Peripheral ARTeries Art Review, Special Edition

Special Edition

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

LI SUN MICHAEL DASSLE ROMI MAEGLI SANYAA MEHROTRA DESIRÈE HILMER KONSTANTINOS ANGELOU JULIA CLARE SAGIAS RAPHAEL FORBES ASMA KHOSHMEHR

Asma Khoshmehr (USA)

CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW

The representation of identity through written vernacular script by Sanyaa Mehrotra, in the artwork titled Reflections ’. The artist used elements which felt truly her own, the two being-her name and her handwriting. She transformed them into a flowing form of composition while reflecting upon the concept of identity. Created in layers by the rhythmic repetition of the artists first name, the images as a whole were paradoxical, seeming simple but consisted of layers that added meaning upon closer inspection. She found a rhythm in the monotonous task of repeatedly writing her name thousands of times, creating a constant flow of energy evoking the motivation to keep going and finding a sense of empowerment.

The artist questioned the obsessive attempt of writing her name which further opened up self discussions about her identity, attempts to find the essence of her existence, transcending name, nationality and cultural identity. Each person is born with very little attached to the first name and decades worth of heaviness attached to the last. As one grows, the first name starts to get defined characteristics and the last name acts as a boundary wall of acceptable and non-acceptable.

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

Sanyaa Mehrotra

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Contents 32 Raphael Forbes

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Lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA

lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

Lives and works in the United States DesirĂŠe Hilmer

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Lives and works in New York City, USA

Lives and works in Singapore Julia Clare Sagias

Lives and works in Thebes, Greece

Lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA

184 Michael Dassle

Lives and works in Beijing, China

Special thanks to: Michael Betancourt, Teresa Wells, Jared Schaffer, Jean-Claude Bise, Ashley Cassens, Hildy Maze, Karissa Hahn, Juliana Pepper, Jane Sheiko, Max Savold, Julia Ăœberreiter, Deborah Esses, Margaret Noble, Joseph Goddard, Nathalie Borowski, Marco Visch, Xavier Blondeau, J.D. Doria, Matthias Callay, Luiza Zimerman, Kristina Sereikaite, Scott D'Arcy, Kalli Kalde, Carla Forte, Mathieu Goussin, Evie Zimmer, Dorothee Zombronner, Olga Karyakina, Robert Hamilton, Isabel Becker, Clare Haxby, Carrie Alter, Jessica Bingham, Agnieszka Ewa Braun, Fabian Freese, Elodie Abergel, Ellen van der Schaaf, Courtney Henderson and Francine LeClercq

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Asma Khoshmehr Lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

The legendary mythology, folklore, the superpositions of concepts and sub-layered cultural depictions in book of “1001 Nights” wrapped by the enrapturing frame narrative of the mother of all storytellers, ‘Scheherazade’ and the book itself inspired me by her motive to humanize the dictators, propelling me to reference its inclusive values as a way to work against stereotype, anti-national, xenophobia and violence. In the initial stories of the book, women have been portrayed as evil and negative characters, yet flustered by the society, especially men, by spreading apologue like any woman reading these stories and reaching to the book’s end shall drop dead. These restraining lies, banned reading and demonized women character served as a catalyst for my research through photography, performance, film; exploring and exposing the boundaries between power of matriarchy and patriarchy, practice in dialogue with various forms of feminist theory and masculinity through stories eventually inviting and inspiring all women to read the whole story that is an excellent guide of life. This book inspires respect for individuality irrespective of race, culture, religion, and beliefs.

The conception of my photography portfolio portrays orientalism through western paintings. With the fabric being the core element, it represents a classical portrait of Scheherazade and signifies the discovery of women cloaked in invisibility. The work series gradually shifted to add various masked figurines to symbolize carnivalesque and polyphonic narrative techniques. I am exploring the mystic power within the wisps of its magic, as it exposes the feminine symbiosis with self-survival. The core highlights being the eternal feminine myths, stereotypes reinforcing the Scheherazade of all perpetuity; while written literature remained the scope for men only, allegory with wise oral literature became the tool of women to spread general awareness as well as develop the oral literature as a therapy for multiple social abominations.

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

http://asmakhoshmehr.com in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training and you hold a degree in Dramatic Literature, that you received from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Teheran

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Asma and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit

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mythological figurines be if dealt with proper narrative and theatrics.

University and starting MFA in film and media Art at Emerson college in fall: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does the relationship between your cultural substratum due to your Persian roots and your current life in the United States direct the trajectory of your current artistic research?

Starting a new life in an unknown place with a mindset to expect nothing familiar was a hard decision made easy only by my conviction to aid my husband during his Ph.D. studies. Being convinced that I would have to start an unknown lifestyle from start, the first glimpse of my culture here in the USA came from an American friend who dedicated her life to researching on Hafez, Rumi and Ferdowsi’s poetry and was fluent in Farsi and Arabic language, thus initiating my journey with American students in middle eastern studies.

Finding branches of my old roots so distant from home made me appreciate the opportunity to represent my culture in foreign lands, which eventually felt less foreign with each passing day when I started lecturing for theatrics and Persian folklores, introducing the background and roots; how these stories gradually changed over time, changed into the familiar tales we grow up with. Theatrics and films play an important role to touch everyone to new cultures and deep-rooted folklores, I find myself in a privileged position to continue my artistic activities as a director, writer and video designer in theater related to Persian cultures and mythologies along with my photography projects.

Asma Khoshmehr: I want to express my gratitude to you and the readers for this opportunity before I dive into the topic.

Growing up in a culture where words can work miracles, from enchanted words as a medicine, moral of short stories proverbs and guidance of life circumstances by reading from a holy book, finding meaning of the poetry and revealing their secret has fascinated me. The mysteries of Quranic verses; the stories of creation, mythology and ritual ceremonies, eventually evolved into my academics in theatre as I realized the power of dialogue in narrative with secret of life and death to study about the relationship between myth, ritual, and theater. In all genres of writing, mythological narrative and folklore stories inspired me the most.

The character of Inanna or Ishtar has intrigued me to evaluate female goddess characters in depth; starting with fertility figurine surrounded by myth of death and disaster, a goddess of contradictory connotations and forces evolving into complex character. I was so awed by the character; it fixated my passion for female figurine characters for life and Inanna became the inspiration of my final thesis in college where I dealt with the Mesopotamian mythology, finding a pattern of narration of her story in one Iranian film and a play, providing me the first of many curious perceptions on how impressionable can the

You are a versatile artist and your process involves a variety of techniques including photography, performance and paintings. We have appreciated the way the results of your artistic inquiry convey such a coherent combination between emotional intuition and a rigorous aesthetics: how do you select an artistic discipline in order to explore a particular aspect of your artistic inquiry?

Moreover, are there any experiences that did

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particularly influence your evolution as an artist and help you to develop your attitude to experiment with different media?

Asma Khoshmehr: Art to me is like language, a medium of communication. As any linguist will agree, knowing all related languages makes the communication far more impressionable and the process is very accessible; Farsi helps Arabic, coupled help to learn Hebrew; applying this to art, each mode of expression only helps portray the meaning of the ancient folklore diversely and deeply. Art is a universal language much like the primitive common language of humans, no one medium of art can suffice the needs of a full versed composition. With inspiration from Jean Cocteau, an artist with diversity as a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic; I indulge in all possible aspects of art to find an appropriate medium of art expression.

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected 1001 nights, 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 insightful inquiry into the mythological character of Scheherazade is the way you expanded the cultural borders of her figure to provide the audience with such multilayered experience on the narrative aspect. When walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you usually develop the initial ideas for your artworks?

Asma Khoshmehr: The tales of Scheherazade stands in stark contrast to a majority of the Middle Eastern woman, who fights to make their own choices to live according to their beliefs about freedom, sexuality, and love in a world

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ruled by men. My growing years stands witness to these tangible stories; of love and loss, to see a better day. In fact, there is a famous saying, “If any women ever finish all the stories, she would drop dead. “And I am proud to say that I have read them time and again and am still alive to encourage others to read and analyze the true treasures of art and knowledge. This book and original poetries are censored and even banned in multiple countries, with the prelude of nonevident history of its author and geographical origins due to distortion during the Arabic invasion in Iran. Formal research about the origin of 1001 night revealed to be of Persian origin, the story from Shahnameh. My visit to India made me realize that the frame techniques of Sukkesepsatti, Panch Tantara, Ramayana and Mahabharata are of Indian origin yet storyline have some origins in the stories by Scheherazade, yet knowing that the people in the United States know this book only as Arabian nights surprised me, making me eager to remind people the diverse origins of this book globally from India, Iran, Greek, China and Arab world , hence decided to use all these cultural subjects from other countries in this project.

With origins in India with its magnificent legends, 1001 Nights is traced to Iran and the final Arabic touch. The skillful woven tales over the millennia, deepening each cultural root, my cultural roots are spread across different countries: a mother from Tanzania (with traces of Indian and Arabic in her with a distinct Swahili language) and father from Iran, I spent a lot of my formative years in Arab nation. With fascinating characters and diverse cultural depiction, this book has the capability to transcend magnificently into any types of art.

As you have remarked in your artist's statement, your photographic work portrays

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the concept of Orientalism elaborated by Edward Said, through western paintings, to invite the viewers to the discovery of women cloaked in invisibility. How did your personal experience as a Persian artist and intellectual emigrated in the United States reflect the you consider the ongoing cultural phenomenon of Orientalism that still affects Western societies?

differences in traditions and cultures. One of the respected critics of vilification of Arab in Hollywood, Dr. Jack Shaheen, successfully campaigned in offensive lyrics to be changed in original Aladdin soundtrack, warned the images would perpetual negative stereotype that sustain adverse portraits across generations.

Rooted in 18th-century colonization, the veil, the harem, and the belly dancers have based the mythical portray middle east and Muslim women of veiled and oppressed individuals known for forced marriage, honor killings and forced veiling, making a false impression of their culture being inherently oppressive to women. It would be wrong to blame the western media completely for this, it is the lack of initiative of the middle east artist and professional of representing the face of their true culture to the world that has encouraged the popularity of the falsifications and reinforced the mindset of the West. On the other hand, I have had experiences with some Americans who are studying as well as spreading the cultures of the East, been enthralled by this culture regarding it as equal, even superior to Western civilization.

Asma Khoshmehr: Merged with illusion and exaggerated fantasy, Disney cartoons, and Hollywood movies have left no stones unturned to form a misleading perspective of 1001Nights. The West recognizes the book as “Arabian Nights” and relates to works of “Ali Baba and forty thieves” and “Aladdin”, which were never a part of the original version.

Edward Said effectively redefined the term Orientalism, in his book, to mean a pattern of false theorization underlying western attitudes toward the Middle East.

This forms the basis of western domination and makes the east seem subdued, yet predominant in this modern world. Here, people form a general idea of women in the middle east, forming a blur of cultural differences among women from Iran with women from Arab world. If I am to listen to the idea of the common majority, all women of middle east, irrelevant to Iranian or Arabian culture are the Jasmine of Agrabah with pet tigers from desert, on second thought, that being a fantasy tale; the women are repressed and in desperate need to escape to a new world. None of the speculation in any near to the actual culture and livelihood of the women of the middle east and there is significant diversity in women from Muslim countries; some with hijab while others aren’t among other

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With its sapient combination between reminders to the reality and their powerful abstract evokative qualities, your artworks seem to invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with wide freedom to realize their own perception. How important is for you to invite the viewers to elaborate personal meanings? And in particular, how open would you like your artworks to be understood?

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consider the power of contemporary art to tackle sensitive cultural issues in order to trigger social change in our globalised societies?

Asma Khoshmehr: The audience for this collection does not belong to one culture and with the multicultural roots’ of 1001 nights, you might find something related to your culture while reading it, forming my mainframe. In one of the image, we see a female covered in fabric which can be Persian or Arab woman or a metaphor of the symbolic representation of the Virgin Mary. In yet another, there is a lady from Greek in Islamic scarf, holding an African mask and Chinese theatrical prop in either hand and wrapped in Indian fabrics.

Asma Khoshmehr: Scheherazade is not only a feminist but also an eloquent philosopher who uses her art to humanize Shahryar and put an end to his lunatic bloodbath. With innate precision, she waves her tale each night so that they are at a crucial juncture just as the day breaks. Starting with instances of jealousy, violence, and cruelty in hopes that the king would face his flaws; her protagonists gradually become diverse and varied: they are no damsels in distress-intelligent, free-willed and decisive, they come from a cross-section of society. They trade and travel, nurture their children, have passionate sex and take decisions that shape their destiny.

If in 1001 nights, Scheherazade told her motive behind storytelling to Shahriar then she would have been dead making a cliché. I invite each audience to seek their meaning and expression yet do not make to reveal everything in the first hand, inspired by the idea of the book itself, which have become a powerful guide to respect all race of people with their individual culture, religion and beliefs. In 1001 nights, Scheherazade made Shahriar a democratic king from an audacious dictator; capable of tolerance, respect and listen to opposing views, opinion and belief of the latter.

Scheherazade believed in the magic of storytelling, being a daughter of the vizier, was competent in history, poetry, literature, politics, and most importantly dialogue. Be it the Mesopotamian literature or the Gilgamesh's epic, taming a man by a woman and magic of tales isn’t foreign to us. Multiple authors have written about the afterlife of Shahrazad; the work of Edgar Allen Poe, “1002 Tale of Scheherazade” is one such example, Allen Poe did not believe that Scheherazade treated the king and at the end of his version of the story, on 1002 nd day Shahriar behead her. I want to remind again how revealing the admonition and magic of word rooted in the ancient culture of the East.

Women in the ancient East literature representatives of education, trapping wild men, and interpreters of sleep. The king Shahriar killed girls knowing he is, in his own

As one the most recognized pioneer of feminist art, italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi, the character of Scheherazade not fall prey to the emotional prettification of a beloved subject. In this sense, and 1001 Nights seems to be a genuine tribute to the issue of women's identity in our globalised still patriarchal and male oriented societies.

Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artists' role differs depending on which sociopolitical system they are living in.' how do you consider the role of artists in our media driven contemporary age? How do you

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way, preventing treason because he believed that women are the perpetrators of revenge. This mindset is solely based on his life observation and experience from his own wife and witnessing treachery of the wife of his brother. He did not understand the reason of cheating on him and having sex with a random kitchen boy in spite of him being the king!

Three years of brutal killing, 1001 nights of facing the monster who married a woman every night, and at dawn throws off her head, the witty determination to wrap up words to portray alluring characters to enlighten Shahriar. She opted to attempt an initiative to change the mindset of domination of the king and ending his brutality. According to Aristotle, women’s voices were proof of their wickedness, hence the male domination is neither fruit or legend of only eastern culture. As I see it, 1001 nights is a genuine tribute to the issue of women’s identity in the patriarchal and male-dominated societies has proven the power of art and story to trigger a social change to utilize the concept to bring about the change, with the sheer belief in the power of story to inspire change.

To be competent in handling sensitive cultural issues, feasibility is essential, especially as some countries have laws prohibiting certain written work and literature hence judicially and/or religiously discriminating and impeding the voices being heard. It is women who have broken taboo to speak up have made the verbal literature and folklore accessible. Yet with the arrival of one thousand and one nights, we virtually enter into an uncensored marginally culturally speaking of a world that you will not find in the classical literature since it has been rescued and even banned. It is the choice of the cultural workers and artists to choose to either remain silent or

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take risk of being heard with the hindrances as Shahrazad choice to life.

In a world of visual media domination with social media as a communication channel, there is no better tool for changing hearts and minds than the feature-length documentary film, if the right literature is chosen to prove the power of word through theater, Language of media through Film is the language I would like to look forward to as a stepping stone in the future of art.

Artist Lydia Dona once remarked that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making: are your works created gesturally, instinctively? Moreover, do you think that your being a woman provides your artistic research with some special value?

Asma Khoshmehr: This photography project is not merely instinctive because it is prepared with extensive conceptual research to convey the messages engraved in the 1001 nights. I was looking for a way to combine the world of instance gesturally with storytelling photography and I ended up with this technique; light painting.

I used long exposure and try to draw line with laser light in the process of photography to transfer and combine my drawing skis lines to photos frames.

About second part of your question, I believe being a woman add special value to this process and my research. I find it an honorto be able to contribute towards nonbiased predicament of virtues to honor the women blazing trails in their fields and raise visibility for the female figures who are otherwise being ignored. If looked at 1001 nights from the point of women, Shahrazad is a woman savior her homogenous and if any

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woman reads it, she will die. I chose this topic as women empower owing to my formative years. the only thing that values any artwork is selfactualization and the author's mentality is not dependent or restricted to the gender of the artist, yet my feminism does add a value to my artwork and serves as the voice of women in this era of persistent gender inequality. As per Abdullah al Ghathami, woman power is verbal and male power is written, with each literary enhancement concepts turn to be masculine dominant. With 1001 night was born the first feminist of Islam, Scheherazade, from brutal killings to less severe punishments to upbringing of the women in tribe, sexist male dominant to liberal just ruler, she helped the community tremendously by not only ending the brutal killings but being the civil lawyer of the king in throne (Shahryar) and balancing her family life and upliftment of society. This is exactly what Scheherazade aimed at and eventually achieved as evident from the ending as Shahriar stated: “O Scheherazade, you made me doubt my kingly power and made me regret my past violence towards women and my killing of young girls.�

If we turn over a thousand and one nights to the year and month, it is equivalent to pregnancy and breastfeeding of Scheherazade's three children yet also deserves credit of the rebirth of new just king, Shahriar.

