Peripheral ARTeries Art Review, Special Edition, Autumn 2016 by Artpress

Anniversary Edition

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

SEBASTIAN KAWAR ALON TALMI NITZAN SATT MIRELA KULOVIC NIKITA RUSSI KARISSA HAHN HILDY MAZE PAKA TRAYKOVA JOSEPH GODDARD Structure of Collapse, Installation, 2016 a work by Joseph Goddard

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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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CONTEMPORARY ARTREVIEW T REVI

Contents 184

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Lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA

Lives and works in East Hampton, NY, USA

204 Lives and works in Israel Elis Gjoni Double Gravity

Lives and works in the Greater Boston Area, USA Indiscret Lens Installation by Victor Cano

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Lives and works in London, United Kingdom

Lives and works in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Israel

Clare Haxby

Lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

160

Lives and works in Sofia, Bulgaria

Kristyna and Marek Milde Cabinet of Smells, 2015, installation

Lives and works in College Station, Texas, USA

Special thanks to: Isabel Becker, Julia Ă&#x153;berreiter, 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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Karissa Hahn Lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA

Los Angeles based visual artist Karissa Hahn's work rejects any conventional classification regarding its style. Her body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages triggers the viewers' perceptual parameters to address them to such multilayered visual experience. One of the most impressive aspects of Hahn's work is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of inquiry into the notion of memory, to unveil the elusive still ubiquitous bond between the nature of the medium and the work of art: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

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

Attending the California Institute of the Arts completely changed my perception, or rather, - birthed a new knowledge of what experimental filmmaking could be. Before my education in the arts I had made a series of videos based off of what I witnessed others watching soaps operas and action movies. There were budget cuts in my high school and art was the first to go so I started to make these weird little narratives in my friends basement. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t until I got to CalArts that I could start to stray from narrative in a new way. I got sucked into the film world there, especially after learning the optical printer from Charlotte Pryce. And experimental filmmaking techniques from Betzy Bromberg. And how to listen and

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Hello Karissa and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training and you hold a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Film and Video, that you received from the California Institute of Arts: how did this experience influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? And in particular, how does the relationship between your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to art making in general?

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Turnaround Time super 8, B&W, sound, Duration 03:20, 2016

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Effigy in Emulsion, super 8/16mm to digital, color, sound, Duration 03:00, 2014

observe landscape from James Benning. I made a lot of short works on super 8mm and 16mm, but now have returned to doing more video-art and

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performative works, post-graduation. I picked up a 3-megapixel camera at a Bed Bath & Beyond and can keep a fast workflow without having the resources 6

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one would have at an institution. My education in the arts definitely opened me up to an entire different world of thought.

The results of your artistic inquiry convey together a coherent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification. Before starting to 7

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elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://www.karissahahn.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. It is only until people have stated that there is a thread connecting my work that I can start to view it in this manner. I tend to work in three different formats at a time on separate pieces (inkjet, digital8, super8) and am often just trying to utilize the proper medium for each conceptual thought. Perhaps there is material manipulation occurring in each, and a sense of frame-division. A lot of people have said that I work in domestic spaces - but I think that I just try to shed light on the various mundane operations we perform. I since started to survey different subjects (basketball, the zoo, construction sites) in order to branch out of the home, and after seeing some of Jack Goldstein’s shorts . And I’ve realized that there is humor in those actions. I work fast and start projects before others have ended so I tend to not think about this. I think my journals are more revealing in looking back at what I’ve done and why I did it. For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected Effigy in Effigy in Emulsion, super 8/16mm to digital, color, sound, Duration 03:00, 2014

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Disaster Reproduction SPECIAL ISSUE inkjet printed 16mm, color, sound, 2018

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Please step out of the frame., super 8, B&W, sound, 2018

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Emulsion, a captivating project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your artistic inquiry into the notion of memory is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of Effigy in Emulsion would you shed a light about your usual process and setup? The genesis of Effigy in Emulsion came from a blind purchase off Ebay. It was an unlabeled roll of 8mm and at times of gamble I tend to delight in uncovering a mystery roll. I unspooled it onto my desk and realized that it was someones wedding footage from the 70’s. I hadn’t thought much of it until I came across one single washed out frame. I determined that this was born from a camera flash and was intrigued that the flash didn’t seep into the frame prior or after. I wanted to approach this deciphering of the artifact by utilizing the same process which was made at the time of its discovery. So I essentially taped the roll of 8mm film onto a piece of 16mm in order to literally reframe it as some document which I could claim ownership over as investigator. For I had supposed that the camera flash taken by a stranger washed out a frame of this strangers 11

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1_ _ _ _1, super 8 to digital, B&W, sound, Duration 03:00, 2015

film - and I wished to uncover what lie beneath the exposure. I rephotographed the film on the optical printer in in the hope to reveal the

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latent image. I like the think that the frame that was washed away exists as some photograph on someones mantel. 12

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_______, super 8 to digital, B&W, sound

My usual process and set up exists in this same sort of manner. I tend to seek out a compelling artifact and further its growth by resurfacing its qualities and experimenting through different formats in order to create a diegesis in frame surveyal.

Your practice rounds on such proficient synergy between optical printing and digital manipulation: what does fascinate you of analogue techniques and how would you consider the relationship between digital technologies and your work?

The filmic medium allows this analytic approach to transpire.

I work between analogue and digital as a means for dialogue to unfold. The 13

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relationship is curious and they either work as separate tools or inspiration for one another. The conversation between both mediums often ends up in sort of cycle, a synergy. I often find myself shooting on super 8 and unspooling the roll in the my car out of urgency. I enjoy this routine and delight in the pleasure of having some vacation period that feels somewhat productive. My first job was in a circuit breaker factory and it has influenced the way I work since. Working on the optical printer reminds me of this experience of performing the same task over and over again in order to come to a final product. For a while all of my cameras and sound devices were slightly broken and there was a nice allowance for the machine to sculpt the final piece. Now, most of my devices are in working order and all of the hiccups are mine. I believe something could be said about the way we operate today with our digital devices. The only time I see objects in the foreground - as material beings - are when cooking, untangling a necklace, or playing a game of solitaire. Most dreams now are even inundated with digital images. There is joy in working in analogue and for me, it relates to being in the present moment. One could argue that you get lost in this world and its true - but perhaps it is more about looking at a film strip under a lamp in a dark room instead of staring at a screen in a dark room.

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Please step out of the frame. (production still), super 8, B&W, sound, 2018

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Thermochromic pigment on 16mm film, 2017

1_ _ _ _1 is a successful attempt to recreate the tension behind William Adolphe Bouguereau's A Young Girl Defending Herself Againdt Eros. We like the way it offers an open reading and also unveil the channel of communication between the conscious level and the subconscious sphere. Are you particularly interested if you try to achieve to trigger the viewers' perception as a starting point

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to urge them to elaborate personal interpretations? Thank you for this thoughtful insight. The painting reveled a woman with cemented-extended arms which are usually depicted supple and wavering, backed by a face unconvincing and filled with volition. Something about her arms, locked elbows, chilled, contracted, and resolute. It was there that I imagined a chain extended 16

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(something harsh yet pliable) and drew the connection to making films in this current landscape. She lounges and emits coy, she arches her back and holds her arms stiffly out “defending” yet simultaneously playing hard to get. This was my personal interpretation of the piece, and I tried to convey this feeling through an action that was directly related to the camera, and through cinematic means. I try to convey a conceptual thought process

within the reproduction of an image and allow it to be interpreted by the viewer. People often come up with their own interpretation of the connection and I am delighted by that. Though, I do put in much effort to be conscious of how I go about relaying these investigations. I do find it important in my work to lay out a scenario that is carefully curated to engage the viewers’ perception with enough room for their own 17

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In Effluence accord; Emulsion, super 8/16mm to digital, color, silent, 2013

more and been wondering how much my interactions are influenced by media. David Shield’s “Reality Hunger” has been monumental in reflecting upon this notion. He claims that our world is a sort of manufactured and artificial place. When I react to an event I then wonder where I learned that from in the movies. You learn to navigate in this place and so its hard to say what came first. I even started to notice media seeping into and curating

experiences to play out and relate to the theme. How much does everyday life's experience fuel your imagery and your creative process? In particular, do you think that a creative process could be disconected from direct experience? Everyday experiences are essential to my work. I can’t avoid it. I have always secluded myself away from interactions but have recently been out

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our everyday existence. Billboards are the main means for pushing these dramas. Whatever seems to be occurring in our political and cultural climate becomes emulated by these big beings on the freeways and city streets; and they are simultaneously becoming more vague in order to be more interactive. There are a few down Sunset Boulevard right now stating small phrases that one would then go to research further in their car, via their

iPhone. And I believe that is their purpose. In “The Mystery Guest,” Gregorie Bouillier states “Shortly after 9/11, the defense department hired Renny Harlin, the writer- director of Die Hard 2, to game-plan potential doomsday scenarios; in other words, fiction got called to official aid, reinforcement, and rescue of real life, as if real life weren’t always fiction in the first place.” So I believe that just generally interacting with others in the 19

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Eclipse, super 8, B&W, sound, 2017

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world has become curated to a confusion of robotic functions of learnt manners and romantic nuances. The way you superimpose opposite techniques allows you to deconstruct artifacts to extract from them unexpected feaures of their physical nature. Multidisciplinary artist Angela Bulloch onced remarked "that works of arts often continue to evolve after they have been realised, simply by the fact that they are conceived with an element of change, or an inherent potential for some kind of shift to occur". Technology can be used to create innovative works, but innovation means not only to create works that haven't been before, but especially to recontextualize what already exists: do you think that the role of the artist has changed these days with the new global communications and the new sensibility created by new media? Yes, at least for what I experience on the daily. This new sensibility seems to coincide with the ego and I find that fascinating. There is something occurring right now about a curated lifestyle of sorts and it is all through these platforms of social media. I suppose new media outside of the immediate realm of the tablet involves VR systems and drones, video games, and AI technology.

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Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in a stage of machine learning and machine vision and adapting to and feeding these entities. At CalArts, I studied people who were working on films for the most part, and am happy to have held onto the knowledge in order to keep on making analogue works.

another. Photographer Thomas Ruff stated that "once nowadays you don't have to paint to be an artist. You can use photography in a realistic way. You can even do abstract photographs". What is your opinion about the importance of photography in the contemporary art?

Your multifaceted artistic production shows that you are a versatile artist, capable of ranging from a media to

I sometimes look to photography or painting for filmic inspiration as the single frame of portraiture often brings

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about notions off the canvas or outside

moment that he fictionalized her

of the frame - the moments before or

existence. The portrait is a nice starting

after the often male figure

point to create moving imagery as there

photographs or paints women... I try to

is so much activity contained in stasis.

give the subject some sort of life in the 23

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Today photographs are fleeting and

there is a curious collusion of sorts occurring with what could be classified as art with contemporary photography.

representational of clever gestures. They somehow act as declarations of getting tasks done or experiencing

Over the years your works have been internationally showcased in several

new things throughout the day. I think

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occasions, including your recent participation at the WNDX Festival of Moving Image in Winnipeg,: 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 consider the

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Thermochromic pigment on 16mm film, 2017

relatable experiences and exaggerate them through the use of repetition. For more poetic super 8 films I get into my head while constructing them but still try to string together something that can be shared and accessible. I feel that there is a formula in certain types of experimental filmmaking and I realize that I do at times follow it when composing a shot or flow of a piece.

issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decisionmaking process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context? When making more structuralist work, I try to lay out a scenario that the audience can ingest can leave with some new understanding of a gesture. I suppose that that I try to articulate

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

been working this odd joy day job where I visit strangers homes to take care of their pets and been adapting that into a book of prose stories. I hope to find new means of creating works and working in different formats.

Thank you for the thoughtful questions. I have been collecting snippets of the news throughout the year and printing them onto clear 16mm film with an inkjet printer. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve

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

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Hildy Maze Lives and works in East Hampton, NY, USA My work is driven by a curiosity into the investigation of mind thru art. None of us can avoid thoughts, but through awareness of our pitfalls, beauty, strengths and weaknesses we can open windows into the mind. The core of my contemplative art practice is to visually embody the blind spots as a result of our thoughts. I am interested in the study of how the mind works as a means of gaining insight, how we communicate, how we create identity through form, emotions and consciousness, and how we hide in that creation. Essentially this work is about all of us and the empty, clear and unconditional nature of mind we all have. When we know the nature of our mind we will know the nature of our world. My work is developed with the view that art has the capacity to infuse the experience of everyday life with awareness. Using my experience of passion, aggression and ignorance I delve into the discursive thought patterns and emotions that obscure the recognition of our basic nature of mind which is empty, lucid, all-accommodating space continuously awake and aware. I’m interested in persuading the viewer from the boundaries of the image, to engage with matters beyond what is immediately visible; to relate with who we are as deconstructed,un-created, i.e. more expansive and gentle than our usual descriptions of ourselves and how the culture defines us. Everything begins as thought,then manifests as a physical reality. We are not going to fix our world without healing the patterns of thought that are driving the world into its present state. By delving beneath the turbulence of thoughts we can uncover in ourselves “something” that we begin to realize lies behind all the discursiveness, changes, and deaths of the world. This is the most rebellious act of all imbued with social impact and non-conformism to actually glimpse,then realize the profound truth we all have. The work on paper has been archival treated.

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

graphic-design sensibility which is sometimes a hinderance. Because of that I like to mix as much drawing and painting and ripping into the work to juxtapose the design quality. At Pratt I had a very good graphic design instructor, Charles Goslin, who had more confidence in me than I had in myself, and his rigorous critiques of my work pushed me to think precisely, pay attention to detail, and relax without worrying about the result.

