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

Installation • Painting • Mixed media • Drawing • Performance • Public Art • Drawing • Video art • Fine Art Photography

KARIN EDGETT CORTNEY BISSESSAR DON MIRAKL CATHERINE EATON SKINNER ROBERT HAMILTON SHIR HANDELSMAN SOFIA FOTIADOU PEDRO AMARO PEY-CHWEN LIN

Don Mirakl (Czech Republic)

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Lives and works in Tel-Aviv, Israel

Shri Handelsman

Lives and works in Canada

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Lives and works in the United States

Robert Hamilton

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Lives and works in Bzenec and Uherské Hradiště, Czech Republic

Catherine Eaton Skinner

Lives and works in the United States

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Cortney Bissessar

Lives and works in Washington, DC, USA

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Lives and works in the Greece

Karin Edgett

Lives and works in Germany

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Lives and works in Taiwan

Sofia Fotiadou

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 Überreiter, 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

Shir Handelsman Lives and works in Tel-Aviv, Israel

I am a multidisciplinary artist, with a strong background in music, playing, composing, and teaching. My studio work involves sculpture, drawing, installation, photography, and video art, and in all music takes a significant part. In my practice, I research the connection between sound and a visual image and emphasize the mechanics and dynamics of interpersonal intimacy. I try to challenge the junction point of humans and sounds, and the presence of sound in all the mediums I use. I interfere and manipulate images, show broken apparatuses, out of order sound devices, and use absurd situations as a base of my works. Alongside with the human subject featuring my work, I aim to show a complex situation, full of emotions, contradictive points of view, and reflexive. The media’s internal logic, accompanied by the obstacles risen by the meeting of sound and other objects and subjects of each work, are my focus points, and the base of the narrative I try to tell.

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

your evolution as an artist and help you to develop your attitude to experiment? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum due to your professional career as a musician, a saxophone player, and performer direct the trajectory of your current artistic research?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Shir and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries.

Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.shirhandelsman.com in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production and we would start this interview with a couple of introductory questions. You have a solid formal training: you hold a BFA from the Department of Multidisciplinary Art of Shenkar College and you also nurtured your education with an exchange program at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, in Paris: how did those formative years influence

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Hello and thank you very much for including me!

My initial expectations from the BFA studies were very vague and unclear. I was not ambitious of becoming an artist, and only wished for a place that I could inquire practical knowledge, have a constructed schedule and framework for creation and experimentation. Fortunately, I have been offered in school so many ways of thinking about art, different approaches and tools to use in my explorations. I have been taught how to allow myself to express my point of view, which is involved constantly with the presence of music

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and sound, in visual mediums such as video, photography, drawing and sculpture. After a profound process of working and developing works with the assistant and guidance of my teachers and colleagues, I discovered in school that Sound and music are not isolated mediums.

As a former jazz musician and saxophone player, this obsessive ongoing attempt to investigate the connections between sound and visual image, and express my old practice in visual mediums, are the source of my motivation, interest and stimulation. I hear sounds when I create a work, I sing or play through the characters and performers in my films, I think in beats and rhythms when I edit a project and drawn to use musical instruments as my objects and themes of investigations.

You are a versatile artist and your current practice includes video, sound, drawing, sculpture, and installation: would you tell us what does address you to such captivating multidisciplinary approach? How do you select an artistic discipline in order to explore a particular aspect of your artistic inquiry?

For me it is a very dynamic issue. I have a special desire and attraction for making video and experimental film, but I always find it hard to limit myself to only one medium. Almost every project starts with an idea, a simulating image, sound, an abstract movement that catches my mind or a story that has to be told.

Most of the time, it is the content of the work that dictates a specific discipline. I think that the ability to move between mediums is extremely important and it is a source of great freedom. As time goes by, I realize that connections between mediums is often based on the expansion of the boundaries, conventions and given conditions of each medium.

