ARTiculAction Art Review // Special Edition by ARTiculAction Art Review

Anniversary Edition

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LEA MALEH DENES RUZSA FARIBA RAHNAVARD MAXWELL RUSHTON DAVID DELGADO JORGE MANSILLA YNIN SHILLO JOSEPH O'NEILL CHRISTIANA KAZAKOU

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Dénes Ruzsa

Joseph O'Neill

Fariba Rahnavard

Christiana Kazakou

Maxwell Rushton

Léa Maleh

Hungary

USA

Iran

United Kingdom

France

For us the short film is the best option for immersion with taking advantage of the creative freedom. In fact, short film is the most perfect form for thought-provoking, displaying visions and for raising an issue. The short experimental film is the cross point of simplicity and complexity at the same time. It best exploits the viewer's imagination. We prefer using alternative techniques like flatbed scanner, projection, painting on scanner’s glass, computer graphics, collage, etc. This way we can have the possibility for dimension changes in content and form.

My photographs give voice to the silent stories I find all around New York City ‒ most of them in plain sight. When the sun, the Hudson River, and the corner of a building all join in a dance of reflection, light, and shadow; when the last of the leaves blow ominously across an abandoned piece of playground equipment late at night ‒ these are the stories my photographs tell.

I strongly believe that we should find the origins of vanities within modern era in past. Unfortunately, the economics of our society has been firmed for several years. And we are told to accept it, but it's not true. For this reason, studying in history of sociology was important for me, especially in modernism. When I studied the history of modernism and the way it processed, I found that its legacy in economics has challenged the way we are living, extremely. I always save main concept as an idea in my mind. It evolves in my mind and even might experience some changes. So, there is no specific rule for me which I want to follow it.

English artist Maxwell Rushton's distinct and diverse practice employs a wide range of media and covers a broad spectrum of themes; such as examining notions of the obsession and rejection of commercial culture, globalisation, psychoanalysis and homelessness. In his work Buy In Bleed Out Maxwell commodified himself by painting Both art and science twenty pints of his own require imagination and blood into an epic-scale original thinking, a sense replica of his signature logo. From this, to his of inquiry and concern project Drawn Out, in about human nature & which he filled four 10 society. Whilst science meter rolls of paper with investigates how the approximately world operates, in art this 10,000,000 hand drawn information is interpreted lines whilst living in isolation for 386 days, his and expressed from a thought-provoking work unique individual has begun to establish him in the art world. perspective.

There is a solitude that is known to most citydwellers; a hollowness against the artificial light and the din of the city’s razzle-dazzle. It is that isolation that my camera seeks. This is a city full of diamonds.

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Overall my work explores interconnectedness and the open-ended dialogue between art and science, by combining scientific concepts, laws and theories from different disciplines with an arts practice. Using free association to discover the mirroring of scientific theory and concept with social, formal and physical sciences.

Following my first exhibitions, I started questioning the relation between art and it's spectator and how the environment influences the perception and appreciation that one can have. In order to get out of the traditional exhibition setup, limiting one's view of the art piece to contemplation and analysis, I place my art pieces at the core of interactive experiences. The use of new technologies allows the creation of new art works perceived by the spectator as a unique and personal experience, lived in whole mindfulness.

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Ynin Shillo

lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel

LĂŠa Maleh lives and works in Paris, France

Maxwell Rushton

lives and works in London, United Kingdom

DĂŠnes Ruzsa

lives and works in Budapest, Hungary

Christiana Kazakou 94 lives and works in London, United Kingdom

Jorge Mansilla Jorge Mansilla

Ynin Shillo

David Delgado

Australia

Israel

Bangcock

My most recent work is a series called "Wake up and smell the plastic": 10 sculptures made from recycled plastic that represent people's emotional baggage and psychological garbage, manifested in the products they consume. The figures embody key themes of the relations of power, the idolization of the new, the overload of media in a society seemingly so out of touch with the natural world, with any higher principles or cosmic meaning. Lost in an ocean of the new and the now. A world drowning in disposable emptiness. The objects have to be made of discarded plastic to confront this looming and ignored issue.

My artistic vitro fertilization is being done in the field of the thought of Kabbalah, when my specialization is the "order of the letters". This field has the tendency to create an abstract way of thinking. My massive engagement in this field can be described as a metaphor for a volcanic pool of water that within it there are internal movements that causes the water to bubble. Occasionally the bubbling creates smells - these smells that penetrate the water from the magma are in fact the beginning of my creation. Unlike sulfur, these smells are diverse, they percent into the sensory system.

When I was a child, I remember not being completely sure of the experiences I have had. I was aware that some recent events I had in my memory could be easily faked (as normal in a child's mind, that confuses reality with their inner imaginative world and dreamed experiences) I guess this fact drove me in a way of seeing the world very skeptically. So, since I was not sure on what to believe, I have developed a certain insecurity and also a nihilistic view of this world. Cynicism was a sort of self protection.

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lives and works in Australia

Joseph O'Neill

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lives and works in New York City, USA

Fariba Rahnavard

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lives and works in Teheran, Iran

David Delgado

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lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand On the cover a work by Christiana Kazakou

Special thanks to Haylee Lenkey, Martin Gantman , Krzysztof Kaczmar, Joshua White, Nicolas Vionnet, Genevieve Favre Petroff, Sandra Hunter, MyLoan Dinh, John Moran, Marya Vyrra, Gemma Pepper, Michael Nelson, Hannah Hiaseen, Scarlett Bowman, Yelena York Tonoyan, Haylee Lenkey, Martin Gantman , Krzysztof Kaczmar and Robyn Ellenbogen.

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Ynin Shillo

am a conceptual interdisciplinary artist. My work is charged with local pure substance elements, both ancient and contemporary, and in theological and Genealogical materials, dealing with issues of 'man- place - Language' at this time, substances that are very tense between holism and deconstruction.

Growing up Warrior, stills photography, 2016

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Ynin Shillo An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator articulaction@post.com

Conceptual interdisciplinary artist Ynin Shillo's work explores a variety of issues that affects our unstable contemporary age: in his single channel video Longing, that we'ĂŹll be discussing in the following pages, he accomplished an insightful superposition between symbols marked out with evokative reminders and a personal take on the notion of time, to induce the viewers to rethink about its elusive nature. One of the most convincing aspect of Shillo's approach is the way it condenses the permanent flow of associations in the realm of memory and experience: we are really pleased to introduce our readers to his stimulating and multifaceted artistic production. Hello Ynin and a warm welcome to ARTiculAction: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? What among your experiences have particularly influenced you as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum inform the way you deal with the aesthetic problem in general?

"When I was about four years old, The city Beer Sheva was preparing to the festivities of turning the desert princess into a metropolis. My father took a special break from work; we all wore white and walked all the way from Neighborhood D to the city center by foot. Almost nobody owned a car at the time and the buses traffic was stopped. The flags

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Artist Statment, stills from video art, 2015

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Longing 2, stills from video art, 2015

waved in the wind near the stage of honor. Everyone arrived, the city turned festive. The mayor came with an entourage, stopping by the red ribbon that had been stretched across the road, very grandly he stood by the microphone

and announced to the sound of the beeping megaphones that following the illustrious Zionist projects, mainly the anti-desertification actions, he is proud to announce that our dear city was added to

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ribbon. Then came the spectacle that we have all been waiting for, it lit up, in a red light this thing I have heard of just from stories, then, like a miracle, the light turned green. Balloons flew up to the sky, there was mass ecstasy. We have a first stop-light in Beer Sheva. Only the camel parking by the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ataâ&#x20AC;? store waited for the one who will come and pay his Bedouin owner two cents to take a ride, kept regurgitating calmly." The text is taken from the piece "Bandages", video art, 2013. Those life memories that eventually assimilated into my system of thrills and physical emotions, the memories I remember like I remember my name, those memories are the core of the artist within me. Your approach coherently encapsulates several disciplines and reveals an incessant search of an organic investigation about psychophysiological importance of contemplation in nature, and the results convey together a coherent and consistent sense of harmony and unity. Before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://yninshillo.com in order to get a synoptic view of your multifaceted artistic production: while walking our readers through your process and set up, we would like to ask you how did you develope your style and how do you conceive your works.

a line of other big cities around the world, such as London and Paris. Very grandly he took a pair of huge scissors, and to the sound of the passionate applause he cut the red

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pool of water that within it there are internal movements that causes the water to bubble. Occasionally the bubbling creates smells - these smells that penetrate the water from the magma are in fact the beginning of my creation. Unlike sulfur, these smells are diverse, they percent into the sensory system. My goal is to stretch the creative process as much as possible in the field of the sensory system that precedes the intellect. Usually I do not understand anything up until the piece is completed. This is at least for the first metamorphosis of the piece. Sometimes the piece is completed in one take and many times I return to the same piece again and again. As soon as I have the first variation of the piece before me, I start looking at the piece and begin to decode the mental process that led to this piece, to decipher the symbolism and so on. I begin to understand it and to understand myself and what happened to me. At this point I stop, gathers, draws conclusions and then I stop thinking about them and try to forget them and begin again the next metamorphosis of the piece in a sensory way. In time I came to realize that those conclusions I draw from the first metamorphosis, since I stopped thinking about them, are digested into the subconscious and influences the creative process. For this special edition of ARTiculAction we have selected Longing, an interesting single channel video that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once caught our attention of this work is the way the relationship between static feature of existence and the unavoidable running of time induce the viewers to rethink such notions a

new level of significance, going beyond the conflictual dichotomy between Immanence and Transcendence: when walking our readers through the genesis of this stimulating project,

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Longing 11, Stills from video art, 2015

would you shed light on your inner inspirations?

"Longing" is the name of a conceptual project / body of work that its central part is video art works. I started working on

the project in late 2014, and I am still engaged with it. The project consist of a series of video art works by the name "Longing" and video art, sound installation and photography with different conceptual names.

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The concept of the video art pieces named "Longing" stretches the concept of video art by using the tension between the subjective time and objective time. A timer is running 59 minutes on a still image of graves on Mount Olives. The prophecy of the resurrection exists, but as long as the dead did not get up God did not heed. (The word for an "An hour" in Hebrew is used also for "Heed"). The tension between the constant movements of the clock that moves in the silence of the still image increases the accumulated tension and emotion that grows more and more while viewing more time at the piece. The image stays in the same place, at the first moment the viewer saw it (GAZE) but the viewer feel the movement of the clock all the time. When observing a still image, time is subjective to the viewer. When observing a video, time is objective to the time of the video. By using one still image for a video art, while a clock is running on it, the tension between the subjective and objective of time is formed. Despite the fact that the matter of objectivity of the artwork and the subjectivity of the viewers can be obvious and clear, my engagement with this subject in the creative process is large and I use it for the creation of either tension or harmony (Each work of art is objective in form to itself). Also in painting which is the medium that I began from. I believe that a painting is not a static object but it is an emotional object and therefore has movement, although the movement is an internal

movement within the viewer that is manifested in plastic values etc. I want to share with you a quote from a text that the novelist Albert Suisa wrote about the "Longing" project:

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Gaze, stills from video art, 2015

"Photography of a cemetery is a sort of tautology in the sense that a photograph itself is a kind of entombment, the freezing of time, that which marks what was once alive but is no longer. Photography absorbs the world, or

perhaps it always appears to be a kind of empty, 'objective' consciousness of death. After all, while the photograph shows what was alive, at the same time it freezes that which cannot escape transience, substitution, finiteness.

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Expectation, stills from video art, 2014

Measuring time for graves, for the dead, for those who have already achieved â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;eternity,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; is a kind of mockery of the dead, or self-irony of the living artist or the viewer.

The graves themselves, an everlasting residence, their absolute silence, bareness and architectural simplicity are also tautological, duplicating the dust and ashes that replace the body. The

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Using a digital chronometer to shoot footage of a cemetery is, therefore, a tautology of a tautology of a tautology. Ostensibly, the artist here is absurd; he spends his limited ‘time’ mesmerized in observation of a death machine that replicates itself, and transforms the artist into an active and wide-eyed partner like Paul Klee’s “Angelus Novus,” the Angel of History of Walter Benjamin." Rejecting an explanatory strategy, Longing urges the viewers to establish direct relations: operating a dialectical fusion on the system of symbols dued to the reminder to an evokative place as the graves on Mount Olives, you created a compelling non linear narrative that walks on the elusive boudary between conceptual and literal meanings. German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about it? And in particular how do you conceive the narrative for your works?

digital chronometer is also a tautology of itself – the numbers change, the time that ‘passes’ accumulates, but nothing is gained, it is only the totaling of units of nothing.

