WOANDER curated by corey oberlander and lindsey stapleton
RAINA BELLEAU SHAMUS CLISSET M A R I A M O LT E N I ANDREA WOLF
DIRECTOR'S NOTE One of the most common questions we hear at the gallery is also the one we don't really have a simple answer to: How do you find your artists? The truth is - we're grateful that there is no formula. We
meet
our
artists
in
our
own
gallery,
at
shows,
on
the
internet,
at
art
fairs, with friends, at schools, and at the park. Via emails, submissions, phone calls, coffees, drinks, and studio visits. They
are
our
neighbors,
our
friends,
our
acquaintances,
our
social
media
stalkers, our partners, our support, and our heroes. We find them, and they find us. These
distinct
paths
cross
in
our
most
recent
curatorial
project,
Woander.
With artists from New York City, Boston, and Providence, we have managed to forge each relationship through a drastically different route... Corey & Lindsey
ABOUT GRIN GRIN
is
a
contemporary
art
gallery
located
at
The
Plant
in
the
historic
Olneyville District of Providence, Rhode Island. Directed by Corey Oberlander and Lindsey Stapleton, GRIN was founded in 2013 as a space for artists to develop and exhibit their work with a steady curatorial hand. Our intent is to develop an intellectually demanding yet aesthetically pleasing program, focusing on emerging artists working across mediums. Our hope is to
stimulate
fresh
dialogue
while
continuing
to
promote
the
development
of
the local creative community. Our mission is to support the careers of underexposed artists with a devotion to craft and conceptual advancement. To
purchase
any
available
works,
please
see
our
Artsy
page
or
contact
directly. All sales are Tax Free!
CONTACT 60 Valley Street, Unit 3, Providence, Rhode Island
02909
e. contact@grinprovidence.com p. 401 272 0796 Open Saturdays 12PM - 5PM by announcement, appointment and chance.
us
RAINA BELLEAU SHAMUS CLISSET M A R I A M O LT E N I ANDREA WOLF Woander confronts our heavily mediated relationship with nature. Works by Raina
Belleau,
Andrea
Wolf,
Shamus
Clisset,
and
Maria
Molteni
approach
the great outdoors by calling a keen attention to common cliches, taboos, disruptions, past-times, and memories associated with our organic surroundings.
By
configuring
selections
of
faux
materials,
documentations,
and
objects, the artists in Woander have produced works that mirror a traditional view
of
flora
and
encompassing
fauna,
these
while
subjects.
also
House
critiquing
plants,
our
home
archetypal
movies,
attitudes
astroturf,
faux
furs, recyclables, and digital screens are arranged as a sort of back-handed homage to our domestic actions in relation to our greater surroundings. Using
an
astute
combination
of
man-made
materials
and
anthropomorphism
in her character-driven installations, Raina Belleau is constantly alluding to the
human
simple
element
and
environmental
displays
through
Belleau's
video
its
effect
on
the
reminders
by
exquisite
selection
an
installation,
Brood,
natural
world.
orchestrating of
depicts
material
the
Belleau
aesthetically
artist
and
dressed
presents elaborate
composition. in
a
camou-
flage costume complete with whooping crane puppets on both hands. Based on outfits worn by conservationist biologists in an effort to avoid avian/human
bonding,
the
crane
puppets
pull
raspberries
from
a
bowl
to
feed
the
disguised mouth of the artist. Her sculptures and installations embody her awkward
feeling
towards
nature;
an
ache
to
connect
while
remaining
distanced and separate. Shamus Clisset's compositions question the impossible by using known imagery and objects in imagined space. Rendered natural materials and textures are frozen uncomfortably at disconcerting angles, defying traditional gravity and
adhering
America
instead
Clean)
is
a
to
Clisset's
life-sized
own
set
forces.
raytraced-image
Mr.
c-print
Realistic
of
a
(Keeping
homeless
Mer-
lin-type meets seaweed cosplay, set in a murder scene of a Law & Order episode. Grizzly Chair focuses on a meticulously rendered, larger than life Bear-Skin chair taken from Seth Kinman's 1865 version. Brute-force hunting tools the
as
well
as
chair
in
front
common of
items
whimsically
associated painted
with
floral
luxury
sit
wallpaper.
on The
and
around
piece
is
a
marriage of sought-out enjoyment and revelry of the natural world with the urge
for
re-organization
and
control
over
it.
