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14
I have always been equally influenced by the ideas presented in artwork, as much as by the forms they take. Some that come to mind are the color-averaged prints of Sherrie Levine. She was also at the forefront of a post-modern aesthetic and conceptual world, that questioned gender roles, authenticity and originality - as did Richard Prince’s work. Also, Antoni Tapies was influential early on, in terms of mark-making and creating an iconography that has different pictorial elements co-existing - all with different qualities, or appearance. Joseph Beuys was a valuable lesson in using the visceral and metaphorical qualities within materials and forms to communicate a complex, on-going discourse that took on an almost transmutational quality. Felix Gonzales-Torres also imbued very specific objects with a complex set of associations and meanings, relevant to himself and to the larger world. Tragic, and beautiful, they commented upon his immediate experience of his illness, as well as the larger issues of loss and mortality. David Hammons and Hans Haacke were also fantastic references on how to approach socio-political subject matter in a well researched way, that doesn’t just state the brutally obvious. I have witnessed the dumbing-down of this culture and thus its artists - to a point where I fear the ability to communicate complex, open-ended issues will have been lost. Soon the only people using the power of esoteric symbology, will be those who use it for nefarious ends. Like in Orwell’s 1984, it will soon be known what anyone thinks at any given time, because we can only communicate in a very overt way. Subtlety, nuance and metaphor may all soon be lost in this immediate-gratification and jingoistic world.
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 rather, if you use memory as starting point to create.
All work that every artist makes, is on some level autobiographical. There is no choice in the matter. We all intrinsically make what we make as a result of our specific culture, ethnicity, gender, age and economic background. Even the idea that we make objects that have a solely aesthetic purpose, probably wouldn’t fly in foraging, or sustenance-based cultures. One interesting thing though, at least to me, was that along with my ongoing, very postmodern subject matter, was actually a very personal issue… me falling 30 feet from a tree in my teens - and breaking my back. I was absolutely unaware I was dealing with this issue and that it was so prominent for so long. I came to this realization when I was looking through images of my artistic production from the last couple of decades… I am embarrassed to say, I never realized I was doing this, and didn’t see it until that moment. So I guess the moral of the story here, at least for me, is that regardless of the thematic or subject one sets out to address… the personal always creeps in – even if it’s in an unconscious manner. That being said, I have recently found myself transforming the historic symbolism and formats that I have used, re-purposing them if you will – to be used and contextualized in a different manner to address the change in subject matter I have chosen. Fragmentation, butterflies and many other methodologies and symbols still exist, but they have now been re-contextualized and even co-opted by my own hand. I have to say though, now that I am cognizant of the “broken-back” subtext I referenced earlier, I am much more self-conscious about those references slipping in. But then again, I may end up repurposing that as well.
What is the role of technique in your practice? In particular, are there any constraints or rules that you follow when creating?
I am always leery of objects or images being too refined. Technical acuity isn’t an end in-and-of itself. To me it is only a tool to be used for a larger goal or symbology… put to a use, not as an end. While I can appreciate the premise of an item appearing that it was produced flawlessly, that doesn’t really interest me. We, as humans, are all intrinsically fallible and flawed and I have no desire to make an object that does not reflect the humanity that made it. Conversely, since I am now exposed to so much more artwork via the internet and social media, I am stunned how little training or refinement seems to be apparent in such a large percentage of the work being made these days. If that has always been the case, perhaps I simply didn’t see it because art had to be of a certain quality level to be reproduced in the magazines and books that I viewed, pre-internet. I think people are spending way too much time trying to market their work, versus honing their skills. So, while I don’t trust perfection… I also do not wish for my work to be unrefined – granted, in its own vernacular. Dumbed-down work is only really just that. That seems so self-absorbed to me…. That one can’t be bothered to do the kind of research and learning that any other field, or profession, would require. It’s as if many artists now don’t know nor care about the history of the very specific field they wish to be a part of. I remember an English teacher saying to me once – “a good poem has at least seven layers of interpretation.” If we agree this to be true for poetry, then why should it not also be relevant to the visual arts?
Within my own work, I often appropriate certain formal concerns – as is consistent with a post-modernist methodology. But I don’t want to duplicate what others have already done. So, this necessitates a working knowledge of Art History. My poetry analogy from earlier is also really always important for me in my work… every element is considered and goes to serve multiple roles and purposes - even if one of those purposes is to obfuscate its true meaning on an initial read.