In my latest project for example, Recitative

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(2019) (can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/335685413) , I tried to test, challenge and expand the boundaries of several mediums. It is a short film presenting a performance of an opera singer, which takes place in the sky, accompanied by the presence of moving machines, used for construction purposes. I find that the unconventional conditions and surreal setting of this performance are the essence of my search for new forms of artistic expressions. The "damaged" performance was created as an artificial integration between sound, film and various music genres, which gives birth to new and exciting images in my point of view. The different combinations of genres, visuals and sounds, form an interruption in our perception of the performance as a specific situation, which has its own familiar norms and conditions. The work strives to rethink the performance as a concept, and to revalue our categorization of visual images.

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected Morendo, an interesting project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article and that can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/297415570. What has at once captured our attention of your insightful inquiry into the connection between sound and a visual image, is the way you successfully challenged the junction point of humans and sounds, providing the viewers with such an immersive and multilayered experience.

When walking our readers through the genesis of Morendo, would you tell us how did you develop the initial idea, in order to achieve such brilliant results?

The idea for Morendo emerged from a simple conversation, which occurred almost by coincident. When my mother told me about her surprising and random encounter with my father, after several years of disconnection between them, I noticed her specific rhetoric of storytelling.

As she described the moment of seeing my father through her car, while driving and entering a gas station, she focused on the sound of her ongoing

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conceptual, emotional and sensual lexicon, makes it easier to communicate and engage something, but at the same time challenging to create a new and original perspective on familiar subjects.

honking, in order to get his attention. Without being aware of her testimony, my father also choose to emphasize the sound of the honk, when asked to expose his memory from that short moment. I understood that the sound had a larger and deeper influence and affect on their memory, emotions and experience of each other, at that moment, then words. So I decided to create variations of that honk, by using my mother as a one woman band, documenting her failed attempts to play three wind instruments and interrupt the course of the story with raw sounds.

Transforming my parents into unprofessional performers and placing them on theatrical stages in a two channel large-scale video installation, allowed me to empower and exaggerate this story, and maybe to freeze this moment in time.

When directing the attention of the viewers to the concepts of separation, time and memory, Morendo provides the notion of direct experience with a new level of significance, and it's important to remark that your work is a result of a continuous process of several years in which your parents were used as a recurring and central theme in your artistic production: how important was for you to focus on a theme that belongs to your personal experience? In particular, how does daily life fuel your artistic research?

I think that there are some artists who experience a common phase in their practice and interest, which involves the confrontation with personal issues in their art. In my opinion it is sometimes a necessary phase to go through, in order to create multilayered and complexed works, which capture a wide range of emotional difficulties and expressions. For me every work is very personal, even when I'm not using direct autobiographic materials. The personal phase is a good starting point for me, to shift from the inside to the outside, and to make the transition from the personal to the global or universal.

Overall, human experiences fascinate me. The fact that people can relate or identify with personal stories, and that as humans we share a common

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In the case of Morendo, it was partly a therapeutic process, dealing with the traumatic divorce of my parents. But at the same time, it required a detachment from the emotionally charged contents, because I had to find a rhythm and movement of sound to this installation, and had to focus on technical nuances. In that sense it was an important lesson for me, which exposed something about making art. I learned to take the most intimate and painful elements and turn them into sound machines with a constructed mechanism and timing.

Maybe it is a romantic and poetic point of view, or a tendency to have no separation between daily life and making art, but It felt very natural to form a spectacle from a random meeting of two people in a gas station. I am always triggered by everyday situations and experiences, and trying to find disruptions or absurd elements in reality. I find that my works strive to capture a certain magic, which occurs in the most ordinary moments. That permanent anticipation and expectation to be surprised is the way I experience life.

With its unconventional still powerful narrative drive, Morendo challenges the viewers' perceptual parameters: we daresay that your artistic practice seems 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. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood?