Dizzying
and
responsive,
the
individual elements of these compositions come alive and mirror our complex relationships with those elements in our traditional lives.
A site-specific installation by Maria Molteni is a projection room slowly pulsing
and
droning found a
transitioning cicadas.
objects
curtain
or
through
various
Complimenting
color
the
catch
the
reflected
through
a
peephole.
filters
immersive
light
of
Molteni
a
cued
to
a
installation,
tanning
views
bed
this
soundtrack sculptural
projection
pulse,
this
of and
behind
drone,
as
a reference to environmental and biological cycles; "the electromagnetic (visible)
spectrum,
sunrise/setting,
seasonal
recreation,
insect
mating
patterns"
to name a few. Andrea Wolf presents two prints of photographs of the moon alongside an intimate evokes
projection a
sense
of of
found-astronaut-footage nostalgia
while
from
triggering
a
1963.
Her
barrage
of
installation memories
surrounding the sky, the stars, the heavens, and the moon. The work calls attention through
to it's
the
absence
of
personal
presentation
as
ephemeral
experience material,
and
memory
while
also
of
the
moon
reminiscent
of
Mom and Pop's home movies or photo albums. She is considering memory as
both
a
personal
and
collective
experience;
wonder
that
is
transferred
and exchanged from person to person. Woander is a forced combination of the words Wonder and Wander, spawning from wanderlust as a yearned-for human experience with the universe. We were defining wonder as an opposite to wander, as the latter is a physical action and the former can be understood as procrastination in relation. Neither come to any tangible fruition, but both are integral to our experience and relationship to the outside world.
Raina Belleau, Brood, Video, 2015
RAINA BELLEAU rainabelleau.com Raina
Belleau
received
her
is
a
BFA
Minnesota
from
the
artist
currently
Minneapolis
based
College
of
in Art
Providence,
RI.
She
and
and
her
Design
MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Raina is a 2012 recipient of the Minnesota Sate Arts Board Fellowship and a 2011 Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Adopt-a-River Artist.
How would you describe your relation-
about animals in their own way. I've
ship with nature? Is this something
always been drawn to animals wheth-
you often consider? Does living in a
er it's in fairytales, science, taxider-
city affect this relationship?
my,
the
zoo,
etc.
The
human
rela-
tionship with animals is long and has I'm
often
ship
bothered
with
lived
nature.
most
of
by
my
relation-
Especially
my
life
having
in
cities.
Nature feels precious in a way that isolates
it
from
me
most
of
the
time. I grew up loving wildlife documentaries and going on family camping
trips.
I
have
to
remind
myself
that nature is everywhere; that there are
urban
not
as
see
glamorous
on
poke
ecosystems.
TV.
fun
In
at
They're
as my
my
the
ones
work,
own
just
I
we
often
relationship
with nature, a relationship that feels very
American.
marshmallows work
have
when
it
The that
They
very
much
my
icons
for
me
thinking
very
tied
and
in
to
are
dogs
appear
become
comes
this.
hot
to
about
American nature
and
as
a
leisure commodity. Would you mind providing some back-
gotten more and more complicated. Companion animals cats,
familiar
closest
about us:
These
us
but
the
dogs, animals
also
to
Companion
creature
but
I
to
as
a
eat
very
other
is
gave
a
it
crea-
grotesque
marshmallows
gesture
of
kindness
totally
different
towards it. Brood
takes
kindness
on
a
towards
animals.