Your art seems to be a quest for “balance between abstract and realism, manipulating lines and colours to create a kaleidoscopic feel while remain a meticulous sense of order using acrylic and mixed media.” What is the role of technique in your practice? In particular are there any constraints or rules that you follow when creating?
The very beginnings of inspiration for a new painting is to look for a pose. I will often troll through images of Avant Garde fashion photography, ballet, dance, naked portraiture and/or body-scapes to find just the right one. Once I have the pose that strikes me (YES!) I take it from there, drawing up a rough sketch adding patterns and geometrical shapes which contrast the lines of the main silhouette.
From there I sketch my plan on to a blank canvas (always making changes and additions to the new layout). Once I am happy with that I start to add colour. My fine lines are all executed without masking; using a small brush, even hand, and steadfast concentration. Then I apply layer upon layer of colour until I achieve beautiful unyielding saturation and impeccable print-like quality.
How do you see the relationship between emotional and intellectual perception of your work? In particular, how much do you consider the immersive nature of the viewing experience?
The emotional and intellectual relationship of my work always begin as two very seperate things. At first glance, my art may seem frivolously aesthetic .The colours are vibrant, and deliciously arresting. But then you look a little closer, even through the simplicity of the block colour and basic lines of geometry and pattern, there is always a story within… and that is when the emotional and intellectual perception of my art merge and the true beauty is discovered.
olted by the Thought of Known Places… Sweeney Astray” by Joan Jonas was one of the first performance installations that really made a huge impact on me. I was living in Paris during this time, in the early 90s, with a lot of influences from different cultures. It became the starting point of my own work. Joan Jonas practice has explored ways of seeing, the rhythms of ritual, and the authority of objects and gestures. Jonas continues to find new layers of meanings in themes and questions of gender and identity that have fueled her art for over thirty years. She is a great inspiration still today.
It is impossible to avoid the topic of body consciousness, embodied emotions and the image of body and personal identity that we see in your practice. What is the function of the identity appearing in your artworks – is it a canvas used to present your ideas or rather the subject of the art? What inspired you to use this as a theme in your practice?
I have been developing my visual imagery since I began studying art and film - from conceptual thinking, composition, using light and colour in different ways, through all the different techniques I've utilised over the years in my work and in my collaborations with stage artists such as dancers, musicians and actors. My approach is always developing through exploring these things. Visual imagery in essence is your way of experiencing what you see and transforming it. This is my world that I want to share and express through my art. The body consciousness, embodied emotions and the image of body and personal identity is part of this visual imagery, the emotional essence in my practice. Always present and always developing in different themes and projects.
Marina Abramovic stated: You see, what is my purpose of performance artist is to stage certain difficulties and stage the fear the primordial fear of pain, of dying, all of
which we have in our lives, and then stage them in front of audience and go through them and tell the audience, 'I'm your mirror; if I can do this in my life, you can do it in yours.'Can you relate anyhow to these words?
de-identify myself, by losing my roots, my culture, I would be very happy. Unfortunately the human being does'nt choose the place where he is born. He grows up in a society that automatically identifies, through education, culture, family... More than ever I think it's more important to go on a way of self-knowledge with the aim to meet “the other”.. This other without which we can not exist. It's the same for the artist. It is more important for me to be focused on my practice than to try to define it according to esthetic criteria of identification. It's probably the reason i like to remember the painter Matisse who said or wrote that an artist must never be prisoner of himself, prisoner of a style, prisoner of a reputation.
Would you like to tell us something about your background? Could you talk a little about experiences that has influence the way you currently relate yourself to your artworks?
All my way is influenced by encounterings.
It began by the meeting with my professor of literature at school. More than giving French or Literature classes, she brought us to discover texts, movies, plays, visual artworks and to think about on what we saw or read.. Thanks to her that I met Pierre Vincke, a theatredirector who was worjink in the tradition of Grotowski ... Both of them have led me to go to theater school. In this school I had meetings. Meetings with artists but also and especially human beings that made me discover. I always need o discover rather than to master a practice. It's probably the reason my encounter with Monica Klingler and Boris Nieslony was decisive for me and led me on the path of Performance Art which is a form still difficult to define. Each performance artist has a different definition of what it is...
Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about race and ethnic identity in visual culture?
No I don't have a specific artwork that has influenced my artistic practise but many.
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.