extent a scar, an offense to the original materials. But this mutilation is at the same time constructive. Moreover, different time moments come to a new unity: the memory of the moments that the original materials were made and the time when images of the originals were reused in the creation of a new image construction. The original materials seem to have no relation to art. But these seemingly artless materials as magazine, posters ,discarded materials, etc. become elements within an alternative and complement to the traditional painting techniques, which are also integral parts of the art work.

That’s the reason these collages are ‘painterly collages '. The painterly vision prevails in the new image. The final creation can only be explained through the kinship with the traditional painter’s view. All the components are used in a "balanced" way: certain jammers break through the originally unbalanced composition of the fragments of destructed materials.

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volume 1 2014 mix media exhibition view

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video, 2013

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David Granados

melody, collage, 2013

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An interview with

David Granados

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator

To start this interview would you like to tell us something about your background? In particular, you have a solid formal training: you hold a Master degrees fine arts cum laude that you have received from the University College of Ghent, where you attended the Faculty of Fine Arts and where you are currently based. How has this experience, as well as moving from San Salvador to Europe, impacted on the way you currently produce your artworks and on your evolution as an artist?

The learning process at the Ghent School of arts (formerly names the Royal Academy of fine arts Ghent) focused on personal development. The students got enormous freedom in the choice of their topics, materials and methods, .. In the second bachelor year I found myself disappointed by the classic way of painting, by which I mean only using “canvas, paint and brushes”. For me the essence of “painting” goes wider: space, perspectives, materiality, composition, layering, construction, ... Painting can be performed using a large range of materials. Collage and painting have in my view the same goal: image construction. The freedom offered helped me to find my own way in approaching the art of painting, and ever since I stayed on the same track of creativity and autonomy.

David Granados

For me a collage is not different from a “canvas painting” as long as the images are constructed from a painter’s view. So, what makes collage a “painting” is that it is created using the eyes and methods of a painter. The way I look at images is that of a painter. And many great painters have used the collage methodology to mention only the most famous: Malevich, Picasso and Miro. (I refer to my master thesis for a more in-depth discussion of these artists in the field of collage).

three-dimensional constructions and the geometry and the use of space as found in architecture.

Moving from El Salvador to Belgium at the age of five had – at least in my consciousness - no influence on my work. I have only be educated in a European family and school system.

Basically I think and act as if I was born in Belgium.

In the beginning the collages were made only with paper and glue. But later in my evolution, I rediscovered the value of canvas and paint to enrich the composition. Nowadays, the collage and painting techniques are both essential to my work. My recent interest goes more and more to

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and

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David Granados

constructed fortruitousness/jetlag pink collage on paper/cardboard/canvas, 40 x 90, 2011/2012

set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

product. Composition and intuition are my main guides to develop the final image.

The chosen image pieces are further deconstructed (cut, ripped apart or shredded) and put together into a new construction, which at that time became abstracted from their originals.

The colours and composition of the new images are essential, as is the layering of the different components. This entire process resembles birth giving.

I start from a whole bunch of potential useful images. I am constantly looking for images in all kinds of books, documents, magazines, garbage, thrown away objects, which by many ways I cut, tear, ... in pieces. Therefore my studio’s walls and floor are always filled up by all these materials. I browse through all this without any idea of a final

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tell us something about the genesis of these stimulating pieces? What was your initial inspiration?

The collage series at the beginning of this article has to be seen within my continuing interest in the architectural aspects of image construction.

Geometry, spaces and architectural volumes have always been at the birth-moment (or Genesis) of my works. As a student my early artistic works concentrated on two-dimensional ground plans.

From them I added, frames, windows, steps and other architectural items to create a threedimensional impression. Architecture or bettersaid “spaciousness” is still my deepest inspiration.

Some of these early works like spacing 3 and paper explosion can be seen on my website.

I use the word “spaciousness” meaning the perception, the feeling or the emotional impression of space. This can be presented as well in “flat” (2-D) art works by layering the paper, paint or other things in superposed levels. Many of my early works (like spacing 3) are inspired by the way Malevich is playing with the impression of space in his suprematism period, in which different geometrical forms in different colour layers are floating in space. Also René Daniëls was creating American Idol, detail similar spaciousness in a more figurative context.

The essential, absolute, non-figurative spaciousness is found in Mark Rothko’s work.

Although your imagery seems to be deeply influenced by such an abstract feeling, as you have remarked once, you work with fragments of very concrete reality: so I would ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process, I mean both for conceiving a piece and for enjoying it... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

The time spent is a variable: it can take a few hours or many weeks to be satisfied with a final composition. Preparation and reflexion often takes more time than the actual creation.

To answer this question we have to agree on the definitions of the words we are using to describe the creative process in painting. I would define observation in this context as an act of our senses - especially vision - , and experience as the internal feeling caused by this observation. The main experience that decides on my feeling of satisfaction with a new work is the experience of “spaciousness”.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from your recent collage series that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to visit http://www.davidgranados.be in order to get a wider idea of your interesting artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you

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David Granados

love addict / sweet mystery collage on paper and spraypaint, 40 x 90, 2012 private collection

What has mostly impressed of your abstract approach is the way you are capable of establishing an intense, direct communication with the viewers which goes beyond the mere perception of an image: in particular, I find love addict / sweet mystery absolutely stimulating, not only from an emotional aspect, but especially because for the intellectual involvement that it suggests me...

