GRACE KERNER
MILA RACZKOWSKA
JENNIFER NG
EFKA ODEHNAL
SHIVANI TYAGI
EINAV ZEICHNER
REINER HEIDORN
SHERYL LUXENBURG
BRANSHA GAUTHIER
In these sentences I will not explain exactly what I want to tell in my work, what it means what I photograph. I really express myself visually, so I try to explain in words what photography would be like chewing the food for someone else. Giving too many explanations about your own work leads to people seeing your work as you want them to see it and not really how they see it. For that reason my words try to justify that I am going to give only a few references of what my creations are, since you need them. In many of my works and part of my work, it is related to existence. Not only with the existence of the human being, if not, what the human being does not see or does not know does not exist. I mean that in many of my works what I do is to make things exist, that would not exist without the presence of the human being. I understand that if you see one of my works, if I do not explain exactly what it is, you will never think what I want to express. Therefore, the existence of thought in front of the same image is multiple. Hence the idea of, my works need to be explained before being seen? Only suggestive titles that evoke you to my thought? or free interpretation?
My evolution as an artist is an extraordinary journey.My Influences include self individuality, lines, geometric patterns, angles, colors and movement.These components are very important elements to my work. I began to explore self individuality and applied what I discovered,to my paintings. I found that my I express tone with colorful lines and geometric patterns.I bring these elements to my art with a passion. To express my creative thoughts.Colors are a huge influence in my art. I use both bold and soft colors to express self individuality. Lines and angles and geometric patterns in my art are all factors to a great painting. I express motion tone using these factors geometric lines, angle, colors, and motion.This components are vital to my art.
Reiner Heidorn lives and works in Weilheim, Bavaria. The autodidact painter processes in his oversized and mostly monochrome paintings the relationship between man and nature. The desire to unite with nature, to become one with it and even to dissolve in itReiner Heidorn gives form and color to this thought.
Over the years of his work, he has developed his own unique painting technique and gave it a name"Dissolutio", which means disappearance. His paintings consist of tiny microscopic elements, flowing various shades of green and blue arrange themselves in gentle transitions on the canvas. They suggest forests, lakes, plants, up to whole worlds. Thus his artistic work stands in a contemporary discourse of socially topical issues such as climate change or the alienation of man with regard to his natural environment.
One of the first things I would say when introducing myself to others is that, I am an artist and I feel so fortunate being one. I am a staunch believer that art can transform the way we live our lives. Art has been a great companion to me ever since that day I was given my first drawing pad. I cannot really remember how long ago that was. It was a long long time ago. Needless to say, I went on to pursue art at the very first chance. I received my first formal art education at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Singapore), where I was trained in the mediums of traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy and sealcarving. I have not turned back since.
Over the years, I adopted a multidisciplinary, processcentric approach, working with other mediums.
My work is created and influenced from what exists around me - at home or on my way: materials and leftovers, especially those that areperceived as "despicable".The main occupation is in building meaningfor each object and bring it into life as a subject in itself. The objectsare Going through a process that changes them as in the laboratory: isolation, replication, punching and reconnection. The process reflects adeviation from the original, processes of abstraction and transformationinto a new object. The creative experience is physical and is madeout of intuition and intuitive connections.
United
2020 for me is all about establishing myself, as a jewellery brand that focuses on challenging the preconceptions that exist around Pearls and Mother of Pearl. Stereotypes motivate me because they urge me to break them.
In Pearls, I am putting the spotlight on baroque pearls, to elevate their identity in the industry.
With my work, I intend to place the Mother of Pearl in Fine jewellery shelves not just as jewellery pieces but as objects of art which hold unique aesthetic.
It is primary for me to bring about creative freshness in the jewellery around the world with my designs.
Efka is a visual artist, working across all the different types of media. Her priority is photography, where she finds a stable base for her further experiments. She is interested in perception of reality, space and light. By combining different techniques she enjoys finding the dialogue and translations between photography, painting, installation and video. Most of her artwork is more abstract with the fragments of reality than narrative.Besides her elaborate project she is constantly capturing the surrounding life. More than people, she is intrigued by ordinary things, still lives and their order within the world.
