ART
H A B E N S C o n t e m p o r a r y
A r t
R e v i e w
CHRISTIAN NEUMAN VAGNER WHITEHEAD DANA BURBACK JOHANNES BOEKHOUDT ESTELLE L. ROBERGE JC TROUBOUL DANIEL ZLOTA OLIVER POCSIK DAVID ISAKSON
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Special Edition
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Vagner Whitehead
Johannes Boekhoudt
Estelle L . Roberge
Jc Trouboul
Dana Burback
Daniel Zlota
USA
USA
USA
Spain
Canada
Romania
Born in 1985, Joan Carles Trouboul is a Spanish artist, painter, and architect. Jc Trouboul studied architecture in Barcelona. His love for architecture, art, and design influenced much of his later works. Once he completed school, he moved to Miami, Florida, where he started his own architecture and urban development company. To express the emotions, feelings, frustrations, and sadness he experienced then, he used figurative portraits on oversized canvasses as a way to capture and express his passion. Thereby, his first paintings were born. Possessing neither technical skill nor academic training in painting, Trouboul can see colors, shapes, and lines in his mind with the rhythm of the music.
Born and raised on this beautiful island of Victoria, BC. After going through the loss of my mother in 2011, it was recommended by her to go seek out some Hypnotherapy for some past trauma and the grief I would be dealing with. Three months later in 2013 I started painting for the first time ever, and then started showing my work in 2014.My work dives deep into the imagination of the beholder, it may even take you on an abstract spiritual journey as it has me. When I paint, I let go, when I paint, I lose myself, when I paint, I heal.Very few pieces of my paintings are intentional, some are ideas, some are themes, and lots are moods that represent love, loss, happiness, transformation, and spirituality.
Daniel Zlota: painter, architect, entrepreneur, traveler, dreamer.With a successful career in architecture and interior design, he is now entirely devoted to his first passion, painting. Daniel Zlota excellently combines mixed techniques such as acrylic paint, watercolor, pencil, charcoal, pastel and collage. His works are impressive through the way he uses colors, expressing optimism, authenticity and desire to enjoy life.He finds inspiration in his travels, family life and music. He likes to experiment and innovate with projects such as photopainting, a combination between painting and photography which offers new meanings to the latter.
Born in Curaçao and raised in Costa Rica, Johannes Boekhoudt now calls Dallas home. The abstract expressionist launched his art career in New York. Since then, Boekhoudt’s work has been presented in exhibitions throughout Latin America and the Caribbean in museums and galleries.
These paintings emerge from a series of walks through various local and distant sites throughout the seasons. The work reflects my preoccupation and attention to natural beauty, specific to place. Be it desert or His artworks display rock coast, I remain in accidental and forced awe of these places. intersections of They are both intimate personal experiences, and remote and Utilizing the canvas as a histories, current experienced through events, geo-locations, form of communication layers of abstracted languages, and found for social commentary, memories.Within this Johannes is continuously artifacts, and manifest geographical context of stirred by the world themselves through desert and coast, I also around him; he evaluates traditional and new imagine place and seek societal circumstances media pieces, to bring inner meaning he has experienced— presented in group to experienced space some troubling or and solo exhibitions in disturbing, some joyful through creativity. galleries and or mysterious—and then Walking in these museums, as well as interprets them through regions allows me to film and video a series of large format know natural festivals, nationally paintings in oil, acrylic or environments within a and internationally. mixed media on canvas. certain solitary context.
Vagner MendonçaWhitehead’s practice encompasses traditional and newer media art-making, curatorial projects and creative writings on visual culture.
In this issue
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Johannes Boekhoudt
Daniel Zlota Dana Burback Estelle L. Roberge
Vagner Whitehead David Isakson
Oliver Pocsik
Christian Neuman
USA
Hungary
Luxembourg / UK
Oliver Pocsik is a selfMy name is David taught visual artist Isakson. I weld and join materials to make from Budapest, humorous Hungary. He has deconstructions out of various works featured everyday objects. My art in magazines and on is an outsider book covers in deconstruction that blurs Hungary, The United the classical distinction Kingdom, Turkey and between the outside and Korea.His images were inside worlds, between exhibited in Budapest, thoughts and feelings.I Seoul and London.His am a small time operator. I find meaning surrealistic portraits are the visualizations of in the contrast between how he sees and opposite poles. Self/Other, desire/fear, perceives other people asleep/awake, and are mainly focused inside/outside. My work on the dilemmas of our is an effort to balance everyday life.His my schizophrenic mind workflow uses elements and aging human body. I of photography, use the internet to painting, analog and collect the marginal, the digital collage.The end cast off, and the results are edited otherwise useless and I digitally and are reuse this collection in available on canvas. my studio.
Christian Neuman conjures curiously touchable canvases with compelling and emotive narratives. Neuman’s art is an enthralling voyage for the senses and the rebellious soul. The artist describes how he works: on the edge of pure expression, in order to capture the most authentic and unembellished states of human emotion.The work is wonderfully personal and theatrical and embraces a diverse range of human emotions.For Neuman, forging a consistent aesthetic link between his works is essential. His background as a filmmaker no doubt informs this approach - with methodic, thoughtful and philosophical processes creating a linear storybook experience for the viewer.
Christian Neuman
Oliver Pocsik Tuna Tunaboylu
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Special thanks to: Charlotte Seeges, Martin Gantman, Krzysztof Kaczmar, Tracey Snelling, Nicolas Vionnet, Genevieve Favre Petroff, Christopher Marsh, Adam Popli, Marilyn Wylder, Marya Vyrra, Gemma Pepper, Maria Osuna, Hannah Hiaseen and Scarlett Bowman, Yelena York Tonoyan, Edgar Askelovic, Kelsey Sheaffer and Robert Gschwantner.
On the cover:
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Jc Touboul An interview by and
, curator curator
Hello Jc Touboul and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.jctrouboul.com we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and after your studies of Architecture, at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, in Barcelona, you moved to New York City, where you obtained a scholarship to study at the New York Academy of Arts, the prestigious art school founded by Andy Warhol. When walking our readers through the genesis of your artistic practice, sa basically self-taught artist, how do these experience influence the evolution of your creative process? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum due to your Spanish roots direct your current artistic research?
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Jc Touboul: Hello, anytime my pleasure. I grew up in Barcelona, surrounded by modernism architecture, full of magic and incredible buildings and interior spaces. In the art scene, Picasso, Dali and Miro are still influencing Catalunya, and my work as well.
That’s half of my cultural substratum, my Spanish roots. My parents are Argentinian, with French Italian roots. I lived half of my life overseas between Buenos Aires, Moscow, Miami, New York and London. Spain has influence me a lot of course, but
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the other overseas half part of my life is also relevant. I feel borders don’t exist for me, is just paperwork, I’m a fourth-generation immigrant, and I wish in the future borders won’t exist anymore. In the technical part; In Moscow I fell in love with the colors of Kandinsky, felt the decadency and forgotten glamour soul of Miami Art Deco, in New York I got the technical rules at the NYAA, and in London I got influenced by Jenny Saville and Francis Bacon textures. About my background family, I lived with my whole family, in Barcelona and Buenos Aires, my French and Italian grandparents were having passionate fights and kissing at the same time. I guess nowadays that’s my character, a volcano of emotions. Passion is my religion; the paintings are the way to express. For this special edition of ART Habens we have selected Stories of our time Fairy Tales for Adults. Part , a stimulating project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article, and that has at once captured our attention for the powerful storytelling conveyed by your images, and especially the way you explored the
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point of convergence between abstraction and references to human shapes, to offer an array of meanings to the viewers, inviting them to question the theme of identity: would you tell us how do you develop the idea of Stories of our time?
Jc Touboul: “Stories of our Time” came to my mind after an incident in my studio. A pipe broke and my studio got completely flooded. I lost everything, and had to start from zero. I went to my “idea’s box” and took the one that I wanted to develop since long time, for when I was ready and that was the right time. An empty space, a page in blank and lot of emotions. In critical situations humans are more creative. I spent a year researching materials, mediums, shapes, etc. Society, politics and the context we are living made the rest. We have really appreciated the way your artworks embody an interface between realism and imagination, as well as the way you include elements from ordinary experience. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us: how do you consider the
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relationship between reality and imagination playing within your work? And how does everyday life's experience fuel yur artistic research?
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Picasso without his impressive Guernika, nor Francis Beacon wont be relevant without his post war grotesque paintings. “To be original you have to go to the Origen” and create something new.
Jc Touboul: Reality and Imaginations is everywhere, even in love. What is real and what’s not? In Stories of Our time, we can see the reality in the meaning of the artwork, the context and continent of the artwork.
The renaissance is the big forgotten. I’d say that soon we will be in a “third Renaissance” if we are not in it already. I still believe that artists are here to disturb the true, raise awareness and lead topics that still relevant in our society like racism and sexism. One of my favorite artworks is “My pussy tastes like American Cola” where you can see Pocahontas dominating Trump. Here you have the sexism and racism topics.
The imagination is the creative process to build the artwork. In my daily experience, I’m connected with the world when I want, see what’s going on, and then I self-isolate myself in the creative process. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, you are obliged to capture the behaviours and events of our society as journalists do. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "artists's role differs depending on which part of the world they’re in": does your artistic research respond to a particular cultural moment? Moreover, do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical issues, as sexism and racism, that affect our interesting, still complicated age?
With their unique multilayered visual quality, your artworks highlight contours of known reality in an unknown world, to invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open
Jc Touboul: I think artists should express and transmit emotions over their artworks in their historical context and time. Picasso wont be
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Little Marmaid
I woke up like this
would you like your works to be understood?
“Hope-Bambi”. In the real painting people see the textures of the animals and make the real story come alive. I want to touch people souls, otherwise Im not doing well my work.
Jc Touboul: I like to be in the exhibition in the shadow, get closer to the viewers, pretend I’m a viewer and ask them what do you see? In that situation I had lot of good experiences. People see what they want, some see what the artwork is about, some don’t see anything until I explain, and those one who didn’t see anything they got very emotional and cried when they knew the meaning of the artwork, like in
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Your artworks often feature such vivacious tones and we have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances that mark out some of your artworks, and we like the way they create tension and sense of dynamism: how did you come about settling on
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your color palette? And how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your artworks?
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different textures, vivacious tones and deepness in the artworks. Once I faint for overexposed to chemicals, but I’m glad for the result, and cant wait to work on the next collection.
Jc Touboul: I wanted that the collection has a harmonic palette between them and also inside each artwork. That part was amazing, I had to think first in the whole collection as a monster, and then divide them in pieces like like part of a body. I researched hundreds of mediums and chemicals around the world, it was a long process. I played the role like alchemist to achieve
About the psychological technics, I pre study the pallets, In “My little 7 people and a bad Bitch – Snow White” The pink tone transmits the family idea and unity of love, while the dark side of the bitch make the artwork deep and dark. Blues, yellows and Reds are the basics and are pointing the viewer where to focus on the artwork.
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New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? In particular, how do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your creative process?
the process. Improvisation is always there, correcting and make always a better version of the artwork. There are some parts more grotesque, that’s the part of the improvisation I call animal instinct, the ugly part that makes the whole artwork beautiful. I discover that there is no beauty if there is not an “ugly part� on it, otherwise is not interesting for the eye.
Jc Touboul: I pre-study a lot the artworks. Drawing, drawing and drawing. First the shapes, the proportions, then the colors and last the textures. The passion comes in all
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Your work can be found in permanent and private collections and over the years you have internationally exhibited, including your recent shows Spectrum in
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Miami, and Open Studio, in London: how do you consider the participatory nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the audience in a physical is definetely the most important
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one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases, how
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would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience?
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quarantine I moved my studio from London to Barcelona, after the last collection I needed a Bigger space. I moved to a huge 400 years old Catalan Masia with a castle look. Perfect to be isolated in a big scale production of “Stories of our time” the whole collection. The project is to develop a Decade Collection of 10 subcollections, narrating the social, political and economic situation we are living now in this decade 2020-2030. I think we are living in one of the most interesting and transitional times in our human history.
