Peripheral ARTeries Art Review March 2015

art

review March 2015

Still from Museum Mile, 2002 (Robert Hamilton)

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March 2015 Jessica Bingham

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My stain soaked canvas hangs effortlessly into billowed and creased forms, functioning in its intended state. Without the use of primer and stretcher bars to secure the paintings shape, the canvas is allowed to relax and soak the paint into its weave.

Anastasiya Labada Uladzislau Buben

My paintings react to the absurd and existential aspects of the human condition. I observe the unshakable loneliness and isolation of human existence and examine human instinct by focusing on the unique relationships my subjects share with the animal

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In my paintings I combined elements of traditional artistic techniques with techniques of contemporary art (installations, graffiti, action painting). This is my way of creating a bridge between past and present, between the moral and spiritual values of the old world and the contemporary world.

Robert Hamilton This short is a reflection on the state of public identity.

Uladzislau Buben and Anastasiya Labada's work effectively combines conceptual soundness and politicised practice, which is in many ways compatible with the contemporary approach to experimentation and at the same time reveals subtle references to a strengthened tradition in conceptual art.

Ecaterina Scorus

Carrie Alter

The video reflects on notions of privacy, identity and memory.

I was curious about how images are captured in public.

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Isabel Becker Her work prompts primal, almost synesthetic reactions and experiences, in which our understanding of language, gender, geography and the faculties through which we process our surroundings are challenged, and we are left to question our confidence our resolute perceptions of the world in which we live.

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Paula Flores

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Through my art I explore the relationship that we create with the universe, these complex necessities that we have as humans with the rest of the universe. How do we display these necessities? In what way do we live to satisfy these evolved needs.

Scott D'Arcy

Elizabeth's work portrays themes that originate in the spiritual character of the mandala and the world of magical fantasy and illusion.

Mandalas are symbolic of the universe and its eternal character, which is to provide symmetry and balance. In much of her work, communication, connection and participation with nature's cosmic world order are inherent themes.

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Margaret Noble My work starts exclusivelywith an idea ofinterest;some seed ofcontext that is neglected,in tensionor resonates as aproblem.

My main drive to make art isa pursuit of truth aroundhow images functionandexsist through a long line ofexperimentation.

I then spend agood deall of time researching my selected topic of interest until I feel that I have something.

Collective notions of beauty and tasteare shared and represented through awide range ofmediums over long periods of history.

David Wilde

Elizabeth Zaikowski

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The process of creating and the presentation of art is a fundamental blessing and encouragement for human society that arises from the artists' ability to open to the primal elements of life's appearances. Feeling the heart of events and finding the freedom to express that in media and terms beyond the distortions of ego is a liberating thing that wakes people up to the natural benevolent vividness of circumstances.

Erin O’Malley “With digital macro photography I have been exploring the interaction of light with transparent and reflective surfaces.

I consider my photography a series of experiments, a process of trial and error that builds upon past succes-ses through the manipulation of variables�

In order to submit your artworks to our art review please contact peripheral_arteries@dr.com http://peripheralarteries.yolasite.com/submit-your-artworks.php

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Jessica Bingham (USA) An artist's statement

My stain soaked canvas hangs effortlessly into billowed and creased forms, functioning in its intended state.

Without the use of primer and stretcher bars to secure the paintings shape, the canvas is allowed to relax and soak the paint into its weave. While I do take the nature of my materials into consideration and construct free flowing forms that emulate a sense of casualness, every detail is intentional. The forms I create are known as three-quarter work; art that is sculptural, but not seen in the round. I am challenged with the benefits and limitations that gravity bares on my forms as I manipulate the canvas into finished pieces.

Although I am expanding into the realm of sculpture and installation, I am first and foremost a painter. I begin each piece flat and paint it as if it were stretched.

Through the creation of both abstract and non-objective paintings, the colors I choose correlate to a conveyed event, surrounding, and emotion. My practice is very intuitive, and rarely do I work in a predetermined mindset. I allow a dialogue between myself and the work. Therefore, the selection, location, and application of color develop naturally as I remember events and places while I paint. These tangible objects refer back to personal events as well as the surroundings in which those occurrences took place. I stimulate parallel sensitivities and vulnerabilities in the viewer. Memories from various moments in my life are used as references in the paintings and influence the canvas’s nontraditional forms, wall placement, and application of color. The dialogue I have created between the work and myself embraces mobility and life’s constant flux.

Jessica Bingham

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Untitled (Falling) Acrylic and Oil Stick on Canvas 90”x52”x33”

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An interview with

Jessica Bingham An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator peripheral_arteries@dr.com

Jessica Bingham's works react to the standardized nature of materials, investigating their expressive and creative potential: while post-non- representational painters as Albert Oehlen reject the traditional ethos of painting, Bingham pushes her exploration to extreme conditions, giving to gravity an apparent creative role... what has first impressed me of her approach is the way she softly subverts the established idea of painting without searching of a contrast, but urging the viewers to rethink to the nature of painting itself: so I'm very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating artistic production. Hello Jessica, and a warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. I would start this interview with my usual introductory question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? By the way, what could be in your opinion the features that mark an artworks as a piece of Contemporary Art? In particular, do you think that there's a dichotomy between tradition and contemporariness?

Hello Dario and thank you for this phenomenal opportunity to share my work.

A work of art can consist of so many components, the creator, the content, aesthetic, materials, etc.

But honestly declaring art as art is a decision made by the artist. The most common example of this is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain; he decided something was art, therefore it became art. That being said, I think that artists are conscious of what they call art and what they don’t. There still has to be standards otherwise everyone would be doing it.

Art should also challenge humanity, be a form of communication, bring people together, and sometimes pull people apart. I think Contemporary

Jessica Bingham

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Jessica Bingham (photo by Nick Goodin)

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Jessica Bingham

Art is doing all of those things, while making us look at the world differently. It is my opinion that Contemporary Art should also stem from curiosity and create questions that will never be answered.

Traditional art is one of the main reasons Contemporary Art exists. Artists began to have a sense of curiosity, which arose from the making of traditional artworks, and resulted in them questioning their art and themselves.

Would you like to tell us something about your background? You are currently pursuing your MFA in painting at the Bradley University and you have studied Drawing and Art History in Florence, Italy: how does these experiences influence you as an artist and on the way you conceive your works?

Many experiences have shaped my artistic pursuits, studying in Italy has just been one. I received my bachelors of art from Monmouth College, a small liberal arts school in the Midwest. Attending Monmouth opened up many doors for me; the academic environment encouraged and cultivated personal growth. The professors and staff, in and outside of the arts, were extremely supportive of my work and goals.

So much so that the day of my graduation was the first day I sold a painting; one of the trustees purchased it and my professors waited until after commencement to inform me.

While at Monmouth, I decided to study abroad in Florence, Italy. This was definitely a monumental time in my studies, art, and adult life. While in Italy I studied figure and cast drawing at Charles H. Cecil Studies; the approach they use at this school is called sight-size. My technical skill transformed and matured so much during those classes, and I truly enjoyed learning in that studio, but I was still captivated by abstract/nonobjective work. I think the intense precision I learned in Italy guided my fluidity in my paintings. I have an appreciation for perfecting my drawings, but I knew I did not want that aesthetic in my paintings; it’s too rigid for me.

After Italy I completed a post-baccalaureate fellowship at Monmouth. This time allowed me to to focus solely on my paintings and work on graduate school applications. I was accepted into Bradley University, which has provided me with numerous resources and

Jessica Bingham

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The Last Bit Acrylic and Oil Stick on Canvas 113”x78”x17”

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A View From Afar Acrylic on Canvas 69”x55”x9”

Jessica Bingham

Jessica Bingham

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the guidance I needed to become a professional.

Although Bradley tends to be a more traditional art school, my painting professor, Heather Brammeier, has supported my decisions to experiment with three- quarter work paintings. Her encouragement and openminded mentality for the arts influenced me to push my content and aesthetic further. I know this body of work will allow for endless years of experimentation and curiosity.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

Yes, of course. My process is very much based on intuition; I rarely have predetermined sketches or studies. I like to let the work influence my decisions, however, many times I do have a specific color in mind. If that is the case, it usually is a reference point from a memory of a place or event in my life. From there the dialogue between myself and the work gradually develops.

Although the end results for my paintings are sculptural, I do begin them all flat. Many times I secure the canvas to the wall, using pushpins to hold it in place, or I simply lay it on the floor. I first want to make a successful flat painting, sort of reassuring myself that I still can. I stain the canvas with paint and water, typically using a spray bottle to defuse the paint and blend it with other colors.

The stains serve as a base for the entire painting.

More opaque and saturated brush marks are laid on top of the stains, as well as oil stick marks and sometimes graphite to create line variety and twodimensional movement.

Once I feel secure in my flat painting, I begin to shape the canvas. When I first began this style of painting I had a more collage-based aesthetic. I used lots of smaller canvas shapes to create one piece, but as I began developing my skill I reduced the amount of canvas I used. I found it satisfying to use one larger piece of canvas and manipulate it to

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Jessica Bingham

August 26th

August 18th

Acrylic and Graphite on Muslin and Canvas

Acrylic and Graphite on Muslin and Canvas

45”x43”x9”

48”x47”x9”

look as if there were multiple layers. Then for the piece to hold its form I sew sections of the canvas together; this secures them enough into a final state, but doesn't restrict movement.

idea of your current artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of these stimulating pieces? What was your initial inspiration?

I do work fairly quickly, which I find beneficial in my practice because I don’t want the work to seem planned out. I want it to have an effortlessness about it.

Working quickly also enables me to work on multiple pieces at once. I have found that if I have a couple pieces started, I can pull ideas from one and expand on them in another, which is actually quite difficult. I don’t want my pieces to look too similar, yet I want them to have a cohesiveness.

Yes, these pieces are extremely personal, they both reference moments that I have shared with my husband, Zach. A View from Afar was one I created while Zach was away at basic training. Our only form of communication was through letters and I felt as if during that time I was viewing his life through his written words.

Constantly thinking about the distance between us actually heightened personal connection to my work, serving to connect me to him through creating.

There is a small pocket in this piece (not visible from the front) in which I had created a smaller painting. This existed almost as portal, perhaps connecting me to him.

The Last Bit is another piece created in that time frame. I was focusing on the amount of days we had left until he returned home, and I knew I wanted to make this a monumental

Now let's focus on your art production: I would start with A View from Afar and The Last Bit, an interesting couple of works that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to visit http:// jbingha6.wix.com in order to get a wider

Jessica Bingham

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May 6th Acrylic on Canvas 80”x60”x8”

painting. It is one piece of canvas that falls into a clasped gathering in the lower right side and then swoops up to meet again in the upper right side. The negative space inbetween the left and right side signify a near connection among people. I wanted the space to be narrow, the movement to feel heavy, and the colors to be luminescent giving a sense of anticipation and eagerness.

I have appreciated the way you have given life to an effective symbiosis between elements from different techniques, manipulating language and recontextualizing images and concepts: while crossing the borders of different

artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

Thank you, I’m glad you brought this up. In fact I do think a synergy between painting and sculpture is necessary for my results.

When I began this form of painting I really needed a challenge, I wanted to be fascinated with my work and was eager for a change. I had been working flat with limited color and didn't feel like my work was saying all I needed it to say. The overlap of disciples connected me more to my process and enhanced my content.

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Jessica Bingham

Leaving Acrylic on Canvas 70�x56�x10�

Pulling ideas from different artistic fields enables me to express my content more vividly; I am not only able to use color and light, but also tactile form. The shapes I construct are just as important as the colors I choose; they communicate actual movement that is very much so referenced from personal moments. Leaving certainly captures a sense of movement that I don't think would have been as successful if it were a flat piece. That painting summarized my return home from Italy; I felt gloomy that day, and tense. The reflection of those emotions, a sense of loss almost, swayed my process in more ways than I realized at the time of production. The

taught strands of canvas in the center keep the form in place; perhaps a lifeline to those experiences from four years ago.

Closer is another piece that engages various disciplines. The placement of the two forms was crucial to what I was conveying. Like with May 6th, this piece is alluding to distance. The gap between myself and a loved one was the motive; therefore the negative space separating the circular painting and the floor painting was essential for this piece to work.

I find it absolutely fascinating the way you subvert traditional painting heritage, enlightening the intrinsically sculptural

Jessica Bingham

Closer Acrylic and Oil Stick on Canvas 63”x83”x24”

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Jessica Bingham

features of a canvas and I daresay that your works investigate about the concept of human experience, as well as the impossibility of a description that could prescind from personal memories, especially from everyday situations, which plays the role of such an inertial system of reference... The titles of your works often recall some particular days as August 26th and August 18th, so I would like to ask you if in your opinion personal experience from real world is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

I think it is difficult to make work if you ignore or try to eliminate personal life. The act of making art comes from within, artists have a desire to make and many have a need to communicate their life. It would be extremely difficult for me to create if I omitted my personal experiences. I am not saying I wouldn't be able to paint, but I think I would not connect to my work as much as I currently do. While I reference personal experiences in many of my paintings, some of them do not have a concrete idea. Instead they may stem from my environment, my surroundings, or grow from pervious ideas.

While I did have exact details for August 18th and August 26th, not every painting I make has to be that specific. For instance, I recently have been titling many of my pieces Untitled.

Sometimes I don’t have a distinct motive for creating a piece besides the fact that I need to. Furthermore, I have not allowed enough time between creating and observing the work to understand it completely. In my studio I am many times just sitting and looking at the piece, trying to wrap my head around what I just made. This time may or may not result in comprehension of the painting. I could not have made the piece without some form of direct experience, whether that is aware to me at the time, or something that develops later on. I don't think artists always know

exactly why they create what they do, but I do think the creative process is connected to our lives in one form or another.

Another interesting pieces of yours that have impressed on me and on which I would like to spend some words are Untitled (Falling) and December Morning: in particular, I have been struck with the intensely thoughtful nuances of tones that seem to create a prelude to the light that springs from your work... This has suggested me a sense of dramatic -and I would daresay "oneiric"- luminosity that seems to flow out of these canvas that communicates such a tactile sensation... to by the way, any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

Creating a sense of luminosity is crucial to this work. I want some colors to be airy and almost translucent, while others are opaque and heavy. Since they are based on memories and experiences with places, people, and my surroundings, I think it is safe to say they are oneiric in nature. Some of the paintings are abstracted from what I remember seeing/experiencing, while others simply reference an emotional state from a certain time. Therefore, many of my color choices come from memory. Sometimes the color palette is abstracted from a specific place, and other times the palette is a reflection of my mood as I think back.

More recently though I have been experimenting with monochromatic palettes.

This decision has brought about a new set of challenges, such as the varying saturation with one piece, the intricacy of the forms, value shifts caused by the forms shadows, presentation, and lighting.

While I am still very much invested in the color palette, I am considering a more minimal approach in order to bring attention to other complexities within my work.

Jessica Bingham

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December Morning Acrylic on Canvas 30”x52”x8”

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Jessica Bingham

Virescent

Cyan

Acrylic on Canvas with Blue & Green Lights

Acrylic on Canvas with Blue & Green Lights

44”x25”x16”

20”x30”x22”

As you have remarked in your artist's statement, you construct free flowing forms that emulate a sense of casualness, but every detail is intentional: I daresay that you offer such an Ariadne's thread to the viewers, forcing them to investigate about the nature of the work of art itself... in this sense, your approach has reminded me the way the German artist Albert Oehlen attacks art in order to discover not only its weak points, but also the creative potential... This aspect of your work has suggested me the concept that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them.

Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

potential within my art and myself. I enjoy the process of manipulating the canvas to be shaped how I see best for the piece. I find that I spend a lot of time looking at the piece and observing how it reacts to the way I have shaped it. If a piece begins to fall out of place or bend in a different direction I incorporate that into the final form.

The decisions I make are definitely intended to seem effortless. While the process is not easy, if I can make it seem as if it were, then I think I made a successful piece. I wouldn't go as far as to say I ‘attack’ the art in order to discover its weak points, but rather I interact with the materials in order to bring about the creative

While I don't necessarily think that I have hidden or encrypted ideas and information into the pieces, I do think artists reveal unexpected responses within the viewers.

Oscar Wilde wrote “It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors,” solidifying to me that art triggers a personal response.

Essentially the content within my work can only fully reach me, leaving my viewers to form their own ideas about the piece. Only their experiences can help them decipher a work of art.

Besides producing your stimulating artworks, you have also gained a wide experience as an assistant teacher: have you ever happened to draw inspiration from the works of your students? By the

Jessica Bingham

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Nephrite Acrylic on Canvas with Green Light 33”x23”x20”

way, I sometimes I wonder if a certain kind of formal training could even stifle a young artist's creativity... what's your point?

