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15
Hello STACY.O and welcome to NotRandomArt. The current issue is revolving around the problem of communication and identity. Is there any particular way you would describe your identity as an artist but also as a human being in dynamically changing, unstable times? In particular, does your cultural substratum/identity form your aesthetics?
Hello! Thanks for having me ! My identity as an artist is inherently connected to my identity as human being. What I experiance, what I think and feel forms the basis of my artmaking. My art is very personal and has a direct correlation to my emotions.
The times we live in, are indeed rapidly changing and steeped in serious uncertainty. Unpredictable. It feels like forshocks of a coming eruption. I`m shifting whatever is happening right now into art. Syria, the refugee crisis, the political swing to the right, the inability of human race , to develop relating to moral , ethics and empathy. A few days ago a friend mentioned a quotation of Leo Trotzki : “ Maybe you are not interested in war, but war is interested in you.“ Somewhere , between the knowledge of this sad reality and the dream of paradise, my art evolves It´s a harsh and cruel world, full of beauty. You will find this tension field in each of my works. The tension between RIGHT or WRONG , GOOD and EVIL , BEAUTY and DECAY , DESIRE and DISGUST .Another basic subject that I focus on are gender roles. Mostly the role of women, but also men. I´m paying special attention to aspects such as dignity, strenght and vulnerability .
Would you like to tell us something about your artistic as well as life background? What inspired you to be in this artistic point in your life when you are now?
Well, for me, there was never a plan B . I always knew, that all I want to do is art.
Two of my aunts studied fine arts and as a kid it was absolutly thrilling, to visit their studios. Man, the smell of oilpaint ant terpentine got me hooked ( although I prefer working with acrylics today..). So you can call it love at the first sight. After graduating I worked as a scenepainter and later started an education as sculptor. But after all, I came back to the roots, and decided, to do , what I love most : painting.
Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about your identity as a participant of the visual culture?
There is no specific artwork, that I could mention here, but there are defenitely artists, that had a strong influence on me.
Lucian Freud and Jenny Saville.
Both of them depict human beings and bodies that could be intrinsically beautiful or erotic, , but appear in a blunt, vulgar but , at the same time vulnerable way.
They suggest intrusiveness to their audience.
To look at their works, creates a feeling like an unwanted touch or an embrace of a sweaty body. You can feel , that there´s a deep substance and a very personal component in their works. For Saville, it almost seems to be self-destructive. They don´t release the viewer, without touching something.
I don´t agree with the old adage that opposites attract. I think, that we are mostly attracted by similarities.
My main theme is, in my own way, pretty much the same. It´s solely about human beings, emotions, ideals and their utopia.
Paradise lost.
What is the role of memory in your art process? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve any kind of translation of your experiences of living in many places with such different cultural and social environment.
Well, my memories and experiances do defenitely become visible in my works. I mean, we are shaped, by them. Par example my preference to paint coloured people. It´s due to fact , that I was married to a nigerian for about 10 years . My kids are coloured. Down this path I got a deep insight into the nigerian culture, the problems and obstcals refugees are facing and the alarming widespread racism that you encounter everywhere.
What is the role of technique in your practice? In particular are there any constraints or rules that you follow when creating?
My creative process consists of three components:
Research, symbolical concept and technique. Every series has an underliying idea and starts with intensive research about that certain topic. Once this stage is completed I have a hole bunch of visuals, facts and impressions , that I translate into my very own visual language. Than I´m creating a concept that includes a main character or a group combined with figurative symbolism and colour symbolism. Just to mention a few of my fafourite components: Pink You will find the colour pink in all of my paintings. Pink is very contrary it´s a mix of red(hot) and white (cold) . according to the significance of colours, red embodies male power, while white symbolises female strenght. It´s a very powerful colour and makes my paintings come alive. I also use figurative symbols like animals ( horse, cow.. ),weapons , masks and dolls. Each one has a specific meaning.Take the horse: The horse embodies wisdom and strenght. It is moreover the animal that had the larges impact on human development in a political and cultural sense .
I love to play with symbolism. You can tell a hole story by just combining symbols in a certain way.
Technically I am using the effect of strong charcoal tracings and fixative , to create a mix of transparent ( vulnerable ) and covering ( powerfull ) texture of acrylic paint.
I'm influenced by some philsophers as well as poets or musicians or dancers or visual artists but also by some places or landscapes or atmospheres ... For some years, I was used for example to go to India where I was used to follow some traditionnal muscians or to learn bharatanatyam and practice vipassana meditation... Of course this experience has impacted my art work.... This brought me to think and work differently... My experience in India brought me to discover traditionnal strong art and paradoxally to the way of Performance Art. But there I see one common point: to make no separation between art and life and to be here and now, without projection on the future.
It's difficult for me to speak about race and ethnic identity. But I can say that today we miss more and more this notion of “to be here and now” which is more present in some cultures ... By practising Performance Art, it's my way to be connected to this way of thinking. And even in this field actually it's more and more difficult. The society and the art world brings us more and more to plan in advance, to define our work, more than to do. Just to do. To do what we deeply need.
And of course, my encountering with Black Market International and later the notion of Open Source or Open session via PAErsche have also a big impact on my work. When we go on that, each of us perform by sharing time and space but without trying to convince each other on some common way. This is for me a wonderfull way how we can meet each other, regardless of our origin, our race or our “identity”...
Many of your works carry an autobiographical message. Since you transform your experiences into your artwork, we are curious, what is the role of memory in your artistic productions? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.
My memory is clearly a starting point to create. I don't have any autobiographical message. I use my personnal experience ( what I feel , what I see, what I learn, what I ear...) to work. It's a motor or a material. I'm not able to paint, so I can't do something with red or white or yellow or black colors. All I have is life, a body alive. And I need to do something with that...
My sensation about life sometimes is too intense then I need to transform this intensity in some action. Some artistic action... If people can take something from this action this is great... but I don't want to give them “a specific message” or to control the translation of my experience.