Moreover, I noticed that blue is a recurrent color in your works, and I can admire a thoughtful nuance of it in constructed fortruitousness/jetlag pink. By the way, any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

with his work, there are no external observers at that moment. The artist cannot predict the experiences that later will arise in the spectators.

An abstract art work is only attractive because it catches the intellectual curiosity of the spectator.

This often takes time: You have to penetrate in the work often in a repetitive, meditational way before You catch its emotional content.

In love addict/sweet mystery and in fact in the majority of my work I intentioned to give a deep “space feeling” to the spectators. However, individual spectators can – at first sight - be more pleased by the colour palette or just the abstract forms. The hidden message of spaciousness comes often much later. The communication between artist and spectator in art is very complex. Abstract art work will often require more intellectual involvement, and as my works

I would indeed feel satisfied when a spectator could have the same feeling of spaciousness in my work as the one who satisfied me at its creation. In the creative phase the artist is alone

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John Moran

constructed fortruitousness/jetlag pink collage on paper/cardboard/canvas, 40 x 90, 2011/2012

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American Idol, detail

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study of a landscape

collage, 2014

collage, 2014

have an architectural touch I hope indeed it makes the spectator think about spaciousness and the reflective importance of whatever space in their living environment, their being as a person and their experiences.

the environment we live in, which is far from being just the background of our existence. I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense this project forces the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive environment... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

Intuition is my guide to make a choice of the best colours in the left-over materials I choose for further construction. Blue, orange and red are my most chosen colours. Orange and also orange-red are my main ‘eye-catchers’, by which the spectator hold his steps and start watching the art work. Honestly, reflecting on your question, I have to admit that blue is indeed one of the most used ‘structural’ colours.

Spaciousness can indeed be seen as the experience of our environment, our “human space”, real or virtual. In my feeling, the deciphering of the hidden information and ideas are linked to each individual person.

I have highly appreciated the way you have been capable of bringing a new level of significance to the an image, creating a new reality which re-contextualizes the idea of

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John Moran

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book, 2014

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David Granados

Impulse series

Analysis of the factors influencing them might not help the individual because everybody, related to its education, culture, family and other backgrounds, will give a different weight to whatever factor we can describe. The non-verbal communication in art just make it possible for the spectator to enter his own feelings and emotions without interference from the artist.

a single person and often referred to as “the Renaissance person” such as Michel Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci. I admire them for it.

My first choice of study after the humanities was architecture, but – because a lot of mathematics and my handiness in creating art work – master in painting was a more realistic choice. It would be great to work with other “spacing disciplines” “other specialists of the experience of the environment “. Some architects such as Rietveld created the furniture and the total environment as a part of his concept. I would also like to create a total experience, which should include more factors than just the spacing and materials in the rooms.

Multidisciplinarity is a crucial aspect of your approach and I have highly appreciate the way you are capable of creating such an effective symbiosis between elements from different techniques, manipulating language and recontextualizing images and concepts: while crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

For me, the art work generates mainly from intuition. So I leave – for the moment - the conceptualisation, hypotheses, factor analysis and the theories to philosophers and academics, and…. curators.

The future of knowledge, art and sciences is indeed dependent on multidisciplinarity.

Multidisciplinarity however is difficult to realize in

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David Granados

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American Idol, detail Now let's talk about your relationship with the audience: in your solo expositions you have exhibited your works in many occasions and I think it's important to mention that you recently had the solo underdone/overdone... It goes without saying that positive feedbacks are capable of providing an artist of the indispensable support to an artist: I was just wondering if the expectation of positive feedback could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? I sometimes wonder if it could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art...

And I cannot do without mentioning Impulse serie, which I have to admit, is one of my favourite work from your painting pieces: I have been intrigued by effective synergy that you have been capable of establish between apparently opposite elements. The layers that you effectively juxtaposed do not plays just as a background, but it communicates with the light colors on the canvas and I daresay that it creates a prelude to the light that springs from these interesting pieces...

From a technical point this work (2012) and Your analysis is interesting: the work is a print made of a digitally produced collage on canvas, complemented with paint. So three techniques come together. Furthermore the canvas is framed without clamping on wood. This is the type of framing I normally use in collages. I feel that this multidisciplinary technique and the resulting special layering is essential to the communication of – what You call – “apparently opposite elements”.

Underdone/overdone was indeed an important step in my art evolution. It was the first time I could realize a collage as a part of a room, as the total environment of the collage. Working so, I did not only create an impression of 3D, but work in real-time three dimensionality.

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David Granados

Impulse series

should not be the main guide in an artist’s evolution. The real verdict on every art work lies in the future, and maybe not so much in immediate feedback.