It
was
inspired by the costumes conservation biologists gered don't
wear
baby
when
the
so
strange
costumes
mother
the
chicks.
they
to
dress and
birds
to
There
is
endan-
cranes.
birds
humans the
raising
whooping
want
feed a
They
bond in
with these
impersonate and
teach
dependency
that is literally masked. I was interested could
ideas
pets.
to
relationship
tures.
Woander?
these
much among
different from us. They are often our
and
do
very live
household
are
ground information about the works in Where
is
that
in as be
the
bird
an
animal
both
puppet and
as
a
how
simultaneously.
tool they I'm
germinate, and why have they held
interested in the moments when they
your attention?
shift in between utilitarian object and animate creature.
The three works in Woander are about
animals
but
they
are
all
each
Porcupine and the Ghost Flag sits
Com pani on 2014 Faux Fu r, P o l ym e r Cla y , F o a m, A c r y lic P a in t, Re s i n, Col l ar s , Dog T ag, M us i c S t and 40 x 18 x 12 i nc hes
somewhere in between the other two
I
works. It's about the connections we
nature.
look
at
human
relationships
to
feel towards animals and the disconnects. It embodies many frustrations
Do you find that materials inform your
I
have
about
animals
and
how was
humans a
way
look
at
work? Is it the other way around? Or is
me
to
it in constant motion?
for
work through them. The tendency we have as humans to anthropomorphize
As an artist working with images and
rubs
forms
me
spurred
the my
wrong
way
decision
to
and give
it the
from
natural
nature,
objects.
try
constructed
me
to
when making into more of a charac-
look and think about these to seemly
ter.
The
ties.
I'm
my
ideas
a
way
for
on
how
we
are
zip
opposing realms. I like to use materi-
made
the
als that mimic nature or the realistic,
quills I
is
from
the
how
world
things
took my own ignorance into account
sure
of
use from
seen a porcupine in the wild and I
present
out
to
the
porcupine
world
not
things
porcupine a hotdog stick. I've never
not
natural
I
Making
mental leap from zip ties to porcu-
like
pine
a
on the porcupine or the clay hotdogs
for
our
and foam marshmallows. I just made
The
porcu-
quills,
material
but
they
connection
human-centric
attitudes.
bring
in
pine has become a mascot for how
a
the
turkey
feathers.
quills
with
made
out
window
of
zip
blinds
ties
for
In
Brood
I
knew
I'd
be
filming
I'm
not
against a white wall so I found hunt-
story
ing
background.
looked
The idea of camouflaging against the
stories
camo
wall on
was the
with funny
fabric
a to call
white me
but
the
the
bluff.
twigs Some-
times I'm drawn to materials because of their ability (intentional or not) to mimic other materials and other times because I find them humorous. You've
created
a
pretty
charismatic
cast of characters with your work over the last few years. Do any of these characters have a story? If so, do you consider yourself a story teller?
how
Perhaps
at
like
a
with
continuous
my
work
collection
the
can of
reoccurring
be
short
themes.
There definitely are a lot of characters.
Some
are
related,
some
aren't.
Porcupine and the Ghost Flag is the most connected to other works as a character. scout in
to
revisit.
a
I
I
reappeared
a
is
two
character a
few
started
character.
couple
my stand
conservationist a
have
have
vulture
about
other
the
clothing
percolating. with
thinking The
Although,
bird's
like
I'm
videos.
alone.
of
to
work
He
times
I'd
ideas has as
a
kind of defender or conqueror. Often I
I do consider myself a storyteller but
sure
is.
feel
like
I
might
be
one
of
the
characters!