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Hildy and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You hold a solid formal training and you hold a BFA that you received from the prestigious Pratt Institute. How did this 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?

The underlying influence that informs my work is decades of study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1979, a friend sent me a copy of the Prajnaparamita, or Heart Sutra based on realizing the non-conceptual simplicity of reality, “form is emptiness, emptiness is form”. Within a

My main focus at Pratt was graphic design. I seem to have an almost over- powering

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appearing duality 18 x 24 oil paper collage 2016

appearing duality 54 x 72 oil paper collage 2016

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the essential nature to be drawn freely without judgment, to be spontaneous and personal. Beginning with small oil on paper drawings as personal inquiry I found my way into materials, techniques and process. I felt a particular kind of confidence and freedom. As the direction and process became clearer, the drawings increased in size, the tools and techniques became more personal and varied, like sticks, stones, grass, cardboard, string, hands and feet, anything that would make a mark with a controlled spontaneity, and new and worn brushes, with powder pigment and oil. A 3 part series evolved based on the Three Turnings of the Buddha, titled glitches and veils, crossing the waves, seed knowledge, 2009-2010. Following these drawings/paintings were the series unborn, 20112012, dependent arising, 2012-2013.

week I began practicing and studying Tibetan Buddhist meditation under the guidance of the Tibetan Buddhist meditation master and artist, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche until his death in 1987. My meditation, studies including numerous solitary and group retreats, much like residencies for the exploration of mind have been the most important influence on the work I do. From a cultural point of view I’m influenced by the all-pervasive confusion and suffering individually and collectively throughout the world. Everything is created by mind. If we know nothing about the mind and the basic goodness that is mind itself we will continually be magnetized by materialism of all kinds. The results of your artistic inquiry convey such coherent sense of unity and before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://hildymaze.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.

I feel that paper is the most responsive material for investigating the mind through art. Mostly because of the quality of impermanence and flexibility. In 2013, I added the technique of collage using drawing and painting on paper as the collaged elements. Our active mind creates collages of thoughts and patterns, as in a dream. If we examine our thoughts, we can see they are fragmented pieces empty of solidity. My studio floor became covered with a vast tapestry of painted paper - ripped, aged and often walked on for days or months. This allowed the process and rhythm of art making to come more alive with spontaneity and unpredictability. I discovered a rugged, earthy, hands-on, living quality in working with ripened, ripped pieces of a carefully considered drawings and paintings. Finding the exactly, serendipitously precise piece of paper feels like finding a treasure —the one particular color or texture that will work in some way within a piece in a still undetermined puzzle. This process of inviting unforeseen happenings and finding the unexpected, helped me avoid preconceived ideas. The treatment of the paper lends to it an inherent living quality. Depending on the passing of time and light, it

The central idea throughout what I do is my inquiry into the nature of mind through art. Around 2009-present, I began to explore drawing and painting on paper relating to a deep experience of mind and identity. With reflection on our intimate connection to the environment, I chose to work with environmentally friendly paper and materials. At first the drawing implements were branches and the usual brushes, with powder pigment and oil. I referred to instructions from Trungpa Rinpoche saying that art arises from a deep connection between mind and heart, seeing from within. In other words, drawing from pure awareness without visually grasping - beginning from uncertainty, without reference point. With my eyes closed I devised a technique which allowed

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pointing to the uncontrived 33 x 35 oil paper collage 2017

takes on various characteristics and a quality of accelerated impermanence as the paper ages and becomes fragile, not unlike those things we search for and cherish in an attic or basement, or even at an archeological site or retrieving a lost

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memory. An otherwise ordinary insignificant quality becomes special. A fingerprint, wrinkle, rip, drip or tear becomes texture and language. These abstract contemplative works were developed with the view that art has the

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naked seeing 31 x 32 oil paper collage 2017

capacity to infuse our experience with awareness of our inherent nature, and, along with their carefully chosen titles, invite viewers to move beyond the boundaries of the image into a more contemplative consideration of

mind in relationship to the phenomena of what we consider objective reality. The series completed during this time were Beyond One and Many (2013-2014), Releasing Into Space Everything All at Once (2014-2015), Ordinary

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attachment tied to the familiar

37 x 57 (reversible) oil paper collage 2017

Vastness, (2015-2016), Mind Looking at Itself (2016-ongoing) and No Apparent Existence (2017-ongoing)

select the subjects for your artworks? The images seem to select themselves as part of the process. They self- evolve. Same with the titles. With the studio floor covered with painted and drawn on paper ripped incidentally into pieces I never know what I will discover when beginning to work. Somewhat like the idea of causality, one piece of paper leads to another without any preconceived idea. Both the process and the work itself is an inquiry and personal experience into how mind and visual perception work. In the series mind looking at itself the recognizable reference point is mostly faces and heads. To realize the nature of the

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 insightful inquiry into the nature of mind is the way you have provided the visual results of your artistic exploration with such autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through your usual process and set up, would tell us how do you

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grasping at nothing really 36 x 48 oil paper collage 2017

three marks of existence 36 x 48 oil paper collage 2017

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looking into mind I see my clinging to me

no where to be found

36 x 49 oil paper collage 2017

36 x 48 oil paper collage 2017

mind does not involve getting rid of anything that exists within the mind. It comes from realizing the nature of the mind we already have: the mind that thinks, wills, anticipates, and feels. The problem is not that we have thoughts and emotions; the problem is that we do not understand the nature of these thoughts and emotions. We cling to them mistaking them to be solid and true obscuring mind’s empty, clear, cognizant nature. When mind becomes more stabilized and develops a sense of clarity, and awareness is maintained while thoughts and emotions arise, these thoughts and emotions will reveal the nature of mind. The question is who is doing this looking, who is aware?….it’s the mind itself in it’s infinite capacity of

knowing. This awareness is mind looking at itself. As you have remarked once, the core of your contemplative art practice is to visually embody the blind spots as a result of our thoughts. 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? Although the nature of mind is the same for all of us, the stories we tell ourselves and our attachment to those habitual stories vary.

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wandering through a temporary arrangement 51 x 94 oil paper collage 2017

Everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s path of discontent and insight into that discontent is different. Blind spots vary in their solidity but basically the same for us all. Each personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grasping varies in how fixated they are. From this point of view I would be delighted if viewers made their own personal contemplation, spent some time looking and seeing rather than a quick glimpse judging whether they like the image or not.

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We have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances of red that marks out pointing to the uncontrived: however, other works as naked seeing shows that 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

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use in a piece and in particular, how do you develope a painting’s texture? All of these things, color, texture, tones are developed in various stages of the process. It begins with making drawings and paintings on paper using various colors and tools, like branches brushes, anything that will make a mark. There’s play involved, experiment ,

sometimes a specific image. I let the creative mind roam free, a state of uncontrived creativity where I step out of my own way. I call it making paper. Some of these drawings and paintings are put aside as complete. Others are strewn on the floor to begin a ripening process meaning the paper becomes a part of the existing tapestry of paper already spread across the floor. The haphazardly strewn paper reveals combinations I would not otherwise think of that attract me, and from this a collage begins, with pinning, ripping, cutting, folding, and so on. It’s a conversation without words or thoughts, preconceived ideas or attachment. The natural aging of the paper along with the wrinkling, stains, drips and casual handling of the already painted and drawn upon paper lends much of the texture. Out of this the colors, textures and tones arise. From this the image takes form. An instinctual energy seems to be doing it all. ‐ How do you go about naming your work? In particular, is important for you to tell something that might walk the viewers through their visual experience? Naming the work evolves when I’ve arrived at that point of leaving the work right there without trying to improve or manipulate it. Once it’s completed I distance myself and quiet my mind to allow some kind of essence of the image to speak. The title may arise immediately, other times it may take a few days. I don’t make an effort to walk the viewers through their visual experience since I have no idea what that may be. I just point in a direction of possibility. For example, release all at once is about letting go of attachment to our habitual thoughts and emotions. Thoughts are not a problem, it’s our attachment to these discursive thoughts that create confusion and often suffering. The image attachment pulls the trigger relates with clinging and fixation. Once we become attached to a thought it leads to another thought and another until we’ve developed a whole story that is filled with hope or fear, pain or pleasure, expectation or disappointment. The trigger is attachment which fills our world with projections that often come back to us as confusions of all kinds. While referring to reality, your paintings, as the interesting tied to the familiar and grasping at

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release all at once 36 x 36 oil paper collage 2017

nothing really convey such captivating abstract feeling: how do you view the

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relationship between reality and imagination playing within your works?

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years of the same sentence 32 x 33 oil paper collage 2017

Imagine a rainbow. Even though we can see

empty of intrinsic reality. Even though a rainbow is empty, we can still see it. This is

the rainbow quite clearly, it is at the same time

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hair's breath of difference 30 x 37 oil paper collage 2017

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when coping strategies fail 57 x 63 oil paper collage 2017

how I approach my work. Recently Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been using the figure as a reference point of reality and sometimes a hand or foot print, which is an appearance of what we think of as a reality. That reality is abstracted which is a way to play with imagination. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m mixing reality with imagination which is something like appearance/emptiness. Another way of discussing this is to say appearance emptiness

inseparable, nothing we perceive truly exists externally. We imagine things exist. All of what we perceive is space. Things appear, our thoughts appear yet they are empty, like a passing cloud. You could call this imagination or a view of boundless space. The image tied to the familiar is pointing to how we solidify and bind ourselves to our habitual thoughts and projections. When the piece is turned over

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you see another image. An image I didn’t intentionally create but simply appeared free from any habitual patterns of thinking. The image grasping at nothing really relates with imagining what we see as real and wanting to possess it when in reality what we perceive is empty of our projections or our imaginations. Things appear yet are empty, particularly empty of any lasting gratification. Basically we imagine our reality. Your collages create new narratives by placing different materials from different times, to address the viewers to question the boundaries of the image: how do you conceive the visual unity of your artworks? And how much importance do historical elements of the material you include in your collages play in your work? The images create and conclude themselves naturally. I have no idea what the finished piece will look like, its size or shape. I trust my instinctual knowing, the clarity of mind’s basic nature. I’m not sure what you mean by historical elements of the material. Perhaps you’re relating to the ripening, imperfections, and aging of the paper? I find the paper more beautiful and inspiring as it ages adding texture and depth then when it is freshly painted and drawn on. The aging paper reminds me of ancient ruins, old fabrics. There’s an earth quality to the paper that’s attractive to me. It displays impermanence, which is part of life. Art itself could be considered a rebellious act in our everchanging still conformist societies. 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 wouldn’t say my work is political as the conventional definition. However, it is rebellious in

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pulls the trigger 34 x 39 oil paper collage 2017

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runway of materialism 34 x 44 oil paper collage 2017

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beyond the edge 54 x 54 oil paper collage 2017

that any discussion of the nature of mind is rebellious to the conventional idea of who we think we are individually or collectively. We use our mind continuously day and night but rarely

ask what is this mind we use all the time? What are all these thoughts and ideas that seem to control our behavior creating so much confusion personally and throughout the

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cut confusion thought threads scatter 28 x 31 oil paper collage 2017

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world? Where do these thoughts and emotions come from, where do they go? Why is there so much suffering and confusion and hatred and injustice? From this point of questioning, investigating the mind through art could be considered political since politics is loaded with confused thoughts, emotions and preconceived ideas and opinions. I see my work as rebellious or radical to Art in the Contemporary Age in that it is direct and “hands-on”, not at all digital or slick. No electronics involved or high-quality materials. There are wrinkles, creases, and tears, the paper ages. There’s a kind of primal quality like children’s art. This work is about our mind which creates our world. If we know our own mind we will know more about suffering and happiness. I’m not saying all art should be like this, but Art in the Contemporary Age has become much like a commercial objectified object. Even if made from a deeply personal place, it seems to still take on the quality of a slick object of materialism based on duality. The competition “make it to make it”, that is become successful in the art world, find the next new thing, have a good story, a brand... I don’t know what this has to do with the personal challenge and journey of making art.

curated by Mark Wilson: 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 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 don’t consider audience reception in making the work. I have an abiding belief in the ability of oil, paint and paper crumpled, torn, aged or flat and the genre of abstraction to best communicate and possibly seduce the viewer to make their own journey into their humanness. It’s not a requirement, more like an invitation. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Hildy. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? Essentially I view my work as an ongoing inquiry. I plan to play with some different materials and see where that takes me. I tend to work with whatever arises. I will continue to make art, and to study the principles of Buddhist contemplative philosophy, a pursuit not unlike cleaning the dust off the windows in a house in order to see the world and oneself more clearly and precisely, with less aggression and with more equanimity, kindness and humor.

“Our attitude and integrity as artists are very important. We need to encourage and nourish the notion that we are not going to yield to the neurotic world. Inch by inch, step-by-step, our effort should wake people up through the world of art rather than please everyone and go along with the current.” ~ Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche The above passage excerpted from an essay on Dharma Art by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Thank you for this generous opportunity to share what I do with you and your readers. Your questions are provocative and challenging! Many thanks……

Over the years your works have been exhibited in several occasions, including your recent participation to Lazy Point Variety,

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Nitzan Satt Lives and works in Kibuts Yagur, Israel An architect and artist by training, tends to engage in architectural spaces and the human conflicts embodied in them. As someone who grow up and was educated on a Kibbutz, she testifies that the alternative definitions of space, in which the private is not private and the public is not public produce within her the need to deal with spatial conventions along side with a constant search after an intimate space. In her work, these are translated into installments that invade the exhibition space and cause physical disruptions and interruptions in the space. Familiar elements from the domestic sphere, such as verandas, windows, doors, panels and doorframes create complex mazes or aggressive buildings that tear apart and rebuild the balance of power in the space.