You are an established artist and over the years you have performed and exhibited your artworks in several countries, including the United States, China, Iran and India: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience?

And what do you hope your audience take away from your artworks? In particular, how do you consider the role of emerging online technosphere in creating new links between artists and worldwide audience?

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Asma Khoshmehr: Yet there should be only represented with inspiration for self-perception and thinking of the audience, this space of thought is essential in every piece of art. This way of thinking about art is characteristic of modernity where the audience needs to be aware of different types of women in the middle east, Iran and Arab nation. Immigrated to the United States from a multicultural family, I perceive the similarities in the mythologies of various culture and invite the same insight from my audience to create cross-cultural communication. The links between =cultures and persons in the twentieth century have been a heavy mental toll globally.

The changes brought on in our time have invoked new possibility in the way humans conceive of their identities as a culture and species. To quote Harold Taylor, “Man is a national citizen with international intuitions, conscious of the age that is past and aware of the one now in being, aware of the radical difference between the two, willing to accept the lack of precedents, willing to work on the problems of the future as a labor of love, unrewarded by governments, academics, prizes, and position. He forms part of an invisible world community of poets, writes, dancers, scientists, teachers, lawyers, scholars, philosophers, students, citizens who see the world whole and feel at one with all its parts."

When I think of influence created among audience, the power of film and media strikes first. The conceptual audience differs when it comes to motion pictures, I involve my audience and the listener, thinking how I should induce emotions of love or hatred. I strongly believe and rely on the power of the chairs in cinema hall; when you see a picture in dark with no external influence, it becomes part of your conscious like a dream, you get involved in it. In this project, I invite the audience to read the whole of 1001 night and understand the relevance of this work

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in our society; the existence of monarchist rulers expending rules on society based on personal perception. The book is the treatment of diseases like racism, sexism, Islamophobia, Islamic extremism, foremost of equilibrium.

Widespread audience is the desire of all artist and internet make the dream come true to some extent.

Art expands our emotional horizons and creates space for growth.

We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Asma. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?

Asma Khoshmehr: Thank you for this opportunity. I am almost at finishing line of a project named "The death of the king", which is the mythical origins of the king's sacrifice ritual ceremony, rooted in multiple countries having lost the originality through doubts and modifications. The ritual killing of the king has existed in all manner of cultures and Iran is not an exception. Either the king or his next to kin were to be slain to retain his throne. Through the course of history, the aforesaid ritual has witnessed modification and evolved into modern existence.

This can be seen in the current political scenario where the vicious murder of those in the position of power, be it an attempt to seize the throne or not, is still a norm. To corroborate the point, the sense of bitterness captured in a vast array of photos taken in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution of 1979 is the mainstay of bringing down the statue of the king or setting his picture on fire. I have collected moments from people’s movement all over the world evolving around the context of the act of killing the king or the self-sacrifice made at the recognition of selfweakness. It is an interesting context and I am still working on the nitty-gritty of the whole project.

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Raphaël Forbes Lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA

Raphaël Forbes is an up and coming artist excited to start displaying his work both nationally and internationally. Raphaël incorporates biology, chemistry, religion, language, people, punk, and mathematics into his art. Born in Toronto, Canada and raised in Los Angeles, Raphaël’s was exposed to the L.A. art scene and graffiti styles. At an early age Raphaël developed an intellect for spatial thinking and became an avid reader of anything and everything. His favorite books are The Sea Wolf, And the Band Played On, and The Dead Sea Scrolls. His greatest influences are Jackson Pollack, Richard Serra, Da Vinci, Albrecht Durer, Tony Robbin, Bathsheba Grossman, Issac Newton, and M.C. Escher. Raphaël has won the Presidential Art Award at Whittier College, and has moved to Montreal, Canada for two years and has recently returned to Los Angeles. Many works are currently in progress.

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

current life in Los Angeles — and the fact of being exposed to the L.A. art scene and graffiti styles — direct the trajectory of your current artistic research?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Raphaël and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.instagram.com/raphyforbes in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production and we would start this interview with a couple of introductory questions. Are there any experiences that did particularly influenced your evolution as a multidisciplinary artist and help you to develop your attitude towards experimentation? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum due to your

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Raphaël Forbes: Hello. Thank you. Glad to be here and taking part in the Peripheral ARTeries Biennial series publication. I have followed into many different paths, like most kids growing into adults, such as wanting to become an inventor, an architect, and a surgeon, before finding art as my true path, and from each of those side adventures I have learned a lot about each field and have been able to use these experiences in many ways with my current artistic practice. I come from a large family, being the oldest of six children, each of whom is finding their

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own path, with many successes, a fact which allows a constant sharing of ideas, technologies, and information that have constantly influenced my practice. I have my brother Gabriel in medicine, Michael in law, Emmanuel in business, Rachel in mathematics, and Ariel in nursing. Their combined achievements, and our constant interactions, spark the fire for creativity, innovation, and complex thought used for my artistic practice. It is from my family that I find the most influence and the strongest push to further my goals in the art world.

Born in Toronto Canada, but being raised in Los Angeles, I was privy to the Los Angeles art scene from a young age. My aunts always took me to the Getty Museum to draw, and from an early age they taught me the art of illuminating letters, calligraphy, of which I still practice today. The graffiti styles of Los Angeles are generally not the street art we may think of today. Rather they are markers of territory and ownership, and there are artists in this city who seek to showcase their skills using the illuminated letter and stencil art. One can truly see the prevalence of calligraphy and stencils in the graffiti art scene of Los Angeles art. In New York City, the city pulsates with the beat of art, whereas in Los Angeles art is prevalent but oftentimes hidden, and seemingly can only be fully discovered by invitation only in many instances. In some ways, Los Angeles is a secret, and to truly know the city one has to be a part of the secret, and from these invitations can one

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The Pianist

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Selling Music and Wares

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truly be able to see much more of its beauty and art.

Los Angeles and I seemingly collaborated unwittingly on work in the past few years, for I was living in Montreal. In that I wanted to bring some elements of Los Angeles with me and did so by using the stencil graffiti style of Los Angeles in black and gold paintings.

This connection of home, wherever I went, allowed me to represent a few of the secrets that is Los Angeles. This constant collaboration allows me to not only represent Los Angeles, but showcase what the city is all about.

However, in all cases it is my own pursuit of knowledge and understanding that is the true driving factor of all of my work, and thus I use art to better explain this desire for understanding.

The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article has at once captured our attention for the way you sapiently conveyed such a stimulating combination between figurative elements and captivating abstract feeling, whose background creates such an oniric atmosphere: how would you consider 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?

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Lost

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The Woman

Ukrainian Peasant

RaphaĂŤl Forbes: In my emerging practice, the fine line and collaboration between abstraction and figurative is complicated as I feel that that which is figurative is humanistic and draws the audience towards the works because of the theory that people can recognize themselves or some commonality of the existence we all share. In conjunction, abstraction is able to explain humanity in ways that figurative work cannot in a similar manner. By this I mean that abstraction is able to portray emotion, time, memory, complex theoretical ideology, philosophy, sociology, and most importantly, much of the human condition. The balance I have

sought is along the middle path. The work should be figurative enough to be recognized as a person, but just abstract enough to evoke an emotional response.

This, I believe, in my pursuit to delve into the understanding of humanity, is the best way I know how to show that humans are emotional, complicated, and most especially, fascinating beings that are more than just a face or an idea.

You are a versatile artist and your artworks reveal such captivating synergy with disciplines as biology, chemistry and mathematics into your art. How do you consider the relationship between artistic

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research and scientific method? In particular, how does in your opinion art could be used to explain science and vice versa?

least the crux of the argument if not more.

From there, I create an idea for a project to portray the scientific premise. This is generally how the artistic research is performed in my practice, and after spending years in the fields of biology, chemistry, and mathematics, the process by which I research is akin to the scientific method. In that we start with an idea, and then we research the idea, seek to create a project that can portray the idea, test the project idea using said research, scale the idea, and finally put the idea into a formulated and finalized work.

RaphaĂŤl Forbes: I constantly seek to push the boundaries of what we now know to be art, especially in sculpture, and this requires constant research, not just in art, but in all areas of the human experience that I find appropriate to the current subject or idea. In order to do artistic research in my own field of work, I generally start from a purely scientific premise and try to find as much information about that idea as possible.

Then I seek to make sure I understand at

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Art is one of the few ways by which science can be explained in terms that we as the laity can understand, in my opinion. For example theoretical physics, subatomic particles, and many mathematical theorems, simply cannot be seen or explained very well without some visual aids and thus art can assist in explaining these ideas. These fields are where I seek to explore the most, at least for now, as I have a desire to understand these complicated worlds that we currently live but on the levels reserved oftentimes for doctorate level professors and leaders in mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry. It is in this niche that I seek to pull together all of these fields, including the humanities, via the vehicle that is art, which then can be used to further pursue and seek a better understanding of the human condition. It is in my opinion, that science and math make use of art all the time to explain many of the complexities of our underlying reality, and art uses science and math as well, either as an aid in the creation of new art or as in the example of fractals - actually become art. The world in a sense needs art, almost as much as it needs science and mathematics, and my journey is not just to bridge the gaps that may occur, but rather to showcase the awe and power of both within the plight of human discovery and innovation.

to aim to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception.

How important is for you to invite the viewers to elaborate personal meanings?

And in particular, how open would you like your artworks to be understood?

RaphaĂŤl Forbes: Each person is a unique amalgamation of thoughts, memories, actions, and interpersonal relationships.

And it has always been my pursuit to delve deeper into that reality in encounters that I am personally involved, especially when the encounters are created by happenstance. This is then reflected upon, in my artistic practice, as my quest for understanding meets the act of portraying a person or idea, and thus I try to find the balance between who and what the person or idea represents unto themselves and to the eventual audience. Personal meanings are key to the interaction of the art and to the audience and to the artist.

Personal reflection of the art creates a dialogue - not a superfluous dialogue but a dialogue that allows for conversation, connection, and reflection.

Personal reflection also allows for a humanistic transfer of information, that when applied upon art allows both the viewer and the artist to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others in that same interaction. I am a firm believer that the art should be viewed, integrated into one's own personal journey, reflected upon in one's personal connection to the work, analyzed, and

A work of art can be considered a combination between understanding reality and hinting at the unknown: we daresay that your artistic practice seems

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then understood from the artist’s point of view. I feel as though I am a private person in many regards, thus what I feel about the intention of a work matters unto myself and the sharing of the idea must come after the audience has had a chance to analyze and reflect upon the information and the artwork. The audience must be as free in viewing the artwork as I allow myself to be in the creation of art, in order to find personal meanings that when reflected upon, create a dialogue and stronger connection to the work in question. In my opinion, the viewpoint of my own art, if told beforehand distracts, distorts, and closes in an audience that should be always open-minded and allowed to draw its own conclusions before reflecting upon my ideas.

We’d love to ask you about the qualities of the materials that you include — or that you plan to include — in your artworks: contemporary practice has forged a new concept of art making involving such a wide and once unthinkable variety of materials and objects. In particular, photographer and sculptor Zoe Leonard once stated, "the objects that we leave behind hold the marks and the sign of our use: like archeological findings, they reveal so much about us": are you interested in the use found objects, too?

Raphaël Forbes: The materials that I have made use of in the past and today are generally simple, raw, and easily accessible, as the materials allow for a blank slate which can be manipulated in any direction I so desire. I have made use of materials such

as plate glass, plywood, nails, rubber bands, and string in addition to canvas, wood panels, and gold paints. Repetition and attention to detail is key for my more abstract work, as this approach makes use of simple objects but present them in very complex and layered facets of an idea being expressed. Going forward, I seek to start using modern technologies, such as 3-D printing and epoxies in my newer and upcoming work in order to constantly push the boundaries of sculpture and painting. In addition, most of the work I have coming up, using new and heavily mathematicalbased materials will hopefully be able to push further in to the understanding of the human condition.

Currently I am not using found objects yet, as I have believed thus far found objects have their own unique story to tell, and I prefer complete control of the narrative being created, as well as the complete control of the process by which the art pieces are created. Starting from the raw blank materials, allows for not just control of the narrative being created, but allows for the change of the raw materials into warm and, hopefully, engaging works that the audience will not only be able to just see, but also feel the emotion meant to be created and worked. The materials, sourced from the cold and the calculated into a human and honest warmth of connection, allows me to start from raw and unformed parts of every project and work my way all the way up until the works completion.

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We can recognize such a rigorous sense of geometry that pervades your artworks and we really appreciate your passion for details, that creates such a coherent combination between sense of freedom and unique aesthetics: do you conceive you works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your pieces? In particular, how importance does spontaneity play in your work?

RaphaĂŤl Forbes: The works created, in general, start from reading and my reflection upon whatever it is that is being read, primarily scientific literature but not exclusively. I am constantly reading books from all walks of life, and upon that reflection of the reading material, inspiration usually strikes. And from there an idea is formed for a piece that uniquely reflects the nature of my current artistic direction and the idea reflected upon in the reading.

Whenever I read scientific works, I reflect upon the material and seek to create an idea that could possibly explain the scientific premise in a means by which everyone could understand. There is no true method by which inspiration for work is created and much of my work relies upon the spontaneity of thought and artistic ideas.

Once an idea is created, however, the idea goes through a serious and complicated methodical approach in researching the ability for the work to be created, and the work is able to pass along the idea to the audience in an effective manner.

Contemporary artists has explored the nature of sculpture incorporating in it concepts apparently antithetical to the idea

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of staticity, as masterfully did Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely with his kinetic art.

What are your interests in the field of sculpture?

Raphaël Forbes: My interests in the field of sculpture are wide and vast, in that the endeavour to explain and understand the human condition is just as wide and vast, if not more. Using mathematics in art, my work can reflect and aims to portray ancient geometries that still hold true today in the ability to explain the observable reality we currently live, all the way up to complicated theoretical physics of the modern age.

The blending of the specific and the complicated with a human connection is key to my interests in sculpture. In the body piece, for example, one can see the cold and calculated “slices” of the body paired with green lighting, creating an ethereal glow emanating from the body, this culminating in the human representation I am constantly seeking to explore. Other such interests in sculpture include trying to portray the raw and simple of prefabricated materials in new and intricate ways that show the inherent beauty and complexity of those materials.

One long term interest in sculpture tries to portray bodies in motion, like those of the Greek, Roman, and Renaissance sculptures, but in positions and stances that could not be done in the traditional sense because it would be either too heavy or impossible to carve using traditional tools. Constantly I seek to explore new fields of sculpture,

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and my interests change often enough to always be exploring something new and exciting in this field.

people that have complex stories, or are just lost and seeking direction, but also find a sense of peace in being lost and without direction.

Marked out with such powerful narrative drive, your portraits reflects the grandeur of the human spirit and unveil hidden details of the identity of your characters to manifest: what’s your philosophy on the nature of portraiture?

How do you select the people that you decide to include in your artworks? In particular, how does your everyday life's experience fuel your creative process?

You are an established artist: you won the Presidential Art Award at Whittier College and over the years your artworks have been showcased in a number of exhibitions: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? And what do you hope your audience take away from your artworks? In particular, how do you consider the role of emerging online technosphere — and platforms as Instagram — in creating new links between artists and worldwide audience?

Raphaël Forbes: Portraiture is intricate, in my opinion, in that approaching a beautiful work one might become distracted by the ability and mastery of the artist, sometimes forgetting to lose oneself in the piece.

Raphaël Forbes: Thank you, but I am a young and still emerging artist, finding my way. My audience is wide and varied, in general, and I seek to appeal to audiences that capture my interest. I have many interests and therefore many audiences. I do not limit myself or my audiences, and I am young and always searching for the new and unexplained parts of humanity that I have, as of yet, not discovered. This is for me (art) is a humanistic endeavor, and we as complicated beings are created by many varying degrees of backgrounds and situations that make us who we are today. It is this point that I am always searching to understand what makes us, us. But on a personal and individual level, not generalities. Each one of us, in my opinion, is absolutely fascinating and I

However, a painting that is too simple in its depiction of a person, is more about the idea of that person or to show a part of that person. And the masters of portraiture, it seems, make emotion the key note of their paintings and make sure that the feelings evoked are the center of the works. Choosing the middle ground approach I am currently exploring, seeks to show beauty with the gold color ,but not too distract with a point or single idea. The primary goal is to appreciate the beauty of humanity in itself, and seeking to explore the diversity of its hidden backgrounds and long stories. The selected persons, in my work, are generally broken people,

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seek to explore that fascination that I constantly have with humanity. The emerging role of the online technosphere makes it much easier to make connections and allow for the sharing of ideas and information. We live in the information age, in which one has almost complete access to any information one so desires, and it is this constant sharing and updating of information which allows for connection and communication.