In most of my pieces, I try to create an emotional narrative and with it to create the opportunity for the viewer to establish his own narrative. I am trying to do the implementation of the symbolism in my artworks by Intellectual logic. I think that in every work of art the relationship between symbolism and psychology exist, while the extent of the relationship varies from artist to artist and between each artwork. The basis of the plastic model from its beginning, from the time people drew in the sand, even before cave paintings, remains the same. I think that it is the artwork itself that

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determine how much I will use symbolism and how much I will use psychology. I think that new theories and new trends in the art world in general do not cancel what was preceding them but opens up new and wider possibilities. Another interesting work from your artistic production that has particularly impressed us and on which we would like to spend some words is the Anu Banu Project: by definition video is rhythm and movement, gesture and continuity. In this body of works you created a time-based work that induces us to rethink the concept of time in such a static way: this seems to remove any historic gaze from the reality you refer to, offering to the viewers the chance to perceive in a more atemporal form. How do you conceive the rhythm of your works?

The name Anu Banu means in Hebrew:" We came" and it is the beging of an iconic Israeli phrase that was used by the first Jewish immegrents that came to Israel between the years 1900- 1948: "We came to this land to build and to be built in it". This project was born out of an ironic and affectionate feelings that I have to those people that had this naive nationalist point of view. Therfore the focous of the artworks in this project is to the ideals that those pepole had and that is what gives the artworks this timeless aspect. As a performer, you explored the consequences of a combination between metaphoric and descriptive research: in particular, Search is marked out with an immersive experience working on both subconscious and conscious level. How do you see the relationship between public sphere and the role of art in

public space? In particular, how much do you consider the immersive nature of the viewing experience and how much importance has improvisation in your process?

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The peace rider, stills photography, 2013

When I encounter technical problems during the creative process, I see them as a blessing due to the value of the non expected added to the process. I believe that to primary, that often arrives as circumstantially has an additional value

of freshnes in the creation. For example, in the directing process of the Monodrama "Love Psychosis", 2013, it was important to me that the way that the text will be constracted and spoken in the performence will be adjusted for my

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Meser Metzer, Stills from video art, 2014

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wife who acted in the show. Therfore I asked her to act a complete set in front of a video camera with a certain nartive she has to go through, with her own words. From this filmed set I molded the finle text to the performance, while in some cases I added words, or took out, changed the order, etc. The main idea is that the core of the show was composed out of the primarly state. Here is a link to the Promo of the performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQzq Jo4ZY3c In your performance Love Psychosis you explored the subject of Family relationships to create an allegory for any social pattern: while lots of artists from the contemporary scene, as Ai WeiWei or more recently Jennifer Linton, use to convey open socio-political criticism in their works, you seem more interested to hint the direction, inviting the viewers to a process of self-reflection that may lead to subvert a variety of usual, almost stereotyped cultural categories. Do you consider that your works could be considered political in a certain sense or did you seek to maintain a more neutral approach? And in particular, what could be in your opinion the role that an artist could play in the contemporary society?

My pieces are always political. Not due to the artist's role in society, simply because of the fact that they reflect my perception. There is always a political case. Basicly I try that the political case will be reflected only in the inner depths of my artworks while the focos of the frontal aspect of the pieces is more plastic. The concepts and the symbolism I uses are political agendas. However, my

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perception toward political opinion in general deals more about how people view themselves as human beings. That is, I refer to the psychological-politics, politics of social structure; I deal with what is common in personal perception of people today, how they perceive themselves as opposed to how our society is structured. In the piece "Two men next to a grave", 2014 from the "Longing" project there is a contrast between the two figures photographed. The religious Jew, who spends his days as a routine in Holy Places allegedly arrives at the place in order to pray, and the Arab worker arrives, sits on the same grave he comes allegedly to pray to and they are having a conversation at the same time he sits on the grave. The dissonance is within the perception of the religious man between how he actually is and how he views himself. For the Arab worker, there is no inner contrast. The gap between where you are in reality and where you think you are at, in terms of your image is one of the most political problems of the society I live in. One of the prospectuses of this is "If you just try hard enough, you can achieve all your dreams"; these slogans create the dissonance and the question is whether this direction leads to happiness? As opposed to how one become contented with his blessing? Over these years your works have been internationally exhibited in several occasions and you are going to have the show "Salute To The STARS!â&#x20AC;?, at the AMSTERDAM WHITNEY GALLERY, Chelsea NYC, USA. One of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create direct involvement with the viewers, who

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The Way, stills from video art, 2013

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Clods, stills photography, 2016

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are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?

I try to crate a dialog with the viewers thorgh my artworks, whetehre it is an intellectual conversation or a conversation between emotions. Usually I try to look for some trigger that will ask the audience for a certain mood. My artistic language varies depending on the subject and the artwork. The correspondence between the public and the artworks happens in the means of display (which artwork to exhibit in a certain context etc.). Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Ynin. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

A large project I am working on at the moment is a performance called "Punctuation marks in a sentence of Eternity". "Punctuation marks in a sentence of Eternity" is the name of a 20 minutes video composition which comprises the basis of the performance and was created as a part of the "Longing" project in the first metamorphosis of the piece. In the first metamorphosis of the piece was a video art in which a camera is aimed at the Mount of Olives cemetery in a "One Shot". The characters inhabit the frame are

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"yeshiva" students who come to pray for a particular grave on the mountain. Their consciousness "that someone is watching them" (G-o-d) is so high, that they look like actors and the cemetery becomes a stage.The performance is built by three scenes and is the result of collaboration between multidisciplinary artists from the fields of stage, video art, soundperformance, spoken word and painting. The work process is based on layers and their interweaving creates a spectrum of interrelated observation forms. I arrive to The Mount of Olives Cemetery several times a week for a few hours each time, since early 2014. The starting point for my research stemmed from my desire to try and understand what did King Solomon meant by in Ecclesiastes "It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting", and what is the

important in that. I knew that obviously it will not be a one-time visit that will provide me with answers and therefore it will requires a long time and depth to see what I will understand on the subject, the view of life, consciousness, my creation etc. I will give physical examples that manifest it; for a whole year I shot The Mount of Olives Cemetery from an overlooking mountain - I did not dare to enter the cemetery itself due to my primal fear of death. The first time I went into the cemetery was only a year later. This is the time that took for me that my understanding that death is not contagious to permeate my feelings. I believe that whoever sustains this text of King Solomon, will find it easier to accept life as it comes. These feelings and these insights are what I want to convey to the viewers. The fact that

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Love Psycosis, Stills from a performance, 2013

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Two Men next to a grave, stills photography, 2015

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it is there, death is there, tangible and physical. In the case I bring, it covers up a whole mountain. Just waiting and waiting, not urging us because we will get there one day. The main partners to the creation of the project are Paul Lorenz from the USA, a sound performance artist that creates complicated arrangements of melodies based on visual images. Due to our vision that goes through abstract painting, the connection between us creates a multilayered composition that interests me. The two artists who write the text to the performance are Albert Suissa, novelist, curator and art critic from Israel and Tariq Shah, novelist and poet from the USA. Albert Suisa Lives and create in Jerusalem, winner of the Bernshtein prize 1991 and is active in the Jerusalem art scene. Tariq Shah Pakistani / German / Polish artist lives and works in the writing scene of New York. His work deals with the issue of identity. I am very happy with this new cooperation. Tariq writing style of prose is related to a stream of consciousness and is also influenced by the visual arts and therefore I believe the resulting mix will be a fascinating result. The artist who is planning the set is Melih Akbiyik from Istanbul. Melih took the matter of the set planning into spiritual and classic visual means with Turkish deep background.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator articulaction@post.com

LĂŠa Maleh ICUL CTION

Dalia Smayze

L Lives and works in Dallas, USA

An artist's statement

Following my firstview exhibitions, I setup, limiting one's of the art piece started questioning the relation between art and spectator to contemplation andit's analysis, I placeand my how the environment influences the art pieces at the core of interactivethat one perception and appreciation can have. In order to get out of the experiences. The use of new technologies traditional exhibition setup, limiting one's view of theofart to allows the creation newpiece art works contemplation and analysis, I place my art pieces the core perceived by the at spectator as aofunique interactive experiences. The use of and personal experience, livedthe in whole new technologies allows creation of new art works perceived by the mindfulness.as a unique and personal spectator experience, lived in whole mindfulness. 16

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Léa Maleh An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator articulaction@post.com

Unconventional and effective in the way it creates connections with the viewers, Léa Maleh's work accomplishes an insightful investigation about the notions of physicality, scale and intellectual interactivity in the contemporary age. When walking the viewer through an unconventional journey in the liminal area that delimits the realm of perception, her works invites them to go beyond traditional contemplation and analysis, to urge them to elaborate personal associations and interpretations. One of the most convincing aspects of Maleh's practice is the way it unveils a wide variety of unexpected relations between art and it's spectators to draw them into a multilayered experience. We are very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating artistic production. Hello Léa and welcome to ARTiculAction: to start this interview we would like to pose you a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid training and after your studies at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts you started your career as a designer in your native country, where you had the chance to closely work with specialists realising early on the limits of traditional fabrication techniques: how have these experiences influenced

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your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does the relationship between your cultural substratum dued to your Lebanese roots and living today in Paris inform the way you currently relate yourself to art making and to the aesthetic problem in general?

By working closely with artisans, I had the chance to discover different crafts along with there different methods. The most important part of this experience was to learn and understand how to choose the right fabrication technique for a specific object. Ever since this learning, in each of my creations, the fabrication process of an object has become as important as the object itself. Whether it is a furniture piece or an artwork, it holds an essential part in the creative process. It could be a general idea of an artwork that influences the choice of a fabrication technique as well as the technique itself that sometimes inspires me. I consider traditional and modern craft like the soul of an artwork. It could tell the story of an art piece better than a beautifully written text. I actually experienced this with one of my own work while exhibiting the AMN collection. I was struck by some visitors who were drawn by the material and the finishes of the artwork, commenting using words that actually described the concept itself: pure, neutral, true, absolute, etc. This would not have happened if I had chosen another fabrication technique to realize these particular pieces. It was quite satisfying knowing that the concept was born with the desire to raise and erase all the religious connotations of the original pieces that inspired these artworks. Growing up in a place where religious conflict were an everyday reality, I have

always been affected by all the damages caused by emotional discord due to different religions, political parties, cultures, etc. So I constantly try to have a neutral and peaceful approach in my work to express what I think is the most important thing for peaceful cohabitation: unity. Your approach reveals an incessant search of an organic symbiosis between a variety of viewpoints and techniques to explore the boundaries of perceptual process both in the spectatorship and in the creative process itself. The result conveys a coherent and consistent sense of harmony and unity and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.leamaleh.com in order to get a wider idea of your work: before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for producing your works? In particular are there any constraints or rules that you follow when creating your works?

My process is quite simple I think. It is the reflection of my endless questioning about humansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; behaviors. Looking for the truth in their emotions, reactions, anger, influence, ethnicity. I try to understand this continuous urge of belonging to a certain social group, that a large scale of people unfortunately has. I personally find it problematic because it creates waves of human beings acting in a way without even questioning themselves if this behavior is genuine. So I try as much as possible to create art pieces that connect directly with the spectator or buyer. My only rule is that the discovering of an artwork must be a unique and personal experience lived in

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whole mindfulness. Also, choosing to work in an environment where people are specialized in new technologies, helps me be aware of all the latest tech release witch inspire me a lot in my work. For me, it is like looking at society from another window. New technologies are definitely influencing the way we live but are as well inspired by us. For this special issue of ARTiculAction we have selected Street is the new white cube, an interesting project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once caught our attention of your inquiry into the relationship between physical surroundings and their influence on the perception of an artwork is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of urging the viewers' attention on the nature of their perceptual processes. When walking our readers through the genesis of Street is the new white cube, would you shed light about the role of the environment in your process?

I think that we can agree on the fact that our surrounding tends to have an effect on our behavior. For instance, we don’t sit, eat or talk in a 3 starred restaurant the way we would in a fast food snack. We don’t attend a rock concert the same way we would attend an opera show. Similarly, the set up of an exhibition tends to have an effect on our interpretation and appreciation of an artwork, defining how to interact with the art piece. Unfortunately, it is always the same: spectator v/s art, with no permission to touch, approach closely, etc. Because it is ohhh so precious and expensive. Even though I completely understand and while I also do the same

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when I exhibit in an art show, it is, in my point of view, like looking at a beautiful landscape through a hall. I find it very frustrating for the visitor as much as for me. So after my solo show “L’art du sacré”, I knew I had to do something about it, and without planning anything,

on a sunny day, I took one of my sculptures and went for a walk with a camera with no idea at all about what was going to happen. What a beautiful and warming experience it was! I have never seen people so relaxed while looking at an art piece. They were

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walked 30mins around the neighborhood talking about contemporary and street art. The way Street is the new white cube reflects the interaction between a work of art and the environment in which it has been installed also probes the expressive potential of the relationship between imagination and representation. German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about it? And in particular, how do you conceive the narrative for your works?

genuinely curious, had absolutely no problem saying what they really felt, stopped to participate to an improvised conversation in the middle of the street. One woman even took off with the sculpture while I was photographing it! No worries I caught her on time and we

I definitely agree with Thomas Demand, specially after my “street” experience. So far, all my work is based on an interaction between the buyer/spectator and my art pieces. I like to consider my art like a committed conversation. It is not about my feelings, or emotions, but about what I would say out loud if I had the occasion to speak frankly. You can compare the narrative of my work to a debate between 2 activists, or to a speaker giving a passionate talk about his convictions, pushing the auditors to rethink their so-called inner truths. By doing this, I aim to create a peer-to-peer relationship with the spectator, giving him the power of creating his own experience, and even finishing or not my work like in my Alpha & Omega project. (cf website) We definitely love the way your craft production combines rigorous geometry with freedom of composition: the AMN

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project sums up into a tactile concreteness the ideas: what is the importance of the tactile nature of your works? In particular, do you start work with a concept or does the idea come later?

