Peripheral ARTeries Art Review - Special Edition

Biennial Edition

CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Special Edition Installation • Painting • Mixed media • Drawing • Performance • Public Art • Drawing • Video art • Fine Art Photography

JOSÉ F BOLET SIVAN KAUFMAN YAEL DOR PERETZ MICHAEL J. SCOT AMINA SAHAN CHRISTINA TZANI SHAI JOSSEF MÓNICA LEITÃO MOTA GILI TZIDON

Unbroken Arbor Vitae, site specific installation, 2015 A work by Anne Greenwood

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Be that as it may, this catalog or any portion there of may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without express written permission from Peripheral ARTeries and featured artists.

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Contents 74

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Lives and works in Hod Hasharon, Israel

Francine LeClerque I Am Your Labyrinth, Installation

Lives and works in Rosh Haayin, Israel

Lives and works in London, Ontario, Canada

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Lives and works in Igoumenitsa, Greece

Hila Lazovski

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Lives and works in Oslo, Norway

Lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Aby Mackie

Lives and works in Kibbutz Shefayim, Israel

photo by Daniela Leal

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Monique Rutten Wall based mixed media and paintings Opening ChinART Museumkwartier http://www.morutten.com

Lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel

Lives and works in the Chicago Land Area, USA

Special thanks to: Isabel Becker, Julia Ăœberreiter, Deborah Esses, Xavier Blondeau, Margaret Noble, Nathalie Borowski, Marco Visch, Xavier Blondeau, J.D. Doria, Matthias Callay, Luiza Zimerman, Kristina Sereikaite, Scott D'Arcy, Kalli Kalde, Carla Forte, Mathieu Goussin, Dorothee Zombronner, Olga Karyakina, Robert Hamilton, Carrie Alter, Jessica Bingham, Fabian Freese, Elodie Abergel, Ellen van der Schaaf, Courtney Henderson, Ben Hollis, Riley Arthur, Ido Friedman, Nicole Ennemoser, Scott Vogel, Tal Regev, Sarah Hill, Olivia Punnet and Simon Raab

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Gili Tzidon Lives and works in Hod Hasharon, Israel

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Gili Tzidon Lives and works in Hod Hasharon, Israel Adressing the viewers to a multilayered visual experience, photographer Gili Tzidon's work provides her spectatorship with an intense, immersive experience. In her A Still Small Voice series that we'll be discussing in the following pages, she successfully attempts to trigger the spectatorship's perceptual parameters. One of the most impressive aspects of Tzidon's work is the way it accomplishes the difficult task conveying a captivating sense of the absurd, capable of revealing theatrical moments that quietly rebel against the society of spectacle: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator

artists, active in Israel and abroad. Such experiences enriched my perception of art's role in our cultural life. My studies exposed me to a wide range of approaches, concept development, choosing locations etc. They guided by my lecturers’ help, I've gained access to remarkable works by many leading philosophers, thus enhancing my knowledge and influencing my present and future work.

Such influence on a cultural data base on my work, style and the process itself, is enormous, but I assume it applies to any artist. I prefer accepting distinct cultural influences, - rather than rejecting them; both as an Israeli and as a person living in a westernized country.

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Gili and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions regarding your background. You have a solid formal training and you recently graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design: how does this experience influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? And in particular, how does your cultural background addresses you as a creative?

Shalom to Peripheral ARTeries Magazine, please allow me to thank you for hosting me and for giving me the opportunity to present my work to your audience. After having graduating from the Bezalel Academy, I became aware to what extent my studies contributed to my work’s development.

Besides the technical and academic materials, I was exposed to lectures given by renown

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Your works convey a coherent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit https://www.gilitzidon.com 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

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up? How about your choice of lens? In particular, how much importance does play spontaneity in your process? Do you conceive you works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your photographs?

The initial preference to a certain topic is driven by emotion, by the peculiarity of my subjects, by some faulty phenomenon, disturbing me or anything that touches my soul. Sometimes it is vague and unclear, so I start photographing in a process similar to verbalization, creating a kind of visual commentary on the topic.

Once I catch something by the lens, something that appeals to the initial strong emotion, then work really begins: that’s when I start looking for parallel representations trying to influence spectator's interpretations.

Sometimes I choose specific days or hours to shoot, and often I wander about looking for that spark that’s still hidden in my inner thoughts.

Frequently I find myself returning to a certain location at different times, shooting again, until I feel that the frame has lost all the kitschy elements and what’s left is just the theatric absurd I was seeking.

How do you select your themes? In particular, do you think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist?

There could be some issue bothering me, or rousing my curiosity, and I start investigating, rolling the issue about, this way and that, developing it. The wish to convey a message via photography requires a ton of work, choices, and real-time changes. On the other hand, sometimes in an instant, from the corner of my eye, I catch a glimmer, a location of interest, and then I begin my exploration. The idea's origin is the location per se, not the content. The place, the location coerces me into the subject it inherently contains.

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As an artist, I claim that work topics often interlink, and usually contain a visual language that I employ. By directing the images, by making small changes, I get to produce this world of the absurd. In some of my works, I also insert myself as a figure in my strange street theater.

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected A Still Small Voice, an interesting series that our readers have already started to got to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your artistic inquiry into the "Everyday Life" theory elaborated by Michel de Certeau is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of A Still Small Voice would you tell us your sources of inspiration? And how did you select your subjects?

While I was a student at Bezalel, I worked as a media content manager for several companies.

That quite exposed me to the world of social networks, from the angle of advertisers trying to create a pseudo-reality to match promotional goals, to the angle of content that private individuals advertise. Actually, a culture develops in social networks based on “no photo, no existence.” What does that mean? It means that people no longer experience events in the present, only in the past. If you haven’t got a selfie next to the Statue of Liberty, then you probably weren’t there. What you tell us in words is not enough anymore.

Later, I was exposed to the theory presented by Guy Debord about “The Society of the Spectacle”, on how our lives are represented.

According to G.Deborg the way we want to be seen is a stronger drive than how we want to live.

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Michel de Certeau, in his theories on The Practice of Everyday Life, claimed that we create small rebellions against government and governance every day, in quiet and even unconscious ways. In my work, I quietly rebel against the culture that we have somehow created for ourselves. This rebellion could, from my point of view, be called “the anti-selfie".

In your artist's statement you have mentioned Guy Debord's quote about the way the disengagement from natural environment of the images in the capitalist world shape our perception of reality: Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in.

It depends on the political system you’re living under". How do you consider the relationship — as well the unavoidable mutual influences — between creativity and our media driven society? Moreover, what could be in your opinion the role of Art in the contemporary age?

On one hand, I see social media as limiting creativity, since we’re constantly exposed to the same images, the same interpretations of freedom, love or home, and other words indicating great concepts that impose very verbal and advertising-impacted visuals on us.

As such, that means we’re living in a world of appearances rather than the real world. In the world of social networks, there’s an overload of images. The wish to belong automatically produces inflexibility and stuckness.

On the other hand, contemporary art’s role is to shake up social conventions, to blur boundaries between right and wrong, between black and white, between the selfie and the boxed thinking created by society.

Since our brain is accustomed to pictures as an input, the medium of photography as art is a

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particularly powerful tool that allows undermining the conservative conventions within society, So, when a photographer succeeds in introducing a non-conformist narrative into the media, it blurs the boundaries, and the spectator reacts to it.

The natural environment that stands as an important background in A Still Small Voice reminds us of the notion of non lieu elaborated

by French anthropologist Marc Augé, communicating a sense of alienation: how would you consider the relationship between Man and natural environment in relation to your interpretation of the "Everyday Life" theory?

Alienation is the driving force behind my work, A Still Small Voice. Interpretation of the way that Guy Debord describes capitalist society, and the content we daily experience on social networks.

In contrast, we have the theory of “inventing everyday life”, as presented by the French philosopher Michel de Certeau. He discusses the potential in our rebellion, as citizens, through our everyday actions. The individual, so claims de Certeau, has adopted various tactics to bow the ruling force, practices contradicting common sense.

In my work, I try to get a person out of her or his natural environment, and look at that rebellion taking place by emphasizing daily illogical situations, in staged scene, which reveal the quietly rebellious theatrical moments in a “showoff" society. I create the anti-selfie to simultaneously conceal and reveal the fine line between rebellion and alienation that exists in western society.

Photographer Thomas Ruff stated that "once nowadays you don't have to paint to be an artist. You can use photography in a realistic

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way. You can even do abstract photographs".

What is your opinion about the importance of photography in the contemporary art?

Nowadays there is an influx from pictorial images, photography and sharing being so easily accessible. This influx leads us into firmly implanted, rigid thinking.

Art should shatter this immobility and release it from the social conventions that cause it.

Walter Benjamin, one of the first philosophers to address photography, declared that photography links art, culture and architecture. In his book, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” he states that “For the first time in the process of pictorial reproduction, photography freed the hand of the most important artistic functions which henceforth devolved only upon the eye looking into a lens. “ The artist’s function, then, is to subvert the boundaries and show content within the image, whether it’s a painting, a sculpture or a photograph. Today, photographs are what the society’s eye is accustomed to, that’s precisely where the photographer’s responsibility becomes dominant and the need arises to insert her or his personal belief. As soon as a single photograph causes a person to pause, observe and ponder, - the spectator’s experience is empowered and strengthened.

8) You address your audience to a partecipative and multilayered experience, playing with symbolic references, as natural enviroment and lonely character, belonging to the realm of memory: German sculptor and photographer 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

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it? Morever, would you tell us something about the importance of symbols in your pratice?

Any image we relate to has its specific symbolism. I think that interpretation is a more interesting discourse. Every observer comes from her or his own background and culture, and each person comes from a unique family.

Each of us has a different state of mind, which means that the interpretation of any image differs, and that’s the whole beauty of it.

The artist tries to relate her or his narrative, operating from emotion and the situations that drive her or his work. The observer comes from a different world and interprets in her or his own way. The moment we strip the image from the artist’s content and narrative, we’re left only with small symbols that the artist has inserted into the image. That allows to the observer to infuse the image with her or his own world. I see it as my personal mission in my work processes to insert the abstracted small symbolic of my world, and hope to lead spectators into connecting the images with their private worlds relative to the broader culture from which they derive.

Your works address the viewers to challenge their perceptual parmeters and allow an open reading, with a wide variety of associative possibilities. The power of visual arts in the contemporary age is enormous: at the same time, the role of the viewer’s disposition and attitude is equally important. Both our minds and our bodies need to actively participate in the experience of contemplating a piece of art: it demands your total attention and a particular kind of effort—it’s almost a commitment. What do you think about the role of the viewer? Are you particularly interested if you try to achieve to trigger the

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viewers' perception as starting point to urge them to elaborate personal interpretations?

On average, people in museums look at a work for a mere three seconds! So, the artist wants these three seconds to really tell her or his story, to give some small zap of a thought. In my work processes I try to convey a message, but my message seeks to be covert rather than overtly shouting about it, making the observer’s personal interpretation vital and critical. I’m not interested in coercing my spectators into accepting my understandings or thoughts about the world. I'm trying to give them an angle that will lead them to new, different places rather than to my thoughts, or even their own usual thought patterns. The spectator is the center of my creation, which makes the spectator’s interpretation crucial to me. Significant part of my creative work process is sharing and discussion of possible reactions by diverse viewers.

One of the distinctive hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create direct involvement with your spectatorship, 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?

My starting point is that I live in Western world.

As part of my life, I experience things that disturb me at the personal level. Most of my work relates to this in some way, due to my living in a specific kind of society. In A Still Small Voice, what I set down before my spectatorship is criticism of the society I live in, a quiet

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criticism, with no attempt to scream it out.

Like de Certeau, I believe in small, simple rebellions. From this place, I choose the symbolism that best matches the western world, but can be understood in any culture.

The way I take several odd locations into my work, and all of them trying to be “nowhere in particular,” is what allows variety of interpretations. My viewers are apparently from the Western world but if, on the other hand, someone writes to me with a completely different interpretation, I'll consider it a true achievement.

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

Well, we live in a society of abundance.

Everything is available, and all the time.

Media’s awash with photographs. Our entire private lives are presented for public viewing, and out of our own personal choice!

As an artist, I have an important role in shaking this trend up, bringing our self-criticism to the forefront, and discussing about what is really deep inside us. With your help, that’s what we’re doing! So, my warmest thanks. On this note, I have another project brewing that I'd be more than happy to reveal in the future in your magazine.

Thanks so much for the chance to share my thoughts and feelings with you. It was a real pleasure.

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B-Site Festival / Error 404 502 410 & “Dust”/ Manheim 2015 / Germany

Shai Yossef

Photo by Dror Varshevski

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Shai Yossef Lives and works in Rosh Haayin, Israel Rejecting any conventional classification regarding its style, Shai Yossef's work draws the viewers through an unconventional and multilayered experience. Inspired from Bible, his works often inquires into social issues and in his body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages he accomplishes the difficult task of addressing the viewers to extract and recreate personal narrative from his captivating images: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to Yossef's stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Katherine Williams, curator

I was a joyful boy, always curious, with tensioned senses as a street cat, ready and willing to absorb all the world I did not know had to offer.

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Shai and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background.

Are there any experiences that particularly influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to art making?

On the bright side, there was colorful TV, flashy fashion trends, hip-hop, video games, but even bad experiences like the gulf war, Chernobyl, the imaginary witch under my bad and even Michal Jackson’s zombies – only added to the setting of that crazy amusement park that was my teen years.

There were two other layers of great weight in my life. Religion and living alongside a father who was a public figure.

Hello, and thank you for exposing my art to your readers.

Going back in time might help me explain some of my work’s background.

When I was 3 years old, my father was elected mayor, and served in that role for four tenures.

For 20 years, our house felt like the most interesting caravel of human figures, practically 24/7. At most times, coming home felt like entering a fascinating theater, which hosted all the possible (and impossible) kind of people, who talked, shouted, cry, laughed and made the dynamic human scale of emotions a very inspiring experience for me.

I am part of the Y generation, and as such, I grew up in what felt like an endless amusement park, filled with flickering colorful lights and endless stimulations, so trying to single out just a few experiences that influenced my inner world would be nearly impossible.