Your remark on the “genuine” relationship between business and art reflects the now-a-days common ideology of the market. I am of course glad I gain money from my art work, but its concept and creation does not depend on it. The same goes for feedback: any type of feedback (positive AND negative) are important but it

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Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, David. Finally, would you like to tell

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us readers something about your future projects. How do you see your work evolving?

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variable relation with other structures and environments. A given collage becomes just an interchangeable module, to be adapted to infinite environments.

My aim for the future is to bring “individual” images (collages, paintings, objects, sculptures, ….) together in flexible constructions, creating the possibility of variable relationships of the different components. The collage becomes only a part of a

And of course I continue making individual collages, paintings , and who knows …..

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Jennii Booth “Making a picture of something, needs in the first place to be severely questioned. Why? What’s it all about? What added value can I provide? What is the meaning of this act of changing a real object into a twodimensional one?” ~Wolfgang Tillmans

Jennii Booth is an emerging artist specializing in drawing, photography & videoart.

She also occasionally dabbles in painting, but avoids Printmaking and sculpture when possible.

Some of her favourite artists include Wolfgang Tillmans, Hundertwasser, Eggleston and David Shrigley.

Jennii has an honours bachelor of visual art & a bachelor of education. Currently living in London, UK and working as an art teacher.

Jennii Booth Never Blink, Hvar, Croatia, 2014

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video, 2013

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Gemma Pepper

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An interview with

Jennii Booth

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator

I couldn’t help it.

I thought it was where I belonged, with all the other animals.

I disobeyed the adults who advised me to study Psychology or French.

I went to Art school.

I’m not sure if I got it right. What was I meant to be doing? Was I supposed to be spending my four years of University learning how to define and refine my art practice? Making proper art that would be accepted in the art world, the kind of polished paintings that match the sofa?

Excited, curious and immature, I seized opportunities to play. I have fond memories of art school, of getting suited up and melting down aluminum pistons to cast out shiny new alphabets in a pit of sand, of making a sculpture out of a readymade sink that recycled acid rainwater. I fashioned a series of ashtrays for a smog-awareness festival that ‘may or may not make you feel like smoking’. I became obsessed with making things, and happily filled up my studio space with absolute nonsense. Supergluing a table and chairs to my studio walls, the whole space a silly mess of tape marks and spray paint. The floor a wasteland of abandoned pastels and paintbrushes. My mediocre attempts at painting clung wearily to lovingly-stretched canvases as I carefully documented the drops of paint that fell from the work of my peers.

Jennii Booth

I diverted, networked with all the wrong people, refined my skills in partying, picking up a series of curious part-time jobs in the process. Like girl guide badges, I wore my wild tapestry of responsibilities with honor. I am a lifeguard, a darkroom chemist, a nude model coordinator, a (pretty amazing) pizza chef, a clumsy waitress, a chatty bartender, a (completely tragic) cashier, a house-painter, a girl guide leader and the (not so famous) dj Booth, just to name a few. It is through these roles that I feel I shaped myself as an artist. I feel that my formal training has had little impact on how I create, not because the education system has failed me, but rather in spite of it. I guess I had the fire within me all along. We all know art comes from within, right?

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

Do you ever get that feeling where you have to harvest all your ideas before the season changes and your creative insomnia fades away? Me too.

Well, I must admit, I’m not one to overcook. I see my purpose is to explore my environment, capture evidence and present my own version of visual truth to the world for scrutiny.

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Jennii Booth

From "Gaol" 2013 Photography

Preferential Treaties/The New Korea, Suwon, Republic of Korea, 2008

wider idea of your artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project?

What was your initial inspiration?

I don’t follow a formula, or stage or set things up; I work from the raw data that surrounds, scratching out a response to whatever bemusing stimuli I encounter with a sharpie or simply framing the nuances through a camera lens. I’m learning to celebrate the honesty of the mistakes I make in my art, their unconscious glory, the way they add another level of originality to the work. I’ve always felt like my art-making has an immediacy about it; it’s happening now, not later, if I’m thinking, I’m not making, and it’s the making part that I’m fascinated by.

What is a sculpture? It’s that thing you accidentally bump into when you’re looking at a drawing. I love drawing; the uneven, linear, skeletal scrawl is the purest art form, but photography works better for me as a default medium because it tolerates my impatience. It reminds me of that line from T.S. Eliot’s ‘Prufrock’: ‘there will be time to murder and create’. I need the quick-fire shutter of a camera lens to perform a silent murder, so I can gather the evidence in a heartbeat, and work with the idea immediately. ‘Lash’ and ‘Confluence’ were kills I made while hunting for aesthetic truth in the jaw-droppingly exquisite city of Ghent. I also did a series of drawings here but ended up giving them all away to the locals.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Never blink and Marakech, a couple of extremely stimulating works that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit your website directly at http://society6.com/thejennii in order to get a

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From "Gaol" 2013 Photography Marakech Winter 2015

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Jennii Booth

I’m opportunistic and keep myself open to inspiration, so in a sense my influences are unlimited, fleeting, encompassing everything I can experience or imagine. I tend to be on the lookout for moments of unintentional grace and am easily enchanted by gothic architecture, reflections, decay, graffiti and the mundane. I’m fortunate to have accidentally stumbled into the alley and market where I could take these particular shots. I like to experiment with the photos as soon as I’ve taken them, to accentuate or intensify whatever nuance I observe, often just to raise the volume slightly. It is my intention to keep the images as clean and raw as possible, to present what I see with my own eyes with minimal interference.