I have been using Instagram the past few years as a means by which to connect with my social media audience, and give updates to those that follow me directly as well as any new viewers allowing for interactions upon new walks of life that I seek to explore.

Instagram allows for quick access to my ongoing online portfolio as well as allows for the audience to connect with me with intimate knowledge of my work instantaneously. No doubt new communication techniques will manifest soon and I will likely appropriate those as well.

We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, RaphaĂŤl.

What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?

RaphaĂŤl Forbes: Thank you very much for having me here. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and your questions. Currently I am working on many projects, and slowly

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filling up the studio for the next gallery event, potentially at the end of the summer.

The main thrust of my next event is trying to learn, interpret, describe, and portray the theories of everything, in the scientific world, and set up a show in which the discussion of these theories can be openly debated.

This sort of endeavor is always fascinating to me, as it places a scientific premise in the locale of a human interaction and will potentially spark discussion and connection.

In addition to this potential show, I am always working on ways to push and change the way we interact with sculpture and will seek to make use of new technologies and practices in order to find the limits of sculpture. In regards to the paintings, they are being constantly created in order to delve further into the human condition and psyche, as well as introducing the aspect of time to the paintings. In the near future I will seek to explore more of the complexities of existence and all that this subject entails.

And will explore this using technologies and ideas that have not yet been created or that are created but used in specific fields. Please follow me on Instagram at raphyforbes to stay updated with my artistic practice and all future shows.

Thank you again, and thank you to the readers.

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

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Julia Clare Sagias I'm an artist and designer of interiors, and mother of two. I live and work from my home in Glasgow, Scotland. I've always been artistic and sensitive to the natural and decorative world around me, taking inspiration from nature and artefacts. I strive to find or create beauty in my surroundings, transforming ubiquitous objects such as furniture into unique works of art. My work is Ruskinian in ethos; deeply inspired by nature and the polychromy found therein and with a recognition of past styles. I feel in this new industrial revolution, we are also (once again) in the midst of an Arts & Crafts movement; confronted by the need to create by hand - in the same way Morris was- in the face of mass consumerism and the endless display of anonymous 'goods'. I see art as an essential 'product' which feeds the soul and this is what I have been dedicated to the production of particularly over the last two years when I set up Julia Clare Interiors.

I studied History of Art at the University of Glasgow and grew up surrounded by the Glasgow Style. I am fascinated with how the art of the past, and its styles and shapes and infiltrate contemporary art. At 34 years old I am about to embark on a new phase of learning and will start to study towards a Masters in Design in Interior Design at Glasgow School of Art; the art school of Charles Rennie Mackintosh; the quintessential designer of artistic interiors. Here I hope to have the time to more freely explore the reuse and reimagination of materials and styles to contextualise the idea of upcycling and the decorative function of ordinary objects. I also plan to research the natural motif within the interior environment and the wellbeing this creates.

The trendy word for it is 'upcyling'; yes what I do is sustainable and is about the restoration and revival of vintage pieces of furniture, artefacts and objects. The fact it falls into a fashionable niche in this moment in time is accidental. With the abundance of perfectly shaped objects and a century or more of mass produced furniture, we have an abundance of quality objects at our disposal. It just makes sense to me, as a fairly down-to-earth, practical person. I find I can re-design these in a way that satisfies my need to create beauty.

I have always reused in my creative production or creating where I didn't have. Furniture is my canvas for the creation of art which is useable, accessible, ubiquitous. My art objects create a resonance and connection with the space they occupy and a renewed appreciation of their surroundings by their users (I hope) and I aim for an uplifting and ethereal art form.

I have started to use innovation in design, again in a practical and applicable way, to adapt and reuse my original furniture paintings into other surface designs for wall paper and textile and I will explore the potential of digital printing to maximise my creative production. I started my creative business as an artisan interior designer in 2017. I am currently enjoying collaborating with a lovely variety of artists and gallery owners in and around Glasgow such as The Seagull Art Gallery in Gourock, The Studio Fine Art Company and The Shop of Interest. All owned by wonderfully talented women who've helped me build my confidence as an artist. My portfolio of work, a description of my bespoke furniture art creations, the process as well as my offering as a designer and curator of objects can we found at www.juliaclareinteriors.com .

artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.juliaclareinteriors.com in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted

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

Hello Julia and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries.

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background. You have a solid formal training and you hold a first-class degree in History of Art, that you received from the University of Glasgow: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does your cultural substratum due to your work as an interior designer direct the trajectory of your current artistic research?

towards the transformation of objects and application of art within design e.g. wall paper design derived from paintings using digital innovation. My work is decorative as well as being evocative; I take a lot of influence from the art produced by the artist-designers of the turn of the century, Art Nouveau, the Viennese Secession, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style. As an aesthetically sensitive person growing up with the cultural and architectural stimuli and heritage Glasgow has to offer, it was natural for me to want to understand this more. I think I was lucky, because of where I grew up to be exposed to such a sophisticated art form, so ahead of its time. Although this is true of many cities like Barcelona, Paris or Vienna.

The ‘Cultural substratum’ you refer to is not ‘sub’ or beneath what I do; it is very much at the surface- as well as being the foundation from which I have developed my creative potential as an artist. It is just part of what inspires me. It’s been part of my understanding and appreciation of the world since I was a child; I have always been fascinated with history, past civilisations and how they lived, and created. Studying History of Ar is like studying the history and development of human creativity and how it is influenced by time and place; the production of art is a basic thing and I felt it was an essential thing for me to learn about. So, my background in History of Art is fundamental to my evolution and I consider it in part a valuable asset or bank of knowledge which I can call upon and reference. I pick a style that suits the object I am working with and I know about the cultural surroundings that informed that style. I believe this adds depth to my work.

In practice I am also influenced by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement he founded; I look back with admiration for the firm he created which merged art and the hand-made with interior design and applied aesthetics. Morris did this in response to the threat to aesthetics and society that he saw in the machine, and mass production. I strive for his dynamic approach to surface design derived by nature and how art can be re-used, and applied in the domestic setting. As I embark on my Masters of Design (Interior Design) Post Graduate degree at Glasgow School of Art later this year, I take this foundation of knowledge with me and my awareness and love of past cultures and history. I fully expect it will inform my production and research, and inspire me in ways I’ve yet to discover.

So, yes I do consider my years at university my formative years which have come to the forefront in a practical way at this juncture of my career. I don’t believe I would have evolved into the kind of artist I am now without this.

I create with the interior or living space in mind, with my current research directed

The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral

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ARTeries has at once impressed us of for the way you provide the viewers with such a multilayered visual experience: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you usually develop the initial ideas for your artworks?

I have been focused the last 20 months on creating furniture art; using furniture as a canvas and I have been fairly successful in the amount of private commissions I have been lucky enough to work on. It’s been a personal process each time as often the piece I am working on is an heirloom or something my client has owned for years. The artistic nature of my work and it’s place in the interior setting has allowed it to become a bridge between art and interior design which suits my career and creative development.

I have recently started conventional painting; acrylic on canvas with the focus of this being evocative impressions of nature in particular sky-scapes and the natural phenomenon of sun break, and clouds. This is a theme I have been interested in my furniture art also, trying to recreate an impression of the multi-tonal, multi-layered aspects of the sky. I often refer to birds, and feathers as my inspiration also.

For my paintings, I use a very different technique from my furniture art, as the paint medium is very different between chalk paint and acrylic. For my paintings on canvas, I use a lot of glaze to dilute, seal and blur colour to create a reflective translucency between layers of paint. I usually use gold as a backdrop, and the use of metallic for lustrous effect and as a way to ‘set off’ other colours is used in most of my creations, be it furniture or canvas. I often apply pure gold leaf or palladium via the gilding process. I find it hard to create the effects I want and the reflective quality of

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Dove Demilune

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Sun Shimmer, Digital design

colour and light found in nature without the use of precious metals.

setting, style, age and material and also the things I’ve seen, the shapes I love. I usually also have a particular colour scheme in mind depending on the mood I want to create. I use a lot of greens, golds, blues and silvers;

The initial ideas I have for my artworks vary depending on the object I am working on, it’s

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Peacock I Digital design derived from 'Peacock Demilune'

layering these, reflective of nature. I also interview my clients and understand their ideas and ideals. I feel privileged to be able to offer my skills as an artist to satisfy the aesthetic and stylistic needs of others, as well

as my own. Ultimately I try to create vivid, powerful and moving art through colour combinationn and schemes. The polychromy and multilayered character of my work offers depth and vibrancy.

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Swallows (Detail from a painted dressing table with palladium leaf)

To give an example, I recently painted a dressing table, it was to brighten a room, and I considered its function as the place one goes to get ready each morning so in function as an artwork it needs to be uplifting and inspiring. I

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painted the top as it were a sky starting with silver and gradually building a multitude of layers. My study was swallows and their wings. On other pieces I’ve chosen a flower such as freesias or roses, and adapt their style

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to form a shape that suits the object, such as the back panel of a cabinet. I usually have a style or artist in mind; I love the decorative nature of Mucha and Klimt’s work as well as Munch for example.

instinctive changes. When it comes to designing my geometric schemes and art, I focus on the colours within my painting that I want to accentuate/ combine and using a digital software I decide on a design structure to design patterns derived from my original paintings. I can easily explore different combinations and nuances; this part if more instinctive and I aim for a sort of visual melody of colour and structure.

Technology and innovation in design has allowed this process to become more fluid and immediate, with the software aiding the structural aspect of the design. The painterly details and colours offer quite a unique and unexpected aspect to these designs.

I also do a lot of research before I decide on a direction of work and have a design sketch book for motif design, colour schemes etc.

Your artworks are marked out with geometric patterns, that you sapiently combine with unique variety of tones, that provide your works with a unique aesthetic identity. New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? In particular, how do you consider the relation between the nature of the concepts that you explore in your artistic research and the physical aspect of your daily practice as an artist?

In answer to the second part of your question, the concepts I explore in creating my work are derived twice usually by the time I come to create the geometric design.

Firstly, for my painting, they are derived from the initial physical inspiration; a thing of beauty such as an Egyptian water lilly, an olive branch, a sky scape or a feather for example. The ideas around this are worked up through colour, technique, detail, mood.

This is how I evoke mood and often a celestial or ethereal quality that I think I aim for.

The geometric art works are a ‘collection’ of their own in a different medium from the rest of my work. I wanted to explore the full design potential of the vast amount of furniture paintings I had created. I wanted to apply the unique colour combinations, painterly effects, motifs and multitonal quality of my paintings onto a different medium, for a different use. I had wall paper and textile design in mind, so there was a practical nature to this exploration also.

Secondly, my structural designs/ patterns are designed from the painting, inspired by the process of painting this and the colours that I feel are strongest or give the best effect when combined. I suppose you could call this a cathartic process or filtration into a purer design, closer to an aesthetic ideal; the colours inspired by nature are there, but without the natural structure.

I would say most of the ‘gestural’ work as an artist happens when I am creating the original paintings; there is more of a planned method behind this, albeit with

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Your works are deeply inspired by nature and the polychromy found therein and we really appreciate the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances that mark out your palette, and we like the way they create tension and dynamics: how did you come about settling on your color palette? And how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in a specific artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures?

colours I choose to work with are reminiscent of what I see around me.

The theme of sustainability plays a crucial role in your artistic practice. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "artists's role differs depending on which part of the world they’re in": do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical issues as ecology and biodiversity in our globalised age? In particular, does your artistic research respond to a particular cultural moment?

My colour palette as I’ve said is inspired by nature and what I would consider to be muted, elegant tones which compliment a tranquil living space. I use a lot of greens, blues, greys, golds, sometimes pink. I use colours I love and which I hope are moving to the viewer.

The sustainability of my work and practice is as much accidental and come about as a practicality and desire to paint and work with the everyday objects that surround me (and to adapt my surroundings to express my mood or create an uplifting presence), as it is gestural. Materials are expensive, and involve another layer of consumerism which I feel is not always necessary to create quality art. We live in an age where we are lucky enough to have an abundance of designed objects, furniture and artefacts that we can easily come across and buy online. Would the artist-designers of the 19�� and 20�� centuries have created so many new pieces of furniture from newly cut down wood, if they had lived today, with our legacy of designed objects and in the mess we have all contributed to?

I aim to create a subliminal and uplifting experience which I believe is an important function of art and design. I strive for beauty, creating it where it may lack in everyday objects through a creative process which I immerse myself in. Creating is an emotional and calming process for me and this may be evident in my work. I think many artists believe that creating offers a psychological remedy or release of emotion.

When I paint I can feel both sadness and happiness. Psychologically, I am connected with my work and production; it is definitely a self expression which is productive, like putting emotion to good use.

We have a chance to clean up our mess and art and design needs to be a part of this.

Taking commissions to paint (and restore) the objects and antiques that already belong to people, and to transform them is an inspiring process for artist and patron. It happens almost accidently if you are practically minded and appreciate the value

I believe I am quite an ‘aware’ person; aware of and in awe at my surroundings and the depth and multilayered detail around me. In my work I am interested in adding depth and texture as a way of expressing my admiration of the things I appreciate. The

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market. We all consume goods for our homes and there is no reason why carefully restored, revived and reimagined pieces of furniture cannot become an objects of art.

Like everyone else I care deeply about the future of our planet and it sits well with my own conscience that I am an upcycler but I don’t believe it should lower the value of my ‘product’. I am a professional associate of The House of Upcycling which is the largest independent authority for premium upcycling for interiors; together as group we challenge the home design industry to reduce the amount of waste materials that go to landfill.

of solid wood and quality of materiality.

Having said that, whilst taking an ecological approach to my work is as much accidental and borne to some extent out of necessity, I do feel I am also responding to ideas I see around me, particularly ideas about materiality and process. I feel we are living in a new Arts and Crafts movement, probably come about by the Industrial Revolution we are all experiencing and a part of. History has a way of repeating itself.

I sense amongst the local and artistic communities a desire to have hand-made objects and artefacts in our homes over mass produced lower quality items. There is also a societal facet to this and a movement towards simple, more fulfilling and creative ways of living as well as equality. Perhaps every so often as a society we need to reconnect with simpler ways of being and producing, using the materials from the places around us. I am inspired to paint what I observe around me, and what moves me, as most artists do. I’ve started painting a canvas of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris burning; well it’s a memorial of sorts but also a study of the colours of smoke, and the lights and also the flimsiness of even the sturdiest and oldest of materials. We need to be careful to protect the objects that are precious to us. Sustainability is a fashionable word just now but I think it should be an inherent consideration for anyone who creates and produces. Art can and should raise awareness of ‘ecology’ and ‘biodiveristy’ and I certainly promote the fact that a lot of my work involves upcycling.

As you have remarked in your artist's statement, you are fascinated with how the art of the past, and its styles and shapes and infiltrate contemporary art. How do you consider the relationship between Tradition and Contemporariness playing within your artistic research?

I’ve probably touched on this in the last question; I don’t distinguish too much between traditional and contemporary styles; I refer to a mixture of styles depending on what I am working on and who for. My understanding of art history, the evolution of design and decorative forms is obviously an awareness I bring to my work and I like to reflect on that through my work. This could be the Glasgow Rose or the Eqyptian waterlilly which evolved from ancient and sacred motif to the decorative statement of art deco architecture. The past continually informs us; recently I’ve been studying how the Impressionists painted atmospheric details and light for my series of skyscapes. My surface/ digital designs look more contemporary as they have been

There are a number of cultural movements to increase the perceptions of value around upcycled goods in the interior design

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Peacock Demilune (details)

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created through a digital process. I definitely consider the origin of the object I’m working on and its setting; it usually ends up looking more contemporary through the process of filtering the essential design and colours I want to apply, and more suited to its current environment. I often refer to what I do as reimagining objects; contextualising them within their everyday setting brings with it other shapes and styles also.

again as an artefact and art object. I have also used carved provincial style cabinets from 17thc French carpentry and enjoyed the shapes of these original decorative works of art. I generally source oak or mahogany antiques with fine shapes and carved details in good condition, often 1920s. There is a lot of good quality furniture produced from this time which I find elegant and with striking detail.

Furniture is your canvas and we have really appreciated the way your creations provide the viewers with such an immersive visual experience, to bring the notion of the decorative function of ordinary objects to a new level of significance. American photographer and sculptor Zoe Leonard once stated, "the objects that we leave behind hold the marks and the sign of our use: like archeological findings, they reveal so much about us". As an artist particularly interested in exploring the reuse of materials to contextualise the idea of upcycling we’d love to ask you about the qualities of the materials that you include in your artworks: how do you select them and what does you address to include them in your artworks?

With their mesmerizing geometrical patterns, your artwork seem to invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface. Austrian historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the audience to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the visual experience: how important is for you to trigger the viewer's imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal associations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood?