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The most important thing to me is that the viewers of my work feel something, experience a sensational response, a pulse or an emotion of some kind. It could be very abstract and irrational or a more constructed and verbalized thought or a memory. If I had managed to accomplish any of that, it's a success from my point of view. In Morendo, the viewer is in a clear listening and absorbing position.

But at the same time, the installation encourages and stimulates active senses. When entering the space, the viewer has to choose where to stand between both screens – on the father's side or on the mother's side. In a way, the viewer is trapped physically between the parents and has to "choose" sides. In addition, the viewer can't watch both screens at the same time, because of their position in space. Despite of the fact that the videos are synced and working as one film, the viewer, who chooses one screen, has to turn his head in order to see the other, which is placed behind him and playing at the same time.

Besides the physical movement that the viewer is required to perform, the testimonies in the work are being interrupted by the sounds of the mother's playing, which is another element of physical engagement. The unconscious need to understand and locate the source of the sounds, which is constantly changing through a surround and dynamic experience in space, is an integral part of the viewer's experience in that context.

My attempts to manipulate or "control" the viewer and his perception of time and space, play an important role in my practice. However, I try to be as open minded as possible for every reaction and interpretation of my work. I love to be surprised with unexpected reactions or insights from viewers. Even if the reactions are negative or in some form of resistance, I see this as an opportunity for a dialog and a learning experience for me.

The combination between sound and visual plays a crucial aspect in your artistic practice, and in particular we have particularly appreciated the way it provides the visual experience with such an enigmatic and a bit unsettling atmosphere:

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according to Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan there is a 'sense bias' that affects Western societies favoring visual logic, a shift that occurred with the advent of modern alphabet as the eye became more essential than ear: how do you consider the role of sound within your artistic research?

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interfere, disrupt, "damage" the visual logic and perception of the viewer.

As I have mentioned, sound is an essential element in my artistic research. The dynamic hirarchy between sound and visual in my works, is used as a tool for the investigation of narratives and human interactions. At the same time, the tensions between sound and visual enable me to sabotage reality and the images presented in my works, to

Another aspect of my artistic research can be found in my installation Coastguard (2016), which is an attempt to sculpture sound and perceive it in a visual context. I created multiple polyurethane foam casts of a megaphone device and attached

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results. It enables creative freedom and imagination, as it contains an ambivalent position: a dimension of abstraction and subjectivity, when trying to express sound in a visual language, and yet an attempt to get definitive answers to this question, which are embodied in the concretization of the "unravel" abstract.

them to 4 meters high PVC pipes. The realization of sound in a sculpted object, the motivation to capture what is coming out of this device, was a challenge. Eventually I discovered that sound can be seen, it has volume, texture, shape and color.

I think that this experiment, which deals with the gap between the abstraction of sound and a visual image, might gives birth to inspiring and unusual

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I'm fascinated by all the possibilites that the digital world has to offer. For me, a visual, digital and sonical disruption opens a possibily to think about reality in a new way, and to discover important truths about our existence as humans. In my works I try to break mechanisms not only for the purpose of destruction, but in order to form new apparatuses, a world with new rules and conventions.

In Recitative for example, technology plays an important role in several aspects. The encounter between the opera singing and the mechanical sounds creates a modern interpretation of the classical piece written and composed by Bach in the 18�� century. It forms a new soundtrack, which is being manipulated and processed by digital effects and different layers of sounds. This combination reflects the tensions between genres, old and new, traditional and progressive, etc.

The power of technology in the current era is expressed also through questions of hierarchy. As times progress and the world is becoming more and more digital and technological, it is already clear that we become we become submissive to machines in so many aspects of our lives. This short film asks what kind of relations we have machines? The visuals in the video emphasize their divine presence, a certain glow or angelic quality, connecting with higher powers and serving the holy ritual of the performance. Does the machine replace god? Is it a new contemporary religion?

These are some of the questions that this work raises, in regard to the role and presence of technology.

Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once remarked that "artists's role differs depending on which part of the world they’re in.": how do you consider the role of artists in our globalised and media driven contemporary age? Moreover, do you think that your artistic research responds to a particular historical moment?

