This is a very existential question you’ve asked! As far as we know, abstraction and concept only exist within our own minds, and the existence of mind depends upon the existence of body. At least for now, or until AI takes over! But even then, cognition, and therefore abstraction, will depend upon materials (whether the material is flesh or circuitry) to exist. So with that said, purely sensate and materialistic existence is, at least for me, quite a boring idea. I prefer to explore abstraction through deepening my awareness of perceptive ability, which happens through processes of increasingly subtle, yet still sensory experience: feeling the fluctuations of my mind that ripple through my body and into my relationships, feeling the way my body and my environment are never separate. If this could happen consistently, and without distraction, then I think true “seeing” would be possible. As it is I get glimpses, and these glimpses are often allowed to be shared and expanded on through making art. As an environmentalist, and as someone who identifies as passionately spiritual but not religious, I think we have to understand that our physical beings can’t separate themselves from any other physical being or materials. But we also have to understand the spiritual essence, or see the subtle vibrations of creative individuality that are expressed in each moment when physical beings encounter each other, or other bodies, or even their own thoughts. This is what I try for with everything I do. For me everything is contained in this question! My body and its physicality, or the
interview
body and by using their own bodies in their creative process. German visual artist Gerhard Richter once remarked that "it is always only a matter of seeing: the physical act is unavoidable": as a multidisciplinary artist involved into performance art, how would you consider the relation between the abstract nature of the ideas you explore and the physical act of producing your artworks?