An interview by Dario Rutigiiano, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator

Hello Nitzan 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 hold a Masters degree in Art from the Haifa University and a first degree in architecture, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, in Jerusalem. How did these experiences influence the way you currently conceive your works? And in particular, how does the relationship between your cultural substratum due to your Israelian roots and the years that you spent in a Kibbutz inform the way you relate yourself to art making?

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Rejecting any conventional classification, architect and artist Nitzan Satt's work addresses the viewers to such multilayered visual and participative experience. As someone who grow up and was educated on a Kibbutz, in her works that we'll be discussing in the following pages she testifies that the alternative definitions of space, in which the private is not private and the public is not public produce. One of the most impressive aspects of Satt's work is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of questioning the notion of space, triggering the perceptual and cultural parameters: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

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My cultural background has a profound impact on my work. The fact that I and both my parent were born and raised on a Kibbutz is very

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influential in my search for identity and authenticity in both architecture and art. The Kibbutz is a unique way of life ( Short explanation about the Kibbutz life: The Kibbutzim started during the past century as communities who believed in significant sharing of property, an ideal that is presented in some research literature as utopic. During the first few dozens of years, the Kibbutz member had no private property, this included shared clothes, toys and living in shared rooms. The salary of a Kibbutz member would go to the Kibbutz and was equally distributed between the members ( it's like this to this day in the Kibbutz where I live). The value of family was not as important as the value of sharing. Children slept together in sleeping dorms, that were situated far away from the parents home, from the age of three weeks. During the night there was a person on duty who sat in a room and listened to what was going on in these "children's homes" through a loudspeaker, which was recording in the children's' shared sleeping dorms in real time, if there was a problem she would go there. The children only saw their parent for a few hours in the evenings and wore identical clothes). Throughout my childhood there was a feeling that if you step out of line, you will be ridiculed. It was best not to stand out, even if it was for good things. There was a great need to adjust, which is why the boundaries of the self and the feeling of authenticity fascinate me. The different definition of space in the Kibbutz ( the houses are not privately owned but rather are owned by the everybody whereas the public spaces are the commune's private property) also contributed to my continuous artistic search for the private place and its boundaries. Lack of privacy was very

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challenging for me. During my Architecture studies, I would joke that I am the only architect I knew who didn't believe in walls. This feeling came from the experience of information in the Kibbutz- information diffuses, everybody knows everything about you and it isn't clear how. My work is very influenced by the search for authenticity, uniqueness and identity. I left the Kibbutz for several years, in order to study art, and when I returned to it and its Kibbutz housesthe Kibbutz was a great help to me, and this is a side that is also very important to mention when we speak of community. In the porcelain installment, a kind of construction in the dimensions of a room, which is built of organs that resemble muscles and bones, and looks like a person who has deconstructed himself in order to create a place for himself within the space, I wanted to convey the feeling that the construction itself needs support and that it creates a definition of space, though it has no interior, the space is breached, it can be stared into, and fails to create protection. The installment "Joint showers" which was displayed in the Cabri Kibbutz gallery refers to the the joint showers where all of the girls of the same age group showered together. One day a boy, who was good with electronics, put a recording device in one of the showers and the girls' conversations were heard throughout the kibbutz. This act this completely diminished the separation between the interior and the exterior. There was no discernable difference between the private and the public. The interior and exterior were both conducted as public arenas, different but public. The installation is built of a ceremonial and dismantled process of stairs, railing, doorpost and a handle.

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The study of architecture also affected my work significantly. When I began exhibitioning I decided I would take upon myself the built environment as a prism through which to look at the world. A kind of scarlet thread or limitation through which I choose to constrain myself. The creation or lack of spatial identity fascinates me. Every issue is reflected in the built environment, human conflicts related to women's status,

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Jewish customs, aggressive municipal regulations, communal life in the Kibbutz, the cliche shape of courthouses and more. In general, the desire to be understood is very strong and in art I feel that I am inventing my own private language and miraculously it is understood by all. Your practice is marked out with a captivating multidisciplinary feature,

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revealing that you are a versatile artist capable of crossing from a media to another. Before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit https://www.nitzansatt.com in order to get a synoptic view of your work: in the meanwhile, would you tell us what does draw you to such approach? What are the properties you are searching for in the materials that you include in your

materials? And in particular, when do you recognize that one of the mediums has exhausted it expressive potential to self? For me, searching for the right, precise material for each piece is the main part of the journey. My work process is very slow, which is why I like materials that allow me to simmer slowly, without feeling guilty. Often these are material that are difficult to

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with glue which was engineered in order to make dolls, and used it for 18 months, to

process and require "domestication". For instance, I found a type of porcelain mixed

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anatomy (muscles and bones) and is the size of a house. It is a cruel material, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

build a construction made of rods which seem to be taken from the language of

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very expensive, takes hours to process and cracks easily when burned. In order to burn it I cut my home oven and built 2 Meter long rails that go through the holes on either side of the oven. But, I received a fascinating material, it "tans" in the oven and has the look and feel of a human body. In the veranda installment, which is called " How to draw an ideal" the search for materials, was a large part of the work in a different way. In this piece I re-created the veranda which became a symbol of cooperative living at beginning of the communal life in the Kibbutz. Firstly I studied the tiles with which they built in those days, we travelled all over the country to look for the specific tile which was imported from Italy during the 1940's. The search in itself was, for me, a substantial part of the piece. In general, I find it very interesting to take a material from one world of content and move it to the world of contemporary art, like using arts and crafts materials or building materials and finding an alternative way to express myself through them.

Two years ago I joined a group of Arab and Jewish architects and planners. Together we went on journey, getting to know the opponents' narrative. It was very difficult for each of the groups to accept the injustices caused by their own group, even more than accepting the personal injustices or mistakes they had made personally. But, in my opinion, without such acceptance there is no possibility of change. That is how I became close to the subject, but the inspiration for the piece 'Events of forgetfulness" was an article I came across which examined the collective memory and the awareness to the suffering of others as a psycho-analytical process of public suppression. The article inspected different elements, for example, Arab names which have been erased through much effort from the public spaces and maps, and are now returning and arising in the people's spoken language. It was fascinating. "The silence speaks: the suppression of the Palestinian Nakba and its return to Israeli cultureâ&#x20AC;? By Efrat Even Tzur

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected Events of forgetfulness, an interesting work 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 inquiry into the relationship between in architectural spaces and the human conflicts embodied in them is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of Events of forgetfulness would you tell us your sources of inspiration?

The plastic embossments I created which were inspired by the article, related to the subject of parks and groves in Israel, which were resurrected on abandoned Palestinian villages in order to cover up the traces of the war. Part of the act of hiding the ruins was natural, I suppose, and was intended to allow the building of a new nation. But, nowadays, it is extremely important to flood this information. (The historical information is also taken from Noga Kadman's research "On the sides of the roads and the margins of consciousness"). In my piece I created two plastic

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embossments which examine the same place- from above and from the side. in the side view (cut)- it is possible to see that the picnic table hides a huge water hole beneath it and that the table is hanging by a thread and is unstable. The picnic table is an iconic symbol, recognized with the Zionist company Haâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Keren Haâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Kayemet' who is responsible for most of the lands in the country; the parks and planted grove that are full of this type of picnic table. From above- you can see that it is actually a great row of familial picnic tables, arranged sequentially, one after the other, the archaeologically known water hole, begins to be received as an active rift. it is unclear whether the picnic tables, organized in endless rows, are defining a space and or creating an established obstruction.There is something about the great throngs of familial picnic tables that gives me the feeling of danger, forceful and disturbing fascism. The embossments are made of a three dimensional sketch on which a thin piece of plastic was laid, and to which high heat and heavy pressure were applied, so that the material itself cooperates with the camouflage and creates unification. The plastic's esthetic looks new and alluring but one must make an effort in order to understand the layers of information contained in it. Events of forgetfulness addresses the viewers to challenge their perceptual parameters 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 viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s disposition and attitude is equally

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

feeling of movement and the overriding of the ruins beneath it. In this installation, I built a two dimensional construction which is hung directly above the spectators head, it’s unclear whether the construction refers to a wall or to a bow of a ship, When the spectator goes into the space, through a wide glass door, he doesn't see the object hanging above his head- he feels it as soon as he walks underneath it. To me, the instinctive physical reaction was very interesting, I had read about this feeling in a book written by a blind man, he described how he feels in his body the presence of unusual objects in the built space around him- he doesn't see it but rather, he feels it in his body- I was searching for that physical instinct of recoiling. The piece was hung in a diagonal angle to the stairs, so that if you concentrate on the steep stairs, without noticing, when you reach the top of the staircase you will find that the installation is once again hanging above your head. The installation cynically refers to to the cliche "Justice above all". That intuitive physical understanding of the absurd, seemed very powerful to me. But, sometimes I go through a long journey of developing a piece and then standstill for a moment, in the spectators place, and see that it is obvious. It's a love-hate relationship :-)

I, as a spectator, am impressed by art that activates my intellect as well as my emotion, when something in that circle closes I’m overwhelmed. As an artist, I’m interested in experiencing different types of relationships with the spectator, there are pieces like "Events of forgetfulness" which I perceive as a type of riddle, it seems to me that the spectator experiences them on a more intellectual level, and there are other pieces I created in which I am more interested in the physical experience the spectator undergoes, such as the "The captain's appellate" which was exhibited in the "Beit Hagefen" gallery. This piece deals with idiomatic phrases, language cliches that are embedded as is, in architecture. For example, in Israel there are quite a few courthouses that are built containing a wing with transparent walls in order to express the "transparency of the law". In the Haifa courthouse such a wall was built in a blatant and unware manner, to look like a transparent bow of a ship, referring to the nearby sea . This bow towers above the ruins of an Arab village which has remained abandoned since the war. The shape of the bow further enhances the

Your works are pervaded with evocative elements and reminders to the domestic sphere, such as verandas, windows, doors, panels and doorframes: we daresay that your practice could be considered the exploration of the interstitial point between the private and the private: German multidisciplinary artist Thomas

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Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about it? And in particular how would you consider the role of symbols within your work as an artist? I completely agree with the sentence, it seems to me that, it’s a natural continuation of the discussion in the previous questions. I don’t use symbols much, occasionally physical place that have become charged- turn into symbols themselves. I am very interested in the process of abstractions ideas undergo when they move into an architectural environment, for example, in the exhibition I am currently working on for the Um El Fahem gallery ( a unique gallery in an Israeli Arab city) deals with the question how the hegemony in Israel plans the built environments for the disadvantaged groups. This is a fascinating process which often uses the disadvantaged group's cultural symbols, and by doing so flattens and fixates them. Even when the intentions are good, the result is often problematic. You are also curator of the Munio Vinov Gitai Museum of Architecture: how does this experience affect your creative process? In particular, how do you consider the relationship between contemporary scene and your work as an artist? I think, nowadays there’s a fascinating relationship between architecture and contemporary art. At the moment there are (in Israel) several very interesting

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

exhibitions that deal with the issue of identity through the place’s architecture. The Petach Tikva gallery is exhibiting Ela Litvitz's project "The leap forward" (curated by Drori Gur Aryeh and Or Tshuva) which is constructed of a wall from a house built in a settlement that was later returned to Egyptian sovereignty, it was kept all these years, and it’s currently being presented at the museum. At the Dvir gallery, the artist Simon Fujiwara constructed a full size model of the Anne Frank house. I find the use of architecture in order to criticize culture fascinating, as to your question I believe that there's great importance in raising matters that are unique to Israel, especially in the current public atmosphere.

The project I’m currently working on, which will be presented at the end of 2018, is a community project, pupils of mine who come from from two nearby Bedouin towns are involved in the installations I’m building. I’ve become very attached to the children and the team, and the encounter was life changing for me, which is quite surprising considering they are neighbours just a few minutes away. We addressed the issue of cloaked contents in the study curriculum the Ministry of Education requires they learn by the Ministry of Education, as well as the matter of American disciplining of the female body mixing with modest Bedouin regimentation of the body and many more issues.

The Architecture museum decided in advance that there are several architectural areas that haven’t been dealt with sufficiently in Israel, therefore the exhibitions dealt mainly with the history and politics of architecture and less with experimental or conceptual expression, that are on the periphery of the medium. The architecture museum held exhibitions of vernacular architecture and what can be learned from it today, an exhibition of ecological architecture in Israel, we also dealt with the lack of public residential building and other issues. These issues are also important to the discourse but brought on considerable separation between my role as a curator and work as an artist . During the past year I've finished my role as curator there, I am still responsible for some of the museum's educational activities but I will be concluding that role at the end of next year.

I think, next year I’ll return to the study benches and turn to research. Up to now, every exhibition I created went hand in hand with several months of specific research, but I feel the need delve into issues and have the knowledge accumulate to one continuous process from which, I assume, a different creation will develop. I would be happy to keep you posted.

An interview by Dario Rutigiiano, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Mirela Kulovic Lives and works in the Greater Boston Area, USA Being born in Bosnia in the 1980s, and growing up in the Balkans in the 1990s was challenging. From an early age, I was concerned with questions about human destiny. I discovered painting after getting Master's degree in Industrial Engineering. Soon, painting became the most important thing in my life.

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

you relate yourself to art making in general?

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Hi Peripheral ARTeries Team, thank you for having me. I have never received any formal diploma in art education. I took art classes which I found interesting and which I found would help me do my work. In the beginning my learning process I struggled because I had an urge to create something and to express myself but I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know the technique or how other painters worked. Before I came to the US I was using photographs as resource or I painted and drew by observation.