It's important to mention that you also create damaged sound machines, visual disturbances, and manipulations on the image, in order to expose the disruptions that exist also in intimate human relations Manipulation in visual arts is not new, but digital technology has extended the range of possibilities: how do you consider the role of technology playing within your artistic practice?

Even if their works don't focus on a specific

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identity, social state or an historical event, I think that most of the times artists can't fully escape or avoid the place they come from, their cultural heritage and history. Every artist is in a way trapped in his or her own identity, but there are so many different personalities, forms of expression, motivations and dimensions to the role of the artist. I believe that a good artist is able to produce works that can touches diverse people from different places in the world, without having to compromise on the quality of his work. Although I don't think it is mandatory for creating good art.

As I see it, the role of artists is to challenge our perception, to shed a new light on things,

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situations and elements in the universe.

Personally, I find that my works don't respond to a particular historical moment, or deal directly with the political state in Israel for example. That is despite of the expectation from Israeli or MiddelEastern artists, to engage in their art with the complicated political and social reality. I don't think it's fair to force artists to become saviours or justice fighters and I don't think it will be right to limit their practice by categorizing them as representatives of society.

You are an established artist and over the years you had group shows in Denmark and abroad,

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including your recent participation to the Aesthetica Short Film Festival: how do you consider the participatory nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the audience in a physical is definetely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience?

spaces. When I present an installation in a gallery space, people usually feel invited and welcome to enter the world of my works. It's not always easy, but I think that most of the times, when there are no physical barriers between viewers and my works, people tend to follow the narratives, taking the time to observe and contemplate on what they saw and heard. In that sense there is a positive and patient dialogue between me and them. It is different of course when I exhibit my works for example, in film festivals. It is a more formal position and less intimate. But it is very interesting to see if you managed to make the audience go through something in a limited time, since the work

For me it is always an interesting and exciting experience to challenge myself with exhibition

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is running only one time, with no repititions.

In general, the increasing presence of screens in our everyday lives, influence on our attentiveness, the ability to concentrate and stay with the work, physically and mentally, for a long time. The rythem of life becomes faster and the audiance's perceptions are changing as time progresses.

Images are everywhere, videos play in every person's hand and an endless amount of photographs are being made in each second. The good side of it is that in recent years, art has become more accessible and spreadable.

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

These days I'm working on my first solo exhibition, which will be held in May 2020 at The Jerusalem Artists House. I'm very excited about that, since this exhibition's curator is one of my favorite artists and my most influential teacher – Nira Pereg. In addition to the exhibition, which will feature a new video and sculpture installation, I'm working on a short film, that was shot in Leveld Kunstnartun's residency program in Norway. It was an increadible experience to take part in this program and stay one month at the beautiful and inspiring village called Leveld. The residency was a special opportunity to engage in my work, with nature and different kinds of weather phenomenas, which are unique to this area. This new setting made me think about sounds of nature, the human perception of it and different ways of invading and interfering nature with sound. The village also had a unique historical connection with a very controversial norwegian author, which I started to explore in the residency and will continue now, as a part of the research of the new work in development.

Thank you again for having me, it was a true pleasure!

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Peripheral ARTeries meets

Robert Hamilton Lives and works in Canada

Robert Hamilton, Canadian, is an internationally recognized media artist. He is a Full Professor of Multimedia at McMaster University, Canada. His has a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a second MFA from the Jan Van Eyck Academie in The Netherlands. His research primarily involves digital video, animation and interactive gallery installations. He has been the recipient of ten Canada Council Grants and two Ontario Arts Council grants. Since 1986 Robert Hamilton’s artwork has been presented in numerous international festival, galleries and museums.

His work has exhibited in such venues as Hilversum Museum, The Netherlands 2008, Museum of Contemporary Art in Castello, Spain 2005 and Transmediale in Berlin 2004.