I usually start with a concept which, most of the time, leads to an obvious choice of material and finishes. I consider the texture like the innermost structure of the concept, whether it is touchable or virtual, it is quite impossible to dissociate the tactile experience from the idea.

Moreover, as a maker, I savor the production phase. Personally my favorite part is when I can feel the material and see it take shape. It creates a stronger bond with my idea and helps me end the cycle of creation. It is like escorting my project slowly out of it birth place. In addition to that, I would like to underline what a fulfilling and rich experience it is to participate to the whole fabrication process. In each of my projects, I have the opportunity to meet and work with wonderful people and to learn more about their area of expertise.

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Your hybrid approach usually mixes artistic practice with cutting edge technologies, as digital milling, 3D printing and virtual reality: the impetuous way modern technology has nowadays came out on the top: this has also dramatically revolutionized the concept of Art, that just few years ago it was a tactile materialization of an idea. We are sort of convinced that new media will definitely fill the apparent dichotomy between art and technology and we will dare to say that Art and Technology are going to assimilate one to each other... what's your point about this?

Of course! It is already a reality (in my point of view). We are definitely living in a world where technology is progressing more and more every day, in a very exponential way. I think that nowadays, it is crucial to be more curious about the latest innovations. With a better knowledge of things, we keep control, and integrate these changes peacefully in our daily lifestyle, most importantly, in whole mindfulness. As an artist, I believe that new technologies are amazing tools that are here to accompany us. They facilitate production and make nearly everything possible, which is an invitation to do better, go further and be more ambitious in every creation. They question the limits of human creation as well as physical limits. But most of all, their use interrogates the complex relationship between an artist and these tools. Even though I consider that the action of creation is dominant and certainly is the foundation of an artwork, I can’t help but ask myself:” Does an art piece made by hand using traditional craft tools have the same value

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fabricated or even created by an autonomous machine?” Another interesting project from your recent production that has particularly impacted on us and on which we would like to spend some words is entitled A piece of art. When playing with the notion of scale, this work brings to a new level of significance the notion of physicality in everyday life experience. So while asking you to walk our readers in the genesis of this interesting video, we would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

Well yes it is definitely an indispensable part of a creative process, even though, you can’t really predict how the spectator will react. Take for example a sculpture of Mickey Mouse, or whatever cute and reassuring figure from your childhood. Scale it x10, 50 or even more. Imagine yourself standing by a giant Pinocchio, or a giant Cinderella. Some might find it funny, others might find in impressive or even threatening. We all react differently because we all have different souvenirs that influence our feelings and affects our emotions. I actually find it very interesting to observe people react to an art piece, this is what encouraged me to create different sizes of sculpture for the AMN series. A piece of art was part of this experiment, based on my desire to offer a direct and more personal experience. By wearing an art piece, we create a personal connection extended in time. While exhibiting a captivating vibrancy, your works often reject an explicit

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explanatory strategy: rather, you seem to hint the direction to the viewers, offering them to elaborate personal interpretations to the ideas that you convey into your pieces... this quality marks out a considerable part of your production, that is in a certain sense representative of the conflictual relationship between human identity and our unstable contemporary societies: how much does your own psychological make-up determine the materials you decide to use in a piece? In particular, any comments on your choice of materials and how it has changed over time?

It is quite simple: my own psychological make-up determines at 100% the material I use for a piece. The choice is deeply linked to the concept. The AMN series for instance is made of contemporary materials such as Polyurethane and PLA, it is part of a concept that is based partially on translating old traditional craft into modern time. Contrarily to A piece of art for which I chose silver that reflects the preciousness of the piece. In another project on which I am currently working and that talks about identity and human diversity, I couldn’t think of a better material than wood that I consider a living material. So I don’t think that my choice of materials changes over time. I would rather say that they just serve and illustrate accurately each one of my projects. You recently had the solo L'art du sacré at the Espace Turenne, in Paris: so before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Your work is strictly

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connected to the chance of establishing a direct involvement with the viewers, who are called to evolve from a mere spectatorship to conscious participants on an intellectual level. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decisionmaking process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?

My objective as an artist is to reach as much individuals as possible. However, I definitely do not base my creation process on the audience reception because I consider that it would obstruct my ideas and influence my judgment. I commit my self to being as much as possible genuine in all my projects. My artworks are the reflection of my constant questioning about actual matters like religion, discrimination, superficiality, perception, etc. As for the language used for each of my creations, it is always the same process: the idea would influence the materials, the fabrication process, the textures as well as the context the art piece will be shown. It is all connected, like football team members passing the ball to each other. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Léa. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

Thank you for your interest in my work! I can’t really give you details yet, but I can tell you that I am working on new experiences including more tech and robotics evolving around interrogations about our connection with art and the relationship between art and technologies.

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M axwell Rushton Lives and works in London, United Kingdom

An artist's statement

nglish artist Maxwell Rushton (born 1989), graduated from Leeds College of Art in 2012 with a 1st Class Honours in Fine Art. Maxwell's distinct and diverse practice employs a wide range of media and covers a broad spectrum of themes; such as examining notions of the obsession and rejection of commercial culture, globalisation, psychoanalysis and homelessness. In his work Buy In Bleed Out Maxwell commodified himself by painting twenty pints of his own blood into an epic-scale replica of his signature logo. From this, to his project Drawn Out, in which he filled four 10 meter rolls of paper

with approximately 10,000,000 hand drawn lines whilst living in isolation for 386 days, his thoughtprovoking work has begun to establish him in the art world. In a recent article written by Arteviste Maxwell is said to have a "unique ability to both shock and move his audience." Maxwell recent solo exhibitions include MMX Gallery (London), West London Art Factory (London) and Cellar Shows (Leeds). His work has been shown in group exhibitions such as BCN Art (Barcelona), The Brick Lane Gallery (London) and Hoxton Basement (London).

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Maxwell Rushton An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator articulaction@post.com

Unconventional and moving in its multifacetedness, Maxwell Rushton's work explores the notions of physicality and of saturation in the unstable contemporary age. In his project Buy In Bleed Out that we'll be discussing in the following pages he has physically turned himself into a logo to go beyond the dichotomy between perceptual categories and Western cultural substratum. One of the most convincing aspect of Rushton's practice is the way its unconventional approach accomplishes the difficult task of exploring the liminal space between the immanent feature of identity in our ever changing scenario: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to his multifaceted artistic production. Hello Maxwell and welcome to ARTiculAction: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and you graduated from Leeds College of Art in 2012 with a 1st Class Honours in Fine Art: how has this experience influenced your evolution as an artist? And in particular, does your cultural substratum as a British artist inform the way you relate yourself to art making and to the aesthetic problem in general?

Hi ARTiculAction, thank you very much for having me. I was brought up amongst a handful of houses in a very quiet village in the Cotswolds. Sometimes my sister and I visited our Dad in London, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d take us around the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grandest galleries and museums before returning us to green fields and our cottage with a thatched roof. My relationship with art started

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then, it was artâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intensity and diversity that I found inspiring. Most of my early education took place in a very traditional school, but by then I was interested in anything avant-garde. When I was about to be expelled for the second time I landed in a youth hostel, picked up a paintbrush and lived in my tiny room for half a year. I painted on anything, but mostly tables and doors

which I found in skips, after they were covered I stacked them up anywhere there was space. I went back to school and became interested in art-makingrule-breakers and why their work was deemed as controversial at the times where they were pioneers. I empathised with their rebelliousness and at 16 I began to consider my future as an artist, although choosing a style to develop for

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the rest of my life is still a struggle. I find it impossible to submit myself between the nuances of a single lifelong practice, I have always been too impulsive for this. At university I found a love for the theory of art and and explored contemporary culture through notions of commercialism, celebrities and pop. I played around with art of 'the artist' who invents their own brand as part of their contemporary artistic practice (like a modern adaptation of self portraiture). Outside of the institution I still worked on/exhibited my paintings. I behaved like two separate artists, part of me was fixated in the primitiveness and of mark making and the other me was thinking of new ways of making contemporary art. For my final degree show I brought both these practices together and exhibited my own dirty/torn painting shirt within a perspex box like a piece of merchandising, the idea was to sell out the most real part of myself as a symbol of the excessive commercialism that I saw in London where everything is for sale even the shirt off ones own back. I draw a lot of inspiration from a cultural spectrum that I was made aware as a child, the opposites of leading a commercially driven life (London/my Dad) as opposed to an authentically orientated one (countryside/ my Mum) have played an integral role on my most ambitious projects. I rooted a lot of my identity into these counter cultures but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m slowly moving away from using them as my artistic language but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s certainly where my career started. Your approach coherently encapsulates several viewpoints and reveals an incessant search of an organic investigation about the notion of identity that affects our unstable contemporary age. The results convey together a coherent and consistent sense of harmony and unity. Before starting to

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elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://maxwellrushton.com in order to get a synoptic view of your multifaceted artistic production: while walking our readers through your process and set up, we would like to ask you how did you develop your style and how do you conceive your works.

I’m not sure I would say I have a specific style, at least not in a traditional sense. There are a few reoccurring themes that run through my work, but my aesthetics and investigations move very quickly. When I did paint graffiti my style changed almost every week, it defeated the point of doing it in the first place! Recently I’ve just done my first performance-ish piece which was terrifying but fun. I never had thought that I would make art on stage but I felt that this particular piece was naturally leaning that way. The performance began my current residency at Exchange in London. I created an adapted Rorschach Test in font of an audience with the pint of blood I had just taken out of my arm whilst on stage. I poured my blood into the middle of 4 x 2 meter folding canvas, folded the sides together and then rubbed the back of them so the blood transferred evenly across both surfaces. I then opened out the canvas to reveal the chance configuration of image to both myself and my audience. Even though it’s crucial to me to move in the direction the artwork wants to travel I have to push myself to step up to create things like this. When I create my art it’s like I’m in a partnership with someone

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that is more daring than myself. The more daring person thinks up the ideas and then I have to make them happen, I’m left barely being able to think on exhibition day and after a show I’m exhausted. When I put my expressions into the public realm I’m at my most vulnerable but it’s not something I’ll ever stop shying away from, I owe it to the privilege of being an artist. For this special edition of ARTiculAction we have selected Drawn Out, an extremely interesting project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once caught our attention of your focus on the act of repetition is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of unveiling the manifold nature of human perceptual categories and to draw the viewers into a multilayered experience. What is the role of memory in your process? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.

Repetition did play an integral part in Drawn Out. It’s a project in which I filled four 10 meter rolls of paper repeatedly with the same motif of marks that appeared in my earliest drawings, approximately 10,000,000 hand made marks in total. The work was completed in isolation in the French Alps over the course of 368 days. Drawn Out was made in an attempt to create an artwork that possessed as little cultural and external artistic influence as possible. This work represents one half of the spectrum which I mentioned earlier, it’s a piece which is derived form the more organic experiences I had whilst living outside of the nearest town with only a few

people around when I was younger. Process was more important than the product in this one. I was drawing the same lines of the paper all day every day and I started to think of it as my own right of passage which I had to see it through if I was to consider myself as an artist. It’s my most challenging work yet but it was rewarding in beautiful way.

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Forgive me whilst I quote an exert from the journal I was writing at the time (although the journal does act as half the of the documentation of the work other than the paper itself): “There is so little distinction between the days and months that pass that I can't remember what occurred yesterday apart from it being the same as the day before, and the day before that. There are no peaks and troughs, no marker to take note of, no event in the near future to measure and to look forward to. The drawing itself is rolled at both sides like a scroll so progression is hard to gauge. I’m getting progressively disorientated, everything I do I feel I've done forever. Through repeated conditioning my motor skills take me through the daily motions without my hardly being being aware of what's going on. There’s no part to the day is remotely complex. My life is a sequence of basic human functions with drawing being as intuitive as breathing. This is a minimal, primal existence. Although this project started more than a year ago, the lines are far older since they are the same ones I was making as child. The line between my past and present is now blurring. This routine makes time seem to stop. I've often daydreamed about having the power to stop time, to walk around in a frozen surroundings industriously stealing things for when I choose to start time back up again. It seems I have stopped time but cannot start it back up. These last few weeks have been particularly difficult, I’m caught in a bad dream. I feel like a ghost not being able to interact with the few people I see. The inevitability of leaving this sanctuary of solitude is a surreal thought.”