P o r c u p in e A n d Th e G h o s t Fla g 2014 Zip- t i e s , F o a m , F a u x F ur , P ol y m er Cl ay , Dowel s , T r a s h B a g s , N y lo n R o p e , P ly wo o d , Chi p B oar d, Gl as s E y es , Te n t S ta k e , A c r y lic P a in t, S p ik e Dim e n s io n s V a r ia b le
SHAMUS CLISSET fakeshamus.com Shamus Clisset lives and works in Hell’s Kitchen, NY. FakeShamus is a sort of
imaginary-friend
character
who
lives
and
explores
these
alternate
realities
- a digital golem wreaking havoc on everything around him. He morphs from scene
to
scene,
melding
with
objects
of
my
own
mental
obsessions
and
personal history: the Lamborghini Countach that I drew compulsively as a kid; the
nature
and
subwoofers
that
suburban I
lusted
landscapes
of
after
before
even
my
upbringing I
owned
in
a
Colorado;
car
to
Bazooka
put
them
in;
the aesthetics of beer, guns and violence.
How would you describe your relation-
in
ship with nature? Is this something
But
you often consider? Does living in a
detritus from the suburban wasteland
city affect this relationship?
that's I
the
mountains
along
with
replaced
think
my
began that
what
to
filter
came was
parents'
a
in.
lot
once
of
here.
fleeing
Long
My family is from Brooklyn and Long
Island
Island,
big
natural reaction. But there is a scari-
hippies and moved us out to Colora-
ness to both extremes - the rawness
do
a
of nature vs. the emptiness of what's
lot of time in the mountains growing
left after it's been paved over - and
up,
that
but
when
I
even
my was
lived
parents young. in
a
were
We
spent
teepee
for
a
summer. But, like a lot of kids, my trajectory anything hippy,
was my
to
go
parents
opposite
had
back-to-nature
done.
is
the
Rockies
pretty
central
was
to
a
very
what
I'm
making.
to The
embar-
Would you mind providing some back-
rassed me for a long time. I'm not
ground information about the works in
embarrassed
Woander? Where do these ideas germi-
anymore
stuff
for
(usually),
but
I did end up in New York and not
nate,
on a commune.
attention?
What
I've
become
fascinated
by
as
and
Mostly
why
the
have
images
they
held
spread
your
out
as
a result of all that, however, is our
tangents
modern relationship to nature, espe-
lot of the objects, ideas, and compo-
cially as Americans, and in light of
sitions get reused, recycled or trans-
how real wilderness has been practi-
formed from one picture to the next.
cally
And
removed
from
our
daily
lives.
from
their
what
meanings
came
before.
transform
A
along
Working in 3D, one of my first reali-
with the context. The "Grizzly Chair",
zations was to treat digital space as
for
an empty new world, an unexplored
first
frontier - but one that is more inter-
FakeShamus
nal
the
(a
projected
mental
space),
so
a lot of imagery from my childhood
example, images full
body
is in
tied the
wearing of
a
to
one
series, (or
of
the
depicting inhabiting)
defeated
Grizzly
bear. And the figure in "Keeping
America Clean" is an offshoot of an
A lot of times the compositions start
earlier composition of a deconstruct-
from
ed
go
camouflaged
creature
embedded
a
to
single work
object
in
modeling
it
puter
and
other
elements
istic"
abstraction
and
But
tioned above, a lot of times the com-
of
the
thing
previous is
things
also
I
to
the
picture).
generally
see
or
every-
informed
remember.
I
by
spend
it
ever
follows,
element the
to
build
in
3D
and
from
of
next
it
or
But
of
almost
go
from
that
I
many
encounter.
Tumblr
goldmines
are
random
different
otherwise
imagery
would
images of
you
the
can
always
not
variations
and
elements,
most
imagine,
head
there.
As
men-
and
at
through
transformation.
imagery
my
becomes
one
that tends to present me with a lot sources
unfolds
into
position I'm working on sparks what-
objects
want
jump
builds
a lot of time researching images of I
process
I
com-
ment (hence, I called him "Mr. Realcontrast
the
head. the
in a dense video game like environin
as
my in
as
the
add
for
sort
dozens or
the
and
basis
of
compositions
through
I
some
some
the
change
lighting,
least
of
remove
environments
virtual
camera
angle. So what you see in the final
and that tends to be what drives me
version
forward.
outcome that
I
is of
really
choose of
just
many. the
It
to
one is
call
picture
possible
decided a
Do you find that materials inform your
version
work? Is it the other way around? Or is
also like the idea that each variation
it in constant motion?
could live on as an alternate reality to all of the others.