Hello Mirela and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. We would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training and after having studied painting and drawing at Art studio `Sirena` and `Art club`, in Croatia, you moved to the United States to nurture your education with a MFA that you received from the Tufts and MassArt, Boston: 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 due to your Croatian roots inform the way

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When I became familiar with art after WWII, I was influenced by it. I feel painters in Bosnia and Croatia still glorify figurative art the most. From the

Mirela Kulovic 'Land' 35cmx28cm Oil pastels and graphite on paper 2017

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Mirela Kulovic 'Fragments' 35cmx28cm Ink, pencils and graphite on paper 2016

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beginning, I felt painting should include much more.

when I started to paint. I need to rediscover what I left behind in my first work because I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t master the technique. Now, I am ready to see if there is something more to do with the old ideas. Maybe I will return to use some photos I was using as a reference for my painting in the beginning of my practice.

Artists in the US do a lot of experimentation and they give themselves more freedom. I believe I was more influenced by the work of ordinary people in my surroundings rather than culture. Sometimes I find myself doing movements which women in my surroundings were using to clean house or prepare the food. Or when I do 3D work with wood or metal I feel as though a lot of ideas came from observing how people in the village in Bosnia build houses or work the field. It is great how much we forget but our subconscious and body memorizes everything.

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected Fragment, an extremely interesting project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your artistic inquiry into the point of convergence between reality and abstraction is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of the Fragment series would you tell us your sources of inspiration? And how did you select your subjects?

The results of your artistic inquiry convey a coherent sense of unity that rejects any conventional classification. We would suggest to our readers that they visit https://www.mirelakulovic.com in order to get a synoptic view of your work. While walking our readers through your usual process and setup, can you tell them something about the evolution of your style? In particular, do you think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist?

I feel like subject finds me. It reflects my buried emotions and memories I am not aware of. I can say in my statement for the show: I am inspired by the ancient architecture or natural disaster. But it is never just that.

My central idea is curiosity and obsession.

It is much deeper and much more complex. It is everything. When I finish one painting it needs to contain everything.

My style evolved much this year, but I feel now I am getting into ideas from

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Mirela Kulovic 'Portal' 30cmx30cm Watercolors and graphite on paper 2017

We like the vibrancy of the tones of your works, that shows how vivacious tones are not strictly indispensable to

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create tension and dynamics. How did you come to settling on your color palette? And how much does your own

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Mirela Kulovic 'Object' 35cmx28cm Pastels and graphite on paper 2016

psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones you decide to use in a in a piece and in particular, how

do you develop a texture? I like earth colors. Mixing colors and

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Mirela Kulovic 'Object' 35cmx35cm Candle wax and pencils on paper 2017

thinking about the palette, tones, or values is a big problem for me. I just squeeze paint on the first surface I can

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find and I start to add it to canvas or surface. When work evolves and when I squeeze paint from the tube ten times in

Mirela Kulovic 'Fragments' 35cmx28cm Acrylic, pastels and pencils on paper 2017

Mirela Kulovic 'Land' 61cmx91cm Oil and acrylic on canvas 2017

Mirela Kulovic 'Fragments' 45cmx60cm Pastels, ink and pencils on paper 2017

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one day, paints mix with itself and I just have more combination of colors on my palette. I use color very intuitively. Sometimes it can feel like a decision, and then I need more red and I squeeze more red on the pallet. Planning use of colors or composition doesn’t have any sense to me because I can plan something and it changes in a second.

it is a rule. I just say it is my opinion and what I believe. When I am drawn to painting it includes every feeling I could imagine or experience. The more I look at the painting it should reflect more. It is like paintings continue to speak with careful and open observant. And it is always changing because your perspective changes and you are not looking with the same eyes.

Painting is for you a tool for spiritual transformation and selfknowledge and as you have remarked in your artist's statement when you finish a drawing, it is more like you have discovered it. Its mysterious manifestation always surprises you. Do you like spontaneity or do you prefer to meticulously schedule every detail of your works? how much importance does play improvisation in your process?

Growing up in the Balkans in the early 1990s addressed you to be concerned with questions about human destiny since early age. 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". Do you think that your life's experience in those years has influenced your evolution as an artist?

I work pretty much without a strict plan. I know I can’t stick with any plan. I always feel I am searching for something but I can’t explain what it is. I only know that I need to give all my energy to my painting. Whatever I feel I need to put into it. Some of my work is very restricted and minimal but I feel it doesn’t reflect all of my experience. Human experience is a big pallet. You are never always happy or always sad. It is hard to put experience or the human condition in word or sentence. It is more like a symphony. For me, painting needs to include everything. I don’t say

I feel it gave me much material to research. My experience from childhood gave me feeling of compassion for other people who are in pain. It gave me the opportunity to deeply connect with great work of art. On the other hand, I often feel grateful to have the opportunity to work in my own studio or to able to go to a museum. Many people I know don’t have that kind of luxury and they struggle with getting food and regular life necessities.

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Your artistic practice seems address the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception: the thoughtful nuances of tones seem to be the tip of the iceberg of the emotions that you are really attempting to communicate. How would you define the relationship between abstraction and figurative in your practice? In particular, how does representation and a tendency towards abstraction find their balance in your work? I am not trying to make any balance between abstraction and representation. It rather goes with obsession. One week I can be obsessed with bridges and arches and I paint them a hundred times on paper or canvas. I repeat it until I become bored with the subject. Even if you are bored with the subject you can push through it and make something out of boredom. Many times when I paint I feel like I have ruined my painting but then I continue to work even more on it until it is good. At some point, everything on the paintings makes sense and it reflects right thing. Sometimes I just cut the canvas into hundred pieces and start with the new one. Some days it feels like I just need to paint random marksâ&#x20AC;Ś

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Mirela Kulovic 'Object and land' 35cmx43cm Candle wax, watercolor and pencils on paper 2017

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Mirela Kulovic 'Object' 30cmx30cm Candle wax, watercolors and pencils on paper 2016

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Your style is very personal and conveys both rigorous geometry and vivacious abstract feature: what influences outside the visual arts inspire and impact your approach to making work? Moreover, do you pay attention to the work of your contemporaries? If so, is there anyone in particular you feel inspired by? I am often inspired by music. I like very much Bosnian traditional music-sevdah. I am inspired by literature. Also with my own memories and every-day life. I like work of Natalija Cimesa famous Bosnian painter. I am very grateful I could personally meet her. I like work of Christopher Wilmarth, Maya Kulenovic, Wolfgang Laib, Anselm Kiefer, Ljuba Popovic. I am inspired by all individuals who have a passion for their work. They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to be a painter or artist. For example, I often remember my math teacher Jurica Cudina from high school. He is in love with math and his teaching. I had a great time in high school. I wish there are more people like him. Over the years your works have been showcased in several occasions, including your recent solo Fragments at the Bromfield Gallery, in Boston: one of the hallmarks of your work is its ability to create a direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere

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Mirela Kulovic 'Portal' 60cmx45cm

Mirela Kulovic 'Fragments' 35cmx28cm

Acrylic on paper 2014

Acrylic, pastels and pencils on paper 2017

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 a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language you use in a particular context?

to the edge. For example, when I start my painting, thinking is also part of the process. If I think I shouldn’t do that brush stroke or mark, I immediately need to do that. I am arguing with myself and painting. In that moments it is hard to think of the audience and people who will observe the painting later. Painting needs to tell something to me that I didn’t know before. For example, I had ‘Fragments’ exhibition at Bromfield Gallery and some people were very moved with

When I do my work I don’t think of the audience. I rather try to push my work

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Mirela Kulovic 'Fragments' 42cmx30cm Mixed media on woodboard 2017

Mirela Kulovic 'Portal' 91cmx61cm Oil on canvas 2016

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Mirela Kulovic 'Fragments' 60cmx45cm

Acrylic, pastels and pencils on paper 2017

work. I can’t go to the studio and continue to work similar work. I just work for myself. Later if somebody finds my work interesting or it speaks to him or her that is an only extra reward. I can’t and don’t want to control viewer experience. But, I do care about feedback. Other people sometimes can see what I can’t. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Mirela. Finally, would you like to tell us readers

something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I would like to work from different directions and see where that would lead me. For example, I would like to print some own photographs and start to work on them with painting technique. Or try to work with failure marks, with a chance. Or work from observation. It will be great to compare results of different beginnings.

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Mirela Kulovic 'Horizont' 35cmx28cm

Mirela Kulovic 'Portal' 35cmx28cm

Graphite on paper 2016

Pencils and graphite on paper 2017

The more we work the more it is obvious that our work becomes a part of our daily life and it reflects all of our experiences, memory, and knowledge. It is great that an artist can discover some parts of himself that he or she is not aware of. One thing I discovered during my work as a painter is that there are some forces which are going through me which I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t rationally explain. Also, there is an experience that is the result of nature and other

people which shape our lives. You are born in one place in the world and start collecting experiences. I feel like everything starts with childhood. In first ages of your life, you are pretty much shaped as a person. Everything that you experience later is built on that. Thank you for choosing my work for your 2017 Special Edition.

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

Mirela Kulovic Studio Wall 2017

Nikita Russi Lives and works in London, United Kingdom

I was born 1991 in Basel, Switzerland and studied at University of Zurich until 2015 where I got my Bachelor. 2016 I to London where I am now studying Fine Arts at University of Arts London. My passion at the moment is definitively creating/making videos and paintings, but am also experienced in other Graphic Design/ Visual Art Programs.

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Nikita Russi Lives and works in London, United Kingdom I was born 1991 in Basel, Switzerland and studied at University of Zurich until 2015 where I got my Bachelor. 2016 I to London where I am now studying Fine Arts at University of Arts London. My passion at the moment is definitively creating/making videos and paintings, but am also experienced in other Graphic Design/ Visual Art Programs.

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

roots inform the way you relate yourself to art making?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello, Peripheral ARTeries!

Hello Nikita and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: before starting to elaborate about your artistic production would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and after having earned your Bachelor from the University of Zurich you moved to the United Kingdom to nurture your education in Fine Arts at University of Arts London. How did these experiences influence your evolution as a visual artist? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum due to your Swiss SPECIAL ISSUE

I think being Swiss and living there for 23 years is clearly influencing my work. On one hand, we Swiss enjoy a great public education and every time I have to research or learn new programs, I know how to approach this. It gives me the security to work with unfamiliar things. On the other hand, Switzerland is not the country where new and modern things arrive first. So when someone comes up with something new, it is rarely immediately accepted. It didn't help me at the beginning of my way. 98

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So being Swiss is a reliable help, but it can also hold me back from doing new experiences. Before Rauschenberg's exhibition at the Modern Tate and my research on his work, I wasn't even prepared to put more material and colour on a canvas than regular paintâ&#x20AC;Ś You are a versatile artist and http://www.nikitarussi.com in order to get a synoptic view of your work: your current practice involves twodimensional mediums such as paintings, drawings and digital collage that you combine in videos. In the meanwhile, would you tell us what does draw you to such approach? What are the properties you are searching for in the materials and the techniques that you include in your artworks? And in particular, when do you recognize that one of the mediums has exhausted it the expressive potential to self? Trippin in Orb

What I try to do is to explore and learn as much as possible but still try to keep the work adaptable to new influences. When starting a project, the most challenging thing is the empty canvas/project because it is open to everything and the SPECIAL ISSUE

opportunities of filling them are just way too overwhelming. So by creating several steps during the workflow of a project, I take away the pressure of it 100

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becoming an excellent piece and leave it up to chance how the particular work will be part of the outcome. Ideally, each idea can

develop somehow, and I don't feel pressured, but I can take my time to explore ideas and let the subconscious express itself. 101

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Trippin in Orb

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of mediums, but during a particular project, this is quite a big question mark when to stop working on a specific imagery. I assume thinking 102

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subconscious and just happens automatically. For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries, we have selected Trippin in Orb, an extremely interesting series that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your insightful inquiry into the process of the thoughts going through oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head when struggling to find an explanation for our existence is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics: would you walk our readers through the genesis of Trippin in Orb? In particular, what were some of your aesthetic decisions? Well, Trippin in Orb was my first video that is wholly devoted to visualise a process of my research. I have always been overthinking everything, and after leaving the University in Zurich, I became conscious of the question where we are going and what we are doing. I know it sounds naive and I am pretty sure each person has a moment of a

back to some of my work before; I always stopped when I felt somehow satisfied and moved by the images. I think most of my workflow is partly 103

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Trippin in Orb couple even in life, where they ask themselves what is the point of us being here, are we just a weird type of being destroying the earth or are we here for a higher purpose. Just SPECIAL ISSUE

general life questions came up. Then I stumbled upon Jean-Paul Sartre, Franz Kafka and Albert Camus, all storytellers or philosophers that were analyzing that question of our 106

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researching this theme which I found out later, fell under the term "Existentialism". It was a long process of reading, listening audiobooks and comparing stories and reflected feelings to find an answer that doesn't exist. Each time I found another aspect of philosophy that was first a sort of answer. But then, I realized it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, and I kept on searching. All those philosophers, neither Nietzsche or Sartre, could answer the question of our existence. But the process ended still in something else than a neverending circle, something that is influenced by reality but again moving on. It felt like a circle, that is continuously changing and evolving, but the primary purpose of finding an answer was never fulfilled. At the end of this work though, I felt like I might not have discovered an answer, but I am evolved and can close this chapter for a while now. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when in the video the circle becomes a falling piece of stone, which still develops,

Existence. A lot of stories and philosophical approaches focussed on one central question. Why do we exist and what does it mean? However, I spent three months 107

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Digital Collage Nihilism and Existentialism

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Digital Collage from Project Existentialism

but has a shape now and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t

to the point of convergence

turn that much around himself.