Memory, or the blurring of the memory is something that I found very hard to deal with when working on this piece. In other artworks I predominantly get ideas based on immediate experiences, I’m not sure

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how significant the element of memory is when it comes to my overall practice. I tend to try and forget the last work so I can free myself up for a new one. To be fair generally I don’t I have the best

memory anyways so I wouldn’t say my own memory is something I drawn upon a lot. If I don’t try and live in the moment my work would become less intense.

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For Buy In Bleed Out you physically turned yourself into a logo and we definitely love the way you unveil the visual feature of informationyou developed through an effective non linear narrative that establish direct relations with the viewers: German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about it? And in particular how do you conceive the narrative for your works?

Buy In Bleed Out represents the second side of the spectrum, it’s a product of allowing myself to become obsessed with commercial culture. In this work I use my blood to symbolise the worshiping we give to a product’s brand and through it I pay homage to the altar of brands. The work itself is a 3 x 2 meter painting of a logo created out of 20 pints of my blood. The shape of the logo originates from a simple set of marks which I’ve been drawing since he was a child (a simple pattern of four vertical lines drawn side by side - the same as the ones that I use in Drawn Out), taking those primal marks and redesigning them into my logo was an act of commodifying my own innocent expression - in other words; the logo is a metaphor for the influence popular culture has on us as we grow up, from children to teenagers and through to adulthood we are ‘redesigned’ by it. I’ve used (my) blood for it’s many different connotations and although my artistic concerns change, blood has always remained close to me - it brings to life me and my creations.

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I think the medium encourages the imagination to respond with more emotion than the paint and ink I have used in developing work. It triggers different reactions from person to person, blood is like a Rorschach Test in itself - you see in it what you want to see. Similarly to Thomas Demand I consider my mediums in the way in which he highlights. I try and make art with as few elemental components as possible to create a multilayered experience, the connotation(s) of the medium(s) used are crucial they can bear the weight of the whole art work whilst on the subject of Buy In Bleed Out, this is exactly why I didn't mix the blood with preservatives, I would rather watch the whole thing crumble away before my feet than to look at a painting made with blood + another ingredient for the rest of my life. If I dilute the blood then I dilute the narrative of the medium. How do I conceive the narrative for my works? They come from very different places, I don’t make work for other people and I don’t feel the pressure to develop what I’ve already made to be seen as a consistent artist, I’m quite happy with bouncing from one mania to the other, I’ve become adjusted to the turbulence. Also making sellable art has zero bearing on the work I produce. I don’t make good work when I’m busy thinking about boundaries. To free myself up even more when I’m searching for inspiration I recite a list of specifications to myself, here are some of the requirements in the list: Don't bother making it if: - You wouldn't give up at least a year of your life to make it. - If something similar has been done before.

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- People can't relate to it. - You don't 100% believe in it. - You think it could be forgotten. - If it's not going to be the best thing you have ever done. ~ If it’s painful to make then good, it'll be more rewarding when it's done. ~ Think about making new work without limitations of money, manpower or not knowing how to make it and don't be lazy. ~ Think simple/elemental but do it BIG! They are basically impossible to follow but these prompt me to make the kind of art which I enjoy looking at. Buy In Bleed Out abides by the list’s requirements but is a result of something I noticed at the start of my career when I realised that a lot of great art was taken into a commercial setting and sold like material products. I saw that this changed the context of the art and I felt I needed to account for this eventuality in my own work. I capitalised on it and initiated my own brand so that I could take control of the commercial culture that would have otherwise distorted my work. A contemporary of mine said that my work “consumes the consumer culture that would otherwise consume it”. I now play with my brand like a medium, social media, interviews documentaries etc are inextricably linked to my artistic practice as I consider them to be similar to my art in regards to them being outlets of my identity. Once I developed the logo and painted it with twice the amount of blood in my body, I knew I was going to forever be associated with branding, it’s not something I can turn away

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from now. Whatever I now make will be under my brand's umbrella. We have found particularly stimulating the references to physicality: for Buy In Bleed Out you have used a huge amount of your own blood. How would you define the relationship between your body and your art?

Although that work is made with my blood it is an attempt to initiate my brand which transcends the physicality of my body. An individual can have far more impact on us if we perceive them through our own imagination than if we only consider them in their reality. I used a lot of my blood in this piece, but the viewer’s connection to myself isn’t felt through my blood, it’s through the idea of ‘Maxwell’ via the logo. Commercial logos are super seductive, more seductive than the controversy of blood. What I’m trying to say is that in terms of a conveying my identity, using my body will always be more limited in it’s capacity to familiarise the viewer with my work than my brand - which to me is an ongoing artistic creation itself. Our minds see things more vividly than our eyes. Yes, the process of making some of these works can be very physically taxing. I’ve made myself anaemic, hallucinated, had reoccurring dreams, damaged my eyes, slipped disks in my back, reshaped my fingerprints, tattooed myself etc. But I think of my body is a conduit for my creativity, I’m not sure I’d give it more significance than that. Sometimes it is effected when I action my work, sometimes it’s not. Your work conveys a subtle but effective criticism concerning the materialistically

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driven culture that saturate our contemporary age. But while artists from the contemporary scene, as Ai WeiWei or more recently Jennifer Linton, use to express open socio-political criticism in their works, you seem more interested to hint the direction, inviting the viewers to a process of selfreflection that may lead to subvert a variety of usual, almost stereotyped cultural categories. Do you consider that your works could be considered political in a certain sense or did you seek to maintain a more neutral approach? And in particular, what could be in your opinion the role that an artist could play in the contemporary society?

Art is one of the most uncensored media outlets thats available to us. Artists, musicians and writers have always positioned themselves at the crux of political issues, I might not have found a voice as loud as Ai WeiWeiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m still young and have a lot to learn about the good and evil of the world. At the moment I think my work has more in common with questions than answers. You draw a lot from your personal experience and your recent Inside series could be considered a successful attempt to create a body of works that stands as record of existence and that captures non-sharpness, bringing to a new level of significance the elusive still ubiquitous relationship between experience and identity. So we would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

I made the Inside series in 2015, when a mental illness played a part in my life. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to be overwhelmed by it so I made my

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own series of 10 Rorschach paintings with my blood. The art I love tends to explores issues I can instinctively relate to, in turn I try and keep my work as economic as possible so as to not overcomplicate what the work is concerning. I get random ideas all the time, they’re mostly shit and don’t say anything significant but I write them all down anyways. I give ideas time to develop and if they can’t then I forget about them, some of the most seemingly insignificant experiences can develop into worthwhile socio-political pieces so everything is written down. I’m strict though because there is nothing more annoying than starting work on a idea and seeing your self flounder around trying to bring it to life. I made a sculpture once about the not having anything interesting to say, I built a sculpture crate with a locked door built into it on which I pinned a sign that read “sorry, temporarily out of service”. I made it to share that creative block with people, I would rather be honest about my boredom and lack of visceral direct experience than to force inspiration to create. Over these years your works have been showcased in several occasions, including your recent solo "Drawn Out" at the MMX Gallery, London. One of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create a direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process?

Following on from my last answer; I tripped over a bin bag last year and apologised to it because I thought it was a homeless person - I jotted this surreal and almost inconsequential experience down in my notes. That experience has lead me to create a sculpture which I’ve been filming on the streets with a friend for the last few months. The role of the public is so important for this piece, because it deals with perceptions of homelessness and because filming the public’s reactions/non-reactions to the sculpture give it context. The first time I put the sculpture on the streets I left an empty cup and a cardboard sign in front of it which read “please give generously to those who have less than you”. Even without those extras I still think it’s a pretty diagrammatic piece so on the second time around I felt I shouldn’t push the piece into the ‘this means this’ corner and left the sculpture without any other visual reference. I’m glad I did because it received a breadth of reactions, including the ones I intended it to generate; some people obviously see a representation of distress and approached the work, whilst others walked past without distraction, some even took pictures and laughed! The point is you’re never in control of everyones reactions and you shouldn't want to be. I think if everyone reacted to a piece in the same way it would be boring. It’s ok for a work to be interpreted in different ways, that’s fine, I would rather that than either make a work have a single meaning or abstract it past the point of interpretation. That being said, if I haven't yet considered how a developing work can be perceived by the viewer it’s because I haven’t yet fully

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understood why I’m making it. The energy I have comes from both my own interest in creating but also from a need to connect with people in a way that I wouldn't be able to with just my words, to do this I must consider not just what I want to communicate, but also in what tone I want a viewer to experience the work. Communication in art is funny because yes, art typically is a one way conversation, but it can also be seen as a legacy of transferring/developing ideas in a context of a wider conversation that travels from person to person. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Maxwell. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

I’m currently in the middle of a residency, when that’s over I start work with a curator to put on a exhibition this Summer of my main works (it sounds awful to say this at 26 but because my works jump around so much the show will follow the format of a retrospective so as to connect the dots between my practice). I’m really looking forward to this show as it will be the first time Buy In Bleed Out and Drawn Out will be exhibited together - which is has been the intension for these two pieces all along. Thank you ARTiculAction.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator articulaction@post.com

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Dénes Ruzsa F ruzsina Spitzer Live and work in Budapest, Hungary

An artist's statement

or us the short film is the best option for immersion with taking advantage of the creative freedom. In fact, short film is the most perfect form for thought-provoking, displaying visions and for raising an issue. The short experimental film is the cross point of simplicity and complexity at the same time. It best exploits the viewer's imagination. We prefer using alternative techniques like flatbed scanner, projection, painting on scanner’s glass, computer graphics, collage, etc. This way we can have the possibility for dimension changes in content and form. We were impressed by artists including Giorgio de Chirico, Alfred Kubin, Wassily Kandinsky, Jackson

Pollock, Norman McLaren. The film is fine art, music and movement. Two important photos were the starting point of our works: ‘Pale Blue Dot’ photographed by Spacecraft Voyager 1 in 1990 about 6 billion kilometers from Earth. In this picture our home is less than a pixel. This can be a starting point and the ending in a reduction process. The other photo ‘Earthrise’ was made by the astronauts of Apollo-8. These two images symbolises the one hand, the development of technical civilization and on the other hand mankind boundless curiosity and desire for adventure.

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DĂŠnes Ruzsa and Fruzsina Spitzer An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator articulaction@post.com

Over these years mutlidisciplinary artists Denes Ruzsa and Fruzsina Spitzer have created an effective collaboration: their works are marked out with an unconventional still effective storytelling capable of walking the viewers into a multilayered experience. In "Job Interviewâ&#x20AC;?, that we'll be discussing in the following pages, they to investigate about the conflictual relationships between memory and perception that pervades our unstable contemporary age, inviting us to personal associations. We are very pleased to introduce our readers to Ruzsa's and Spitzer's stimulating artistic production. Hello Denes and Fruzsina: we would like to introduce your to our readers by mentioning the main features of your backgrounds. You have both a solid formal training:

Denes graduated in Media and Communication from the University of Debrecen and Fruzsina is currently nurturing her education at the Visual Culture Studies Department of the University of Szeged: how have this experienced have artistically influenced you? And in particular, does your european cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to art making?

The University has given us some guidance for the research, the training is more focused on theoretical knowledge. Later everyone had to find his own way in practice, the University trained us for the decisions. Our work is best inspired by avant-garde tendency. We are really impressed by the works of Kandinsky, Kubin, Braque, Chirico and we also like the kinetic art, in which motion and sound effects are integral part of the work. The film stands closer to fine art,

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film is nothing more than fine art, music / sound and movement. However, an issue, or a question that mainly interests us. We would like to express it in the language of film. It can be on the theme of the global warming, robotics or even astronomy. We do not want to give answers, this is not the role of the artist. The most important is to take questions that is the way we can come closer to the answers.

Your approach to experimental filmmaking coherently encapsulates several viewpoints that reveals an incessant search of an organic exploration of moving-image forms. The results convey together a consistent sense of unity: so before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://dokuweb.hu/en in order to get a synoptic view of your multifaceted artistic production: while walking our readers through your process, we would like to ask you if you have you

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ever happened to realize that a symbiosis between opposite viewpoints is the only way to express and convey the ideas you explore.

We think that a perfect example for symbiosis between opposite viewpoints is the connection between man and machine, that almost invisibly determines our lives. In the future this becomes increasingly evident and complex. From the 17th century onwards the concept that the top of functionality are the organic forms such as the human and animal bodies and that machines should be constructed using these organic forms inspite of them beeing fragile and transient. The special relationship between man and machine tries to imitate and improve the natural organism. This process may result in surrealism, fantasy and harmony. Although the result is often Janusfaced, because as physicist Freeman Dyson wrote there is a risk that we move away far from reality. Using the available technologies we create a different world. Partly the Job Interview reflects on this. We would start to focus on your artistic production starting from Job Interview, a stimulating work that we have selected from this special issue of ARTiculAction our readers have already started to get

to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once caught our attention of this experimental video is the way it captures non-sharpness with an

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universal kind of language, bringing to a new level of significance the elusive but ubiquitous relationship between experience and memory: while

walking our readers through the genesis of Job Interview, would you shed light on the role of memory in your process? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a

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faithful translation of your

In this rushing world present and

previous experiences or if you

future are compressed, and it

rather use memory as starting

defines the perception and

point to create.

memory as well. Scientists say

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Interview the questions together with the answers transform to patterns. It is easy to believe that in the near future in a job interview the interviewers person will be a machine, because in certain situation you have to answer for predetermined question with model answers. From the first time we watched Job Interview we were astonished by your sapient combination between sound and moving images has reminded us of Jonas Mekas' work. How did you develope your storytelling style?