Mostly,
with
digital
concerned
with
perceived
in
materials,
the
the
level
image.
of
I
am
reality
For
many
objects, I just want the materials to be
convincing
space
and
enough.
things
to
I
be
want
the
believable,
but I'm not always interested in fully photo-realistic materials because that defeats the purpose for me. I don't want surfaces to be glaringly digital either, so I tend to avoid the digital trick of making some ordinary object appear like it's made of some weird material. It's a balancing act and h i t t i n g that
in-between
space
of
real
and
fake is what I'm most interested in. Based on the objective output, your process seems in some ways, decided. Would you mind providing some additional insight into the compositions of your images?
"done"
in
certain but
I
Griz z ly Chair 2014 Ray trac ed I m age / C- P r i nt 72 x 4 5. 375 inches (prev ious)
M r . Re a l i sti c (Ke e p i n g Ame ri ca Cl e a n ) 2014 Ra ytra ce d Ima g e / C-Pri n t 7 2 x 5 0 .5 i n ch e s (a b o ve )
M A R I A M O LT E N I maria-molteni.squarespace.com Maria Molteni is a Nashville-to-Boston-based multimedia artist, beekeeper, and educator. Having completed rigorous studies in drawing, painting and printmaking
at
Boston
University
her
practice
sprang
from
roots
in
observation
and
formalism. Over time, it expanded to incorporate performance, research, and participation. In
the
spirit
of
early
puppeteers,
with
roots
in
religion
and
radical
politics,
she attempts to extract or embellish psychic energy in urban and natural environments. Exploring iterations of sport, craft, feminism, spiritualism, animism, utopia, pop-culture, cryptozoology, and queerness, her work seeks to embody or
expose
unseen
presences
or
predicaments,
whether
cosmic
or
practical.
She enjoys problem solving via traditional methods of craft, employing original or absurdist tactics as applied aesthetic solutions.
How would you describe your relation-
artists
are
ship with nature? Is this something you
ished,
they
often consider? Does living in a city
habits
for
affect this relationship?
describe elty
or
economically tend
to
survival.
art-making profession,
undernour-
reshape Many
in
people
terms
but
I
their
of
nov-
believe
the
This is something I often consider. I
artistic
necessity
feel I have a strong relationship with
certain
primal
nature,
in
easily be explained or shed. It's just
and
something you do, or have to do, or
though
cities.
I
moved
to
but
grew
both
close
mostly in
Boston cities
to
I've up
as
lived
Nashville a
young
adult,
quite . lush
are
mountains,
fields,
Some
of
between
who were I've
were a
in
creeks,
visiting
my
strawberry
lot
of
always
those
wanted
climbing
grandparents
farmers.
There
influences more
of
instincts.
the
digging
around
likened They
to
can't
and
forests,
socialized
and
be
know how to do.
etc. As a child I spent a lot of time trees,
can
in
that my
life.
animals who
be
designs
Many
'civilized'
try
their
her
life less
lifestyles whom
or
forge other
by
an
artist
around
available
live
for
to and
closed
and
artists
animals
that
themselves may
necessities and
gaps
humans
these
resources.
conventionally
reflect
those
productivity
of and
I have other thoughts about the rela-
play haven't been stan dardized. I've
tionship that artists have to nature...
shared
whether they're situated rurally or in
organisms
one
tendencies.
of
Jane
“diverse adhere
urban to
similar
Jacob's
described
ecosystems� rules
of
that coexis-
tence. Because many contemporary
in
an
enjoyed
studios who I
Allston
with share
worked
all
among
basement
watching
sorts
some and
them
of
of my
spiders much weave
between my sculptures as I crocheted.