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strongly about balancing the composition with the very liberating and loos paint work. Only at rare times I find myself so unified with my initial result, and the creation process is immediate and intense. These are moments of pure grace. At most days I search for invigorating figures and compositions. I purchase photos from websites and collaborate with photographers , sometimes I edit them and at times, simply create them in my mind. I find myself explore during the creation process, and drift away from my initial planning. There were times I felt it didn’t work, and times I enjoyed the surprising result. That’s why I always try to balance myself and avoid from “over-scattering”.

The other layer refers to religion.

Growing up in a traditional religious house, I was taught the importance of preserving religious and communal traditions. My family’s roots are from Yemen, and we hold on to that culture with great love. I have no doubt in my heart that this special blend was a fertile ground of unique impacts that manifested in my work in varies ways.

The results of your artistic inquiry convey together a coherent sense of unity: before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://www.shaiyossef.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 think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist.

“BORN” is a great example to the two-way state of mind between spontaneity and planning. The new born is being held by strong and protecting hands, which seem like a part of him, but the unfinished hands, with the multicolored drama around him, demonstrates the impermanent moment.

The main idea is to provoke what I call a “feelthink-feel process”. The use of portraits and expressive color work, is much more effective for me, than using nonlife images and symbols.

At times my creations send a very clear and simple message, while the composition is the one that conceal the true meaning of the work. “FATHER AND SON” is a great example for that. I searched for an intimate composition, but one that as a spectator – I will be a part of. I understood the way to get there, is to capture a spontaneous moment.

The present of the viewers is supposedly interfering with this privet situation, but in a deeper sight we notice the father and the son are letting us in. This work has a very clear ambiance of love and warmth, but it also conceal a very privet story I share with my children.

I have always found faces to be interesting, due to the ‘story telling’ nature of them. They uncover secrets, feelings and history by using a dramatic and beautiful muteness.

The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article has at once captured our attention for the way they combine rigorous balance with captivating aesthetics: when walking our readers through your usual process and set up, would tell us how do you select the subjects for your portrait series?

You are a versatile artist and your media include oil painting and sculpture: what are the qualities that you are searching for in the materials that you combine in your works?

That may relate as a contrast to the struggle I endure while choosing a theme. I feel very

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At these days I am much more connected to painting than sculpturing. The three dimensional motive has narrowed itself to the canvas, but still burst out of it through generous thick layers of paint. I have a big passion for oil paints, which feels good and smell even better. The tools I use are varies, seeing I believe everything useable.

The main use concentrates on spatulas, but I love diversifying with rollers, fabrics, cardboards, sponges, and off course, my fingers. Canvas is the only permanent thing I am loyal to. Even though I am very much aware of materials quality, I am much more interested with the impact they create. One of the most important insights I was given by my figurative painting teacher, Tzuriel Sdomi, was to let go – never get attached to your work. Dare to Change it, scratch it, ruin it and rebuild it again. That is how you truly learn. That is how you break out.

While referring to reality, your paintings convey suchcaptivating abstract feeling: how do you view the relationship between the concepts of the real and the imagined playing out within your works? In particular, does your inspiration come sfrom everyday life's experience or rather fomr your imagination?

The relationship between what is real and what is imagined is forever intertwine. I believe we separate them for a basic need of definition, especially as an efficient life tool, but the truth is that one cannot exist without the other. By using these great powers, we create but at the time demolish. It will always be one of most fragile relationships each of us have. As for myself, I try to navigate my mind and time between all my passions and commitments, so I will not get lost between these two dimensions. Loosing ones ground in that form can lead to a self-destruction mode. I feel that my firm believe in god prevents this mode from awakening in my life. As an artist, I use my mind to fertilize the idea, while the

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creation process represent the moment of birth, which I share with all of those around me. I find my inspiration within a mixture of past experiences, present times and future ambitions. “HAVE A PEACE” is a great example for that. It express my frustration regarding world peace. The white dove, a symbol of hope, is dead. The ironic title demonstrate the hardship of the situation. As explained, to me, this arouses the “feel-think-feel” process that characterizes my work, while using the delicate limit between what is real and what is imagined.

We have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances of your pieces, in particulare the tone of blue in closer that seem to speak of intense emotional involvement. At the same time. other works as The shepherd shows vivacious thar to create a coherent balance between tension and dynamics. How did you come about settling on your color palette? And 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 develope a painting’s texture?

I remember visiting an old friend’s apartment, whose walls were painted in dark blue, top to bottom. Spending an entire evening surrounded by this darkness, with the company of whisky glass, felt emotionally devastating. Color theory and its psychological influences are a wellknown science. Even though I learned it and was fully aware of it, I was not resistant to the experience. It was one of the most extreme experiences I had, regarding the power of colors. The piece, “CLOSER”, shows two abstract characters smiling at each other, wrapped inside their own privet world. The shades of blue and black creates a feeling they are trying to disappear and camouflage themselves from whom ever is watching. The high-pitched contrast between the dark colors

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Photo by Dror Varshevski

and the smiling faces, creates unexplained tension and discomfort. It was painted after a dramatic family experience, and in its way, was

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somewhat the way I found to unload the fear that grew inside me as a result. I usually paint on large canvases, but this painting is

approximately 15’ to 30’. It reminds me it is ok to be scared – be just for a little bit. Keeping it small. “THE SHEPHERD” expresses the exact

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opposite of “CLOSER�. In red lips and bright eyes, the shepherd holds his face and locks, and shares his musings with the viewers. The

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lack of tension is noticed, to the point of near boredom. This is a time of rest. At the same time, there is still a common denominator

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can explain the shepherd’s leisurely feeling. He is aware of his ability to lead and protect. A shepherd is the ultimate symbol of a worthy leader, as was told in the bible. It requires great responsibility, along qualities such as compassion on one side, and heroism on the other. When I stand in front of the canvas, I start with the first, rough, sketch. The main theme and general paint work are the ones that guide me, but at most time, I really don’t know what final result will appear at the end of the process, and I don’t concern myself with that. The psychological ingredient, which sets the tone at my work, is the bursting effect I seek.

Your oil paintings are influenced by social issues: Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under".

Not to mention that almost everything, ranging from Caravaggio's Inspiration of Saint Matthew to Joep van Lieshout's works, could be considered political, do you think that your works is political, in a certain sense? what could be in your opinion the role of Art in our unstable, everchanging contemporary age?

I agree with Mr. Orozco. In one way or the other, consciously or not, it all comes down to the social-political well. It is very hard to separate it from the process. It's simply there.

Like a shadow. At first impression, my political statement in my work is not recognizable. I use the paint the lure the viewer in, asking him to come closer and closer and investigate the piece on its own. The name of the piece or the explanation that follows are usually the ones who give away its real identity and fills any missing blanks. I normally choose to speak out regarding my personal social criticism, in a moderate provocation. Art is a powerful political weapon, and as such, it should be

between the two paintings – the relation between the strong and the week. The helpless needs the strong, to find shelter in his lap. That

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handled with great responsibility. I am all for provocation, without crossing the fine line between a statement, to a sarcastic use of

freedom of speech. I find the need to remind myself that even under the moral duty of criticism, there will always be a line that is not

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Photo by Tomer Yekutiel Part of the painting based on a photograph of the photographer Rod Waddington under an open content license "Attribution Share Alike"

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to cross, especially when it comes to a very sensitive political and social issue that has a potential of igniting a negative situation.

images. Rather than attempting to establish any univocal sense, you seem to urge the viewers to elaborate personal associations: would you tell us how much important is for you that the spectatorship rethink the concepts you convey in your pieces, elaborating personal meanings?

The places that hold a thin line between love and hate are the places that needs much more attention and sensitivity. This is the conservative and vital part that preserves pluralism. To me, the art of art is to build a bridge, instead of a wall.

I feel that exposing the work process to the viewers, or even insiuating it, arouses bigger curiosity that a clean, finished product. The usage of figurative elements alongside abstract ones, while adding or reducing some of them, makes the viewer feel at the mist of a dance between the hidden and the exposed. It leaves room for imagination and creates a deeper bond between the pieces to the viewer. I am not a minimalist artist, but I enjoy using vague scenes and let the name of the piece explain it. In “Jungle”, one of my favorite works for example, the inspiration for the dark, powerful shades and the rich, complicated texture comes from the 1982 masterpiece “The Message”, by the hip-hop group GRANDMASTER FLASH. It shares the hard-core story about living in the ghetto, bleeding Harlem of those days, desperation and shattered dreams. That unique combination of powerful lyrics and sound left its mark on me. The first encounter with this gazing image makes the viewer ask and answer all the questions the piece rises – on its own, in a pure subjective way. It is fascinating to find out what we see and how we feel in the first reflection of things that are different from us. It is a very special way to get to know out true selves.

Your artwork are pervaded with images rich with symbolic features, as recurrent references to childhood. Could you elaborate a bit about your imagery? Morever, would you tell us something about the importance of symbols in your imagery?

I am very grateful for the simple and happy childhood I had. as a grown man, I admire and miss that childhood special inner-world. It's hard to stay indifferent to the joy they find in simple things, and as a parent, it’s a reminder to their special value as young people. That is one of the reasons their images make such a wonderful inspiration. Children are a symbol of all that is primary. They store values I find easy to connect to and represent in my work. Using children’s images is a marvels artistic use of preserving and remembering innocent, beauty, truth, forgiveness and joy. Even though they can be hard to handle and even rude or cruel, they are not dark or vindictive.

They simply express some raw qualities from a bank of qualities they have not yet processed and developed. I find their point of view fascinating, and so naturally, they have a large stage in my artistic world.

Over the years your works have been internationally exhibited in several occasions, including your recent participation to the London International Creative Competition and the Billboard Creative Show in Hollywood

We like the way your works seem to excite the observers to „finish“ the painting by themselves, motivating their imagination to recreate the narrative conveyed by your

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Photo by Dror Varshevski

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Los Angeles. One of the hallmarks of your work 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

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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?

This obvious connection, artist-piece-viewer, is self-evident. As a society, we naturally function in a two-way manner – even the most

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involvement, but it has to go hand in hand with my own loyalty to my creation.

Commercializing or the need to please others are tempting, and can very easily undermine ones judgment. In the past, I tried creating via demand, and found myself in deep suffering. I felt the creation is no longer mine, and it simply failed. Now days I rarely create ordered pieces. I assume it could work better in other genres, but my intuitive work process gives the result a lesser chance to please both sides.

I wish to explore more areas, touching new fields and cross more boundaries. I certainly try. I paint by the conscience state I am in and let myself go. I made a long way in the journey of refining and exploring myself. It was long enough to make me feel whole and complete about my decisions.

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

Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. I believe my connection to portraits will be expressed in my future work as well. Key characters and outsiders will continue to appear on my canvas as a symbol. I live my life as a man of faith, and as such, I believe the creation’s purpose is the goodness within ourselves and that god’s will is to be good to us. My part of that is to make an imprint in my own way. It’s hard to see where and how my work will evolve in the future, seeing I am inspired from so many different experiences in a super dynamic world. Perhaps that is the fuel of growing. The only certain, important and study parameter to me in this whole challenging process, is staying true to myself.

kindhearted, generous person, receives something back from those he helped. I find this relationship to be healthy, legitimate and critical to our world. Never the less, my challenge as an artist is not be influenced by the public’s demand. Otherwise, I am risking my being, my purpose and myself. I highly value the viewer’s opinion, closeness and

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Katherine Williams, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Mónica Leitão Mota Lives and works in London, Ontario, Canada I am a visual artist working with textiles and mixed media in Canada. I studied Sculpture at the University of Fine Arts in Porto, Portugal, and later become an art teacher in several schools throughout the country.

My work is continually inspired by my life’s journey, from my experiences as an art student, to moving to Canada, to everything that influences my acts and thoughts.

In my work I use all kinds of recycled fabric, from cotton to wool, to small vintage pieces of linen or silk. I like to layer them with paper, tracing paper and organza, creating transparencies and depths and then connecting them all together with machine free motion stitching or hand stitching.

I'm always taking photographic records of my creative process as my work often changes as it is being influenced by what I see and feel through the camera's lens.

An interview by Josh Ryders, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator

Porto. How does this experience along with your past work as an art teacher influence the way you currently conceive your works? In particular, how did formal training help you to develop your unique style?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Experimenting with the powerful expressive potential of fibers, artist Mónica Leitão Mota's work rejects any conventional classification regarding its style, to address the viewers to a multilayered visual experience. In her body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages, she successfully attempts to trigger the spectatorship's perceptual parameters, with a deeper focus on a complementary dialogue between materiality, content, and the encounter with the viewers. One of the most impressive aspects of Leitão Mota's work is the way it brings the notion of textile to a new level of significance, accomplishing the difficult task of addressing the viewers to a multilayered aesthetic visual experience: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

My years as a student of Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto were extremely stimulating both artistically and personally. It was during these years in which I learned several techniques of figurative drawing and representation, learned how to think critically, and, finally, developed and deepened my capacity for expression in the three dimensions. It was there thay I had my first contact with clay, iron and wood. Materials inherentely rich in texture and ready to be manipulated. My certainty of wanting to work in three dimensions was confirmed while attending Sculpture classes, spent inside huge studios full of light, filled with wooden structures ready to draw on the inspired work of students who frequented the course.

The daily routines at the beginning and end of a day of classes in the studios instilled in me a longing for organized disorder and the need to always be surrounded by texture in my work environment.

Hello Mónica and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid background and you studied Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of

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It was during these years of study at the University that I began my career as a teacher of Visual Education and Geometry. My first year as a teacher was spent at a school in the interior of Portugal, where I had to drive

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100 km every day, at night and teach adult students living in the area. The inherent discipline in teaching, in my case, teaching Art and Geometry, and the fact that throughout my years as a teacher have encountered all kinds of students ranging from 13 years to 40, taught me to develop my artistic flexibility and at the same time to control my own creative impulse.

Your works convey a coherent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification. Before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit: http://monicaleitaomota.wixsite.com/monicasthreads 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? How much importance does play spontaneity in your work? In particular, do you conceive you works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your pieces?

My work is usually conceived at the computer, where I store the inumerous photographs that I have taken over the years, in particularly since my move from Portugal to Canada. After selecting the photo or photos that inspire me at the time, I open them in Photoshop in order to discover different perspectives or angles in the image that I am interested in exploring and that reflect a certain state of mind or emotion that later translates in the use of a certain color or texture.