We are delighted that our work reminded you of Mekas' work. We always take the camera with us, to continuously collect moments, documents, signs, items we want to keep. These can be raw footage for our next works. The main character in this video was found in an atelier. With the juxtaposition figures extended in different directions in the space with pattern we wanted to convey the loose of the unique personality.

that the pace of development will be even faster, the cumulative knowledge will influence the processing of experience. In Job

Your effective storytelling is based on an unconventional combination of approaches: how do you relate yourself to emerging techniques and equipments? In particular, do you think that a new kind of equipment could influence the creative process?

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For a good while we live in a machine age. Functional, created for some purpose, constructed mechanics surround us. The art has always been a mirror of its age. Today, the relationship between art and technology is more and more complex and diverse, the influence between each other is undeniable, in some way, they do not work without each other. In our animated films the technique is not for its own sake it is a tool to express the theme. The content should be determined by the form and not the form by the content. In our newest works we adapted an old photo tehnique, ‘photogram’ put into digital form with using the flatbed scanner. While Job Interview is a traditional 2D animation to a certain extent, the puppet used in the video, exists in the real world, in our new works pictures are reproduced or created with a flatbed scanner. So we make some kind of digital imprint that has never ever existed in this form in the physical world. By definition video is rhythm and movement, gesture and continuity. In your videos you create timebased works that induce the viewers to abandon therselves to free associations, rethinking the concept of time in such a static

way: this seems to remove any historic gaze from the reality you refer to, offering to the viewers the chance to perceive in a more

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atemporal form. How do you conceive the rhythm of your works?

More and more uniformed figure appears in the Job Interview. To

visualize the participants and the situation we use monotony and the lack of rhythm. The forms are based on repetition and made form

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reproduction. The monotony of the repeating mechanical voice also indicates that individuals have become faceless, mass, data, documentation. We got away from human nature.

Over these years your works have been internationally exhibited in several occasions, including your recent participation at the South West London International Film

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this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?

Naturally creative people will always make an effort to pass their own message, to have the widest audience possible, because art is a form of communication. However the process of creation in art itself is equally important, the way that you go through while processing your theme. We would like to thank you so much for having shared your thoughts, Denes and Fruzsina. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? Where do you see yourself and your work going in the future?

In the future we would like to continue taking questions using the video as the form of expression. Thank you for the interview. Festival. One of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create a direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator articulaction@post.com

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C hristiana Kazakou Lives and works in London, United Kingdom

An artist's statement

verall my work explores interconnectedness and the open-ended dialogue between art and science, by combining scientific concepts, laws and theories from different disciplines with an arts practice. Using free association to discover the mirroring of scientific theory and concept with social, formal and physical sciences; including mathematics, architecture, psychoanalysis, neuroscience, astronomy, astrometry and the philosophy of time & space. Both art and science require imagination and original thinking, a sense of inquiry and concern about human nature & society. Whilst science investigates how the world operates, in art this information is interpreted and expressed from a unique individual perspective. My interests lie in abstraction, curiosity and those

complexities arising from the interrelationship between science and art that have the ability to influence perceptions lurking beneath 'known' definitions. Christiana Kazakou

The last two years, Christiana Kazakou has participated in a number of projects blurring the boundaries of art and science and her work has been exhibited in a number of venues including ‘Performance Space, GV Art, Arcola Theatre, The New York Hall of Science (New York), Old Fire Station Gallery (Oxford), British Library, V&A Digital Futures and Haber Space at Central Booking (New York). Last year she directed a performance project ‘Displacing Identity’ in collaboration with dancers from Trinity Laban. The project was exploring the connection of architecture, psychoanalysis and dance. In 2014 she received a commission by Be Open Foundation for the Nomad Lab & Sounding Space Symposium, which it was a collaborative sound art project at a sound portal. She is also part of a sound art collective ‘Random Order’ that has performed at the Royal Pavilion on Southend on Sea, The art party conference and the Architecture Triennale in Lisbon. (http://www.christianakazakou.com)

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Christiana Kazakou An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator and Isabelle Scott, curator articulaction@post.com

Multidisciplinary artist Christiana Kazakou's work explores the intimate relationship between Art and Science unveiling the connection between such apparently different disciplines, with a lively gaze on contemporary art making. In her recent Mapping Interconnectedness, that we'll be discussing in the following pages, her unconventional approach draws the viewers into an area in which the rational categories and imagination merge together into coherent unity. One of the most convincing aspects of Kazakou's work is the way it provides the viewers with a multilayered experience in which they are urged to evolve from mere spectatorship to conscious participants . We are very pleased to introduce our readers to her refined artistic production. Hello Christiana, and a warm welcome to ARTiculAction. We would start this interview posing you some questions about your background: after your studies financial economics you earned a solid formal training, graduating with a MA of Art & Science that you received from the prestigious Central Saint Martins. How has the relationship between such apparently opposite disciplines influenced the way you conceive and produce your artworks and to the aesthetic problem in general?

Initally I would like to greet your team and thank you for inviting me to be part of your initiative. In response to your question I would like to refer to my academic background to date; which has been very diverse, starting from a foundation in mathematical sciences, continuing to financial economics and art and science along with other yearly courses in creative writing, journalism and arts management. The number of disciplines that I have been exposed to taught me how to combine and blur between objectivity and subjectivity, rationality and imagination and above all their interconnectedness and parallel existence. Science means knowledge; is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe while art is open ended and very intuitive. Regardless of the different methods & processes that art and science implement; there is a common ‘spark’ in both spectrums which is curiosity & wonder for the world and wonder. I found myself experimenting with different forms of knowledge both through academic process and independent research when I realised that I really

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enjoyed the independent process of learning without confined boundaries.I am fascinated by interdisciplinarity and the application of different scientific disciplines on artistic mediums mainly on my journey to enhance my perception and understanding the world we are living in. My scientific background developed my problem solving skills which play a crucial role in the art making. Both art and science require imagination and original thinking, a sense of inquiry and concern about human nature & society. You are a versatile artist and your practice ranges from Drawing to Sculpture, from Sound to Perfomance: encapsulating such variety of techniques, your approach reveals an incessant search of an organic symbiosis between a variety of viewpoints. The results convey together a coherent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification: so before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://www.christianakazakou.com in order to get a synoptic view of your multifaceted artistic production: while walking our readers through your process, we would like to ask you if you have ever happened to realize that such multidisciplinary approach is the only way to express and convey the idea you explore.

Creativity, exploration & invention are the driving force behind the use of the varied mediums. By using mixed media there is definitely a rejection of conventional classification of traditional techniques, on my journey to re-invent a

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subjective language to my artistic practise. I perceive life and art as an

endless experiment of exploration and my creative process is coloured by the element of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;trial & errorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and open dialogue between different disciplines and artistic mediums. The number of mediums I am experimenting with, help me to articulate and express the depth, complexity and meaning of my projects. For this special issue of ARTiculAction we have selected Mapping Interconnectedness, a stimulating mixed media installation that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. Its surrounding sound, that can be listened to at https://soundcloud.com/christianakazakou/mapping-interconnectedness plays a crucial role and what has at once caught our attention of this work is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of creating an harmonic mix between the antithetical notions of presence and absence, inducing us to rethink about this subtle dichotomy: when walking our readers through the genesis of Mapping Interconnectedness, would you shed a light about the way you combine together the materials you choose for your works?

The Mapping Interconnectedness project has been inspired by science maps bringing together antithetical notions of presence and absence. Most of my projects are heavily research based and portray contradictions. While the concept of the project refers to the existential basis of how everything connects, how we relate to systems while there is a theoretical explanation of scientific laws

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and theories. A universal jigsaw inspired by complexity science, dynamical systems and the chaos theory; representing the elemental power of how everything connects. All disciplines coexist in an identical landscape, all parts of the system interact and inter depend since they occupy the same system; but how do we truly respond to those systems? Measuring the direction of the personal poles of exploration and the opposite poles of attraction, the compass shows us the destination of intellectual adventures and sonic journeys in our life span. Through those components, the viewer/listener is called to question and wonder through a representation of magnets on painted metallic plate and compasses. The sound piece has been created in collaboration with Dragos Margineanu, sound artist and designer. Initially I was recording and crashing magnets with different frequency and speed on metallic plates in order to make those connections to the material in a metaphorical still thoughtful & experimental way. We then worked in collaboration with Dragos to compose and edit the piece. Your practice is centered on the exploration of the ubiquitous relationships between Art and Science, showing how such apparently antithetical notions are actually a part of each other. While artists as Carsten Hรถller take advantage of technology to inquire into our perceptual process, your approach goes beyond a merely use of technology and urge the viewers to question scientific concepts ad theory from the inside. In particular, we have highly appreciated the way Mapping

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Interconnectedness unveils the consistency of the co-existence of imagination and rationality: how would you describe this relationship?

There is a complex relationship between rationality and imagination in my projects. From one side the part of synthesis and analysis is expressed through science, based on facts and reason. The participant is called to explore those notions and understand the scientific meaning behind the project. Imagination, also called the faculty of imagining, is the ability to form new images and sensations in the mind that are not perceived through senses such as sight, hearing, or other senses. Imagination helps make knowledge applicable in solving problems and is fundamental to integrating experience and the learning process. My project takes the form of a narrative, where the audience reads the words and evoke their own personal response and interpretation, which opens up their imagination in relation to sight, time & narrative. I am interested in creating this relationship with the viewers by exposing them to new intellectual territories through their ability to imagine. Your works convey both metaphoric and descriptive research. A distinctive mark of Neuroelectricity is the successful attempt to construct of a concrete aesthetic that works on both subconscious and conscious level. As the late Franz West did in his installations, this work shows unconventional features in the way it deconstructs perceptual images in order to assemble them in a collective imagery, urging the viewers to a process of self-reflection. Artists are always interested in probing to see what is

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beneath the surface: maybe one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your view about this?

Even though the project deconstructs perceptual images; the project was a collaboration between myself and the Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit in Oxford. Neuroelectricity was born out of research that focuses on the recordings of neuronal activity from sites in the

basal ganglia. It was fascinating to observe and learn how the data obtained from recording neurons in the striatum and globus pallidus can give new insights into how the brain works at the singlecell and network level.Â&#x20AC; While the project has been inspired by science, it takes a very intuitive and emotional dimension that goes beyond the surface of its initial conception. It calls the participants to think about their relationship with emotion and

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such abstract scientific methods? In particular, what are the most remarkable differences you encountered?

The most remarkable difference that I find in Chaos Theory is its applications in several disciplines, including meteorology, sociology, physics , computer science, engineering, economics, biology, and philosophy.Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical science and specialized knowledge, which allows space for experimentation, innovation and interdisciplinarity since mathematics is essential in many fields. The fruible set of elements you draw from universal imagery triggers the viewers' primordial parameters concerning our relation with physicality: as Gerhard Richter once remarked, "my concern is never art, but always what art can be used for": what is your opinion about the functional aspect of Art in the contemporary age?

knowledge, which is part of their inner nature. Some of the most recent and popular applications of mathematics in Art involves Chaos Theory. In particular Chaos Theory was thought up in order to explain what classical physics could not. It is an is an extremely fascinating field, since it highlights the continuous process of change and renewal that marks out any creative process: how would you describe your experience with

Art is power. While art has a social impact, it can still be very subjective. There are many gaps in the system and the contemporary art world, such as not equal distribution of funding, low income, and not finding the right platforms to showcase your work. Regardless of the problems the art world faces, it still manages to have a stong impact in our lives through education, therapy and production. Art debates a history of ideas by making contribution to public debate and different ways of thinking and existence. "Art for art's sake" expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art,

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and the only "true" art, is divorced from anyÂ&#x20AC;didactic, moral, or utilitarian function. Such works are sometimes described as "complete in itself", a concept that has been expanded to embrace "inner-directed" or "self-motivated" human beings. Art is meaningful as soon as it is an authentic and genuine expression of our selves in every dimension. Among your remarkable experiences, it's important to mention that you are member of Random Order, a collective of four artists whose projects seek to understand how sound affects the human perception of the spaces we interact with and its impact on our everyday lives. It's no doubt that interdisciplinary collaborations as the one that you have established with Mark Wagner for Measuring Time is today an ever growing force in Art and that some of the most exciting things happen when creative minds from different fields of practice meet and collaborate on a project... could you tell us something about this effective synergy? By the way, artist Peter Tabor once stated that "collaboration is working together with another to create something as a synthesis of several practices, that alone one could not": what's your point about this? Can you explain how your work demonstrates communication between several artists?