I
worked
out
of
a
honey
warehouse
in Leominster where bees often snuck in.
It's
great
productive,
to
be
around
matriarchal
such
communities
like honeybees as you're hustling and working
your
butt
off.
I
did
a
resi-
dency in Pennsylvania that was overrun
with
bats
(one
of
my
spirit
animals). We had regular interactions because
our
similar.
And
live/work
sleeping now
I
building
patterns
live
in
a
in
were
fancier
downtown
Boston. Midway Studios used to be a wool factory and there are still what I
like
to
call
"heirloom"
clothing
moths that make messes of my fiber pieces! People living in denser cities aren't
as
removed
from
"nature"
as
they may think. But what I miss most about Tennessee, besides being able to
see
night
more calls
stars, of
are
cicadas
the
powerful
and
other
insects. Those sounds really massage the soul. Would you mind providing some background information about the works in
Woander? Where do these ideas germinate,
and
why
have
they
held
your
attention? I’m interested aesthetically and philosophically
in
acts
the
with
become
how
the
artificial
organic
separated
and
as
inter-
how
they
“natural”
and
“unnatural”. I’m as heavily influenced by pop-culture as ecology, particularly when
queer
culture
appropriates
it.
I’m drawn to this tanning bed image, like
a
moth
appears
to
both
threatening
a
flame,
toxic and
because
and
it
alluring,
nourishing.
It’s
placed in the front window of a salon as an advertisement, but the rhythmic rise
and
fall
of
color
shifts
remind
me of droning insect calls or animals that
change
color
with
I
paired
surroundings. cicada
call
varying
natural
magnetic
because
it it
cycles-
(visible)
their
moods/with
a
juxtaposes the
electro-
spectrum,
sun-
rise/etting, seasonal recreation, insect mating
patterns,
etc.
People
work
these tidy 9-5 jobs so they can go
and
“work”
on
their
tans
every
5
graceful
way
between
for
13
to
have
under. many
and
only
see
before
Circadian
rhythms
different
ways,
the
sun
going
back
manifest
but
we
in
often
think there is this one “natural” way to exist. The
installation
drone is
a
you
field
hear
in
recording
my from
a trip I took to Texas. The Cacama named
and
or after
“Cactus
Dodger”
the
of
lord
tactical
following
solutions
to
my vari-
ous irresistible stimuli. I like to move between
media
that
seem
more
and
less concrete or ephemeral. Much of that
is
about
experiential
Cicada
valvata,
tactile
much
them,
instincts/intuition and responding with
babies
very
work
but
years
I’m
to
days. Some cicadas stay in the earth
life,
art,
experimentation
research.
and
nature
I are
believe tangled
and that up
and I’m trying to tease this all apart. I’ll basically try anything.
was
the
Aztec
kingdom Tezcuco. Cacama was killed by Spanish conquistadors and is supposed to live on in these creatures. Do you find that materials inform your work? Is it the other way around? Or is it in constant motion? It
is
in
very In
constant
tactile, this
motion,
but
I’m
material-oriented
way
I'm
like
a
person.
a
Magpie,
collecting shiny objects and hoarding them into my space. Half of my practice
is
playing
Tetris
and
finding
ways to build them into my apartment layout. Sometimes I wish I were less of
a
"pack
that
my
this
whole
rat"
but
materials
I
find
process
ties
also me
believe and
daily
that
life
to
a finally arranged piece. The objects, then, a
are
also
previous
kind
history
of or
charged energy
with
that
I
think makes its way in psychically. From paintings, to video installations, to interactive performance, your work has its own sort of spectrum. How do these projects inform each other and how do you transition between them? I’ m
not
sure
I’ve
found
the
most
Maria Molteni The Rise and Fall of Calcama Video Projection, Field Recording of Cacalama Valvata (Cactus Dodger) Cicada, Stones, Shells, Bones Plastic, Plaster 2015 Installation
ANDREA WOLF andreawolf.org Andrea
Wolf
is
a
Brooklyn-based
interdisciplinary
artist
from
Chile.