Jc Touboul: In all my exhibitions I try to be present. Id say most of them I have been. And in the future Id manage to have long periods of work at the studio and travel periods for the exhibitions. I think is important to connect with the audience. I have been in exhibitions for weeks standing, close to my artworks and interacting with the audience. It’s a gratification time as well. Today we found artists very active in social media, I confess I should be more active and, and I promise I’m working to be more active on my social media like my Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/jc_troubo ul
Things are moving fast, technology, AI, nature, society and politics. It’s a privilege to be an art journalist and narrate the facts. The first Part of Stories of our Time was Fairy tales for Adults. The upcoming series, Part II: Pandemic” will explain the society in this hard situation the world is living. This pandemic will unify the world, but hard times are coming and will bring revolutionary times with selfish and unfair situations, “Part 3: Revolutions”. I cant wait to finish the construction and get back to paint.
We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Jc Touboul. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?
Jc Touboul: My pleasure to be part of Art Habens, and thank you for this interview opportunity. In middle of the
An interview by and
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Lives and works in Rockwall, TX, USA
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Johannes Boekhoudt An interview by and
, curator curator
Hello Johannes and welcome back to ART Habens we already got the chance to introduce our readers to your artworks in a previous edition and we are now particularly pleased to discover the development of your artistic production, and we would like to invite our readers to visit http://johannesfineart.com. In particular, the body of works that we have selected for this special edition has has captured our attention for the way you are developing a more and more distinct visual identity: how has your art changed over these recent years and what are the goals that you are pursuing with this new body of works?
Johannes Boekhoudt: During more than 10 years, I have completely given into social criticism in support of human rights, against domestic violence, children’s rights, women’s rights, and freedom of expression. I have also commented on the negative influence of corrupt governments and organizations that continue to be a liability to society. It is well known in these last 5 years that I have been dedicated to raising my voice through art for those that do not have a voice of their own; many have not have had the opportunity to be heard such as the plight of children around the world. I am able to continue my message of social justice by means of the support of my art collectors. Personally, I am grateful to start this new decade with strokes that will flow without barriers upon the canvas. I am certain that my new works will inspire emotion and joy to the collectors around the world. My style is the
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same as always by means of the crosses only that I utilize them as a means to incorporate new messages or criticisms. The new artworks seek to rescue my first tracings and drawings while updating them to the present with a consistent tendency towards expressionism. Currently, there is a strong art movement towards the
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contemporary but I continue to focus on my fresh and modern expressionist style. I continue to focus on the large modern art museums since my primary goal has always been for the art to be appreciated by all. My responsibility upon reaching
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these great exhibition stages is to display the most unique and unrestricted works; Works that represent the forced and natural abstraction that resides in me. As I always say, “Between Jean Michel Basquiat, Willem D’Kooning and Pablo
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Picaso, I exist”. I want to show the public
my own style and identity. It is imperative
how I adopt these great masters of the
to educate the new generations in art
plastic arts into my own works. I have been
itself. Remember well that “the art
constantly inspired without leaving behind
educates those who truly see”.
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human lens will always look for a focal point and it is my responsibility to exhibit this on the canvas appropriately. Some paintings could be realized with more or less texture, but it all depends on the theme and my psychological state.
In your recent body of works we can recognize such unique combination between bold colors and thoughtful nuances, that creates tension and such sense of dynamics. How does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in an artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures in order to achieve such brilliant results?
For your new work entitled Pinocchio / My lies you drew from European fiction / fairytales imagery: how does characters belonging to literature as well as fiction do inspire you as an artist?
Johannes Boekhoudt: I believe that the same painting itself demands the bold colors. There are spaces that require more concentration of primary colors just as others do not. Now, I should say that personally when I am at peace with myself, the colors will be influenced by the energy of my aura. On the contrary, when I am agitated, the results will always be different. Part of my privileged exercise in the creation of a piece is to give myself up entirely with physical abandon and connect my vast array of feelings to the work. This is the only way to truly express the generation of ideas, colors and textures, which reflect the fluctuation of my own perceptions. I have never been able to contemplate idea of being separate from my painting. This is a continuous interaction between myself and the work, in which the work itself asks for certain tones and textures, which I comply.
Johannes Boekhoudt: I see Pinocchio as every individual’s manifestation of our own lies; lies that as human beings we have all succumbed to on at least one occasion. The lie which begins with the palette and tells its truth on the canvas. Our inability to accept this human predisposition creates its own falsity. Pinocchio comes to forgive and make us understand that this falsity is human nature and no one can escape this. Pinocchio breaks the strings of wonderment and reveals the truth that we all reject. This painting wants to simultaneously reveal both the lie and its inherent truth. The fictional character captivates the audience and draws them into his world of lies. At the same time, this character forces us to reflect that in the end we are all equal in the betrayal of the truth. As I have said in the past, “The art is a lie. A lie that we accept.”
The destruction of a primary color fascinates me. Many times I create the different arrays of colors on the same canvas, which can be generated by means of crosses. After several layers of paint and tracings, the work seems to be ready but it still lacks the details and it then requires the white or black to finally highlight the primary idea, which was there all along. The
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You are continuously stirred by the world around yourself, ans as you have remarked in your artist's statement, you utilize the canvas as a form of communication for social commentary. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "artists's role differs depending on which part of the world they’re in": does
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your artistic research respond to a particular cultural moment? In particular, do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical issues that affect our globalised and everchanging society?
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created by the painting is fundamental to bring about change regarding a specific social instability. A painting that is not able to convey its message is not my goal. Unfortunately in today’s society we see a strong thread of instant gratification. This has also contaminated our world of art with sensationalistic art that does not provide communication or social gain. Its only goal is to create economic wealth and is not interested in a lasting artwork that can be shown in different mediums or social groups. Some of these works can also be seen as destructive rather than constructive and are focused on a digital shock factor rather than an artistic experience.
Johannes Boekhoudt: The master Gabriel Orozco is correct in saying that it is not the same to live on an island with its limitations, as it is to live in a big city with all of its advantages and disadvantages. The artist behaves differently in both situations. The temperature, environment, gastronomy, cultural history, customs and language among others all affect the behavior and perceptions of the artist. Consequently, for me, I cannot find inspiration on a psychological level if I am happy such as on vacation at a beach or on a mountain. In those moments, my eyes only live in that space in time and cannot conceive of creating criticism. But when I am alone and pensive, this is the moment that creation will fly free. Unlimited ideas come to my mind in silence and darkness which combine to create images and colors that I can use for the painting. Of course I also draw influence such as color from the places that I have been in the past, such as the Caribbean specifically the Dutch Antilles where I was born. With the African and European influences, you can well imagine the world of images that I carry by my own inheritance. The years of growth in Costa Rica also imprinted the Latin culture and its own set of colors and images. I made the conscious decision to incorporate all of my influences in my paintings. The social communication
Through your artistic production you also evaluate societal circumstances that you have personally experienced: how do your memories and your everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research?
Johannes Boekhoudt: Everyday, my promise to paint the truth impulses me to document stories and cultural events that occur in the world. As I mentioned previously, after more than 10 years of realizing this work, they had labeled me as a journalistic artist. That knowledge of events gives the audience the tool to fuel changes on this planet. I believe it is urgent to lift your voice and as an international artist I accepted this labor with energy and will continue to do so with a little variance. We live in an everchanging fragile world in which one virus can make us all reflect as to where we are headed as human beings. These tragic
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events obligate us to create new ideas for the world of art. All of these experiences have fueled changes in the way we all work. Time will tell and show how much we have learned to move forward and which ideas will be taken to the white canvas.
You often work with large canvas, thatprovide the viewers with such immersive visual experience: how do the dimensions of your canvass affect your workflow?
Johannes Boekhoudt: I can say that I can work in all formats; the size will not keep me from painting. But without a doubt, the large format is definitely my preferred. This allows me to navigate freely over the canvas without limits. It is like travelling the ocean without running into dry land. The large size of the canvas offers me the freedom to liberate my ideas through the crosses. The large dimension draws in the audience to become part of the work’s moment in time and space; it allows the viewer to abandon his or her own reality for just a moment. The only challenge with large formats is the logistics of size. You need the required space to paint and store during the many months of the drying period. Actually, I produce few large-scale format paintings for these reasons. Although the large-scale formats easily draw your attention, the small and medium formats are important as well in their own right. I love to play with my sketches for small works since they are very intimate and seek to fulfill the satisfaction of the collector. In addition, small formats are much easier to transport from one place to another and allow to be exhibited in any space. So, we cannot underestimate the smaller works which can become even more important than a large format painting.
Even when your artworks portray something imaginary, we can recognize a representational connection to the world. How important is for your the connection between the real and the imagined, and to what degree do you keep it in mind?
Johannes Boekhoudt: Both ideas participate equally in the themes of my artworks. When studying art, I believe that the reality affects and drives the magic of imagination and anger of criticism. I believe that creating a fictional event as an idea for a painting would be of little significance since it would undoubtedly be an artificial work of art. The criticisms that I have made have been a product of real events that have transcended borders. The primary goal is to inform the world as to what is truly happening. For this reason, the retro alimentation of images of the press contributes to my vision in order to work through an idea. Not all news is tragic, do not misunderstand me, but I do criticize hunger, childhood abuse, chemical weapons that cause thousands of deaths, among others. These events are constantly present in my mind. If I did not free these images on the canvas, I could not sleep in peace. For this reason, I feel satisfied having documented these atrocities by means of my artwork.
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To quote Max Ernst's word, every human being has an inexhaustible store of buried
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images in his subconscious and into his inner world: it is merely a matter of voyaging into the unconscious, to bring pure and unadulterated found objects to light. How important is for you to show the link between the inner world and the outside reality?
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certain images in artwork instead of leaving them in the forgotten dreamscape. The images were in their own moment part of an experimental reality and some others were actually lived. In many ways, I believe that bringing these to the present communicates a certain message. Also, we must consider that the artist, in this case, uses these tools as a catharsis as well. Definitely the internal world is tied to the present. I also confess that during the hours of creation, I travel introspectively without realizing the hours or circumstances that this time frame or moment takes. It is natural to step back in order to move
Johannes Boekhoudt: For many years, I have stored images in my mind like most people. Maybe the difference, for me, has been to retrieve and interpret these on the canvas or in a drawing. Obviously, these have been images that one-way or another have imprinted deeply inside myself due to some type of destructive force. The narrative would be the reason why I relive
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forward, just like the painting. First you prepare the canvas with its base in order to work from the back to the front.
Johannes Boekhoudt: Each exhibition is different even during an exhibition tour. The combination of each physical space, specific time and the characteristics of the visitors create a unique environment in which to appreciate the art. The interactive opportunity to exchange ideas with the public in person is marvelous and contributes to the exhibition itself. I enjoy personally answering their questions and getting to know the individual visitors; this is immeasurable to me. The public expects the artist’s attention and gratitude for their presence in the vernissage. The artist, in return, not only gives these toward his
Over the yours your artworks have been showcased in several exhibitions throughout Latin America and the Caribbean in museums and galleries: how important is for you to meet personally the viewers of your artworks? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definetely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience?
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audience but also shows in a natural way who he is and in which direction his artistic views are headed. In a few words, at that moment, the artist takes off his mask and shows his true form. On another note, there are many preparations previous to the exhibition that contribute to the exhibition experience. These details are not appreciated on an online format, such as the curatorial layout, the artist’s statements for each individual piece, the appreciation of the work at different depths and the artist’s presence. The two dimensional photo of an artwork cannot be compared to the multidimensional appreciation of an artwork in a physical exhibition. The artwork or painting was meant to be appreciated by means of its own observation, odor, size, color and texture. Even the play of angles of light upon a painting can change its perception. There is no other means that can replace the personal experience. The art collector may consult a database to locate a painting but they will always need physical interaction with a painting to appreciate and acquire the painting. The photograph does not justify the real palpable work.
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these tracings overlapped themselves and did not leave room for any drawings. Now, I have discovered the manner in which to integrate the drawing with the crosses. It is the moment itself that dictates the reality. I certainly do not know everything nor do I presume to. Every day in my atelier, I learn something new and if this was regarding my technique I will try to perfect this more every day. I will continue with my world of ideas in support of human rights and free expression focused as always on the children of the world. Fresh ideas in which we can all collaborate for a society with more independence, freedom and happiness. The abstraction is key in my creations, but the drawing reigns over the paintings. Today, artistic maturity speaks for itself. I only paint, the rest I leave to the curators, art critics, collectors, museums and galleries. For many years, I was an independent artist and later I understood the importance of being affiliated with a formal and professional gallery. Which is why I have recently accepted an affiliation with the Bill Lowe gallery in Atlanta, GA who can expand my reaches to other markets. Of course, my clients can expect that I will continue to support different nonprofit foundations and organizations, which support human rights with a focus on the children.
Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Johannes. How do you see your evolution as an artist over time? Are there any things that you do fundamentally different from when you started years ago?
Johannes Boekhoudt: Of course, I believe that my artwork has evolved over time in both technique and context. The years do not pass by chance, since chance does not exist. Initially when I discovered the crosses,
Finally, art unites us since drawings have been the first universal tool for communication. Drawings define our language and our vision. We are all art.
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Lives and works in Barcelona, Spain
Casa Mila
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video, 2013
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Jordi Rosado
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Daniel Zlota An interview by and
, curator curator
Hello Daniel and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit http://danielzlota.com and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training in Architecture and you hold a Bachelor's Degree in Interior Design and a Master's Degree in Materials and Interior Design that you received from the Universitatea de Arhitectură și Urbanism „Ion Mincu” București: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist, and what did direct you to devote yourself to Painting? Daniel Zlota: I’ve always loved to draw. One of my earliest memories is when I was around 7-8 years old and inspired by one of my brothers and my teachers at that time I decided to participate to a street art contest. It was less about winning and more about the experience of drawing that I was fascinated by. That’s when my dream to become an artist began. More recently, in parallel with my university studies, I worked as an employee for a global retailer as a senior architect where I managed a variety of projects such as refurbishments, new layouts and creating design concepts from scratch. In all of my projects I used my skills such as drawing/sketching and also painting. Therefore, in parallel with my career as an architect, I also started to explore more the world of painting. Some of my artworks were selected for exhibitions (such as “Around the World”, “Conversion”, as well as private events) and have been featured in TV and radio interviews, with a strong impact to the public. Finally, I decided to be fully committed to
Daniel Zlota
painting, as this turned into something more than a hobby. It is not easy to make a living out of painting but I believe that my success comes from the strong connection established between my viewers and my artworks. At the heart of my
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creations are stories of my life or of the people that I meet. My art is a mix of happiness, love and sensations. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens —and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way the visual language that marks it out seems to be used in a strategic way to explore and capture the variety of human emotions, providing your artworks with an array of meanings and communicating optimism and desire to enjoy life to the viewers. When walking our reader through the genesis of your artworks, would you tell us how do you develop your ideas? Daniel Zlota: All my paintings are full of meanings, with stories behind them and with a thorough previous research. I paint because I love to be a storyteller but also because I want to share the imaginary and history both at the same time, new techniques and innovative approaches with each new artwork created. I thrive for the original and one of my recent projects that I think showcases this is “Camino de la Vida”. This was exhibited in Barcelona and it represents an analogy between Romanian and Mexican traditions and symbols. It is incredible how two countries from different continents can have so much in common. For example, there are similarities within death superstitions in terms of what scared people, clothing, as well as the chromatic used for clothes. Jaffa entrance
Art enables me to share my roots, my feelings and my life. This is the genesis of each of my creations.
inspiration from day to day life. I never start an artwork without being connected with the theme otherwise, the result would be “another” painting, without life. I ask myself
Before starting a painting, I listen to my instinct, my feelings about a subject and I get
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what is my message, and how can I do something better than the day before and how to nurture my viewers with something they will enjoy. My paintings express my feelings.
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As you have remarked once, you cover your eyes and you paint, scratch, draw what you feel. New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today
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Venecia
one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically
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transpose geometric schemes? In particular, how do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your creative process?
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name of the project is “Blindfold” and this idea was born during our lockdown time now with the global context that we are in, when I was fortunate to spend more time with my 2-yearold daughter and watch her draw in such a genuine, naïve, as well as roughly authentic manner, that inspired me. So I decided to cover my eyes and paint instinctively, and I was amazed by the results, as this enabled me to let go of control, and let the feeling take over. This way I was less focused on precise lines and more on instinct and inner inspiration. So yes, paintings are a mix of precise geometric schemes and vision (gestures, intuitive touch, emotion). Another interesting example that showcases the results of my improvisation experiments is my artwork “Flamingo” that was selected for the 1st International Watercolor Festival in Myanmar. For this painting I used strong colors as well as a wet gestural technique to symbolize five flamingos, and to reproduce their grace. On the other hand, an example of an artwork that follows more the precise lines rules is “Winter in the Mountains”, with which I represented Romania at its First International Watercolor Festival, where I also had the opportunity to be invited as member of the jury. To conclude, I believe that chance has an incredible role in the process of creation: although an artist may know the techniques that need to be applied, it is through improvisation how you could get spectacular, unexpected results.
Daniel Zlota: This is a great question, and I am happy to share with you that one of my recent projects was actually based on the idea of going back to the instinct, to our roots. The
You are a versatile painter and your practice involves mixed techniques such as acrylic
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Barcelona Port
Sagrada Familia
Daniel Zlota
paint, watercolor, pencil, charcoal, pastel and
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necessarily choose the technique based on the theme of my creation.
collage: how do you select a particular medium in order to highlight specific qualities in your
I consider that no matter the technique, whether that is drawing, painting or collage, essential is the actual message, and in order for it to have an impact you have to focus on
artworks? Daniel Zlota: I select by feeling, I don’t
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The new world
particular locations and how do they affect your creative process? In particular, how do your travels and your everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research?
how you connect it to your audience, how you tell them your story. For some of your paintings, as the interesting Venecia, Sagrada Familia and Jaffa entrance you seem to draw a lot from the peculiar specifics of the environment: how do you decide to portray
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Daniel Zlota: Actually, my travels and everyday life’s experiences are the ones inspiring my
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paintings. I select my painting themes or locations based on a variety of factors – ranging from the architectural elements that impressed me, all the way through the emotion of a moment, the vibration of a certain corner of a street, the music or perfume. All of these create
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a memory for me that I transform into paintings. I really enjoy talking to locals and discovering new stories, new people and finding their perspectives on life. I first paint for myself, I do that with joy and
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El Sueño
been particularly fascinated by the fact that from a certain point of view it claims the attention of the viewers on itself: but it also suggests the idea of being an half-closed curtain that seem to aim at obstructing the view to the rest of the painting, challenging
this helps me to further communicate my messages. We noticed that some works of yours — as the interesting El Sueño Horse and The Gate — feature white spots that attract on themselves the optical barycentre of the canvas. We have
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elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? Daniel Zlota: Each viewer has certain expectations when they look at a painting, either based on the artist’s background or on their own experience and understanding of art. The messages that I send through my artworks are supposed to guide the audience up to a certain point. Once that connection has been established, my guidance stops and each viewer has the power to follow their own interpretation and give a certain meaning to the painting, that makes them identify themselves with that piece of art. It is more important for me that the viewers project the message as their own, than to actually understand my original thoughts. I actually feel each of my viewers enrich the artwork with their interpretations. One of the best examples that showcases this is my exhibition at the National Theatre in Bucharest, Romania where - in collaboration with some of the top Romanian photographers -I started from the story of a photograph and I created a painting with my own vision, adding also an extra “context” for each viewer to imagine their own story. I mixed three stories in one painting. And the most incredible thing was that the photographers didn’t know the final result of the paintings until the opening event of the exhibition. It was fabulous to see their genuine reactions. the viewers to complete the painting as a whole by their free associations. As an artist particularly interested in experimentation and innovation in order to provide new meanings to your artworks, how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to
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Marked out with vivacious tones — as in La Creacion — as well as such thoughtful nuances — as in Shadows — your paintings have struck us for the way they create such enigmatic patterns, communicating tension and dynamics. How does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that
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you decide to include in an artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures in order to achieve such brilliant results? Daniel Zlota: Behind all my paintings are my feelings, my emotions, my beliefs. I consider myself an optimistic realistic person and my art expresses that. For example, “La Creacion” is an abstract joyful work that shows the process of creation, genesis, and which has as the central symbolistic element the dance (showing traditional Romanian and Mexican dances). Happiness and joy are not in direct correlation with vivacious tones. I sometimes use obscure colors to emphasize the light. A dark painting can sometimes be more optimistic than a colorful one. In that sense, “Shadows” is an urban watercolor in which I create the illusion of two parallel worlds, where the separation is made by a pillar. These two worlds from my interpretation are past (darker colors) and present (light), with the main message being that we need to stay focused on the present. We have appreciated the way The Chosen One unveils the connection between narrative and abstraction, providing the viewers with such multilayered visual experience. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination playing within your work? Boats in La Roche-Bernard
Daniel Zlota: I usually start from something real, that has a certain story, and take it to an imaginary world that has a deeper message. This “illusion” that I create is my approach to guide the viewer towards his own interpretation. “The Chosen One” is such an example, being part of the collection entitled
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“Conversion” (exhibited in Europe) and which tells the story of the leader, the one who receives the divine grace and who is followed by his companions, guiding them towards nlightenment.
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We would catch this occasions to introduce our readers to another stimulating project of yours, entitled BioArt. When introducing our readers to the BioArt project, would you tell us if you think that art could raise awareness
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in the viewers about topical issues, as environmental themes? Daniel Zlota: BioArt is one of my dearest projects, it is a statement, an alarm signal for
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Tel Aviv in April
each of us, telling us that we must be more involved in tackling the global environmental challenges maybe now more than ever.
people painted the walls of the caves and their stories were carried to us in this way. They used natural and vibrant materials, and it is fascinating that we can still see these original paintings around the Globe.
In the past, at the beginning of civilization,
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to how art is created and be closer to nature. I was inspired by ancient paintings when all the materials where natural, so in the context of the current world pandemic I decided to use only bio materials (soya, coffee, vegetables, etc.). As an extension of the BIOArt I would like also to use materials, clothes, that can be reused such as shirt, pants, ties, etc. Another example is painting for clothes. I studied for the collection “Camino de la Vida” various aspects, starting from history, popular traditions, customs but also symbols and colors specific to each nationality (Romanian and Mexican). For this project I also made two trips to Mexico to better understand the community, the people and their beliefs. I found the energy from the Pyramids of Teotihuacan to be fabulous, vibrant, as well as from the ancient settlements of Tulum or Chichén-Itzá and how some customs are similar to those in some regions of Romania (Transylvania, Moldova, Dobrogea). For example, in Romania there is a celebration of the Dead (similar to the more famous Dia de los Muertos in Mexico) and also a Merry Cemetery in the South of the country (with happy poems about the life of the people deceased written on the crosses). It is fascinating how close people were to nature in the past, how much they respected nature and how all their actions led to the protection of it in return, because nature took care of them. There were songs, games but also offerings to the Sun, Wind, Rain, etc. BioArt means going back to the roots and being aware that everything we do impacts everything around us.
“Nature never breaks her own laws” Leonardo da Vinci says. BioArt is exactly about raising awareness among the viewers about protecting the nature/environment. What I propose with BioArt is to change our approach
All the materials that you use are from nature - paper handmade 100% cotton, pure natural colors made by yourself, and brushes are
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natural hair. New York City based photographer and sculptor Zoe Leonard once stated, "the objects that we leave behind hold the marks and the sign of our use: like archeological findings, they reveal so much about us". We’d love to ask you about the qualities of the materials that you include — or that you plan to include — in your artworks: in particular, how important is for you to use recycled materials, capable of inviting the viewers to investigate the traces left by time? Daniel Zlota: BioArt is not only a project, it is also an exam for me. When I paint I use only top materials, from top providers and as you can imagine it is quite challenging to achieve the same quality by using handmade materials. So far, I have been using for my BioArt creations materials that I produce, mostly through continuous exploration and experiments. This is an ongoing process but I am very excited as I go through it, as it gives me the chance to think about the impact that us, as humans, have on nature, and how we can benefit from using non-chemical materials. BioArt helps us to better understand the passing of time, meaning that all of the materials that I use for this project are biodegradable. All the colors and textures applied are home made from plants, vegetables and natural juices. You are an established artist, and your artworks are in many collections in the US, Mexico, England, Italy, Spain, France, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Romania: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definitely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as
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Daniel Zlota: I am currently working at several projects that I love and since I moved to Barcelona I feel more and more inspired. I am involved in the evolution of BioArt as well as two more projects that started growing: "Blindfold" and "Inner child". They are all connected even if I have a different approach, technique and materials for each.