My aim is to collaborate through discipline, passion and commitment, by respecting everyones individuality and pushing boundaries of our known territory and knowledge. I especially enjoy to collaborate with individuals who are preoccupied with alternative concepts and ideas, because it allows me to learn and experiment along the creative process. The Random Order collective was formed as a result of a collaborative project that was presented at the Sound Portal; the result of a

collaboration between the BE OPEN, a foundation that supports innovation and creativity and University of the Arts. Designed by ARUP, the Portal forms part of BE OPENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research into sensory design and its potential impact on the environment. Each college had taken a

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different route to develop their work. Chelsea’s ‘Sound as Measure’ focuses on sound as an integral element of spatial design work. 'Sound, Place, Memory’ is the broad thematic taken by London College of Communication, led by the college’s research centre, CRiSAP

(Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice). Finally, 'Nomad Lab’, led by Central Saint Martins, uses the idea of working across different creative disciplines as the basis for artistic potential. Following months of experimentation, workshops, lectures

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and collaborative projects and performances we were exposed to various artistic practises and new creative methods with the aim to present a final project. This creative process of this project influenced my view on collaboration and the results you can achieve when you are open to experiment. This was also the initial drive behind my collaboration with Mark Wagner. We both work with alternative mediums but after dialogues and practise we discovered that there was a common ground in our creativity, or at least ways we could completement each other imaginatively. We experimented with digital technologies, spoken word, movement, sound art and music which was a new experience for both of us. What collaboration taught me over the last years is that you enter the narrative with no intentions and most of the times you end up having created something unexpected that challenges your known boundaries. Over these years you works have been exhibited in several occasions, both in London and in the United States: your work is strictly connected to the chance of establishing a direct involvement with the viewers, and in Architecture of the Brain you have tested the spectatorship's reactions in relation to the shapes and sound of the building. I this way you urge the viewers to evolve from a mere spectatorship to conscious participants on an intellectual level, so before leaving this conversation I would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of

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language is used in a particular context?

The issue of audience reception plays a major role in this project, as it takes the form of an interactive game in order to test the participants decisions within the given space and context. I am extremely fascinated in producing and testing those connections and I always think of the project from the spectators and participants view point. In this particular context instead of using descriptive text, I use codes, sound, symbols and words. The audience has the freedom to decide how to interprect and act on this information that is given to them by creating their own narrative in the space! What I enjoy more through this project is how the creation becomes democratic and they have equal rights by participating in it. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Christiana. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects. How do you see your work evolving?

The last year my artistic practise and interests have shifted focus to more technological and interactive projects. I aim to create projects that will foster interdisciplinarity interventions and audience engagement through the creation of digital platforms. I am currently working on a project on digital storytelling which aims to challenge physical boundaries, connect individuals and create dialogues with a wide participating audience such as artists, scientists, technologists, philosophers and other interdisciplinary professionals. I am also interested in creating a digital performance inspired by astronomy. An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator and Isabelle Scott, curator articulaction@post.com

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J oseph O'Neill Lives and works in New York City, USA

An artist's statement

y photographs give voice to the silent stories I find all around New York City ‒ most of them in plain sight. When the sun, the Hudson River, and the corner of a building all join in a dance of reflection, light, and shadow; when the last of the leaves blow ominously across an abandoned piece of playground equipment late at night ‒ these are the stories my photographs tell. There is a solitude that is known to most city-dwellers; a hollowness against the artificial light and the din of the city’s razzle-dazzle. It is that isolation that my camera seeks. This is a city full of diamonds. New Yorkers train themselves to tune out the everyday sensory overload;

barely seeing what's right in front of them. Looking at a collection of my work, I’ve seen people experience something extraordinary, beautiful, and even life-changing. It’s amazing how often they start discussing memories ‒ as they move from photo to photo, it’s as if they move through their own life as well. I prefer black and white to color, buildings and landscapes to portraits, large-scale to small. And I have exceptions to each of those preferences. I welcome you to enjoy this series of photographs, and to experience what I see through my lens ‒ the real, raw magic that is my city. Joseph O'Neill

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Joseph O'Neill An interview by Melissa C. Hilborn, curator and Josh Ryder, curator articulaction@post.com

Drawing inspiration from everyday life and urban landscape, photographer Joseph O'Neill's work accomplishes an insightful investigation about the notion of reality, to draw the viewers into a multilayered experience. In his recent Third Eye series that we'll be discussing in the following pages, he walks us into a compelling narration about the relationship between his own experience and a variety of universal issues that affect our unstable contemporary age. We are very pleased to introduce our readers to O'Neill's multifaceted artistic production. Hello Joseph and welcome to ARTiculAction: as a basically selftaught artist, we would like to ask if there are any experiences that have particularly influenced your evolution as an artist. In particular, how does your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to photography and to the aesthetic problem in general?

Art has always had an influence on my life. I was surrounded by it as a

child. My family was artistically creative, from music to painting. Living and growing up in New York City also exposed me to some of the best art and culture in the world. One particular experience still influences me: my mother went back to college when I was a teenager and took a class on Dadaism and the anti-art movement. I become so enamored with Man Ray’s photography, especially his “rayograph” photograms and the way he used shadow and light. I try to emulate his style and aesthetic. Also, the Dadaists believed that everything is art. I came of age in the late seventies/early eighties during the punk movement, so my art aesthetic is that no nonsense, in-your-face, “like it or don’t like it, I don’t care” attitude. I have incorporated the punk aesthetic with Dadaisms. Because I am self-taught, I’m able to experiment, and I’ve allowed myself the freedom to explore what I like through trial and error. Encapsulating both realism and insightful investigative feature, your photography reveals a consistent

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sense of unity. Before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://www.jotog.nyc/ in order to get a synoptic view of your multifaceted artistic production: when asking you to tell us something about your usual set up and process, we would like to ask you how do you usually select a theme to center a series on.

I let the photographs speak to me, not in the literal sense, of course. When I go through the editing process, I start to notice patterns and themes. Also, my environs dictate what kind of photographs I shoot. In the summer, I take a lot of nighttime photographs. In the winter, with the sun low in the sky, I take a lot of silhouettes. For this special edition of ARTiculAction we have selected Third Eye, a stimulating series that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. This project draws the viewers through the thin lines that while seems to divide the realm of imagination from reality, actually unveils an elusive connection between the apparently conflictual notions of perception and imagination. While walking our readers through the genesis of Third Eye we would take this occasion to ask you what role does personal experience plays in your process: do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience and draws only

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from imagination? In a certain sense we daresay that your work goes beyond such artificial dichotomy: do you agree with this analysis?

The best art always comes from some emotional experience or response to that experience. But because the nature of my photography is spontaneous, seeing something that catches my eye and then photographing it, there is usually no immediate emotional connection. It isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t until after the photograph is taken that I will experience an emotion or notice a connection. Of course my life experience does shape my art and my drive to be creative. It shapes everything about me, good and bad. Combine elements from universal imagery with a careful attention to the juxtaposition between the background and the main subject, Third Eye condenses a symbiosis between intuition and freedom of composition. Your approach reveals unconventional features in the way it deconstructs perceptual images in order to assemble them in a collective imagery, urging the viewers to a process of selfreflection. Would you shed light on your process? In particular, do your works tend to come out of imagination rather than out of your own life?

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My work derives from my muse: New York City. Photography, more than any other modern art form, is not based on oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interpretation of the subject matter but based in reality and personal perspective. Third Eye could be also considered as a careful distillation of human experience: your insightful inquiry into the way we deal with our dark side accomplishes the difficult task of revealing a kind reality that is masked under another kind of reality, probing to see what is beneath the surface. Maybe one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of the world we inhabit and especially the relationship we establish with outside reality... what's your view about this?

The role of the artist is like a mirror on the human condition, to point out our frailties, our humanity, or our inhumanity. It can be the perception of our own personal faults, and it can be a response to how we are perceived by others or want to be perceived. Usually we use art as an expression of our emotional state of mind. Another interesting project from your recent production that has particularly impressed us and on which we would like to spend some words is your Crossing series. Your unconventional way of capturing

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Joseph O'Neill

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images not only snatches the atmosphere but also extracts the elusive substance of the subjects you center your attention on. When inviting the viewers to re-interpret the traditional ideas of natural beauty, you seem to challenge our perceptual categories: while inviting the viewer to elaborate personal interpretations, you do not reject a gaze on aesthetics: the dream-like quality of suspended time creates a lively combination between conceptual and beauty. How important is the aesthetic problem for you when you conceive a work?

Because light or the lack of light is the most crucial aspect of my photography, it sets the aesthetic, mood, and tone of my photographs. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m always looking to see how light is reacting on my subject matters, whether artificial or natural. Among your main influences, the work of photographer Eugene Atget plays a crucial role: how would you consider the relationship between his influence and the way you have developed your personal style?

Eugene Atgetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s style of photography was as a documentarian, the recording of daily life. His style was very influential early on in my photographic career. My photographs were of street scenes with no people in them, much like his. The other influence has been Man Ray and his high art style. I now

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try to encapsulate both styles in my photographs. We definitely love the way you force the viewers' perceptual parameters to an action of fulfillment in Remembering Session A, creating a compelling non linear narrative that establishes direct relations with the viewers. German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about it? And in particular what is the role of memory when conceiving the narrative that pervades your series?

Yes, I agree with that statement. It adds more depth to art; it’s reaching for a higher level of consciousness. My philosophy on my art is to make the audience see their world differently, to look beyond their preconceived notions of what art is and see what I see. As humans, we rely on memory to remind ourselves of what we understand and recognize or perhaps what we’ve forgotten. When I turn that notion upside down, for good or bad, my hope is to trigger some kind of response. If I happen to create an emotional reaction, I’ve done my job as an artist.

Over these recent years you had the chance to exhibit your s eries in several occasions. One of the hallmarks of your work is the capability to urge viewers to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decisionmaking process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?

When in the process of producing my art, I do not take my audience into consideration. It’s all about me. When I exhibit my art, then I care about their reaction. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Joseph. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

I am currently working on two projects. The first is a travelogue of experiences and incidents that have occurred to friends while living or visiting New York City. The second is reinterpretations of classic artwork in photographic form with my aesthetic. I see my work evolving toward the abstract.

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J orge Mansilla Lives and works in Darlinghurst, Australia

An artist's statement

y most recent work is a series called "Wake up and smell the plastic": 10 sculptures made from recycled plastic that represent people's emotional baggage and psychological garbage, manifested in the products they consume. The figures embody key themes of the relations of power, the idolization of the new, the overload of media in a society seemingly so out of touch with the natural world, with any higher principles or cosmic meaning. Lost in an ocean of the new and the now. A world drowning in disposable emptiness. The objects have to be made of discarded plastic to confront this looming and ignored issue. This plastic is then manifest as shaped human-like figures transforming to monsters, materialising their own created clutter.

Another key theme is the homogenisation and convergence of world trends through this globally manufactured output, parallel to our emerging status as complex yet homogenising internet mutants, all this against a backdrop of potential socioeconomic collapse. A grim premise for works that ultimately try to rekindle the playful and imaginative from amongst this evolving mess.

Jorge Mansilla

"Emperor" from the series Wake up and smell the plastic 2015 Manipulated plastic

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Jorge Mansilla An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator articulaction@post.com

Mexican artist Jorge Mansilla's explores the manifold nature of homogenisation and convergence of world trends in our unstable and ever changing era: his approach rejects any conventional classification: in his recent Wake up and smell the plastic series that we'll be discussing in the following pages, he explores the key themes of the relations of power, urging the viewers to draw them into a multilayered experience. One of the most convincing aspect of Mansilla's practice is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of investigating about the idolization of the new, the overload of media in a society seemingly so out of touch with the natural world: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to his multifaceted artistic production. Hello Jorge and welcome to ARTiculAction: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and after having earned your Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Universidad de Monterrey, you nurtured your education attending the University of Technology in Sydney, from which you received your Masters in Media, Arts and Production. How did these experiences influence your evolution as an artist? And in particular, how does your multicultural substratum

due to the countries you have lived in inform the way you relate yourself to the aesthetic problem?

Thank you so much for having me. Yes, I do have a couple of post graduate diplomas as well, still all of these accreditations fall short when we speak about influences to my work or particular style. I truly believe these are just papers for my parents to be proud of. Reality, culture and human experiences have forged my work so much more than my ability to finish a degree. I think in my case Death and Travel have been the most influential. Living abroad detached me from my idea of home, liberating me from any nationalistic idea of belonging, also personal and multiple encounters with death shaped me at living comfortably in an existential crisis hahaha. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s true. Your approach coherently encapsulates several viewpoints and reveals an incessant search of an organic investigation about the notion of duality that affects our unstable contemporary age, and the results convey together a coherent and consistent sense of harmony and unity. Before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://www.jorgemansilla.net in order to get a synoptic view of your multifaceted artistic production: while walking our readers through your process and set up, we would like to ask you how did you

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developed your style and how do you conceive your works.