Her
work
consists of ongoing research on time, memory, and image. Wolf’s practice focuses in memory objects we produce (photos, home movies, postcards) and the relation
between
creates
personal
video
memory
installations
and
and
cultural
video
practices
sculptures
to
of
tackle
remembering.
these
Wolf
matters,
repre-
senting the tension between remembering and forgetting. Working with found footage - with anonymous stories - she leaves an open space to be filled by the meaning that each of us brings through our personal experiences. Wolf holds MFAs in Documentary Filmmaking (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona) and Digital Arts (Universidad Pompeu Fabra), and a MPA in Interactive Telecommunications
(NYU).
She
was
a
resident
of
the
AIM
Program
at
the
Bronx
Museum in 2013 and is currently an artist in residency at the New York Media Center. Wolf has shown her work and given lectures and workshops internationally in venues like the Museum of Memory and Human Rights and the Contemporary Art Museum in Santiago Chile, Dumbo Arts Festival, White Box, The Paley Center for Media and Wave Hill in New York, MIT Media Lab in Boston, Digital Culture
Center
Andrea
is
in
Mexico
founder
and
City,
VIZZI
director
of
Festival
in
Kiev
REVERSE,
a
non-profit
and
Media
Lab
workspace
Madrid. and
art
gallery in Brooklyn.
How would you describe your relation-
Would you mind providing some back-
ship with nature? Is this something you
ground information about the works in
often consider? Does living in a city
Woander? Where do these ideas germi-
affect this relationship?
nate, and why have they held your attention?
I
don't
think
being
in
nature,
interesting
you
you
(even say
it's
though,
person. our
I
to
a
images
I'm
space find
we
I
in.
and Then,
it
Last
December
make
happen,
contained
to
get
trip).
link
find
I
I
there
have
much
a
more
nature
the
like
become
think
observe
ourselves
to
I
has
very of
it;
also
travel
guess
of
I
short
mediation
often.
that
have
have
if
this
but
that
something like
about
I
was
beautiful
collection
of
in
Chile,
album high
that
resolu-
tion photographs of the moon, part of a
research
developed
by
a
Chilean
about
vatory in Chile or Brazil between 1961
one
think
a
when a
astronomer presumptively in an obser-
and
the
across
city
between I
to
came
the
and
the
photos overlaid by a velum paper with
we
very
specific
about
the
more
1962.
Most
pages
technical
conditions
and
have
two
information lenses
in
about landscape, or the concept of it.
which the images where taken. Inside
A
the album, I found two essays written
but
landscape also
its
is
not
image.
merely It
does
a
place,
not
only
reside in nature but also in culture.
by
the
same
scientist
"Observaciones
del Desvanecimiento del Brillo de s
Mis s ion 22 Orbits 2015 V i d e o S cu l p tu r e , Fo u n d Fo o t a g e Pr o ye ct e d o n to a Solid Rec tangular Plex i-glas s Variable Dimens ions
M o o n N. 1 1 2015 Gi cl é e Pr i n t 2 6 x 3 7 i n ch e s
Moon N.12 2015 Gic lée Print 26 x 37 inc hes
Algunas
Estrellas
ciones
Por
La
en
Sus
Luna"
and
Oculta-
white. How do you imagine progress?
"Destellos
Luminosos en La Luna".
Do you find that materials inform your work? Is it the other way around? Or is it
I was completely mesmerized by this discovery. are
The
images
breathtaking,
mation
of
makes
it
how of
the
moon
detailed
infor-
I work mostly with found footage home
taken
movies,
they
even
regardless
of
the
were
more
the
in constant motion?
compelling,
technicality
postcards
photos
that
were
and
once
vintage
written
and
it.
mailed.