between perceptual reality and the

Trippin in Orb address the viewers

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processes: and how do you see the relationship between reality and imagination within your artistic practice? Moreover, how much important is for you to address the viewers to elaborate personal meanings? Well, I think this is mainly what I aim for it seems, to create a perceptual reality of my imagination about a specific topic that intrigues me at the moment. But not because I want to influence the viewer in what he thinks, but to make him reflect on a specific topic and to try to create a discourse. I think all that matters in my work is what the viewer sees in it and what he feels. I am making a particular piece of work because of my background, perception, research or influences as a social being in this momentary environment which might reflect my experience of a specific story, but as soon as someone looks at it, it becomes whatever they want to see. I can't influence how others perceive my work, and I would never want to. Every time someone tells me what they thought about my work, I just love hearing those different SPECIAL ISSUE

aspects, and it does inspire me to continue on a specific part of the work I wouldn't have thought to do before. 110

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Another crucial theme of your work is the idea of the Unconscious: Trippin in Orb features such an effective and at

the same time ambivalent visual quality. Cinema and video in general has been for more than half a century the reign of 111

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collective memory: nonetheless, only the most courageous videomakers have tried to get under the skin of film like SPECIAL ISSUE

psychologists investigates the subconscious dimension. How much importance does play the subconscious level in your work? 112

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general, has this effect on the subconscious, if someone is intrigued or not by it is a matter of seconds, the story behind art work is certainly interesting, but I don't think that it plays that big of a role as does the subconscious here. Of course, I can be wrong, but I am quite sure the subconscious triggers the first reaction to my work. Therefore it is the part of the viewer I communicate first with. Maybe this makes it so interesting to see the viewers reaction because it shows a very truthful and characteristic part of the individual. Your artistic research often focusses on philosophical topics such as Existentialism, a philosophy that moved men further away from religion and tried to explain our nature: what does appeal you of Existentialism and what did address you to develop a consistent part of your artistic production around this theme? Existentialism, as well as Surrealism, will always be part of my research and interest. I am not sure, but I think because it has a taste of reality, cruelty, and

Well, there are two subconscious levels. Mine and the viewers. I assume you speak of the viewers subconscious now. I think art, in 113

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honesty with it that I desire, especially during the times of digitalisation, popularism and advertisement. The interest in Existentialism appeared when I was much younger, and I started loving specific books such as Le Mur by Sartre, Kafka "Die Verwandlung", Heinrich Heine, or DĂźrrenmatt's brilliant theatre plays, but I never understood why. After actually giving in to this topic for the research we have to do at University, I realised that the philosophy behind those stories is categorised as 'Existentialism" but it wasn't the categorisation that intrigued me but the feeling and emotion that are mainly captured by war or post-war authors. Your works have a seductive beauty on the surface, and often seems to communicate inner struggle, as the interesting The ID or the Unconscious Freud II: moreover, we have really appreciated the vibrancy of such thoughtful nuances of the works from your Existentialism series, that show that vivacious tones are not strictly indispensable to create tension and dynamics. How did you come about settling on your SPECIAL ISSUE

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? 116

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I think this is a process that I just began. Marks, texture cuts and colours are not only essential words in painting, but I also think in videos. Each element has to be learned and discovered individually, and it takes

a long time to learn different ways of creating dynamic and tension. Colors are for me one of the most influential tools for an artist, and even it is such a frequent and daily thing, so difficult to handle. 117

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Your work deviate from realism and we daresay that Lucid Dreams develope the true potential of images, addressing the viewers to enter a simultaneous. DĂźsseldorf based German photographer Thomas Ruff stated once that

But I think that with each work I am doing, I get deeper into the communication between the viewer, or me in that case, and art work which is a beautiful process.

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arts in the contemporary art? Well, that is a tough question. Since the appearance of the technical images by a camera, art has very much developed in a way to reflect reality (Portraits or Landscapes) to recreate an artist's creativity and message. I think what Thomas Ruff said was that we artists have now new tools and ways to make art, from cameras to editing software and so on. Therefore, we might be less challenged with learning one skill such as painting or sculpting but rather how we want to express a particular idea. As much as the visual aspect, the context is not the only source of most of the art work in my case, but an extreme factor. The more comfortable it gets to create visual treats for artists, the more is expected about the context of our work. You can see that in any gallery in London, they always have a leaflet, a theme, a proper story behind all of the exhibitions.

"nowadays you don't have to paint to be an artist. You can use photography in a realistic way. You can even do abstract photographs". Especially in relation to modern digital technologies, what is your point about the evolution of visual

Your painting “La Rabbia” was used in the movie “Art for Artillery and as part of the London Open Group exhibition, you recently exhibited the video "Hommage A Sartre" at the Cello Factory: one of the hallmarks of 119

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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 interesting conversation we would like to ask you a question regarding the nature of the relationship with the reactions of 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? Well, I am not so far yet to be able to determine how in general people exactly react to the different effects of my work. For that, I'd probably need a numerous amount of feedback. But during the process of making a video, I show it to very close friends or my family, which give me a response and to this I listen very carefully. But that happens once during the process of making a video, not more. To create art work is very personal to me, and others can't too much influence it otherwise the whole process would be not as relieving as it is.

How do you see your work evolving?

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

Well thank you so much for giving me the possibility to answer your questions. It is lovely to see that

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there are people who are so interested in my work. Currently, I am working on a new philosophical angle as you mentioned it before, about Freud, Jung and the Unconscious. I will finish another

video by the end of January 2018. There might be aspects of animation in it this time. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Clare Haxby Lives and works in Reigate, Surrey, United Kingdom

An artist’s statement

The best paintings occur when I let myself go when I am not always fully aware of what I’m doing. Hours can pass when I am in the flow I can forget to eat and time can be irrelevant its sort of like a meditation. I am intuitively driven by colour. I don’t overthink my colour choices just go with my intuition. When I am drawing my subjects I am concentrating more on conveying the emotion the mood. I work on the floor, the wall whatever I need to get close to it. After a while I become part of the painting. I have drawn since I was a child and I get a thrill when I see colour whether its on a fabric, a flower or inside a temple in Asia. Travelling and looking is all food for Inspiration

Clare Haxby

Clare has spent the last 10 years living in London and Singapore actively and collaboratively organising art events and Open Studio from a historical black and white house in Singapore. In 2013 and 2015 she exhibited her powerful architectural paintings of Singapore at solo shows at The Fullerton Hotel Singapore and later at The American Club of Singapore. Since returning to Surrey Hills outside London in 2015 Clare has exhibited in group shows in Rome, Venice, Buenos Aires and Argentina. This summer she is one of 90 contemporary artists exhibiting at Flux Exhibition London at Chelsea College of Art The Victoria and Albert Museum in London and The French Embassy in Singapore collect Clare’s work.

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Joseph Goddard Lives and works in London, United Kingdom I am a Leeds based artist predominately concerned with post war architecture, its inherent ideology, formal aesthetics, structural forms and the effect it has upon its inhabitants. I explore these themes in sculpture, photography, painting, installation and print in order to broaden and investigate related ideas. My latest work is entitled 'Structure of Collapse' "Appropriating concepts from architecture, social geography, media studies and archaeology, Joseph Goddard’s Structure of Collapse explores the idea of the city as an enduring speculative technology. Monumental in approach, this sculptural series represents large social and cultural epochs, connecting ancient conceptions of cities built to mirror the constellation of the stars to the astrological age of Pisces, which charts the period from approximately 100 BC to 2500 AD. Drawing upon the work of French Philosopher Paul Virilio, Goddard conceives of urban space as a transmitter and receiver of information, rained down from orbiting satellites, inhabited by the global citizen who absorbs its ideology. The work appears like a set of smouldering, silent witnesses to long periods of time, in which this process has become almost geological. Surfaces present ossified newspaper headlines collected over recent years, imbuing them with traces of the media generated zeitgeist; against a dense, charred and engrained structure suggestive of a longer gestation. Dystopic in resonance, the work suggests endless crises. The central work is inscribed with the Pisces constellation, corresponding to our current astrological age. As a star sign ‘the fish’ represents passivity and an inability to shape the world, the spiritual fatalism of an age that is defined by the rise of organised religion, crusades, persecution, the devastation of modern warfare and the rise of global terrorism. Against this backdrop the forms’ evocation of Brutalist architecture point to a socialist movement that arrived too late. Predisposed to the entropic tendency of the Piscean city, these machines for living – hulking masses of concrete – manifest a utopian movement that was hollowed out within a few short decades. With Structure of Collapse being driven by a comparable modernist logic the work inevitably succumbs to the forces it seeks to define becoming a symbol of change beyond our immediate grasp." - James Clegg, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator

cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to art making in general?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

My years at college and university were hugely important to me for many reasons, Dewsbury College of Art was the very beginning of identifying a visual and conceptual direction. It’s where I first learned about Piet Mondrian and Modernist architecture, I was really taken by the idea that architecture held ideaological beliefs, it had never really occurred to me before but it was transformative to my persception of architeture

Hello Joseph 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 studied at the Dewsbury Art College Are there any experience that particularly influenced the way you currently conceive and produce your works? And in particular, how does your

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and the designed world at large. I began to understand that constructions and structural bodies were not simply forms incidental to their surroundings but are in fact testiments to social, cultural and political movements. I loved, and still do, the ambition to create art and art objects that challenge authority and Mondrian and the Modernists were the first time I had come across art that did so.

I think it’s a combination of neccessity and enjoyment, I love working in three dimensions and usually concieve each project as such but different media offer different qualities. For exampe, with ‘Stucture of Collapse’ I wanted to create surfaces which appeared layered with time, capturing the emergence of events and their almost simlutaneous disapperance in a torrent of media flow. It is an aesthetic which I feel can only be captured through painting; transferring media headlines on the the planes of the strucures, painting over them in processes that yeild unpredictable results, masking out areas and repeating the process to the point were I have practically no control over the outcome. It is the only process that could generate the required effect. I love the speed of digital photography and collage and for the City of Nithstang series I wanted to capture something more emotionally evocative, something almost kinetic. These works possess a corporial pain, one that is achieved through physically piercing and rupturing the surfaces of the paper. Again an example of the medium suiting the effect.

I think being born and raised in Dewsbury has shaped the way I see the world. Dewsbury is a low economic town, coming from such a town definitely made me feel slightly estranged, most noticeably so when studying at Edingburgh College of Art. At university it was clear which students were from working class backgrounds and which were not. For example, having a part time job whilst studying was a marker for being working class. Looking back at those times I can now see just how significant social economic factors play into determining ones future. It is something that is clearly evident in British art world, studying at a prestigious London college is extremely advantageous to an artists career but doing so relies heavily on finacial means. It’s a system that seems to benifit people that already possess a certain amount of wealth and excludes those who don’t, it’s an equilibrium that is hard to change.

I don’t think I have exhausted the expressive potential of any of the mediums I have worked with so far. It may happen in the future but being a multidiscipinary artist means I’m more likely to get excited by the potential of a new medium and switch to something else but without ever ruling out revisiting past processes.

Your practice is marked out with a captivating multidisciplinary feature, revealing that you are a versatile artist capable of crossing from a medium to another, including sculpture, photography, painting, installation and print. Before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://www.josephgoddardartist.com in order to get a synoptic view of your work: in the meanwhile, would you tell us what does draw you to such approach? What are the properties you are searching for in the materials that you include in your materials? And in particular, when do you recognize that one of the mediums has exhausted it expressive potential to self?

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected City of Nithstang an interesting works that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of this body of works is the way you provided the visual results of your exploration of the idea of the city as an enduring speculative technology with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of City of Nithstang would you shed a light about your usual process and setup?

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City of Nithstang No.18

Well firstly, I take all the photographs myself, I have considered using found imagery of architecture but in this instance I feel it is important to keep the work bound to my own experiences and perceptions. Every single photograph in this project was taken in London, I have now amassed over a thousand images of london architecture. I usuallly spend a day in the city and target particular sites with special significance e.g areas of social housing, civic architecture, iconic postwar buildings, financial districts, luxury flats ect. I preffer to cut these images out by hand - scaples over Photoshop, because the linch-pin of the work relies on

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physically tearing the work and I think the work needs to be imbued with this sense of physicality. The portraiture elements of the work are all images of myself and are all achieved with long exposure photography. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m glad you have asked me to elaborate on this apsect of my work because it usually goes un-noticed. It reinforces the physical quality of the work, as long exposure techniques are unpredictable I can spend hours

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City of Nithstang No.13

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screaming and contorting my face infront of the camera. It has become an almost perfomative practice, to the point where my facial muscles ache for hours afterwards. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve found that I have to become completely immsersed in the role as the camera seems to capture insincerity. As a result I have taken to screaming particular song lyrics like a crazy mantra to help capture the emotions.

reconfigured several times until I have attained the right balance of harmony and disorder. Nithstang refers to a Germanic pagan cursing tradition ans we appreciate the way it shows such captivating synergy traditional imagery and contemporary aesthetics: how would you consider the relationship between Tradition and Contemporariness? In particular, do you think that digital technologies could bring to a new level of significance the imagery belonging to tradition?

With all the different images of architecture and grotesque portraits layed out infront of me I begin to piece them together creating formations that appear disorientating, chaotic and brutalising. Images are configured and

I like drawing on the past because history has a quality of compressing time, events for example are reduced to their most significant components. History has a way of cutting away all

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the banalities and mundanity of daily experience, leaving the most incendary and volitile moments that shape the course of progress. New digital technologies have the ability to capture and transmit events in our liftime in a way that has never been possible before. For the first time in human progress we are able, almost instantaneously , to relive our recent histories and if we want, take from them the most important of lessons. One of the many reasons for making this work is the apparent lack if urgency about the harms which societies can inflict. In ‘City of Nithstang’, I dislocated a particular Nordic tradition form it’s context and recreated it with contempory aesthestics. In a way this decontextualising makes it seem more violent, more abrupt and more visable. Relocating the Nithstang tradition in a contemporary world reveils just how violent we still are. Maybe new technology media can be used in a way to reframe tradition/custom/ritual in order to amplify their messages. As you have remarked once, City of Nithstang is an allegory for the brutal, dehumanizing effects of global cities which ward off and curse its victims, cities in which impact is inevitable and escape is impossible. 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? Moreover, what could be in your opinion the role of Art in the contemporary age?