Yes, I have, yet this experience is still fairly new to me. I am currently teaching my own painting classes and I would say I am quite inspired by their motivation and participation in the classroom. I have not yet pulled inspiration artistically, or at least not that I have noticed, but I am sure as I continue to teach I will see bits of their aesthetic working into my pieces.

I understand that sort of concern when it comes to a young artist’s formal training, but

how fantastic is it to be surrounded by those who excel in this field. I have found that all of my professors have truly expressed interest in my work and have been a breadth of knowledge. It was extremely important for me to be around professional artists during my undergraduate years. I grew up around them, which guided and influenced my art career. I also think that being in the academic setting allows young artists to see all the possibilities this field has to offer. They gain an understanding that studio arts is not the only path, but there are gallery directors, professors, artist assistances, historians, etc.

The academic setting did not stifle my

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Jessica Bingham

creativity, in fact I think it expanded my mind and informed my practice. Like I said before, it is a beautiful thing to be surrounded by serious artists. Knowing that they all completed their MFA, continued to make work, and were exhibiting was a huge motivation for me. The questions that were raised during critiques guided my work and my practice. One of the most important critiques I had in undergrad was focused on whether or not I needed to stretch my paintings. Two of my professors were arguing over this issue, I just listened. A couple months ago at one of my art openings, the professor who was in favor of stretchers came up to me and said ‘you won.’ He finally agreed that there was no need for a stretcher in my work. Their concern and support for my work really made a difference in how I viewed myself and my work.

During these years your work has been shown in several exhibitions and you have been awarded as well... it goes without saying that feedbacks are capable of providing an artist of an important support, which is for sure not absolutely indispensable, but that can stimulate to keep on with Art: I was just wondering if the expectation of positive feedback could even influence the process of an artist... how important is it for you to receive feedback from your audience? Do you ever think to whom will enjoy your Art when you conceive your pieces?

Sure, positive feedback can influence an artist; it doesn’t hurt the process and can be a motivation. Yet that should not, and absolutely can not be the only reason artists make.

Positive feedback should never be expected, it should be earned and if an artist is always receiving positive feedback, are they really improving?

It is important to me when I receive feedback from my audience, I think it is important to many artists. The feedback, whether positive or negative, is something I pay attention to. I want to make work that is successful and challenges

the viewers to think beyond what they know is a painting. However, many times I hear ‘its cool’ or ‘I like it.’ Those sort of responses don’t feed me, they are kind and simple, but rarely do I mull over those comments. For me it is the ‘what if’ questions that influence me. I am truly honored when a viewer begins to ask questions of their own. That means they have been engaged with the piece, and I have done my job.

When I begin to make a painting I am most concerned with whether or not I will enjoy it. That may sound selfish, but I want to be excited about the work I create. I spend the most time with it, I might as like it. As the piece develops I then begin to think about the space I would like to see it in, which almost dictates who will be enjoying it. Just like exhibition spaces differ, so do the people who gather within. The context in which the work will be seen can many times determine who the audience will be, so to me it simply depends on where the work will be viewed.

Thanks a lot for your time and your thoughts, Jessica. My last question deals with your future plans: how do you see your work evolving? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

Of course, this has been such an honor. I truly appreciate your time and thought provoking questions. As for my future plans, I will be graduating from Bradley’s MFA program in May 2016 and will continue developing my artistic path. I would eventually like to teach painting at the collegiate level , but may hold off for a bit in order to develop further as an artist, without the academic structure. As far as my work is concerned, it will progressively change in result of my curiosity. I am currently experimenting with colored lights and have noticed my work is becoming more and more minimal. Not sure where this will take me, but I am enjoying the process. an interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator peripheral_arteries@dr.com

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Untitled (Standing) Acrylic on Canvas 86”x50”x12”

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Carrie Alter (USA) An artist's statement

My paintings react to the absurd and existential aspects of the human condition. I observe the unshakable loneliness and isolation of human existence and examine human instinct by focusing on the unique relationships my subjects share with the animal within. These investigations help me document the results of human interactions and internal struggles. It is my belief that we choose to fight, ignore, give in to, or become one with, the animal within.

My subjects are often isolated in composition and aggressively rendered to confront the viewer with an interpretation unique to the beholder’s own secluded life experience. I question how we relate to and form systems of belief, which ultimately fabricate our illusions of self.

Philosopher Martin Heidegger described human existence as a process of perpetually falling. He wrote that it is the responsibility of each individual to catch themselves from their own uncertainty. I relate this unsettling prognosis to our life-long struggle with our animal within. Studying human instinct, I describe existence as a process of taming our metaphysical bite, augmenting Heidegger’s idea of the perpetual fall with the equally unsettling motif of the caged animal. In the painting series, described below, I paint my subjects in motionless compositions suggesting the ubiquity of our incarcerated emptiness. I believe it is the eternal cages we are born within that set the boundaries of our condition and create the illusion of freedom.

Carrie Alter

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They Bite: Alyson’s World oil on canvas 30”x30”

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An interview with

Carrie Alter An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator peripheral_arteries@dr.com

Carrie Alter's paintings react to the absurd and existential aspects of the human condition: through her eyes, we see the world as a kaleidoscope: things we thought to know for sure, and whose significance we took for granted, unexpectedly change and turn out to be the exact opposite of what we believed them to be. From a penetrating view of the isolation of human existence, she draws her creative perception, producing a stimulating array of apparently absurd and sometimes grotesque figures, which give sensual and even spiritual experiences in intense colors...

Hello Carrie, and a warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. I would start this interview with my usual introductory question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? By the way, what could be in your opinion the features that mark an artworks as a piece of Contemporary Art? In particular, do you think that there's a dichotomy between tradition and contemporariness?

Thank you for having me and for the thoughtful introduction of my work.

When asked your “usual introductory question” I tend to answer with a question. Sure I have an opinion that likely has been influenced by my own upbringing and conditioning which sculpted my aesthetic value and affected the way I see the world, objects and “art”…

However I feel my answer is simpler when it lives inside the reversed question of, “what I do not define as art”.

Life is art, people are art, nature is art, objects and stereotypical art artifacts are art…When I stand before a painting in which I may define as breathtaking, I feel my heart beat slightly faster, am aware of my breath and completely lose track of time. The same thing happens when a song comes on that perfectly fits the mood I’m in.

I guess for me, I could answer your question by saying, I define a work of art through a physical reaction or an experience I have with it?

Carrie Alter

Barbara Bervoets

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Carrie Alter

As for contemporary art, it allows for a broad interpretation of features, materials and mediums. I feel that contemporary art must, or at least tend to, include both aesthetic and conceptual resolutions whereas most (absolutely not all) of “traditional” art focuses on what’s going on in the world at the time or mere aesthetic beauty. Without traditionally art we lose a certain visual documentation of our history and therefore I admire those still creating such works today. There is not such an extreme dichotomy between “contemporary” and “traditional” art. Artists thrive on art history and being aware of the history has advantages. For instance techniques for capturing light within a painting can be scene in photography and video art. Some of the best video artists I know use their imagery in ways that allow the viewer to feel as if they are watching a moving painting. Therefore, I would say that there is more of a contrast in medium than in style.

Would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and among the others, you hold a MFA in 2000 at UNC-Chapel Hill, I would like to ask you how formal training has influenced your development as an artist and the way you currently produce your artworks.

I am the oldest of four girls all born within five years. We were a musical performance group called “The Alter Girls”. I met my first creative mentor when I was 5 years old. Katerina was my music teacher. She was young, ambitious, passionate, nurturing and beautiful. She taught me piano and voice. When I was 10 years old we started performing all over Florida. Though music I found a passion and thought I would be doing that for the rest of my life. When I was 12 years old she was tragically killed. I will never forget her. Losing her was a deeply painful experience and I stopped singing. Shorty after her passing I found myself drawing which lead to graffiti art and then to painting on canvas. I learned a new way to “sing”. Painting gives me

my voice now but she taught me that there are many ways to sing.

In 1998, I received my BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design, in Sarasota, Florida.

Before Ringling I was immersed primarily in the graffiti art scene of Miami Beach, Florida. The traditional training I was exposed to in my foundational undergraduate years was highly informative. The first two years in the Ringling College of Art’s fine arts program was intensely focused on traditional techniques and the elements of art. The second two years is run much like a graduate program, providing dedicated studio space and focusing on crossdisciplinary creative exploration. As well as a thesis type program where we focused on our individual disciplines. I was fortunate to have Leslie Lerner as a painting mentor. Sadly, he passed away too but I will always hear his voice in my head. His words and constructive criticism lent me great motivation. In those years I also experimented with performance and installation art on multiple levels and with different people. Since my undergraduate years, I have only formally collaborated once, this time on a much smaller scale, for a show where artists worked in teams and manipulated kitschy thrift store paintings. It felt natural to work collaboratively again and I feel more collaborative work will come.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

I have a home studio but feel as though the world is a studio for artists. There are advantages and disadvantages to having a home studio. One of the advantages is that I can fill my space with my collections. I collect oddities, dolls, toys, bones, teeth, taxidermy, and patterned material… I love the freedom of moving furniture, setting up small inspiring

Carrie Alter

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They Bite Because They Are Alive Like a caged animal or a starving newborn, sometimes we bite to feel human, to nurture ourselves, to protect, or in an uncontrollable craze. As a painter, my bite is released in my aggressive and textural marks. As a mother and observer, I often paint witnessed moments and react to interpretative narratives of my children. There is no better subject than the child, as his or her animal and cage are in primal maturity, transparent yet intrinsically developing. I became one with my animal within while painting my children and relatives in these states of primal transparency. My series They Bite Because They Are Alive speaks to these observations. These paintings seek out details in the patterns and cycles of empirical and theoretical life experiences. The images are ominous reminders of our own vulnerability.

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Carrie Alter

still-life’s and getting messy. The entire upstairs of my home is my studio. My process unfolds as I enter my studio. Every morning I spend from 20 minutes to endless hours up there depending on my work schedule. It is meditative for me to drink my coffee and just sit with a notebook.

Most important is the time I take to just look around at all my objects and works in progress.

Taking the time to look and slow down is an essential part of my process. I document my thoughts and ideas or write bizarre (very) short stories. Sometimes I’ll just write down a morning stream of consciousness. This morning ritual sets me up for making artwork. I always begin with a drawing knowing that the drawing can and usually does change drastically during the painting process.

Now let's focus on your art production: I would start with They Bite Because They Are Alive, an interesting series that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to visit http://carriealter.com in order to get a wider idea of your current artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this stimulating project? What was your initial inspiration?

That series came out of uncertainty and pure fear. The year I began working on They Bite Because They Are Alive, I was diagnosed with Mixed Connected Tissue Disease (MCTD), an autoimmune disease that effects the connected tissue around the muscles. You can’t “see” it and most who know me would be surprised that I deal with any life threatening disease. In order to stabilize the progression, I had to change my diet and restrict chemicals from entering my bloodstream. Limiting meat and cutting dairy, flour, salt and sugar was hard enough but changing the way I painted was the most difficult. I used to use turpentine, mineral spirits and damar varnish with my oil paint, not any more. During that series, I was “biting” back to stay alive, ha! I struggled with my animal within and found that I did not need the extra

They Bite: Drawing with Demons oil on canvas 24”x18”

chemicals. I now use Safflower, Walnut and Linseed oil without my “fancy” chemical companions. I learned that we all are dealing with demons and an animal within. It is indeed our job to become one with that animal. It took a diagnosis to help me realize this and that series speaks to my struggles. As a result, “They Bite Because They Are Alive,” visually describes what I call “the metaphysical bite”: Like a caged animal or a starving newborn, sometimes we bite to feel human, to nurture ourselves, to protect, or in an uncontrollable craze.

The paintings from this series, as Drawing with Demons and Guns and Birds through an effective juxtaposition between the delicate innocence and the aggressiveness clearly

Barbara Bervoets

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They Bite: Guns and Birds oil on canvas 18”x14”

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Carrie Alter

reveals the subtle symbiosis between these apparently opposite features... I find absolutely fascinating the way you subvert traditional portraiture heritage and I daresay that your works investigate about the concept of human experience, in a sense that goes beyond the mere idea of emotional involvement: I would go as far as to state that in Love and Because they're alive you explorate the unexpected implications of experience itself, the impossibility of a description that could prescind from everyday life which plays the role of an inertial system of reference... So I would like to ask you if in your opinion personal experience from real world is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process...

Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

I do not believe and cannot imagine that the creative process could be disconnected or absolutely unrelated to real world experience.

Even if I were to paint a rock, it would come from my experience with or impressions of a rock and furthermore it would be drawn or painted with my mark. We all have a “mark” that is ours. If used with pure honesty that mark will describe our experiences and our “being”.

Now that you know a little more about where that series came from, I can elaborate further on the mentioned paintings. I am the mother of two little boys. After my diagnosis I feared my time would be cut short so I studying them more intensely than before. I wanted to see them grow and take advantage of my experiences with them. When I watched them draw they looked innocent and seemed relaxed much like what I remember feeling like when I was a kid, there is no better subject than the child because his or her animal, demon and/or cage are in primal maturity, transparent yet intrinsically developing. They were completely unaware of their struggles within but that is the beauty of the innocent and that is the concept behind Drawing with Demons. When my younger, animal loving son picked up a stick outside and held it like a gun I could not help but question the inherent gestures of our sex. I

They Bite: LOVE oil on acrylic on canvas, 24”x18”

would blame the American media’s influence however; at that time my children had little influences outside of books. As a little girl, I do not remember holding objects as if they were weapons. He didn’t even know what a gun was?

That is how Guns and Birds came to be. By the way, I know longer believe my time will be cut short. My disease is under control and I feel blessed to have experienced the type of life challenge that everyone eventually faces, the type of ultimate experience that forces one to ask the “big” philosophical questions. It woke me up and forced me to stop taking life forgranted.

Barbara Bervoets

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Carrie Alter

NOT THIS DOLL

STRINGS

oil on canvas, 60"x36"

oil on canvas 60"x36"

Another interesting piece of yours that had an impression on me and on which I would like to spend some words are Not This Doll, Nadja's Youth and Strings: in particular, I have been struck with the intensely thoughtful nuances of tones that, on a dark background, seem to create a prelude to the light... This has suggested me a sense of dramatic -and I would daresay "oniric"luminosity that seems to flow out of these canvas that communicates such a tactile sensation... to by the way, any comments on

your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

My palette is probably the most intuitive part of my process. I never see my paintings in color when I visualize them in my head and they begin in a monochromatic drawing form. I get equally as lost in the mixing process as I do the painting process. Perhaps by formal educational training comes into play but I just feel my way through my palettes and mix what feels right at

Carrie Alter

Nadja's Youth oil on canvas 60"x36"

the time. Strings is about the ties we have with our family. My father is an amazing man. He was a hard and strict father but also incredibly loving. His charm, imagination, quick wit and playful traits mixed with the businessman he is, make him quite the character. Take a moment and please imagine a businessman…good. Now trade in his suit for a loud yellow leather jacket with arm fringes and put a hat on that, that’s my dad. He is the bear in this painting, a panda yes, but a panda is still a bear. Nadja’s Youth

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further questions our internal cages and our pre-pubescent innocence. There are little toy soldiers hidden in the green. Nadja is a muse, typically a man’s muse but here she is mine.

She is free and one with the sky, walking in deep thoughts of maturity yet still unaware of the dangers that come with being a muse. I wanted to feel like she feels yet I could only create her world, not penetrate it. Not This Doll is much more straightforward. My son wanted a doll and why shouldn’t he have a doll?

Once he got one he held it close and protected it from the playful battle scenes he created with other toys. His doll was always safe hence, Not This Doll. He even brought it to kindergarten which made my husband and I nervous about how he would be treated however it turns out that all the girls wanted to play house with him.

He came home happy. My children often come into my studio and pose for me. Sometimes while they are sitting I’ll give them a lollypop but mostly just enjoy talking or telling jokes. In fact, the feet on the swing in Strings are my son’s feet. He even let me tape his feet to the chair to hold them just right, his idea! And the series title, They Bite Because They Are Alive came from my other son during a sitting. I said, look around and tell my what you see.

What do my paintings have in common? I needed a title for a show and a statement. He said, “They are biting”. I asked why are they biting and he said, “They are biting because they are alive”! I gave him a biggest hug!!!

I have to admit that the first impressions that I received from your thryptic Sleep Marks are the same that I happened to experience on the very first time that I had the chance to admire Daniel Richter's pieces years ago... I definitely love your intriguing exploration of human body, in such a way that goes beyond the stereotypes of beauty and that I daresay that questions the idea of beauty itself...