I
This album, with all its research and
memory
objects
science,
and
relation between personal memory and
just
cultural practices of remembering.
seemed
reflected
so
so
much
of
found
personal
caring.
It
am
interested we
in
produce
these
and
the
made me think about my memories of the
moon,
minutes have
just
later
any.
mine.
Yet
These
thick
to
that
realize I
again,
paper
like
few
actually
they
For years now, I have been collecting super8
and
8mm
films,
creating
home
movies
my
felt
like
own
to
the
found
album
are
flea markets in different countries and
space and probably
have collected some from friends or in
photos, a
how I remember
a
don't glued
family
how you do too.
archive
of
footage.
I
buy
these
and
films
in
random circumstances. One could say, I
work
with
other
peoples
memories.
And then I remembered this super 8
The archive appears then as a poten-
film
tially
of
I
found
years
travel I
in
New
ago.
and
looked
It
was
progress
it
up
York
in
a
couple
about
space
and my
dreams.
found
So
footage
successful
past.
But
what
re-appropriate material,
the
space
flight
of
astronaut Gordon Cooper in 1963 and
through
his
public
collage.
The
film
Orbits!
reception is
after
called
Flight
of
landing.
"Mission:
Astronaut
Gordon
(actual
both
that
makes
you
must
form
of
your
memories.
It
and each
other,
shaped.
events with
in
history
certain
about
the
outer
space
that
aesthetic.
moon I
and think
concepts are
and
imprinted
When
I
think
and each
remembrance
some
new
me that
narratives
juxtaposition,
the
In
work,
other.
memory
then
are
to
re-interpret
montage,
has the texture of remembrance. and there
and create
inform
media
part
to
materials
feel that everything you are watching be
interesting
and
So I think it is a dialogue between the
film)
is
22
Cooper". I think it ithe quality of film analog
accessing
about the archive is the possibility to
of
about
of
what has been lost, reconstructing the
archive. It's a media production kind film
means
which
Technology,
affect
and
creating
that some
in
are
ways,
trans-
models
of
culturally my
work
is
about making that evident and, in the process,
the
memories
that
I
collect
the
stars
and
are
in
black
and
ence the way I think about my work.
transformed,
but
they
also
influ-
Do you have specific intentions for your
birthday could be the memory of any
viewers? Do you see disparity between
other,
the
the visceral and intellectual reactions,
ritual
and
or do they go hand-in-hand?
remains
person the
the
changes, story
same.
but
being
Home
the told
movies
become cultural products and cultural In my work I try to create an experi-
practices
ence
memories.
in
which
memory
becomes
an
action that is constantly actualized in
never
the
past:
present,
system
in
while
which
recognizing
the
function
a
of
the
past is not that of truth but of desire. Working
with
anonymous
found
stories
-
footage I
leave
-
with
an
open
space to be filled by the meaning that each of us brings through our personal experiences. If we understand memory as a narrative
construction,
we
can
say
that
there is a constant re-writing; there is no final text, but a continuous/infinite non-linear ways
one,
endlessly
reversible:
every
repeated,al-
memory
is
a
new memory. With
so
many
works
confronting
memory, do you ever insert your personal ephemera or memoirs, or are they only intended for the collective? I
do
have
movies when
some
as I
part
use
remove
of of
this
myself
my my
own
material,
and
not
home
archive, I
but
tend
think
of
to
them
so much as mine. Continuing with the idea
that
memory
construction,
we
is
a
can
narrative
find
similar
elements in the stories that we create when we say who we are and in the memory tend
objects
to
that
record
and
rituals
time
and
that the
we
produce.
some
specific
mark
the
unfolding
We
events
passage
of
our
of
lives:
birthdays, vacations, graduations, weddings:
mostly
Therefore, of
our
we
happy can
memories
moments think
of
indeed. the
becoming
idea inter-
changeable; the photograph of one’s
set
simply each
the
But,
tone home
found
time
of
the
movies
footage
they
their meaning changes.
are
of
ideal are the
reviewed,