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in political mechanisms. On a persoanl level I do think art should be a reflection of the age it is made in, if it isn’t and if it doesn’t approach the grand issues of it’s time then it doesn’t hold my interest. I don’t think it is neseccery to be living under the political system you are commenting on but if you are doing so from an isolated place of privelege then it could appear to be patronising or disingenuous. Considering the fact that were are living in a globalised society I find it difficult to understand why artists wouldn’t want to approach political issues. Nor can I understand why some artists wrap there work in conceptual obscurantism. There is obvioulsy a place for work which is purely aestheic and it’s has it’s audiences but i am

I would say my work is definitely political, I’ve always been interested in art forms that address social and political issues; bands, films, literature. The things that have been most influentual to me are on one level concerned with politics. My work patently embodies issues of our current political climate, it confronts the imbalance of social structures and expresses the violence played out

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I think all art continues to evolve after realisation. Art can acquire new meanings and significance as the world around it changes and people can bring their own ideas and experiences to bear upon work, I don’t neccessarly think that change needs to be preempted. The role of the artist isn’t something that is easily defined or quantifiable and nor should it be. Artists are not under any obligation to opperate in a prescribed way. I’ve already discussed my want for art to concern itself with social and political issues but there can never be an objectively ‘right’ way for an artist to opperate. The digital age can be characterised by its fragmentary nature and as such anyone, artist or otherwise can exists in any number of fields, simultaneously and at times in stark contradiction; a state of cultural dissonace. Banksy is an interesting artist to view through the prism of new media as his work seems to traverse numerous fragments of the new media age and occupies a space of dissonance. His work is simultaneously polictical, site specific, exists in alternative spaces and established galleries alike. He has created works that may have gone completely un-noticed and works like Dismaland, a work that had the ambition of a Hirst or Koons show, which reportedly generated £20 million for the local economy. He has colaborated with TV show The Simpsons - a Fox Network propery and has become a corporate entity unto himself whilst simulateously representing anti-corporate ideals. His work takes on the form of a brand name, he has also achieved celebrity status and done so without having an identity, his work trends on social media, disappears with ephemerality and is also printed on plastic coffee cups that will outlast our civilization. I am an unapologetic fan of Banksy, amongst many things he has become the ultimate form of an artist in a new media age. Most artists would be

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message’, I do find art that relies too heavily on technology to be distracting, especially if the technological processes used to make it is the salient component of an artist work. In the worst cases it does sometimes appear that artists bolt on concepts retroactively to justify the use of certain processes. In the best cases it can be completely stunning, more so if it has been used with a degree of intellectual purpose. Multidisciplinary artist Angela Bulloch onced remarked "that works of arts often continue to evolve after they have been realised, simply by the fact that they are conceived with an element of change, or an inherent potential for some kind of shift to occur". Do you think that the role of the artist has changed these days with the new global communications and the new sensibility created by new media?

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definitely not the right audiene. I find it too safe and unprovocative. We daresay that your work unvelis the connection between large social and cultural epochs: how much does everyday life's experience fuel your imagery and your creative process? In particular, do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience? I try to draw parallels between both current issues and events/customs form past civilizations. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Structue of Collapseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for example connects the monumental structures of Brutalism with the monumental ruins of ancient civilizations; structures that have out-lived the ideologies that were responsible for their formation. I live in a city (and country) where these buildings, that were the product of a socialist program, are being torn down whilst the government is systematically dismantling the social provisions that support the most vulnerable in society. The slow and discreet privatization of the National Health Service and budget cuts of the wefarre system might seem like everyday issues but I believe they are of a civilizational importance. For me itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a clear indication of a society becoming less compassionate, more narcissistic and systematically violent. For the moment I have made myself a tangible presence in my work, my projects have a starting point in current political events which I am directly linked to. However the point you raise about disconnection is interesting giving that we are living in a digital age. The internet provides us with universal connection so you may not have a lived experience of a war, for example, but you can have an intellectual connection and even an emotional connection. We are able to experience so many different things without physical involvement and they can still resonate with you on some level.

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We appreciate the way your work balances modern technology and tradition, accomplishing the difficult task of pursuing such coherent equilibrium between apparently opposite aspects. We are sort of convinced that new media will bridge the apparent dichotomy between art and technology, and we dare to say that Art and Technology are going to assimilate each other. What's your point about this? In particular, how is in your opinion technology affecting the consumption of art? I think social media has changed the consumption of art irrevocably. It’s great in the sense that it gives people a platform to have their work seen. However, intrinsic to the social media world is the phenomena of ‘trending’ and artists have as much pressure to chase ‘likes’, ‘shares’ and ‘retweets’ to rise to the top of the crowd as they do to exhibit their work in the real world. The nature of the latest social media trend is to be immediately replaced by something else, almost as quickly as it appears, in this sense it creates an ephemerality to the artwork. It is, in and of itself, a new metric by which to measure success. I recently visited the Saatchi Gallery for the first time in years and was struck by the fact that they now have exhibitions dedicated to the style of work that trends on Etsy, Pintrest and Instagram. It’s not the kind of artwork that resonates deeply with me but it is positive (in a democratic sense) that it has been incorporated into the gallery system. Incidentally, I was recently involved in a socal media driven art contest in which artists were voted for by the public, each artist including myself were compelled to campaigned for votes from followers. I really didn’t enjoy the experience and wouldn’t ever take part in anything like that again as the process feels a bit undignified. As new technological processes become more affordable and Accessible to artists there has been a noticable wave of work produced by new digital technologies, 3D printed work for example. As I subscribe Marshall McLuhan dictum ‘the medium is the

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happy to achieve just one of these strands of success in their whole career.

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?

The power of visual arts in our unstable age is enormous: at the same time, the role of the viewer’s disposition and attitude is equally impoartant. We like the way The ‘Ghosts of Nithstang’ reject any explanatory strategy to address the spectatorship to personal associations. what do you think about the role of the viewer? Are you particularly interested if you try to achieve to trigger the viewers' perception as starting point to urge them to elaborate personal interpretations?

I think most artists find it easier to express their ideas in the medium they use, I certainly do, the work which I create feels like a crystalization of ideas that are otherwise intangible. Writing about your practice is usually a secondary process, it comes after the fact of realisation. In a sense writing about your own work can only ever offer an approximation of what the work means. When making work, I don’t give a single second of thought to other peoples reception but hopefully I can find the balance of guiding the viewer in the right direction of thought in my writing and open them to new thoughts of enquiry.

Of course the viewer plays an integral role, what they can bring to art work in terms of interpretation can help evolve the meaning of a piece of work. I think artists have to tread a fine line between how much information they give to the viewer and how much they withold. I sometimes find myself frustrated by some art shows which seem purposefully obtuse but at the same time, if all the answers are laid bare the viewer doesn’t really have a role to play, it’s up to the audience to complete the ‘puzzle’ of art. With Ghosts of Nithstang, I was, in a way, being critical of my own practice. Having created numerous projects which are layered with significance, connected to different concepts and contextual markers, I felt my own personal emotional responses to the issues I explore were becoming obscured. In ‘Ghosts’ I wanted to strip everything away to its most base emotion. Hopefully as a series it gives the viewer another entry point into my work, another trigger to catalyse their interpretation.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Joseph. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? Thats a great question, for me City of Nithstang has become a conceptual space from which to draw ideas. I see it as a place where the slow, descreet descisions of public policy are manifest in the architecture and structure of the city space. It’s a place designed to function for a certain people at the expense and repression of others. The ideology of this place is writ large in stone and metal, oppressive doctrine takes the form of brutal architectural apperatus, designed to keep the imbalance perptual. I intend to explore more of these ideas in three dimensional forms, creating artifacts that are the remains of excavations or objects that are extracted from recon opperations in an attempt to elucidate the brutality of our age.

Over the years your works have been exhibited in several occasions, including your recent show at Arts Depot, in London: 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

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Alon Talmi Lives and works in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Israel

I would like to introduce myself, my name is Alon Talmi. I was born and raised in a village in the north of Israel. Ever since I remember myself, I was attracted to nature and hiking, in the beginning with my father and later in life with my kids. While hiking, I was always on the look on the marvel of nature, noticing various images that are portrayed by nature and the wild. My imagination took me on imaginary trips filling them up with stories. My passion for art exposed me to certain specific artists whose works exhibit a strong connection between art, nature, and the human feelings. One of the artists, whose work influenced me the most, is Antoni Pitxot. During the creation of my own work, I feel how the materials from nature communicate with me and guide me through the process. The emotions I experience during the work and the hidden feelings of the materials influence the whole process. Hence, the mix of nature and man-made creation are expressed in my works. The most important stage in creating the work is photographing. The reflection of the light creates an imagery, freezing a moment into a single frame. This frame manifests nature and presents the hidden feelings in it, including all of the human strengths and weaknesses.

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

couple of questions about your background: are there any particular experiences that influenced the way you currently conceive your works? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum dued to your life's experience in a village in the North of Israel address your artistic inquiry?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Rejecting any conventional classification regarding its style, artist Alon Talmi's work draws the viewers through an unconventional and multilayered experience. In the body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages, he successfully attempts to trigger the spectatorship's perceptual parameters: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to Talmi's stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

As a child, I grew up in a rural village, the second son of immigrant parents who came to Israel out of Zionist ideology. My father made his living as a citrus grower and found peace of mind and happiness in sculpting and Ready-Made Collage art which he created his whole life. Our big yard, which was filled with fruit trees and flowers, was equally filled with his sculptures, some figurative, some abstract. Nature and art were present side by side in harmony.

Hello Alon and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a

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intrigued by the biblical story and her character. I had the image of the artwork etched in my mind for a long time and only then I went in search of the materials in the Dead Sea area where the Lot’s Wife story takes place.

Life in the young State of Israel during the 1980’s was modest, and the family’s main pastimes, of my three brothers and me, were local trips and picnics with our parents out in nature. Our father taught us to observe and study the land, the animals and the plants, the archeological remains, the stones and shells on the seashore.

I am a trained professional photographer; hence my vantage point in the production process repeatedly passes through the lens of the camera. Furthermore, during the photography process, the subject I am primarily occupied with is lighting. I do not envy sculptors that don’t know in what light their works will be presented. From my point of view, the angle in which the light touches the artwork and the depth the light brings to the photograph are of the utmost importance. At every stage of the work, I check the point of interaction between the work and the light.

Your works convey such coherent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification and we would address our readers to visit http://talmialon.wixsite.com/talmi in order to get a wider idea about your artistic production: 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?

The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our readers have already started to got to know in the introductory pages of this article has at once captured our attention for the way you provided the visual results of your artistic inquiry into the mix of nature and man-made creation with such autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of your works, would you tell us something about your sources of inspiration?

The creative process, the work on the complete image, is the most fascinating (and my personal favorite) stage of the work. This is the stage that gives me satisfaction and awakens all my creative juices. Even if the artwork does not mature to completion and I am not happy with it - which ultimately leads to its dismantling - even then, I am filled with energy and a sense of adventure. All the materials I work with are from the wonders of creation. I do not paint or touch what Mother Nature created. I do not limit myself to one preordained production process. The process varies with each new creation. There are works in which the material comes before and dictates the idea, and there are those in which the idea comes to me long before the materials and sends me to search for them.

As an Israeli who grew up in the rural countryside, my inspiration derives, among other things, from the collage of human portraits that assemble this immigrant country where Jews from all over the world have gathered, and of course from the power of nature and the diversity which characterizes this tiny country that I know so well through my feet.

The subject of my artwork can emerge from the raw material; for example when a rock in nature evokes an association and leads me to create, then I know precisely what the image is and how its portrait will look. Conversely, there are works that I envision in my mind long before I find the materials from which to compose them. For example, in the work “Lot’s Wife”, I was

I find myself attracted to the connection between inspirational characters of the Old Testament and creating them in the natural materials from the geographical area in which the stories took place. Simultaneously, I have a creative curiosity surrounding the mythological

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and historical figures that are associated with the rulers of this land - the Greeks, the Romans and others - who are also captured in stones and shells from the country in which they left their mark.

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Your artworks capture the frame that manifests nature and presents the hidden feelings in it, including all of the human strengths and weaknesses, accomplishing such insightful inquiry into the theme of perception and we

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Coastal People

have appreciated your exploration of the relationship between the notion of body and ‘its’ surroundings: we daresay that your work suggests the idea that most of the information is hidden, or even “encrypted” in the surroundings

we inhabit, urging us to decipher it. Do you think that one of the role of artists could be to reveal unexpected aspects our relationship with the outside world? Feelings are the way for a person to process the

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December Romance

reality around him. I see natural images around me, from which I create artwork that the beholder can grasp in many ways and in multiple depths. The observer can look at the human portrait in front of him; he can observe the

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aspects of nature that compose the face in front of him and, of course, to penetrate the depth of the emotion the work evokes in him. As far as I am concerned, the creation is given to each spectator separate from their world of concepts,

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The Pirate from Caesarea Maritima

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Lot's Wife

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From the Series Desert Members

experiences and external life reality. Everyone has full freedom in their encounter with the creative works.

creative process? In particular, do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

How much does personal experience fuel your

Everything is interconnected; it's impossible to separate art from life. Everything is created

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Longing

from personal experiences and every creation is a piece of the soul.