This aspect of your work has suggested me the concept that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a wayto decipher them. Maybe that one of the

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Carrie Alter

roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

I agree that one of the roles of an artist is to reveal unexpected sides of Nature; especially of our inner Nature…again I feel this “encryption” lives within the individual artist mark hence the importance of honesty within our mark making.

Many of my backgrounds include free brushstrokes that release my pure honesty and though slightly tighter within the subject, they live there as well. Comparing my work to Daniel Ritcher is quite the compliment! In his work I see a glorious push-pull play between play and battle. His dark and colorful palette mixed into corrupt imagery, evokes movement in such a unique way, it compliments dreamlike dilemmas. Most of my work is formatted in the stillness of the frame however my series Sleep Marks brings movement into play. All these paintings show my children in bed. I try to capture the push-pull internal nighttime battles both within them and my internal conflicts of being a mother and an artist as the silent roars of “existence meeting motherhood” have been hard to deny: The mother in me frequently battles the artist in me, which has become a personal labor. Studio time usually comes after one of the many nights of internal conflict: I should have kissed them good night, read them another book, relaxed with them, been more patient, hugged them after school, answered their questions differently, paid more attention to them…I leave my studio only to find them already involved with their dream life.††I stand in the doorway like a deer in headlights and yet an involuntary smile helps disguise and comfort my maternal regret--there is nothing like a sleeping child -†I avoid collision -†I’ll be an artist tonight and a mother tomorrow.

I would like that you elaborate for our readers the concept of jocular macabre that you have mentioned in your artist's statement: this concept has reminded me of Yoshitomo Nara's pieces, and the way he established such a dreamlike tension between innocence and aggressiveness...

SLEEP MARKS 2 oil, hair and cut plastic tablecloth on canvas, 30"x30"

I am a long time admirer of Yoshitomo Nara! His little girls and Henry Darger’s work had a huge influence on my graduate studies, thank you for bringing him up! I can’t get away from the playful yet disturbing way I see and experience the world therefore I coined the “Jocular Macabre” as a personality trait that I feel all my work naturally exhibits and I also tend to display within my own social interactions. I walk the line of in appropriations. Sometimes I sit in social environments and document strangers engaged in conversation. I also have been known to sit in a bathroom stall and record conversations. The results of my voyeuristic research into human interactions inspire humorous narratives and reveal complex layers of dramatic emotions taken out of context and very jocular in the macabre. I take these experiences back to my studio. They often reflect concepts of duality I describe as cagelike masks of identity. Visually, I’ve been expressing this masking concept in the anthropomorphic imagery seen in my “Deer

Carrie Alter

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The mother in me frequently battles the artist in me, which has become a personal labor. Studio time usual comes after one of the many nights of internal conflict: I should have kissed them good night, read them another book, relaxed with them, been more patient, hugged them after school, answered their questions differently, paid more attention to them…I leave my studio only to find them already involved with their dream life. I stand in the doorway like a deer in headlights and yet an involuntary smile helps disguise and comfort my maternal regret--there is nothing like a sleeping child. I avoid collision. I’ll be an artist tonight and a mother tomorrow.

The silent roars of “existence meeting motherhood” have been hard to deny. The “jocular macabre” within all my work reveals the primal qualities of the human condition and the absurd, precarious relationship formed with our animal instinct.

Peripheral ARTeries

Carrie Alter

Deer Diary oil on canvas, 30"x24"

Diary” series of mixed media paintings and recent sculpture which I have provided images of.

Besides producing your stimulating artworks, you have also gained a wide experience as a teacher: have you ever happened to draw inspiration from the works of your students? By the way, I sometimes I wonder if a certain kind of formal training could even stifle a young artist's creativity... what's your point?

There is nothing more rewarding or more inspiring than being a teacher. Seeing that “light” go off in a students eyes when they begin to “see” the world through their artist within keeps me alive. Watching students get over the fear of their mark and find passion

gives me energy to leave the classroom and enter my studio even after a long days work. As I hope to be a mother to my children as my mother is and always was to me, I hope to be a mentor as amazing as my art mentors were and continue to be for me. I began my graduate studies as an abstract artist painting collage like compositions via abstracting car parts. Elin Slavick, one of UNC Chapel Hill’s finest professors of art introduced me to a whole new way of being an artist. As a member of my thesis committee she helped me find me by asking questions that evoked critical thinking and self-investigations. With her help my graduate studies brought me to new levels of conceptuality. I learned that I good teacher does more than teach, he/she needs to ask questions and above all, really listen. It was at UNC - Chapel Hill that I realized I wanted to do for others what all my great mentors did for me and have been teaching art ever since. Of course a certain kind of training can stifle young artists and I do not believe formal training is for everyone. However it was exactly what I needed at that time in my life. Timing is key.

For the past three summers I have also had the great pleasure of teaching Western Philosophy to gifted 11th graders in NC through the NC Governor’s School. These students are hand picked and choose to spend their summer learning. The main branches of philosophy cross all disciplines and the subject has always been a passion of mine, which I layer into my art lessons. This is the first summer that I will not be teaching at the NC Governor’s School as I will be attending the Vermont Studio Center summer residency, an experience I am looking forward to.

During these years your work has been intensively shown all over the United States and is part of private and public collections... it goes without saying that feedbacks are capable of providing an artist of an important support, which is for sure not absolutely indespensable, but that can stimulate to keep on with Art: I was just wondering if the expectation of positive feedback could even influence the process of

Barbara Bervoets

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Deer Diary: sculpture bendable mannequin, sock, taxidermy and synthetic grass 24"x24"x8"

an artist... how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? Do you ever think to whom will enjoy your Art when you conceive your pieces?

Feedback is important however it’s the constructive criticism that artists need. Of course I enjoy receiving positive feedback as well but when someone enters my studio and has something other than compliments to say, I hold their words and reflect on their thoughts, which inspire critical thinking. In the end or perhaps the beginning, I don’t conscientiously make-work for an audience and know that just as a certain kind of art training is not for everyone, not everyone will “like” what I do.

I teach foundation courses at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC and put a heavy weight on the importance of critiquing and becoming an active participate of art through epistemological investigations of language. I ask students to instead of spending time looking at works they are attracted to - to spend time with works they struggle with. I want them to put into words why they “don’t like” something and more often than not, if the time is spend really looking they come away with some sort of articulated appreciation even if they still “don’t Like” it.

Thanks a lot for your time and your thoughts, Carrie. My last question deals with your future plans: how do you see your work evolving? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

2015 has already been quite thrilling. I just received notification that Crisolart Galleries in Barcelona, Spain selected me from the artists who submitted to the T.I.N.A Prize, check it out: http://berlin.tinaprize.com/1/ I am talking to them and awaiting further detail, very exciting! Between January and February, I have shown work in four different states (see CV at http://carriealter.com/cv.html) and will have a piece at the National Association of Women’s Art, NAWA Gallery in NYC this April. In June, my artist

son of a bitch (artist) oil on canvas, 24”x18”

friend, George Jenne and I have a two-person show at LUMP Gallery in Raleigh, NC and I have a solo show at Artspace in Raleigh, NC this December. With a few other small exhibitions in between, I will also be included in a three-person show at Minian Gallery in Los Angeles, CA March of 2016. So I better get to my studioJ But before I do, thank you again for taking the time to interview me and for all your thoughtful questions.

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator peripheral_arteries@dr.com

Pearls oil on canvas, 48”x30”

Photo by Uladzimir Banko

Anastasiya Labada Uladzislau Buben

PeripheralARTeries

An interview with

Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben One of the features of Uladzislau Buben and Anastasiya Labada's work that at soon impacted on me is the way they effectively combine conceptual soundness and politicised practice, which is in many ways compatible with the contemporary approach to experimentation and at the same time reveals subtle references to a strengthened tradition in conceptual art. In particular, the short film entitled Totalitarian Shapes that we'll be discussing in the following pages, condenses the permanent flow of the perceptions of objects and the events related to them, questioning their inner nature in the socio politic context they are placed in. Hello Uladzislau and Anastasiya, and a very warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? Are there any experiences that has particularly influenced you as an artist and on the way you currently conceive your works?

Anastasiya Labada: First of all, we are not professional artists, musicians or filmmakers. We consider ourselves amateurs. It is probably life itself that makes each of us grab a camera or a musical instruments – whatsoever, everything is accessible now. Living in a post-Soviet country that suffered greatly during World War two and harsh totalitarian and authoritarian regimes has implied a sort of national trauma. We have not experienced so much during our lives, but the genetics transmit a lot of traumatized experience. The future is also uncertain. In this case, art is a kind of therapy for us – the opportunity to express and reveal the subconscious we live with.

Uladzislau Buben: My early youth coincides with the last years and eventually the fall of the Soviet

Ualdzislau Buben and Anastasiya Labada

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Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben

Union as well as the 1990s – the period of unlimited freedom, as we felt it then, after so many years of suppression and strict regulations. I felt I could do whatever I wanted and I am grateful to my parents they did not mind that. I became dj when I was 15 and later started to compose my own electronic music. I was not shy about expressing myself in other arts either. Earlier the totalitarian school system played back on me: I studied at an art school and I liked it very much.

Sometime later it revealed that I was colour blind, so I was disqualified, but as a young independent person I started to paint and take part in professional high status exhibitions. Then I started to make films and I am convinced that whatever you do and whatever is pleasant and interesting for others (or even provocative) is a good piece of art.

Anastasiya Labada: Uladzislau is really inspiring to me in this kind of thinking. When we met, I had put my talents on the shelf long time ago. Consider studying at a music school for 8 years and playing piano and the violin as well as composing music. Uladzislau thought we should use it.

We are a married couple and for us the common artistic production is part of our family life (together with our 4 year-old son – can I really be that personal in this interview?)

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

Uladzislau Buben: First there is a concept.

Anastasiya Labada: And it usually belongs to Uladzislau, he generates the ideas.

Uladzislau Buben: Well, yes. I generate too many of them and I am grateful to Anastasiya that she supports some of them. To come back to the artistic process, we secondly look into the materials and instruments we have. Most professional photographers and film makers admit that the type of camera does not matter, it is the idea that does. So we fully support this kind of view. Thirdly, after making some production – filming, music, paintings or graphics, - I look into how I can present it. I often use the

Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben

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Photo by Uladzimir Banko

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Photo by Uladzimir Banko

Barbara Bervoets

Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben

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Photo by Uladzimir Banko

Photo by Uladzimir Banko

combination of different art media, which tends to be successful. For instance, the so called video poetry that I made with a bunch of young Belarusian poets was appreciated.

Anastasiya Labada: We usually put as much time as we can considering other things we do, including our jobs and household chores. In Belarus one cannot make living on art, so we do a bunch of things at a time. You really become multifunctional, both in everyday life and in art.

words would hardly reveal the whole atmosphere of living with the totalitarian past (and present?). Uladzislau’s idea to include the sounds of the city as we perceived and performed by the musicians Knyaz Myshkin and Uladzislau Buben himself was the idea that aimed at creating more perception channels for the audience.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Totalitarian Shapes , an extremely interesting work that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit directly at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNyhcXg QwS8 in order to get a wider idea of it. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project?

What was your initial inspiration?

Anastasiya Labada: Even though the totalitarian epoch has passed, we still live surrounded by the classic “Stalinist” architecture and broad avenues. The modern buildings have not become much different, mainly gray and unstylishly pompous. But these

Uladzislau Buben: It is important to point out that the music played at a concert at the Trade Union Palace is improvisation. Improvisation is capable of revealing the feelings and perception of the concrete place and time, which was the case for this Neoclassicism building as well.

In Totalitarian Shapes I can recognize a subtle but effective investigation about the emerging of language due to an extreme experimentation, and what has particularly impressed me of your is the way you have been capable of bringing a new level of significance to objects, as the iconic buildings in Minsk, re-contextualizing the concepts behind them: and I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense your works force the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive not

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Barbara Bervoets

Barbara Bervoets

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A still from Totalitarian shapes

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Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben

Photos by Mikalai Kryvaltsevich from Chernobyl zone

only the outside world, but our inner dimension... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a wayto decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

Anastasiya Labada: This is really so. Very much is hidden behind the faรงade and revelation is a matter of the in-depth investigation. To give you a concrete example,

I sometimes guide foreign guests around Minsk.

What they usually see and notice is the classic and pompous architecture, nice and beautiful in a way, as they say.

They are impressed by the broad and clean avenues as well as the greenery. I personally try to make them see more behind it. Who decided to build it like that and why? The Stalin regime that wanted to unify and to build the new destroying what has not been bombed in World War Two. But I feel that transmitting this information with the help of mere words is impossible. I do not want to impose my point of view on the

Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben

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Photos by Mikalai Kryvaltsevich from Chernobyl zone

tourists. I just want to tell the story as I see it.

The project Totalitarian Shapes comes closer to creating the new language of expression where the viewer is welcome to create his or her own impression.

Uladzislau Buben: The objects that surround us do involve the hidden information. Yet there is no scientific method to study and trace the influence the environment makes on people.

The artistic methods though, primarily those connected with sound (e.g. field recordings, urban sound environment research) try to approach the issue.

I totally agree with the concept of deciphering the ideas and experience of the objects that surround us. Besides, I see our project as a way of communication with both our compatriots and people who have no or little experience of the post-Soviet countries. I think that the key moment that allows one not to be influenced by the objects around is travelling and looking at a different reality. Via our video we welcome the viewers to make this virtual journey.

I would go as far as to state that your art practice takes such a participatory line on the conception and especially on the

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Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben

production of art. As a performative artist, your creations are strictly based on the chance to create a deep involvement with your audience, both on a on a limbic, emotional level, as well as on an intellectual one: so I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

Uladzislau Buben: The participation of the audience is something every artist strives for in a way, I would say. It may range from emotional feedback to once work to the direct participation in a performance, for example. As psychologist, I would state that art is definitely indispensible from real experience, but not exactly the direct one. As creative person, I would state that I probably recycle what I have experienced or use certain experience as a starting point which I follow up and develop in an artistic form and give it a new context and dimension.

I think that Totalitarian Shapes, urges the viewer to follow not only your process, but even and especially the cultural and politic substratum on which you build your creations: this urges us to evolve from being a passive spectator to more conscious participants to the act you performe... By the way, although I'm aware that this might sound a bit naĐżf, I have to admit that I'm sort of convinced that Art -especially nowadays- could play an effective role in sociopolitical questions: not only just by offering to people a generic platform for expression... I would go as far as to state that Art could even steer people's behaviour... what's your point about this?

Does it sound a bit exaggerated?

Anastasiya Labada: I have some information to prove your words. I have participated in a number of cultural projects in Belarus sponsored by the EU countries under the motto that one can hardly influence the society by

Ualdzislau Buben and Anastasiya Labada, Performance

means or mere politics; one should act through the country’s culture.

Art really gives the opportunity to draw attention to certain phenomena. For instance, I have noticed a lot of Asian themes in the videos to pop songs, which definitely illustrates the growing interest to Asian countries as their economies grow and the East makes its voice louder in the international community (probably becoming most perspective region in the future if not now).

Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben

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propagate the regime and they have access to all the possible media to do that. Thus, the “prohibited” artists as well as independent artists who have nothing to do with the politics tend to be segregated and marginalized. You can see their production at very few specific galleries in Belarus and even more often they are mostly presented abroad. This is true about all kinds of cultural expression – music, art, literature etc. So it is very difficult for the art alternative to the state one to influence the society as people simply do not have access to it. Yet, certain groups are looking for this kind of art and sometimes when the general public gets access to something of that stream; it becomes appreciated, which gives hope to me.

Belarusian artists simply lack good management to make their art vivid. Cultural manager is the profession totally missing in the Belarusian society. This is something I am trying to work with.

Yet in Belarus the authoritarian regime has its own regulations over culture and art in particular. There are unofficial lists of “prohibited” artists, poets and musicians who are banned from official public events. The content of their production may be neutral but their political and social stand is critical to the regime. On the other hand there are so-called “pro-state” artists who belong to state artist unions and receive financing from the government. They have the obvious aim to

I do believe that interdisciplinary collaboration as the one that you have established together is today an ever growing force in Art and that that most exciting things happen when creative minds from different fields of practice meet and collaborate on a project... could you tell us something about this effective synergy? By the way, the artist Peter Tabor once said that "collaboration is working together with another to create something as a synthesis of two practices, that alone one could not": what's your point about this? Can you explain how your work demonstrates communication between two artists?

Ualdzislau Buben: It is really the collaboration that makes my artistic activity exciting. I have collaborated with poets, artists and film makers.

For example, my recent project “Dances with Buben” features a number of young Belarusian poets who read their works to modern electronic music made by me (https://www.facebook.com/DancesWithBuben).