One of the features of your landscape works that has mostly impacted on me , is the way you have been capable of bringing a new level of significance to the an image, recontextualizing the idea of the environment we live in, which is far from being just the background of our existence. I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense this project forces the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive environment... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a wayto decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

The best landscape I ever made happened when I was about eleven. One day I abandoned Super Mario 3 and let my imagination take over the living room. I worked for hours, playing God to create an elaborate city of cards, complete with its own fully functioning Lego monorail system. I faced much adversity: an imaginary fire, a dispute between the card people and the Lego people, and a lot of pieces tumbling out of position, only to be put back into place by their relentless creator. After a few hours it was complete. I stood up to let the king of hearts, queen of spades and my army of legless Lego people wave and smile happily up at me from their kingdom.

My grandfather was so proud of me, he even invited the neighbours around to have a beer and look at it.

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palm, from the series inside/out

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From "Gaol" 2013 Photography Winter 2015

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Jennii Booth

From "Gaol" 2013 Photography

To Hogwarts, Ribblehead Viaduct, England, 2013

Many contemporary landscape artists as the photographers Edward Burtynsky and Michael Light have some form of environmental or political message in their photographs. Do you consider that your images are political in this way or do you seek to maintain a neutral approach? By the way, although I'm aware that this might sound a bit na誰f, I have to admit that I'm sort

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of convinced that Art -especially nowadayscould play an effective role in sociopolitical questions: not only just by offering to people a generic platform for expression... I would go as far as to state that Art could even steer people's behaviour... what's your point about this? Does it sound a bit exaggerated?

Art and behaviour will always be linked because the very act of creation is a behavioural trait in

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A Buttery Wednesday, Prague, Czech Republic, 2011

itself. Art is more than just a platform for expression, or a tool for destruction. To make things is to be an artist, to be an artist is a way of life.

enough to make an artist... what that man creates by means of reason will pale before the art of inspired beings�. I like this quote because for me it suggests that there is only a fine line between madness and genius. I’ve always felt like there is a touch of darkness within me that I need to release, a virus to be hacked into something bright and tangible. I also like to entertain the idea that Plato is

According to Plato, “The man who arrives at the doors of artistic creation with none of the madness of the Muses would be convinced that technical ability alone was

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Jennii Booth

The Stupid Shard, London, England, 2014

dismissing reason and technique from having equal merit to beauty and originality in art.

restlessness, impulsiveness or melancholy for example, translate into finer works of art. I speculate that a touch of brilliant madness can be identified, for example, in Edward Burtynsky’s stunningly paradoxical photographs, which explore the problems of modern life between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear.

Psychologist Eysenck takes this idea a step further with his theory of psychoticism in personality where he explores how the genetic and psychological traits of psychoticism and creativity are found to be greatly overlapping. I think that the traits associated with psychosis,

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Omni-Liguistic Dromedary, oil paint, acrylic paint, corrector fluid and pen on collage, 2013

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Jennii Booth

Multidisciplinarity is a crucial aspect of your art practice: you produce stimulating drawing and as paintings, as Superpowers and Triangulate for me, well as photographic and videoart pieces: if I have been asked to sum up in a single word your artistic production, I would say that it's kaledoiscopic... while crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a symbiosis between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

Kaleidoscopes are pretty but problematic. At first, the amount of iridescent, distorted, symmetrical beauty you can twist out of it seems unlimited, but then you start to realize how the mirrors tease and a sparkly bit of matter gets stuck and you end up taking the whole damn thing apart to see what’s inside.

Hierarchy of Artistic Mediums according to Jennii 1. Drawing 2. Music/Literature/Cooking 3. Video/Animation 4. Photography 5. Gardening 6. Magic 7. Everything else In University my sculpture teacher was quick to tell From "Gaol" 2013 Photography me that he thought I might be better suited to printmaking; my printmaking teacher then pointed me towards painting; my painting professor then told me that I was more of a drawer and, finally, my drawing instructor confirmed that I was pretty hopeless. He suggested that my best bet would be to try using technology to filter my tangled thoughts, turning them into art. This led me into the Maclab, where I would teach myself Final Cut Pro and spend days in the dark, obsessively editing and rendering my own short art videos. In my videoart, quite contrary to my photography, I allow myself to be more nihilistic with the footage, over-editing to hyperbolize and cause deformities in whatever reality I’ve captured.

Whichever media I employ, I aim to show the inner order of what I’m experiencing. I like to deal out hits of techno colour, distorted lines, overdoses of contrast and sharpened, poorly-joined fragments of what is seen upside-down the back of my myopic retinas.

Triangulate for Me

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Jennii Booth

stated that our culture trains people to be visually illiterate...