My surface designs and digital art is highly evocative of subject, season, colour, light, texture which is why they can appear mesmerising. They are derived from my original paintings which are multi-layered, multi-coloured and textured and so this detail can be seen within my geometric designs. I think this is a striking contrast to what the viewer would perhaps expect from a geometric, 2D design. I try to represent depth and tonal nuances in a way which is aesthetically intriguing. Even if the original subject cannot be discerned it makes sense to the viewer what they are looking at as they can almost feel its essence and characteristics although it’s an abstract image. I recreate effects or characteristics

I love artefacts and choose to work with them. I enjoy browsing antique shops and finding interesting hand-crafted and decorative objects. I learn a lot and this is a continual part of my research. I recently found a small 16�� century grotesque sourced from a market in Northern France. I was able to track down the church it was carved for and imagined where it was used. I cleaned it, painted it and gilt it partially in palladium leaf, a metal that wasn’t even discovered at the time this object was carved. This object was revived and is now precious to someone

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Evening detail from acrylic on canvas

Egyptian Waterlillies (Detail from triptych acrylic on wood panel)

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Most of my ‘audience’ is in the technosphere; I have only recently started to promote my work on social media and on instagram and it’s an amazing thing to be able to reach audiences from across the world by simply posting an image and hashtag. You can get carried away with this and it becomes part of your world, and research. Instagram is an amazingly useful platform for creative people to share ideas and experience images of the world and ideas they would otherwise never have come across. I don’t think I would have had the bravery to embark on my artistic career without this connection to people and ideas, allbeit digital. I worry though about the nature of social media, its unregulated content, I worry the effects experiencing the world through an instagram world will have on younger people. Time will tell the effects it has. In some ways it will inspire them to be what they want to be and to create, but it also has a very self destructive potential and sometimes , although I use it, I wish it was never invented. I wish there were more opportunities, affordable opportunities to connect with ‘real’ people but only the larger brand, artists and companies can afford to do this on a regular basis. I am happy to work for individuals, and maintain connections at a local level through collaborations and galleries. Hopefully I will naturally build a larger audience over time.

like ‘shimmering’ or ‘intricate’ or ‘sandy’. I hope to connect with the viewer and ask them to imagine what is familiar about the image; it may be a shape and colour combination.

I have recently applied names to my designs which help the viewer understand the inspiration; I do this because I feel it enhances the viewer’s experience and the object becomes more beautiful if we understand or empathize with the artists’ vision and the beauty found or described by another. A connection is made in this way. So, I am very open and happy for my work to be appreciated on this deeper level. I don’t have a problem with being ‘understood’. In many ways I am deliberately literal.

Over the years you have exhibited your works in a number of art exhibitions and , events: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? In particular, how do you consider the role of emerging online technosphere — and platforms as Instagram — in creating new links between artists and worldwide audience?

I’ve been exhibiting in a small number of exhibitions for the last two years and I have yet to hear from a ‘real’ mass audience.

Generally my work seems to be well received and distinctive for its ethereal qualities and use of gold leaf. I have had a number of connections with individuals due to my work; patrons and private commissions where I have literally transformed their living space and created something majestic or calming for every day appreciation and use.

We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Julia. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?

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Peacock Demilune

I’ve really appreciated this experience and chance to reflect upon my work. I’m just so grateful I’ve decided to use my gift, if that is what it is, and to create. I nearly didn’t; as with many of us, we think our paths are set,

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or straight forward but lots can change. We need to remain hopeful and use our natural talents.

I am working on a number of things which is busy as I also have two little daughters.

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The Krakens side tables detail with gold leaf

The Krakens side tables detail with gold leaf

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Egyptian Waterlillies digital design derived from my painting Egyptian Waterlillies

Currently I am designing a bespoke bathroom vanity unit for a client as part of my interior design business. I am also painting a series of new works for an art exhibition this August in Glasgow. One is a new subject for me in

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recording recent events; Notre Dame as mentioned earlier. I am also looking into the application of my digital art.

Most likely on wall paper and textiles. In

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Olive Branch digital design derived from a painting

September I will start a Masters in Design at the Glasgow School of Art, in Interior Design. I will use this year to stretch my imagination and creativity and I hope to explore the relationship between art and

interior design and the resuse of civic buildings.

I applied to art school at 17 with a very small portfolio, and didn’t get in so I am delighted

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Sky digital design derived from Swallows painting

at having been accepted now. I will enjoy the year of research and focus – before I run out of energy! Thank you for the opportunity to promote my work and talk about myself, as much as I find that a little uncomfortable!

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I am always looking for more commissions.

You can get in touch with me and connect no matter how far away from Scotland you may be. www.juliaclareinteriors.com

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Opal digital design derived from furniture paiting using opalesque colour scheme

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Romi Maegli Lives and works in the United States

My artworks in mixed media techniques, offer a third dimension to several of my proposals, made with details and intention that unifies with those of many ancient cultures, in which animals are sources of wisdom and perception. This is the reason why some plants are named with names of animal’s parts, such as "The Horsetail", which is used medicinally and in healing rituals. And the same happens in our civilized lives too, because dreaming of an animal or preferring it to our side, unveils many aspects of our personalities.

When in my artworks a form appears three-dimensionally or rises in proportion, I pretend to show the core of our thoughts, the emotional whirlpool we put together with each of them, tracing each skin, mane or tail with its consequences, which they can be of solidarity to lead us as my mare GALA leads me towards new innovative and colorful routes, such as my artwork proposal, since each horse from which I choose a detail of his body cover, is a loyal sustenance of my equestrian joy, just as our thoughts can be the sustenance of our routes to new opportunities shared with other beings.

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

wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training and you graduated in Fine Arts and Graphic Design from Louisiana State University: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does your cultural substratum direct the

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Romi and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit http://romimaegli.com in order to get a

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trajectory of your current artistic research?

My formative years were a support system for my vision about the reinterpretation of nature that surrounds us.

Learning art history, concepts and techniques, which strengthened my vision about the mental creation of the visual environment that surrounds us and its strength to inspire and support our inner being, were the basis for my riding horses in art since my childhood.

We have appreciated the way the results of your artistic inquiry convey such a coherent combination between emotional intuition and a rigorous aesthetics and the body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries has at once impressed us of for the way you provide the viewers with such a multilayered visual experience: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you usually develop the initial ideas for your artworks?

My close relationship with my horses through all my life, made possible my understanding of their connection with each human. That is the reason they

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SKIN OF DUALITY, mixed media on textile, 46 x 30 inches. 2018.

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WHIRLPOOL OF MY MARE, mixed media, 46x30 inches 2018.

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provide the opportunity to recognize our potential and in this way, every idea and every concept of my artworks is born.

Your artworks are marked out with geometric patterns that you sapiently combine with unique variety of tones that as in SKIN OF DUALITY, provide your works with a unique aesthetic identity. New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes?

My artwork is created instinctively.

When my creative idea opens in my mind, my instinct guides me towards its projection on the material that I choose to execute it.

We have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances that mark out your artworks, especially SEXY NIGHT HORSE, and we like the way they create tension and dynamics: how did you come about settling on your color palette? And how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to

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EQUINE FEELINGS 1, mixed media 43 x 32 pulgadas 2018.

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HIRSUTE ALGORITHM, mixed media, 40 x 13 inches, 2017.

include in a specific artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures?

I develop my textures by reinterpreting the ways of the equine skins to conform our mind’s potential. And the colors that I

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choose respond to the ideological concept that gives birth to the color and textures that I develop with my photographs intervened with acrylic paint and hair from the horse's mane and diverse materials to obtain three-dimensionality in my art proposals.

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It's important to remark that you are currently a Life Coach with Horses and also a judge for jumping competitions, a passion that has inspired many of your works. How does your everyday life's experience fuel your creative process?

My artworks are a daily metaphor for our environment and life. What horse are feeling daily, what is going on in their surroundings? And most important what are they getting from our interaction with them? Horses have outstanding

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EQUINE LOOK THROUGH TIME, mixed media on canvas, 100 x 150 cm. 2018

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senses to perceive their environment, and their skin are highly sensitive, that is why I find each day a new “life skin� moving on a rhythmic pace to facilitate moving forward in my life.

Another interesting project of yours that has particularly impressed us is entitled Sentir de piel and we have really appreciated the way you sapiently combined abstraction with reminders to reality, to introduce the viewers towards a subtle universe, full of textures, shapes and patterns. With their powerful abstract evocative quality, your artworks seem to invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with wide freedom to realize their own perception.

How important is for you to invite the viewers to elaborate personal meaning?

And in particular, how open would you like your artworks to be understood?

In the archetypal symbolism of animals, according to Jung from ancestral times, the animal is sublime and, in fact, represents the "divine" side of the human psyche.

In the past it was believed that animals live much more in contact with a "secret" order in nature itself and, much more than human beings, live in close contact with the

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SEXY NIGHT HORSE SKIN, mixed media on textile, 46 x 30 inches, 2018

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HORSE'S HEART SKIN, mixed media, 46 x 30 inches 2018

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RIDING NATURE'S SKIN, mixed media on textile, 46 x 30 inches, 2018

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Romi Maegli

"absolute knowledge" of the unconscious.

Each observer has the absolute freedom, and more is invited to ride his interpretation towards his own archetype.

We sometimes tend to ignore the fact that a work of art is a physical artefact with tactile qualities: how do you how do you consider the relation between the abstract nature of your creative process and the physical aspect of your daily practice as an artist?

My art proposal combines the best features of our human identity and our natural latitudes which we share with every animal in the world, as well as textures and colors shape our Universal perception.

The relation between my abstract art language and my physical daily practice in art is linked through the scrutiny of the skin of horses by feeling its nature’passion and speed.

Over the years your artworks have been showcased in a number of occasions, including your recent shows at the Santo Tomas de Aquino School and the Museum of Santo Domingo House in Antigua Guatemala, as well as in the National Museum of Modern Art: how do you

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EQUINE BRAID, mixed media 45x30 inches 2018

ENTANGLED MEMORIES, mixed media on canvas, 45x30 inches, 2017

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consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? And what do you hope your audience take away from your artworks?

My intention is to open the sensations of the observer and transport his thoughts to the complete subtlety of textures, shapes, patterns and colors, which coincide with the communication that goes beyond the skin.

This proposal is a set of textures that unify each element and reveal the origin of our mental skins, that is, our beliefs that in this case we will learn to live the connection with equine loyalty, with which I have always lived and I want to share their power.

We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Romi. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?

HORSE HAIR RIVER 75x50 CM. 2018

a collective urban artist’s project to build murals about Guatemala’s native identity images and colors to be done in the walls near the Guatemala’s La Aurora International Airport.

I will exhibit “MENTAL SKINS” at Costa Rica’s National Gallery in October 2019 and I am exploring working with other species of animals and plants. I am also organizing

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

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19 SPECIAL SKIN'S MIND ENCOUNTER, mixed media on textile, 46 x 30 inches.ISSUE 2018

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Desirée Hilmer Born in Germany and works globally

Real fiction – Fictitious reality: What is reality? What is the reality of a society or an individual? What is fiction if there is no universal reality?

My work as a young artist focuses on the search of reality and fiction combining different media to stimulate multiple senses. Abstract paper sculptures installed in the room and combined with videos and other media are supposed to question the perception of the individual and to expose his/ her filter. The creation of new realities for the individual within my art between the digital and physical world stretches the idea of reality even further. Art needs to be actively experienced by the individual. Therefore, I see it as my duty to counter common stereotypes of art as investment, living room decoration, only happening in the context of a museum or being irrelevant for the individual in daily life. Consequently, art needs to appear in the public space, in grocery stores, high schools … and in general in the daily life of people.

Overall my work is inspired by society, human relationships and cognitive neuroscience.

Questioning the individual, society the self and creating awareness for the diversity of reality and perception, constantly searching for the reality in our passively perceived, fictitious and divided world, drives me to create my art.

Because art opens the eyes to reality.

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

wide idea about your artistic production and we would start this interview with a couple of introductory questions. Are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as a multidisciplinary artist and help you to develop your attitude to experiment?

Moreover, how does your cultural substratum due to your studies in

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Desiree and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://realfictionart.com in order to get a

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Reincarnation, 1,80m x 2,10m, Soft Pastel Crayons on paper, part of the installation Ich - I: Tell me who I am

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Psychology direct the trajectory of your current artistic research?

impressions back. This sensitivity made me wonder about the fragility of perception and created an openness to the choice of medium for my artwork and an openness to new experiences in general.

Desiree Hilmer: Thank you for featuring me on the Peripheral ARTeries. I appreciate being on your platform and look forward to connecting with your readers. My work is a holistic reflection of many life experiences that have inspired me in different phases of my life and created an awareness for the influence of perception on the individual. One of the most important underlying principles for me is that I have never tried to fit into a certain art category like painting, video art or virtual art. For me, it is all about choosing the most impactful medium that the current project requires.

All these events drove me to investigate the topic of human perception. This is what sparked my interest in cognitive neuroscience and the reason why I started studying psychology. Psychology and art are tools, which enable me to understand perception and to define reality on an intellectual and emotional level.

Psychology influences my art both directly and indirectly. To understand how the visual information is processed in the brain helps me to recognize how to install a painting in the room or how to combine video with audio to reach the viewer emotionally, as well as how to influence their visual system.

From a young age on, I experienced reality as a fragile and diverse concept. Ever since kindergarten, I noticed details in my environment such as shadows on the street and picked up on hidden meaning within the subtext of conversations taking place. While I took walks, I was often fascinated by shadows, changing light patterns and differences in texture. I particularly remember observing other children and reacting to what I saw by drawing on paper or using any materials which were available to me. I started consciously using art as a language to communicate with others and to reflect on how my perception differed from my peers.

The underlying knowledge about stereotyping in human behavior creates awareness for these topics in daily life and becomes a part of the creation process.

Specifically, stereotyping related to the choice of the medium has as many negative consequences as stereotypes about our social environment in daily life.

The existing pressure to place one’s artwork in a category, often dominates the creative process of a painting even prior to its creation.

This categorization of art at an early stage leads to the limitation of an artist’s tools to create art. Based on my experience, any art project requires the artist to have an open mind.

During high school, whenever I was in a social situation with my friends, I started to experience a reoccurring feeling of distance from them. I often felt very sensitive to the changes in group dynamics and constantly pondered the cause of my friends’ behavior.

This led to me predicting emotional changes in people by focusing on the little overlooked details. I felt like a medium which soaked in all the information from my environment, feeling people’s emotions and then mirroring these

During several of my own projects in which I started with a simple square format painting, the direction changed, and I decided to pivot

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to an alternative medium such as video to encapsulate the essence of the artwork in a more immersive way. These projects made me realize that the art itself demands the medium instead of a norm set by external sources such as art teachers or galleries.

Art, in my opinion, exists to break or to play with conventions. Hence, I firmly believe that the limitation of tools forced by categorization of artwork hinders the creative process and limits the full potential of art.

You are a versatile artist and in your multimedia installations, you often combine large paper paintings - created with soft pastel crayons - and video or sound installations: what does direct your artistic research to such captivating multidisciplinary approach? How do you select an artistic discipline in order to explore a particular aspect of your artistic journey?

Desiree Hilmer: The discipline picked first should never be a limitation and hinder an artist to change the medium if the artwork demands it. Therefore, it is not about picking the discipline, it is about using the right tool which is needed to express the content.

Usually, my art projects begin with a theme, a thought or even a vibe in a social environment.

Every idea is different and tries to question perception or reality in a diverse way. Therefore, the implementation of each idea demands a specific medium depending on how I want to influence the viewer. The main challenge is to transform the internal idea into a physical object by choosing the most useful medium. During the process which I might start with a painting, the discipline can change depending on the development of the artwork and how the exchange between internal and external stimuli affects my work.

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Ich - I: Tell me who I am, multiple paper sculptures combined with a sound installation

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pop-up exhibition: 'Ich - I: Tell me who I am' and 'Blue society', Marburg (Germany), 2019

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The room in between inside and outside (Vacuum between body and soul)', 1,80m x 2,10m, Soft Pastel Crayons on

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More specifically, most of the time I work on one main project. Currently, my primary project includes the creation of abstract human paper sculptures. The process often demands me to paint on a daily basis for 12h on a painting with just minimal interruptions.

While I am painting, I use music or podcasts to put myself into a specific mindset or emotional condition. I cannot name how I decide to choose sounds or videos to support the installation. But during the development of the painting, I have side projects which are inspired by the main painting. At the end of the process, I decide if these side projects belong to the painting or are separate projects to develop further. Finally, I understand myself as a medium which is led by the development of the painting, my social and visual environment, and my intuition. Even though I start the process with a concrete idea and procedure, the development of the artwork is intuitive and follows an unconscious process.

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected Ich – I: Tell me who I am, an interesting project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once impressed us of your insightful inquiry into the theme of self and self-awareness in the context of a digital society is the way you saliently combined element from reality with captivating abstract sensitiveness, to provide the viewers with such a multilayered visual experience: when walking our readers through your usual workflow and process, we would like to ask you how did you develop the initial idea for Ich – I: Tell me who I am.

Desiree Hilmer: To me, it is important to explore the fragile self in our modern society and to search for a definition of the self. My original idea was to confront the viewer with their internal world and create awareness for the influence of the social environment on their self-definition. paper, part of the installation 'Ich - I: Tell me who I am'

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their own perception.