My worktable is intimately linked to a set of shelves filled with fabrics more or less organized by colors, patterns and transparencies openly exposed to my line of sight so that I can feel and choose them accordingly.

There is a certain amount of anxiety that is directly proportional to different phases of my creative process that I have yet to become used to and I dont believe that I ever wil. It usually dictates the speed of each phase of the process, which fosters spontaneity, planning and calculation of the final result.

You are a versatile artist and we have appreciated the way you explore the tactile contrasts that you obtain with your materials: Michael Fried once stated that 'materials do not represent, signify, or allude to anything; they are what they are and nothing more.'

What are the the properties that you search for in the materials that you combine? In particular, what does appeal you of fibers?

It’s mainly the textures of the fibres that I find appealing. I constantly look for the contrasts between

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Letters from Portugal (pai)

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Purkinje cells

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the different fibres in the fabrics I use, and at the same time, I long for a tactile outlet, to play with their texture and, depending on the inspiration at the time, choose one or another based on the roughness of the heavily textured fabrics or the smoothness of less textured ones, to work with the texture through stitching, cutting, and layering, to capture the visual feel of light, movement, depth distortions of light in the form of reflections and refractions that allude to space above and below the surface. My interest in storing and collecting fabrics of varying origins began since my move to Canada. Triggered by the need not to waste or dispose of anything that could not be used or recycled, unwanted clothing made of linen, cotton or wool, has been collected among other types of vintage fabrics that I still have today and that have been part of my family heritage over the years. In fact, "those basic materials, they are what they are, which is, in fact, everything." (Betsy Porritt) For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected Letters from Portugal (pai) and Purkinje cells a couple of interesting works that our readers have already started to got to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your artistic inquiry into the relationship between transparencies and opacities is the way you provided its visual results of with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of Letters from Portugal (pai) and Purkinje cells would you tell us your sources of inspiration?

My work "Letters from Portugal" was inspired by the phrase "Every child has the fundamental right and need for an unthreatened and loving relationship with both parents" (Edward Kruk, Ph.D). After the divorce of my parents when I was very young, I was a victim of "Parental Alienation", "... a disorder that arises primarily in the context of child custody disputes. In this work, the use of transparencies was reinforced by the combination of organza and tracing paper, and the calligraphic records printed on this paper and arranged in layers at the center of the composition are excerpts from personal letters. It was important for me to be able to represent in this work two such contradictory aspects of my family experience: the almost obsessive need for transparency in all my actions and decisions and the constant weight of emotional manipulation.

Regarding the “Purkinje Cells” work, the inspiration was based on my interest in visually exploring how the brain

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works in the presence of mental illness, more specifically Depression, Anxiety and Bipolar disease.

These are diseases that run in my family which caused disruptures in family relationships. When researching these diseases I found it interesting to see certain MRI images that revealed infections of the central nervous system. One of these images, in particularof Purkinje cells, inspired this work. Again, the use of transparencies was essential to be able to represent the background of the composition and from that transparent layer, represent the neurons highlighted with graphic lines obtained by the use of free motion machine stitching.

As you have remarked in your artist's statement, your work is continually inspired by your life’s journey, from your experiences as an art student, to moving to Canada, to everything that influences your acts and thoughts: how would you consider the relationship between everyday life's experience and your creative process? How does direct experience fuel your imagination?

Yes, definitely my personal and artistic life has been and continues to be influenced by events and experiences of the past and the present. Leaving home to attend a university in another city of was an extremely important step in my life as a student of Fine Arts. The combination of independence from my family and the novelty of the daily and constant experience of the student artistic life, and especially attending classes of Human Figure and Drawing, resulted in many, many carbon-based drawings and sketches on huge sheets of recycled paper, and stored in a giant black folder that accompanied me from that time until now, in a country as different from Portugal as Canada. From these drawings of Human Figure I was left with the taste, almost an obsession, with using the line as an important graphic element in my current artwork, the line obtained by the set of stitched dots on top of fabric or paper, like in my work “Leaning�.

My change of residence, this time not to another city but to another country, created changes in my personal life that has tested my ability to adapt in general and has definitely changed my perspective and way of life. Especially the landscapes and the physical distances between them, different from those that had been present in my life for nearly 40 years in Portugal, have aroused my curiosity and

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Leaning

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interest in photography. And over the years, along with fabrics, I continue to photograph the different environments, landscapes and objects that surround me, and developed an interest of editing them in Photoshop so that I can see them through another lens, that of the computer. The act of sitting in front of the computer screen analyzing each photo by content, color, contrast, etc., is an integral part of my daily inspiration and is part of a habit and a routine that I associate with my life in Canada.

Your works have a seductive beauty on their surfaces: at the same time they seem to address the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen: we have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances of the pieces as Highway trees and Purkinje cells, that show that vivacious tones are not striclty indespensable to create tension and dynamics. How did you come about settling on your color palette? And 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 develope a texture?

The use of color in my work is directly related to the diversity of fabrics on my shelves, and this diversity is also directly proportional to a greater or lesser concentration of certain colors and shades therein. I can say that the colour blue in its different shades and textures, from linen, wool or denim is my favorite, it has always been since I was a child, and perhaps for this reason I continue to prefer it. It conveys calm, serenity, the Atlantic Ocean, that remains so important to me despite being so far away, or my childhood in the blue mountains of central Portugal.

I develop these textures by blending certain colours into rugged, heavily textured fabrics, like the yellow of an old scarf, or the bright green of the lining of a skirt, and then mark them with cotton thread sewn with the sewing machine. The texture obtained at the end can vary greatly in this way, and translate with accuracy my mood at the time.

Bringing a wide variety of recycled fabric to a new life, your work highteens the tension between the history of the objects in their previous existence and their new function in your works. would you say that the way you provide the transient with a

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Linen cells

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Highway trees tactile sense of permanence allows you to create materiality of the immaterial?

University of Fine Arts where I studied said that in order to know how to change or modify what we know or have before us, we must first know how to represent its reality. Vintage fabrics that are part of my family heritage, such as tablecloths, table runners, napkins, bedding, etc., have a very symbolic and emotive purpose and use for me. They

Yes, I think using recycled or vintage fabrics and fibres that therefore have a story behind them inevitably affects the way I reimagine them and the work that follows. A professor of Drawing at the

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Ghostly trees series I

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Trapped IV

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almost always represent something passive and at the same time unstable and uncomfortable. It is something that will always be associated with identity loss and consequent search for it, as for example in my series in mixed technique called “Trapped”. The use of vintage lace on top of Canson paper, combined with calligraphic and photo records printed on tracing paper and alternating layers with transparent organza was accentuated and marked by the use of the machine-sewn cotton line in free motion style. Lace symbolizes my relationship with the past and its use is associated with loss and the search for identity. In the work Ghostly trees series I, the reality of the visible and temporary (the shape of trees and landscape as seen through a moving car), I choose to accentuate what is not visible through the use of a stitching technique called French Knots. The tops of some trees suddenly occupy a space disproportionate to reality and thus distort their original function.

You seem to draw a lot from daily life and your connection to natural world. How much does everyday life's experience fuel yourself as a creative? In particular, how would you consider the relationship between direct experience and creativity?

Everything around me is a part of my life and has an impact, positive or negative. From the mental impressions of the permanent connection with my husband and son, the essence of my house and its objects and functions, the day trips to Toronto on Highway 401 and the sight of its trees naked and gray in the Winter, or green in the Spring, always in movement , or the plants of my patio that wither year after year and die, only to burst into green buds the next year until they become a mini jungle that often needs to be trimmed but rarely is...

I think that my creative process depends absolutely on my ability to observe the moment and the will to assimilate or not the reality that surrounds me. This reality often seems to me to be manipulated by internal factors of mental distraction, which stimulate me creatively even if I often do not even realize it.

Your practice accomplishes such insightful exploration of the point of convergence between traditional materials and contemporary

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Ghostly trees I series, detail

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sensitiveness. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under". How do you consider the relationship between artists and society? Moreover, what could be in your opinion the role of Art in the contemporary age?

Illumine Gallery, St. Thomas: one of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create 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 also agree completely with this complementary quote from Gabriel Orozco: "What's important is to be confronted deeply with another culture. And also to feel that I am the Other not the resident. That I am the immigrant… That feeling of vulnerability was really important for developing my work. I think a lot of my work has to do with that kind of exposure, to expose vulnerability and make that your strength”.

My creative process is extremely personal, and the language I use translates and conveys those impressions and feelings, which may or may not be understood in the same context in which I use it. I think the reception and interpretation of my work by the viewing audience can be an interesting and curious process in itself, but it is never a question of creating something specifically for a certain audience or moment. However, knowing that there is interaction between my work and a viewer is always exciting and rewarding.

Yes, living in Canada, on the North American Continent, after almost 40 years living in Portugal, a European country and so different in every way, has literally forced me to re-evaluate everything that has been part of me and my personality and individuality.

To become the other, the Immigrant and not the resident, to be confronted daily with myself in questions and experiences that until then I thought were acquired and established, from the spoken language, the different food, the impact of environment and geography on daily routines, feeling dislocated and different in every act or word.

Undoubtedly, the condition of the “Portuguese Immigrant” in Canada has had a huge impact on the development and orientation of my artistic work, the first phase being of fragility, recognition, adaptation and experimentation, and, then, the second phase being of affirmation and maturity.The role of the artist depends on the environment you live in. I still have all my drawings from my studies in Portugal, I continue to take pictures of my surroundings in Canada, and I’m deeply affected by my interaction on a daily basis. I am limited by the boundless expressions of texture, colour and transparency of fabrics and fibres by which I create lines, layers and perception to convey the environment around me.

Here lies my role as an artist in the contemporary world as well as so many others in their chosen art.

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

Working with mixed media and fibres is very stimulating for me. I see a whole world of textures, colour and graphic representation open for me to explore. Playing with textures in the context of transparencies and opacities is something that I really would like to continue to do in my next future projects. I would love to develop and further explore the use of transparencies with all types of fibres, including paper, and I’m considering enlarging and increasing the scale of the works themselves. I’m very interested in testing the results of this type of transformation on the work I do at the moment.

Thank you for the opportunity of answering your questions about my work!

Over the years your works have been showcased in several occasions, including your participation to the Pride Art Show, at the ARTS Project Gallery, in London, Ontario and more recently to Spun, at the

An interview by Josh Ryders, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Francine LeClercq Lives and works in New York City, USA

"There is no white picture. And there is no old picture. It is always a question of current experience and current perception." Often consisting of multiples works grouped around a specific theme, my work deals with the questions relating to the perception of art, the arrangement of the work in space, the elements of the work, whether concrete, sensory, intellectual and semantic, and the synchrony between the work, its context and the receiver.

The installation [3:2] consists of more than 800 cells measuring 3 x 2 inches in reference to the photographic 3:2 aspect ratio now adopted for the LCD screens of our digital devices such as cameras, i-phones and the likes. A coat of thermochromic ink is applied to the cells, causing a nuance such that they may be perceived as an opaque black monochrome, a blur or revealing the underlying image depending on temperature and location, the proximity of bodies and heat exchange. It is an experiment whereby art is the moment of a mutual dependency fermented by an active participation of the senses.

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Christina Tzani Lives and works in Igoumenitsa, Greece My artwork makes references in child abuse in order to sensitize the viewer, reinforcing the sense of guilt for apathy, as he enjoys the aestheticism of colors. The artworks give the sense of isolation, repulsiveness and abandonment as well as the individual characteristics of the form fading on the chiseled skin and on the injured existence using either ink or oil paints. Parts of the forms appear unfinished underlining the drama of fragmented forms.

The forms are positioned primarily in an unbuilt white space as the sequence of gestures and poses creates a continuous movement emphasizing the heavy melancholy and colors in conflict each other in a stressful agreement. The intense and powerful reds are describing the moment of human despair and the physical erosion as opposed to cool colors that indicate the absence of life and they cover something horrible prevailing indifference and bitterness. Injured and bleeding lips undermining the abuse of basic entrance of food. Through body decomposition the artworks are located somewhere in the middle of the concept of beauty and ugliness confusing delimitation. Two concepts so interrelated as life and death, such as beauty and ugliness. Perhaps the beauty of the color became the overall sense of beauty in the artworks aside the ugliness of their atrocities.

Every image incorporates a unique point of view, formed by the viewer’s aesthetic perception, leading him into his very own sensitive conclusions. My objective is to draw the viewer into the meaning of my art, making him discover the dominating aspect, depending in his point of view. Calling the spectators dive into a deeply rooted aesthetic and empirical perception, recognizing the ongoing process and identifying their notion of perception. The artwork signs predispose the ontological and conceptual essence of the meaning as it is set by communicating my creativity. My thematic forces the viewer into a state of exteroceptive sensitivity exposing my incentive, establishing a direct connection with its ego.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator

combine figurative and abstraction, with a particular attention on childhood symbolism to accomplishes the difficult task of inquiry into the themes of isolation, repulsiveness and abandonment. One of the most impressive aspect of Tzani's work is the way it forces the viewer into a state of exteroceptive sensitivity exposing the artist's incentive, establishing a direct connection with its ego: we are very pleased

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Christina Tzani's work are based on psychology and symbolism to draw the viewers through a multilayered visual experience. Her body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages are marked out with an ambivalent quality that

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Blue Twins, 2017 56x38cm, watercolor on paper

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to introduce our readers to her stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://www.christina-tzani.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 think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist.

Hello Christina and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background.

You have a solid formation and after having graduated from the University of Western Macedonia School of Fine Arts, Florina, Greece, you nurtured your education in Studio arts with Harris Kondosphyris and Thomas Zografos as supervising professors: how did these experience influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to art making in general?

There is a central idea that is featured in my artwork and this is the simultaneous depiction of the idea of life and death.

The idea of life enters the viewer's perception through the portrayal of children's figures and the idea of death is represented by the brutality of the hurtful features.

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected Ambrosial and Blue Twins, a couple of interesting artworks that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your work is the way you provided the visual results of your artistic inquiry into the themes of isolation, repulsiveness and abandonment with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of Ambrosial and Blue Twins would you shed a light about your usual process and setup?

As I entered the School of Fine Arts in Florina, I was introduced to a whole new world of ideas.