When it comes to duality, I will have to explain it with my upbringing. I grew up in the 80’s and geographically in north east Mexico, we don’t have Aztec or Mayan pyramids, we have cumbia music and visas to the USA. It’s a life in between the two countries, it’s a mixed bag but it’s definitely interesting. This kind of hybrid culture allowed me to be exposed to ancient and young culture at the same time. I was a teenager in the 90s and if something marked the decade it was its eclectic aesthetics and its experimental spirit. Back then (and still now), I find so much inspiration in music, for me they are the ultimate wizards, the true controllers of sensorial matters. When it comes to the conceiving of my work it is always changing; in the past I found painting was my only medium of expression and I was very influenced by the Dada and Surrealism movement back then. I will never forget the time I went to the contemporary art museum as a teenager in my city and saw an exhibition of the surrealist Remedios Varo, that changed my life, in that moment I knew I wanted to become an artist. Now as a migrant that has lived in different countries, you have to take into consideration that having a studio is not granted and you have to think of ways to execute art within the time, space and resources available. Nowadays I do have a studio and it represents a huge difference. For this special edition of ARTiculAction we have selected Wake up and smell the plastic, an extremely interesting series

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"Sex" from the series Wake up and smell the plastic, 2015 Manipulated plastic

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"Mickey Mouse is Dead" from the series Wake up and smell the plastic, 2015 Manipulated plastic

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that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once caught our attention is the way your successful attempt to represent people's emotional baggage and psychological garbage, manifested in the products they consume accomplishes the difficult task of unveiling the manifold nature of human perceptual categories and to draw the viewers into a multilayered experience. So when asking you to walk our readers through the genesis of this stimulating body of works we would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

Absolutely not, and I think I already began answering your question before with the moving countries factor. I reckon we are interested in the things and processes that resemble our personalities or perhaps contradict them, but it is always something that is intrinsically related to ourselves. Just how scientists lean into specific areas I believe artists start to develop techniques and procedures that reflect who they are or which stage of their life they are in. At the end all art is a reflection on humanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life. In the case of Wake Up and smell the plastic, I was working in collage on paper and mixed media results but always left feeling like the work could have been so much more, until I realised that the element of adding an extra dimension and plastic would definitely convey the message more strongly. I realised that it was not only the saturation of media that was worrying me but also the mass

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production of cheap plastic products that end up in landfill; I wanted to fabricate objects that were made of this or at least communicate it and so I started collecting and picking up garbage. I started going to the markets far in the suburbs of Sydney where a lot of the mass produced stuff of childhood consumption, was discarded, these places are always so inspiring because they are so multicultural, one of this markets have even a post apocalypse aesthetic, it’s amazing. When incorporating elements belonging to universal imagery, your works establish a channel of communication between the subconscious sphere and the conscious one, to capture nonsharpness with a universal kind of language and creating direct relations with the spectatorship: what is the role of memory in your process? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.

I don’t particularly approach memory as a subject, I do tend to revise the subconscious or more so our psychological structures and what are they made of, e.g. recent studies reveal that trauma is something we can inherit! but coming back to my work and now that I have several years producing art I am able to depict a conducting thread, links in between series of works, In the series “Before the Collapse“ I compile a lot of free paper and started to experiment with processes related to the mass media production, Printers for example will shred all of their waste, big corporations will shred all of their sensitive materials, so I knew that there

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"Idol" from the series Wake up and smell the plastic, 2015 Manipulated plastic

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"The Smell of Executive Socks" from the series Before the Collapse, 2012 Collage on paper

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was something about these processes that had to be implemented in the works but I also wanted the viewer to be able to read images but presented in an overloaded manner, like interspersed, and so I started threading and weaving shredded images. The results then became part of the bodies of the people represented in the series â&#x20AC;&#x153;Personsâ&#x20AC;? because we are built from these socioeconomic structures, this saturation. Another interesting project of yours that has particularly impressed us and on which we would like to spend some words is entitled Persons and we have highly appreciated the way it condenses combines the immediate action of drawing with intricate paper patterns. In a certain sense, information & ideas could be considered "encrypted" in the environment we inhabit, so we need to decipher those patterns. When addressing us to process the things we are sometimes able to catch you seem to suggest that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature: what's your point about this?

Yes that series of works was inspired by a lot of overhearing people, on public transport, in restaurants, in pubs, I will take these comments and sentences and then represent what these people will look like on the inside. They were produced before the plastic sculptures, I thoroughly enjoyed making them because I could witness that, even though there was still a bi-dimensional result, by making them I was unveiling the instructions for the next series, I was going to start bringing those characters into a tridimensional form. These are the inner adventures artists go through when

Postal Art produced in collaboration with Paloma Ayala

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"Overtaking" from the series Before the Collapse, 2012 Collage on paper

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creating, I think artists, philosophers and performers are a type of existentialist athlete, haha think of it -we are always somehow conscious that we are floating aimlessly in space, every day, every hour. In that sense it’s almost like part of the job description, to go where not many, or even no one, has gone when it comes to existentialism. Your works provides the spectatorship with an immersive experience: how do you see the relationship between public sphere and the role of art in public space? In particular, how much do you consider the immersive nature of the viewing experience?

Immersive is a word that has been used in every single creative event in the last decade (at least in Sydney), I thought it only applied to virtual reality, but now it’s everywhere, I think when it comes to art it is quite fragile or difficult to be able to immerse a person into an artwork, if the music is not right, or the light, or it’s too quiet, or there is too many people, then the communication is deprived from happening. That said I do intend to provide this experience, for the sculptures I produced videos for each single sculpture and I was lucky enough to get Katapulto’s tracks to go with most of them, I think the audience in our cyber times has become everything, not only for food or products, the public will either make you or break you, even with art, so there is that pressure in the back of our heads to produce content that can fully strike you in 2 seconds. In regards to Public space as in outdoor art, it is my ultimate battleground, in my wild dreams I create big, recycled, kinetic sculptures in public spaces and they get built with the help of the community around it, and then again perhaps this is too romantic for the 21st Century. Your investigation about the consequence of the overload of media in our unstable and

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ever changing society seems to suggest a subtle still effective socio-political criticism. While lots of artists from the contemporary scene, as Ai WeiWei or more recently Jennifer Linton, use to convey open socio-political criticism in their works, you seem more interested to hint the direction, inviting the viewers to a process of self-reflection that may lead to subvert a variety of usual, almost stereotyped cultural categories. Do you consider that your works could be considered political in a certain sense or did you seek to maintain a more neutral approach? And in particular, what could be in your opinion the role that an artist could play in the contemporary society?

I have always believed that artists more than just register their times within the art forms; they should use these as a hammer and chisel to shape their society, at the very least use it as a mirror for humans to look at themselves and ponder about their current situation. In my case being a homosexual migrant from the Latin American third world encases me in several minorities or groups that even if I did not want to be political, my very own existence draws me into that political scenario. I am grateful for what I have been given but I do know that there are a lot of people like myself who are not as fortunate. At the same time being political is not my main focus, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to impose my views on anyone, and I want to discuss them. I admire artists like Jake and Dinos Chapman and many others who use humour as a mechanism to speak about uncomfortable or difficult topics; I think the element of making the audience feel amused and relax allows you to communicate so much more. My work can be considered political because I

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Still frame from The Genderator by Purple Moustacho, 2015 video art

"Strangers 2" from the series Persons, 2014 Mixed media on paper

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profoundly care about this planet and its people; I thought this century was going to be one of enlightenment but is it? Besides producing the stimulating works that we have been discussing in these pages you are also an experienced Art Director and we believe that interdisciplinary collaboration as the one that you have established with Sissy Reyes for your PURPLE MOUSTACHO project are today an ever growing force in Art and that some of the most exciting things happen when creative minds from different fields of practice meet and collaborate on a project... could you tell us something about this effective synergy? By the way, the artist Peter Tabor once stated that "collaboration is working together with another to create something as a synthesis of several practices, that alone one could not": what's your point about this? Can you explain how your work demonstrates communication between several artists?

I absolutely love collaborations, you are right they are the way of the future. I send incomplete works to my friend in Switzerland Paloma Ayala, she sends me some too for me to complete, the results are always very satisfying and exciting, we never know what they are going to end up looking like. In particular with Sissy it has been amazing, we are both from Mexico (very different parts though!) so we share that understanding of the world. Sissy being a director of photography and me being an art director means that we are constantly complementing each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ideas, we agree on a lot of political views and dreams of the future, we basically team together to produce humorous gender

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"We look the way we feel" from the series Persons, 2014 Mixed media on paper

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"Harmless" from the series Persons, 2014 Mixed media on paper

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equality content, we believe that in achieving this we will turn the key for so many obstacles in life among humans. We work so well together because we are also perfectionists (haha) which helps extensively with the expectation of the end result. More importantly we respect and enjoy each other very much, you have to be attracted to the other personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brain and sense of humour, we are only humans, haha. Over these years your works have been internationally showcased in several occasions, including your recent show "Gestos" at The Spit Gallery, Melbourne One of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create a direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?

I always try not to take my work into a purely abstract representation (itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very tempting!) because I want to be understood, I want to start a conversation, I want to get my message across, I want to be able to send work to Mongolia and be certain that a human over there will get something out of it. In that sense I think of work that can successfully express my concerns or conceptions of reality while providing an exciting even entertaining technique and visual style, like Elvis said: You are always on my mind.

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"You were more fun on Facebook" from the series Persons, 2014 Mixed media on paper

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

Well, I have always been interested in OP art and Kinetic art, I have already started investigating and experimenting with how to adapt more of these influences into my work, the plastic sculptures have been selected in a couple of shows in the USA later this year and I am in the process of releasing a new series called “Exist Tense”. Purple Moustacho had a great 2015 with the tour of our work “The Genderator” and we are already planning great things and an exciting strategy for this year. I am also a big fashion enthusiast, not so much of big brands or what is in the magazines but more of the mutant things that people get away with on a daily basis, (today I was wearing a Louis XV figurine as a necklace haha) so I am in the process of launching an accessories brand as another collaborative project, I am working with an industrial designer friend of mine, but at this stage that is all I can share, so watch this space.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator articulaction@post.com

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Dalia Smayze

F ariba Rahnavard Lives and works in Dallas, USA

An artist's statement

hen I was four years old, I had a near death experience while having an open heart surgery. My heart stopped beating, my body temperature went low, a heart-lung machine kept me alive. Coming back from that threshold, I knew that opposites are bound together and that I encompass both. It left me fascinated with edges and yearning for meaning. My works are born from that same simultaneous sense of vertigo and stability. They deal with a dichotomous - the realization that one reality can reflect many and there is no one definition. The truth is endlessly evolving and expanding. I try and reconcile conflicts and contradictions such as beauty that encompasses crudeness, weakness as a source of strength and disillusionment that feeds innocence. The early works (“Red Heart”, 2007-09) are naïve drawings of bodies and situations, subtle yet disturbing. Minimalist figures floating in white space. With time, layers appear

(“Illusions & Reality”, 2010-13). Through intricate drawings and installations I struggle to weave together the past, present and future. Recently I’m fascinated with transformation (“Release”, 2014-15). The Sisyphean process evolved to a new set of rules, which dictates different materials, gestures and speed. The new paintings are large and expressive, made in one continuous session, like an intense ritual. I see my studio as a cross between a womb and a lab. My practice is a tool for understanding myself as well as the world of phenomena around me. My goal is to generate a change that shapes perspectives and actions, thus enabling for something new to occur - symbolically, conceptually and tangibly. I have a distinct feeling that there is something beyond me, a life force, which I can’t put into words but I can channel into art.

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Fariba Rahnavard An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator articulaction@post.com

Fariba Rahnavard's work reveals a complelling fusion between visual harmony and unconventional storytelling: in her Antigravity series, that we'll be discussing in the following pages, the viewers are invited to explore the liminal area in which texture and language merge together into a coherent harmony, providing the spectatorship of a multilayered experience. Rahnavard's approach rejects any conventional classification and crosses the elusive boundary that defines the area of perception from the realms of imagination and experience: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her multifaceted artistic production. Hello Fariba and welcome to ARTiculAction: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? In particular, how do your studies painting in Art & Architecture at the Azad University influence your

evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum dued to your Iranian roots inform the way you relate yourself to art making and to the aesthetic problem in general?

I started painting in Real-style since I was 17. My approach in painting totally changed, when I enrolled in Art Faculty of Islamic Azad University. My masters had a great influence on me and I was, gradually, interested in Modernstyle, as I found it more compatible with my spirits. Unfortunately, painting has not been considered substantial in Iranian's culture. So, I cannot tell you that my Iranian's root plays an important role in my attraction to painting. For this special issue of ARTiculAction we have selected Antigravity series, a stimulating project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: when walking our readers through the genesis of theAntigravity series, would you

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shed a light about the way you combine together the materials you choose for your works?