Instagram — increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalized audience? Daniel Zlota: Human interaction is very important to me, because I like to talk to people, I like to share / interchange? the thoughts and the ideas behind every line that I draw. But I’ve also built my online presence through my website www.danielzlota.com and Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/danielzlota as well, because in a world that is in continuous movement, in which the online is part of our life, art is also impacted. I want to be as close as possible to my audience, and in my social media posts I try to make up for this lack of human interaction.
“Blindfold” is a result of my imagination and less of my technique abilities. Because I am a professional artist all my lines are very well defined and it is quite difficult to switch to “naïve” lines. Covering my eyes, I become more focused on the theme and result of the artwork and less on the technique, on the “right” shapes. Inspired by Picasso, who once said “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up”, I created “The Inner Child” project which consists of paintings started from some sketches/lines drawn by my 2-year-old daughter, that we then continue to develop / paint together and with me adding the final touch. It is an incredible experiment, a mix of improvisation and technique.
I am present on Instagram daily and I’m thrilled that I can share my day by day life with all my followers. I share my work in progress, videos, feelings, my life, because it is very important for my audience to understand who I am, how I feel and create. Related to this topic I am also involved in a volunteer program where I offer online painting classes for kids in my home country (Romania), that are currently learning online. This enables me to encourage them to follow their dreams, continue their studies and discover their own path. Through art we can get to know each other and express ourselves.
To conclude, as we all know, every generation has amazing artists that come around with innovative ideas or movements which change the rules that were know until then. My dream is to become one of these artists and my projects and experiments will continue as long as I have innovative ideas to explore. I wish to be an inspiration to the next generations.
We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Daniel. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?
An interview by and
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, curator curator
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Jordi Rosado
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Dana Burback An interview by and
curator curator
Hello Dana and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://artsvictoria.ca/artist/712408/view and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. As a self-taught artist having ADHD and dyslexia, how do these aspects as well as your experience with Hypnotherapy influence and benefits your art and your creativity? Dana Burback: I find having ADHD and Dyslexia has become my gift now instead of a disability or hinderance. Even though it is often seen or thought of as a disability, I believe that it creates a different way of expression, and we are then able to see the world in a heightened sensitivity and awareness around us that creates a unique energy. We are able to see the big picture and point out things or ideas that most people do not think of. That is why some of the greatest artists, musicians, designers, and sculptures, and critical thinkers are very successful because they bend the rules, colour outside the box, push boundaries while creating their passions after having been told that they were doing it wrong or couldn’t do it. Growing up, for whatever reasons I was unsure of who I was, unsure of doing something wrong, scared to ask questions etc. Now with being an abstract expressionism artist, I now know that I am
Dana Burback
doing it right because with abstract art there are no mistakes in my eyes, and I feel I am in my complete element being able to be free and confident, letting the spirit flow through me sometimes painting for 6-8 hours before stopping. It truly has been the best therapy for me besides doing hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy has been around for many of centuries. Whether one realizes it or not, when you draw, paint, sculpt, write, you
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then enter into a hypnotic state. Your breathing slows down, you achieve a nice deep state of relaxation letting your subconscious mind open up, and you are then able to let your distractions, troubles or whatever it is that you are feeling in that moment come flowing out into whatever creative expression you choose. Marked out with such unique visual identity, the body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens —and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way you use your visual language in a strategic way to counter-balance subjectivity, offering an array of meanings. When walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you usually develop your initial idea for your artworks? Dana Burback: Most of the time I do not know what I am going to create, some of my paintings come from an idea, an emotion, and or are just completely mindless. I think that is one of the reasons I love abstract art is because there is no pressure. Most of the time my process is pretty simple. I either go buy a new canvas or use a recycled one. I really enjoy putting my canvas on the floor on top of a drop sheet. I sometimes like to think what colours I will start with, it is generally between three and four colours to begin with, I generally sense my mood, and match the music, or I just put on some beats to get the vibes flowing. I generally start by pouring one colour on a blank canvas or a painted background, and then feel my way around. I sometimes do not know if I am done or not, so I may walk away from the painting for awhile,
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but most of the time except for when I work on large canvases I complete my paintings in the same day because I need the feeling of completion. Featuring such stimulating dreamlike ambience, your artworks show such ambivalent and a bit enigmatic visual identity. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us, how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? Dana Burback: I believe reality and imagination come from ideas. Even the idea of wanting to be creative came from an idea. I believe the reality comes, after whatever creative endeavour you complete. Most creative people’s minds are always racing, imagining or daydreaming of what they can create next. Most of my abstract work are not done with intention, but sometimes I channel people or spirits, and what comes out in my work is an image that you can physically see with your eyes, and still not believing what is in front of you. Like my painting “Live with Passion” I knew a 38 year old male Iron Man/Triathlete who suddenly past away from a heart attack. It bothered me so much that I had to get it out on canvas, so I went and bought a new canvas and some paint. I came home, turned on the music and went to town. What came out of the painting was my friend running in a race with people possibly behind him. Most people can see the spiritual image quite clear. I could literally
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feel him with me, and I could envision him
production are intentional, some are ideas,
smiling and that was not my imagination lol.
some are themes, and lots are moods that
As you have remarked in your artist's
represent love, loss, happiness,
statement, very few pieces from your artistic
transformation, and spirituality. New York
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City based artist Lydia Dona once stated
create your works gesturally, instinctively?
that in order to make art today one has to
Or do you methodically transpose
revaluate the conceptual language behind
geometric schemes? In particular, how do
the mechanism of art making itself: do you
you consider the role of chance and
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improvisation playing within your creative
Dana Burback: I do create instinctively with feeling most of the time because I like the freedom of not thinking about anything and just doing. I recently did a painting where I
process?
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grabbed a recycled canvas and had the idea of large colourful circles on a black background starting with orange. So I randomly started painting at 2:30am, my idea seemed great to begin with then my colours ran into some of the others which was very frustrating because I guess if I have an idea in my head, I want it to look right. It bothered me for a couple of days as I watched it dry. I was telling my girlfriend, who is an Art History major that I think that I ruined the painting I was working on. She thought I was crazy when she saw it, it became one of her favourites of mine. She stated that I was evolving, creating a pop art/Basquiat style painting. I am expanding my style, trying different techniques and shapes, using different style and sized brushes along with tin foil, plastic wrap, my hands and I actually like painting with real painters’ brushes especially working on large canvases. I look forward to expanding even more on larger canvases while using spray paint, oil, and acrylic all in one painting.
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part of me that blossomed and learnt to fly on my own. Before my mom passed, she made the suggestion for me when I was ready, to seek out a Hypnotherapist for some past trauma and the grief I would be dealing with. About a year later I needed to get out of my head, so I decided to volunteer as a mentor in a place where woman are coming through trauma and finding themselves. It just so happened that the Hypnotherapist office was there, and I knew that was a sign. Three months later after my first consultation, I had a friend in my apartment building who is also an artist give the suggestion that I may want to paint before I went to work that day. I thought that lying on the couch sounded better because I was so depressed, but she told me to put some effort into it and I accepted the challenge. I had no idea what I would even put on a white blank canvas. Over the years I have been very interested in astrology and numerology, so I decided to try and do the astrology symbols. I had no idea how I would even start or if I could even do it or would I do it wrong. I started by painting the canvas black and letting it dry. I tried to tap into my mom’s energy and thought what colour her favourite was, and so I chose violet. I thought about what size brush I would need to be able to paint all nine astrology symbols free hand. As soon as I was finished, I was surprised how much I liked it, and how complete it felt. It ended up being my first painting where I found my artist. Then I thought I wonder if I can create an abstract painting as I have always respected and admired graffiti and abstract paintings. I remember always saying when I saw an abstract painting “I could do that”
Your artworks feature such thoughtful nuances, as well as bold tones and, we have particularly appreciated the way they create such enigmatic patterns, communicating tension and such ethereal ambience. How does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your artworks and, how do you develop your textures in order to achieve such unique results? Dana Burback: My art career was brought to you by losing my mother eight years ago lol at the age of 35. It is such a catch 22! We were best friends and soulmate close. Part of me died with her, but there is also a huge
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and I believe that I manifested it. I had only a small canvas at the time and I just let myself be free to do whatever moved me. With the day and age of social media, it was great for me to be able to post a pic of my finished product. To me it looked like goldfish or coy fish swimming around through green alga that glows. It was so interesting to see if people would actually like it, and to see what they saw or what their interpretation was or even what title it should be called because at one point I thought I had to name every painting lol. It became my very first abstract piece of art and now I almost don’t have room in my apartment lol I started learning there are no mistakes with abstract art which fits with my philosophy about life. As I continued to paint I realized I could recycle canvases if I did not like the outcome which then gave a new painting texture depending on how thick the paint was prior, as well I realized that it’s completely up to me if I want to use or waste a lot of paint on one painting, I am free to create how I want which also can create texture. Most paintings get an abstract background before deciding if I will add more on top to create texture or somewhat 3D effect. For the most part having music on helps your paintings come alive, playing whatever your mood is: how does music help you to create? Dana Burback: Music to me is like breathing, it is necessary. It is a form of energy. Music by itself is a release, but then adding it while creating just amplifies the energy of the painting ten-fold. I am a huge music lover, everything from Soul, R & B, Country, Jazz,
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Dana Burback
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Top40, Electronic, hip hop, and alternative all give me inspiration. Sometimes I turn on the music, have a canvas ready to go and sit back and try and really feel the music vibes. A lot of times I sense my mood and match the music, or I hear the music and match my mood. I love letting go on canvas through music and seeing what comes out of me. I do believe the vibes of my paintings come through my music I chose. With their unique multilayered visual quality, your artworks highlight contours of known reality in an unknown world and seem to invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? How open would you like your works to be understood? Dana Burback: I feel good when I say that I paint for myself first. When I’m done creating a painting it matters what I think first. I believe with abstract it gives a lot of room for interpretation because we all can see something different and nobody is wrong. Other paintings I have done have stories behind them and so if a patron sees something completely different and it’s about something specific, I will share my story with them. I will also try and get them to see what I am seeing in my own paintings. Sometimes it still is just left to their own imagination and I am completely okay with that.
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Dana Burback
How important is for you to encourage your viewers to discover their creativity?
Finding your creativity opens you up in so many ways, to so many possibilities. Now go grab a canvas, and some paints and see what flows out of you
Dana Burback: This is huge for me; this is one of my missions in life is to teach and help people let go of all their STUFF that is keeping them back and keeping them from living their authentic life. Not only does creating something give you a sense of accomplishment, but it also really helps you to be still and zone out especially with the fast-paced lives we are all living in uncertain times. I have found my artist by just going for it, working hard, putting myself out there and never giving up. It feels organic because I am doing it at my own pace and learning as I go along.
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Over the years your artworks have been showcased in several occasions, and you just finished your 17th show in 5 years: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definitely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases: how would in your
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Dana Burback
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ART Habens
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ART Habens
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Dana Burback
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Dana Burback
opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience?
ART Habens
only creating my art, but also hustling to get my work out there for the world to enjoy which gives me the confidence to engage with any audience. Being an emerging artist, I believe it is so important to be open to learning, being open for feed back whether it be positive or negative. Most people enjoy hearing the stories of the artists, and how they came to be. I enjoy seeing people looking and analyzing my art. I also really enjoy asking them if they too are artists and to hear their stories. I get inspiration from other creative and eccentric artists and really anyone who has a story. As time over
Dana Burback: I consider my relationship with my audience to be very important. I love engaging and interacting with them. There are so many different aspects to relationships that you create while being an artist. As I am my biggest critic, it is most important for me to like, enjoy and be proud of what I create so that when engaging with patrons, I am open to whatever comments and or discussions about my art will be had. I know all the hard work, determination, blood sweat and tears I have put into not
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Dana Burback
the years has changed moving into a fastpaced social media era has created more opportunities to market your artwork, more opportunities to engage virtually on a larger scale. I truly believe though seeing art firsthand at a show or gallery is really the only way to take in the emotion, texture, and feelings in a piece of art. If you would like to check out more of my work and see what I am up to, you can reach me on my Instagram - @dolly7625
would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Dana. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Dana Burback: The behind the scenes work I do includes such things as cataloguing my art, creating a portfolio of the last 5 years of shows, always updating my artist COV (no pun intended lol), applying to shows, going through supplies such as paint and brushes, always writing ideas down, and always thinking what I can create and apply for
We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we
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Dana Burback
next. During the strange times as of late, I have had more time to be creative. I am in the middle of creating a brand loosely based on my life. The first product I created is a 14 x 14 x 3 white durable cotton tote bag with my writing and art on it. I look forward to creating more products as I go along. I have had some awesome opportunities lately that have been cancelled due to the world emergency, so I hope to get the opportunities again next year. I look forward to creating on more large canvases, where I feel my most free to create.