The ‘self’ is reflected in a social environment defined through personalized social interactions. To explore this idea, I tried to recreate a colloquial self with the viewer of the exhibition to demonstrate the influence of these interactions in the search for identity.

Consequently, I am very open to any interpretation of my art. But I hope the viewer can go beyond the question of the meaning of a specific form in my paintings.

I see my art as a projection surface for the viewer and I want to invite the observer to search for one's own interpretation. With my idea of what reality could be, I create a specific space. And I hope this leads the viewer's thought process and emotional state while experiencing my art to be confronted with his/her own interpretation of reality.

In the exhibition the viewer experiences the artwork and mixes personal thoughts with the thoughts and ideas of others, captured in the audio installation, which re-emphasizes the process of self-discovery.

I used the following process to create the installation. First, I created the paintings reflecting the internal world of a human being, then I followed with the audio installation as a reaction to the paintings and finally, I actively fed the audio feedback of the viewer into the circle of self-discovery.

Even though the essence of an artwork can be experienced commonly, it is filtered by an individual lens. Art is received by an individual with specific experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Every piece of art has automatically personal meaning and an individual interpretation. There is nothing like a correct or general interpretation of art because there is no all-encompassing definition of reality. This might seem trivial, but in daily- life people often forget that their judgment of norms is influenced by their individual filter.

Self- reflection is often wrongly defined as a solely cognitive process. This is the reason why I wanted to provide the viewer with a more holistic emotional and cognitive experience by making the unconscious interplay between emotions and thoughts visible.

Finally, I do not see any use in providing my interpretation of my artwork. Art is created to question and capture reality. Comprehending its essence cannot be standardized and taught in school because art always plays with the perception of the individual and every individual is different.

A work of art can be considered a combination between understanding reality and hinting at the unknown: we daresay that your artistic practice seems to aim to look inside of what appears to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with the freedom to realize their own perception. How important is it for you to invite the viewers to elaborate personal meanings? And in particular, how open would you like your artworks to be understood?

By questioning the stereotypical perception of art in our globalized and media-driven age, Real decoration invites the viewers to rethink the dichotomy between art and decoration on a functional rather than on a merely cultural basis. Do you think that there could be a proficient synergy between the conceptual aspect of the

Desiree Hilmer: My attempt is to express the unknown or overlooked details of reality. The experience of the artwork, which cannot be captured by words, opens the viewer to the process of understanding reality and to question

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Performance with 'Blue society', 3 paper sculptures 0,60m x 1,80m each, Soft Pastel Crayons on paper, part of the series paper sculptures 2018/2019

Blue society, 3 paper sculptures 0,60m x 1,80m each Soft Pastel Crayons on paper, part of the series paper sculptures 2018/2019

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contemporary art approach and the ubiquitous decorative function of a work of art?

colors or materials to pick further. With the abstract human paper sculptures, I first create the outlines of the form until I fill in the colors with soft pastel crayons. Nevertheless, the addition of figures follows an intuitive, specific geometric construction mechanism to keep the painting in balance. Spontaneity is very important since I am trying to respond spontaneously to the development of the painting regarding the choice of colors or the medium.

Desiree Hilmer: By bringing large art installations into people's homes I try to question the predominantly understanding of art as decoration. The artwork is large and fragile at the same time so that it is at first a physical obstacle in the personal environment, blocking the way and confronting the individual directly in their personal space.

From my personal experience, the ubiquitous decorative function of art is usually hindering people to perceive art in its function as art. So, I do not believe that a contemporary art approach can ever build a synergy with the decorative perspective of art because the stereotype of art is still dominating people’s expectations of art. I can question the use of artwork as decoration, but it is a fine balance between playing with the stereotype and confirming it. To my knowledge art is often produced to be sold as decoration and is suffering under this aspect. Art should be sold and created as art and not as decoration. This is also reinforcing the stereotype of art as investment, decoration or its absence in the public space or in daily life.

Another interesting artwork that we would like to introduce to our readers is entitled Blue society and it focuses on the interaction between paper sculpture and humans, to create a new reality for the observer in the in-between to mirror his/ her emotional reality. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "artists' role differs depending on which part of the world they're in": does your artistic research respond to a particular cultural moment? In particular, do you think that artists can raise awareness of an evergrowing audience on topical issues in our globalized age?

Desiree Hilmer: Blue Society is trying to eliminate the viewer's emotional distance to an artwork. I agree that it matters in which cultural environment you create art. As an artist, you are affected by the environment you live in.

We can recognize such a rigorous sense of geometry that pervades your artworks and that creates such a coherent combination between a sense of freedom and unique aesthetics: do you conceive your works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your pieces? In particular, how important does spontaneity play in your work?

Depending on the society, country or culture you create your art in, you are exposed to diverse influences, norms, value, ideas, problems, and cultural contradictions. For this reason, I think my art also might be understood and perceived differently culturally.

Desiree Hilmer: Before I start painting, I know exactly which internal world I want to express.

Most of the time I also know how to construct the first figure on the paper. Once the first figure is created, I follow my instinct which

Especially because the idea of the self and self- concept depends on how individualistic

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Blue society, 3 paper sculptures 0,60m x 1,80m each Soft Pastel Crayons on paper, part of the series paper sculptures 2018/2019

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Reincarnation, 1,80m x 2,10m Soft Pastel Crayons on paper, installation 'Ich - I: Tell me who I am

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or collectivist the culture is you grew up in, you might perceive my artwork differently. Also, as an artist based on your cultural background, you might produce different artwork as well.

As much as art can be perceived individually depending on the norms you learned in your social environment, the role of an artist does not differ drastically depending on the cultural context. The role of an artist has been debated over the centuries.

But artists always seem to mirror, question or reflect on the society they live in or are inspired by. They might use different tools and have different value systems that are reflected in their work. However, I believe artists still use the language of art to express their reality which will not just be different depending on which part of the world they are in, but even more how they perceive their environment as an individual.

Since we live in a globalized age, there are also global problems or ideas in general which are shaping us as humans. With the new technology we have, artists can now reach a global audience, not just to mirror the local reality people live in but also the connected global reality every human is affected by in a positive or negative way.

From my perspective, my art includes universal aspects that are independent of the culture that can be used to question perception. But of course, it is influenced by the German and USAmerican culture and the people I interact within these countries. I hope I can motivate people with my art to think out of the box, to question their personal beliefs about themselves, their culture, the structure of society they live in and maybe also concepts like borders, citizenship or nationality.

We have really appreciated the vibrancy of the intense and at the same time delicate nuances

of blue that mark out your artistic production: in particular, we like the way your artworks show that vivacious tones are not indispensable in order to create tension and dynamics: how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in a specific artwork in order to achieve such brilliant results?

Desiree Hilmer: Intense colors play an important role in my art because they trigger emotional reactions. I would like the viewer to take a bath in vibrant colors and allow the color pattern to lead them through the process of consuming my art. Therefore, I do not need to use always contrasting colors. Blue itself has a broad spectrum that can be used to arouse emotion by using fine nuances. The process of choosing specific colors depends on the atmosphere I want to create around the viewer. Sometimes as in 'Blue society,' the color scheme already exists before I begin to paint. 'Blue society' is questioning the use of blue in art. Usually experienced as calming, I tried to give the color itself a different emotional expression with the form it is placed on. In ‘Blue society' these expressions might reach from violent, aggressive to cold and calming to represent the different facets a single color can contain.

In other installations as in ‘Ich-I: tell me who I am',I choose to pick the colors based on the shapes of the forms I am creating. In rare cases, my personal emotional state determines the colors of the paintings. But mostly I bring myself into a certain emotional state to create a specific expression and hopefully cause these feelings inside the viewer with the completed painting.

Your works are often structured in order to provide the viewers with an immersive, almost surrounding visual experience: what were your aesthetic decisions in relation to the exhibition space, in order to provide them with such visual qualities?

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Consequently, it is a challenge to connect the viewer just through the visual experience of the final physical result with the entire production process with its multiple cognitive and emotional layers the artwork contains.

The painting is simply the product of my art process and embodies the emotional and mental examination of a topic. It might appear abstract to the viewer but to me, it is just a transformation from a thought, an idea or an emotion into a painting, video or sound installation. Painting my paper sculptures can be physically very challenging. I usually paint for 12h per day for multiple days in a row and sometimes it is difficult to maintain the emotional state you are trying to express while being physically and mentally exhausted.

Desiree Hilmer: The exhibition space itself is usually as important as the artwork itself.

Especially if paintings leave the square format and the wall and wander into the threedimensional room. If I am honest, I believe in particular the aesthetic potential of paintings is limited by the rectangular white wall. I personally do not understand why most artists choose it since our lives are also not happening on a square-shaped wall on a 2-dimensional surface and our visual daily experience evolves in the three- dimensional space. However, how important the choice of the surrounding environment of the artwork might be, artists often do not have a choice and need to work with the space they receive.

There are two different approaches I use to determine the relationship between the art and the exhibition space. Sometimes I pick the space first or in case of a private or publicly sponsored exhibition, the space is given to me.

In these instances, I create the paintings for this specific room and try to contradict its geometry or atmosphere with my art.

In other instances, I search for an exhibition space after I finished the paper sculptures. On these occasions, I need to consider the sound structure of the room as well as its geometry and design.

I hope that the final product causes the emotions or thought processes in the viewer which enabled me to work on the art project so that the abstract nature is not lost in the moment of the exhibition.

Over the years your artworks have been showcased in a number of exhibitions, including your recent participation to Inside Outside and in – between in Philadelphia how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? And what do you hope your audience takes away from your artwork?

In particular, how do you consider the role of emerging online technosphere in creating new links between artists and worldwide audience?

With their tactile qualities, your artworks unveil the fact that we sometimes tend to ignore the fact that a work of art is a physical artifact: how do you consider the relationship between the abstract nature of your creative process and the physical aspect of your daily practice as an artist?

Desiree Hilmer: The audience is one essential component of art in general and plays an important role in my artwork as well. My intention is to question one's perception of reality. During the process, I understand myself as a medium which intercedes between the audience and my quest for reality in society, culture or in the depths of the human being. Art is a language that can capture reality in a way, words or music fail to do. But every language

Desiree Hilmer: The translation from an emotional state into a physical or digital object can be challenging sometimes. Especially, because the viewer did not undergo the process of creating the art piece.

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Reincarnation, 1,80m x 2,10m Soft Pastel Crayons on paper, installation 'Ich - I: Tell me who I am

Malhotrauma, 1,70m x 2,15m Soft Pastel Crayons on paper, part of the series paper sculptures 2018/2019

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spread the artwork for free. This is an instance where the art market with its capital limits the important role art should be having in society.

Therefore, I hope at least some artists share my vision to change the image of art as decoration and its underestimated effect on an individual or society. Considering the small influence art currently has in people's lives, I think it is crucial to bring art back into the public space, into daily life. And the easiest accessible public space I am aware of is the internet with its power to connect people, cultures and the individual with reality.

needs to be received by someone. Therefore, I need an audience. Every amazing and the Zeitgeist capturing book is still useless without a reader. I believe even without the audience my artist trying to contain the essence of our time.

However, it would never have an effect if there was not an audience that would consume it.

And this is exactly what I want the audience to take away from my artworks. I hope the viewer consumes my art, opens up to the language of art and mirrors him or herself in it. In my opinion, people go way too often to a museum and seem to be unable to experience art. What I mean by experiencing art is taking the time to actively interact with a painting or installation on an intellectual or emotional basis instead of just waiting to receive a detailed explanation from a tour guide.

We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Desiree. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?

Especially the expectation to go to a location with objects which are labeled as art to receive an interpretation of the so-called important art appears absurd to me. So, what I am expecting from each individual is simply to dive into the ocean of colors, lights, and sounds and to allow the artwork to lead the thoughts, emotions and let everyone derive their own meaning from it.

Everyone's perception of the world is different as everyone's filter or definition of the self.

Consequently, there is no ‘expected reaction' and hopefully the audience will never expect my interpretation of what I created will become their pre-consumed reality.

Desiree Hilmer: I am currently working on taking my paper sculptures beyond audio and video, into cutting edge installations including virtual reality and augmented reality in order to create a unique space for the viewers inbetween the digital and physical worlds. I am hoping to influence the viewer's perception in this newly created form of reality. At this point, I would like to invite everyone who is interested in a collaboration to contact me.

To me, it is very important to bring art into the public space, into the communities and into the daily life of people to create a real impact. This is only possible if multiple artists and the public institutions work together to make art available not just for the art market but also for society.

Besides the opportunity to communicate with a broader audience online, I believe there is an incredible potential to spread the art itself across borders and cultural limitations with our contemporary technology. Unfortunately, most galleries, museums and even artists heavily underutilize this resource to maximize the collaboration, outreach, and impact of art.

Often, the reason might be the concern to not

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

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Sanyaa Mehrotra The representation of identity through written vernacular script by Sanyaa Mehrotra, in the artwork titled ’. The artist used elements which felt truly her own, the two being-her name and her Reflections handwriting. She transformed them into a flowing form of composition while reflecting upon the concept of identity. Created in layers by the rhythmic repetition of the artists first name, the images as a whole were paradoxical, seeming simple but consisted of layers that added meaning upon closer inspection. She found a rhythm in the monotonous task of repeatedly writing her name thousands of times, creating a constant flow of energy evoking the motivation to keep going and finding a sense of empowerment.

The artist questioned the obsessive attempt of writing her name which further opened up self discussions about her identity, attempts to find the essence of her existence, transcending name, nationality and cultural identity. Each person is born with very little attached to the first name and decades worth of heaviness attached to the last. As one grows, the first name starts to get defined characteristics and the last name acts as a boundary wall of acceptable and non-acceptable. Keeping this thought in mind, the work became the result of an unsuccessful process by the artist, aimed at attempting to free herself from the responsibility of her last name. By writing her first name thousands of times, she questions identity and reflects upon whether it’s responsibility or burden the family name carries in her cultural society. It can also be seen as an attempt at adding more importance to her first name without having to carry the baggage of her last. It seems as if she is trying to find her identity as ‘Sanyaa’ as compared to ‘Sanyaa Mehrotra’. She deems the meditative attempt as unsuccessful- which is symbolically represented by the clouded ink.

Although the scale of repetition makes the text look like an abstract pattern particularly for those who are not well versed with the language, the work manages to express and characterise the artists’ cultural identity because of the use of written Hindi script. Having repeated it so many times on a scale that it cannot be ignored, the fading triptych can also be seen as an attempt to make people remember her name and cultural identity.

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

https://sanyaamehrotra18.wixsite.com in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and 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 Foundation Certificate in Visual Arts you nurtured your education with a Bachelor of

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Sanyaa and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit

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Arts in Fine Arts, that your are currently pursuing at the Lasalle College of the Arts: how did these formative years influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does your cultural substratum due to your being an Indian studying to be an artist in Singapore direct the trajectory of your current artistic research?

The signs of me being a creative weirdo started manifesting when I was very young and the earliest occurrence I can remember is at the age of 5. While at a housewarming party with my parents, I managed to convince the kids that painting their room’s freshly waxed floor and newly whitewashed walls with red swirls is a good idea. The reaction of the adults as they opened the door to call us out for dinner clearly said that it was not.

For the first 17 years of my life, this creativity was cultivated in my home town of Delhi. During this time, I didn’t need a definition categorising what I was doing and I engaged in all kinds of creative mediums. Blessed to have parents that are very motivating, never questioning this incessant need of wanting to be engaged in creation. There were many episodes of my parents coming home to surprises like doodled walls, painted laptops and DIY outfits. I even scribbled on fruits and vegetables.

I was introduced to traditional art forms and learned to engage with various different mediums. When the end of school was nearing, I was suddenly required to decide what course my artistic journey would take during my further education under art and design and I was lost.

My teachers suggested I go for Graphic Design or Fashion Design, since there was greater scope for stable employment. Unconvinced, I decided to go for the Foundation in Visual Arts programme in Singapore, with the hopes of exploring the various paths within this vast

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domain categories and finding my own. I loved all my classes, but ‘Grey Matters’ quickly grew to become my favourite. The class was very experience based and it made me reflect, opened my mind and taught me how to see.

Through Grey Matters, I found Fine Arts: a field with no boundaries and no restrictions, where I could engage with anything under the sun. In India, a place with overwhelming amounts of visual stimuli and hard hitting reality, everything around me was a potential theme to work on. In Singapore, being away from family for 4 years in a different country, I learned more about myself than I could have ever known being back home.

In Delhi, my artistic nature was cultivated and in Singapore I learned how to harvest it. Both have provided me with very different environments and experiences that I cherish and continue to derive inspiration from, cross dissolving between the two environments. At this point, I don’t limit my inspirations to any particular geographic location . Of course my background and culture reflects in my work and I’m very proud of it, but my practice is becoming more experiential. I experience, I question and I create.

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries ,a we have selected Reflections stimulating art 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 insightful exploration of your own identity is the way you provide the viewers with such a multilayered visual experience. When walking our readers through the genesis of Reflections ¤ , would you tell us how do you develop the initial idea?