His video work has won awards such as the German Video Art Prize and The Chicago Film Festival Silver Hugo Award.

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

for the way you are developing a more and more distinct visual identity. How does your practice has evolved over these two years and in what direction are you currently addressing your artistic research?

peripheral.arteries@europe.com

Hello Robert and welcome back to Peripheral ARTeries. We already got the chance to introduce our readers to your artworks in a previous edition and we are now particularly pleased to discover the development of your artistic production. The new body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our reader can view at https://roberthamilton.ca has captured our attention

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When I was last interviewed for your magazine I was primarily concerned with surveillance. In one work, General Public Identity, I shot video in public as if I was an authority, documenting crowds and their discomfort of being recorded. I was influenced by the public provocations of Pussy Riot. My current work has taken a

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new direction and addresses isolation. In my own life, isolation has certainly become something I’m increasingly aware of. There’s a fairly clear correlation between people spending more time online and subsequent social isolation it’s a common experience particularly among young people. My sons are experiencing this, so it has personally affected my work. I’ve taught a graduate course in social media in Denmark for several years that addresses online communities and their increasing sophistication in terms of the companies that own the networks. The individual may feel empowered but that’s not the purpose of social media. It may be oversimplifying to state the purpose of social media is the control and monetization of the user, but it’s largely true. How this plays out in public is what I’m interested in. How being constantly online, particularly in public, are we somehow evolving or is something more nefarious transpiring.

For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected Melbourne, an interesting series that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article and that can be viewed at https://roberthamilton.ca/2018/10/31/melbourne. Shot in the CBD of Melbourne, your project has reminded us the notion of non lieu elaborated by French anthropologist Marc Augé, to highlight how we increasingly move through the world in isolation. When walking our readers

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From the Melbourne series

through the genesis of Melbourne, would you tell us what did direct you to explore the theme of isolation in our globalized and media driven contemporary age?

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I was an artist in residence at RMIT University which is located in Melbourne’s CBD. It was my first time in Australia. As with most of my work, I

developed the concept through street photography. Isolation as a theme became apparent in Melbourne metaphorically but also visually with the

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From the Melbourne series

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intense natural light. The sharp, bright sunlight in Melbourne resonated with me, as I was raised in Northern Canada with similar light. It was such an extreme experience, seeing crowds of people, starkly contrasted against dark architecture.

The sunlight created a theatrical intensity that was mesmerizing. Momentary tableaux formed and dissolved with random players, visually suggesting isolation, especially in relation to the gestures and activities of the people. It was an intuitive response to something I saw clearly throughout the CBD. With its essential, almost minimalistic composition Melbourne heavily draws from the minimalistic qualities of its urban environment and we have highly appreciated the way you have created such insightful resonance with the landscapes: how did the choice of the locations affect your shooting process?

Initially it was the intense daylight that led me to specific areas in the CBD. I was drawn to the area around the Finder’s Street Railway Station in particular. There were waves of people regularly spilling out of the Station and on to the neighbouring streets.

I also spent a lot of time circling around crosswalks and sidewalks. Melbourne can be intense – large swaths of people surging through the city in areas such as Queen Victoria Market and Bourke Street. It can really be quite dramatic. These sorts of locations informed my process and led to shooting this series.

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From the Melbourne series

Melbourne seems to convey such a subtle socio-political criticism. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once remarked that "artist’s role differs depending on which

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part of the world they’re in": does your artistic research responds to a particular cultural moment? And how do you consider the role of artists in our

globalized and media driven contemporary age?

I do believe we are of our time and place;

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From the Melbourne series

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From the Melbourne series

how could it be otherwise? If there’s a cultural moment, I think it’s difficult to distinguish ourselves from it. I see myself as being on the periphery – watching,

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reacting. I believe some artists can have a role as a provocateur. I don’t see my work as overtly political, but I do admire the work of Martha Rosler and Hans Haacke

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has particularly impressed us and that we would like to introduce to our readers is entitled The Five Finger Splash and can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/315744145/e0b24b9b72.