In such collaboration you meet soul mates and you create something together coming from

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Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben

different sides, with different backgrounds and capabilities. At the same time, you understand each other on a subtle subconscious level and produce a piece that someone can be impressed with.

As for projects with Anastasiya, we mostly do electronic music projects, often with sociopolitical context, such as albums “I Need Feminism”, “Belarus/Rhythm against Repressions” and the project in the Swedish language “Seven Tales about Gender” (“Sju sagor om kön”). You can look at them on our

common website http://buben-nastalabada.believeband.com/ To joke a little bit, I can also collaborate with myself, as I am a multi-functional artist. I can combine paintings and music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A01OaD8g YaY) but mostly I need someone else for a more exciting collaboration.

Maybe because I have a musical background, I'm always delighted to come across an interesting example of how a traditional instrument as a jazz guitar can establish a

Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben

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technology is the key point allowing the creator to go further. As example, I would mention the new Iphone apps for making music. Now these are accessible to all interested. Before, you needed expensive studio equipment to do that.

As for depictive art, the new emerging technologies have always been in focus. One of the most prominent Renaissance artists said that one should first of all be a craftsman, and secondly a creator. By this he underlined the importance for the artist to master the technologies. Unfortunately, the modern art has often drawn back the technological knowledge to the second ‌ Even Leonardo Davinci made his own painting recipes and art tools in the attempt to develop the technologies of his time.

Therefore, the developments of technologies and art always go hand in hand developing into impressive masterpieces.

proficient symbiosis with the well known sound of Soviet analog synthesizers: so I would like to use this occasions to ask what's your point about this fruitful contamination... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that new media art will definitely fill any remaining dichotomy between these apparently different disciplines: and I will dare to say that Art and Technology are going to assimilate one to each other... what's your point about this?

Uladzislau Buben: In many ways, art and technology have already become the whole.

Som creations, especially electronic music,

Before taking leave from this interesting conversation I would like to pose a but clichĐš question, but an interesting one that I'm sure will interest our readers around the world: would you like to tell us something about the emerging artistic trends in your countries? Likely, Eastern Europe has come to the fore in the last twenty years while most of the world's population knew few things beyond the usual stereotyped images... I'm very interested to get to know how young artists - and not only the youngest ones - approach themselves to what someone has defined extreme freedom of contemporary.

Uladzislau Buben: If in the middle of 1980s there wer a lot of alternative free artists who thought that their works will be interesting to the Western audience, then, by the middle of 1990s these elusions disappeared. The artists understood that the western market is overflowed with the artistic products and that one should pay attention to the domestic public. Some were deeply disillusioned; others came to the conservative rails, often even

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Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben

expressing anti-western ideas. The third part is trying to go its own way, creating the products which could be interesting both in the West and in the East trying to find their own way of expression. Year by year, the third group has risen, which I am very happy about. Yet, because of hard economic conditions, much fewer people are engaged into the artistic activity and the audience is shrinking as well. But I would dare to predict, that the rise of interest to art in Belarusian society will occur in 7 to 8 years, when the people have reached a certain material satisfaction and at least the young generation will look for the spiritual one, which may lay ground to a certain generation conflict.

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

Anastasiya Labada: We tend to react to what is going on in our society and in the world, so this is what usually directs our common creative process. Recently we have created an interactive project called “PACEBOOK” (or Account-EncodeRecall) dedicated to the all-comprising growth of social networks. We would like to make more promotion to it and involve the audience into the workshop which is part of the project. The audience is encouraged to make a page in a social network for a thing, a phenomenon or a person that is no longer alive as we did for Earth’s atmosphere, Agatha Christie or Uladzislau when he was 15. One can make it with simple graphics and collage. We think we should be able to do it at the contemporary art exhibition “DACH” in Minsk in summer 2015, meanwhile one can have a taste of this idea at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3vkd5tYQVA

Uladzislau is currently recording a lot of electronic music.

Together we would like to make album with lyrics in German dedicated to gender issues. And we love improvising together, where I play the electronic violin and Uladzislau is responsible for his own electronics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZLAH5kqZS8 We are always happy to travel abroad and present our projects as well as talk about the current artistic situation in our country. We like to exchange ideas, so invitations are welcome!

A still from Totalitarian shapes

Anastasiya Labada & Uladzislau Buben

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(Canada) An artist's statement

This short is a reflection on the state of public identity. The video reflects on notions of privacy, identity and memory. I was curious about how images are captured in public.

How the video was shot was important: I brought a video camera and large tripod to a lunchtime public music performance in downtown Vancouver. I was conscious how I appeared while shooting: I’m tall, older, I dressed conservatively and had short hair – I wanted to assume the look of an authority figure openly video taping the public. At the concert I pointed my camera towards people watching the crowd rather than the performance. Some people in the crowd were clearly uncomfortable and gave me angry/concerned looks. While cameras are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, I don’t think it’s clear how to respond when one’s image is being captured. I was working on the video during the 2014 Sochi Olympics and saw the video of Pussy Riot being whipped by the Cossack militia; it was so odd and openly fascistic.

Regarding audio, the central concern is to find audio that informs/compliments the work, not overshadow it. With this particular video I was fortunate to have found a recording that dovetailed nicely with the images. I’m conscious how the music works structurally in my work, especially in relation to editing. The reduced speed of the recording of “Remembrance of Gatshine” by the Imperial Russian Balalaika Court Orchestra has an ominous and dark feel that compliments the slow, near-static images of General Public Identity.

Robert Hamilton

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Robert Hamilton, title from General Public Identity, 2014

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An interview with

Robert Hamilton An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator peripheral_arteries@dr.com

Robert Hamilton's camera structures the events in their filmic and photographic setting: focusing on urban environments and drawing inspiration from spaces between everyday situations, his works photographs seem to raise the question of the role allocated to the individual in a worldwide cultural and economic integration. Hamilton's videos also draw attention to the camera itself, which is still able to snatch the spirit of individuality while the bare eye has long failed to do so. As we'll be discussing in the following pages, one of the results of his approach is an insightful investigation about the way people interact with each other, and especially with their environment.

Hello Robert, and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and you hold a MFA from the Jan Van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht and a MFA of Time Arts, Sculpture from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. How did these experiences influenced you as an artist and on the way you currently conceive your works?

Looking back I was fortunate to have done my graduate studies at two very good schools, meeting some great people. I’m from a particularly conservative, provincial northern city in Canada and I saw doing a MFA as a means to travel and live abroad.

The Chicago Art Institute was a great experience.

The visiting artists/writers were amazing – Hal Foster, Kathy Acker, John Cage, Michael Snow, P. Adams Sitney, Robert Wilson among others. There were excellent teachers like Lin Hixson who were informed and very supportive. Students were

exhibiting outside of the school at local galleries – there was a strong sense we were participating within the Chicago community. I made a video about the Guardian Angels while there and it was broadcast on the local Public Broadcast Service (PBS) show Image Union.

Jan Van Eyck in Maastricht, The Netherlands on the other hand had an entirely different sensibility. As students we were largely left on our own – unsupervised – an unintentional benefit even. There were great visiting artists like Martha Rosler, Adrian Piper, Mona Hatoum and Guillaume Bijl. Some of my alumni from that period have gone on to great success: Bjarne Melgaard, Jodi and Johan Grimonprez for example. I showed a lot during my studies in Vienna, Amsterdam, Arnhem, The Hague, Brussels – things were going well. I didn’t want to leave. I met my wife in Maastricht!

Robert Hamilton, a short biography "I was born in Edmonton, Alberta Canada in 1962. I hold a Diploma of Fine Arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design, 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. I currently live in Hamilton, Ontario with my wife and three children. I am a Professor of Multimedia at McMaster University, Canada.

I work predominantly with video, photography and animation. My work focuses on urban environments.

I'm drawn to the structured worlds that we inhabit and how they produce a self-defining context for our lives and experience. I'm curious about the behaviour of people and how they occupy and interact with their environment. I gather images from the environment, to re-organize them, and to create a reconstituted version of realism and authenticity. I attempt to identify the peculiarities of contemporary living. " (Robert Hamilton) Robert Hamilton's Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/channels/869225/page:1 General Public Identity https://vimeo.com/98888517 Winona https://vimeo.com/54500694 Velserbroek https://vimeo.com/115920266

Barbara Bervoets

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Robert Hamilton (photo by Titi Postma)

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Robert Hamilton

Robert Hamilton, still from General Public Identity, 2014

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

My approach for each project is different but generally begins with taking photos in public.

There’s often a performative aspect to my work insofar as I’m conscious how I appear when I’m taking photos. For example, for General Public Identity I brought a bulky video camera and large tripod to an outdoor public music concert in downtown Vancouver. I was conscious of my appearance: tall, older, conservatively dressed,

conservative haircut – I wanted to play the role of an authority figure openly videotaping the public.

At the concert I pointed my camera towards the audience rather than the performance. Some people in the crowd were clearly uncomfortable and gave me angry/annoyed looks.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from General Public Identity, an extremely interesting work that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit directly at http://vimeo.com/channels/869225/98888517 in order to get a wider idea of it. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration?

Robert Hamilton

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Robert Hamilton, still from General Public Identity, 2014

I was working on that piece during the 2014 Sochi Olympics and saw a disturbing clip of Pussy Riot being whipped by the Cossack militia; it was so odd and openly fascistic. It really stuck with me and that experience resulted in this work.

hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a wayto decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

One of the features of General Public Identity that has mostly impacted on me is the way you urge the viewers to rethink the way we perceive not only the environment we inhabit, but also and especially to extend the spectrum of how we view things - from closeup, highly detailed readings to structural analysis: I daresay that this force the viewers' perception to challenge the common way to perceive not only the outside world, but our inner dimension... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some information & ideas are

I’m not going out on a limb saying our public identities are under constant scrutiny. We know this. The media frequently reminds us: all forms of digital communication are regularly monitored. The work that we create and share has a potential unintended audience, an authoritarian audience. I’m curious how surveillance impacts our sense of self, our expression and our identity. Does the authority that conducts invasive surveillance inform our identity?

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Winona

Robert Hamilton

https://vimeo.com/54500694

Velserbroek https://vimeo.com/115920266

Robert Hamilton, still from Winona, 2008

As to Nature - perhaps artists are something along the lines of cultural “Early Warning Systems.� I tend to think artists are intuitively sensitive to changes in society.

Your approach takes such a participatory line on the conception and especially on the production of art, and this is clear especially in another work of yours entitled Winona.

Maybe that the following assumption is stretching the point a little bit, but I think

that the involvement that you establish with the people who accidentally participate to the creation of your works reveals the connections between different cultural spheres which describes such a real-time aesthetic ethnography. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

Robert Hamilton

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Robert Hamilton, still from Winona, 2008

For Winona, attending various county fairs was necessary resulting in a first-hand experience of those events.

So yes, Winona was informed by personal experience. Often I see myself as somewhat of a detached observer, a flâneur. In other works I’m more pro-active in a sense, reaching out. It depends on the work.

In Velserbroek you explore the familiarity of the concept of home. As you have stated

once, you are drawn to the structured worlds that we inhabit and how they produce a selfdefining context for our lives and experience: can recognize such a political function in this: although I'm aware that this might sound a bit naïf, I have to admit that I'm sort of convinced that Art -especially nowadays- could play an effective role in sociopolitical questions: not only just by offering to people a generic platform for expression... I would go as far as to state

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Robert Hamilton, still from Velserbroek, 2002

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Robert Hamilton

Robert Hamilton, still from Museum Mile, 2002

that Art could even steer people's behaviour... what's your point about this?

Does it sound a bit exaggerated?

Not at all - Art is always available as a platform for expression. It’s more of a question whether people are willing to take up that privilege. Art certainly can move people, change opinion, educate, thrill‌ Can Art alter behaviour?

Absolutely.

Another interesting work of yours that has particularly impacted on me and on which I would like to focus is entitled Museum Mile: in particular, I have appreciated the way you have enlightened the social function of a museum... the remind of all the moments we spend in museums as has suggested me Damien Hirst's quote, when he stated that it all boils down to the desire to live forever.

This is what art's all about.

Robert Hamilton

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Robert Hamilton, still from Museum Mile, 2002

I was curious about human movement in museums in a very general way. A sort of ethnographic study as you mentioned earlier what do people do there? What do they look at and for how long? I wasn’t sure what I would find. There is a social function of sorts, etiquette even. I’m not sure what art is about or if one could find out by visiting a museum.

When I read the Damien Hirst quote it made me think his work is about domination.

Besides producing your interesting artworks, you have also gained a wide experience as a teacher: have you ever happened to draw inspiration from the works of your students?

By the way, I sometimes I wonder if a certain kind of formal training could even stifle a young artist's creativity... what's your point?

Barbara Bervoets

Robert Hamilton, Waiting Series - Dublin #2

Barbara Bervoets

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Robert Hamilton

Robert Hamilton, Serial Images series, Beach Ball

Not inspiration but I do draw on the student’s enthusiasm. I value formal training in the sense of learning one’s craft, especially art history. It’s a step in the direction of finding one’s voice - I really don’t want my students to emulate me! I encourage my students to develop their own interests and to see as much work as possible.

It’s important for students to make informed work. I imagine there are teachers, who occasionally somehow stifle students, perhaps

inadvertently. This can happen in any study and it’s really unfortunate.

Before taking leave from this interesting conversation I would like to ask you something about the relationship with your audience. During your long career your works have been exhibited in several occasions both in Europe and in the USA. It goes without saying that feedbacks are capable of providing an artist of an important support, which is for sure not

Robert Hamilton

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Robert Hamilton, Serial Images series, Amsterdam Train Station absolutely indispensable, but that can stimulate to keep on with Art: I was just wondering if the expectation of positive feedback could even influence the process of an artist... how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? Do you ever think to whom will enjoy your Art when you conceive your pieces?

Critical feedback is crucial - it assists in determining how work is being received. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I aspire to create engaging work. It’s a bit fuzzy though because when I’m actually making the artwork I’m not anticipating the audience, not yet anyway. I’m busy with my own thoughts.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Robert. Finally, would you

like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

I’m currently working on a video installation entitled “The Memory Studio” that reflects on how digitization has radically altered the social and cultural functions of photography. I’m also working on a few single-channel videos. By the way, I’m currently on sabbatical and looking for opportunities – if anyone has any suggestions for an artist residency between now and June please get in touch with me at robert_hamilton@yahoo.com Thanks, it’s been a pleasure.

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Ecaterina Scorus (Romania)

After MA I got married and became a mother of two children. This made me to change my view about art.

After that was a period of rest, in which I introduced on my three year old daughter (who has some native artistic skills) in the art world, experimenting with her various techniques to do it to understand art (painting with salt, painting with dough or aluminum foil); this work culminated with a personal exhibition of the girl.

After restarting my work, the idea of my paintings is now focuses more on the message, on the impact that could have on the viewer. Specifically I am interested in certain topics and social issues (motherhood, war, traditional world versus contemporary society, the vision of artists about the art, aesthetic valences in present) that I try to emphasize in my work. I try to express what is in fact the life cycle, as I understand it, things that influence me both as an artist and as a person.

In my paintings I combined elements of traditional artistic techniques with techniques of contemporary art (installations, graffiti, action painting). This is my way of creating a bridge between past and present, between the moral and spiritual values of the old world and the contemporary world. From my point of view art must be art, to have a social status and not a consumerist one, to create a different vision of the viewers, and to be seen with the soul and to detached the viewers from everyday problems.

Ecaterina Scorus

RenĂŠ Magritte

Chaos 150/150 cm, oil/canvas, 2008

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An interview with

Ecaterina Scorus Hello Ecaterina, and a warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. I would start this interview with my usual ice breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? By the way, what could be the features that mark the contemporariness of an artwork? Do you think that there's a dichotomy between tradition and contemporariness?

In art we looking moods disguised in natural forms in which the viewer can discover a consonance with his own soul, which defines "affected device of the work�. Artistic creation must speak, not in the mastery of form but by adapting that form to the content. So the artist convay a form of knowledge, art is search and knowledge.

Continuous desecration of modern human has altered the contents of his spiritual life and resulted in the obscurity of the true values of "inner necessity"; but this not shattered imagination, he still persist in areas poorly controlled. The importance of spiritual values in establishment the vision of an individual or a civilization is decisive. These influencing decisive our way of assessing.

The problem of contemporary society is the loss of traditional values. But in my view there is a way of regeneration of the world and recovery of the true values, the way of expression to be as modern. The idea of redesigning the world of modern human in a fluid space, traditional, where time is not equal to itself, by creating some feelings dictated by the inner inner, by the setting up of some elements than condition our span world is a starting point for the spiritual renewal of the individual .