The power of visual arts in the contemporary age is enormous: at the same time, the role of the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s disposition and attitude is equally impoartant. Both our minds and our bodies need to actively participate in the experience of

They reflect what I experience as a human being and the life experience I have gained.

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Medusa of the Sea

contemplating a piece of art: it demands your total attention and a particular kind of effortâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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 viewers' perception as starting point to urge them to elaborate personal interpretations? In the creative process, I give my own interpretation to personal developments and

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Samson

thoughts and do not pretend to direct or influence the viewer's interpretation. I would, obviously, be pleased to know that the viewers

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find their own connection, as mentioned above, to my work. Yet during my creative processes the eye of the observer is not necessarily

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present, it is linked after I release the creation from my care. While I place great emphasis on the very smallest details, it is clear to me that most of the viewers do not need this in order to experience the entire creation. In a painting, there are those who will come up close to observe the strokes of the brush, the work of the spatula or the points that produce the overall image. There will also be those who observe the pile of salt, certain shells or the stone texture that is the foundation of the image’s facial features, and there will be those who won’t. I consider the work to be constructed from these small details, and I attribute great importance to them. Photographer Thomas Ruff stated that "once nowadays you don't have to paint to be an artist. You can use photography in a realistic way. You can even do abstract photographs". What is your opinion about the importance of photography in the contemporary art? Photography is part of the toolbox the artist has nowadays, but for me, personally, while I'm working, it is just one tool out of many, and I do not see a substantial difference between it and the other tools I use to express myself. When the British artist Andy Goldsworthy creates works from flowers, leaves and mud, all of these are different ways to tell a story, and the photographs that present the works are the means, not the end goal. The same applies to my creations. The distinction between different genres such as a figurative or an abstract painting, sculpture, video, fitting or photograph may still hold significance for museums, galleries and collectors, but it has no meaning for me in my work as an artist. As you have remarked once, one of the artists, whose work influenced you the most is Antoni Pitxot, painter and longtime friend and collaborator of Salvador Dalí: what influences outside the visual arts inspire and impact your approach to making work? Moreover, do you pay

attention to the work of your contemporaries? If so, is there anyone in particular you feel inspired by? This type of earth art and artists who work within the natural surroundings, which we discover as active spectators when visiting these places or photographs, are an inspiration to me and greatly influence my work. Despite the difference in scale, I find that environmental art like Art Sella, where the boundary between the artwork, nature and the spectator dissolves, seeps into my consciousness and invigorates my artistic courage. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Alon: 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? Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? What tomorrow may bring I do not know. I find myself exploring and experimenting with various materials and creation processes and the interaction between them. The dialogue between an idea, artistic endeavor and materials gathered in nature still well up and surge from within me. The reactions I get from viewers of the photographs reinforce the impression that this curiosity is not exclusively mine but rather it is shared by the viewers as well. Engaging in the creative process itself, the Sisyphean search for the right image, the one that is stuck in my mind begging to come out and be expressed, brings me the greatest happiness. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Kristyna and Marek Live and work in Brooklyn, New York, USA

Our art practice is a continuous dialogue with people, places, and ourselves, in which we engage issues of contemporary culture investigating the alienation of culture and nature, loss of context and states of passivity in consumerism to reframe reality influenced by our predominantly interior based lifestyle. We engage a variety of narratives and forms of the modern life but see domesticity as the focal point to access the theme of the environment at large, as here the personal is tied together with the far-reaching contexts. We believe that the microcosm of the personal space is a great platform and laboratory to engage, as the home is the place people care about the most. We are interested exploring the concept of home in a relationship to nature and environment, engaging themes of identity developed through interaction with sites and places, everyday rituals, and traditions, studying their integral role in binding together the social, natural and cultural order. Our methodology has crystallized into a research-based, socially engaged process, during which we are collecting data, and engaging with specific places while interacting socially and collaboratively. Many of our projects functions as metaphorical models, in which we use humor and irony as a tool to offer constructive but at the same time absurd and utopian solutions. They employ diverse forms, materials, and concepts specific to the individual theme, regularly engaging methods of homesteading such as furnishing, decorating, cleaning, dining, gardening, and food production. The projects are often based on reenactments of common situations derailing established cultural models to create interactive installations, in-situ interventions, and socially engaged actions. Our projects, for example, adopted forms of a public lounge, fully functional library, scientific laboratory, restaurant, red carpet VIP entrance, florist shop or a community garden, functioning as immersive environments for exploration and experience to address pressing contemporary issues and encouraging new perspectives. Our work is informed by the experience of wilderness and nature at our frequent walks, hikes, and backpacking trips. These experiences represent our parallel practice providing us with resource and inspiration to engage themes of culture and nature and to reevaluate the limited perceptions of the interior based lifestyle. While we challenge the established comfort zones, confronting myths and cultural fantasies about the world and ourselves, we seek to recognize identity in the infinite extent of our relations in the immediate surrounding but also in the world at large. We are interested in seeding new memes, to bring awareness to the everyday context, fostering integrity of the self in the culture, environment, and nature

Milde

Cabinet of Smells, 2015, installation view, exhibition Double Vision at EFA Project Space, NYC, distillation equipment, laboratory glass and tools, perfume bottles, chemicals, collection of domestic objects such as old books, toys, food scraps, dry flowers, debris, old doormat, 8' x 8' x 5' Cabinet of Smells revisits the cultural concepts of smell both the natural and artificial exploring what is the real smell of a home by distilling scents from various household objects such as old books, socks or debris, etc. to produce a perfume that inclusively represents its origin and identity.

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Paka Traykova Lives and works in Sofia, Bulgaria

Bulgarian writer and artist Paka Traykova's artworks rejects any conventional classification and draws the viewers through a multilayered journey. In her body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages, she successfully attempts to trigger the viewers' perceptual parameters walking them through the liminal area where the realm of imagination and perceptual reality find such consistent point of convergence: one of the most impressive aspects of Paka Traykova's work is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of a walking the viewers to a state of mind which may aid the response rather than determining the interpretation of the image: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

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

your works? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to art making in general?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Paka and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. We would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. For ten years you have been involved in literature and you have experience in almost all genres with over 130 works written: how did this experience influence the way you currently conceive and produce SPECIAL ISSUE

Hello! Yes, I am the founder of the literary movement FERISM (FĂŠrism is free abstract - an associative method of creativity entwining the intuitive horizons with the mental view of the measurable self in and beyond the presence of Time). Literature is the constructional story of each of my works. In particular, through it, I build the 162

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basics of her sense of workload, but also specify the scale of her cultural affiliation. My literary palette has shaped the parameters of my inner world and, in particular, my country Mrania (translated from "I come from God and I go to it"), such as history, culture, mythology, poetics, pathetics and dynamics of my entire expression. It is I recreate it in painting by positioning the atrocious, through the sensory perception of art. The results of your artistic inquiry convey a coherent sense of unity that rejects any conventional classification. We would suggest to our readers that they visit www.facebook.com/artistepakatray kova in order to get a synoptic view of your work. While walking our readers through your usual process and setup, can you tell them something about the evolution of your style? In particular, what did address you to focus on Đ&#x161;reaNishava representing the culture of Mrania? My whole life is built up through the basic principles and laws of the SPECIAL ISSUE

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THE CROWN 2017 art installation by Paka Traykova

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PAKA TRAYKOVA. SUBCONSCIOUS SLEEP, 2017. 130x110cm. Mixed technique on canvas. Jigsaw puzzle.

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spiritual staircase. As an artist, I reject the postulate framework and grasp the degrees of my own perception of the world. KreaNishava is one of the writings of Mrania, the one which reveals the secret signs of the Truth. With my art, I have always tried to express the Truth as universal truth, but dressed in the mysterious essence of life. That is why KreaNishava with its expressiveness fully expresses the culture and mythology of Mrania and myself. I share everything with the audience (viewers) at the same time and remain somehow protected. It is like a poetic drawing of the state of the seasons in the soul. For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected THE CROWN, an extremely interesting work that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your artistic inquiry into the point of convergence between reality and abstraction is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis 167

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with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of the THE CROWN would you tell us your usual sources of inspiration, if any? The main link: Inspiration - Works Creator is in the tonal multiplanar between Idea - Language Importance. The crown is a lyrical confession, a place, an event, an apotheotic amplitude in striving and reaching sacred freedom, but it is also the origin of a new beginning. It's built like a puzzle, (as most of my works) to unfold the spectra of the whole. The eight parts are compositional periods, predestined and fulfilled dreams. My usual sources of inspiration are the events in my life, the topics that excite my soul, my dreams and their interpretation.

UNDER THE WING, 2017 - art installation by PAKA TRAY

We like the insightful combination between such rigorous geometrical patterns and the vibrancy of the tones of your works, that shows how vivacious tones are not striclty indespensable to create tension and dynamics. How did you come about settling SPECIAL ISSUE

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, 168

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how do you develope a texture?

and familiar symbols so that an association can produce a familiar form that specifies the main direction of thought, or in other words, by a puzzle panel I build the

My creative process is in three stages. I first invent the shape and break it through geometric shapes 169

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Paka Traykova. THE KEY FOR PAVADONOLTA, 2017. 167x76cm. Acrylic on canvas.

composition. The second stage is the main idea, in which I rely on the color impact, the choice of palette and the narrative unfolding of the narrative through the SPECIAL ISSUE

mixture of concrete and abstract models. And the third stage is KreaNishava itself with the contrast that shapes the inner depth of the message and the 170

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much importance does play improvisation in your process? In spite of my thoughts, spontaneity is leading. I have a basic idea, mostly in composition or in the narrative, but I leave the passion of my creative fire to make a fire in whose flames I dance. I use this metaphor to recreate the connection with my original root. In Bulgarian culture, there is a pagan ritual called the Fire-dancing dance, with which I overlap. This is a dance on fire or a coals of fire performed as a prayer to the gods whose dedication the dancers fall into trance and receive visions for themselves, their people and the world as a whole. Creating KreaNishava for me is like a vision in a trance during a Fire-dancing dance. As you have remarked once, in 2014 you made the spiritual art installation HOLY DOORS, which turned into a career change and started to focus mainly on projects for WORLD PEACE. Would you tell us something about this important change in

meaning of the whole. Do you like spontaneity or do you prefer to meticolously schedule every details of your works? How 171

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Holy doors, 2014 art instalation by Paka Traykova

your practice? Moreover, how would you consider the relationship between spirituality and creativity?

it is built and activated through a meditation process within 64 days, as are the parts of the all-seeing eye with 8 days for each of the eight sacred portals for the realization of dreams. The change occurred before, during, and after the period of this spiritual awareness. It was a great pleasure to hear the fact that after the

For me creativity and spirituality are invariably connected. Through creativity I express the spiritual parameters of my self. HOLY DOORS is a sacred period in my life, SPECIAL ISSUE

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exposition of the art installation at Sofia International Airport, within a month, human stories came about to come true with their dreams, through HOLY DOORS. It was the very goal of generating pure spiritual energy under the heading "Flights to New Dimensions." Then followed another ambitious and successful

world peace project called "BETWEEN GODS" implementing the highest harmony between religions and beliefs in all parts of the world under the motto "Unity does not give rise to concessions!" For this reason, I was selected in the selection of Bulgarian artists for the album of the Bulgaria Gallery with an 173

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original work, followed by my international distinction Leonardo da Vinci International Prize for a World Artist.

that "it is always only a matter of seeing: the physical act is unavoidable": as a multidisciplinary artist involved both in Photographer and Dance how would you consider the relation between the abstract nature of the ideas you explore and the physical act of producing your artworks?

Many artists express the ideas that they explore through representations of the body and by using their own bodies in their creative process, as you did in the interesting The Secrets of the Shaman. German visual artist Gerhard Richter once remarked SPECIAL ISSUE

"The Secrets of the Shaman" is a synthesis of the inner and outer. 174

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The project itself is built up as a body and spirit. It consisted of eight art installations and a ritual of initiation, through my physical incarnation in the image of the shaman himself. Art installations are shown as "tattoos" on my hands to reinforce the organic continuity of the mystery of dedication. The Shamanism is widely spread in the Mranian culture, through the inversiastika (the science of rituals), and

through this illustrated projection of the dichotomy: Body-Spirit, united in essence is the real archetype of KreaNishava. Your artistic practice seems address the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception: for example, the thoughtful nuances of DNA - MONMAHARIY seem to be 175

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Paka Traykova GOOD LUCK, 2017 63x63cm.

the tip of the iceberg of the emotions that you are really attempting to communicate. How SPECIAL ISSUE

would you define the relationship between abstraction and figurative in your practice? In particular, 176

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Paka Traykova. IMPLAYANARA, 2017. 90x85cm. Acrylic on canvas.

how does representation and a tendency towards abstraction find their balance in your work?