With emphasis on extroversion, Harris' workshop concentrated exclusively on a condition of visual expression and at the same time a self-exploration of introversion. By looking mainly into my experiences, my perception, my stimuli and my inner and outer world, my feelings began to reflect upon my artistic work and especially all these negative emotions started to emerge. Think of Oscar Wilde’s 'The Picture of Dorian Grey', where the picture, rather than the protagonist, ages and fades away.

A similar healing process has my art, as negative emotions are mostly trapped in my works while I carry on smilling. Art in general is a reflective dialogue with society.

The process is as follows: Initially I do a research with what image I'm most interested in creating which depends mainly on the factor of light and color.

I always place the canvas or paper in a horizontal position and start an emotion-color interaction game. The poses of the children's figures arise either from photographic research over the Internet or from my own

The results of your artistic inquiry convey together a coherent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification. Before

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Untitled, 40 x 40 cm, oil on canvas, 2015

photography sessions. The figure never

We have really appreciated the vibrancy of

portrays faithfully an actual person.

thoughtful nuances of your pieces, that are

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Ambrosial, 2016 SPECIAL ISSUE 100 x 80 cm, oil on canvas

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Untitled, 2017 SPECIAL ISSUE 140 x 100 cm, watercolor on paper

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Undetected, 2016

Unsolicited, 2017

watercolor on paper,140 x 100 cm

50 x 35cm, watercolor on paper

often marked out with intense tones as the ones from your Out of it and Blackout that create both tension and dynamics.

How did you come about settling on your color palette? And how much does your own psychological make-up determine the

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nuances of tones you decide to use in a piece and in particular, how do you develope a painting’s texture?

The colors I use are rarely based on my mood, instead they mainly depend on general observations. The color of the skin tends to be characteristic and unique to each individual. As a child grows up, so does its skin tone evolve and its purity and vibrancy is lost with the appearance of 'yellowish'. The skin of the children is thinner and brighter than that of adults. The cold colors of the veins and arteries are evident, and thus, indicating their youthful vitality. The intense reds of the wounds that are placed on the bodies come and complement each other's shiny cold colors, putting emphasis on the dramatic form.

The use of color in the works creates and recreates the surrounding blank space, causing a visual disturbance that is complemented by distortion and monstrous mutilations of the artwork. Strong and intense reds describe the moment of human despair and body corrosion as opposed to the cold colors that indicate the non- existence of life and overlap with something horrible where indifference and bitterness dominates. Injured and bloodied lips imply the abuse of the most basic source of food intake. Human existence continuously negotiates the problems that arise from the struggle with the eternal and all-human issues of existence and death.

Little Known, 2016 70 x 50 cm, watercolor on paper, 70 x 50 cm

The texture of the projects depends on the material, for example, when I work with oils I use more paint paste to cover uncoated

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surfaces, as it is a material whose property of slow drying does not fully meet the

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Uninvited, 2016 70 x 50 cm, watercolor on paper

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Out of it, 80 x100 cm, oil on canvas, 2016

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could be considered political, do you think that your works is political, in a certain sense? what could be in your opinion the role of Art in order to sensitize the viewers in our unstable contemporary age?

Art functions as a creative stimulus, a social activity within social systems, a spawn of an era obeying to principles, standards and social and political reality. It is inconceivable for Art to be cut off from the common experience, but the artist is not a prisoner of his own time. Many times, Art becomes a revolution by overthrowing conventional harmony.

While the imagery of your artworks refers to reality and figurative, your artistic production is pervaded with captivating abstract and dreamlike quality. How do you view the relationship between reality and imagination playing within your works? In particularly, how much everyday life's experience does fuel your creativity?

Shifting beauty, 2016 70 x 60 cm, oil on canvas

needs of my creation at the time of use because I might want to work several hours in a row.

A sound, a color, a blaze can cause a visual stimulus for creation. From that moment and on, everything has to do with everyday life. I might read a book or watch a movie and then transfer some elements and qualities from it to my artwork. This is the main link between reality and imagination.

The transition of real elements to artistic creation.

When reinforcing the viewers' sense of guilt for apathy, as he enjoys the aestheticism of colors, your works address their perceptual parameters to collide with their perceptual ones. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under". Not to mention that almost everything, ranging from Caravaggio's Inspiration of Saint Matthew to Joep van Lieshout's works,

Your artwork are pervaded with images rich with symbolic features, belonging to childhood imagery.

German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic

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Seduction 2, 2015

Seduction 3, 2015

ink and pen on paper, 80 x 100 cm

ink and pen on paper, 80 x 100 cm

strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about it?

Morever, would you tell us something

about the importance of symbols in your imagery?

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The symbolic elements contain the narrative through the psychological factors

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Seduction 1, 2015 ink and pen on paper, 80 x 100 cm

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Sugar-Coated.Blue, oil on canvas,100 x 80 cm, 2016

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Untitled, oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm, 2015

Oneidos, oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cm, 2015

but it has to do more with guiding the viewer by his aesthetic perception due to his personal experiences. Originally, children's figures had a symbolic value projected through the exalpha that was used as a halo around the head of the ones depicted.

According to history, space was constantly suggested as an imaginary condition of representation, which is why its liberating physiocracy was easily justified in a symbolic dimension. The schematic spatial expanse of the exalpha symbolized harmony and balance, and contradicted the mischievous writing of the form. Forms have been subtracted from the form and some

elements are placed in the background without a symbolic value.

We like the ambivalent quality of your works, that walks your spectatorship through the liminal area where the concepts of beauty and ugliness blurry their elusive borders to urge the viewers to dive into a deeply rooted aesthetic and empirical perception: would you tell us how much important is for you that the spectatorship rethink the concepts you convey in your pieces, elaborating personal meanings?

Art is a way of evolving the critical thinking. It evokes all senses. The meanings that come out of each project are related to the

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viewer's critical righteousness, personal experiences and other variables. For instance, if a beloved person of the viewer, let’s say an aunt, used to wear a purple tshirt and had blond hair, my own work of the same colors as hers would come in contact with the eyes and the subconscious of the viewer would cause various emotions, either negative or positive. So theoretically, there is a construction of concepts from the viewer that has to do with his own personal experiences.

through a common contact base. For example, the subject of my individual exhibition held at the Igoumenitsa Archaeological Museum 'Exteroceptive Sensitivity' was the occasion for a dialogue with a spectator where the question asked was: 'Why so much blood in your works' in which I responded: ' Why do you see it as blood? It could be jam that the children might have just eaten'. On the other hand, others considered that the children were cheerful and playful. So, this dialogue has got me thinking about what the viewer really sees in my works and how much this depends on his personal experiences.

Over the years you have showcased your works in several occasions, including your recent solo “Forgotten Whispers”, at the KH5 Gallery, in Zurich. 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?

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

I usually do not plan ahead, everything evolves through my daily work and contact with the public and their comments. I have already booked three exhibitions in Greece, a collaborative with Haris Kontosfryris in the Balkan gallery in Xanthi, an individual at the 'Oionos' gallery in Karditsa and a collaboration at the ‘Technohoros’ Gallery in Giannena. In May an individual exhibition is scheduled in Paris at ‘D'un livre l'autre librairie’ gallery. Thank you very much for your time.

The relationship between the viewer and the artist is cultivated with time and projection. The works discharge and soothe the artist and offer a creative outlet from everyday life. Without a viewer, there is no work of art. There is a necessary dialectical relationship between the artist, the work of art and the viewer.

Possible interpretations of the works affect my work to a large extent and there is a possible interdependence based on the spectator's distant view. The combination of different thoughts can bring about only positive developments

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An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Unititled, watercolor on paper, 56 x 38cm, 2017

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Amina Sahan Lives and works in Oslo, Norway

I am a painter that work mainly with acrylics, but also drawing. Most of my work show people in different context and enviroments. I use colors and snapshots as a tool to create a story around the people in my pictures. Most of my paintings show men, fully clothed. This is a choice I made due to the historys overrepresentation of woman as motives for male painters.

My paintings is strongly connected to me as a muslim “hijabi” woman with a multicultural background in Norway. I try to put focus on motives that would engage to conversation around cultures and issues our world faces today. There are a lot of prejudices towards muslim woman but a lot is not talked about directly , therefor I would like to give a platform for people to ask me instead of preume.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator

Hello Amina and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you was educated as an art teacher, graduating from the Bachelor´s Program Specialized Teacher Training in Design, Arts and Crafts and from the Master´s Program in Visual and Performing Arts at Oslo and Akershus University Collage. How did these experiences influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? And in particular, how does the relationship between your cultural substratum dued to your Iraqi roots and your current life in Norway inform the way you relate yourself to art making?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Rejecting any conventional classification regarding its style, Amina Sahan's work draws the viewers through such unconventional and multilayered visual experience.

Her artistic production is strongly connected to her multicultural background and in her body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages she accomplishes the difficult task of using colors and snapshots as a tool to create stories around her characters: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to Sahan's stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

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During my bachelor studies I was introduced

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to the theoretical and reflective part of creating art. I finally got the answers that I had been looking for when I didn’t figure out what was wrong with my drawing. I always used to draw and paint realistic motives, but never felt that they had any other purpose than being technically realistic. When I had to learn about light, shadows, and how everything is made up of shapes and lines, everything felt more easy and I finally felt free to experiment with color and motives.

The work I produce today its a big part of what I explored during my bachelor studies. I liked to focus on motives that would make you reflect. Towards the end of my studies, I began to work with color contrasts in portrait and with street motives og random people in Iraq. The paintings I made for my bachelor exam, was also selected for a group exhibition and I got a lot of great respons on the topic and motive of my paintings. After that exhibition, I exhibited paintings with similar themes around in Oslo along with writing my master about multicultural youths perception of art. I then found myself working with my art in the same way I did during my bachelor, and focusing in enhancing the interest of art in multicultural youth in Norway.

This shows that my studies has formed the way I make art and the topics I engage in today. My cultural and religious background is a big reason that I choose to continue with showing my art. Its important for me to be a muslim woman with hijab participating in the Norwegian art society. Another aspect is that my identity and cultural connection affects the way my art is perceived by others, both by expectations and reactions by both sides of the cultural society in Norway. This can

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«In Between» 70x90 cm

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«Light» 70x90 cm

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sometimes feel limiting to my creativeness, but also most of the time empowering The results of your artistic inquiry convey together a coherent sense of unity: before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit https://www.aminasahan.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 think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist.

My work varies in theme, motive and color.

The strongest relation between all of them are that I focus on contrast, both in motive and color/technique. I think that a central idea behind all of my paintings are the intention of making the viewer draw lines to situations in our global society. Even when the painting doesn't have a obvious message, I try to make the message understandable with reference to the title of the painting. In all my paintings a focus on topics like multicultural issues, reference to refugeesituations and prejudice concerning religion and culture.

The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article has at once captured our attention for the way your successful attempt of engaging to conversation around contemporary multicultural society provides the visual results of your artistic inquiry with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through your usual process and set up, would you tell us what did address you to such themes?

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«Chaos» 70x100 cm

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ÂŤMerry ChristmasÂť 100x120 cm

My interest in the themes like multicultural society is mostly my background growing up with a Norwegian mother and an Iraqi father, in Norway. Also being a muslim has made me experience a lack of acceptance in the Norwegian culture.

multicultural origin and Norwegian people, concerning me being and artist. There are not a lot of muslim female artist in Norway, and therefor I get a lot of questions about religions aspect on art etc. Also, the lack of multicultural youth in the arts have made me more interested in showing others how important it is to be present in the society through art.

I especially focus on this because of the reactions I have gotten by both people of

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ÂŤPassageÂť 80x100 cm

As you have remarked in your artist's statement, most of your paintings show men, fully clothed.

This is a choice you made due to the historys overrepresentation of woman as motives for male painters. would tell us how do you select the subjects for your portrait series?

What are the qualities you are searching for in your characters?

When i choose my motives and characters I mostly use street views of anonymous people. Sometimes a take a picture of a person if it intrigues me. There has to be some kind of a light and drapes in the persons clothing if I choose to only take a picture of that person. Most of my paintings are of people in the streets of Iraq, and there is where I find my interesting

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«Death» 80x100 cm

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characters. The pictures I end up using in my paintings are often the ones I take randomly without any specific in focus. I then search in the photo and zoom in until I find a person or a group of people that would make an dynamic painting.

Your work inquires into the wide number of prejudices towards muslim woman, creating an effective platform for such cultural debate. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under". Not to mention that almost everything, ranging from Caravaggio's Inspiration of Saint Matthew to Joep van Lieshout's works, could be considered political, do you think that your works is political, in a certain sense? what could be in your opinion the role of Art in the contemporary age?

I always have a political motivation behind my paintings, some more than others. The political meaning is not always obvious but can be sensed through the connection between the paintings title and motive.

Also, the choices I make in every painting are politically driven, even though its the choice of gender f the subjects, or the story behind the picture I'm using. Sometimes I get a strong urge to comment on something current going on in the society, and use painting as a clear comment on that situation We have really appreciated the vibrancy of nuances of colors of your artworks, as intense and thoughtful tones of blue that we can admire in Passage and Star.

However, other works as Light shows that

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«Star» 80x100 cm

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«Wait» 80x100 cm

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vivacious tones are not strictly indespensable to create tension and dynamics. How did you come about settling on your color palette? And 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 develope a painting’s texture?

I usually start every painting with an idea of which colors I miss, and therefor want to paint. However, I always start painting with blue, and then work on shadows and light with dark purple and yellow. The next step is about deciding on a specific tone og feeling I want the painting to have. When I have one that, I divide the motive into elements that each has their role in the complete impression. My choice of colorpalette, can depend on my urge to experiment with something new, continue with something I liked, or it depends on the motive. It is usually the motive, combines with my urge to create contrast and movement, that decides my color-pallette.

Your paintings are strongly connected to you as a muslim “hijabi� woman with a multicultural background in Norway. How much does everyday life's experience fuel your creative process? In particular, do you think that your being a woman provides your artistic research with some special value?