Ecaterina Scorus

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Ecaterina Scorus

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Ecaterina Scorus

Would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and you attended the Painting Department at National University of Arts from Bucharest, from which you received a BFA and a MA, moreover you have grown into a family of artists: how have these experiences impact on your evolution as an artist and on the way you currently produce your artworks?

For the bigining, I inherited some artistic qualities from the family. Before to choose the way, I was influenced by the family atmosphere.

I remember I saw my father working and, obeserving me, he puting an easel next to him, so that we can work together. We talked much about art in general, and he was the first who introduced me in painting techniques. He shared with me some of his secrets related to optical illusions, perspective, color.

In high school I studied a lot, learning to work with the shape, volume and color. During this time I did not unleash ideas, trying to accumulate more knowledge.

The most interesting period was in college, where I experienced ideas and new visions.

All these experiences have meant a lot in my artistic development.

The family opened my heart to art, but to create my own imaginary world more study was needed.

After I managed to acquire some technical skills have allowed me to experience, something that I can say that we do today.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

The artistic process consists of several stages.

First, before I start work, I choose a theme, an idea. Then through drawings on the same

theme, I try to create an image that can reproduce the message I want to transmit. This stage is most time consuming.

Once the image was chosen, a great importance have how I create a balance of shapes on the canvas using (or not) certain techniques (foreground, golden section, perspective, proportions). The next step is to choose a dominant color, a specific color contrast.

Compare the role of each color and the impact that it has on the viewer, depending on the subject.

The color awakes a soul vibration, becomes beautiful because it enriches. For example, if I approach a dramatic subject, I thinking to a dominant of cool tones or warm and bright colors that create a state of fear, state that I want to express. I use also monochrome, or black and white to represent a rupture of space and time.

If I approach euphoric, relaxing topics, I use pastel colors, a balance between hot and cold, or I play with color directly from the tube, joining them after my good like or leaving them to chance (depending on the case).

I use the qualities of colors also to create some optical illusions in painting.

Once chosen the dominant, my interest is if the message is well understood. Now I use certain symbols and I choose the technique depending on the subject. During the work can I change my idea or technique, it is dependent by my inner state. Techniques can combine them together.

The rest is the secret of each artist.

If everything comes out right after these steps may varnished painting.

Some works can to transform in whole series in which to keep the initial idea / topic.

Now let's focus on your art production: I would ike to focus on Contemporary Traditions, that our readers have started to admire in the introductory pages of these pages... By the way, would you tell us

Ecaterina Scorus

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Contemporary Traditions oil / canvas, 100/70 cm, 2014

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Ecaterina Scorus

Un Chien Andalou- Me and Movie, 100/90 cm, oil/canvas, 2010 something about the genesis of this project?

What was your initial inspiration?

The work was done for Gheorghe Patrascu biennial organized by the Royal Court of Targoviste Museum, museum who holds many

works of the great romanian classical artists.

Theme was chosen for this occasion, the subject tries to mark a point where we were today as a society, to create a bridge between tradition and contemporaneity. Thus I combine classic style with modern techniques of

Ecaterina Scorus

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Un Chien Andalou - Sequence

Un Chien Andalou - Serialization

100/70 cm, Acrylic / Cardboard, 2010

100/70 cm, Mixted Technique, collage/acrylic/canvas, 2010

painting. Today it is the destruction of established order, the abolition of archetypal images. We speaking about chaos, anarchy, the darkness, the surrounding world collapse. A "mythical treasure" is kept here between old and modern. The image has changed the form to ensure its survival, struggle with the same weapons for the message to be heard.

you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

As you have remarked once, after a period of rest which you became mother of two children, you started again to produce Art, and you changed your previous idea of paintings, which is now focused more on the message, on the impact that it could have on the viewer, as in the interesting Un Chien Andalou and Art need. So I would like to ask

You must not necessarily to have the experience of the item that approach, but the live experiences automatically influences your perspective and your work. I can have not some experience, but I understand some aspects influence been by some moments of my live. can you have not direct experiences, but personal experiences influence your way of anderstood a particular subject.

If before becoming mother, I was interested to

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Ecaterina Scorus

Art Need Mixted Technique, oil and acrylic / canvas

Maternity, 60/50 cm, tempera / cardboard, 2005

bring in my works the aestehetic and my imaginary world, to juggle with colors, since I became mother weigh the things that influence me both spiritually and as a human. My interes in now more focused on the human, as an individual, and society as a whole.

Multidisciplinary is a crucial feature of your approach and I definetely love the way you combine elements from Tradition with techniques of Contemporary art .... do you think that crossing the borders of different techinques in order to realize such synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

the society is easily confused, people do not know exactly what they want or who seek and cling different icons "prototypes" that are taken everywhere in the world, be it images and things that represent a spiriutal thing, to fashion symbols borrowed from traditions of different cultures. And I just tried to outline one way where the human, as an individual can find the spirit, from close ties with tradition to today common mentality, using mixed techniques and combined styles ... In my view the message expressed through various artistic and technical methods may aspire to interest higher than the corresponding work accross the viewer. The works invites us to search and find meanings, meanings and perspectives essential new.

Yes. At least from my point of view, by this method I try to express some ideas. currently,

I have highly appreciated the nuance of intense tones which creates an interesting

Ecaterina Scorus

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Despair 50/60 cm, oil/cardboard, 2007

synergy rather than a contrast between such bright tones... by the way, any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

At the beginning of my artistic way, colors on my palette was more natural (saturated), in my attempt to mimic the reality. Subsequently I introduced white in my compositions, also decomposes the form. In time I dropped to white

and black, my interes been more focused on color than the form. During college I returned to black, earth tones, I used monochrom. At the same time I experienced the dripping, using pure color directly from the tube, or put with brush. Currently I combine natural tones with pure colors through various techniques.

The change of palette was obviously close to my inner changes.

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Ecaterina Scorus

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Ecaterina Scorus

Homeless 70/100 cm, oil / canvas, 2007 Your works, as the interesting Stop the War! and Homeless succeed in achieving an effective socio political criticism... I totally agree with you when you state that art must have a social status and not a consumerist one and that it should create a critical vision in the viewers: by the way, although I'm aware that this might sound a bit naďf, I'm sort of convinced that Art in these days could play an effective role not only making

aware public opinion about socio political issues: I would go as far as to say that nowadays Art can even steer people's behavior... I would take this chance to ask your point about this. Do you think that it's an exaggeration? And what could be in your opinion the role that an artist could play in our society?

In its essence modern art is closely related to

Ecaterina Scorus

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Stop the War! oil / canvas, 120/100 cm, 2014

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social and economic events of our times, it participating to the revolts, violence and fragmentation, destruction and also reconstruction. Such forms of art have a new aim, a will to create, to be free of confusion and arbitrariness of this history and to imagine new prototypes of a new and better civilization. I think that art could influence such influence consumer's emotional states, the psychic states and the mode of the perception of the society. I am convinced that each individual aware of what is happening around us, when is not controlled of the daily program. But with open eyes, is not see, and with ears not hears and art would be able to be the soul and the five senses to the individual.

The artist is only a messenger or the creator of one of this worlds.

During these years you participated in many national and international competitions and I think it's important to mention that you have been awarded as well: you received the second prize for painting at the International Prize "Open Doors" and the prize at the International Art Prize Unilever... it goes without saying that feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist: I was just wondering if the expectation of a positive feedback could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? Do you ever think to whom will enjoy your Art when you conceive your pieces?

Sure, feedbeck is very important, because it gives me confidence in myself, and can I I know if my message was understood or not. A positive feedback shows you're on the right way, that others understand what you want to communicate.

Thanks a lot for your time and your thoughts, Ecaterina. My last question deals with your

Earth 50/70 cm, tempera/paper, 2005

future plans: what's next for you? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

Everything at me is spontaneous, new ideas, new messages in paintings, but is a surprise to varnishing. I prepared a series of new works for a new exhibition and I expect feedbecks.

Ecaterina Scorus

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The Guitarist 100/70 cm, tempera / paper, 2006

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Isabel Becker (Germany) Isabel Becker was born in 1977 in Frankfurt and lived in Vienna and San José before moving to London in 2011. Becker’s work explores the boundaries and tension points that exist between space, time and sensory experiences, whilst simultaneously dissecting the impact these elements have on our relationships and sense of self. In keeping with her conceptual avoidance of restrictive categorisation, her work is rendered in a wide variety of mediums including mixed-media sculpture, performance, and a prolific series of drawings.

Much of Becker’s output is performed or enacted across those borders – real and imagined – that are socially constructed by contemporary society.

By highlighting and subsequently subverting these borders, the viewer is offered a humorous yet poignant counterpoint to our sense of agency over the spaces we inhabit; for example, her 2007 project at the Museum of Architecture in Vienna involved spectators travelling with the artist on a bus tour, whilst she, blinded to the external view, drew her perceptions of the surrounding cityscape. Her work prompts primal, almost synesthetic reactions and experiences, in which our understanding of language, gender, geography and the faculties through which we process our surroundings are challenged, and we are left to question our confidence our resolute perceptions of the world in which we live.

Becker’s work has featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions in the UK and Europe including: First Story – Women Building / New Narratives for the 21st Century, Galeria do Palacio, Porto (2001); An Evening with FO/GOlab, Das Experiment, Seccession, Vienna (2002) (both with collective FO/GOlab); Exactly Without- Venice, Gallery Spiazzi, Venice (solo, 2007); Clashy Drawings, Franzensgasse, European Year of Science and Creativity, Vienna (solo, 2007); Russische Originalversion, Schauraum, Vienna (solo, 2008); Montag ist erst übermorgen.Young Art on Paper.

Acquisitions of the Graphic Collection 1997-2012, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna (2012). She was awarded the Sussmann Art Prize in 2006 and the Theodor Körner Art Prize in 2007.

Isabel Becker

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An interview with

Isabel Becker Isabel Becker produces artworks in a whole range of media, but the Ariadne's thread underlying her creations is the way she establishes a deep symbiosis between abstract theory and simple practicality, bridging the gap with the intrinsical opposite natures of the concepts she explorates. Through her practice, she provides the viewers of an extension of the ordinary human perception, in order to manipulate it and releasing it from its most limbic parameters. In particular, in exactly without that we'll be discussing in the following pages, she condenses the permanent flow of the perception of concepts, and the events related to them, questioning their inner nature in the socio politic context they happen. So, I'm particularly pleased to introduce our readers to her multifaceted artistic production.

Hello Isabel, and a very warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: I would start this interview with my usual introductory question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? By the way, what could be the features that mark the contemporariness of an artwork? Moreover, do you think that there's a dichotomy between tradition and contemporariness?

I refuse to be part of a professional elite, who is entitled to declare an object as art and deny that status to others. I am always trying to understand artworks that I don't speak to me.

It's the same with marmite: I don't give up the hope, that one day I will like it.

But to speak for myself- what is it, that I have declared as my art works? To answer this

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question, I will list, what I have thrown in the bin: - a sketch so sketchy, that it could be literally anything - when I haven't put all my attention to art and there is too much unconscious randomness - when I have been too close to what is conventionally defined as reality - when I haven't challenged myself and walked on secure grounds As a student I despised modern art and I unlocked a lot of pubertal energy, when I claimed to be a contemporary artist. It was after art school, that I re-opened to those universes of history. To create something new, you don't need the latest technology. And let's

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not fetishize “the new”. I deliberately chose, not to use GPS in my work “exactly without” because I was too much under it's magic spell. I once got criticised from a collector for not behaving like someone of my generation. I thought, it was a big compliment. If you think, I am lost in old fashioned aesthetics, than you haven't understood my art. I play with it. It's like language: we are using words that are hundreds of years old and like them and despise other words for the same reason.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much

preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

There is a constant stream of ideas in my brain.

I don't write them down. If I am in the time/space to start a new work, I do absolutely nothing for a day. No communication or reading. Then, I think, I have the best idea ever and start working on it obsessively in all directions. After a week there are some proper results, but then I suddenly know better. And everything ends up in the bin. It's quite ineffective.. When I start over, I am peacefully and I clearly know what I want. I am a fast worker, so a drawing takes me a day or two.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from the aforesaid exactly

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Isabel Becker

Isabel Becker

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without, an extremely interesting project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit directly at http://isabelbecker.net in order to get a wider idea of your multifaceted artistic production.

In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project?

What was your initial inspiration?

One thing were manga comics. Gigantic monsters and big cities. The other thing was that, when my father passed away, I found boxes full of maps. If I had to assign him an object, it would be that! I started to look at the colors, structures, the paper.

And what on earth does it got do to with the real earth?

I daresay that exactly without urges the viewer to follow not only your process, but also and especially the cultural and politic substratum on which you ground your creations: I have particularly appreciated the way this forces us to evolve from being a passive spectator to more conscious participants to the act you perform... By the way, although I'm aware that this might sound a bit na誰f, I have to admit that I'm sort of convinced that Art -especially nowadays- could play an effective role in sociopolitical questions, as in human rights issues: not only just by offering to people a generic platform for expression... I would go as far as to state that Art could even steer people's behaviour... what's your point about this? Does it sound a bit exaggerated?

I am glad, that you can see the political side in my work. I did start off with short films in my early 20ties, that are about women's rights. I am in a constant debate with myself, whether I should be more explicitly political. But I like to open minds in a pleasurable way. Also, political art stays in it's circles, while art, that stays in the typical elitist aesthetic can reach the ruling class. Art is stronger than politics. We are licenced fools- we are the Court Jesters and we can criticise the King without being beheaded.

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Isabel Becker

Isabel Becker

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I can say, that me and my art have helped some people quit their awful job and do better.

I would go as far as to state that the performative nature of your art practice takes such a participatory line on the conception and especially on the production of art itself. Your creations are strictly based on the chance to create a deep involvement with your audience, both on a on a emotional

level, as well as on an intellectual one: so I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process...

Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

Before a concert, my Cello teacher used to say to me: Imagine the people in the audience are

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vampires. They want to eat you. The only way you can save your life is by bewitching them with music.

Once I had spilled my coffee over a drawing. So I copied it onto a new paper. It was perfect, but it was meaningless. The emotions behind it were missing. I don't think, they need to be emotions that come from you being dumbed by

your girlfriend. There is no such a thing as an emotionless state. There is no distinction between life and studio. I can be in the studio and get emotional for no reason. Maybe just the joy of self-forgetful openness.

Multidisciplinarity is a crucial aspect of your approach: your work is rendered in an extremely wide variety of mediums: besides

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Isabel Becker

your performances, you also produce mixedmedia sculpture and a prolific series of drawings. In particular, it's remarkable the way you are capable of creating such an effective symbiosis between elements from different techniques, manipulating language and re-contextualizing images and concepts with humour, as in the installation entitled Parachute: while crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

An art dealer once said to me: “I can't represent you, because you don't have a style.”

I said: “But I don't want to have one!” He said: “You can't do that.”

In comparison to pure conceptual artists, I do enjoy techniques. Painting or drawing is just another concept, and I don't see any problem doing “conceptual art” at the same time.

Mastering a technique takes years. Once there, you start to feel safe and you have something that justifies your title “artist”. And a style is something like your own technique. You come across things that work well and that people like. And you start repeating them. But it puts me off, how people react. I don't want followers, I don't want to be put on a pedestal. So I make fun of myself and I challenge myself such as I start drawing in the dark.

One of the most convincing aspects of your work is the overwhelming power of his creativity and perception. Moreover, I can recognize a subtle but effective investigation about the emerging of language due to an extreme experimentation, and what has mostly impacted on me is the way you have been capable of bringing a new level of significance to objects, re-contextualizing the concepts behind them: and I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense your works force the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive not only the outside world, but our inner

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dimension... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a wayto decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

People have often told me, that a couple of days later, they have seen things in my work,

that hadn't revealed before. If you think about it, everything in life comes with a manual: How to look at it, what to do with it, what to feel and how to react. And so does art. I am naturally subversive and I set tramps in my work. And I like to invite things into my art, where I don't really know what it is- but it interests me.

I love your words “extreme experimentation�.

This is my method: If you think about a pencil.

We look at it and ask: is it sharpened, which

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grade is it and how long will it last. If you want to see the other dimensions, lock yourself and the pencil in a room. After an hour, it stops being a pencil.

Another interesting project of yours that has particularly impressed me and on which I would like to spend some words is entitled some colors societies: in particular, I like the way this work questions about the hierarchical relationships between original

and reproduction, in a way that has reminded me some of Vik Muniz's works as Disaster and White Rose. Moreover, I have particularly appreciated the absence of any didactic explanations in your pieces, allowing the viewers to bring its own personal associations in the construction of meanings: how would you define the nature of the relationship with your audience?