Dealing with influences, you have remarked that some of you favourite artists are Wolfgang Tillmans, Friedensreich Hundertwasser and in particular David Shrigley, an extremely interesting young artist from Glasgow whose works I had the pleasure to admire just a year ago in Berlin: would you like to tell us readers what mostly impacts on you of these artists?

Rising up miles before the sun, I spend my days clucking around inside this beautifully chaotic ecosystem we call ‘school’. In addition to making and cleaning up colourful messes all day, I try to maintain an environment within which everyone can feel free. Imagine a panoptic rectangle of fun, a haunt that combines elements of Narnia, Middle Earth and your own deviant subconscious.

A place where surrealist black coffee dances to Bhangra beats and then personifies itself so it can walk around handing out stickers and drawing on the table. I invite everybody to come in and lose themselves in art, thrive in an experiment, exist in the spaces between the margins.

I admire David Shrigley because he makes me laugh. I think he’s a sardonic genius who has compelled a corner of the patronising gallery world to adopt a sense of humour. I understand that he’s very committed to his process, works long, sober days in his studio creating ridiculously dark, innovative and playful drawings, animations, photographs and sculptures all whilst managing to not take himself too seriously. Shrigley’s work has a creative, comic innocence about it that resonates with me.

Being a teacher reminds me of how incredibly original and capable young people already are. I don’t think I actually teach them anything other than to be forever curious, to live as an artist, an explorer of life, to always be making things and finding new ways to capture and reframe the world. Creating visual art is one of the defining characteristics of the human species. National Geographic even said so.

Next I’d have to say ROA, a super-skilled, anonymous street artist from Ghent, Belgium.

ROA inspires me because his murals are so elegantly painted despite the morbid subject matter. He manages to achieve a convincing level of traditional realism in his work without sacrificing his graffiti drawing style. I feel like I can identify with ROA’s obsession with death; I love the way he puts emphasis on the skeletal and internal organs in his work to explore the ideas of vitality and decay in living creatures.

My appetite for art-making is easily whet and never satisfied. I’m fortunate that I’m allowed to live my life being so immersed in art. A demo drawing done in a flash of anxious whiteboard pen, an enchanting distraction on the walk to work takes form as an inanimate specimen of vermin, being on holiday and doing a series of impromptu portrait-studies to give to the glowing ladies working the windows in the Red Light District. I try not to overthink and get lost in the grammar of technicalities; I prefer not to disturb the idea too much and simply ride out the impulse.

Another firm believer in the importance of temporary art is the controversial character Yoko Ono. Ono is unpredictable and self-deprecating. I find her very existence to be a type of fine art and her conceptual art and poetry a sort of sci-fi to live by. Also, she was one of the first people to follow me on Twitter.

The artists who leave an impact on me are the fearless originals who aren’t afraid to do exactly what they want. I look up to artists who demonstrate a touch of insanity, the relentless renegades who push boundaries and challenge the very definition of art.

Now let’s go back to the incredibly talented Yotam Zohar and his comment that ‘our culture trains people to be visually illiterate...’

I think young people demonstrate high levels of visual literacy. The young artists I work with are able to filter through and appropriate from the myriad of pictures the world presents them with.

This is evident in their artwork. In these wild times of sensory overload, with advertising constantly flooding our vision, the authority of art is no longer pure. Back in the day it was all cavepaintings and graffiti, but now we’ve evolved to Confluence, Ghent, Belgium 2014

Besides producing your stimulating artworks, you also teach: have you ever happened to draw inspiration from the works of your students? By the way, times ago I had the chance to interview Yotam Zohar, an interesting painter and experienced art teacher from the New York scene who once

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Omni-Liguistic Dromedary, oil paint, acrylic paint, corrector fluid and pen on collage, 2013

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From "Gaol" 2013 Photography Winter 2015

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Jennii Booth

From "Gaol" 2013 Photography

Snap to Grid exhibition, “The Red City”, digital photo, Los Angeles Centre for Digital Art, United States, 2014

an awesome age of holograms and 3-D printers, a time where comic books can eloquently marry drawing with literature, blossoming into a form of art where the artist and writer are equally important. Humans don’t really hang out in caves much anymore, and graffiti is slightly more sophisticated. Art, however visual, opens her arms a little wider, becomes more intimately intertwined with music, dance, religion, politics and language. John Berger defends in ‘Ways of Seeing’ that visual literacy is automatic ‘Seeing Comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.’

practitioner research on the effects of using creative, rather than traditional methods of artmaking to motivate students.

Now let's talk about the feedback of your audience: it goes without saying that positive feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist: I was just wondering if an award -or just the expectation of positive feedback- could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? I sometimes wonder if it could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art...

I’m currently studying for an MA in Education where I’m examining how creativity can be effectively measured and conducting

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I pledge allegiance to the idea that once the

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Human Condition/Structures student exhibition, sample of 17 & 18 year-old art, Villiers High School, London, UK, 2014

feedback of the audience; I wanted to learn from their analysis but now I’ve realized that it’s more important for me to just keep inventing and throwing things out there. If people like it, they like it and if they don’t, that’s cool too. I wouldn’t object to living the life of a full-time rock star

artist releases their art out into the atmosphere they give up control, what the art signifies for the artist and any 1st-hand intention dissolves into 2nd hand interpretation, which is completely fair game. There can be no right or wrong interpretations. I used to be more sensitive to the

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Jennii Booth

View from the kitchen

Confluence, Ghent, Belgium 2014

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artist, but then I can’t say I’ve ever been genuinely concerned about creating work that is more marketable, or that wins awards.