When I feel good I feel creative, and I get productive. If somethings bothering me I find it hard to focus. I'm also in need of inspiration through social media art to get the drive when I'm lacking it. I can say that my everyday life experiences really affect my creative prosess. When choosing the

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associations: would you tell us how much important is for you that the spectatorship rethink the concepts you convey in your pieces, elaborating personal meanings?

direction of my artistic research I always reflect on my identity. I find my self more attracted to the idea of making something that creates reflection around the link between my identity and painting. As a woman and muslim, I choose projects that gets a greater meaning when its related to my identity. My paintings are often also a reaction on the peoples comments and questions. The most annoying question I can get is questions about who the people on the painting are, this is because I use people as objects in my paintings, except the paintings where there is a clear reference to identities.

When I make a painting, there is two parts thats important for me to obtain. The first one is that the motive is clear enough to understand what it is portraying, and the second and maybe the most difficult is to not make it too clear. There has to be some elements (composition, color, contrast, statements) that makes you reflect on the meaning behind, and that opens up for the viewer to easily get personal association.

Even though I have all the important elements, the painting can not be finished unless I get the feeling of contentment, and sometimes that can take a long time with a lot of adjustments.

While referring to perceptual reality, your paintings convey captivating abstract feeling: how do you view the concepts of the real and the imagined playing out within your works?

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

The concepts of the «real» and the «imagined» are quite linked in my paintings.

Even though my motives are from «real» photographs, I use color and technique to create and new story behind the painting. It is very important to me that there are elements that seems unexplained, that forces the viewer to make their own assumptions to what the meaning behind is.

My next goal is to have a solo exhibition with all of my recent paintings and prints in Oslo. I also will continue searching for international opportunities. I have had a strong interest in streetart for a while now, and am currently looking for ways to participate in streetart projects where I can paint in large scale. I would love to challenge myself with painting a large mural in a public space.

One of the hallmarks of your work 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. Rather than attempting to establish any univocal sense, you seem to urge the viewers to elaborate personal

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Michael J. Scot Lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom Inspired by Japanese art and design, artist Michael Scot’s work provides the viewers with such intense, multilayered visual experience: his works that we'll be discussing in the following pages, are always meaningful and successfully attempt to trigger the viewers' perceptual parameters walking them through the liminal area in which inner world and outside reality find a consistent point of convergence.

One of the most impressive aspects of Scot's work is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of highlighting beautiful moments in nature, as they pass by so quickly: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to his stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator

personal reflection, it sort of alienated the audience from the work. These days, I try to focus on making artwork intended for the audience. I subtract myself from the equation and think about how the audience would feel when they see it. I mean, obviously there is still a part of me that can be seen, but once the work is finished, I prefer to put it out there for the audience to make their own interpretation.

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Michael and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You are basically a self-taught artist: are there any particular experiences that influenced the way you currently conceive your works? And in particular, how does the relationship between your cultural substratum and your travels around Japan influence the way you relate yourself to art making and to the notion of beauty?

Since 2007, I have painted around two hundred pictures, all different styles and subject matter. I was going through a period in my life where I was contemplating, my intentions as an artist.

All I could see around me in the media, was consumerism, capitalism and corruption. This was further amplified with technology and social media, people using the internet to argue about unimportant issues. I eventually got to the stage where I had to segregate myself from everything. I moved into a small apartment in Edinburgh, Scotland and just cut myself off from the rest of the world. At first, it was difficult to adapt to a life where I spent most of my time alone. I come from a large family of five

It took me a while to discover my identity as an artist. I have always tried to use my artwork as a reflection of my experiences throughout life, but I found that my earlier work conveyed a message that was too confusing for the viewer. I would also try to make the subject matter personal to myself, like it would be a reflection of how I was feeling. By making it a

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Muse, acrylic and spray paint on canvas

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brothers, so I wasn't used to being alone. I found solace in painting and would spend hours painting or reading about art history. I did this for over two years without any serious contact with anyone. I have always been quite an extroverted person, so it was quite out of character for me to live alone without contact from the outside world.

simplicity. The philosophy explains that a loss of self conscientiousness and a new unity between self and its environment, will help a person to ignore their trivial issues and derive pleasure from simplicity. We worry about who we are and what defines us, when in fact we should be admiring the qualities of who we already are.

Daoism teaches us that nature is there when we are in danger of attacking ourselves with an overly stern lifestyle of ideas that don't fit the demands of the world. I decided to incorporate this aesthetic into my artwork and highlight these beautiful moments, as they pass by so quickly. Nature does not hurray, but yet everything is accomplished. It's a glimpse of something small that can provoke you to imagine something even bigger.

In April '10, I got a call from my Mother, saying that my Father had passed away from a heart attack. I was only twenty five years old, but this really impacted me hard. My Dad, from a young age, had the ambition of becoming an artist and studying at art school. My grandfather, refused to let him follow a career, which he considered had no money and instead encouraged him to join an apprenticeship to become a Butcher. He worked as a Butcher for forty five years before he died, achieving a mastery qualification. You could tell that his choice of career made him miserable, which lead to alcoholism and addiction. After he died, I decided to take the path of becoming an artist, as this is something that he never got the opportunity to do.

The subject matter, of my artwork comes from a reflection of this moment in time, the journey that I am on and the experiences that I've had. I came back from Japan and wanted to show the things I'd seen but also reflect the narrative of what I'd experienced. Every spring the Japanese celebrate the blooming of cherry blossom trees with an event called Hanami. During the Hanami festival, everyone will visit local parks and botanical gardens to enjoy the temporal beauty of nature. Even in a densely populated metropolis like Tokyo, the Japanese still find time to appreciate nature. Rather than attempting to portray nature as a faithful copy, my artwork tries to find the nature within the subject matter and surrender to its cause. It's not about reflecting its true surface, but rather the spirit of the subject. I am a strong believer that paintings contain their own spirit, which is something really powerful. Seeing artwork in person, portrays a more powerful message and has a much more lasting effect. I try to make the viewer reflect on their own experiences, by having subject matter that the audience can relate to.

In Mar '13, I decided to travel across to Japan, to teach English. My interest in Japan started when I was in secondary school, where I learnt about Thomas Blake Glover, the first white samurai.

He was given this distinction as he played a large part in the industrialization of Japan, helping found the ship building company which later became the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan. Whilst I was in Japan, I discovered the religious philosophy of Daoism. Daoism, emphasizes living in harmony and simplicity through nature. They call this philosophy 'wabisabi', which translates as imperfect nature. It basically means that nothing lasts, nothing is finished and nothing is perfect. Inspired by ZenBuddhism, Wabi-Sabi is a way of life that is simple, modest and in-tune with nature. This was a new and refreshing outlook for me, finding beauty in imperfection and living with

Your works convey a coherent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification.

Before starting to elaborate about your

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production would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up? In particular, do you think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist?

I want my artwork to be a reflection of my experiences in life. I came back from Japan and wanted to show the things I'd seen but also reflect the narrative of what I'd experienced. I've always admired the acute detail that goes into hyperrealistic paintings. The time it takes to really explore every detail of your subject matter. I decided to paint these images with photorealism, as they would become synonomous with the real thing and allow the viewer to have memories and experineces relating to the subject matter. 'The Auguries of Innocence' poem by William Blake, contrasts the difference between a small grain of sand and a wild flower with infinity and eternity, putting perspective with how small we are in the universe and how the world we live-in contains so much beauty and inspiration. A wild flower can contain a heaven because the beauty of a flower is a piece of heaven, and it can make you imagine or visualise a better and more beautiful world.

Also a grain of sand is a world in miniature, alone its small and insignificant but together it can change the direction of waves. I wanted to convey a sign of beauty within nature that also has an underlining subtext, that can allow the viewer to relate to the work and think about their own experiences.

The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article has at once captured our attention of your artistic research is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics: would you tell us your sources of inspiration? And how did you select your subjects?

The main theme of the work is 'Living in Harmony' and 'the wisdom and beauty of imperfection'. I started watching nature documentaries and once

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Bubbles, acrylic on canvas

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Droplet, acrylic on canvas

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show a droplet of water in slow motion and noticed that it bounces a few times before it becomes submerged in water. This is something that is not visible by the human eye, as it moves so fast. I decided to show that moment in time when a droplet of water hits the surface. It reminds me personally of a bamboo water pipe in a Japanese garden, the sound that signifies a moment of time passing.

I also noticed how a droplet of water on a leaf reflects its surroundings, showing a much bigger outside world and emphasizes the contrast in size. I have painted three different images of water, which is the most ive focused on. I think the reason for this is that I feel a sense of peace, when its raining and the images give me a feeling of tranquility. In the first four lines of the 'Auguries of Innocence' I felt that it reflected on being a child and looking at the world with an innocent outlook.

The world to you is a grain of sand, because its all that you know at that stage. Appreciating every little thing and seeing a wild flower for the first time. I wanted to paint a composition that shows harmony, but also relates innocence. I decided to paint Bubbles as they remind me of being a child playing in my garden. The worst thing that we can do when we grow up is lose that innocence that makes you so genuine.

The idea for the Snow Tiger painting was concieved by accident. I wanted to show the black on white contrast of the Tiger's stripes. I created a stencil from the design, took the stencil outside whilst it was snowing, spray painted it and then left the snow to fall onto the canvas. The water from the snow, absorbed the paint and flaked off into what looks like snow in front of the Tiger. I think it's a matter of trying out new things and experimenting with what you have. Some techniques work and others don't, but you need to take those risks to really achieve greatness.

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We like the way the dreamlike quality of Tealights and Bubbles addresses the viewers to a multilayered visual experience capable of triggering the viewers' perceptual parameters: while referring to reality, these artworks convey such captivating abstract feeling: how do you view the relationship between concepts of the real and the imagined playing within your works?

Creativity is boundless and I feel that painting, allows me to express myself in ways that can't be conveyed through words. Art definitely has the ability to trigger emotions in people and convey a more powerful message. I feel that being creative stems from your imagination and being a painter is definitely a great way to visually express yourself.

Mixing ideas that incorporate style and narrative is a great way to tell the viewer a more elaborate story. The paintings are mean't to take their eyes on a journey. It's just like Japanese caligraphy, it shows the actions taken by the artist to reach their desired goal. I've always admired the acute detail that goes into hyper realistic paintings, the time it takes to really explore every detail of your subject matter. I decided to paint these images with photorealism, because they would become synonymous with the real thing and allow the viewer to have memories and experiences relating to the subject matter. The artistic representation is faithful, as it reflects the subject matter in a photorealistic way, but it still has an underlining message for the viewer. I chose to make the paintings photorealistic as it would allow the viewer to have a stronger connection with the subject matter. If I painted the images with a different style, it would become a reflection of my own interpretation rather than relating to the viewer. When painting the Tealights picture, I noticed that a moth landed on the painting thinking that the candles were real. If the painting was convincing

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Water Droplet Yellow, acrylic on canvas

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Tealights, acrylic on canvas

Blue Tit, acrylic on canvas

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enough for a moth in the darkness, then it must be realistic enough for the viewer.

deviation from this will make it look less realistic.

Your artistic practice seems to aim to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface: we have really appreciated the way the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances that marks out pieces as Waterdroplet create tension and dynamics. How did you come about settling on your color palette? And 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 develope a texture?

Art Nouveau reflects a more elegant style of design, where as Art Deco, conveys a sense of prosperity, so it's difficult to deviate from the symbolism that it portrays or the artists who typify these styles. I have been trying to develop a style that strongly resembles calligraphy, where a few simple brushstrokes, can convey light, tone and shape.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to paint something with a few simple brushstrokes and really make a strong impact. It's all about finding beauty in simplicity but sometimes you need to use technique to fully captivate your audience. There are so many amazing contemporary artists out there, who are all doing different things, so you really need to use style and technique to amaze your audience and grab their attention. I have tried to incorporate different styles into my art work, and relate it to the subject matter. While working on the bubble painting, I used an Italian technique called sfumato, which creates a smoke like effect. This was perfect for the reflection of colour on the bubbles, as it sits against a translucent texture and still reflects the shape and form of the object.

For me, technique is a very transparent attribute that can tell you a lot about the artist. The brushstrokes can reflect the persons mood, it reflects emotion, decision making and can show parts of someone's personality. The same thing goes for colour, if an artist is working on an abstract painting, then their choice of colour can tell you a lot about how they're feeling. Mixing ideas that incorporate style and narrative is a great way to tell the viewer a more elaborate story.

Composition takes the viewers eyes on a journey. When working on a photo realistic painting, I needed to take into consideration the effects that light has on the human eye. If you go from a dark room to sunlight, your eyes have to adjust. Same with items in your peripheral vision, they become blurred and distorted.

You have always been greatly inspired by Japanese art and design, like Ukiyo-e prints and the work of Katsushika Hokusai and we like the way your works celebrate beauty of nature: despite the reminders to traditional figurative approach, your works is marked out with a stimulating contemporary sensitiveness. Do you think that there's still a contrast between Tradition and Contemporariness? Or there's an interstitial area where these apparently opposite elements could produce a proficient synergy?

With colour, you need to balance everything to the correct degree. If you make something brighter then it appears in real life then the human eye will notice and it will stand out as being out of place. You need to confuse the human eye into thinking that the image is real, rather than a representation of real life. When painting photo realistic subject matter, you have less freedom to articulate. You must keep to the set structure and colour, any

I think that art in a traditional sense, is part of a cultural group of people, skills and

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knowledge which are passed down through generations. Artists during the renaissance would study the anatomy, so that they could depict a more realistic looking human. Alot of contemporary art, like modern art have a more philosophical narrative and the tendancy to reflect an underlining subtext. My artwork tries to combine the realistic imaginery of nature, with the zen ideologies of 'wabi sabi'.

I want people to take an in-depth look at my work, rather than just seeing what's on the surface. The smallest detail can have it's own characteristic and I want people to have a realization about the underlining connotations.

Water for example, is formless, it can work around an object, slowly eroding it. To some, water can seem uncharacteristic and insignificant. Water eroding an object shows us that persistence can help us break down any given task. For me personally the sound of water can be peaceful and relaxing, it reminds me of a quiet day watching the rain from my bedroom window. The solace that you feel from being surrounded by rain, is almost like a blanket from the outside world. I try to relate the subject matter to the viewer, to give them a more personal, immersive experience. I am trying to spark an emotional response in the viewer but at the same time make them think about a deeper meaning.

I had a girl contact me on social media to say that after seeing my art work, it made all her problems melt away. Giving someone that kind of experience is really powerful. In society our minds are so focused on ego driven goals, when in fact we should forget about our worries and stresses.