The Five Finger Splash is an intense slowmotion video of a recreational dive competition becomes an absurd expression of privilege aboard a halfbillion-dollar cruise ship sailing in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "artist’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 ever-growing audience on topical issues in our globalized and everchanging society?

I don’t usually think of myself as a political artist, but now that you say that, The Five Fingers Splash is in reaction to obscene wealth and disparity.

The Finger Fingers Splash came about while I was researching the culture aboard a Caribbean cruise ship. I didn’t know what to expect but it was quite the spectacle - it was more along the lines of a floating shopping mall, docking in disadvantaged communities in Honduras, Belize and Mexico. There were thousands of people aboard, mostly Americans, seriously overindulging; all-you-can-eat, constant drinking, gambling, and more! I found it offensive. I found myself wondering what it would be like if there were thousands of

for example, or Trevor Paglen. I think of my art as being reactive, responsive.

Another interesting work of yours that

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From the Melbourne series

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artists aboard, probably even more drinking I suppose.

I’m not sure if there’s a responsibility for artists to speak to topical issues. If one is so possessed, certainly, go ahead. I don’t assume to speak for others, I can only react to my immediate world which in itself can be subversive. Perhaps by extension we touch on larger issues, but rarely is that my intention.

We daresay that your current art practice also responds to German photographer Andreas Gursky when he underlined that Art should not be delivering a report on reality, but should be looking at what's behind: how do you consider the relationship between the real and the imagined playing within your artistic process? And what are you hoping The Five Finger Splash will trigger in the audience?

I agree, that’s a great quote. I’m not focused on documenting reality but it’s a starting point. By greatly slowing the moving image, other things become apparent that otherwise might not be visible. The work takes on a meditative quality. The woman is confident and proud of her accomplishment and the spectators are equally enthusiastic. They award her five out five fingers for her splash. It’s an intense moment of celebration which I wanted to explore with my work.

Still from The Five Finger Splash

new personal associations. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order

Marked out with such unique visual identity, your works deeply struck us for the way they incite the viewer to make

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their own conclusions. I really don't want my work to be pedagogical or so specific as to have a singular reading - that would be so limiting. What’s more important, is for my work to have a resonance of some sort with the viewer, that it is impactful - I want that to be the case.

to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood?

I think it is crucial for the viewer to have space to reflect on the work, to come to

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Still from The Five Finger Splash

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Still from The Five Finger Splash

with the audience in a physical is

You are an established artist and over the years your artworks have been showcased in numerous international festivals, galleries and museums, including Hilversum Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art in Castello, Spain and Transmediale in Berlin. Direct relationship

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definitely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm increases:

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work. I feel a bit cynical about social media in general - the horrors of Cambridge Analytica for example, but it definitely plays a part in keeping us informed, staying on top of things – at least within specific communities. Most artists I know are on social media, most galleries and institutions are on social media. There’s a hunger for good work, relevant work, for discussion and information; social media provides platforms for these communities. Further, not everyone lives in a major centre, social media de-centralizes the communication and permits for broader dissemination. I’ve come to think of social media, warts and all, as part of an overall evolution of the digitization of society.

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 again and for sharing your thoughts, Robert.

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 working on a project involving photography and blindness; exploring a mechanism where the act of looking or seeing can stifle the

how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalized audience?

The potential for a larger audience is certainly there. Instagram, for example is increasingly popular and has taken on significant importance in terms of sharing

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

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Catherine Eaton Skinner Catherine Eaton Skinner grew up in the Pacific Northwest surrounded by the fresh and salt waters, majestic mountains, and old growth forests. She received her BA in Biology from Stanford University while simultaneously studying painting with Bay Area Figurative painters Nathan Oliveira and Frank Lobdell. Working 20 years as a biological illustrator, Skinner specialized in the ecological integration of marine invertebrates and algae of the Pacific Coast. She presently divides her time between her studios in Seattle and Santa Fe, working as a multidisciplinary artist: painting, encaustic, photography, printmaking and sculpture.