The Reflections Series came into being during a module of mine in the first year of Fine Arts,

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called ‘Text as Image’. After researching and experimenting with a lot of different things and not being happy with any, I was so frustrated that I stood on the chair in my studio with my

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eyes closed, screaming ’Text as Image’ repeatedly in my head, as if that would lead to some inspiration. I sat back down and filled a page with the same words over and over again

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in frustration. My mind remained blank as ever, so I gave up eventually and began to listen to calming Hindi songs. A blue pen and my journal at hand, I started penning the

lyrics of the song down in Hindi.

Appalled at how bad my handwriting looked, I realised I hadn’t written in this script in years, even though I spoke it everyday. To improve

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my writing, I automatically started penning down my name - it came very naturally to me. I wrote my name, again and again, filling sheet after sheet. I absolutely loved the visuals and kept wondering what statement/phrase could be important enough for me to obsessively repeat at this scale. Before I could realise it, I had an entire body of works ready. An amalgamation of both my parents names and a nominal representation of myself, I still hadn’t found anything more important to me than my own name. I didn’t know how to accept this without overthinking about appearing conceited, The second I realised this and was able to accept it, the work became a lot more than what it was when it began: some writing practice on little sheets of paper.

We have particularly appreciated the way Reflections shows such a captivating flow of energy evoking the motivation to keep going and finding a sense of empowerment, as well as balanced combination between rigorous sense of geometry and abstract sensitiveness. New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes?

My works are very instinctive and gestural. The initial stage of the work is something that comes very naturally to me and then I work on developing them conceptually, visually and aesthetically. I love the ambiguous relationship I have with my creations - I read them differently everyday. What intrigues me most is knowing that they came from within me and I still don’t have a definite interpretation of them. For example, I have Reflections up in my living room and I read it differently based on what I feel that day. On some days, it becomes

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a question and on some, it becomes a statement.

Sometimes it gives me confidence, sometimes it gives me motivation. Some days it reminds me of my background and on some it makes me curious about the future. On some occasions it makes me want to be considerate about each action of mine,

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and on others it reminds me to not take myself too seriously.

your artworks, and we like the way they create tension and dynamics: how did you come about settling on your color palette? And how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in a specific artwork and in

The surface of your artworks is meticolously refinished and we have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances that mark out

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particular, how do you develop a texture?

pen out of habit (it had been compulsory to use throughout school life) and began scribbling on little scraps of paper trying to improve my handwriting in the Hindi. I wanted to stick to the essence of origin of the work while being intentional at the same time. it was

Talking about this series in particular, as I mentioned before, the work started very instinctively. Sitting in my studio with all kinds of tools colours and material, I picked up a blue

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only after hundreds of sheets, testing different pens and shades of blue and black that I picked favorites. For the final piece, I used Indian Ink on Chinese Rice Paper. Each material was for the final piece considered carefully, without letting go of the original essence.

coming up with color schemes. I absolutely love bright and striking colors and that shows in my choices of clothes, patterns, prints and photographs but my works have mostly been monotone or pastel.

Sometimes I take a canvas and let all the color out on it before I make an intentional color palette selection. In terms of texture, when I’m

The psychological make-up of the moment is definitely a major decision-making factor while

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working in the studio, I don’t take myself or my

of progression- “a work of art is never really finished”, as Da Vinci was quoted saying.

While seeming simple but consisted of layers that added meaning upon closer inspection, Reflections invites the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception. How

work too seriously. I experiment and I play, first destroying inhibitions and then creating as freely as I possibly can. I’m not afraid to destroy something that might be looking good in its present state if I still have any inkling to play with the piece further. These are all just stages

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last two years. Constantly composing and editing visuals from my everyday, my phone camera has become of utmost importance and also is a primary source of the creation of ‘A Clouded State of Mind’. There is constantly so much visual stimuli around us, but is usually overlooked because of its ‘commonality’. All objects and people encountered by us on the daily have a story of their own, stories that are overlooked as we are so invested in our own lives, fulfilling societal norms. Our own lives are made up of these tiny bits and pieces of various different experiences and encounters. I used the photographs I’d taken as material in the creation of this series. With a fragment of life in every picture, the work is an amalgamation of the documentation of thousands of such experiences. Teresita Fernandez was quoted saying,‘being an artist is not just about what happens when you are in the studio. The way you live, the people you choose to love and the way you love them, the way you vote, the words that come out of your mouth, the size of the world you make for yourselves, your ability to influence the things you believe in, your obsessions, your failures- all of these components will also become the raw material for the art you make.’

important is for you to invite the viewers to elaborate personal meaning? And in particular, how open would you like your artworks to be understood?

More than my intention, I consider it important for people to give the work some time and build a relationship with it, constructing their own narrative around it. At this stage of my developing art practice, I like my works to be as open-ended as they can be which is why I lean more towards the abstract and the ambiguous. People’s interpretations say a lot about their own journeys and experiences and that is something that really interests me. I co-founded a startup under the name Musafir (meaning ‘traveller’ in Hindi).

With it, we introduce the Indian traditional idea of baithak. An informal gathering with the formal purpose of bringing people and their passions together, Musafir provides a platform that allows people to present their perspectives of the given theme in a creative manner and gives them a chance to collaborate with each other.

Another interesting project of yours that has particularly impressed us and that we would like to introduce to our readers is entitled A Clouded State of Mind and as you have remarked once it was originated from your everyday by using very small fragments of the discoloured photographs and the ink paintings you created and combined together. How does everyday life's experience fuels your creative process? And how do you think your works respond to it in finding hidden, crystallised moments in the everyday?

We like the way A Clouded State of Mind conveys such a stimulating combination between tactile feature and captivating abstract feeling, to create such a dreamlike atmosphere: how would you consider the role of abstraction playing within your practice? In particular, how does representation and a tendency towards abstraction find their balance in your work?

Abstract pieces of work make it easier for me to discover more about myself. Minimal representation gives me an opportunity to question, wonder and reflect upon my own actions or thoughts. Being only 21, I’m still finding myself, figuring out what I like or dislike, forming

Intrigued by the so-called ‘monotony’ of the everyday, I have become an avid documenter of almost everything I see/experience over the

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developing a relationship with them, their experiences, narratives and ways of thinking and perceiving. How a person reads a piece of work tells a lot about their journey, which is something I genuinely love hearing about. It gives me so much perspective into how something created by me could represent something to others- and very differently so.

My relationship with my direct audience is very special to me- it’s a personal bond. I like to share my method of working, letting my audience in on the process behind each creation, making it accessible to them. By doing this, I hope that my audience feels more connected to art, and somewhere somehow they find the courage to try and create something of their own.

opinions and discovering things I believe in.

Experiencing, creating and then reflecting upon my creations, giving them titles and writing about them helps me do just that.Your artworks challenge the viewers to explore realms of the imagination, how do you consider the tension between the real and the imagined playing within your artistic research?

The imagined is inspired by the real, but there’s a stark difference between the two. Even research wise, they are always presented as two different entities. The contrast between the two worlds makes it challenging to put them together seamlessly, which is something that naturally sparks interest within me. I’ve always been a daydreamer, lost in my own world of thoughts, possibilities, alternate universes and what ifs- all inspired by the real world.

As for my artworks, I only hope that the people that engage with them take the time to have a conversation with themselves and maybe discover something new. I hope that they manage to evoke something withinanything- positive or negative, however small it may be.

Most times I don’t even remember what it was that I was thinking about when I snap back into reality. My artist bio acknowledges the same with the words, “Passionately committed to daydreaming, her work projects the visual narratives her mind constructs around the universe”. This characteristic of mine has its way of presenting itself in my work and I let it happen naturally, trying to stay true to my thoughts and ideas without the fear of judgment.

We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Sanyaa. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?

Over the years your artworks have been showcased in a number of occasions, how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? And what do you hope your audience take away from your artworks?

As I write this interview, I am working on our Graduation Show and will officially be done with my BA(hons) degree at the end of May. The plan is to then move back to India, to work on my first solo exhibition in Delhi which is opening in August. I’m also excited to go back and set my studio up. I want to have openstudio sessions where I invite my audience to

On a personal level, my artworks for me are the starting point of conversation that eventually go on to become something more in-depth. I see them as an opening to know more about the person I’m conversing with,

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come into my studio and spend some time with me. I would like to share with them my journals, works in progress and hopefully push them to create something with me before they leave. In the future, I hope to travel to new places, experience as much of the world as I can making art inspired by them. I hope to meet some incredible people, perhaps get a chance to work with them and never stop learning.

One of the major things on my list is to explore my own country- something I have

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not had a chance to do yet. I also want to continue doing events under Musafir all over the world. The idea of getting an opportunity to provide people with the platform to share their perspectives in front of a live audience is very exciting to me.

On the long run, I eventually want to be able to open an art space of my own, complete with a gallery, a coworking space, a cafe and an event area, promoting the arts with minimal boundaries.

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Konstantinos Angelou Lives and works in Thebes, Greece

We call Social sculpture the designed returning of art to society, to a society that is open to the strange influences that sometimes alter the interpretation of the work of art by keeping it alive at a level beyond the “sterile” and “neat” perceptions of the experts, at the level of spontaneity of ordinary people. The challenge of desire is to have art as art, that is, as a catalyst for the change of social reality and at the same time as a center for awakening human authenticity. The multitude of people, the predominant basis of reality, is now required, through an act-communion of aesthetic and at the same time of moral participation, to become active, that is, to regain its lost autonomy as a social and historical subject. The artist has to select critically -that is, philosophically- a level of expression and a kind of “form” that excludes inhuman and dismissive components, aiming at a process of fulfilling human existence.

The deadlocks of the modern world and human suffering are necessities that require the reorientation of art towards a morality of a “human ecology” that trusts the creative ability of all human beings and places the future of the planet on them. Experience has shown that the continuous and contradictory rise of the subject in the West after the enlightenment as well as that of the subjective nature of the so much glorified work means nothing but the dissociation of the artist from the needs of society, resulting in his being sterilized in a closed and gloating universe, whereas the public is limited to a group of “experts” and “eminent”. An art in society has to certainly reveal its pedagogical character, which is, however, not predominantly didactic but rather initiating, denying at the same time an abstract, selfreliant, isolated and isolating role controlled by the socially powerful. What opposes such a control is an art that is spread across the vibrant network of the city where its living entity becomes the social subject itself. When art fulfills its true social role, then its poetic influences, that is, the desire for creation, is magnified. On the contrary, the dissolution of every form of folk art in our century was a crime of imposition, the revelation of the modern totalitarian state.

Regarding the content of such an art, it is understood that the impasse of the rationalist conception of reality, the model of the manipulative practice of modern society and science, conceals the irreducible of human dimension. The aesthetic of denial concerns a social sculpture that consciously establishes a new humane perspective, a consciousness with emotions, a moral philosophy with plastic means.

Art should evolve into a moral philosophy provided with a body. A body with consciousness. Denial is introduced here with reference to a rational thinking that constitutes a hubris to the extent that it weakens or excludes basic needs, functions and contents of human existence.

This separation can arise through the regeneration of the primary senses that are present even before the predominance of the concept that puts them in order, through an action of art that addresses the body, the basic processes and expressions of life. It is an art of limiting the unilateral mental principle of identity, which is ultimately a tendency towards death and denies the primary element of life, claiming the principle of generalized control and the “civilized” violence of the symbol. Social sculpture shall be activated in the human body, in its relation to space, in the sense of unintervening and pure time, in the feeling of closeness and contact, in the emergence of the special and unique. It portrays the history and the lived identity man constitutes as a relation to space, time and objects, which are not intangible but tangible, containing the social body of people, as well as the living world of the things that are continually regenerating around us.

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

artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.angeloukonstantin.com in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training and

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Hello Konstantinos and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your

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participants to question the notion of exhibition space, providing them with such a multilayered visual experience. When walking our readers through the genesis of Oedipus - Lost Messages, would you tell us how do you develop the initial idea?

after having degreed from the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA), specializing in Painting, you nurtured your education in several other fields, including Sculpture and Industrial design, as well as Digital art forms. How did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does your cultural substrate due to your Greek roots and your studies of Philosophy direct the trajectory of your current artistic research?

As I have already mentioned, my ideas are the product of a continuous process. The mythical character of Oedipus comes from my home-town, Thebes. I would like to inform your readers that at least half of the ancient Greek mythology, directly or indirectly, traces back to Thebes. The ancient poets naturally centred around this record of values and concepts, as well, which was still alive at their times, in order to comment on it and extend it. Oedipus is, to them, as also to us, a nodal person when it comes to the search for the meaning of human existence. It is on Oedipus that the psychoanalytic Freudian theory was based. "We live like Oedipus", comments Freud.

It is an honour for me to be given the opportunity to talk to you and your audience about my work and the work of our team in general.

If I wanted to define my art at the present time, I would define it as a "philosophy with a body". However, all the previous stages of my development have been stages that determined this definition. The various technical skills I have acquired have only been the tools of my artistic exploration under what remains stable in my work, that is, philosophical reflection. My experience in many different subjects has always been the means for the evolution of the flow of a basic underground thread governed by the existential conflict between language and body, feeling and thought, the principal essence of what we call "civilization" and the existential space of human life.

To make myself understood, I would like to cite Julia Kristeva's view. She says that in Oedipus Rex, "you will not fail to be struck by what is called the 'Greek miracle', a major aspect of which is bringing forth what we continue to consider our inner life: love, hate, guilt, defilement –the defilement that designates desire as desire for incest and death– without which there is neither happiness nor unhappiness. Given how many years separate us from this text, we can only be impressed by the paradox of this temporality linking such an ancient truth to one so close to us...".

The meaning, not from a semiological point of view, but as a "value" of life towards life, is what has interested me over time as well. I conclude that this searching is what constitutes the permanent relationship with, and reference to my Greek roots, this way of philosophical reflection that does not abandon man and the measure of life to the dangerous insipidity of a fragmented world. It is his unity man will always search for in two directions: in the self-view of his mind and of the systems of thought it constructs itself, and at the same time in the analysis of the present through the immersion in the past. This is the same kind of analysis –that is, the immersion in history– carried out both by individual subjects and when the peoples seek after the construction of their meaning in their imaginary historiographical record.

And she continues by saying: "In Greece we find the origins of, if not the desiring subject –which [...] is just another side of the logic of the philosophical subject– [...] that is at once tragic, philosophical and scientific".

I think you understand, also in relation to your previous question, that this place offers you everything you need, so that you ask yourself. So, through a new project, I wanted to follow up on these questions in relation to the present, to what I experience in my city today, as well as to what every man on this planet experiences at his place. On the one hand, I wanted to extend these concerns and, on the other hand, I wanted to come out to a clearing of pure and liberalized feeling, which is what I wish to express through my art today. Being a politically active person, what I wanted was to create a community of people who will bring these gigantic philosophical questions to the present in an advanced

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected "Oedipus - Lost Messages", a stimulating art project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory part of this article. What has at once caught our attention of your insightful exploration of the connection between ancient cultural heritage and modern art is the way it invites the

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way, and thereby to disrupt the feeling of the present situation, which, in my opinion, is decadent.

I will therefore agree with you that such reflections and exploration processes eventually produce a multilevel experience. On the one hand, the sculpture installation with the earthly but primeval materials that coexist with us, which contradicts our civilized exhibition halls, and, on the other hand, both the scale of the artwork and the sound with the accompanying severity of the poetic speech, break through the rambling everyday life by integrating and involving the viewer in a place of uncertainty at the present time, an uncertainty only a lost aspect of the sacred can transfuse.

Oedipus - Lost Messages is collaborative work of sculpture installations and new outdoor media that engages the local community in a live workshop. It's no doubt that collaborative experiences are today ever growing forces in Contemporary Art and that the most exciting things happen when creative minds from different fields of practice meet and collaborate on a project: how did you structure your work in order to achieve such a proficient synergy? Can you explain how your work demonstrates communication between creative minds - including the audience, indeed - from different backgrounds?

I am deeply convinced that art today should evolve into a dimension of social expression of a synergistic nature.

This view of mine easily derives from understanding art as having a substantial social and political meaning. At this point, however, I should make clear that what is social is not necessarily liberated, as well. Rather the contrary. Hannah Arendt was one of the thinkers who made this point clear. The social can be a perdition of the political for the sake of the need, it can, therefore, be transformed into a generalized and oppressive conformism. The work of the artist is, then, "dissolved into play and has lost its worldly meaning". This is what we mainly experience from art today. On the contrary, the political in art has to do with the search for the principle of the eternal in the present of the city. It has to do with the liberation of the city (i.e. of the citizens) from the fracture of its unity caused by the need, in which it is trapped today.

As far as the operating rules, regarding participation, are concerned, I think that, after all, they are dictated by the idea of methexis. That is, by the love of everything that it is common, of our common human destiny. But there is no strict or regulatory framework to that. The initiation

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(or, in other words, the release from trivialities) is not a despotism, but the revelation of a lost Sein in the pacified "circle of life", in which all participants are involved, according to their integration level. The finding out of our connection with others should remain an erotic process of discovery and joy, a fertility act.