ART Habens
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the other artists on this Biennial Special Edition of ART Habens, and look forward to reading your stories. I would really like to thank ART Habens magazine for this awesome opportunity to show case our work for the world to see.
An interview by and
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curator curator
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Lives and works in Magdalena, New Mexico
Several Figures. 29 ½” x 38 ½ “ Monotype, 1984. (Ea
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Estelle L. Roberge
ART Habens
video, 2013
rly Work) 422 0
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ART Habens
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Jordi Rosado
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Estelle L. Roberge An interview by and
, curator curator
Hello Estelle and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit http://www.estelleroberge.com and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training: you hold a BFA from Portland School of Art and after having earned your BS in Art Education from the University of Southern Maine, you nurtured your education with an MFA in Painting, that you received from Idaho State University: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum help you to develop your attitude to experiment? Estelle L. Roberge: In the late seventies and early eighties, the Portland School of Art was steeped in a rigorous formalism. The painting department would not allow the students to use a brush until we completed our first semester. The color palette was our major concern. We mixed oil color for hours with an intense focus on tinting, shading, amounts of color, shapes and juxtapositions. We laid paint onto canvas with a palette knife. Such formal experiences held me back on some levels, but led me to become a colorist. Content was less important than these lessons in color theory, that of Johannes Itten, Hans Hofmann and Josef Albers. This early experience consequently brought me closer to issues of color and light and gave me a strong understanding of layering. I also loved the human figure and never tired of my life drawing classes. As a result, I discovered the San Francisco Abstract Expressionists: Nathan Oliveira, David Parks and Elmer Bischoff, the
Estelle L. Roberge (photo by Joey Muir) “gestural abstractionists.� They recorded the world through a unique personal vision, yet their roots were tied to Rembrandt, to chiaroscuro. It was then that my interest in the figure and colored surfaces fell together and gave me insight into a personal visual direction. In the early nineties, I spent a summer haying with an Irish uncle in Canada, who gave me a place to paint. We put in 7,000 bales of hay and the physical work seemed to influence the paintings in terms of space, color, and textures. I walked the dirt roads, fields and meadows after my chores. Later, I made my way west in search of a job. After much back and forth across the country, I attended Idaho State
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Estelle L. Roberge
Blue Pillow, 3’ x 11 ½”, Oil on Panel. 2020 University with an intent to simply camp out in the desert and paint, dividing my time between Pocatello, Idaho and South Central Utah (where I worked on a ranch for one summer). With a practice of painting and walking, the exploration of space and color deepened. I then abandoned the figure.
on migrants’ experiences at the border between the US, with a particular focus on those who have had to hide in the bush and wait. We have been really struck by the way you captured the tragedy of Mexican migrants, providing the viewers with such touching, struggling visual experience, and we appreciate the way you succeeded in the difficult task of combining visual aesthetics with the urgence to convey an important message. When walking our readers through the genesis of the In the Bush series, would you tell us how important it was for you to accomplish the balance between the visual quality of your artworks and the message that you conveyed in them?
My interest in spatial emptiness and the mystery of beauty flourished as a result of the desert. This was a turning point. I began a lifelong interaction between walking and painting. Recently, the figure has re-emerged. For this special edition of ART Habens we have selected In the Bush, a stimulating series based
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Estelle L. Roberge
ART Habens
of intimacy and pain particular to this situation. One has to bring themselves close to experience the content and context of this struggle. And I approached the content with humility.
Estelle L. Roberge: My work is tied to walking and wilderness, and my interest in figuration and its relatedness to wild terrains in turn has brought my attention to those who do not choose to be “Outside,” such as in “Border Crossings: In the Bush Series.” My experience of being outside is obviously different from those who find themselves having to live outside to avoid detention. I sought to bring inner meaning to the experience of walking through these spaces by an imaginative belonging. Migrants are outside under different circumstances, tragic conditions.
Those who seek refuge are associated with specific objects, the silver blankets and bunk beds, brushes and combs, objects “within a cage,” their journey ended, surreal but necessary to articulate. I crushed dried flowers, mixed ash into paint, and collaged raw material onto surfaces, laying in thick amounts of paint. Thus, my walking space became embedded, embodied, open, juxtaposed between colored footprints, textures and colors and shapes of human suffering.
I chose the 8” x 8” panels, a smaller size, because of the relatedness between emotions
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Estelle L. Roberge
Gourds on Bunk Bed In Desert. 2’ x 2’. Oil on Panel. 2012 New York City based artist Lydia Dona once
do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? In particular, how do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your creative process? .
stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or
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Estelle L. Roberge: Early childhood experiences
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Estelle L. Roberge
ART Habens
Back in Canyon. 2’ x 2’. Oil on Panel. 2012 still influence my painting process. My mother was a seamstress and allowed me to sew at a very early age which was a transformative moment. I learned to fold, stitch, choose patterns, work with color and create forms. I admired Molas, the Cuna Indian Textile Art, and
taught myself how to make them in my twenties. The process of layering, be it fabric and thread or paint became instinctual for me. The additive or reductive process is somewhat like a printmaker’s, although with a playful edge. It’s a search, a push and pull for the
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ART Habens
Estelle L. Roberge
Land Forms, 2' x 4'. Oil on Panel. 2006 figure ground relationship. And it involves contemplation. When I walk in the Magdalena Mountains, I carry a drawing book and make marks where the terrains are scrubby and rough. Substance, dirt, and the low lying brush, the textures and colors of pine, juniper, and
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oak later surface on the 2-dimensional plane. Foremost, I am interested in the meditative quality of the walk, the wandering of the mind, imagination and emotions. It is an inner poetry that emerges in the painting, a belonging. Arriving at certain outcomes remains a mystery
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Estelle L. Roberge
to me. I am incapable of replicating any painting or a particular process again. That includes experimentation, the push, for the composition takes me to the edge and then I pull back.There are elements of chance, and instinctual directional turns along the pathway.
ART Habens
That leads me to new meanings that have to do with a deeper understanding, the mystical. An important aspect of the works from your In the Bush series that has impressed us and that we would like to emphasise with you, regards
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Estelle L. Roberge
Figuration I, 3' x 3', Collage and Oil on Panel, 2020 the fact that your images are intimate, and speaks of the personal stories of the migrant people, but at the same time reflect questions of great breath on the historical aspect. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world
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you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under": as an artist particularly interested in exploring the relationship between humans and the society they inhabit, do you think that your artistic research responds to a particular cultural moment?
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Estelle L. Roberge
ART Habens
Figurine In the Desert. 1’ x 1’. Oil on Panel. 2012. Moreover, what could be in your opinion the role of
to be an artist, to be creative. Yet it is a difficult journey to navigate and negotiate and takes attention and discipline. There are moments when the artist no longer has a choice in what he or she lays down, for the content keeps knocking at the door. This was the case in
artists in order to raise attention to topical issues in our globalized society? Estelle L. Roberge: The artist has a responsibility
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Estelle L. Roberge
Magdalena Walk, 4’ x 4’, Oil on Panel, 2004. “Border Crossings: In the Bush Series.” Up to that point, my focus was purely the outside, wilderness. I did not think of raising consciousness or of political activism but simply about those who are disillusioned and desperate. Further, I was concerned with
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approaching tragedy delicately, without emphasis. Perhaps it was this intention that brought about the intimacy you mention. Artistically, I move between both, remote and intimate. “Border Crossing” was a painting I
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Estelle L. Roberge
ART Habens
Bear Mountain Walk, 4’ x 4’, Oil on Panel, 2004. carried inside of me for many months, imaginatively and emotionally. I had made drawings of the cages in the detention centers and was struck by the silver blankets, a cold color, and the way the blankets became crumpled against the detention floors became a
metaphor as the migrants continued desperate search for home, their dignity and right to security, the right that all people have to seek refuge. We are at a very difficult crossing, and the global suffering seems unending.
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Estelle L. Roberge
Figurations II , 3’ x 3’, Collage & Oil on Panel, 2019. Some of your works feature bold and vivacious tones, as well as such thoughtful nuances that communicate alternation of tension and release, providing the paintings with such a sense of dynamics. How does your own psychological make-up determine the
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nuances of tones that you decide to include in an artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures in order to achieve such brilliant results? Estelle L. Roberge: I’ve lived in Maine, Utah,
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Estelle L. Roberge
ART Habens
Poet, 2’ x 2’, Oil on Panel, 2020. Arizona, Idaho and Montana. These regions have particular qualities of light that are intriguing yet fleeting, especially at high elevations, and after having been in the high desert for nearly thirty years, I am keenly aware of the ever-changing, evolving sense
of light. I work with textured surfaces and glaze my color. Glazing is a process of slowly and delicately layering color onto the surfaces to achieve tonal variations. Because I am an oil painter and the paint
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Estelle L. Roberge
must dry between coats, it takes a very long time for me to make a painting. During the late stages, I work with fine brushes and tonal qualities suggestive of light. Issues of visual closeness and references to the natural world in terms of memory and place cause me to abstract my content.
ordinary life on some levels and not on others. We noticed that some works of yours feature white areas that attract on themselves the optical barycentre of the canvas. We have been particularly fascinated by the fact that from a certain point of view it claims the attention of the viewers in itself: how important is it for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood?
I carry a particular place inside of me and give the surface my full focus. I create ways of experiencing light and space through color. I work until there is nothing left to consider on the flat plane. Hopefully, this creates a place where the painting can speak for itself.
Estelle L. Roberge: Oddly, I rarely think about an audience. I have been in relative obscurity since the early eighties yet a circle of friends have collected my work, for which I am grateful. I would like the work to be seen by a wider audience, but it is not my motive to please others with my paintings. Pleasing others by my cooking seems to be enough. (Smile) I do spend a great deal of time with what goes unnoticed in our world. My backpack is often filled with leaves, barks, scrub, and rocks to trigger certain locations. It would be a fine compliment if my painting reminded people to pay attention, to look more deeply into experience.
We have been struck with your unique ability to cross the liminal area where figurative and abstraction find such unexpected points of convergence. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination playing within your work? And how does everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research? Estelle L. Roberge: I like Doig’s painting very much. He is a sophisticated colorist and captures color in a keen way. I also think you have to spend a great deal of time outside to understand color and light and maybe solitude. He has lived in Canada and there is a special quality of light in northern places, especially in the winter months.
Since 1984 you have been participating in several solo and collective exhibitions, including your recent participation in the Magdalena Art Tour: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definitely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalisedaudience?
One inevitably lives with many contradictions: I am deeply immersed in the contemporary world but also have the distance of rural life, which gives one a different perspective. I escape into the wild daily, if just for a few hours, and my walks keep me disciplined and focused. The imagination apparently takes me into places where I don’t fit or need to belong. By moving in and out of such places, I have a better sense of place within self and society. The paintings are complex in that sense, living an
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Estelle L. Roberge: Recently, I taught a group of 4th graders at Alamo Community School how to make portfolio books for their writing. They were great listeners and their excitement was contagious! It is important that students see the relationship
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between “artist books” and literacy. In September, I will participate in an exhibition at “Gallery With a Cause” at the Cancer Center, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “Border Crossings: In the Bush Series” will be included in the exhibition.
We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Estelle. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the
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Estelle L. Roberge
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ideas that you hope to explore in the future?
the treatment of cancer differently, changing her practice to grapple with the emotional side of the disease.