Having too many minds, means that we can't focus on what's important. A side tracked mind can lead to confusion and a loss of direction. I am hoping that when people see my work they feel inspired, expressing themselves in different ways and improving their self-esteem. I've had people, in the past, say to me "but I am not as talented as

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Great White Shark, acrylic on canvas

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Panda, acrylic on canvas

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Marilyn Monroe Black, acrylic on canvas

other artists". Buddhism teaches us not to compare yourself to what your neighbor is doing, as everyone is doing something completely different and unique. Look inside yourself and make up your own creative process. It's all about the mutual appreciation and connecting to other like minded people.

elusive beautiful moments in nature, as they pass by so quickly: would you say that the way you provide the transient with sense of permanence allows you to create materiality of the immaterial?

These days society has become so concerned with materialistic possessions and have lost sight of what's important to be happy. 'WabiSabi' teaches us to live with simplicity, live

As you have remarked in your artist's statement, your intention is to highlight

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Marilyn Monroe/Andy Warhol, spray paint on canvas

within our means and to focus on the importance of nature. I was originally brought up in a large industrial city, so nature to me seemed quite elusive, it wasn't something that was so easily accessible. The city, I am from was nick named the Granite City, because every building was made of granite.

The atmosphere reflected a grey, depressioning feeling. When you are surrounded by a concrete city, it feels

unnatural. Walking along designated path ways and having signs and billboards posted everywhere, telling you how to act and feel.

Being brought up in this kind of environment, you forget about how beautiful nature really is.

I wanted to capture these beautiful moments of nature, as they are so temporal. Everything in nature has a purpose and just like life, it

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Pet Commission, acrylic on canvas

Spotted Woodpecker, acrylic on canvas

becomes a fleeting moment in time, as it passes by so quickly. Everything in nature has a well groomed balance and to ignore this would be really unfortunate. Nature and philosophy has a great lesson, which can teach us alot about ourselves and how we can live our lives in an economical way. It teaches us to be happy with who we are and not who we strive to be. I want people to feel enlightened when they see my work, rather than just seeing a tangible painting, they also see an inner subtext, which can also reflects abit about who they are.

works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your pieces?

The subject matter, of my artwork comes from a reflection of this moment in time, the journey that I am on and the experiences that I've had.

It's not about reflecting its true surface, but rather the spirit of the subject. So instead of being a reflection on how it made me feel, I try to extenuate it's qualities like colour, focus etc., and bring these qualities to the attention of the viewer and see how that makes them react. I take my experiences and relate them to subject matter. I then use varies techniques and logic to portray this as an image and eventually the concluding meaning becomes apparent. The teachings of 'wabi-sabi', mention

Your artworks are carefully composed: how much importance does play spontaneity in your work? In particular, do you conceive you

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I would say that the audience is at the core of my decision making process. I make art for people to enjoy, rather than trying to reflect my talent or mindset. I want people to have a multitude of experiences when seeing my work. I don't mind if people don't understand my work or think that it's too superficial. I want the audience to live vicariously through me and follow me along this journey. I feel blessed at my success as an artist.

When I first started out as an artist, I used to get stressed out at the thought of people seeing my work. During my first group exhibition, I got quite drunk, as a way of dealing with the nerves. Once I got to the gallery, I noticed that the overall reaction was really positive. It made me realize that people were not out there to criticize but rather enjoy and appreciate the art work. These days, I feel that my creativity gives me the freedom to create whatever I like. I am never going to amaze people on every occasion, but at some point I will create a masterpiece.

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

Snow Tiger, acrylic, spray paint and snow on canvas

I am going to continue working on the themes of 'living in harmony' and 'the wisdom and beauty of imperfection', as I feel that there is lots more for me to explore. I am going to extend my reach further, by taking up some exhibition offers abroad, in places across Europe. I would love to exhibit my work in Japan, as I feel that the theme of nature and harmony would go down really well there.

that nothing lasts, nothing is finished and nothing is perfect. Thus, I focus on subject matter which is fleeting and temporal, like bubbles, fire or even a droplet of water.

One of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create 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 decisionmaking process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?

I have recently finished a three month run of exhibitions in Edinburgh, Scotland, so I am going to head back to the studio and produce some new work.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Robin Redbreast, acrylic on canvas

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Yael Dor Peretz Lives and works in Kibbutz Shefayim, Israel These series of paintings deal with the relationship between man to man and mankind towards animals.

They explore the subject of human morality, arouse questions of what is moral, what is immoral, and who has the authority to make that determination.

Is this inner awareness or conventional social behavior?

For my creative process, I use photographic scenes from the media. The technical choices in the paintings are aimed to highlight the issue of "moral principles" by the chosen image by color, texture, angles, and format.

The paintings that emerge from the photographs are not a direct copy of the original but rather create a new insight and meaning.

The paintings are also influenced by my emotional experience of dealing with different Israeli ideologies and beliefs.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator

Hello Yael and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you hold a Certificate of Completion from the HaMidrasha Faculty of the Arts at the the Beit Berl College. How did this experience influence the way you currently conceive your works? And in particular, how does the relationship between your cultural substratum due to your your emotional experience of dealing with different Israeli ideologies and beliefs influence the way you relate yourself to art making?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Artist Yael Dor Peretz's work provides the viewers with such intense, multilayered visual experience: her works that we'll be discussing in the following pages, are always meaningful and successfully attempt to trigger the viewers' perceptual parameters walking them through the liminal area in which inner world and outside reality find a consistent point of convergence. One of the most impressive aspects of Dor Peretz's work is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of inquiring into the theme of human morality, arousing questions of what is moral, what is immoral: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

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My studies at the Beit Berl College of Art, have influenced me a greatly from the conceptual point of view. The understanding that painting is not only a form of self expression, but is also a platform for communication and discourse on

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ideological issues. Art examines my personal boundaries and the boundaries of society.

Your works convey a coherent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification.

Before starting to elaborate about your production we would invite our readers to visit https://www.facebook.com/HofeshBeTzyur in order to get a wider idea about your artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you like to tell us something about your process and set up? In particular, do you think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist?

The Israeli society is a multi-layered with a diverse ideology. At times these ideologies contradict one another, create a division, with a lack of desire for communication and understanding. This experience of living together and having a different perception of reality, has influenced me greatly in my artistic production. Personally I experience despair and frustration from the situation, and I try to process this in my paintings and the way in which I create.

The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article has at once captured our attention of your artistic research is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics: would you tell us your sources of inspiration? And how did you select your subjects?

The modern era in which we live, allows us to use the history of art as a reservoir of information and a source of inspiration to elaborate, mix ideas and influences in order

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Supernatural Albinos

to convey the personal narrative and talk about the time we live in and how we

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experience it. The romantic era of the 19th century, examined the works from a

philosophical and spiritual point of view. This raises individualism in which the creator seeks

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Transfer

realization of his self within his work, with an emphasis on conveying his feelings and pains to

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what is occurring in his environment. The artist Francisco Goya in his work "May Third

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the conquest of Spain. After an unsuccessful uprising attempt against Napoleon's forces, the French randomly rounded up hundreds of Spaniards and executed them by gun fire, on the night between the second and third of may 1808. This is the first painting in which a scene showing the sights of the war is presented when the subject is not the victors, but rather the victims.

In the series of etchings "whims" the main theme of Goya's Capricious is a long list of abnormal social situations and erroneous behaviors. Goya criticizes the dark approach to life of that era: poor education, distortions of law, exploitative and greedy clerical rule, superstitions, gender relations, evil, dark opposition to enlightenment, political intrigues, and false accusations. Both of Goya's works are influenced by the society surrounding him and attribute to human behavior, when these scenes are placed in a picturesque environment the appearance of fantasy combines with the reflection of Goya's reality.

The Medusa Raft by the French painter Theodore Jericho, 1819. The painting presents the survivors of the French frigate La Meduz (the Medusa), which ran aground in front of Argan Beach in Mauritania. In 1816, the French ship "Medusa" left for Senegal, for Louie the 18th, to restore French hold in the area. When it faced the western shores of Africa, the ship ran aground. The captain decided to abandon the ship, but since there were only six lifeboats, his men built a raft for the rest of the passengers. After they saw that towing the raft was not possible, the crew members cut the tow ropes to the lifeboats and abandoned the raft to its fate. When the story of the Medusa raft was heard in France, there

1808" describes one of the controversial executions carried out by the French during

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Political Migrants

was a public uproar. Shock of the rapid loss of human morality was compounded by class and racial criticism. Social critics saw the raft as a symbol of the old-new royalist policy, which preferred to save the upper classes and leave the poor to their fate.

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Another stream that inspired me was that of "artistic symbolism" that took place throughout Europe in the 19th century, between 1880 and 1890. Common grounds to the artists of this style were the use of forms and images that were perceived as

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associations and non-verbal definition. Their work is hinting at ideas and emotions, through literary and mythological images, through style and shape of the line, and the use of color (several symbolic artists even emphasized the way the picture was painted -

in order to have an emotional impact). In the paintings of the symbolists there is a desire for individuality, melancholy, and a sense of an imaginary world.

Conceptually speaking the Internet is a

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Artificial vs. Natural

significant source of inspiration. I experience the internet as a parallel world that contains participations of different realities, and reflects people's lives. The contents it contains are imaginary and realistic, the possibility of combining reality

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and imagination causes blurred boundaries, which allow us to experience and perceive ideas and emotions in a new way.

Two modern artists from whom I am influenced by are Gerhard Richter and

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Transfoam

Michael Burmans. Richter's paintings which are based on images taken from photographs (Readymade). He paints his own version of the photographs, with

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uniform drawing of brush or spatula, using shades of monochrome or grayscale, with constant connection emphasized between figurative and abstract.

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the traditional figurative laying style a modern twist.

Michael Burmans: "I'm really not trying to tell a story, I'm just trying to create an image that will make us ponder about certain things, it's very difficult to define what this reflection is, but it also concerns things that we are not necessarily aware of." Michael Burmans The Internet has changed the reality in which we live today. This series of paintings is inspired by print media and accompanying photographs from media databases, it allows us to look at global situations and examine various aspects of human behavior.

We like the way the dreamlike quality of your paintings addresses the viewers to a multilayered visual experience capable of triggering the viewers' perceptual parameters: while referring to reality, these artworks convey such captivating abstract feeling: how do you view the relationship between concepts of the real and the imagined playing within your works?

The blurring of reality by the balance of power between representation and exhibit causes a distraction that renders reality unclear and even threatening. This idea is extended throughout my work. This is the way I translate the experience of reality reflected between the networks and the press. The process allows us to perceive the occurrence in a new light and serves as a mirror of modern society.

Your artistic practice seems to aim to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface: we have really appreciated the way the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances

The Belgian painter Michael Burmans, also uses photographs as raw material for painting. With the use of a murky plate he conveys the feeling of alienation, and gives

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that marks out pieces as Transfercreate tension and dynamics. How did you come about settling on your color palette? And 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 develope a texture?

My plate is based on blue, brown and white the combination between them characterizes my personal narrative. Some of my work allows the feeling of looking at a painting in black and white shades. Black and white evoke different feelings which can symbolize opposing or complimenting situations, this conveys a visual expression creating tension. The image that dictates my work method is of great importance, the process of choosing the plates and painting method is different according to the image I have chosen. In some cases, the process of creation is clear to me in advance, and in others I work intuitively. In creating "objectification", I used a monotype technique (a one-time print) For the final stratum, nylon is applied with a thin layer of oil paint to create a texture that simulates the elephant's skin.

As you have remarked once, the paintings that emerge from the photographs are not a direct copy of the original but rather create a new insight and meaning: would you tell us how much important is for you that the spectatorship rethink the concepts you convey in your pieces, elaborating personal m meanings?

Negative narrative

articles, they don't remain faithful to the original, but undergo a process of transformation.

My paintings are inspired by photographs and

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By blurring the reality, it changes the manner in which the subject is conveyed, and becomes a personal narrative. This is the

language I use to communicate express and convey emotions.

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Port au prince, installation , West End Gallery, 2015

Frozen mass

Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It

Your artwork arouses questions of what is moral, what is immoral, and who has the authority to make that determination.

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Inspiration of Saint Matthew to Joep van Lieshout's works, could be considered political, do you think that your works are political, in a certain sense? what could be in your opinion the role of Art in order to sensitize the viewers in our unstable contemporary age?

I agree with the artist Gabriel Orozco and believe that an artist is always influenced by the events surrounding him, his culture and environment. My work also carries political protest and cultural contexts, but they do not only face Jewish identity in the Land of Israel. They seek to examine human behavior, human behavior towards animals and explore moral questions arising from our attitude one toward the other. These themes are universal, appeal to all mankind and rise as an internal and social dilemma.

I think that my internal dialogue on morality is influenced by where I live and how I experience it: for example compulsory military service, Jewish Zionist education, and political occupation. This is a reality in which moral questions arise daily and the entire society faces.

In my opinion, the role of art in the modern era is to make people see and recognise things in a new light, to arouse feelings and communication that goes beyond words, to deal with material dilemmas and to create an internal questioning mechanism.

Your artworks are carefully composed: how much importance does play spontaneity in your work? In particular, do you conceive you works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your pieces?

depends on the political system you’re living under". Not to mention that almost everything, ranging from Caravaggio's

I am activated by images, so that the image is edited according to the context of the

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occurrence. My work is based on layered oil painting. Initially there are paintings that are more technically clear to me in the sense of drawing and designing the composition, layering the paint and selecting a plate. And there are those who go through a process of spontaneous intuitive searching of different technical experiences, in order to enhance my point of view and get different modes of expression.

One of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create 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 painting, I aspire to visual communication with the viewer which affects the whole process of work, from the choice of image until the completion of the painting. I want to evoke emotional influence and develop an internal dialogue for direct involvement with the audience.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Objectification

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Sivan Kaufman Lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel The moment as we experienced, is already goon. The landscape will always be only a landscape.

The view is always some kind of illusion, which relay on the things between us and what is actually there. The ground has actual weight, the layers between the actual surrounding and the person include air, light and much more. They can affect the way we see thing, the way we behave or the way we choose our everyday decisions The changing of the view, the ground, the adjustment of the landscape to the things around it, those the marks which can shape the moment we see, experience and what it really is. The view is always some kind of illusion, which relay on the things between us and what is actually there. The big mountain in the view have actual weight. Between the mountain and us, there is layers of air, light, a life, many things that can create and change the way we see the mountain.