This does not mean that we renounce the artist Beuys perceives as a kind of a modern magician, whereas me as a kind of a philosopher of methexis who transcended the linguistic level of philosophy. The very methexis in

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the artwork essentially requires social participation and does not seek after the spectators of the works, but rather the companions. Only then does the work of art echo as the place for motivating action or, and this is no contradiction, as the place for complacency and blessedness. That is the moment when the work extends its influence to the real social –i.e. political– area, that is, to the area of people.

rigorous sense of geometry and abstract sensitiveness. New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes?

The realization of the work is an act that arises after the philosophical exploration. The conceptual background should then reveal and release the

We have particularly appreciated the way your artworks show such a balanced combination between

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existential substrate that is deeply grounded in the body. The unconscious powers, as images or gestures, without meaning, are trapped in plain reflexes. On the other hand, the concepts are created by the primordial effect of the imaginary that nests in the body. I think I should emphasize something we have to realize again, something we have forgotten: that, in the human species, reflection precedes act. And, as the state of being trapped in it is hell, expression-poetic act without reflection remains foolish, since it fractures the unity of

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the human substance. But I'm talking about reflection, not discourse. To me, these are two different things.

Reflection, if it wishes so, can make the leap beyond the dead ends, in which speech results. Sentiment plays here the role of expression – of the bodily substrate, and lies between the circle of act and that of reflection.

In general, this is the methodology of achieving form in my work: from the conceptual to act, to the sentimental, and all over again, until the whole process is in balance. Our intention is to convey the poetic

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restore this lost horizon and seek after the living part in man, looking for the primary level where the distance of forgotten life, thrown and unremembered in today's planned pointlessness, is being rediscovered.

Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "artists's role differs depending on which part of the world they’re in": does your artistic research respond to a particular cultural moment? In particular, do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical issues that affect our everchanging and globalised societies?

Today, the European motto "act locally, influence globally" can very easily be put into practice through the potential offered by the Internet. The impact on other artists, the creation of international relationships and groups, the dialogue, everything is taking place at a global level now. On the other hand, the role of cultural influence does not cease to be one-sided and rely on bases of political and economic powers.

Therefore, the case of thinking globally –that implicitly indicates this case of cultural expansion and merging– and acting locally applies equally. Today, the second trend mainly prevails and uses the first trend as an alibi.

However, this means that, at an anthropological level (something that can hardly be disputed), there is a huge impoverishment of the global cultural diversity.

Language specialists believe that half of the world's languages will disappear before the end of the century.

So, my work definitely reflects the desire to negotiate this aspect of globalization. In my point of view, this negotiation has to do with an overall intervention of decentralized cultural realities in the central totalitarian structure modern culture of consumption brings about.

I think that this intervention is an important historical issue at stake in contemporary art that should be constructive in a reflective way. We have been tired of that trend of deconstructions with a supposedly revolutionary character, since what people are now seeking as an imperative need is the need for cohesive responses. And the crucial question and answer are on the issue of happiness, which the Western culture seems to regard as self-evident, albeit it has rather forgotten it.

movement of this circle to the viewer. Because all the creative and liberating energy hides in it. The extent to which the movement of this circle will continue, pertains to many factors. But the feelings that emerge as powers of the erotic contact, the dynamics of living forms itself, the connection and the composition with the natural world, are those elements that constitute a priority of expression in a work which is itself a model of life, a "living species". Creative acts –that lie beyond the correctness of a plan and, therefore, are infinite– should

We have particularly appreciated the way your artistic research highlights the elusive, still ubiquitous convergences between ancient cultural heritage and contemporary sensitiveness: how do you consider the

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relationship between Tradition and Contemporariness playing within your artistic process?

This primordial has a presence throughout time, it is present in the human prehistory, and it is also present in the human body, as well. The historicity of truth as a metaphysics of the present proves the opposition-denial of the one-sided nature of things. Historical memory is

My art wants to be a philosophical and emotional immersion into a primordial being of human existence.

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the subversion of the present, and it contributes to the invasion of imagination into the specific.

because it raises concerns in the present. The inconceivable and tragic passion for continuous innovation the past hides has shrunk the world and has led man to losing worldliness. The past is a scandal in the modern society because it introduces discontinuity

In our today's world, the spiritual object from the past is old-fashioned –unless it is a consumptive cliché–

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in the circle of continuous consumption, and, this way, it fractures a monotonous productivity. The totalitarian nature of the Western world, trying to abolish this contradiction, presents the past either as a sub-indent of the present or as an incomplete present. This is why history, to the warmongers, is always the servant of their own choices, always a present.

constitutes the possibility of freedom, the proof of it.

But that, in which the word "freedom" has been converted into in our "free" system, is a concept that is dry and detached from the others, a situation with the man being on the sidelines, disciplined towards the daily discourse of domination, apolitical politics and incognoscible science. "What is real is rational", said someone1. But the real excludes other presents, other logics: an old book, a smell, a photo from the past, a fragment of an ancient ruin, objects of the phantom of a great-grandfather, all these are, to us, the thread towards the live foundations of our existence. Very real, very logical. These flows of connection with our human prehistory, fundamental powers of a species,

Trapped in a "space" of disaster –which is either ecological, of people and their relationships or cultural–, the present violates the past (see the example of the subsidised broken fishing boats in Greece) or alters it by integrating it in the present. There is no place for "if" in the techniques of modern pen-pushers because it

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archetypes of universal human simplicity, myths of the poetry of time: these are our powers. A way in order not to deny the currency of the present time is the critical introduction of the past into the present.

meaning? And in particular, how open would you like your artworks to be understood?

The personal meaning can become a real meaning only when it is connected to conditions of the world. I can not agree to a semiotic relativism. Μeaning is not completely independent of the world. Such symptoms of separating meaning from the world are examples of the decline of the world. My art wants to initiate the viewer into a specific and primordial state of the revelation of the world, and not necessarily into its linguistic remnant.

Your artworks challenge the viewers to explore the tension between the real and the imagined, through such a captivating combination between tactile feature and abstract sensitiveness. In this sense, we daresay that your artworks invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception. How important is for you to invite the viewers to elaborate personal

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The role of the artist –if he makes art in terms of constructive poetics– is to juxtapose and at the same time unify the real with the imaginary of the participant by releasing it from the individually linguistic. I want an art that claims the creation of new undominated places of residence for the social imaginary. Through the connection among the human communities, the social imaginary acts autonomously and at the same time connectively, while it constantly recreates new spaces that tend to exceed the fixed components of the life of a dominated world, which are political and at the same time existential, by extending and deepening the basis of our common experiential space. This space constitutes the situation, the background of the feelings for life and the world, the place where we experience thoughts and desires. By promoting the traditional viewer from the level of the simple and typical viewer, I want him to transform into another imaginary subject that expands to new possibilities of the object, to new worlds, not only of art, but also of life. It is only in such a relationship of methexis, as the one I mentioned before, that I can understand my relationship with the other, who is at the same time the reflection of me.

In this sense, social sculpture, as the basis of our own effort, is, contrary to what is imposed today, the return of art to society. The challenge we face today is to have art as a catalyst for a change in social reality and at the same time as a centre for awakening human authenticity. The world of people, the predominant basis of reality, is now required, in our work, through an act-methexis of aesthetic and at the same time of moral participation, to become active, that is, to regain its lost autonomy as a social and historical subject. This is why the artist has to select critically –that is, philosophically– a level of expression and a kind of "form" that excludes inhuman and dismissive components, aiming at a process of fulfilling human existence, as a poetic existence.

Photographer and sculptor Zoe Leonard once stated, "the objects that we leave behind hold the marks and the sign of our use: like archeological findings, they reveal so much about us". We’d love to ask you about the qualities of the materials that you include in your artworks: in particular, how important is for you the physical nature of the materials that you include in your artworks?

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Taking a stand on the above statement that is included in your question, I would like to point out something in respect of the term “use�. Use implicitly indicates a relationship with something, a user and something that is being used. I am talking more about a tendency for a direct connection to the world. The tendency for an urgent connection to the world that my work

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constitutes is a moral act, an act that tends to an ecology of liberation that necessarily expands to basic relations containing the experience of the human being on the planet. The natural materials and the forms of my work are looking for their place in this question of space-time and existence concerning the relation of the human species to the world.

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from the world. The covering of the technosphere clearly acts as a mechanism of discipline and imposition, of a violence concerning the use of the means itself. This means that, although, within a narrow communicative framework, this dimension of on-line communication can be useful, in practice, there is the immense risk of a lack of integration of the work and of the relationships it creates as well as of a covering of the immediacy that leads to the disruption of the continuity of the being. This is why we use it or want to use it only in its narrowest dimension, that of information.

This eternal human ecology of life and action ("thrown" today in a continuous alienation) comprises the primary relationship of man with the other that he himself is, an act that is embodied through the vertical immersion in space and time and at the same time towards a primary environment, which is, at the same time, the basis of our primary body. Therefore, the discovery of body in my art consists in the basic "materials" of human prehistory and experience. The material carries a poetics that realizes and aestheticizes the attempt concerning the crisis of human destiny, the tragic human experience of choice of a civilized antiworld and, at the same time, the questions of identity and freedom.

Talking about our relationship with the public, I told you that we are trying to promote it to a participant and companion to an integrated experience, to another state of life. Today, there is a sufficient number of "warm" companions as well as other people that are in the process of methexis expressed with existential questions. Although the exploration of the artistic work as a living social act constitutes, to us, the denial of the fractured dimension of the world, on the other side, it is a constant struggle. The Sphinx festival is taking part in the claim of this struggle. This is why it broadens out to dozens of venues, mostly outdoor ones in the city, and integrates parts of the city's population, such as various associations and the student community. Within the framework of what we call "ecology of denial", the participating viewer is moderately initiated into the continuity of the earthly and of the social, of the world as an emergence of vital energy procedures initiated under the effect of artistic and, in a broader sense, poetic works within the living tissue of the same city, that is, inside its body. This procedure is experienced as a denial towards an ontology that proposes the structure of a mechanical, programmed universe. The dynamics of the form of this interference of each work of social sculpture, as an ecology of denial, has to support the cohesion of the living being as a resistance to the modern political method of the complete disruption of the continuity of the body, of the destruction of its limits in the name of a fraudulent freedom that bluntly abolishes the desire for the autonomy of the human being within the framework of a new and modern directed "megamechanics". The work, as we perceive it, should provide the participants with a new but very old (often inexplicable) cohesive feeling of the real, a feeling of non-verbal identity and a feeling of happiness. I think that the explanations we get can be interpreted as the acceptance of a foundation with the feeling of a

As for the constructional part in these works, it should be "primitive", that is, it should be made with the hands. However, this does not imply a denial of craftsmanship, but refers to the bases of life experience, not only as a survival, but also as a parameter and as a principal version of the collective.

In conclusion, the path to the perspective we desire can only be expressed in a liberated physical (sexual and sensuous) relationship that emerges from the "contact", thrown in the relationships of materials and creatures (forms). It is a relationship that is even truer when it arises from peaceful human situations and practices, from which derive meanings and feelings that oppose distortions arising from the historically evolving linguistic and classifying violence of "civilized" semiotic systems.

Over the years your artworks have been exhibited in several occasions and it's important to remark that you recently realized the second international festival of Sphinx in Thebes. How do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? And what do you hope your audience take away from your artworks? In particular, how do you consider the role of emerging online technosphere in creating new links between artists and worldwide audience?

At first, I will answer, as expressly as possible, to the last part of your question: The internet space as a virtual space entails the danger –something that is often confirmed– of acting as a substitute for the real experience, for the real world. Through the modern omnipotent network of virtualization of the technosphere, communication can alter, cover and distort a basic experience, leading to a stupefying atmosphere of loss of participation and of withdrawal

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metaphysical wholeness. It is within this framework that the participant will rediscover the thread to his lost unity that finds itself in an extreme crisis today.

We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Konstantinos. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?

Through this question, you are offering me the opportunity to elaborate on several projects that constitute my intentions at the moment. To cut a long story short, I will, therefore, mainly refer to a study that may be the theme of the upcoming "social sculpture" festival in the city of Thebes, in 2020. It is a theme I can summarize as: "Body and incarceration - the negative aspect of the body". You can see that modern rituals sacrificed the body on the altar of productivity and its economic exploitation, something that is traced back to the time of Sophocles' tragedy, "Antigone", and maybe even earlier, to the time of Odysseus. What I find interesting in it is the archetypes of modern incarceration, institutions such as prisons or the psychiatric institutions, even the hotspots of contemporary migrants all around us in Greece. These are matters Foucault researched, for his part, as models of a society under military domination. And we can not talk about something like that unless we refer to the speech acts (political-legal and religious systems – texts of incarceration), to their secret violence, to the mechanics of power, to the mechanics of the production of identity and the self, and so on.

On the other side, the body can still find some few chinks in order to express its primordial purity. This is a primeval struggle that continues to this day. It is unhappiness –the result of shrinking– that constitutes an inevitable evil, according to Freud, and a question, according to Lacan (Seminar III of Jacques Lacan on The Psychoses). We would like the escape from this trap to find supporters in order to become the subject of an international exploration, the basis for a new optimism for the planet. On this theme, I am planning to prepare many personal artworks, installations and performances.

I would like to thank you a lot from the heart, on behalf of my companions, as well, for giving me this opportunity to briefly outline some of the main aspects of our exploration to your remarkable audience.

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Michael Dassle Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

My work is narrative and uses world building to address concepts of a real andimagined personal history. Commerce, pedagogy and loss play loosely with eachother within the larger theme. Through sculpture, drawing, performance and video,characters come alive and make their own work, raising questions of who madewhat. Objects are trapped, frozen, packaged; or may be in flux between mediums orforever in motion. The value of an artistic object, and the relationship between awork and its maker are at stake.

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

does your cultural substratum direct the trajectory of your current artistic research?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Michael Dassle: My formative years were very special to me. I attended a very small BFA program in a town that from the outside did not seem to be much, but there was so much community.

Hello Michael and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic practice, we would start this interview with a couple of introductory questions. You have a solid formal training and after having earned your Bachelors of Fine Arts in Printmaking you nurtured your education with a Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture, that you received from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, in Boston: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how

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A lot of collaboration, a lot of fun themed parties, and Beverly was, and still is a very receptive place for the Montserrat Community. My masters program did not come easy, but looking back, I gained those cultural parts of me that were not in my work beforehand. I think culturally, I am a media driven person. Learning this from my TV, toy, 31

Portrait of the Artist With Kookamunga at the home of dream. 2018 Inkjet Print 16” x 20” (40.64cm x 50.8cm)

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and video game obsession as a child, as well as seeing things such as a college dorm turned sweaty dance floor as significant forms of art added to those layers of trajectory.

You are a versatile artist and your practice involves sculpture, drawing, performance, and video, and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.instagram.com/slop_city in order to get a wide idea about the multidisciplinary nature of your artistic research: how did you develop your attitude to experiment with different media?

Michael Dassle: I originally set out to be a photojournalist, but my photography professors taught from an artistic perspective and things just felt right. I fell in love with art history and it is actually a huge part of my practice. Because of this, I found artists who were using all sorts of mediums. I was fascinated that you could express an idea through much more than one autonomous thing. I also consider these things relatable, video and sculpture operate on the same plane for me, as do drawing and printmaking.

They are kinesthetic and feed off each other. I also enjoy environments where multiple types of making are going on.

The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our

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Researchers, Kookamunga: Ventura, CA 2019 Inkjet Print 16” x 20” (40.64cm x 50.8cm)

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Kookamunga Drawing Lesson #1 2017 Video Still

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readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article has at once captured our attention for the way you sapiently highlighted the connection between the real and the imagined, providing the viewers with such a multilayered visual experience: when walking our readers through your usual workflow and process, we would like to ask you how did you develop the initial idea of the Kookamunga.

Michael Dassle: When in Grad school, I was dealing with issues of the puppet, thinking of puppets or artwork that could perform by itself. Maybe like an automaton, it is like an extension of the artist but the work takes over and begins making its own work.

My work has always been attached to fantasy, symbolism, and thinking back to toys, attached to play. There is a lot of playfulness when imbuing fantasy with reality. Kookamunga does this particularly well since Kookamunga was made to cope with the death of someone I loved who loved penguins. A real person now imagined perhaps. As I began to push the Kookamunga idea during a residency in Braintree, MA, I realized those same world building, puppet performance ideas I was after in school were present.

We have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful tones that mark out your artworks, and we like the way they create tension and dynamics: how did you come 36

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(Un)Formed Dance #2 2016 Video Still

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A Kook from the æther 2018

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Kookamunga Statue (Possibly Votive) (C. 2015‐‐2017) Unfired Clay. 12” x 6” (30.48cm x 15.24cm)

about settling on your color palette? And how does your own psychological makeup determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in a specific artwork

and in particular, how do you develop a texture?