Estelle L. Roberge: Recently, I read The First Cell by Azra Raza, the oncologist. Due to caring for her late husband (an oncologist also) and through her own suffering, she began to see
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She began to interweave poetry into her treatments. Her book struck a chord with me as
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I have witnessed close friends face cancer, and I have been looking at those who suffer as witnesses and helpers/participants on some level. I want to take this out into the wilderness as well. In our brief moment alive, being mindful
and grateful elevates awareness. Within the next four months of painting, I would like to come closer to life and death on a poetic, visual level. If I continue to visit my daily places and bring them to painted surfaces, I will have lived in a
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way true to my work.
with a favorite quote, from Karl Kraus: “I do not know how matters stand in painting, an art form in which creations do not survive their material elements. I do know, however, that if painting involves, like language, an interdependence with all
Finally, thank you to the ART Habens Team for the invitation to participate in the interview and to Celeste Roberge, Bruce Holsapple and Sarah Moulton for their help. I’d like to close
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living things, it too can produce a Rembrandt only if death does not dominate creation all around.
cover a freezing man's nakedness with the canvas of the available Rembrandt. For the spirit stands higher than man, it is true, but higher than the creations of the spirit stands man—and he can be a Rembrandt."
I also know that in a time of desolation the truly creative act would be the resolve to
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Lives and works in Denton, Texas, USA
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Vagner Whitehead
ART Habens
video, 2013
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ART Habens
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Jordi Rosado
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Vagner Whitehead An interview by and
, curator curator
Hello Vagner and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit http://www.vagnerwhitehead.com and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and after having earned your B.F.A. in Photography, from Savannah College of Art and Design, you nurtured your education with an M.F.A. in Creative Photography and Electronic Intermedia, that you received from the University of Florida, Gainesville: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum direct your current artistic research? Vagner Whitehead: Hello ART Habens! From an early age, I knew I wanted art to be a major component of my life, so the opportunity to go to an art school for college was an important first step into building a solid foundation to pursue my creative endeavors. Being at SCAD was my first experience of being surrounded by art and artists for the majority of my time. I think those formative years were so special, and my ability to be fully immersed in my studies a true privilege. In undergrad I studied Photography, but I always felt that the limitations that medium offered created good friction to my simultaneous fascination with it. At U.F., for grad school, my art practice took on a broader approach, less medium-specific and more conceptually
Vagner Whitehead
grounded. While in college I modeled and acted for other students, in grad school I began making my first video installations and taking on all aspects of media production (writing, composing, performing, editing, etc). In undergrad I was confounded by photography’s inability to fully capture one’s true essence, but by the time I finished my MFA, I was celebrating the fluidity of being. These educational and
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artistic experiences also allowed me to bring into my work my personal background. In my current work I see direct references to my upbringing in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a city layered with paradoxical meanings and transnational influences. Being an immigrant, as well as an LGBTQ+ person, also affects how I interact with the world around me, which then gets translated into the art that I make. For this special edition of ART Habens we have selected Generations (1973-93, 1998, 2009, 2018, 2039), an interesting fivechannel video installation that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article and that can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/showcase/5779140. What has at once captured our attention of your film is the way you use your visual language in such strategic way to provide the viewers with an array of meanings. When walking our readers through the genesis of Generations, would you tell us how did you develop the initial idea? Vagner Whitehead: Generations was created in a span of 20 years, although I did not set out to do just that, back in 1998. I was invited to participate in the NEoN Digital Arts Festival in Dundee Scotland, and that year’s theme for the festival was “lifespan.” pieces). I have always been interested in the authority of the head-and-shoulders person on a television screen, who often speaks nonstop. I have used this trope in many of my works (I have created over 40 videos" in
This five-channel installation comprises of three specific time periods of production (1998,2009, 2018), that depict five different eras (a photographed past and an imagined future were added to the synchronous
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twenty years), but for this particular grouping all figures are presented silently, confronting camera and/or the spectator. While these works, in many ways, confront or distort authority, they also paradoxically
ART Habens
preserve an ephemeral presence (inasmuch as videos themselves are decay-able and also ephemeral). I often use myself in my work, not because
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Vagner Whitehead
of a fascination with myself, nor for vanity reasons, but mostly because I am somewhat of an everyday person with an unspecified ethnic background, which I hope is relatable, or a stand in for many.
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My goal is for people to place themselves into the space I temporary inhabit in order to gain a new understanding for their own situation.
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ART Habens
meaning, or a new point of entry, to people engaging with my art work. Generations features essential still effective cinematography: what were your aesthetic decisions when shooting and editing? In particular, what was your choice about camera and lens? Vagner Whitehead: I like to think that I mostly work with aesthetic and technological circumstances, rather than decisions. What I mean by that is that I work with whatever I have access to. As my career has progressed I have more of a say in those circumstances, of course. The 1998 piece was shot with a hi-8 digital camcorder I purchased in 1997; this was the camera that transitioned my video explorations from analogue to digital. This channel, in fact, marks the first digitally edited video piece I have made, even though it is not the first piece I ever made, as an artist. One can see an exploration with a new camera, and the changes of backdrop to affect the tone of my skin as perceived by the camera (all were shot in one afternoon, with available light in my studio, and edited over a two days many weeks later), while I was in graduate school in Florida. The 2009 channel was shot in another studio, at another time in my life, in metro Detroit; this work marked a departure on my art practice, away from photo-based work and towards works on paper (mostly drawing and painting, as well as some collage). 2009 depicts my attempt to reveal certain portions of myself, as I concealed myself with paint; a conflation of what is precious and alien deep inside, but also
Weirdly enough, in the age of Covid-19, the way most people interact with one another is through a head-and-shoulders video interface, so this adds a new layer of
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mundane for the outside world. I used a minDV video camera and edited it with a thencurrent software. The 2018 displays the layered aesthetics of my current work, as well as direct references to how that year unfolded for me (with references to the world cup, the American president, police brutality, as well as an MRI related to personal illness). This piece was shot with an HD camera, but edited with the same 2009 software used for the previous piece, thus merging the present while nodding at the past. It is funny to think that I do not have access to any moving imagery of myself as a child, so 1973-93 is made up of photographs of myself that I have access to. If I have the opportunity to visit relatives again in Brazil, I hope to gather some footage they might have, though it is quite possible that we will not be able to digitize it. 2039 was shot in yet a new studio, in Texas, with a very high quality HD camera (the most expensive equipment I had access to, at that point), and I used a new software that I had never tried before. After working with a makeup artist for three sessions, I was able to only gather 15 seconds or so of usable footage, which I shot at 120 frames per second, and then expanded into an even longer and slower duration. In it I imagine both my surprise and wonderment, the inquisitive spirit of an artist, at an old age, which I hope one day to reach.
two unintentional similarities (1998 and 2009), one intentional reaction to current times (2018), one reflection of a time past (1973-93), and one speculation of the future
As you have remarked in your artist's statement, Generations brings together videos made in roughly ten-year intervals, presenting
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(2039). Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living
ART Habens
under": as an artist particularly interested in exploring the themes of fear, violence and social injustice — and we dare say the osmosis between humans and the society
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they inhabit — do you think that your artistic research respond to a particular cultural moment? Moreover, what could be in your opinion the role of artists in our
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unstable and overwhelmingly digital contemporary societies? Vagner Whitehead: Most definitely I believe
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Vagner Whitehead
ART Habens
For anyone in my generation, the thought of being middle aged, or having survived the AIDS epidemic, is in many ways a huge accomplishment or extreme good luck. If I frame my work in this manner, I believe that looking at my video-lifespan can be seen as something rather transgressive, as I have persisted somehow. If we look at my work in relation to immigration, in today’s context, once again, my silent expression can have many connotations. I am working on another body of work, titled Children in Cages, that directly respond to the concentration camps or infant imprisonment taking place right not in the southern borders of the US, but which could also relate to other border conflicts around the world, in Palestine, Syria, and so forth. Once again, by using images of myself as a child, I hope to stand in for others who have not the ability to express themselves publicly. When finished some time in 2021, this piece will have many interactive opportunities for people to express themselves; I am seeing this installation as a way to create safe space for others, and leverage my privilege, in the arts, to confront this cruel reality. Generations also highlights the interstitial points and mutual influences between human experience and time: how do you consider the role of direct experience as starting point for your creative process, and how does your every day life experience fuel your artistic research? we respond to the times we live in. In fact, I believe it is our responsibility to serve as witnesses to our times, and if needs be, such as now, confront authority.
Vagner Whitehead: I think of myself as a type of antenna, or as a medium, and I mean that both as an artistic medium as well as a psychic one, although I do not claim to possess any special
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sensibility, but just an ability (and lack of fear) of sharing what my physical body intersects, in given places and times.
cetera. I would say that this is the case for
Much like an antenna, I am able to both receive and transmit information, stimuli, et
or not.
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every one in this planet, whether they are aware of it or not, whether they are artists
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ART Habens
At different points in my career I produce
that experience deeply affected me, and my
work that is more overt about what
creative production, for the following four
surrounds me, while at times that is only
years. Since 2016, I have been very angry
implied. In 2010 I was an artist-in- residency
with the world state of politics, and that
at Residencia Corazon, in Argentina, and
frustration has been expressed in many of
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Vagner Whitehead
my art works (as in the Color-coded and
doing now has some of the raw angst of my
#Hashtag series); right now, my work and my
youth, funny enough.
practice have a restrained urgency, where I am
Deviating from traditional video-making,
(we all are), daily confronted with our
your experimental practice also question the
mortality, as well as our legacy. The work I am
themes of technological obsolescence and the
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unbalanced relationship between reality and the digital realm, reminding us of Sondra Perry's approach. Especially in relation to your editing decision, how do modern digital technologies influence your creative process?
ART Habens
Arts of Texas Woman's University, and it's important to remark that through your academic leadership you aim to empower traditionally under-represented art students and scholars in higher education: does your experience as a teacher influence your creative process? And in particular, did you ever get inspired from your students? Vagner Whitehead: I get inspired by my students all the time. I particularly love my graduate students this semester, they are just brilliant, the sweetest, kindest, hardest working students. I have had so many brilliant students in the last 20 or so years, and they all inspire me. The way they inspire me is that they motivate me to go into the studio and make work, even when the world seems to be falling apart. They inspire me to continue being vulnerable in the studio, of being sensitive to the world around me, of not being afraid to fail or try new things. Teaching is a true gift.
Vagner Whitehead: Modern technologies are another way in which we reflect our times. I am less interested in chasing the new, and more interested in considering the thing that just was, because I am more interested in considering the spaces between cutting edge and passé. Sometimes I refer to myself as an “old new media artist” or a “new media artist of the 90s.” I find the ubiquitous more seductive than the technological avantgarde, which is why I use both old and current software, for example. I also often employ technologies in the wrong way, which in retrospect can put some of my work into the hacking or glitch realms, more so because I also find imperfection to be transgressive. It is as if it is more satisfying to me to subvert the quotidian than to push the surprise element of the new.
Having said that, I do not think that the work we make is similar at all. I believe I may exert some influence on what they make (but they are also influenced by my wonderful colleagues as well), but at the end of the day we all make quite unique works. I wonder how they would answer this question.
Technology changes so fast these days, and as individual artists we will likely never have access to funds to truly be cutting edge. It is also somewhat ridiculous, I think, for a lateforties guy like myself to all of a sudden try to become a Tik-Tok star, although I fully support anyone who wishes just to do that. Art for me is a self-reflexive activity, both for myself and for others, so giving time in the making fits my goals just fine.