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The audience? It's a bit like: I have this crazy place in my brain. Let me take you by that hand and show you. Yes, I have been concerned with the medium and the message problem and with reproduction vs. aura. I have been disappointed that there is not that much to it. But anything that can be used as a playground is welcome.

Sometimes we listen more when there is white noise than without it. The story of the Salon des refusees is just grand.

During these years your works have been exhibited in several occasions and you have been awarded with the Sussmann Art Prize in 2006 and the Theodor Kรถrner Art Prize in 2007... it goes without saying that positive feedback, although are not definitely indespensable, are capable of providing an

artist of an important support. I sometimes wonder if the expectation of positive feedbackcould even influence the process of an artist...

By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? I sometimes wonder if it could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art...

Doing art is existential for me and I don't need an audience for that. But when you can make some people happy or stir up their energy- that's even better! If people like something, there is this temptation to repeat it. You feed from the audience- but you also feed them. There are people, who want to be your friends because of you are cool and not because they like you. I had been in over 30 shows within 7 years and I never exhibited the same artwork twice. I was fucking

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busy. I never had any patrons or a gallery representation, so I had mostly applied to calls.

The last thing, you expect, is that professional art is half of the time an office job. I had worked for the gentrification and other businesses and institutions, who use you. I did turn down funded shows or left a successful group because I didn't feel respected. And I realized, although I was putting a massive effort to resist, I was in a wheel. I came to London to stop exhibiting art.

After a while, I noticed, that my art had to be changed by its root and I stopped doing art for a year. It was the most difficult thing, that I have ever done.

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

future projects? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

In the last 2 years, my -mostly secret- production has become a bit chaotic: theater, music and large drawings. On one hand, I have this dream of exhibiting my drawings in a very large room, where they can breathe. It's literally a dream that I have often.

On the other hand, I have recently started performances, that are more radical than anything I have ever done before.

And I haven't experienced that much interest from people before.

They cannot be found in the Internet and I constantly change my stage name.

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Paula Flores (Mexico)

It seems as though I was born with the need to constantly question everything, why do we do the things we do?, Why do we live a certain way? How did we get here? Thinking of the human collective, through culture, race or humanity as a whole. Why do we have certain perceptions?

Through my art I explore the relationship that we create with the universe, these complex necessities that we have as humans with the rest of the universe. How do we display these necessities? In what way do we live to satisfy these evolved needs. What ways of living and thinking still remain the same and which ones have changed? What changes happen to humanity as a whole and which ones are individual.

The universe to me is a web which is filled with mirrors that let us find answers in everything that surrounds us.

The conceptual content of my art production is a symbolic documentation of the construction of my cosmology and the journey to try and understand it.

Personally, I am always looking for connections between all things and the conclusions that I make about said connections are represented in my work.

My work therefore is a reflection of the imperceptibility of these conclusions as well as the connections that influence the latter.

In order to find the connections one must look for them in moments of contemplation. This state of contemplation for me doesn´t have to happen in the perfect scenario, it actually happens all the time.

As it seems to be I can´t stop thinking about all the connections I find in everything. There is always a part of my brain working on this and it doesn´t matter if I am doing something else all this can be happening in the back of my head. It has even occurred in my sleep and I wake up with a variety of ideas that I have to get out, or while I am doing some grocery shopping and time freezes in my head and endless thoughts come to mind.

Some people have told me that I have an obsession over information because in order to try to understand something I have to know as much as possible because this allows me to contextualize it to later decontextualize it. I believe that for me questioning everything and everyone is the key. As living beings we are geared with the senses which I interpret as multi way doors for an open communication of the body with the exterior; with the universe.

Paula Flores

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Apropriacion

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An interview with

Paula Flores The multidisciplinary approach of the Mexican artist Paula Flores allows her to work on the borderline between Art and Design: dispensing with the ideological and theoretical precepts of classic minimalism, her abstract, handcrafted ink on glass pieces, cannot be classified as design and their power to communicate lies in the intrinsic epiphanic effect of their permanent interplay between inscrutability and beauty.

Although her works seems to be independent from the context in which they appear, one of the main goal of Flores approach is the way she gives a key to interpret the relationship that we create with the universe, which, far from offering a monolithic envision, incessantly urges the viewers to reflect and investigate about the reason of everything. I'm so particularly pleases to introduce our readers to Paula Flores' artistic production. Hello Paula, and a warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. I would start this interview with my usual introductory question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? By the way, what could be in your opinion the features that mark an artworks as a piece of Contemporary Art? In particular, do you think that there's a dichotomy between tradition and contemporariness?

I believe that art is created when the person who wants to make art (the artist) goes into a journey within itself. In this process one questions everything that they have been taught and starts to sort and decided what makes sense and what doesn´t. Many questions start to arise during the process, I would have to say that this is a process that can never stop. With this we learn what we want to say and in what way we are going to

say it. I would have to say that definetely cotemporary art is way more diverse then “traditional” art if we are talking about the classics, but I think it is due to the fact that we have more materials to work with and a whole lot of information that sometimes we are not even looking for and we need ways to communicate this, but it has to be in a way that makes sense in the actual world. We are so used to seeing such diversity that we want the same or even more diversity in art. Adding to that there are things that we couldnt communicate in a traditional way for example a painting wouldnt make the spectator feel the same things as an art instalation even if it was about the same topic and by the same artist.

Would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and besides you hold a bachelors degreee in Plastic Arts that you recently received from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California: how has this experience influenced you as an artist and on the way you conceive your works?

I started my professional trainning in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato a beautiful place were you can truly enjoy life, but I was enjoying life so much that I had forgotten all the things I wanted and needed to communicate. So I moved back to my hometown Tijuana which was just recovering from a time of crude violence. I started school again and besides learning new techniques and history, it came to my attention that many people wanted to heal our city with art and that is what started happening. I still don´t know if the way we learned about art in school is the right way. Of course I learned a lot of things that helped me grow and make my work more complex and with good quality, but as in many careers they dont show you how to survive in the real world.

So when I got out of school I was shocked because I didnt know what or how to do and that can leave you paralyzed for a while until you shake that fear that you are not in school anymore. I dont know if I would of learned all the same things if I didnt go to school,but

Paula Flores

getting over the schock of being done with school. Art school was one of the greatest experiences in my life.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

My process is based on layers not so much because I choose this to be my process its just the only way it can happen. I dont do sketches Paula Flores

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or material trials. I just jump in and of course sometime because of the not making trials some pieces are “ruined�, but since I am somewhat of a material hoarder I save it and then end up using it for something else. What I enjoy the most is experimenting and discovering new materials for my work. I think I get borred of using the same things and I am always trying new things to refresh my mind.

Along all this technical process I am always investigating topics that I am interested in and that I reflect in my work. I grab information from every aspect of life, I think all kinds of stimulations help complete the puzzles I am trying to solve. As for how long do I take making a piece it al dependes on the materials

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Paula Flores

Abstraccio de una flor

some can be as quick as five hours, but others can take really long months or the longest one that I´ve been working on is over a year and it isn´t near to being finished.

Now let's focus on your art production: I would start with Sentidos and Abstraccion

de una flor, an interesting couple of works that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to visit http://paulaandreaflores.com/ in order to get a wider idea of your current artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell

Paula Flores

Sentidos

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Paula Flores

Sombra de un arbol

us something about the genesis of these stimulating pieces? What was your initial inspiration?

A: I am very interested in how are senses play an essential role in how we communicate with

the universe and with ourlselves. Sentidos is one of the first pieces that I did regarding this topic. With time this topic has accumulated information and has infiltrated itself into all of my work. In Abstraccion de una flor I was

Paula Flores

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based the colors of the painting on what I felt when I was in contact with flowers and used dark colors which take us to heavier feelings. Even though there is less of the dark colors it all dependes on what the viewer wants to see. The viewer can go either way depending on his/hers perception.

Another interesting pieces of yours that have impressed on me and on which I would like to spend some words are from your Oil series: in particular, I love the intensely thoughtful nuances of red tones in Apropriacion and the kinetic feature of Sombra de un arbol, which I would define as a dynamic painting. Any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

I think that it is a reflection of my interior. I dont conciously interfer with the choice of palette, they are just the colors that I feel like using, but I have to say that color, by far is the most important element in my work. The combination of colors is what I like to observe where ever it catches my eye and luckilly for me the culture that I am from uses a whole lot of color in a very bold way.

looking to represent the decision of either looking at the negative or positive aspects we face in given situation.So I thought that flowers were perfect for this because flowers are always viewed as something beautiful, so I

The exploration of the relationship that we create with the universe is a crucial aspect of your Art: when works as Desierto and Regalo de la Iluvia clearly deal with elements from Nature, you urge the viewer to investigate about such an inner level, under the ephemeral surface of things we perceive, as in Mar which I have to admit is one of my favourite work of this series. This feature of your approach suggests me the concept that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them.

Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

Yes, I believe that if we make deep contact with all things from nature that sorruound us we can have a better understanding of the intricate

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Paula Flores

Mar

universe in which we live and were all things have a participating relationship. I think that artist should communicate what they are aware of and what they believe the world needs to know. When someone is in contact with art they are really in contact with the artist and the whole context that surrounded the artist at the time of the making of given piece of art. This allows us, as spectators to be in touch with infinite ideas that can only open up our thoughts it doesnt matter if we agree or not

with the artist what matters is that we have the encounter.

Although marked with an intense abstract mark, many of your works seems to draw from our outside world, as Hombre Natural: so I would like to ask you if in your opinion personal experience from real world is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

Paula Flores

I would have to say no, there is no way we can separete ourselves entirely from our context.

The beauty of art and what makes it unique is the context that goes through the artist, which the artist has a personal process and finally is presented as a work of art. Art is a reflection of a three way mirror.

I have particularly appreciated the way your works shows an effective dialogue between elements from different techniques, manipulating language and re-

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contextualizing images and concepts: while crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

Definitely for me this is the truth. I believe that every material, discipline and technique has a strenght of its own. As artist we have to know what we want to communicate and in what way, what do we want the spectator to feel.

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Paula Flores

Regalo de la lluvia

Paula Flores

Hombre natural

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Inevitable, Interactive art installation

Paula Flores

Inevitable, Interactive art installation

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Paula Flores

methane in myhead

Based on this we should choose what we are going to use to achive this.

During these years your work has been shown in several exhibitions and you recently had the solo "Retrospectiva�, at

Praxis. Tijuana... it goes without saying that feedbacks are capable of providing an artist of an important support, which is for sure not absolutely indespensable, but that can stimulate to keep on with Art: I was just wondering if the expectation of positive

Paula Flores

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overfire

feedback could even influence the process of an artist... how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? Do you ever think to whom will enjoy your Art when you conceive your pieces?

I think feedback is very important. Personally I need to show my work during the process to people I trust and as to the concept I like to discuss it with whoever I can. This always helps me make my work richer.

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Paula Flores

Ink Glass 5

Thanks a lot for your time and your thoughts, Paula. My last question deals with your future plans: how do you see your work evolving? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

Lately I’ve been doing interactive instalation art this type of work allows me to connect more with the audience, this is an aspect that I enjoy very much.

Paula Flores

Right know I am part of an art collective which is called Boiling process, it includes six artist from Tijuana and six from Los Angeles. We have done two shows and are planning are third. This is a great experience because it feels like the “political barrier� that we have between us no

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longer exist and in Tijuana this barrier is somethig that is always present because this barrier is part of our landscape.

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Elizabeth Zaikowski (USA)

An artist's statement

Elizabeth's work portrays themes that originate in the spiritual character of the mandala and the world of magical fantasy and illusion. Mandalas are symbolic of the universe and its eternal character, which is to provide symmetry and balance. In much of her work, communication, connection and participation with nature's cosmic world order are inherent themes. Her paintings are a reflection of the symmetrical nature of the universe.

Her mother is an artist and her father was an astrophysicist; their influence on her childhood shows in her work, having given her a very strong interest in art. Each piece created is developed in an organic manner, starting from the center and working outward, using a combination of airbrush and acrylic paints. Through her art, she strives to create more balance in our sometimes chaotic world.

By devoting her life to art, she believes art enriches our lives and spirits; expressing the need for balance in life.

Elizabeth Zaikowski

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Meditation acrylic on canvas 3' x 3'

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An interview with

Elizabeth Zaikowski What has mostly impacted on me when I first had the chance to get to know Elizabeth Zaikowski's works is the way she breaks open the kinetic arrangement engaging the static and passive observer, forcing the viewer to challenge any stereotyped perception process.

As a sculptress, the multi-layered moment transmitted to the viewers constantly leads them to change their perception. So it's with a real pleasure that I would like to introduce our readers to her stimulating works.

Hello Elizabeth, and a warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. I would start this interview with my usual introductory question: what in your opinion defines a work of art? By the way, what could be in your opinion the features that mark an artwork as a piece of Contemporary Art? In particular, do you think that there's a dichotomy between tradition and contemporariness?

A work of art can make you feel and question the world around you. Traditional work is good, it keeps us grounded in what has been done in the past, while contemporary art is new but also reflects our tradition in some way and can be understood through tradition and past.

Many new contemporary works have been done that reflect on the past but add something new.

Would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and you are a graduate of San Diego State University with a degree in Art Education: how much did this experience impact on the way you currently produce your artworks and on your evolution as an artist?

I started painting well before college, and knew I wanted to teach art because I felt so connected and passionate about creating, starting in with

Elizabeth Zaikowski Shamanic Healing Arts, solo show

my early high school years. I knew it was my calling and giving back by teaching others how to cultivate their own creative process I feel is very important.

Creating art can carry a deep spiritual perspective within ourselves and can unlock our true inner self. Although formally taught in college, I feel I am mostly self-taught with my style of work and picked it up with no formal training. School did, though, offer an outlet to expose me to other media such as ceramics.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much

Elizabeth Zaikowski

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Reflection Ceramic

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Elizabeth Zaikowski

preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

I am fairly quick in my execution of my pieces. I like to keep a sketchbook around, so whenever an idea arises I will do a few sketches before starting on the piece. Setup involves a bit of simple measuring if it is a piece based on symmetry. I usually do either an overlay and background of color and airbrush work, then another acrylic painting overlay of the subject on top of the airbrush work, and finally do the details of finishing the piece. Other technical aspects include adding little details on top of the backgrounds and subjects.

Now let's focus on your art production: I would start with Snow Angel and Cultivate, an interesting couple of works that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to visit http://www.artofelizabethzaikowski.com in order to get a wider idea of your current artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of these stimulating pieces? What was your initial inspiration?

“Snow Angel” was inspired by Mucha, I really enjoy his profile works of women, this particular piece represents an angel looking over the earth and protecting it. I have been doing a human profile series; each expresses our connection to various elements in nature.

“Cultivate” is very much based on the idea that we are all part of nature, hence the female figure making the tree form, also Mother Earth.

At the top of the piece there are stars that become the white flowers of the tree and then fall to the ground. The piece represents our oneness to all living things, and how our connection to them cultivates our selves, our surroundings, and our inner wisdom.

Another interesting pieces of yours that have impressed on me and on which I would like to spend some words are entitled Prayer

Passing acrylic on canvas 2' x 4'

and Expand: in particular, I definitely love the way your works explore the implication of experience itself, the impossibility of a description that could prescind from everyday life which plays the role of an inertial system of reference... So I would like to ask you if in your opinion personal experience from real world is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

Yes, I believe that personal experience is very important to the process of making art. The

Elizabeth Zaikowski

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Cultivate acrylic on canvas 2' x 4' Snow Angel acrylic on canvas 2' x 4'

real world can give an artist inspiration and insight to personal experience as well. I feel when I go into nature and discover an experience or visual beauty all around it

cultivates inspiration and connections to what to create, as well as the messages portrayed.

The artist becomes a filter for the beauty.

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Web Flower acrylic on canvas 2' x 4'

Elizabeth Zaikowski

Elizabeth Zaikowski

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Humming Crescent Cosmos acrylic on canvas 2' x 4'

Prayer acrylic on canvas 2' x 4'

experience. That is why I believe imagination is such an important part of the creative process.

It’s the world that lies in our minds.

I think that sometimes the creative process is disconnected from direct experience, because our mind can put things together that otherwise may not be thought of or within our direct

Your multidisciplinary approach is a crucial aspect of your art practice: besides ceramics, you produce interesting paintings, with various techniques. While crossing the

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Elizabeth Zaikowski

Dreaming Ceramic

Contemplation Ceramic

borders of different fields have you ever happened to realize that a symbiosis between different disciplines and opposite ideas is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

that feels like inside us, or what we see around us that offers peace and perspective in life.