In university I would often set up interactive drawing and painting opportunities as part of my contribution to our group exhibitions. I’m interested in turning the tables, getting everyone involved and enabling the viewer to become the artist.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Jennii. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects. How do you see your work evolving?

I have a weakness for anything novel, be it shiny new things, experiences or people. I exist in a trance, ready to be stirred; there’s always so much to see and do. I don’t see an end to what I’m doing now artistically. I feel it is my purpose to keep learning and making things. I’m starting to expect more from myself as an artist and as a curator. This year I aim to continue to exhibit the work of my students, and my own work both locally and internationally. In addition to the public eye, I look forward to my own personal art indulgences, a line-up of absurd or inappropriate drawing sessions involving people dressed as nymphs, ravens and comicbook characters, models, erotic dancers and contortionists, and not without rubber snakes, rope, lace and buckets of shiny black latex body paint.

In retrospect, one of the highlights of 2014, was being a part of a collaborative stop-motion animation piece, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JSPAa08 gDU with a year 12 class and the exceptionally clever artist Dominic Madden, http://www.dmadden.co.uk/ . This project has inspired me to set up future collaborations, to include working with the incredible London photographer Edward Otchere http://www.genius-land.com/ on a project at the beginning of 2015. As I continue to channel my madness into photography and drawing, I also want to take self-sufficiency to new levels, start to grow my own fruit, bake my own bread and make my own soap. Check it all out on: http://society6.com/thejennii.

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Aleksandr Tishkov Tishkov As for the artist, especially for painter the main aim for me is the colour and form.

Every physical object that exists has its own light mixed with the colours and light that comes from surroundings, especially the light that comes from people and nature, since they have protogenic origins of existence in space.

And the form is opportunity to define and emphasize this light on surface. These subjects became the headline of my research about influence of light and color of our perceptions.

Ancestors Oil, Canvas, 100x60 2014

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video, 2013

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Aleksandr Tishkov

Troubadour, Oil on Canvas, 60x50

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An interview with

Aleksandr Tishkov

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator

Hello Aleksandr, and a warm welcome to ART Habens. To start this interview would you like to tell us something about your background?

In particular, you have a solid formal training in artistic disciplines: among the others, you have studied Painting and Restorationa at the Latvia Art Academy and you are currently pursuing a BA of Sculpture at theTartu Art College... how much your do these experiences impact on the way you currently produce your artworks and on your evolution as an artist?

Hello team Art Habens, would like to thank you for giving me an opportunity to share my thoughts and experience through your art magazineme pages. I was born in the capital of Estonia, in Tallinn. At the age of ten i started to attend art school. It was a school with a wide range of studing disciplines. My attention was attached to painting and drawing processes. By learning to use different media and technique, i was getting more and more interested into depiction of people and landscape. By the time i changed art school to another two, where at one of them the main attention was focused on painting, while at the second i was deeply into sculpting. Thanks to this kind of nurture, i got this interest in a both disciplines. Years later i entered Tartu Art College in sculpture department, where i am finishing my last degree right now. A while after i have got an opportunity to go by exchange programm to Riga Art Academy for the whole year, where i was working on iconography restoration and developing myself in a painting department.

This summer also as part of practice programm, i organized pottery workshops in Portugal and Italy with the old methods of clay firing. The method itself is absolutely primitive, in a sense of using only what nature gives us. The whole process was based on finding a suitable clay for backing, working with it and finally firing it in the over, which was built from papers wettend in clay (known as sarcophage). Knowing a wide range of disciplines helps you expand yourself, your working area and knowledges that you get from these can be used in unlimited creative way. Comprehensive sight on the world and on

Self Portrait with Creature Oil on Canvas, 150x100 the things that surround it liberates your artistic potentiality abilities to be fully disclosed.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

From the very beginning I have just a feeling, an idea, which soon will start to grow to more serious, developed and clear piece.

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Aleksandr Tishkov

Alps, Watercolours, 29x21

It starts from a rough sketch which soon you develop to more clear form. This is a time when the seen has been put to the ground. Since that you start to gestate your thought like a baby, until it’s been enough time and patience to give a birth to the “clear form of subject”. Even now it is just a starting point ahead. In my case, i rely on spontaneity. My focus is based on this “clear form of subject’’ from where i never know what it comes at the end. Since the main idea is inside the painting, I continue adding more forms and symbols to strengthen the whole story of a piece.

By finding a right moment to stop, you prevent your work to be overloaded with information, which nor you neither the viewer will understand.