Through DNA - MONMAHARIY, I recreate the quantum essence of Mrania, the main colors in the flag, 177

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Paka Traykova. DNA - MONMAHARIY, 2017. 145x130cm. Acrylic on canvas.

the number of the main tribes that make it, the number of areas in the country itself, the features of DNA SPECIAL ISSUE

construction, rather the supernatural mutation in the X chromosome, etc. I choose the 178

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laconic expression of the figure, through the multi-layered patching of the building structure from fundamental history, through the intellectual platform and informative synthesis, to the dialogue structure that forms with the spectator himself. This creates a specific perfection in the perception of the whole moving organism: Creator - Works Viewer.

spirit. In this line of thought I was very impressed by the monochrome and stylish compositional clarity that Karmen Herera achieved with a geometric design. I also use the pure color to achieve a stronger effect in expressing Truth without a mixture, that is, distortion of the interpretational fields of intellectual suggestive stylistics. Geometry I use it as a basic construction material for my puzzle board. I pay attention to all the artists who have their world, their own style and their developmental trajectory beyond the craftsmanship, all those who express the state of their spirit or aspects of cultural affiliation like the Indian artist Anuradha Thakur. I like the lapidarity in the words of Khalil Gibran "The mission of art is to reveal the unknown even in the well-known. The task of art is to understand Nature and to reveal its meaning to those unable to comprehend it. "

Your style is very personal and conveys both rigorous geometry and vivacious abstract feature, as in the interesting SUBCONSCIOUS SLEEP and THE KEY FOR PAVADONOLTA: what influences outside the visual arts inspire and impact your approach to making work? Moreover, do you pay attention to the work of your contemporaries? If so, is there anyone in particular you feel inspired by? Geometry has always captured me with its perfect simplicity that most closely approximates it to the sacred parameters of the

Over the years your works have been showcased in several occasions, including exhibitions in 181

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world art centers in Europe and the USA. Moreover, your artworks are in private collections in Great Britain, Spain, USA, New Zealand, Bulgaria, France and Germany: one of the hallmarks of your work is its ability to create a direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language you use in a particular context?

speech conditioning of manners, the imagination and the ability to interpret your silence. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Paka. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? It is my promise to realize the "The secrets of the Shaman", "Mrania History, mythology and stories of our day", "With words without words", "Labyrinth of selfknowledge" and "Formula of Immortality" - my scientific discovery about the transformations of the five types of imaginary realities in physical and creative terms to complete the large-scale art installation "The Home of Insightful Thought".

I do not question the intelligence of my viewers, but with the concentration of an explanatory context on the essence of my works, I set the main topic of conversation. Language for me has always been important in communication both as a vocabulary and as a phonetic, but the greatest depth is achieved in the synthesis of the intellectual

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Thank you for your time and the wonderful questions! An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator peripheral.arteries@europe.com

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Elis Gjoni Lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Video art and installation are the techniques that I have stopped and I am experimenting in different expressions, thoughts feelings and touching. Mechanic movements of objects throught electricity gives me an internal satisfaction, I feel the creation of the object from non existing into existing. The biography and the instinct are my most important columns inside me. I come from an expressive biography, full of events and features, I come back from time to time and I find old marks like in a canvas, I return them in the most minimalist way possible. Object with no value, are the ones are the ones that wake my instinct up through changing them into valuable ones, maby not exactly as they used to be but a new face of movements and concepts. Most of my work I have found in different situations, through working in building houses, through studies, travelling, shooting movies, meeting other people who poke you emotionally. A lot of this work contains naivity, courage, pression and you go into a new space like a double gravity. the aim of my concepts is to go exactly where it is thought there is nothing to discover.

Elis Gjoni was born on 1988 in the city of Puka. From his childhood he moved to live in Tirana, where he finished his studies at Artistic Liceum â&#x20AC;&#x153;Jordan Misjaâ&#x20AC;?. After several challenges, in 2009 begins his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts (today University of the Arts), where he graduates in 2014 majoring in Atelierin e Multimedia-s. During his studies he has had several artistic experiences, participating in several exhibitions locally and internationally. He has also been an accomplice in the theater, in short films, workshops, documentaries and television. Elis Gjoni has developed a fairly authentic language video media and installation in particular, giving objects that he uses a character that transforms them into subjects that self-confess. He is one of those young artists that deserve attention, because his first steps are really qualitative. Currently he lives in the U.S.A.

Sebastian Kawar Lives and works in College Station, Texas, USA

I believe nothing exists in a vacuum. Our perception of reality is informed by imperceptibly interwoven experiences. As such, this body of work draws from several personal and cultural infuences, and incorporates them into my visual language. Growing up Catholic, I was exposed to its religious iconography-- depictions of Christ, the Virgin, and the Saints-- and its transcendent aspects--order, presence, power, awe--and it now informs my aesthetic. My digital paintings and prints synthesize Catholicism and several other religions’ iconographies with distinctly contemporary elements in order to address an increasingly globalized culture. My work is also indebted to a multitude of popular infuences, among them illustration, fantasy, and animation. I embrace the bold use of color and stylization, striving to depict fgures who are simultaneously present and detached. These modern saints and deities echo untold stories and invite the viewer to fll them in with the diverse range of their own.

Sebastian Kawar

Sebastian Kawar is a digital artist currently pursuing his MFA in Visualization at Texas A&M University. He also holds a B.S. in Visualization and French minor from Texas A&M. Sebastian was born in Houston, Texas, to a Lebanese father and a Salvadoran mother. Primarily a digital painter, his work addresses an increasingly globalized culture by synthesizing his Catholic upbringing with other religious iconographies within a contemporary digital aesthetic. Sebastian participates in the local arts community, regularly exhibiting in shows around College Station and Bryan, Texas. During the Summer of 2015, he was the College Station Artist in Residence which culminated with the solo exhibition “Light & Languor” at the Arts Council of the Brazos Valley. He has also exhibited in venues such as the Land Heritage Insti- tute in San Antonio and in the Texas A&M University Wright Gallery. As an Instructor of Record, Sebastian has taught undergraduate courses, and he currently works for the Department of Visualization as an assistant exhibition coordinator, having helped prepare for “The Collision of Art & Technology,” the department showcase at SXSW 2017, as well as the annual department show, Viz-a-GoGo.

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Sebastian Kawar Lives and works in College Station, Texas, USA

Incorporating a variety of techniques and rejecting any conventional classification regarding its style, Sebastian Kawar's work draws the viewers through the point of convergence between tradition and contemporariness. His body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages provides the viewers with such multilayered visual experience, capable of triggering their cultural and perceptual parameters: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to Kawar's stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.

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

your works? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to art making in general?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Sebastian and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training and after having earned your BS in Visualization, you nurtured your education with an MFA of Visualization, that you are currently pursuing at the Texas A&M University: how do these experiences influence the way you currently conceive and produce SPECIAL ISSUE

The Visualization program, or the Viz Lab, as we call it, is unique in that it is neither simply an art program nor a technical one. In undergrad, I developed foundational skills such as learning how to observe and to draw, while at the same time taking courses in programming and digital media. Just like painting requires an understanding of color theory and your tools, mediums such as 3D CG or digital painting require learning the software and understanding that 66

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searching for in the materials that you include in your materials? And in particular, when do you recognize that one of the mediums has exhausted it expressive potential to self?

it is a means, not an end; it’s just another tool in your arsenal that still demands comprehension of the basic principles of design. As a grad student, I’ve taken these skills and applied them to creating work that’s more critically conscious.

I’m just insatiably curious. I love learning and I love making, and the two go hand in hand. I don’t think I can ever say that I’ve exhausted a medium. If anything, all my work up to now has just been a series of first steps. In particular, I’m interested in the translation of media. For example, what happens when you take an oil painting self-portrait, bring it into the digital by projecting it on a 3D model of a head, and then bring it back to the physical by 3D-printing it?

As for any artist, personal experience is a huge factor in producing work. I was raised Catholic, and in many ways it influences what I create. At the same time, I’m constantly consuming both pop culture and fine art. I’m very interested in the power of the icon, or image, and how it manifests itself across these cultural spectrums. Your practice is marked out with a captivating multidisciplinary feature, revealing that you are a versatile artist capable of crossing from a medium to another. Before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://cargocollective.com/sebastian kawar in order to get a synoptic view of your work: in the meanwhile, would you tell us what does draw you to such approach? What are the properties you are

Do you think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist? I usually only find common threads in my work after producing some quantity and reflecting on it. What I keep going back to is the idea of the icon, that is, an image so compelling that it creates a reciprocal relationship with the viewer, and in 69

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addition, questions regarding the ontological nature of digital work. For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected Light & Languor: Narrative in Portraiture, an interesting series that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of this body of works is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of Light & Languor: Narrative in Portraiture would you shed a light about your usual process and setup? This was a series I developed in the summer of 2015 as the College Station Artist in Residence for the Arts Council of the Brazos Valley. I had just graduated with my bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, and was very interested in the power of light and color to create drama. All the paintings in this series were of the mundane rendered spectacle; they were painted from reference photos I shot of my friends. I used Photoshop to edit and compose, in some cases pulling from multiple references, before getting to the oils. SPECIAL ISSUE

Your artwork are pervaded with images rich with symbolic features, belonging to religious iconographies, as the interesting 70

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Theophany. German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so

much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about 71

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it? Moreover, would you tell us something about the importance of symbols in your imagery? Do they act as metaphors? SPECIAL ISSUE

I think Demand is spot on. Theophany works for me on two levels. 72

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reflects my own non-committal and relativistic worldview; it neither preaches nor condemns. The deity is an icon whose gaze is one of total equality. Eyelids heavy, the androgynous figure meets the viewer’s gaze with an affectation of detachment. Shrouded in smoke, the icon becomes a mirror for the illusory and transient nature of one’s self. On the level of the medium, the fact that the work is a digital painting points to the image’s intended mode of propagation: over the internet. As it exists online, the image is omnipresent: accessible from any location and scalable to any size, qualities of a god. We appreciate the way Reliquary shows such captivating synergy traditional imagery and contemporary digital aesthetics: how would you consider the relationship between Tradition and Contemporariness? In particular, do you think that digital technologies could bring to a new level of significance the imagery belonging to tradition?

On the formal and symbolic level, it draws from several religion’s iconographies, namely Catholicism, Hinduism, and Islam. The painting 73

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I think it has to. The danger in tradition is refusing to adapt. The mediums of digital technology, such as digital painting, internet art, and interactive installations to name a few, are simply new tools in the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s toolbox. To me the images of tradition always comes back to our human experience. As such, art, through the lens of digital technology can and should reflect both past and contemporary culture. Your current body of work draws from several personal and cultural influences: as you have remarked in your artist's statement, our perception of reality is informed by imperceptibly interwoven experiences: how much does everyday life's experience fuel your imagery and your creative process? In particular, do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience? In short, no. As cheesy as it sounds, witnessing natural light spill across a wall and floor in just the right way still feels magical every time. Look through my phone, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find countless photos of my plants SPECIAL ISSUE

in sunlight, or snaps of my turtle and cat, or screenshots of an online post I thought was interesting. All these little moments feed into my 74

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visual language and inspire new ideas. Even for art that is less emotional and more conceptual, the fact that

the work exists points to some investment in experience. As artists, we are constantly asking questions about our world. 75

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We have really appreciated the

your pieces, that in Early Bird Gets

vibrancy of thoughtful nuances of

The Worm show that vivacious

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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 develop a paintingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s texture? Here is where Photoshop is a great tool. A lot of my process is intuitive, simply balancing color sliders on my reference until it feels right, and for whatever reason, I tend to lean towards a punch of saturation. Underlying this, however, is a foundation in color theory; in this particular painting, the complements of blue and orange ground the work. But even with the preparation I do before painting, it ultimately comes down to the satisfaction that comes in the act of painting: making decisions, mixing paint, and reminding myself to be deliberate when making marks, all with the aim of generating visual interest. British multidisciplinary artist Angela Bulloch onced stated that "works of arts often continue to evolve after they have been realised, simply by the fact that

tones are not strictly indispensable to create tension and dynamics. 77

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they are conceived with an element of change, or an inherent potential for some kind of shift to occur". Do you think that the role of the artist

has changed these days with the new global communications and the new sensibility created by new media? 79

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That’s the thing about artists. There are so many different ways to frame a practice. For many, the are artists as activists, using media to call attention to important sociopolitical issues. While I don’t view myself in that light, I cannot possibly foresee every interpretation of the work I create. Culture will continue to change, and new ways in which to interpret art will constantly come to light. Over the years your works have been exhibited in several occasions, including your recent participation to the department exhibition “The Collision of Art & Technology”, at SXSW Interactive, in Austin: 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 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 SPECIAL ISSUE

a particular context? In particular, are you interested to trigger the viewers' perception as starting point to urge them to elaborate personal interpretations? Right. For visual art, clearly the most fundamental level is what the eye sees. I think that’s why I rely so much on the formal qualities that 80

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make up my visual language. If I can get someone to look and keep looking, then the floor is now open for dialogue. All of a sudden, they begin to make connections to their experiences, and something new, has come of that interaction.

readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I’ll hopefully be graduating with my MFA at the end of the summer 2018, and from there the only thing I know is that I’ll continue to be making stuff. If you’d like to keep tabs, my instagram (@sebastiankawar) is the best place to follow me!

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Sebastian. Finally, would you like to tell us 83

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Victor Cano Lives and works in Barcelona, Spain

I would like to introduce myself as a multidisciplinary artist who specializes in various fields. I specifically use artistic methods in which I feel most connected to, allowing me to express my feelings through painting, photography, experimental film making, installations, electronics and more. I try not to focus on the how, rather the what, accessing my intuition and allowing the ideas to flow through the natural instinct of the curiosity. I love experimenting and discovering. In this moment of my career I am very interested in how the internet and the digital world has become a transcendent revolution for communication, increasing relations with others and also the ways in which we are able to create. Related to my constant feeling about who am I and to the social and individual identities, I believe that this new form of digital relationships is creating and developing multilayered individuals. These individuals could get sometimes saturated and develop multiple personality masks, as Pierre Bourdieu has said many years ago. On other side, the digital revolution is also giving us the opportunity to transcend our way of creating. That’s why I am very interested in creating “digital paintings”, where the spectators, through an interactive installation, have the opportunity to experience the process and the way of the artist’s creation. A relative process, of course, that thanks to the distribution of the elements gives also a hint of the relativeness of matters.