Austria
I’m a Viennese based multidisciplinary artist working mostly on ethnic tribes, preservation of the indigenous arts and culture throughout photography, painting, animated pictures and film.
Throughout the years, I continued to profound my artistic skills more towards photography and film as a reflections on feminism, identity and heritage. In my range of themes on unity in diversity I try to embody the values of multiculturalism and to develop my visual language by symbiosis of completely diverse traditions and cultures, showcasing despite heritage differences, humans profound need for oneness.
In my multidisciplinary practice, the reflections move around the threads of time, the memory, the disappearance and the identity.
Through the years my subject matter has combined a lifelong interest in clinical psychology with a passion for fine art. More specifically, my work has revolved around people or objects that experience some type of distress, such as confusion, dread, conflict, anger or numbness. Emotions related to feeling overwhelmed, useless or abandoned have also played prominent roles within my compositions. I had an epiphany 20 years ago when I realized that my subject matter was a direct projection of the psychological struggles I was having in my life.
To celebrate an approaching milestone birthday in 2018, I designed and began painting a triptych called ‘ ’. Each panel is 3x6ft and I used acrylic paint with charcoal on linen canvas. The subject is about survival, transformational growth, recovery and healing. Most importantly I want to use the painting to raise awareness for the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements because I am a sexual incest survivor and have never spoken publicly about this before.
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Special thanks to: Charlotte Seeges, Martin Gantman, Krzysztof Kaczmar, Tracey Snelling, Nicolas Vionnet, Genevieve Favre Petroff, Christopher Marsh, Adam Popli, Marilyn Wylder, Marya Vyrra, Gemma Pepper, Maria Osuna, Hannah Hiaseen and Scarlett Bowman, Yelena York Tonoyan, Edgar Askelovic, Kelsey Sheaffer and Robert Gschwantner.
My paintings present a unique combination of abstract, figurative imagery and drawing expressed with emotion and poetic sensitivity. I create in a vigorous and often spontaneous manner led frequently by emotions. My images convey a consciousness that implores us to seek out the details and subtleties of nature and explore our relationship with it. It is often the unintended and subliminal mind that creates the initial medley of shapes and spaces and the artist is the one who makes the choice of exaggerating or diminishing various areas and characters.
I let myself be carried away without resistance in the direction indicated by the hand of an intuitive line, color, and form. My stimulating expression of the environment brings each viewer into an effervescent, playful, and exciting world full of organic forms and shapes. Each piece might be a peculiar exploration of natural forms of botanical, animal, and human shapes.
Somewhat the combination of illustrative and abstract styles gives my work a dreamy quality that transports the imagination into a whole other world that is waiting to be discovered.
Hello Mila and welcome back to ART Habens we already got the chance to introduce our readers to your works in a previous edition and we are now particularly pleased to discover the development of your artistic production. After twenty years of abstract art, your new body of works reveals such stimulating evolution of your approach to art making: would you tell us something about the evolution of this aspect of your artistic production? In particular, what are in your opinion the elements of your current art that mostly connect to you?
Mila Raczkowska: The main elements that connect my art with myself are the essence of experiencing life and being grateful for it.
The reality around me is the result of what I create and what is an expression of myself.
The most important thing for me is the context. The process of creating and painting is for me a response to specific needs that express my emotional state or my intellectual research.
I paint in complete silence and conduct a dialogue with myself - I process and arrange elements of reality on the canvas. I am constantly looking for the fullest way to express my love for the world. Painting is a way for me to find peace and harmony. In an intuitive creative process, he is guided by his emotions, turning them into colorful spots on the canvas.
Your paintings present unique combination of abstract, figurative imagery and drawing: we highly appreciate the way your works address your audience to explore the connection between reality and abstraction. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of
us, how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production?
Mila Raczkowska: I think that the combination of imagination and creative creation is closely related to important mental processes, such as creativity, language and empathy.