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Even if my work stopped in a right moment, it dosen’t mean that it will be understandable anyway. It is hard to say what can one painting entirely stores inside of it, but for sure it unites and has a touch upon different themes, subject and thoughts that aroud us. At some point i stopped giving clear and full describetion to my works, because for me it is important that person interpretates it himself. By giving your own explanation, first of all you limit the viewer to observe your work freely, which prevents your work from being enriched with different points of view.

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American Idol, detail

Alps II, Watercolours, 29x21

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from your Alps series, that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit your website directly at http://atiatumana.weebly.com in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production.

In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration?

stayed just like an observer, before the actual work has began. There were a great wish and curiosity to depict the moment, the moment that was born and soon will disappear and will no longer repeat itself.

There were a lot of tries with watercolour using different objects to reach this certain weather and mountains state. I would say that first attemps were kind of failure and I guess only after a year of being away and then returning back to Alps i realized the way the works should be done. Being and seeing mountains again and again gave me enough courage not fantasizing the way it should be painted, but just let a hand and colour do their

Everything started from Italy Alps, where i was traveling. It was the first time in my life the mountains was on a skyline. For long time i

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Aleksandr Tishkov

Alps III, Watercolours, 29x21

& ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

job. That’s what i did and then it came this seria of works which for now we can observe.

One of the features of this interesting series that has mostly impacted on me, is the way you have been capable of bringing a new level of significance to the an image, recontextualizing the idea of landscape, and I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense this project forces the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive the environment we live in, which is far from being just the background of our existence.

I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense these works stimulate the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive environment... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some informations

Winter 2014 2015

Nature has it’s own strong side, where it is never repetitive. Everything about the nature is unique. It is wide, deep and being more open to our eyes than anything else in the world, but even more beauty is still unrevealed. You were right, by saying that something is hidden.

This side is an occult part of nature. I believe that artist is a middleman between the nature and the human, the one who sees the unseen by the others, depicts it and delivers it to the mass. An artist has this kind of “contract” with

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Aleksandr Tishkov

ART Habens

Alps IV, Watercolours, 29x21

Art could even steer people's behaviour... what's your point about this? Does it sound a bit exaggerated?

nature, and it lets him go and collect for many of us unseen moments inside of it as possible. For me, life will always be in a place where is still something to be hidden, some secret not to be revealed.

By the way, many contemporary landscape artists such as the photographers Edward Burtynsky or Michael Light have some form of environmental or political message in their works. Do you consider that your abstract landscapes are political in this way or do you seek to maintain a neutral approach?

Although I'm aware that this might sound a bit naif, I have to admit that I'm sort of convinced that Art could play an effective role in sociopolitical questions: not only just by offering to people a generic platform for expression... I would go as far as to state that

For me as for the artist politic and art are two aspects that should not be mixed together. Each of them working towards their own gauges with their own rules, which absolutely differ from their very fundamentality. I am not saying that there is not possibility for art to use manifestation towards political controversy.

It is exists, but in my opinion it should only offer alternatives or solutions but not to be a wage war with politic. The important thing is that art can act for or against but never should transship to everyday changing political obscurity. I would admit that art has it’s own influence on people's movements, and of cause, in same sense, it steers people’s behaviour.

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Winter 2015

ART Habens

Aleksandr Tishkov

Detail, Sister Portrait, Oil on Canvas, 170x90

Vitaly, Oil on Canvas, 40x30

Another interesting works of yours that I had the chance to get to know at http://atiatumana.weebly.com/portraits.html are from your Portrait series: in particular, I have highly appreciated your investigation about what you once defined the protogenic origins of existence... Moreover, I can recognize that I noticed that most of them, far from being just a detached description of a body or of a face, seems to claim the viewer's attention, suggesting a deep emotional involvement and sometimes even such an inner struggle... so I would like to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process.

experience is your story, it reflects the way you are, the way you describe ideas in your works. I would not say that personal experience can always be an indispensable part of a creative process. I believe that there is always an artist with, lets say a little amount of life experience, but through the art that he does you would never think this way. His works can be deeply touchable and thoughtful. Practically, of cause i can say that your life experience has a reflection on your works. It gives you a step forward and defines your artistic penmanship and, probably the way you will developed yourself in art manifestation.

In my case, experience plays not the last role. I believe that the pallet i use, the world that i create in my works is mainly based on my travelling experience and world seeing moments, what in it’s turn offers the decision of light, colour, forms and ideas in my paintings. Now

Human is high balanced mixture of his own past experiences and present understanding and perception of the surrounding world. Your

Winter 2015

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Aleksandr Tishkov

ART Habens

Hristina, Oil on Wooden Panel, 40x30

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Winter 2015

ART Habens

Aleksandr Tishkov

Mirror, Mirror, Oil on Canvas, 80x60

let's deal with the tones of your pieces: I would focus on #9 and in particular on #5, an extemely stimulating work that I have to admit is one of my favourite of the recent pieces of yours: I definitely love the intense, thoughtful nuance of red... and what has mostly impressed me is that it is capable of establishing such a dialogue, a synergy with all the other tones instead of a contrast... By the way, any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

I would say that it is always depends on the impulse you receive from the certain phenomenon that in front of you.