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Thrice, Levitating Heads, Kookamunga 2019 C Print 16� x 20� (40.64cm x 50.8cm)

Michael Dassle: Color has always been integral to my practice. I love color. In the past people have said I print like a painter

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and I can still relate to that. When selecting color, I think about its relationship to the narrative in the

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Moldmake, Kookamunga! 2018

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Visitation Kookamunga 2018 Graphite, Color Pencil and ink 8.5”x11” (20.32 cm x 27.94 cm)

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drawing. Color sets mood, like lighting at a concert. Psychologically, I am certainly out there, in the best ways of course. I’m always theorizing about alien life, alternative dimensions with my head in the clouds like a true pieces I’d say. Color is certainly relatable as it has a cosmic or even psychoactive bent.

Blue for example, is very cosmic, otherworldly to me. When drawing, maybe altered states can occur too, I go off in the studio, sometimes even attacking the work for the sake of texture. A mild Violence is there kind of, or a terribly un-behaved child.

As you have remarked in your artist's statement, objects are trapped, frozen, packaged; or may be in flux between mediums or forever in motion. With their tactile qualities, your artworks also highlight the fact that a work of art is a physical artifact, and to treat it more as a window, or a even a portal. We’d like to ask you about the qualities of the materials that you include in your artworks: moreover, how do you consider the relation between the abstract feature of the ideas you aim to communicate and the physical act of creating your artworks?

Michael Dassle: It's hard to put into words why physicality is so important to me. To be an “artists artist” which is silly but it’s a little indescribable, sure. I have

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always admired craftsmen.

Metalworkers, woodworkers, ceramicists, draughtsman, exceptional painters etc. are all so inspiring, yet I think for me, the challenge is to emphasize something used or haphazardly made, as opposed to the most well known mediums. Something I thought of a few years back would be “Thick and Quick”. I admire the hand, and its ability to transform. I used to think I had a lack of craftsmanship but I work within a different physicality. Quick work is not bad work. Also, things like bubble wrap, Styrofoam heads, googly eyes in the Dump series allow a past life to build into the work. Or it may look from the past, which is an idea from school I would like to have reenter.

Something Francis Bacon talked about was to create things so real, they become unreal. When dealing with the abstract presence vs. physical hand, I go there and allow different associations to emerge. If the work is gruesome or uncanny, there is something from reality that’s even more gruesome or uncanny.

We really appreciate the way your artistic production invites the viewers to explore the point of convergence between the figurative and the abstract, to challenge the viewers to explore realms of the imagination, how do you consider the relationship between the real and the imagined playing within your artistic research?

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Slop Sisters 2013: Acylic paint, spray paint, googly eyes, thumb tacks, found bow, bubble wrap, polystyrene heads 17”x 13”x 8” (43.18cm x 33.02cm x 20.32cm”)

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Red Animate 2017 Glazed ceramic, epoxy putty, mahogany 20 ¾”x10”x8” (52.705cm x 25.4cm x 20.32cm)

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Control ISSUE Hat 2016 Glazed Ceramic 11”x13” (27.94cm10x 33.02) SPECIAL

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Michael Dassle: I like to think of this relationship as a gap. How big of a divide can there be between real and imagined states? Or how small?

sometimes unexplainable. I think referring back to the artifact, a symbol is also an artifact, with cultural associations, and can even be a tool.

The figure has always been a constant in my work. I understand it as; I am a figure, but what if this was a stand in for me. Or can I make an imagined world that takes place in the real world? The science fiction works of both J.G. Ballard and Gene Wolfe are inspirational here as they use physical worlds to explore the nature of character. And I’m all about characters.

Imagined monsters, cartoons, and TV personalities such as pro wrestlers.

I really enjoy thinking of the studio as a dressing room before the big stage; maybe the reverse could be applied too, come to think of it.

My experience has recently been fueled by how new everything is, as I moved from Boston to Los Angeles at the beginning of the year. It’s a big 180 and there is room to use the world as a backdrop, almost like its more allowed here. I still think of the mundane though and try to synthesize something as boring as my retail job to be mildly exciting or just absolutely bananas. I have some really strange ideas with hand trucks on the way!

We have particularly appreciated the way your artistic research addresses your audience to a multilayered experience and we daresay that your artistic practice seems to aim to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface.

Austrian historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the audience to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: how important is it for you to trigger the viewer's imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal associations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood?

With their powerful narrative drive, your artworks are rich with symbolic references and seem to draw from your personal experience: how do you consider the importance of symbols playing within your artistic research?

Moreover, how does your everyday life's experience fuel your creative process?

Michael Dassle: Symbols and I have had quite the relationship. During undergrad, there was a professor who opened me up to how symbols could be used in art. I have also studied symbols from ancient cultures, occult books and similar sources.

Growing up religious was also a factor. A symbol is a stand in for something larger,

Michael Dassle: I’ve learned that you can cram a lot into an artwork, and the viewer has the potential to get lost, but I’d hope

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that, especially considering that I am not after the work having that ability.

Cultures are sadly becoming too polarized but in retrospect, I’m hopeful it allows artists who live with specific experience to speak about those experiences. It can hopefully broaden how we see each other and how we see the world at large. We owe it as a nation and as a planet to the marginalized people to have their voices.

Simultaneously there is a lot of watered down stuff out there. We are bombarded with images. Overall art should speak to experience, speak to imagination, be dangerous and be difficult.

there are enough different things to grab and investigate to keep people questioning. I also think keeping viewers entertained is important for me, and the relation between those two things.

Additionally how does entertainment factor in the work or is that a tainted word? I like thinking this way about it, as it can have elements of surrealism and fantasy, while addressing those personal associations. It might not be as lofty as the human condition but if something forces you to look into that inside, then the work has done its job.

Over the years you have participated to a number exhibitions, including your recent participation to Heads Are Gonna Roll at Real Art Ways, Hartford: how do you consider the participatory nature of your relationship with your audience?

Moreover, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience?

We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Michael.

What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?

Michael Dassle: Participation is something I’m just starting to take into consideration now. I was always opposed to being an artist who works in participation, but it naturally developed and makes room for the work and my relationship with people to be more open and rich. However, It takes really specific work to speak to a globalized audience. I’d be surprised if mine did

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Michael Dassle: Right now I am working on further developing the Kookamunga project into something much larger. Clay as a medium has finally entered back into my studio practice and so has photography. I recently shot a few rolls of film out in the northern parts of LA County. Additionally, I’ve actually been

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Slop Sisters 2013: Acylic paint, spray paint, googly eyes, thumb tacks, found bow, bubble wrap, polystyrene heads 17”x 13”x 8” (43.18cm x 33.02cm x 20.32cm”)

preparing the front part of my studio to house performances in. I plan to help LA based and visiting artists a chance to perform in the space as well as perform live actions of my own. I’ve always wanted to put on a play, or a large

banquet and hoping my new space can do that. Thanks again for all your questions, it’s really great to get reignited!

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

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Li Sun Lives and works in Beijing, CHina

Surveillance system is the observer of the city, but citizens who are observed seldom look the cameras face to face. If we take the surveillance system as a creature, then the camera must be the face of it, being the area that is equipped with the most front-end information receivers. It has the sensor and lens as the visual organ to receive images; the microphone and smoke sensing system as the auditory and olfactory organs; and the pan and tilt as the neck to rotate the head so as to focus on the target. With these acute organs, the camera will see any of your subtle movements, and even get all your identity information via the facial recognition system. You look at the camera, and it is staring at you as well with a meaningful expression hiding behind the cold mask. However, you can never see through it and reach the thoughts of its operator, nor the whole picture of such a huge system. This is an inequitable eye contact.

Thus, I would like to create an equal relation between people and monitors by imaging them from the perspective of portraiture. In this way, those cameras are separated from the system, and are isolated from the society. The connection between them and their operators disappears thereupon. Cameras, which used to be tentacles of the system, are now independent individuals. Those surveillance cameras are always facing my lens, with its “face” and “expression” taking most areas of the frame. I give them personality and emotion through exposing them with color gelatin filters. My work are not product shots or still photos any more. Instead, they are hundred-percent portraitures. I hope to enable the audiences to face surveillance cameras right in front of them, to view the shape and material of them, and to figure out their “expressions”. with a couple of introductory questions. You have a solid formal training and after having earned your BA in Advertising from the Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, you nurtured your education with an MFA in Photography, that you receive from the prestigious New York Film Academy, in Los Angeles: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist and help you to develop your attitude to experiment?

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

Hello Li and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries.

Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would invite to our readers to visit https://www.lisunphoto.com in order to get a synoptic idea about your artistic production and we would start this interview

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From the Beholders series

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From the Beholders series

From the Beholders series

Moreover, how does your cultural substratum due to your Chinese roots direct the trajectory of your current artistic research?

Although the fields of advertisement and visual art differ greatly, both require a great deal of visual and aesthetic training. In advertising, the author always tries to persuade or shock the viewer with an idea, to create a tension for the viewer. But art allows the viewer to think, understand, or feel in certain ways by raising a question or presenting a narrative. Advertising always answers its own question, whereas art rarely does.

My advertising background provides me with an aesthetic that values high contrasts, bright and eye-catching styles, and expressive techniques, while other techniques have been obtained from my artistic training.

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From the Beholders series

From the Beholders series

I was not born in one of the typical Chinese families depicted on western countries’ TV. My parents grew up in a compound, a Soviet-style mixed community that integrates workplace and living-area and studied physics and worked as engineers all their lives. Since my childhood, I have lived in a strongly Soviet-style environment and had a very Soviet life style. However, my father loved western music and movies, so I also encountered a great deal of American pop culture

as a child but learned little of traditional Chinese culture. My mode of life as a child was highly Soviet, the entertainment was almost American, yet the people around me and stories on the radio were all Chinese. Thus, my works naturally do not display a strong Chinese style, but some of the objects depicted in my works were in or from China.

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For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we

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From the Beholders series

From the Beholders series

have selected Beholders, a stimulating 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 theme of surveillance is the way it s raises questions about our media driven contemporary societies, to provide the viewers with with such a multilayered visual experience. When walking our readers through the genesis of Beholders, would you tell us how

did you develop the initial idea?

I’m very fond of George Orwell’s novel 1984, which depicts a future society which is highly autocratic, all things being overseen and controlled by a “Big Brother” figure. Throughout my life, I have been pessimistic about the prospects of personal freedom and privacy in our modern society, and often worry that the “Big Brother” may one day appear. This has not yet

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come completely, but our lives are increasingly under the control of a swarm of “Little Brothers”. Big data and artificial intelligence have turned the entire world into a panopticon, with all of us trapped inside. We are now faced with a panoramic society under the constant threat of invisible “observers”, whose constant gaze remains elusive to us in terms of source or direction. In this set of works, although I didn’t do purposeful, but they may look like typology photography; for example, by showing a diversified and unified dialectical concept through the presentation of numerous photographs of persons or buildings.

course, the materials and geometric shapes of surveillance cameras have quite different appearances with real human. Whenever I got a new surveillance camera, I would study it until I developed a subconscious understanding of its appearances. Sometimes, that would be something from pop culture; sometimes it would be nothing more than a feeling.

We dare say that the cameras in Beholders could be also considered a effective metaphor to describe human condition in our media driven technosphere: how do you consider the importance of symbols playing within your artistic research?

We have been fascinated with the way Beholders questions the idea of observation, and especially the way it subverts the nature of cameras, providing them with independent individuality, marked out with human qualities as personality and emotion: how did you technically achieve such brilliants results? In particular, how did you select the tones of the gelatins in order to shape the identity of each camera?

Symbology is a common language in advertising.

I am good at using symbols to express content both directly and indirectly, and in my view, this is a kind of presentation that similar to the “monuments”. In my work, I have thought about whether this serves as a symbol for artificial intelligence. I put these elements in my works, but only a few. I am also glad that the symbolic implications and metaphor in my works are able to stimulate my viewers’ imagination. I have also left some clues in this part to serve as a link with my future works.

Twenty years ago, I saw a poster for a puppet show outside the wall of the Children’s Palace Theater in the community where I was living.

This was perhaps a major influence in my subconsciousness. I remembered that the poster featured a dim background, plastics puppets with weird facial expressions, and strange colors. The heads of puppets in the picture were all of similar proportion. And some of my inspiration came from FTG and RPG video games. When I was in film school, I often took photos for the model cards for actors studying in the school’s Performance Department as a part time job, and also took final makeup photos for films produced by the students. I was very adept at clearly presenting their character and emotions through the use of light and color. Of

We have particularly appreciated the way Beholders creates an equal relation between people and monitors: by imaging them from the perspective of portraiture, your work also raises questions about the relationship between the private and the public sphere. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "artists's role differs depending on which part of the world they’re in": does your artistic research respond to a particular cultural moment? In particular, do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical issues in our globalised age?

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I decided to ignore the previous narrow discussions of public privacy mentioned above.

In my opinion, we are experiencing the transition from a surveillance society to a panopticon society, where all our lives are fully overseen and controlled. This has been a gradual process, from the invention of the Michel Foucault’s Panopticon idea a prison design that a single overseer could view all inmates, to the invention of CCTV monitor to the emergence of the internet, the IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence. The relationship between the overseer and the overseen has also become increasingly complex. In past decades, there has been a great deal of discussion about privacy issues brought about by the CCTV records of public areas.

At that time, people in many western countries were able to avoid hard choices between security and freedom. But now we are faced with more complex issues of globalization, terrorism, and refugees; it seems that we have to constantly provide all our data to forces beyond our control and fully embrace this panopticon society in order to better survive it.

As you have remarked in your artist's statement, your work are not product shots or still photos any more. Instead, they are hundred-percent portraitures. Provocatively, German photographer Thomas Ruff stated once that "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 scene In my opinion, photography offers the opportunity to create illusions. No one will doubt the verity of a sculpture or a painting, it is what it is. But photography can mix illusions with reality easily.

Photography always has the nature of documentary, but on the other hand, I think photography as a kind of art, is always deceptive

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From the Overseers series

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From the Overseers series

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and partial. It represents a single instant captured by an artist from a subjective angle, and artists are always ready to make their audience believe in the “reality” they have purposefully arranged. Some of the fun of constructing truth and falsehood comes from the mechanical and chemical part of photography—the camera’s sensor or film, which makes photography different from other arts like painting and sculpture, and offers a unique charm.

Another interesting project of yours that has particularly impressed us and that we would like to introduce to our readers is entitled Overseers.

In the wake of the theme of surveillance, your series compares technology and natural environment, to create a new synthesis between Nature and human made objects, and it's really fascinating. How did you come up with idea of such uncoventional still effective synergy?

I have gotten involved in many fringe subcultures, such as modern mythology and cult cartoon, so I am rather familiar with those weird and distorted atmospheres. Perhaps these subcultures have affected the visual styles of my works.

When I was living in California, I found most of the state still have a rather pre- informationize environment, and there were no security cameras of most public areas. Except for a small number of big cities, the societal landscape of most parts of the US is still that of the 2000s or earlier.

Compared with China, which has both a long history and a modern experience of extremely rapid change, the US something of a more traditional country.

Perhaps these contrasts have stimulated my memory. Something like a daydream, and the scenes suddenly appear. Then you just have to realize them through techniques. I think that sometimes art is created in this way, but it must be based on a training of the senses and

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accumulation of memories in our everyday lives.

As you remarked once, Overseers was inspired by your personal experience, when you moved from countryside to a big city, where what bothered you most was the surveillance camera at every corner of the city. Would you tell us how important is for you to create artworks related to something you knew a lot? In particular, how does your current everyday life fuel your creative process?

The Overseers project is the most relaxing series among my works, with few intellectual elements, and more instinctual elements. Therefore, it is a series dominated by personal experience.

I think that my personal experiences and feelings are the flesh and blood of my work, I am not the kind of artist who just purely expresses their inherent contents. I always need a social idea and research to support my opinion and provide it as a skeleton (this is also related with the working process of photography, as photography puts a lot of emphasis on research and organized projects), and then I add my personal experience as a form of testimony. I also pay attention to developments in other fields to enrich my knowledge. To put it simply, I express however I am treated by society in my daily life.

You are an established artist: you have been recently awarded at the Neutral Density Photography Awards 2018 and over the years you exhibited widely in several occasions, including your recent solo show Beholders at the QLANGALLERY, ideaPod, in Beijing: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? In particular, how do you consider the role of emerging online technosphere in creating new links between artists and worldwide audience?

Perhaps it’s because of the influence from my

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From the Overseers series

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advertising background. I wish to attract people from non-artistic circles through the expressive forms of advertisement and create art for the public. I always debate with some of my artist friends, who believe that the art is an industry to be appreciated by a narrow audience, most of whom come from the worlds of fine art artists and academia. I have always thought about this argue. The arts, photography, advertisement, and graphic design, these industries seem to some overlap, yet they are quite different. This is especially the case for contemporary art, which is highly resistant to the concepts of beauty and ornamentation.

I think the mutual impact of internet and the arts mostly behavioral, like languages, technique, rather than in terms of media. The art is more conservative than pop culture in medium.

We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Li. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?

I’m currently continuing to work on three different series. The first series are works with religious elements. When I was in the US, I became in touch with Christian culture and lived with some friends from the church.

Religion was something new to me and my growing experience. For this reason, I attempted to blend religious elements into my works. Another two series are under conceptual development and haven’t really taken shape yet.

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