Skinner’s work has a depth of layers that matches her need to allow a work be beautiful, as well as spiritual. She moves from the simplicity of tantric forms to the complications of grids and multiplicity. Birds move amongst her trees that stretch tall, marking the energy between sky and earth. The five elements – earth, fire, water, air and space - come into play in the actual physicality of her media: beeswax, resin, and oil; stones and metals; lead sheeting, precious metals; cast glass and bronze; textiles and natural dyes; collected old book pages and handmade Himalayan papers.

Skinner’s series give expression to her journeys through many cultures over the years. From ancient time forward, people have journeyed to sacred places; Skinner writes, "We live in a world where it may be difficult to feel a part of the whole, but we continue trying to find ways to connect to place and to each other. By leaving offerings of our own, we connect not only with those who have come before us, but also to those pilgrims yet to come."

Skinner’s monograph, 108, published by Radius Books of Santa Fe, New Mexico, features twelve years of her work in which she pursued a deep investigation of this symbolic sacred number, using repetition in multiple explorations. Her artwork is also included in Art of Discovery, Exploring a Northwest Art Collection, the cover art of Others Will Enter the Gates, and Speak For the Trees. Unleashed, published by the University of Washington Press in conjunction with the Woodland Park Zoo, portrays her passion for animals of this world and her relationship amongst them.

Skinner has had 35 solo exhibitions. Her work has been in numerous group exhibitions in museum and galleries and is placed in multiple private collections. She is currently represented at the Abmeyer + Wood Fine Art in Seattle, Washington; Waterworks Gallery in Friday Harbor, Washington; Art Terra in Bellevue, Washington; and Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, California. Public collections include The University of Washington's Henry Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Museum of Northwest Art, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Swedish Orthopedic Hospital, and the Seattle University’s Seeds of Compassion Collection.

Skinner has been working with encaustic media and oil on panel for over 20 years. Encaustic is derived from the ancient Greek word encaustikos, meaning “to burn.” Molten beeswax is applied with a brush, and layers of colored wax and oil sticks added and fused in multiple layers, intensifying the color and depth of the work. The layers of wax may be transparent or opaque, scraped, incised or built up like sculptural relief. The durability of encaustic is due to the addition of damar resin, making it impervious to moisture, yellowing and darkening. When buffed and cleaned with a soft cloth, encaustic waxes look much like glazed tiles.

An interview by Matthew Anderson, curator and Katherine Williams, curator

Skinner kindly took some time this week to discuss her art and her creative process, and we are particularly pleased to introduce our readers to her unique

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Seattle and Santa Fe artist Catherine Eaton

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craftsmanship that marks her exploration of the power of the natural world with the balance of positive and negative forces.

Hello, Catherine and a warm welcome to this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries.

From a young age you were encouraged to be an artist: how does your early life, as well as your multifaceted cultural substratum and your travels, direct your current artistic research?

Catherine Eaton Skinner: Thank you for inviting me for this interview and as you may see, I split my time between studios in Seattle and Santa Fe, which are very different cultures and landscapes. I grew up in the Northwest with its waters, mountains and forest environment. My sister and I became artists, encouraged by our parents.

I began illustrating for the Biology Department, while getting my Bachelor of Arts and Sciences at Stanford University.

These were the days when one used a Leroy lettering set and coquille pen on Strathmore paper. The San Francisco Bay Area Figurative Movement was in full force.

Drawing class with Frank Lobdell was sumiink, bamboo pen and brush; painting class was oil on canvas with Nathan Oliveira.

Acrylic paints were newly available on the market, but not allowed in class.

My first international travel was six months in Florence for my overseas classes, exposed to museums and traveling “properly”: my suitcase rather than a backpack, straight skirts, pen, ink and watercolors. Fast forward through the years: graduation and marriage; a VISTA volunteer in an African American project in

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