Yes, many ideas and messages can be portrayed through many disciplines. For instance I think that my sleeping ceramic faces represent our inner self and are at peace within meditation or dreaming reality. My paintings reflect that inner piece by representing what

Now I would like to focus on your paintings: as you have remarked once, each piece is developed in an organic manner, starting from the center and working outward... I daresay that one of the themes of your creation infers the artist’s abstractive reflection on, and interpretation of, the natural world and phenomena... In particular, I have been impressed with the way your approach is capable of challenging the perception of the real and the oneiric

Elizabeth Zaikowski

Peripheral ARTeries Peripheral ARTeries

Dreaming Ceramic

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Awakening acrylic on canvas 4'x 4'

Elizabeth Zaikowski

Elizabeth Zaikowski

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Elizabeth Zaikowski

Star Bubbles acrylic on canvas 3'x 3'

Shinning acrylic on board 2'x 2'

dimension, which is suggested by a skillful mix of tones that establishes a synergy rather than a contrast: by the way, any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

"encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

I really love the use of color. So much feeling can come through in color. Some of my favorite colors I like to use are blue and purple, the cooler versus warm color spectrum. My past work was extremely bright in color, a full range of color. Also the use of white as light is an overall aspect of my pieces. White is like the light around everything, the spirit.

My color tone and mixing has become a lot more varied in evolution. I try to use a wide array depending on the feeling I want expressed through the piece. Every color has a feeling.

And I couldn't do without mentioning your Mandala Paintings, which have particularly impressed me. These interesting works suggested to me the concept that some information and ideas are hidden, or even

I feel particularly my mandala paintings represent this idea, that they could be a cell, a nucleus, a star, the moon, a flower, a crystal, the sun or all the many beautiful symmetrical elements found in nature. Our earth is a circle.

Many cultures throughout time have created mandalas: they have a deep-rooted spiritual significance of peace and reflect the symmetrical aspects of the world around us. I think of the energy emanating from the center outward, very much like our souls might emanate from one point and expand outward like so many elements in nature.

I think it's important to remark that your mother is an artist and your father was an astrophysicist: because I have a scientific background, I would like to take this

Elizabeth Zaikowski

Peripheral ARTeries

Spiral Galaxies Acrylic on canvas 3'x 3' occasion to ask what's your point about the contamination between Art and Science... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that new media art will definitely fill any remaining

dichotomy between these apparently different disciplines: and I will dare to say that Art and Technology are going to

Peripheral ARTeries

Elizabeth Zaikowski

Spiral Galaxies Acrylic on canvas 3'x 3' assimilate one to each other... what's your

I think that the force of science is around us as

point about this?

art is and I think that science and art are as one in a sense. Many elements in life have a

Elizabeth Zaikowski

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could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and art...

Positive feedback definitely helps me to push myself further and realize how important it is to continually create, and to really have an impact spiritually and emotionally on others.

I used to imagine thousands of people having my work in their homes. I want viewers of my work to feel a real genuine sense of peace and contentment when they look at my work. The pieces are to be viewed like a meditation or something you stare at to feel centered or contemplative at any moment.

Blue Lotus acrylic on canvas 3' x 3'

symmetrical quality that exists. Everything has an energy. In most of my pieces I represent that as light coming out, like an aura around all that exists. Creating is in a sense a science, our technology is art, we create it. Creating art can be like a science experiment, you never know what will come forth or how the final piece will turn out, because the artist can go in a million directions and paths while creating. It’s much like life, in which we have the ability to choose our path and direction and there are many paths that can be taken.

Now I would like to focus on the relationship with your audience: your works have been exhibited in several occasions and it goes without saying that positive feedback is capable of providing an artist an almost indispensable support: how important is for you the feedback of your audience? Do you ever think to whom will enjoy your art when you conceive your pieces? By the way, I was just wondering if the expectation of positive feedback could even influence the process of an artist... and I sometimes wonder if it

The business of art is a whole other world. I have come to realize that art is truly priceless, and although we may place a monetary value on it, it still remains priceless throughout time because it is encapsulated in the time created and the many experiences surrounding it.

I create my art to really have it touch others’ lives and to feel the connection to the work.

That is the most important.

Thanks a lot for your time and your thoughts, Elizabeth. My last question deals with your future plans: how do you see your work evolving? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

I have a solo show at the W hotel in Hollywood, on Friday, February 20th that I am really looking forward to.

I plan to be showing in as many places possible.

I have a few shows coming up this year that are pretty big. I look forward to becoming more visible to more people in the future and I am always working towards being out there in the world in any way possible.

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Scott D'Arcy (United Kingdom) An artist’s statement

My main drive to make art is a pursuit of truth around how images function and exsist through a long line of experimentation. I am drawn to beauty and very interested in its construction and purpose from a cultural stand point.

Collective notions of beauty and taste are shared and represented through a wide range of mediums over long periods of history. Even though beauty can sometimes be guilty of buying in to narcissism, what it has in common with the functionality of images is a high level of illusion, that depicts a world more seductive and appealing than our own. The tension between the sentiment the viewer experiences through their gaze and the reality of images is for the most part what my practise investigates.

Images are very ephemeral things, put quite simply they are very sophisticated systems and signs that add to our culture. The intangibility of the digital images in a frame-less, free-flowing world has been a key aspect that I believe best represents their paradoxical state. Such ideas are well recognized and explored in Hans Belting's "An Anthropology of Images" and Vilem Flusser's "Into the Universe of Technical Images". I welcome intangibility and surrealism because they best mimics how we really think about images. When we loose contact with a physical copy or walk away from the screen, we hold what we have seen psychologically. Our body becomes a medium that stores what we are exposed to.

Baroque No.7 - photogra

I reference and borrow a lot of content; this could be anything from aesthetics of certain styles to elements from famous historical paintings. For me appropriation is vital when trying to understand an images collective reading, and being able to set a certain appeal against itself in a very different way but still in a very visually way. The viewer then has an opportunity to really think about the new image with a new context.

The creative process is not so separate from these ideas. I have a tendency to view the world as an infinite universe of visual references, that merge over one another. A great deal of time is spent scouting locations and building up an achieve or collection through a range of sources; locations, online images from facebook, books, old master paintings. In order to decide which visual engines will work together.

Scott D'Arcy

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phy and digital media - 2011

Although digital media allows a platform for manipulation and surrealism, physical distortions can be equally as interesting due to their 'no tricks' approach. Reflections, photographs through water and the doubling up of images in glass are good physical examples of an images temporal existence.

Since my art relies heavily on an audience recognising something familiar in order to be

sometimes problematic to assume a final drawninto a state of speculation. It isreading even when the work is finished, but this is what images must do to continue if they want to maintain out attention.

So I embrace and play with their shifting and fluid nature, as oppose to making representations or illustrations of more solid events or concepts.

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Scott D'Arcy

an interview with

Scott D'Arcy Hello Scott and welcome to LandEscape. I would start this interview with my usual ice breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? Moreover, what could be the features that mark the contemporariness of an artwork?

It's a deceptively complex question, ever since we came to the conclusion that art can no longer exist outside of itself. Therefore there are not many boundaries left to push. Anything can be art, although in saying that, not everything is. For me a work of art is defined by its ability to convey a set of ideas in a way that captivates a viewer through sensory experience.

Sometimes an emotional connection is seen as a very important aspect, but personally i think this is a by product and down to qualities within the individual and not the work in question. I think pieces that are set out to be contemporary from the start tend to be guilty of being too 'slick' or polished. This doesn't go for the majority of contemporary art, but id say it's sometimes a good indicator of an artist appealing to a built up contemporary fashion in a way.

Would you like to tell us something about your background? You have studied at the Leeds Metropolitain University: how has this experience of formal training impacted on the way you currently produce your works? By the way, I sometimes I wonder if a certain kind of formal training could even stifle a young artist's creativity... what's your point?

I did study at Leeds Met yes. Institutions are useful in terms of sharing ideas and co-operation. I found having people to hand very useful with my practise in particular because it relies heavily on collective and shared readings. However the downside of making work that is being formally assessed in that way means you are forced to focus on one area.

There is freedom within the scope you choose.

However wanting to pick something totally diffe-

Scott D'Arcy

rent up the following week is more often than not frowned upon, even though i have found that if you are serious about your art, no two things are completely unrelated. However at the time i was very much aware that this was what universities had to do in order to grade work. I made art for myself as well as my education and it did make me to value the variety, which is something best recognised early on in an artists progression between what they like to do and what they have to do.

An art students creativity can be 'stifled' mostly by self consciousness, specifically when they compare themselves to their fellow pupils. The most Cassandra Hanks

Scott D'Arcy

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After Vermeer - digital collage - 2012

most common aspect of this i found is when two people arrived at similar areas. I learned the trick is not to compare yourself to your class mates, just relax and understand your practise better.

The natural feeling you get is to take a different route, but this is more often than not a false sense of security.

during the process of creating a piece?

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks?

In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and

The preparation onto what engines to use in conjunction with each other requires a great deal of preparation and research, mainly around the formal elements of images but also the philosophical concerns around out perception. I also spend a lot of time scouting out locations and collecting images in order to have a more practical connection to my

It varies depending on the piece. There are a whole host of different techniques i use within the computer (mainly photoshop) and for the most part my practise has been a cycle of pushing images back and forth between the tangible world and digital manipulation until it is resolved.

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Scott D'Arcy

Birth - digital collage - 2013

creative process. Lighting techniques and compositional decisions like in “Birth� is very tough and requires patience. Its an endless game of trail and error, constant observation and experimentation.

Now let's focus on your artworks: I would like to start with Baroque No.7, a recent and interesting piece that our readers have already admired in the introductory pages of this article: would you tell us something about the genesis of this work? What was your initial inspiration?

My initial inspiration was the investigation of the multiverse of layers and realities images exist on and the high drama achieved in baroque paintings.

I found this aesthetic style to crop up everywhere, from films to fashion from a time where we couldn't have lived. It's as a kind of diachronic nostalgia, which i obviously found very interesting and decided to explore. Baroque No.7 was made at the beginning of my real use of the photography studio. Its intention was to made a new work out of powerful elements of much older ones in the hopes of creating a piece that intoxicated the viewer through visual familiarities. Leading them

After Rembrantd - photography and digital me

into a labyrinth of fake tattoos, doubled up figures and digital manipulation. Which i felt reflected our recycling of these tastes and has the possibility to build on its social conjunction.

Another pieces of yours in which I would like to spend some words are After Rembrandt and After Vermeer... Although it's crystal clear that this series is pervaded by irony, I have to admit that I'm some puzzled about this aspect: in fact the irony springs from the super imposition of materials of different eras... all in all, if we admire the first version of Cara-vaggio's The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, we can recognize the angel's hand driving Sain Mattew's pen... so why an angel shouldn't help an old man to write with an iPad? I really hope that you will forgive me for this naif observation...

I think that if that where the case, we would just

Scott D'Arcy

Peripheral ARTeries

confusion is the same as the right amount of creative speculation.

It goes without saying that modern technology -and in particular the recent development of infographics- has dramatically revolutionized the idea of painting itself: this forces us to rethink to the materiality of the artwork itself, since just few years ago an artwork was first of all -if you forgive me this unpleasent classification- a manufactured article: it was the concrete materialization of an idea...

As a digital based artist with high levels of experience both in Painting and in Photography, you would like to know you opinion about this...

Id have to agree with you. Artwork did used to be a concrete manifestation of ideas, it still very much is. However I am reluctant to show any work as print or hard copies, as i believe the digital best represents my concept of the fluid existence of images.

I think there are some interesting traits that appear when looking at a painting that non-tangible displays play with.

dia - 2013

be changing materials within the reality of the painting. Consequently the characters might then be drawn into areas of convincing fancy dress, which would be very final. In a way I am glad you're left at least a little bit at a loose end, but to clarify the irony is important in my re-contextualization of these images.

By super imposing two different states in the same setting; using either surrealism of the same figure multiple times. Or alternatively by making a work that appears to be one very resolved image but is in fact two from different periods in time. It prompts the viewer to really participate in their own speculation around the work. So to finalise, the irony wouldn't have this effect if the work was a more linear one. Neither would it be as effective if everyone arrived at the exact same conclusion, it would make the images very bland and dead in my opinion. To me a small amount of

That core desire to touch a realistic paintings originates from some primal urge to test the illusion of the world the painting depicts. Touching the surface disrupts that false perception; one which the artist tried to achieve in its creation. (if we are talking about high realism painting) Otherwise we wouldn't constantly remind visitors of a gallery not to touch the paintings.

Upon reflection No.23 - photography - 2013

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Scott D'Arcy

After John Martin - digital collage and manipulation - 2012 It's that desire that is completely denied when using digital screens or projections, it makes the work not only appear more fake. But destroys the artists 'hand' and distancing a viewer from the creation process. Ironically i find this very useful when getting to the core focus of my work. Digital displays free the image from this distraction of touch and the tangible fixation of a material. If you want ideas to orbit around a particular subject as i do, a temporal medium is best.

As you have remarked in your artist's statement, you have a tendency to view the world as an infinite universe of visual references, that merge over one another... I would go as far as to state that your Art help us to notice a lot of details around us, allowing us to discover the poetry inside them... I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need to decipher them. Maybe that

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

I suppose it depends what you mean by inner nature. If you mean it physiologically, i suppose you could see some overlap between that which we project onto the world from personal experience, and an images ability to deflect these experiences back to us in a more mysterious way. Thus peaking our attachment and making us want to explore it, which is exactly how it works for me. I have this huge collection of images, and when i discover something i always have this need or habit to try and attach it to some other picture.

This discovery could be anything from a found image, to a location, or something i have been around for years and only just realised its potential. That's when the practical investigation really begins, even though i wouldn't go as far as to say my work is very personal. Hanks But there is defiantly Cassandra

Scott D'Arcy

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something very human about this activity of exploring, deciphering and understanding the world through the memory of images we can relate to.

During these years, your artworks have been exhibited in many occasions and moreover you have been recently shortlisted for Vantage art prize... it goes without saying that feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist, I was just wondering if an award -or better, the expectation of an award- could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? Do you ever think to whom will enjoy your Art when you conceive your pieces?

Absolutely not. Awards gained, or short listed for don't do it for me (although they are quite nice for a young artists status) I think most artists

Upon reflection No.52 - photography - 2013 would just enjoy the self gratification in the initial moments that we all constantly crave. Beyond that awards and prizes are mostly tools for academics to try and differentiate between good and bad art I guess. They wouldn't influence many dedicated artists I don't think.

I do often wonder about who my art is for, if that is the same thing. The references are the most problematic aspect to wrestle with in a pieces reading. But I don't believe the work should stride to be educational through what it appropriates. A small clue in the title is enough for anyone interested in how it originated. Id say my work is for anyone who isn't to fixed on convention and likes to apply their own ideas a lot.

Thank you for your time and for sharing with us your thoughts, Scott. My last question deals with your future plans: anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

Id like to mention that I am currently collaborating with a hand full of artist in Yorkshire and the Midlands. Some interesting projects are mushrooming out, including some surrounding gaming culture and reconstructing films stills. It's a bit of a left turn for me as my practise has up until this point been solitary, but there will some exciting exhibitions and events for 2014 but I wouldn't like to say any more than that on their behalf.

Upon reflection No.17 - photography - 2013

An interview by peripheral_arteries@dr.com

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Margaret Noble (USA) An artist’s statement

I create objects, installations and performances that investigate the echoes of time in contemporary identity and environment. I focus on narratives and legacies left behind by families, media and technology.

I use found objects, construct new objects and design sound to activate spaces, reference history and pose questions about perception. I draw on a wide variety of materials and symbols to juxtapose ideas. I play with time travel as I move between generational influences, historical myths and the future.

Margaret Noble

Born in Texas and raised in San Diego, Margaret Noble’s artwork has been exhibited across the United States, Canada and abroad in Europe. Noble’s art has been featured on PBS and positively reviewed in Art Ltd Magazine, the San Diego Union Tribune, and San Francisco Weekly. She holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego and an MFA in Sound Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Noble has been awarded the International Governor’s Grant, the Hayward Prize, the Microsoft Global Educator Award for Arts and Mathematics and the Creative Catalyst Fellowship. Noble’s artistic residencies include the MAK Museum in Vienna and at the Salzburg Academy of Fine Art. Her solo exhibition, 44th and Landis was featured at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego from 2012-2013. In 2014, she won first place in the Musicworks Magazine electronic music composition competition. Margaret Noble’s work is influenced by the beat-driven dance culture of southern California during the 1980s. This inspiration led her to perform as an electronic music DJ in the underground club community of Chicago for several years during the late nineties.