In my opinion, modern man has lost himself in the middle of nowhere; he doesn't know who he is. Hence, I wanted to elaborate this by sharp contrast in my compositions, while I'm creating psychological space in my work. In addition, I show depth in my work with highlighting main elements

and separating them from background. Among your interests, it's important to remark your studies in the fields of psychology and sociology issues in the modern society. The influence and necessity of arts and artists in our culture ebb and flow. Critical times, such as ours now, demand the gifts of artists, and in particular the capability to express what needs to be said and

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to hold fast to values often absent in the contemporary reality. Like many art disciplines, collage can borrow elements to create new art: are in your opinion any limits to what can or should be used to create collages? In particular are there any constraints or rules that you follow when conceiving and creating your works?

I strongly believe that we should find the origins of vanities within modern era in past. Unfortunately,

the economics of our society has been firmed for several years. And we are told to accept it, but it's not true. For this reason, studying in history of sociology was important for me, especially in modernism. When I studied the history of modernism and the way it processed, I found that its legacy in economics has challenged the way we are living, extremely. In the case of limits, I should say that I feel no limitations. Because when

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I'm working, I don't see final production. I always save main concept as an idea in my mind. It evolves in my mind and even might experience some changes. So, there is no specific rule for me which I want to follow it. By the way, how do you see the relationship between public sphere and the role of art in public space? In particular, how much do you consider the immersive nature of the viewing experience?

I'm not fan of Pragmatism, but I respect it much. I believe that humans grow on others experiences. Viewing other artist's work is precious because it leads you to better understanding; Perceiving what is the main stream of art and its power. The sense of competition is something that I get in viewing other work and experiencing different spaces.

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While exhibiting a captivating vibrancy, your paintings seem to reject an explicit explanatory strategy: rather, you seem to offer to the viewer a key to find personal interpretations to the feelings that you convey into your collages... this quality marks out a considerable part of your production, that is in a certain sense representative of the conflictual relationship between content and form: how much does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones

you decide to use in a piece and in particular, how do you develop a paintingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s texture? Moreover, any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

I'm not telling that my audiences cannot have personal interpretation of my collages, but I have to mention that I had just one mainstream in my work; I heard just one voice in my mind. Because of this, you told me that I follow

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explicit explanatory strategy. The dichotomy of content and form, you mentioned, is right somehow. I wanted to elaborate my hidden sensations; therefore, I couldn't indicate to first meaning of any form directly. I wanted to embody the last meaning of form, which can be seen on dictionary for example, when I juxtapose objects to create an adequate composition of form and space. The

development of texture doesn't follow any structure. I develop textures until to give me the best interpretation of my idea. This includes all my techniques, especially dyeing in my pallet. Your works are always pervaded with an effective narrative and the stories you represent are surrounded by visual beauties. Playing with the evokative power

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of a wide variety of elements, your collages could be considered as tactile biographies that accomplish the difficult task of capturing nonsharpness with an universal language, capable of establishing direct relations with the viewers: language is our dominant mode of communication. How much important is narrative for your works and how do you develope it?

opinion about it? What is the role of symbols in your work?

I agree with that my ideas have been formed from a story. The stories that happened in my life and some of them are still going on. Everyone might have experienced these stories, too, or even had dream of them. When I'm talking about my ideas; I'm telling about the Brevity and prolixity of those stories would happen in life of modern human.

Your collages capture nonsharpness with an universal kind of language, capable of bringing to a new level of significance the elusive but ubiquitous relationship between experience and memory, to create direct relations with the spectatorship: What is the role of memory in your process? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.

We definitely love the way you question the abstract feature of images, unveiling the visual feature of information you developed through an effective non linear narrative, establishing direct relations with the viewers: German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your

I've already told that symbols have main roles in expressing my ideas. But, I'm not looking for instant meaning of symbols. Because, I believe that the first interpretation of symbols might be different across nations.

When I studied the structure of mind, I found that saving a memory is something more than physical record of five senses. The dimension of implication has been formed in our mind, while we are experiencing an event. The physical factors of senses will fade gradually, and that implication will just have remained. This is what we call it "memory". This memory or implication of any events is

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different for everyone, even if the event is the same. Therefore, I was looking for that common collective memory that could give the same meaning for everyone; the one would pass nationality and cultural boundaries throughout the world. A memory, after passing any filters of any minds, would transform into an international memory. Over these years your works have been showcased in several occasion, including your recent sho at the Montgomery College, USA. One of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create a direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?

In my opinion, desires of a person who lives in 21st century, the information revolution has changed her life, are very different from one who lived lately 20th century. I created a conceptual dialogue in

my work in which I can replace my position with my audiences. I want to hear their storytelling via such exchange this time. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Fariba. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

Technology has changed human life entirely in recent decades, but not the way we look at life. I think this transformation is the obligation of art. An artist can transform the way we look at our lives. I'm looking for transformation that keeps looking towards inside of human. Years ahead will be difficult definitely for me. I have my own goal. But like my approach in painting, I don't know what exactly I will achieve. Thus, I have my main idea in mind and it guides me. Many students of art have their idols, and they want to be like one of them. This fantasy almost would finish at the end of education. This is what I don't want to happen for me. I want to be Fariba Rahnavard.

http://faribarahnavard.site.pro/

D avid Delgado "Nothing interests me as much as Grace. I truly believe Grace is the essence of all of the Arts. I love the delicacy and in the same time I feel attracted by the trash culture. I have realized there are opposed facts in my work: There is something of dementia and in the same time is completely balanced. Is both subtle and intense. Irrational and contemplative. But I am not seeking for it. It comes spontaneously. My only quest is to do a full, complete work. From honesty and innocence"

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David Delgado An interview by Josh Rider, curator and Barbara Scott, curator articulaction@post.com

Artist David Delgado's work accomplishes an insightful investigation into the liminal area in which Irrational and contemplative find an unexpected point of convergence, to provide the viewers with a multilayered experience. Juxtaposing elements from universal imagery to free as well as rigorous abstract patterns, he urges the spectatorship to elaborate personal associations. One of the most captivating aspects of Delgado's approach is the way it incorporates both evokative elements and and rigorous patterns to trigger memory and imagination, to reach what he defines "the absolute grace": we are very pleased to introduce our readers to his multifaceted artistic production. Hello David and welcome to ARTiculAction: to start this interview would you tell us something about your background? What among your experiences have mostly

influenced your evolution as an artist? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to art making and to the aesthetic problem in general?

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Your approach condenses a combination between painting and video that you mix into a coherent balance: the results convey together a consistent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification. We would suggest to our readers to visit https://vimeo.com/delgadodavid in order to get a synoptic view of your work: in the meanwhile, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum inform the way relate yourself to art making and to the aesthetic problem in general?

In the case of videocreation I don't pay much attention to the process. On the contrary, when I paint, the process is important as much as the pleasure I find just by the fact of painting. Also, there are some of my work, the series called "organic growing" which the process defines itself the final result of the pieces. Is a process related to meditation. you can see it at my domain: delgadodavid.com Nevertheless, when I do digital art, the process is not especially pleasant, nor boring, is just work, which I take with care and dedication to achieve the results I

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am seeking for. This is creating Images that addresses straight to the emotions. But I think, in the end, what I do is completely classic. I don't pretend to transgress any thought or vision, I just want to move emotions. To make the viewer watch inside of him or herself. We would start to focus on your artistic production beginning from cheerful mystery, a stimulating work that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of these pieces is the way the insightful juxtaposition between intense tones provide the canvasses with a dynamic and autonomous aesthetic, to communicate an attempt to transform tension to harmony, and it's really captivating. While walking our readers through the genesis of cheerful mystery, would you shed light on your main source of inspiration?

I wanted to create a work completely devoid of any single cultural attire. The most decontaminated as possible. And also, even knowing that this is completely impossible, the most unstuck of my human condition as possible. Away of myself. Without

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any residue or mannerism. The most absolute as possible. Now I realise that in this piece, as in most of my work, it may be a reminiscence of my monotheistic education. I need to accept this fact. In the end, the idiosyncrasy of any artist is a conjoint of his or her background, conditionings and weaknesses. And of course, the willing to overcome all those things in order to achieve the highest level of creation. The dialogue established by colors and texture is a crucial part of your style: in particular, the effective combination between intense nuances of tones sums up the mixture of thoughts and emotions. How much does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones you decide to use in a piece and in particular, how do you develop a paintingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s texture? Moreover, any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

I am not sure if I have a defined palette. For sure it depends on my state of mind. But I must recognize that I tend to choose vivid colours. And it has been a constant in my trajectory. Maybe because I always wanted to create powerfully gra-

phic pieces, maybe because I always wanted to highlight and express the more optimistic side of myself.

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But especially when I do works mented to be seen on a screen, because in this case the colour is going to be light irradiated from

the screen. So I tend to use consciously primary colours. While exhibiting a captivating vibrancy, your works sometimes

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seem to reject an explicit explanatory strategy: rather, you seem to invite the viewer to find personal interpretations to the feelings that you convey into your

paintings... this quality marks out a considerable part of your production, that are in a certain sense representative of the relationship between emotion and

David Delgado

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I try to board my work as less consciously as possible. It must be a direct relationship between my thoughts, my memories, my prejudices and my feelings with the final result of my work. But I don't pay too much attention on how is it done. I just try to let my emotions lead the way my work is going to be conformed. I like to believe my work can move something in the viewer. This is what I really want. Although I know I don't have any control on how it can happen. I just accept it and keep hoping it happens. But in the end, this is part of the joy of the Art; to let go. Everything, the process of creating a piece of art, and then to leave it to talk by itself, and to see what happens and how people interact with it.

memory. What is the role of memory in your process? And in particular, do you try to achieve a faithful visual translation of your feelings?

Your are rich of both abstract patterns and evokative elements. When playing with the power of reminders to universal imagery your approach establishes direct relations with the viewers that goes beyond any conventional symbolism: German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological,

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narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about it? And in particular how do you conceive the visual unity of your works?

This statement from Demand fits quite well in my way of producing art. On the other hand, I understand that there are many other ways of creating Art. And I like it. I, personally, love crafts, decorative arts, I like bad quality paintings and trash culture. It doesn't mean I want to do that. I just see this world as a plural and multifaceted thing. Full of possibilities. And I love it this way. I aspire to create a very universal work, but I think is allright that there are artists who you only understand if you have read the same books that he or she read, or if you have lived in the same part of the world, or same time that he or she lived. I like there exists all the possibilities and all the possible ways. Let's imagine, for example, a local poet, with a local language, who only understand some close local people. This little amount of people can be lucky to enjoy his poems. Why not? I think this is all right. I tend to not trust too much statements.

I hope there is not much unity in my work. Of course, if you only see my Vimeo account, my production

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is very homogeneous. But when watching my pictorial work you can see that there is not such a

visual unity. To be honest, maybe more than I would like to. Anyway, I have to highlight that on my site

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is possible to see only a little selection of my entiere production.

Which comprises also figurative works, experiments and failures.

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careful attention to the equilibrium concerning the composition: the multilayered experience to whom you invite the viewers gives a sense of permanence to the intrinsic ephemeral nature of the feeling you convey on your canvas. What is the role of personal experience in your creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

We have appreciated the way your paintings convey an emotional vision, wisely balanced with a

Absolutely not. But actually I would like it. I like to believe that, in the end, nobody knows anything about Art. Yes, there are tons of texts and there are many specialists in many different fields with the knowledge of Art and history of Art. But all this knowledge is just a massive collection of events, opinions and thoughts from more or less important people involved in the Art world. But how to face a piece of art which is never seen before and which we don't know anything about the author and his/her life and statement? I really believe that in matters of Art, all of us are groping in the dark, trying to catch any little clue to really understand what is going on, and trying, in a certain way, to be able to rate it.

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I am completely conscious that I have not any control of whatever I produce. In the end, I don't know well what I am doing and I don't know if the viewers know what do they are seeing. But it doesn't matter at all. In a certain way it must be a sort of magic that makes communication and empathy to come along. A sort of magic or at least the willing for this magic. 9) One of the hallmarks of your work is the capability to create an emotional and psychological involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decisionmaking process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?

Yes and not. I always expected participation from the viewer. That's true. But on the other hand, I want to target the guts of the spectators. Nothing else. I have the feeling that in my work

the language is not a medium, but the end itself. And this language tries to be as universal as possible. Is like, for instance, a person who loves Opera, but don't pay attention to the libretto or the interpretations, nor even the musical compositions. Just loving the opera because of the beauty of the voices of the singers. Nothing else. Just the vibration of their voices. My question is: Is that enough?? According to the sentence of Demand mentioned before, I believe it is. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, David. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

In this moment I am willing to work in projects which requires an important production process. With some conceptual foundaments. And this provokes me a certain fear because I don't want to lose any bit of this spontaneity and playful innocence that I like so much, and that makes me so happy when I am producing my work. In this time I am feeling quite divided. So, I don't really know what is going to come over.