In my works I am looking for the signs of changing and searching for the view as it seen from one point of view, and it may not seen again. I am trying to understand the way the landscape present itself, the way it used to present itself. I am interesting in the way the colors and the textures are working in their environment, and how much is it important for an individual or a group.

During process I use colors, texture , and shapes, light and dark. I am highlighting specific lines in the landscape. Each time I use different points and lines to describe the landscape around me, which I can see. However big part of my work is left for personal thinking. I like to see how people choose to act while watch my works, and what their response to something they are may-be not fully understand. I want to create and understand better the feeling you feel when watching beautiful view or loving something you can't reach and understand all of it completely

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Katherine Williams, curator

with the viewers. One of the most impressive aspects of Kaufman's work is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of encouraging the audience's visual curiosity, urging them to inquire into the feeling you feel when watching beautiful view or loving something you can't reach and understand all of it completely: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Experimenting with a wide variety of materials and techniques to express the ideas she explores, artist Sivan Kaufman's work rejects any conventional classification regarding its style, to address the viewers to a multilayered visual experience. In her body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages, she successfully attempts to trigger the spectatorship's perceptual parameters, with a deeper focus on a complementary dialogue between materiality, content, and the encounter

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Hello Sivan and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background.

You have a solid background and you graduated in Fine Arts in Israel, where you are currently based.

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http://www.sivankaufman.com 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? How much importance does play spontaneity in your work? In particular, do you conceive you works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your pieces?

Are there any particular experience that did influence the way you currently conceive your works? In particular, how did formal training help you to develope your unique style?

Thank you for having me. I don't think there is particular experience that influence me, but a few of small things which made me want and ask more questions about my surrenders. I studied art in the north of Israel, a periphery green quite place, near Lebanon border, which, as Israeli, I could not cross.

When living there, I was tired from the political and cultural talks and conflicts, which never ends. With it, I think that desire to escape from it, was the time I started to be more interested in those conflicts compare to the environment they are in, and how its influence each other. Moving from the center to the north of Israel to study art seemed like a strange move back then especially because I didn't work on any kind of art before. With no much experience in art, the program encourage us to work independently and develop our own thought about self-exploration and collaboration works.

In the process I left much place for working instinctively, but in very specific places. The way I am working and thinking is fast and I have a lot of thoughts and ideas in the same time. I am working about a lot of things all the time, and I can come back working on a work after few months. When I am trying to develop a new work, I am trying to work fast and instictively, just so I could focus an that one subject I wish to work on. That is why I am usually work in a series, and every work have a another work related to her. After funish working on a series I am usually let them rest for a few days, working on a different kind of work and come back again. I am often changing the space around me and place to help me focus on the subject I want to explore. From those series I am usually build a different an installation work, or create a new series. In the process I create a lot of series, It can be comfusing sometimes because each series is depending on the other and they all related, but each series explore something different.

I think, the printmaking workshop shaped the ways I am working now. We had a lot of freedom for experiments and in the same time a lot of rules to follow. I learned how to work in series, and how to use it in order to develop an idea. The way I used color in the printmaking workshop influence my drawing and my installation projects.

The idea of feeling something is not quite there, is important part of my work that I am trying to explore but I can't say I am completly understand.

That's why I think it's important for me to bring the best of myself into the process, and it's not working most of the times, but I do learn a lot in the process.

In the same time of studying art, I took history and general courses, which influence my works. I also think the Japanese and Chinese art and philosophy inspired my works, and the way I am working now.

After studies I was taking part for artist residency in Berlin and Iceland. The artist residency helped to develop my art from different point of view and gave me new perspectives that I felt I need after studying art.

I see spontanatly has an easier way to learn what are you truly understand and you know in your self.

When the need to think and calcluate is off, the truly expressions of the innerself is expressing itself in a bigger way, and you always create from the things that you know. With it, I do feel the need to use calcuating in order to know where I want to move on. When I thinking about instllation, I am

Your works convey a coherent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification. Before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit

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trying to disconnect from my works and trying to reconnect the idea all over again. This usually creates last minutes desicions, Sometimes it means to create in short amount of time sculpture or drawing, or changing old piece. Big part of my works depending on a space and the environment around.

You are a versatile artist and you include a wide variety of materials in your artworks: what did address you to such interdisciplinary approach?

And in particular, when do you recognize that a technique or a material has exhausted its expressive potential to self?

The technique, for me, can alwayse envolved.

Somethines I feel I can't draw a line excelly the way you wanted it to be, and change the material or mixing materials can be helpful. When working on specific place in Horizon Line project for example, I am drawing the same place fifty times or more and after a while I am not alwayse ready to transform it to one piece, than I start to use different technique or material. When there's not enough changes in the series or I think the work is not finished yet, it's easier to change techiniqe and use the new material or techniqe in order to help me thinks of the idea and continue evolove it.

In the process i don't alwayse know where I want to finish my work, I do have an idea but without a process and exploration of a seiries I can't see the work done. When I work fast I find it easy sometimes to get cought in the first or the most fimilar perspective I know, instend of keep of a process with a direction you want to. Changing the matirials or technique help me to remember what are the things I want to relate in my process, and continue building the process with the advantages of the old technique.

Another Part of my interdisciplinary approach is depent on my fast-face thinking. I am getting bored quite fast and always thinking about new ways to express an idea. Change and coming back from a techniques and matirials help me learn more about the idea.

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I always came back to techniqe or matirial from a different work, after What I think is the right amoung of time. I see it as a never ending process. I like ideas I can explore with diffrent matirials and when comming back to them, always see new sides.

The landscape or the related culture also influanse the material I choose. I am trying to connect the idea and connect it to the material or to the place I am staying or explore.

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected Horizon Line, an interesting project that our readers have already started to got to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your artistic inquiry is the way you provided its visual results of with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of Horizon Line would you tell us your sources of inspiration?

Horizon line started with prints works made with woodcut, in the north of Israel, The green Landscape of lebanon and Israel inspired me to continue work about this project. The borders with Leanon was crossing the village I lived in, and the view to Lebanon was my everyday view. When the landscape seemed so calm I tryied to understand How can be a border and a stopping point from some people, and some not.

After a while I became obsses about the desire to cross the border, and dissapointed from the fact I can't. With time it slowly evolve to question about ownership a land. I started to think about ways Which will allow me go the places I can't, so I was looking into lebanon and the border a lot, and started to study more about how wars and occupite a land changing the everyday life of the culture, the everyday habits and the life of the individuals. I continued to explore the perspective of a view of a country from different points of view. As I continued the process, I was intersted in the locations I was working from, and explore question about a vision or what are the things that make me see the view differently. I felt the need to change the the view,

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Port au prince, installation , West End Gallery, 2015

travel more in order to see the same view differently.

I went for a lecture of an Arabic Authur once during school. He and some of the audience had

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convratation about the right to belong to a land.

The person from the audience had a diffrent cultural backround but the ground was important part for both of them. One thing they couldn't

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agree on is what are the things that you do or born with, which making you belonging to a land.

Some said its depend where you born and some said its depend the way you raised. I was

intersted about the way they express their thought about a sense of belonging. They both expresed themself as a belong to the land, and they didn't said the land belonging to a socity

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they are living in, and shaped by the man.

One More thing that inspired me to explore landscape was Biological Psychiatry, or specificly a trauma a chiild born with. A reminders of fears, which can change the way you live, just by learning or own an trauma you never actually had or had.

Those ideas connected me also to textures and colors, and the desire to explore them as

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affacting your view or blocking the way of what you see. When starting explore the aesthetics of landscape, regarding different ideas and history I studying sepertly and influance the way I worked, I found it was important for me to work on a series of work and create differents series at the same time. it helped me to connect the ideas and thought of others about the ground and the view to the aesthitics of the work.

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Port au prince, installation , West End Gallery, 2015

How much does everyday life's experience fuel yourself as a creative? In particular, how do you see the relationship between reality and imagination within your artistic practice?

thought that are coming from it and impact the reality and imagination. I use both reality and imagination as one, usually I start from exploring the reality.

I think the reality can influence an individual as much as imagination or stories. I also see The imagination and reality have a thin border between them, but they both impact on each other. I am exploring the view as a reality and the

I am trying to look at the imaginagin and reality and the things that seperate them as layers of a rythum. I slowly get a rythum of the layers. The rythum helps me examine the connection between the imagination and the reality. The

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layers, can be memories, specific events or thoughts, help me to explore the layers of a view in un-reality space and find a way to arrange it. I think it is a way to seperate and explore the factors which impact what you see.

In the process I am trying sometimes to think about a space is not exict and influance by event or story of an individuals in specific socity. In my project solnedgang I am trying to explore the memories and the unreal expriences regarding the way we see the lamdscape.

I like to be inspired by memories of expriences in everyday life. I think memories are not represent onliy the reality but the imagination as well. I like to explore the representation of imagination in memories and in everyday experiences. I explore how the memories and the past can shape the way a person or society are thinking, and the way they chose to live their life in the present. Another aspect I am exploring in the process of my work is the History of a place. When looking about the History I am trying to consider which side of the history I am learning, and explore a few points of view of the some story. I am learning the details everyone agrees that happened, and the things everyone sees differently.

In ground birth project, which I started while staying in NES artist residency in skagastrรถnd Iceland, I am started to explore the history of the ground and it representation on today's life. I think Iceland is interesting place to explore the changes of a ground, and its representation of the past.

There are also a lot of real and unreal stories about the ground in Iceland which helped my process.

I think the representation of the past today is not the same as the past, not only one event, and the history to that event has well. I see example for it in the ground and in the stones I choose to explore in the ground birth project. You often can see the layers and the different materials it was created from. I like to explore the size and the order or

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rhythm of the history and the story, as I consider as layers, what creates something different from what it is as we know, and different rhythm.

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We have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances of Tropfen, that create both tension and dynamics.

How did you come about settling on your color palette? And how much does your own psychological make-up determine the

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nuances of tones you decide to use in a piece?

Before it, I usually took my insparation from the open landscape, and less from a view in the city. I missed more natural open space, and find it hard

I started working on Trofen when I was staying in Takt Kunstprojektraum artist residency in Berlin.

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it. I started to look for things that represent open spaces, less than a big city representation, and look at the borders inside the city. I tried not to use the colorful platte of berlin as a city, but search for more colors that are reminder of more natural things. I was searching for a few plattes, and seprate them. I tried to explore the ways they are mixing together. While I was staying there, it was winter time so the sky was grey allmost all the the time, and I missed the blue sky and the warm sun. That's another reason that inspired me to search for different platte in the obviouse view.

In Trofen I tried to explore the colors on a paper and to seprate the tones that I didn't wanted to see from the tones I liked. In this process of exploring the colors in the city, I also was intersting in the connection between the separate palettes I choose. With the process I choose the colors which represent my view and my thought that time. In the same time I explored the way the different tones are standing and involving with each other.

Tropfen for me is a process to find new rhythms in the environment. The rhythms, which depend on the different tones, is a search of a new place inside an existing place. It created kind of a map from me, which created by visual experience. In the process I had a clear rhythms and clear sounds. This project challenged me to explore not only others point of view, but understand mine, and learn how to Implement it on my future works.

As you have remarked in your artist's statement, the view is always some kind of illusion, which relay on the things between us and what is actually there: how much importance does play in your practice the exploration of what is unseen?

In particular, do you think that a work of art could provide the viewers with an augmented visual experience?

to find a quite open space in the city. I tried to think at the city as a place that was builded in the nature and it part of it now, and not unrelated to

The unseen is the things I am usually looking for the most when starting my research, and it

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represent big part of my works. I think approching and identefying the things that can't be seen is a challange for me, and it keep changing constently.

When thinking of a landscape, like in the project Horizon Line, I needed in a way to change the ways I was thinking about the landscape, because I had one kind of relanseship with the view.

One of the things that I find attractive in the unseen is the way it challange myself to re-identefying it again everytime. the need to defined what are the things that changing in the view, but can't clearly see, required me to leave a side my own point of view and thoughts about the landscape. The ways I can approach to identyfing what is there, or what is not there is not limited because I can never have a clear answer for it.

In order to come for conclusion about the unseen, I think only my sensations and feelings will not help.

With only the theoritical knowledge in order to approch it, I felt like leaving aside the landscape is actully there. For me, The layers of the things we can't see can be so many things, from matirials to cultural aspacts, thoughts. The attamp to learning them is seem pointless sometimes and alwayse bring more question than answers.

Your work shows the point of convergence between traditional aesthetics and contemporary sensitiveness. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under". How do you consider the relationship between artists and society? Moreover, what could be in your opinion the role of Art in the contemporary age?

When traveling It's easier to noticed the different approch of socity to the art, and the different between the ways every society see the importance of art in their daily life's. I think finding your place as an artist in the society can be challenging. I think the roles of any field today are changing. With it, I belive the art have a place in a important role in today society. I think people everywhere want to have a place for self-exploration in their culture, and

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art can help develop a society and have a place for people to development and exploration.

I think the artists role can change by artist to another but I do think artists bringing the place to explore new thoughts. Find an open space when you can explore, move forward and make a different in your own life or as a socity is not easy everywhere. I belive that dialogs about art can make a different. Artist who can approach to the audience with their art, and create a unique and different space is very inspiring from me.

We like the way solnedgang balances textures and thoughtful nuances within the environment, reflecting the elusive still ubiquituos relation with the theme of landscape, that is quite recurrent in your work. How would you consider the role of natural environment in relation to your work?

What does fascinate you of raw environment?

I am intersted in the connections between the natural and its connection to the society in it. They are constantly effecting each other, building or destroying. The constant changing is creating new enviroment and impact on new ways of living. The History is what shaped the enviroment in the present.

The envierment was always important, beauthiful and a conflict with my surraunders. When growing up I heard a lot of stories about immigrations, changing homes, or fighting the place you consider as home. They often talked about the land they loved and left, and their new ground as a process of connecting. This process of connecting and try to belong for the new place was in a way what created their home. I guess I always thought the ground important but I never felt completly belong to a place or a ground as I thought I should, as born in specific place. That is why I was more curious about the part in their expriences I couldn't understand.