In 2004, Noble branched out from the dance floor into more experimental interests and created a monthly arts showcase called Spectacle in Chicago; during this period, she performed and produced experimental works with a variety of cutting edge new-media artists. Her interdisciplinary work resides at the intersection of sound, installation and performance.

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#196 Winter

Righteous Exploits performance, photo by Matt Lewis 2

Peripheral ARTeries

Margaret Noble

An interview with

Margaret Noble Hello Margaret, first I would give you welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You hold a BA in Philosophy, from the University of California, San Diego and an MFA in Sound Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago: how have these experiences influenced you in the way you currently produce your artworks?

Both of these educational experiences have deeply influenced my research and artistic motivations. In the instance of philosophy, I was trained to question and analyze all manners of ideas with a critical eye. I find this practice resonate with what many contemporary artists do today.

an interview with They investigate ideas, put forth arguments and problem solve through form. Later, when I began my studies in sound art, I was at first pushing to learn the technical and formal aspects of creating exclusively. But, I learned immediately that a work’s ability to communicate may lack in depth if it relies on technical and formal skills alone.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

Margaret Noble

will express the concept in its most effective way.

My forms are fluid and I often outsource pieces of the project to secure the best possible outcome. I fear having my art limited by my technical ability.

My work starts exclusively with an idea of interest; some seed of context that is neglected, in tension or resonates as a problem. I then spend a good deal of time researching my selected topic of interest until I feel that I have something that is more refined and meaningful to express. With this specific concept in mind, I draft out ideas for forms that

Now let's focus on your art production: I would like to start with your interesting project Righteous Exploits that you have created in collaboration with Justin Hudnall and that our readers are starting to get to know in the intro6

Margaret Noble

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Righteous Exploits performance, photo by Matt Lewis

and concept. I am often looking to the past to inform the present and in particular I hunt for primary documents such as letters or photos that may shed light on our experiences of today. For Righteous Exploits, I was inspired by the Ann Fabian’s book, The Unvarnished Truth which is a powerful cultural history of how ordinary Americans crafted and sold their stories of hardship in the nineteenth century. Justin and I decided to exploit our own stories (as often artists do) to see what themes of the past would resonate today based on letters and documents we could dig up from our family. The work then took shape on its own and morphed into ideas around eternal recurrence.

Righteous Exploits performance, photo by Matt Lewis ductory pages of this article and I would suggest to visit your website directly at http://www.margaretnoble.net/righteous-exploits/ in order to get a wider idea of this interesting work: in the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of the project behind these pieces? What was your initial inspiration?

As you have remarked, Righteous Exploits is a chronicle of the life of your grandmother, Helen Hosmer, a 1940′s-era labor activist... so I would like to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

My work is obsessively time-based in both form

Yes, I do feel that the most honest and interesting 7

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Margaret Noble

an interview with 44 th and Landis installation, photo by Nathaniel Elegino

44 th and Landis installation, photo by Nathaniel Elegino

work is that which is personal. However, my concern as of late is that my work is sometimes too personal and this directness has made me uncomfortable in familiar audiences. But, the conceptual problems that interest me are those that relate to my direct experiences. Working with experience gives me authority to explore freely and take risks because of insider knowledge.

Multidisciplinarity is a recurrent feature of your art practice: your production ranges from sound to installation to performance as the interesting 44th and Landis and I think it's important to remark that you were a dancer later, during the late nineties, you were a DJ in the underground club community of Chicago for several years during the late nineties... while crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

But, the aim is to explore the personal in such a way that it relates to the audiences that experience the work. The antithesis of this is making personal works without thinking of your audience. For me, if the work is only serving the self then it may not belong in the public sphere. I am not saying to pander or cater to audiences in a way that is compromising. What I am saying is that work is more interesting and carries more weight when it is relevant to others outside of the self.

Absolutely, and herein lies the tension. I cannot be an expert at all mediums but I do not want to limit my ideas to the mediums I am skilled at. #196 Winter 8

Margaret Noble

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A still from 44 th and Landis

daresay- on a physical one, as in as Tides ...

Do you ever think to whom will enjoy your Art when you conceive your pieces? Do you ever happen to draw inspiration from who will enjoy your artworks?

I deeply care about my audience's experience and this informs my work. I resent projects that alienate audiences and although I am interested in the contemporary art dialectic, I am more interested in work that reaches beyond this specific camp. That is not to say that I think work should be dumb downed, on the contrary, the ideas should remain gripping, challenging and provoking. But, what I would advocate for is that artists use form to communicate ideas beyond the contemporary art community. I was once told that I am a “plain speak conceptualist,” I liked that comment.

an interview with

So, I can execute poorly at mediums I am new to.

But, that doesn’t succeed because the work is unsuccessful. I could try to master multiple forms.

But, by the time I get to any type of proficiency I may loose interest in my original concepts. So for me, the answer is often collaboration or (as I mentioned earlier) outsourcing parts of a project.

Artistic vision is so exciting and clear in one’s mind but so challenging to manifest as a real thing.

It does often require a synergy between different disciplines.

Your works are strictly connected to the chance of establishing a deep involvement with your audience, both on an intellectual side and - I

#196 Winter A still from 44 th and Landis

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Live performance, photo by Mark Hamburg

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Margaret Noble

Shelter

Spill

installation Photo by Stacey Keck

installation Photo by Stacey Keck

Another interesting pieces of your on which I would spend some words are Shelter and Spills, which part of an installation series that explores the fragility and futility of human interference with natural processes: one of the features of these interesting pieces that has mostly impacted on me is the way you have been capable of re-contextualizing the idea of environment, especially challenging the "function" of it... I'm sort of convinced that some information & ideas are hidden, or even "encryp-

ted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

I think the subconscious runs wildly in creators and that the artistic works they make are often cryptic even to the artists themselves. I often think that I am so clear about my intentions behind a work and then once the work is finished #196 Winter I figure out that 12

Margaret Noble

Peripheral ARTeries

an interview with 44 th and Landis performance, photo by Nathaniel Elegino

there is much more to uncover. It is kind of exciting and unnerving because I want to be very articulate about what I am planning to make. But then I find out that the work is saying more or something different. Of course, I wonder was this intention always there and I ignored it? Or, did something really new emerge?

culture and history when trekking about Europe that makes an American feel like a child. Sometimes, I have this impulse to feverishly study European art and history textbooks before connecting with artists in Europe. But, that solution is ridiculous and makes one an imposter. So I embrace my American-ness and soak in what the old world offers, recognizing that these two worlds are different and that is interesting!

During these years you received many positive feedbacks, and you have recently won first place in the Musicworks Magazine electronic music composition competition... Moreover your artworks have been exhibited in several occasions, both in the USA and abroad, as in Europe, and you won a residency at the prestigious MAK Museum in Vienna and at the Salzburg Academy of Fine Art: what impressions have you received from the expe-riences in Europe? Did you find any great difference with the American scenario?

I will be creating an installation for the Mediations Biennale this fall at the American satellite venue in San Diego, California. http://www.biennialfoundation.org/biennials/media tions-biennale/

It is a funny thing being an American artist in Europe. There are just some things about the wealth of

an interview by peripheral_arteries@dr.com

Thank you for this interview, Margaret. My last question deals with your future plans: anything coming up for you that you would like readers to be aware of?

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Tanya Stadnichenko (Russia) an artist’s statement

The main direction Tatiana`s works is to transfer graphic and compositional laws in the space of streets, parks, abandoned factories.

For her works are important historical, architectural and landscape contexts. In the installations she widely uses colors, graphic quality, the refraction of light, spatial content, the violation of the optical illusions.

The feeling of the dominant natural culture is the axis of most projects. She compare asocial environment areas, the urban places and human work directly with them, the author explores all known laws, exposing them.

The natural background is becoming legislator and inspirer, and organic natural forms combined with the industrial world and the increasing globalization of nomadism - tools for translating ideas.

Tanya Stadnichenko Strikes, 2012 Installation, Summer Đ?cademy in Salzburg

Tanya Stadnichenko

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STRIKES, installation Summer Academy in Salzburg-2012 The clearness of blow depends from the shooter, from experience, which has been saved up on years.

Today artist is a densely connected to itself with all society.

The young artist has no time for mistakes, relying on intuition and analyzing a situation, it strikes new blow.

The blow should be the accurate, uncompromising, exact, with clear statement . vimeo.com/48279411

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Tanya Stadnichenko

an interview with

Tanya Stadnichenko Hello Tanya, and a warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. I would start this interview with my usual ice breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? By the way, what could be in your opinion the features that mark an artworks as a piece of Contemporary Art? Do you think that there's still a dichotomy between tradition and contemporariness?

Artist for me now it's not just a creator – it's a person, who can make a difference in the environmental situation, change the areal of his habitat through the dialogue with people. I like to measure the depth of human perception; I immerse myself and people in unusual environment, for to expose factors that are absolutely impossible to see in everyday life. For example, I had a series of public-art projects in which I examined the laws of attraction and gravitation.

The plane has outlived its usefulness for me.

For me now the drawing, painting and photography can't show all the energy and speed of the modern world. It's a problem, that in Russia we have a huge gap between classic art and contemporary. For example, in the common art- university (like my first one) the history of art ended on the Malevich. And our education system too old, that’s why people didn't get used to think when they see the art, they just say: «Is it really art? I can do the same».

Would you like to tell us something about your background? You have received a formal training, during your studies of Fine Arts, at the prestigious Institute of the Contemporary Art of Moscow. How has this experience impacted on the way you currently produce your artworks?

By the way, I sometimes I wonder if a certain kind of formal training could even stifle a young artist's creativity... what's your point?

In Moscow we have some new private art- institutions where artist could have some fresh knowledge and information about what's going on in the art-world now. That’s why I have 2 art- educations.

After ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow) the borders of my art-perceptions opened and I start-

Tanya Stadnichenko

ed to work another way, try new materials, technology; strive for clarity of expression and multilayered work.

About background I think that my motherland played an important role in my art. I was born in a little city in Siberia and I used to live in a huge vast, I walked a lot in endless fields, forests and abandoned buildings. That's the one of reason why I prefer to work with a big spaces or on the streets and public spaces with a nature, use the wind and air.

Before starting to elaborate about your would you like to tell to our production, Cassandra Hanks

Tanya Stadnichenko

Peripheral ARTeries

output the laws of graphic and compositional to the streets, parks, abandoned factories. The historical, architectural and landscape contexts, colors, graphic quality, the refraction of light, space filling, in violation of optical laws are rather important for me.

Now let's focus on your art production: I would like to start with Strikes that our readers can admire in these pages and that I would suggest them to view it directly at vimeo.com/48279411: in the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this project? What was your initial inspiration?

I did this installation in the Summer Art Academy in Salzburg, Austria. I came to study there for one mounth. And there was an atmosfere like in artfactory, where is an everybody have to do powerfull «strike» with his project. The young artist has no time for mistakes, relying on intuition and analyzing a si-

readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

Basically all of my recent projects deal with temporality. It's going from the my life and social -situation when is nothing for a long time. I'm interested in the theme of the short duration of art. During last year I did nothing for «white cube» space, because I want to my projects works with people on streets and parks and the viewer can participate in the installation. I try to

Strikes, detail

Peripheral ARTeries

Tanya Stadnichenko

The Labyrinth, Land-art project Life of every person - a labyrinth. We always search for easy road, we wander in search of happiness, we lose faith, we find, we rejoice grass. It breaths, moves, changes a direction, cooperates with the nature.

tuation, it strikes new blow. The blow should be the accurate, uncompromising and exact, with clear statement. In the installation I tried to visualize some of these strikes of the young artist as they could be in a formal vision. And it was interesting to worked with salt-space (That factory was a salt factory before the O. Kokoschka did it place for art-study).

Another piece of yours on which I would like to spend some words is Labyrinth, an interesting land art work that I like very much: as you have remarked, it breaths, moves, changes a direction, cooperates with the nature... A feature of

this piece that has mostly impacted on me is the effective synergy that you have been capable of establishing an effective dialog between Nature and our inner nature... Could you lead us through the development of this project?

It was project about the human being with idea that ÂŤWe alwayse looking for easy road, wander in search of happiness, we lose faith, we find, we rejoice or we long, we come back to old roads and we search for new waysÂť. I cut the grass for to do kind of labyrinth, where people can sit and think about his life. But also I felt this like a big

Tanya Stadnichenko

Peripheral ARTeries

reality and start to live it's s own life, especial when I work with public-art. For example, when I did work «Adrift», I didn't expect that reflections in the water will play a significant role in the composition, and I didn't think that 40 kg of apples from the project «Juice» will exude an incredible smell, supplementing installation.

And we couldn't do without mentioning Temporary Waterfall that is one of my favourite pieces of yours: I would daresay that this work sums in an image the well-known Bauman's concept of «liquid modernity». I can recognize in it a subtle social criticism...

And I'm sort of convinced that Art in these days could play an effective role not only making aware public opinion about socio political issues: I would go as far as to say that nowadays Art can even steer people's behavior... I would take this chance to ask your point about this.

or we long, we come back to old roads and we search for new

animal which breathe, move and participate in all that process.

Being strictly connected to the chance to create a deep interaction, your artworks are capable of communicating a wide variety of states of mind: have you ever happened to discover something that you didn't previously plan and that you didn't even think about before? I'm sort of convinced that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal hidden sides of life and nature... what's your opinion about this?

For sure, everey project from sketches come to

Temporary Waterfall, detail

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Tanya Stadnichenko

Temporary waterfall, Anapa, 2013 installation from series of temporary sculptures I`ve the only here and now. There is nothing permanent it`s a «liquid modernity» time. Here is only sky and sand.

I don`t know what will happen tomorrow because of speed information.

The first work from a series of break down objects.

Do you think that it's an exaggeration? And what could be in your opinion the role that an artist could play in our society?

As I told in the beginning of the interview, I think that now the artist can't just sit in the studio and create an esthetic objects or pictures like 100 years ago. Now is everybody artist, everybody has a photo camera and internet. And the true artist has to be more than just artist. He must be a mirror of society, reflection of reality and «changer of time». What about «Temporary waterfall», I was inspired by book of Bauman because he indicated very clearly all social problems of our days.

In my life (as in the histories of all my friends also) there is nothing stable, everything too much unreliable, and nobody knows what will be tomorrow. It's kind of the capitalism's consequence and unwillingness of people to change something in the situation. That’s why I want to do exhibition with temporary objects which will crushed during exposition.

Your art practice ranges from Installations, public art as Gravitation to performance, as Limits: while crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to

Limits, video, 2’42’’, 2013 Hanks Cassandra

Tanya Stadnichenko

Peripheral ARTeries

THE GRAVITATION Public-art- installation, Moscow-2012 I feel the power of gravitation, it surrounds me.

It works anywhere, anytime.

I want to dip you in the sense with destruction borders of things and distorted forms.

I want to levitate and break any area of perception.

I measure the gravity at different locations. vimeo.com/52576741

realize that a synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

I don't have a single medium for work. I try to express idea by all possible means of expression, and sometimes all this mediums works only together.

The Marked Place, public installation

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Tanya Stadnichenko

During these years you have exhibited your artworks in several occasions: you recently had your solo "Tissue" and moreover you received a grant from the Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg. It goes without saying that feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist, I was just wondering if an award -or better, the expectation of an award- could even influence the process of an artist...

By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? Do you ever think to whom will enjoy your Art when you conceive your pieces?

I'm inspired by dialogs and discussions with the audience. And every new exhibition like new competition – you never know reaction of people, but I can't work without society attantion.

And every new project like explore of my own borders and opportunities and it's hard but also enjoy.

Thanks a lot for your time and your thoughts, Tanya. My last question deals with your future plans: what's next for you? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

I just received an invitation for spring from the residence «La Napoule Art Foundation» (France).

I've some ideas for explore French style- garden there.

And also may be I've to travel more for totally contemporary art!

An interview by peripheral_arteries@dr.com

TISSUES, 2011-Moscow 2012 There is a Own law for all elements of the Universe.

We are the total model of the our planet, including all its parts: the earth, water, fire, air (wind), heavenly space (ether).

The face of person in an old ages looks such as the mirror, is similar to an earth crust surface.

It is possible to judge his life on mimic wrinkles of folds of the person. All stresses, pleasures, physiological and spiritual processes leave an accurate trace on us.

The Earth have the similar processes, but in galactic scales - explosions of volcanoes, earth crust shifts, a tsunami, climatic fluctuations, changes of degree of an inclination of a terrestrial axis.

I consider history of a universe on an example of my own family tree. Portraits of great-grandmothers, great-grandfathers, uncles, are compared with maps of those territories on which their life proceeded.

Serene Greene

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Global Warming

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