Even using some certain pallet, you can never tell yourself right with what colours you will finally came out, when you work with a model (a human or a nature). There were a time when my the pallet was mainly based on just four-five

Winter 2014 2015

Cave Heritage, Oil on Canvas, 80x60

less-more warm colours. The reason of having such an ascetic pallet was my own wish to research of getting as much colour tones as possible. After a few years i started to find more nuances, so i can say i no longer was care about the amount of colours on my palette, especially when you are about to reach the required result.

A colour pallet is something that always changes and it is hard to predict the next working colours of your pallet. I also can find some logical facts of my colour preferences. For example, right now basic colours that i use are mostly cold, just because for last two years it was enough warm colours. I feel for now it is being good staying with that kind of life tones on my palett. Let’s see what happens next.

Kristina, Oil on Canvas, 40x30

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Aleksandr Tishkov

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ART Habens

Winter 2015

ART Habens

Aleksandr Tishkov

Manka, Cruso and Angel, Paper and black pen, 80x60

Multidisciplinarity is a crucial feature of your artistic approach: besides the interesting paintings that our readers have already admired in the previous pages, you also produce sculptures and extremely stimulating graphic works, as the recent Manka, Cruso, Angel and Creator and The Three Graces, that you created in collaboration Vitaly Makurin... I have appreciated the effective synergy that you create between different materials: while crossing the borders of different techinques have you ever happened to realize that a synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

to a new opportunities for their further continuation in the space. Every discipline is good for their own dimentions. For example, having painting and sculpture together we probably will come to the art form known as installation, where inside can also be used as sound and theatrical action as anything else related to art forms.

During this year my task and my main attention relate to two disciplines and to possibility of developing a solution by putting together threedimensional objects with a surface painting.

This multidisciplinarity project also became a priority for me as being an idea for the future diplomic work for my final degree. This kind of symbiosis gives us more wider way of representing our thoughts and obviously we finally come to a masterpiece and genius creation.

Each separated technique is a subject to their own laws and properties which define only this specific technique. Their interaction gives a birth

Winter 2015

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Aleksandr Tishkov

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ART Habens

Co-work with Vitaly Makurin, Three graces

Winter 2014

Litography 2/8, 50x40

ART Habens

Aleksandr Tishkov

Matilde, Oil on Canvas, 60x50

During these years your work have been exhibited in several occasions and you recentlu had the solo "Time objects" at the VĂľru Town Gallery, and moreover, I think it's important to remark that you have been awarded as well... It goes without saying that feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist: I was just wondering if an award -or just the expectation of positive feedback- could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? I sometimes wonder if it could

Winter 2014 2015

ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art...

Feedback is always important for artist as it shows the reaction, the acception and understanding of your piece. Receiving any kinds of feedback is helpful, it is an opportunity to see your work from the side. Sometimes it is hard to define the weak parts of creating object by yourself. There are moments through the whole working process when your sight are getting hebetate, at this point it is necessary to leave a work for some time. Feedback plays irreplaceable role at that moment, especially if it’s done by authoritative artist. We can also find

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Aleksandr Tishkov

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ART Habens

Sister Portrait

Winter 2014

Oil on Canvas, 30x20

ART Habens

Aleksandr Tishkov

Woods Creature, Wood, Nails, Oil

an exception that exists and that not all of feedbacks needed to be accepted, just because some of it can destroy person’s artistic personality, by not accepting the way his/her art is. Here i can only advise to be a hawk-eyed and deeply believe in yourself and you will see that everything will come out with a great benefit for you. As i understood from the question you asked, you wonder how business can be relates to art.

Winter 2015

Well, there are always an art dealers who supports artists, and at that sense the business can work with art environment. Until the point when art is intentionally produces only for selling, of cause i am not counting art that was made for order purpose. In my point of view art is something very personal, and if it is done it should be done with a great significance, otherwise it does not deserve to be.

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Aleksandr Tishkov

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ART Habens

Shamanic Dance

Winter 2014

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 140x115

ART Habens

Aleksandr Tishkov

Arlequin Mask, Papier-Mache

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Aleksandr. My last question deals with your future plans: what's next for you? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

Would like not to predict that much for the future, but some close upcoming events i can share with you. As i am finishing my last year degree i will need to make a diplomic work to defend. There is going to be a theatrical performance build on one russian folklore story.

It is a co-work with an artist from Tallinn Art Academy. The best thing is that we create the whole world of play, where actors costumes are based, work and depend on stage design, where

Winter 2014 2015

map-projection will help to create an illusions and space continuation. Where everything works together as one debugged mechanism. The whole idea project builds on human perception, how it can be changed and cheated. Finally i hope it will come very contemporary and avangard play.

Another upcoming event is an exhibition with two international artist. The idea is to change the whole gallery view and make it as one piece of art. I would like also to thank you again ART Habens for being interested in my art, and for the questions that i was happy to answer.

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator arthabens@mail.com

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Aleksandr Tishkov

ART Habens

Geometric Self-portrait 21 61 4 Winter 2014 made by ''Self-Portrair with Creature'', Oil on Canvas, 150x90