You are an established artist and over the years your works have been shpw-cased in group and solo exhibitions in galleries and museums, as well as film and video festivals, nationally and internationally: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definitely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work
You are an experienced teacher: since 2016 you have served as professor of Intermedia Art and chair in the Department of Visual
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Vagner Whitehead
of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Vagner Whitehead: I have been fortunate to show my work in many countries around the world, but in fact my work has been to more countries than I have. Oftentimes I give public talks when showing my work; I have been interviewed for television and radio in Spain, Russia, and Germany for example. Interaction with an audience can also happen at a gallery reception, for example. In terms of an online presence, I do not keep track on the metrics of my website traffic, or the numbers of followers I have in social media, because I do not curate my presence there (I like it to be a cacophony of my life, merging art and personal and professional experiences into one convoluted vehicle). When I premiered Generations in Scotland, I received wonderful feedback from people I had just met - this fortunately happens all the time. One Scottish artist understood my work in such a deep level that expanded my own perception and power of my practice for example. But I think that experiencing art through a screen can also have an impact. One of my most recent pieces for the #Hashtag series deeply affected someone I know, and she only had access to a fragment I posted. The Children in Cages project, which is in progress, only exists on Instagram; that is the first stage of that work, and the account is private at this stage (meaning I am not publicizing the project yet, but only letting a
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few followers in at a time, until it reaches a certain number of images). Its Instagram presence will be a huge portion of its messaging and audience interaction. I specifically went with Instagram because it is everywhere now, even my parents have accounts. I think the critical mass of Instagram can potentially have a deep audience impact, even though it runs the risk of completely diluting the work itself. We will see. We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Vagner. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Vagner Whitehead: In addition to cooking several meals a day and experimenting with baking bread, like everyone else, I am concluding new pieces for the #Hashtag and Children in Cages projects (until I run out of supplies). I am also working on a series of 10 oil paintings, which were based in a performance I did in Summer of 2019, titled Fame/Fate. Aside from these three objectbased series, I am working on one stand-alone piece that will directly respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, and making short videos of performative nature, that will likely be incorporated into a multi-channel installation in a year or so from now.
An interview by and
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, curator curator
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Lives and works in Luxembourg and London
Christian Neuman conjures curiously touchable canvases with compelling and emotive narratives. Neuman’s art is an enthralling voyage for the senses and the rebellious soul. The artist describes how he works: on the edge of pure expression, in order to capture the most authentic and un-embellished states of human emotion. The work is wonderfully personal and theatrical and embraces a diverse range of human emotions. For Neuman, forging a consistent aesthetic link between his works is essential. His background as a filmmaker no doubt informs this approach - with methodic, thoughtful and philosophical processes creating a linear storybook experience for the viewer.
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Christian Neuman
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video, 2013
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Christian Neuman An interview by and
, curator curator
Hello Christian and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit http://www.focusart.com and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and after having earned your B.A in Media Design, you nurtured your education with an M.A in Filmmaking, that you received from the prestigious London Film School: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum as a as a filmmaker direct your current artistic research? Christian Neuman: I’ve always been
interested in painting, but gradually became more interested in video art during my undergraduate studies. I chose to study cinema and filmmaking as storytelling become a central part of my artistic approach. My current work can also be read as a story book. I actively seek to build a narrative with my paintings and this is certainly influenced by my film education.
Christian Neuman
already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way the visual language that marks it out seems to be used in a strategic way to explore and capture the variety of human emotions, providing your artworks with an array of meanings. New York City based artist Lydia Dona
The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens —and that our readers have
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Christian Neuman
once stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you
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create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? In particular, how do you consider the role
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of chance and improvisation playing within your creative process?
“attitude� when I create my
Christian Neuman: I focus on
want to transmit. That in itself is then
paintings. It is a specific spirit that I
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Christian Neuman
visualised in the work. I embrace the ephemeral quality and spontaneity that occur during the state of mind I am in whilst working in the studio. I believe that an extensive thought process leads up to creating that state of mind. Whilst producing the work, I try to let go and let it all flow, whilst on the same time a thousand pre thought thoughts come together in a way guide my expression. It is a kind of Zombie state, half conscious and half
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subconscious. Marked out with bold and vivacious tones, as well as such thoughtful nuances, your paintings have struck us for the way they create such enigmatic patterns, communicating tension and dynamics. How does your own psychological makeup determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in an artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures in order to achieve such brilliant results?
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Christian Neuman
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to appear. I often like to finish a work by “sticking” an obvious element on top of the composition, seemingly “destroying” of “dominating” the composition.
Christian Neuman: Layering is a part of
my work and aesthetics. To some extend the city street art with its continuous layering and overpainting of surfaces is a reference. Some work is bolder than others and this is often achieved through contrast. I did some series that focus on creating a flat and matte surface but actually involve hundreds of colours and colour shades. In my new series, new figurative or form-like elements start
As you have remarked in your artist's statement, one important aim is the continuous research for a consistent aesthetic linking all work, and materialising the philosophical thought process that stands as the initial motor behind the work. How does the search for
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Christian Neuman
aesthetic qualities and the conceptual aspect of your work find a point of convergence in your artistic practice?
anarchic. It is one of my main topics. We noticed that some works of yours — as the interesting STICK and BABE — feature a large white spot that attracts on itself the optical barycentre of the canvas. We have been particularly fascinated by the fact that from a certain point of view it claim the attention of the viewers on itself: but it also suggests the idea of being an half-closed curtain that obstruct the view to the rest of the painting, challenging the viewers to complete the painting as a whole by their
Christian Neuman: I don’t think that art
should be political or too concrete. It weakens it in my opinion. Art should always remain in disguise and surprise you with a fresh approach in communication. By aesthetics, I refer to this quality that makes my work recognizable and also provokes certain thought processes. Art should be
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Christian Neuman
free associations. How important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to
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be understood? Christian Neuman: This goes with my
idea that I like to impose a final “shape� onto the composition. This
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Christian Neuman
can be interpreted in many ways. It is very interesting how you describe it as inviting the viewer to finish the curtain. I believe that this simple trick
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makes the painting “pop� more and gives the viewer an easy entrance into the composition. It can be an entry point.
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However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience?
We have appreciated the way your artworks unveils the connection between narrative and abstraction, providing the viewers with such multilayered visual experience, and we have been struck with the way Conscious I trascends the usual bidimensional nature of paintings. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination playing within your work? And how does everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research?
Christian Neuman: A photograph of an
artwork just remains a representation of it. It cannot compare to the real life experience. I believe it has to do with three-dimensional space and scale. I like the impact big paintings have on me. Size does matter. It is a statement and I use it also to impose and intimidate. We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Christian. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?
Christian Neuman: I second that.
Strangely enough for me the quality of a painting really lies behind its visible surface. It is just an invitation to spark a thought process. Finding a “radical” or “fresh” way to get this process started is the whole point of painting now. The painting itself has a strange dual function in that understanding.
Christian Neuman: I am currently
working on a new show called “New Borders” that is scheduled for September in Brussels. I am also in the development phase of my new feature film “Stargazer”.
You are ans established filmmaker and artist, and over the years your works have been screened and showcased in several occasions: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definetely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art.
An interview by and
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, curator curator
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Lives and works in Budapest, Hungary
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Oliver Pocsik
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video, 2013
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Special Issue It's a Match!, 2019, detail
Jordi Rosado
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Oliver Pocsik An interview by and
, curator curator
Hello Oliver and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit instagram.com/_olipoe and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. As a basically self-taught artist, Are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution of your techniques and style? And how does your cultural substratum direct your artistic research? Oliver Pocsik: There are many experiences that had a great impact on the evolution of my art and the way I create. However the basics of what I had in mind before starting a new image, were always kind of the same. As a kid I often drew imaginary monsters and looking back at these images it’s easy to see the resemblance to what I do now. I'm coming from a family with Ukrainian and Romanian roots besides the mostly Hungarian base. Growing up I got to meet a lot of different people who told me stories about their lives and through these stories I developed a great interest towards deep and often dramatic human emotions like regret, shame or even love.
Oliver Pocsik
I felt what they felt and I tried to express these feelings through my filter as they were my own. And this applies to everything I did on my artistic journey so far regardless the medium or the form of art.
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Oliver Pocsik
Love Wounds, 2019
Your artistic production combines personal aesthetics with such a unique conceptual approach, and the visual language that marks out your artworks
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seems to be used in a strategic way to counter-balance subjectivity, offering to the viewers an array of meanings.The body of works that we have selected for
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Oliver Pocsik
this special edition of ART Habens —and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our
ART Habens
attention for the way you explored the connection between human experience and imagination: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process,
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Oliver Pocsik
would you tell us how do you develop
dreamlike state that I'm in when I focus on what is happening in my mind. It's like an endlessly shifting shape that resonates with my thoughts.
your initial ideas? Oliver Pocsik: The ideas coming from a
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workflow encompasses elements of photography, painting, analog and digital collage: what does address you to such cross-disciplinary approach to art making?
Sometimes I just close my eyes and listen to what is happening inside, and at other times I just walk on the streets and look at the people as if I was watching them through a window.
Oliver Pocsik: Next to art in my everyday life I work with motion picture and graphics design.
That's when the ideas are forged. I was always a daydreamer, I often get carried away or stay silent for minutes for no reason. My mind is in a constant motion that fuels my creativity. I always had troubles focusing because of this and I often was made fun of in my younger ages for the same reason.
The tools and methods I use are coming from that aspect of my life. Mixing different techniques are just making the whole process more fun and allows me tell a story the way I want it to be told. Focused on the dilemmas of our everyday life, your artistic production embodies an interface between realism and imagination, and we really appreciated the way it unveils the point of convergence between the figurative and the abstract form. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination playing within your work? And how does everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research?
I always felt a little disconnected from others. However when I create my images, my ability to concentrate overpowers everything else and puts my mind at ease. The process usually starts with a photo of a classic painting that I modify to a point where it tells a different story, a story I have in mind. I take it out of context and I give it and entirely new visual appearance. I take photos of fabrics and textures that I use to layer areas of the original image and I digitally paint on them to enhance the areas I wish to drive the attention to, while keeping the composition in a certain way.
Oliver Pocsik: There are certain phases and chapters in the body of my work. At times it's more colorful and happy and at other times it's more dark and dramatic. Creating something that triggers entirely
You are a versatile artist and your
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Oliver Pocsik
I try to keep these emotions just within
opposite emotions at the same time is what naturally comes from me as an artist.
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the limits of leaning too much on one side or the other.
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It's a balance I work very hard for in every image.There are times in our everyday life that influence my art and those
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periods often evoke a certain mood in my artworks.Earlier this year I had chapter just like that come to an end.
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I like to close these phases with artworks that are a bit different from what I usually do, mostly collage animations.
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We have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances that mark out some of your artworks, and that provides
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Oliver Pocsik
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Something that you don't want to see but you can't look away either. Something dark was on the way and I felt it when I ended that chapter.
Beyond The Pale with such unique dreamlike ambience, and we like the way they create tension and sense of dynamism: how did you come about settling on your color palette? And how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your artworks?
As you have remarked in your artist's statement, your surrealistic portraits are the visualizations of how you see and perceive other people: what’s your philosophy on the nature of portraiture? How do you select the people that you decide to include in your artworks?
Oliver Pocsik: Beyond The Pale comes from a chapter of my life that was really peaceful.
In my mind the portrait was always the strongest form of visual art. The way someone looks at you on a picture has very strong impact on me.
The works from those months were reflecting the emotional balance I was experiencing at the time. It was a phase of in-between, something easy. However the stories behind the images were not really peaceful.
You can sense the soul of the person somewhere in there if the artwork allows you. When I work, I picture certain people that I know and sometimes people that I just saw for a second outside when I was walking.
It's just the way I felt that made them appear the way they did. I chose colors that made me feel calm and I used them to cover up the weight of the stories behind the works.
Picturing them is just a helping hand in a way, while creating an image. If everything is aligned when I'm done and I can attach the finished work to the person I had in mind, I'm happy.
They gravitated around topics like: heart ache, strong addiction, secret desires or choosing to be blindfolded and missleading yourself.
It's in important part of my process. Sometimes this is balance is not right and I end up erasing the whole work for good because I feel dishonest.
I used less elements in these works and focused on easy colors and powerful compositions. Beyond The Pale was the last piece of this era, the candid eye on the image was a hint to prepare for something more chaotic and grim that was yet to come.
With their unique multilayered visual quality, your artworks stimulate and expand the viewers' imagination beyond
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Oliver Pocsik
the obvious, encouraging your audience to draw out and observe the beauty of the unfamiliar caught within the ordinary, as in the captivating Black Dhalia. In a certain sense, we dare say that your artworks seem to invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood?
What I mean is that nature and life itself has it's beauty and cruelty, and you can sense both at the same time if you are looking carefully enough.
Oliver Pocsik: I would like to believe that my works open a window to anyone to form their own interpretation. I always enjoy reading what my images mean to people.