I think values like develop enough strange to fight for your history or your home, its something I never couldn't completly connect with because I alwayse thought I am missing something behind all the

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The feeling of belonging to a land, the borders that creates your home find me interesting and for me it has a connection to the ground itself or the landscape you see. Taking an environment as a starting point to explore the things I was interested at that time, was very interested for me, and it appellant my curiosity and encourage me to explore several of aspects of the same subject again and again.

stories. With those conflicts, I sow the ground and nature as a natural things, a good place to feel comfertable in it, where ever it is, instead of belonging to it. In a way, I found my place in every clean and open enviroment I went to, and it allowed me to connect for the things I thought I should.

The ground was alwayse something I found inspiring and found relife in it.

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One of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create 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

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the people who got involved with the work.

During the residency at Slade research center in London I install two white thin thread in front of the window. It gave some kind of a border which was not easy to see and keep changed it colored, depend on the sun and the point you stand in the room. What I liked to see is how the audience felt the need to get involved with the work, and move the threads around the room. In a way, they were moving a border that they felt is not in the right place. I think I am learning a lot from every work the audience are involved. It always give me more ideas about how to continue the next works.

type oflanguage is used in a particular context?

The way the audience will be involved in a work, or what kind of language should I use to impact him on the way I wish to is something I am thinking about mainly in the installation process. I am trying to learn the different ways to connect with the audience and I like to explore the ways people react to anything around them. I am often looking at stranges in the street or in a private event and learn the small nuances in the reaction of a person or a group. I am trying to explore it with different aspects in my works, and often changing the properties of a work, and explore the changing in

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For me, it is like a game of boundaries. I am trying to keep it quiet and simple and I try to work with no thinking, so my knowledge about perception will not interfere with feeling I have from an the subject. It helpsme to learn more about the reception of the audience of my work. I like to think about the audience receptions as a group but I like to remember every person is different in the way he's involving himself, what bring me more points of view to explore.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Sivan. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future

projects? How do you see your work evolving?

First of all, Thank you for this opportunity. My plans are usually changing so I am trying to not plan too far ahead. For my future works I think I will try to explore them in new envieroments. I want to use more outside space, and locate my works there. I am continue develop SOLNEDGĂ…NG and ground birth project. I am usually working on a few project at the same time. So I do think new project will come soon.

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Aby Mackie Lives and works in Barcelona

Aby Mackie is a Barcelona-based artist whose wall-based sculptures are unified through a materials-led methodology combining storytelling and social commentary. Recurring themes can be identified as materialism, consumerism, value and memory. Each series investigates the interconnectedness of these themes through the language of materials.

Often in Barcelona, the contents of entire homes are either thrown onto the streets or auctioned off at Encants Vells market upon the death of a final occupant.

The creation of Mackie’s work is driven by the selection and repurposing of objects and textiles from these two practices in order to explore ongoing cultural concerns.

This roots Mackie’s artistic process in the everyday existence of the unrecognised, uncelebrated, unknown lives of Barcelona’s residents.

Mackie is captivated by the unobvious silent material witnesses to a life lived; a worn bed sheet, a stained tablecloth, a moth-eaten gown. Such artefacts bare the marks and physicality of human nature, possessing a poetic power. They are simultaneously valuable in their uniqueness and worthless in their deteriorated, decontextualized state. Each piece created from these objects is therefore both the artist’s personal expression of the hidden memories embedded in the original items, and a way to explore the recycling and re-contextualising of meaning and value in contemporary society. The experience and memories of others, imagined and real, fuse seamlessly with Mackie’s own through the salvation, destruction and discordant juxtaposition of materials.

A rich mix of influences can be seen through Mackie’s work in terms of concept (the found object sculpture of Picasso, Miro, Tapies, Grau-Garriga), techniques and materials (Anatsui) and subject matter and aesthetic sense (Basquiat, Schwarz), inviting the viewer to create their own connections and interpretations and encouraging a personal storytelling through materiality.

Wall based sculptures (work in progress). Mixed media. Embroidery, stitch and paint. 2017

Born in 1977 in Leicester, U.K. Aby Mackie earned her first class BA in textile design at Nottingham Trent University, followed by a Masters of Arts in fine art, photography and methodology.

It is from this place of material and technical diversity that her work has evolved over the years. https://www.facebook.com/armario.barcelona/ Her art, design & collections can also be found on her website: www.abymackie.com

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Jose F Bolet Lives and works in the Northwest suburb of Lake In The Hills, Chicago land Area These Drawings, most of them in small format, explore my interest in conveying mood and the relationship between the subject matter and all that seems essential about the subject itself and how the subject is transformed by its surroundings. My work seeks to get inside the subject capturing the invisible emotional aspect of it. It tries therefore, to get away from the sensationalism of today’s art by focusing on the expressiveness of basic elements like line, values, form and the effect of light reflected on the subject.

They do not pretend to be an exact representation of the subject or even the location. They do though; pretend to depict and intimate relationship with the subject in front of me, creating at the same time a visual and intellectual dynamic with the viewer.

Jose F Bolet, has been featured among others, in the 11th edition of International Contemporary Masters, 2017. He is also the author of the book “Rendering in Black, 25 drawings across US”, Xlibris, 2015, which is a recollection of his experiences traveling around US, and the many places he has visited. The artist is now working on his second book, a political theme graphic novel.

His work is in many private collections.

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Katherine Williams, curator

subjects and their surroundings, to address his spectatorship to capture invisible emotional aspect of reality: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to his stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Rejecting any conventional classification regarding its style, Jose F Bolet's work draws the viewers through an unconventional and multilayered experience. His practice gets away from the sensationalism of today’s art by focusing on the expressiveness of basic elements like line, values, form and the effect of light reflected on the subject.

One of the most stimulating aspect of Bolet's work is his successful attempt to the intimate relatinship between the

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Hello Jose and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and after having degreed you continued your education in cartoons, graphic design, and illustration. You also studied philosophy and philosophy of the arts at the Universidad Central de

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a whole new platform from which my output completely transformed itself.

Venezuela. How did these experiences influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? And in particular, how does the relationship between your cultural substratum dued yo your Venezuelan roots and your current life in the United States inform the way you relate yourself to art making?

The results of your artistic inquiry convey coherent sense of unity and before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit https://artavita.com/artists/11790-j-f-bolet 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 think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist.

Studying philosophy and specially philosophy of the arts, gave me a great deal of information on regards to how ideas influences the human behavior, and how art becomes a graphic representation of the reality we live in every day, of our culture and ideas. By having all these theoretical experiences and working also on different styles and techniques, like graphic design, illustration and cartoons, I was able to learn new languages through which translate those ideas into images. It also helped me to conceive my production in different ways, literally providing me with new routes to create images that represented my thoughts.

Yes, there is a central idea that connects all my work as an artist, and that idea is “the human factor,” not necessary the human figure. When seeing my art production as a whole, I feel that all the images seems to represent “what it is left” on that relationship with other human beings. Disregarding landscape, figurative or even my political output, it always appears as if the end result is depressing, isolation, and abandonment. I try to represent the effects of our relationship with the surroundings and all that is essential on the subject itself.

Coming to the United States completely changed my life and vision. A new reality emerged; new ideas and understandings created a new “cultural substratum” comingling together and producing an entirely new vision. This was not only reflected on my output, but also on the way I related to my art making process and my position in the art world.

Definitely, having moved to USA gave me

The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article has at once captured our attention for the way you have captured the intimate

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relationship with the landscape in front of you, providing the visual results of your artistic inquiry with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through your usual process and set up, would tell us how do you select the subjects and the locations for your series?

Contrary to what many people believe, I do not have a process for selecting or choosing locations or even subjects. I am attracted tough, to certain kind of set up that in some way could be useful for an idea that I might be roaming in my mind for a while. Like I said before, the idea is more important for me than the subject itself.

Sometimes a detail of a building, or just a wall of it, a corner of a landscape, a detail of a face or even a shadow, could easily trigger ideas for my work. A perfect example are The abandoned house, The Old Church, Addison train Station, which are drawings that represent an idea different from what the subject was meant to be.

The landscapes of your works, both natural and urban, plays a crucial role in your imagery. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, you are interestd in exploring the relationship between the subject matter and how the subject is transformed by its surroundings: how would you consider the relationship between the subjects and and their surroundings? And what importance does

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play the notion of surrounding in your work?

The main notion of the surroundings came to me when realizing (but no quite understanding), early in life the interconnection between all entities whereas objects, animals, humans, or the universe itself. We are all affected by one another in multiples ways, many times howe4ver, the “way” of that connection is not visible, or immediate or even there for us to acknowledge it. In my art work, I try to explore that notion, that relationship of something that is there but that we can’t quite grasp, Still, very real.

This concept is the main point that gives unity, and connection to all my work.

Whereas urban or natural landscape, people or just faces, it is the reason of that intimate relationship between the subject and the surroundings.

We daresay that you seem to excite the viewers to „finish“ the artwork by themselves, addressing their imagination to create personal images. Rather than attempting to establish any univocal sense, you seem to urge the viewers to elaborate personal associations: would you tell us how much important is for you that the spectatorship rethink the concepts you convey in your pieces, elaborating personal meanings?

Whatever I was thinking or had in mind when painting or drawing, it may not be accurate on the end result. This is caused

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by many reasons like expertise in any given technique, or no longer interested on what was the original idea or even sticking to

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what the art work demands by itself on any state of the process. So, once the work is done, the piece will reclaim its own

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space and the viewer will be compelled to elaborate his or her own story or interpretation of the art work particularizing personal meanings. To give you an example; I few years back, probably in 2009, I had a solo exhibition with at least 15 pieces. That show caused a great range of comments going from admirable work, to very creative, disgusting and even qualifying the art pieces as “evil”. How was possible that all

those comments were stirred from the same 15 pieces of art? Well, it was possible because each viewer makes its own interpretation of the of the art work particularizing and re-thinking its meanings.

This perception of “rethinking meanings” is a very important and desirable concept that in my opinion defines and gives universality to any given “piece of art.”

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Drawing is one of the most spontaneous and immediate way to achieve and express a concept: how much importance does play spontaneity in your work? In particular, do you conceive you works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your artworks?

particular and methodical on my drawing process. I usually have an idea or thought in my mind for a few days or even weeks that I think and re-think several times.

Once I feel comfortable with it, I decide what the best technique to use for that particular piece of work. I then, start choosing photographs or images of my own or I visit places on which I know I would find what I am looking for.

I greed that drawing is one of the most spontaneous ways to express an idea.

Nonetheless, I am personally very

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After that, the process could be very intuitively, letting the spontaneous and the formal knowledge to play together in the realization of the art work.

While referring to reality, your works do not pretend to be an exact representation of the subject or even the location: how do you view the concepts of the real and the

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imagined playing out within your works? In particular, how much importance is the role of imagination in your process?

In My work, “the real” and the imaginative play an important role all together in the making of my art. As I said before, I am not interested in making an exact representation of an object, but an intimate, subjective interpretation, in which case, after starting with the real object, the imagination takes over on an attempt to discover and represent what we do not see with our eyes, capturing the “invisible emotional aspect of that reality”.

We have appreciated your successful attempt to get inside your subjects capturing their invisible emotional aspects: are you interested to address your spectatorship to inquire into the unexplained? In particular, how much importance has for you the emotional aspect of your work?

Fine art is a visual and sensitive experience that reclaims the participation of the viewer. The job of the spectator is to allow him/her to get into that experience. It is therefore, very important the emotional or sensorial connection with the piece of work in front of the viewer, so that a new, unique reality or vision could be created.

Every art work would trigger different emotions and connections with different

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viewers, but it is the spectator, the one who allows for that to happen.

That’s why the experience on the emotional connection is ultimately a very personal one.

You are currently working on your second book, a political theme graphic novel: Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under".

What could be in your opinion the role of Art in the contemporary age?

Art is no longer a commodity used to just only contemplate something “beautiful,” it is a weapon to question society. There are many examples in the history of art that support this statement, and this is not only true in regards to political ideals. Monet, Goya, Picasso and many others left a legacy of paintings questioning the brutality and horrors of war.

The Dadaist movement helped us to recognize the insanity, and the anxiety, of the global destruction caused by war. Futurist painters gave us the awareness of a new technological world in which movement and velocity were an essential part of our daily lives.

Surrealist provided a new concept of reality in which dreams were a fundamental part of the human behavior.

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Contemporary Art

So, I firmly believe that art and artist must have an active role in society.

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?

Your work is in various private collections and over the years your artworks have been featured in several occasions, including the 11th edition of International Contemporary Masters, 2017. One of the hallmarks of your work 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

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As an artist, I consider the audience to be a crucial part of the whole art making process, since this audience is the receptor of the message sent. However,

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Jose F Bolet

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Contemporary Art

kind of drawing. My work is evolving rapidly to a kind of comic drawing style that is more creative and at the same time more refined in regards to the basic elements of line, values, form, etc. I continue exhibiting, and looking for more ways to reach more and diverse audiences.

artist should not be conditioned to that, because the whole purpose of the artist as a messenger will be lost.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Jose. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects?

How do you see your work evolving?

As of right now I am working on a political theme graphic novel and developing a more elaborate, complex

An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Katherine Williams, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Monique Rutten That is the iconography I use in my work as well, as long as it strengthens the work in its deeper meaning. This is however not an imposed meaning, but an interpretation of expression and thus subjective. Sometimes it is easy to recognize the symbol, it is meant to streghten the image. Some examples of this which you can see in my painting are the deer and the antlers of the deer. For me this is a connection with the higher, the spiritual. But nothing is exclusively holy, the antlers grow out of control and are also controlled by a darker side. You see a devilish figure in the back who doesn’t only show lovely virgin imagine. The boys of the seminars are in a costume, a straight-jacket for twelve year old boys. Are they being told that the woman is a prostitute or a holy angel? They were given a specific picture and they grow up in a strange world without woman. The truth is some of these many young boys were sexually harassed by the catholic church as well. The other painting: You must listen to the leader, or the Dutch childrens song ‘’1, 2, step in size’’ is inspired by the fanfare in my own youth. It tells a story of fitting in with a silent protest. The painting: Children play everywhere, is meant a bit ironically. The danger sign in the background shows how double the work is.

Tentoonstelling Strijp S, april 2013