Sometimes I feel like I'm drifting under a great sea and from the bottom I can observe everything in this gloom.
You might not always see the whole picture. There might be a dead bird nearby or you are stepping on ants while confessing your love to someone or during your first kiss. It's always layers and it's always what you want and allow yourself to see. I'm trying to show the whole picture with all it's magnificent realness.
Black Dahlia is great example to highlight from such a period.
Actually this is one of the most joyful moment of creating, learning about what story it tells to others.
New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? In particular, how do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your creative process?
My art is all about looking under the cover of what we try to sell about ourselves to the outside world. A peek behind psychological projections. There is always a universe under these masks that we wear and I try to open up a gate to these worlds.
Oliver Pocsik: A part of what I do is improvisation but it's never without boundaries.
There is a naturalistic approach in my visual execution.
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Oliver Pocsik
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Geometry is as important as the colors or the subject itself. If the original idea is conflicted with what the work is becoming
I like to let space for spontaneity but in the end the works are made with certain rules in mind.
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Oliver Pocsik
She Wore Her Darkness, 2020
Starting over was never really a problem
while in the making, I stop whole process and let it sit for a while or simply just start over.
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for me as I really enjoy the process.
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Oliver Pocsik
Over the years your artworks have been internationally exhibited in several occasions in Budapest, Seoul and London, and you recently had your solo Oliver Pocsik: The Faceless Gallery�, in Budapest: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definetely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience?
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Without these platforms a relationship like this would be much harder to achieve. Art itself is in a constant change, and anything that makes it more accessible such as social media is a blessing if anything. We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Oliver. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Oliver Pocsik: Recently I started a new series of works that are based on portrait photos and I really enjoy exploring new visual adventures while making them.
Oliver Pocsik: A real life meeting with people who enjoy your art is always the best, so I really enjoy exhibitions.
I experiment with abstractions, textures and new colors within these works.
I get to meet new and very interesting and kind people and I'm really thankful to anyone who visits these events.
I'm really thankful for the people who support me, and there are a lot more works to come in the future.
I hope will have the chance to have more of these experiences in the future.
I would like to have a solo show with an interactive approach to it, and create an environment that lets the audience closer to see what lies within the surface.
I certainly believe that online presence as an artist in our day and age is really important. I post my works on my instagram feed: https://www.instagram.com/_olipoe Other than the artworks, in my stories I really enjoy sharing things that I find interesting with my audience and it makes it a really unique experience as if they could pick your mind a bit.
An interview by and
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, curator curator
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Lives and works in Amsterdam
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Tuna Tunaboylu
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video, 2013
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Tuna Tunaboylu An interview by and
, curator curator
Hello Tuna and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to introduce you to our readers with a couple of questions regarding your background. Are there any experiences that did particularly inform your current practice? Moreover, does your cultural background inform the way you relate yourself to art making in general? Tuna Tunaboylu: If I need to tell about one specific experience, I can’t think of any other story than my spontaneous trip to Berlin. I met a girl in Amsterdam when I was younger and she went back to Berlin after we spent three days together. While I was still feeling the excitement of those three days, she gave me a call and invited me to watch her performance in Berlin. I told her that I was not sure, but after an hour I bought a direct bus ticket to Berlin without even telling her. When I arrived there, it was -16 degrees and it was raining, as if Zeus was having a middle age crisis. After I witnessed all these bad conditions, I decided to call her, but of course, she didn’t answer. I spent a day by myself and went to the gallery she was supposed to perform at. In the very same evening, there was a couple performing about the painful loss of their child. The father figure was drinking a mix of vodka and milk from a baby’s bottle, while he was
Tuna Tunaboylu
pumping his penis with a penis pump. During that time the mother figure was slowly breaking the skull of a baby skeleton. In that moment, I realized how magical the art of performance was. I was asking myself, “How something can be this much surreal and real at the same time?” To be honest, I can only remember one or two moments that made me this excited and inspired… When I
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returned back to Amsterdam, there was no other choice than doing a performance, and I executed “Are We What?” with Manfredi Coppolecchia. Of course I can’t deny the influence of my cultural background on my identity and personality. Looking from a Freudian perspective, your character develops in the first 5 years of your life. Therefor it is obvious that my art is influenced by my cultural background since it is coming out of me. But this is not directly related to my practice. As an artist I am aiming to speak about universal facts and connect with a bigger spectrum of audience. During my artistic development, I realized that there is a huge gap between art and people. Most of the artists are producing to exhibit in museums, galleries or art fairs. For this reason, they always communicate with the same group of society. My goal is to reduce this gap as much as I can and create a platform to think together with people all around the world, no matter their background or their social class. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article has at once captured our attention for your insightful exploration of the individual and social existence, counterbalancing subjectivity and offering an array of meanings to the viewers: when walking our readers through your usual process,
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would you tell us how do you develop your ideas? Tuna Tunaboylu: I can give a very specific answer to this question because most of the time I create with my instincts from my
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Tuna Tunaboylu
coincidental experiences. I am not the biggest thinker you can ever meet, otherwise I wouldn’t dare to close my eyes for 30 days and live without seeing. But I can easily say that I am a great ‘feeler’ and a dedicated ‘doer’. This is why for the moment there
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have been only 2 different ways to develop my ideas towards executing a performance: Site specific. When I walk in to a space I see the details and realize the potential beauties of the space. This gives me a better way to
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Tuna Tunaboylu
express my feelings and interact with the audience in a specific way that can only happen in that space and in that moment. For example, before I executed my last performance “Are We Not There Yet?�, I observed the extremely wide stairs and
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imagined the scene of myself rolling down the stairs for 3 hours, while everybody passes by. Coincidences of the everyday. I believe that life is very fluid and the best way to live it, is
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Tuna Tunaboylu
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got down in the same station. When I was watching her, I couldn’t help myself from asking how would it be to live without seeing. And this big urge of looking for an answer led me to close my eyes for a month. To give another example, once I went to London for a while to visit my now exgirlfriend. The day after I went there, she was busy with her work and I was looking for something to do. At that time, I realized all of her doors were making a lot of noise. I felt like being nice and went around the city to find WD-40. When she came back all the doors were working as new. Soon after she asked me to leave London. Being asked to leave the place in which you just repaired all the doors does not feel like a coincidence? Again, when I came back to Amsterdam, I executed a performance called “I Think You Should Leave” about it. We have appreciated the way I Close My Eyes mixes the ordinary and the surreal: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination playing within your work? And how does everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research? Tuna Tunaboylu: As artists we imagine and then create to bring something to reality, no? I see artists as the connection between imagination and reality. In this case, what I mean by “artist” is not a person who puts a sculpture or a painting in a white room. I believe every creator is an artist. Art is only a way of thinking and expressing, there is no
giving a direction to this fluidity through our experiences. To this respect I assume that coincidences are great moments to reflect on yourself and give a guidance to your fluid journey. For instance, one day I was in the metro with a blind lady and accidentally we
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ART Habens
Tuna Tunaboylu
need to create this phenomenon to distinguish some of us from the rest of society. A cook is an artist, a computer scientist is an artist, a mother is a great artist. What can be a more magical art work then imagining of a human being and bringing it to life from your vagina? Not only me, but everybody who creates has an ultimate role between reality and imagination. I feel like I talked enough about the relation between my everyday life’s experience and my work in the second question. The performative and the physical act of art plays a relevant role in your work, and we have appreciated the way your artworks convey sense of freedom. New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you conceive your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose schemes? In particular, how do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your creative process? Tuna Tunaboylu: With all due respect to Lydia Dona, I do not understand nor agree with what I think I understood from her statement. I don’t make a schematic analysis from a distance; I immerse in it physically and spiritually at the best of my capabilities. In my opinion, when there is repetition there is no creation. Mechanisms and strategies can’t
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be applied to all similar situations. Artists are not mechanisms, artists are the operators. Performances are always happening in the moment, and for that reason, many
23 4 09
Tuna Tunaboylu
ART Habens
performers can’t prepare so much in
only thing you can do before, is trying to
advance. You can have a view on the event,
prepare yourself mentally and physically.
but the atmosphere, the audience, feelings you exchange, and the energy flowing is not
Your performances involve the audience in a
something you can predict beforehand. The
dreamlike and heightened visual
21 4 10
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ART Habens
Tuna Tunaboylu
experience: are you interested in providing
I believe “I Closed My Eyes” was my most literal
your performance with an allegorical quality
work. I can also say that “I Think You Should
that reflect human condition?
Leave” is very much literal. But the rest of my work certainly have a lot of allegorical quality. I
It very much depends on the performance.
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like to give some elements to the viewers, and
23 4 11
Tuna Tunaboylu
ART Habens
Your performances creates a bridge between the audience and their individual egos, conscious identity and the outer world: in a certain sense, your artworks seem to stimulate the viewer’s psyche and consequently works on both a subconscious and a conscious level: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? Tuna Tunaboylu: I am an artist, not a dictator. I don’t tell what should be understood from my work and I shouldn’t. People can get whatever they want from my work. I am just creating a platform to feel and think together and it is up to the audience to decide what to feel or think. I try to leave performances open for interpretations as much as I can, even though there is always a story and a concept behind them. I can’t dictate exactly what I want them to read from my work, I am only responsible with the creation of the work, not for deciding what the viewer needs to learn. Many artists express the ideas that they explore through representations of the body and by using their own bodies in their creative processes. German visual artist Gerhard Richter once underlined that "it is always only a matter of seeing: the physical act is unavoidable": how do you consider the relation between the ideas that you aim to
of course these elements are symbols, allegories. I don’t want to cook the recipe for them. I just want to give them a taste of the ingredients and expect some kind of reading from the audience.
21 4 12
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ART Habens
Tuna Tunaboylu
communicate to your audience and the physical act of creating your artworks? Tuna Tunaboylu: I believe that the body and soul are not separate and they are linked within our mind, As human beings we feel with our souls, think with our mind and execute with our body. The process of creation can’t be done without one of these tools. During my performances, I feel like there is always an intense exchange of emotions between me and the viewers. What I feel in my soul reflects to my body and most of the time the audience can read it quite easily, which makes them feel a similar feeling in a certain level. This is because I bring reality with my body. I remember, one of the viewers start crying in the moment I opened my eyes in front of them, because it was extremely intense and real for me. And she was able to absorb it through my body. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, your performances are passing beyond your experience and they become a part of each spectator’s individual experience: how do you consider the participatory nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the audience in a physical way is definitely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases, how would in
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your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Tuna Tunaboylu: As a performance artist having a direct communication is always my
23 4 13
Tuna Tunaboylu
priority. There is always a huge difference between sharing the same space with me and trying to watch what I did in another space and time from a screen. I was born with a gift, the gift of constant urge of
ART Habens
creating and expressing. It is my debt to this planet to create and express in the best way I can. And that way is to have an explicit connection.
21 4 14
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ART Habens
Tuna Tunaboylu
I believe that art can’t be trapped or directed
Yes, there is traditional ways of interacting with art like museum and galleries. Yes, these traditional ways are swiftly changing and transforming in to an online realm. And I think this change is affecting art in a bad way, it
to a certain platform. As I mentioned before, it is a way of thinking and expressing. But the existing of art is a matter of realization, Art exists as long as there is someone aware of it.
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23 4 15
Tuna Tunaboylu
ART Habens
am not a talented person, and I don’t have to be talented to be an artist. There is this idea in people that you should born as Leonardo Da Vinci to be a great artist, but it is not true. You can develop your own way of selfexpression, and become John Johnson or Salmon Salmonowski or whatever your name is. The only thing you need is passion. We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Tuna. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Tuna Tunaboylu: First of all, I would like to thank you for providing me this platform and all the compliments. To be able be who I am, I should constantly explore many feelings and expend my vision. The day I stop transforming will be the day I die. Hopefully I can’t predict the future and my future interests. Otherwise I would be predictable and boring. One of the only things I know about myself is that I am the opposite of boring. And that is the only thing I do not want to change.
increases the gap between art and people, by promoting this phenomenon of “artist”. It looks beautiful, unreachable and admiring. But the truth is it is inside everyone and it is only a matter of realizing this. Personally, I
An interview by and
21 4 16
, curator curator
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