It is a fantastic skill that takes me to other worlds and realities. This creation elevates me, humanizes me and makes me more complete. It helps to
Mila Raczkowska
About you
interpret the past and look to the future, find innovative solutions, and communicate with the recipient through the image. Every concept I deal with is a mental representation of an image, a reality. For me, painting is transforming,
interpreting and shaping what surrounds me, giving it meaning. I found myself in painting - it is an expression of myself.
Drawing the viewers into a suspended
All
dimension made of peace and harmony, your artworks also seem to urge the viewers to unveil such a myriad of subleties that hide the richness of nature: would you tell us something about your interest in such details?
Mila Raczkowska: When I paint, I try to communicate with the viewer by means of spots, colors, I transform words, remembered images into meaningful lines and forms. It also allows me to verbally grasp my own inner world. I love
nature and I feel connected with everything that surrounds me. I experienced my first conscious steps in this area during my first studies in Olsztyn, Poland - in the field of landscape architecture. While studying landscape architecture at the University of Warmia and Mazury, I had a chance to develop my design and composition skills while being surrounded by plants and nature, which always brought me peace and relief.
After receiving my diploma, I decided to direct my path to Warsaw, where I started my studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in the field of painting. Under the supervision of prof. Leon Tarasewicz, I was practicing the technique and looking for the appropriate means of expression. It is such a way of arriving at a conscious perception of reality through the prism of one's previous experiences.
I feel one with water, earth, fire and air - I think that our - my life is only a few moments in the whole world, nevertheless this place and these elements make me feel the meaning of my life and what I do. They allow me to feel needed and valuable, because I am part of what is around me.
Intuition plays a crucial role in your artistic practice and we definitely love the way your works walks the viewers to discover the channel of communication between the outside world and your inner landscape, your deep interior. How important is for you to draw inspiration from the subconscious? In particular, do you think that art making could be considered a way to allow the artist's subconscious to speak to a broader audience?
Mila Raczkowska: I have always trusted my intuition, this is where I found myself, my desires and path. My intuition led me to trust the places where I found myself through painting. It is a source of experiences, a desire from which to draw inspiration, and trust this path. I am
constantly looking for means to reveal and immortalize myself on canvas.
An intriguing aspect of your work is their multilayered visual aspect, that in a certain sense
could be considered a powerful metaphor of the way our experiences are crystallized into
Trust the Journey
memory, that in turn settles a layer in time. Do you agree with this interpretation? More
specifically, how do you consider the role of memory in your artistic process?
My paintings show the complexity, or rather the layering of the human personality. Successive
layers of paint penetrate each other, creating nonobvious stains and dynamic lines. Just like the paint on canvas, our experiences overlap and define the final shape of ourselves - what is in us.
So each layer is a frozen emotion of the moment, a remembered image that permeates through the next layer, and the final result is the completeness of the complexity of these layers, in fact, the connection as a whole.
Your works feature captivating abstract feeling, still, as you have remarked in your statement, each piece of yours might be considered a peculiar exploration of natural forms of botanical, animal, and human shapes: how does reality and more specifically your everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research?
Mila Raczkowska: Yes, my everyday experiences are the driving force behind my artistic search. Every day I wake up in gratitude for the next experiences and their exploration.
Your paintings have more than a story to tell: at the same time: at the same time, they're able to capture the attention of the viewers with unique beauty on their surface: how important is for you the aesthetics of your works? Do you think that aesthetics is in a certain sense a part of the message that a work of art communicate to the viewers?
Mila Raczkowska: I try to make my paintings carry values that are important to me, my knowledge, emotions, and aesthetic experiences. I strive for them to become a link between me and the recipient - that everyone finds himself in the image.
Your artworks have often explanatory titles, as Grateful and Equal means All, that allow you to clarify the message while maintaining the element of ambiguity: how do you go about naming your work ? In particular, is important for you to tell something that might walk the viewers through their visual experience?
Mila Raczkowska: The titles of the paintings are
the result of all the feelings and emotions that accompany me while creating. It is a kind of perception of the connection of the above into one whole. It is also a kind of signpost for the recipient in search of individual elements
of the image that make up the whole.
You are an established artist and your artworks have been exhibited in several occasions all over Europe and the United Kingdom. Your last
Light it up
exhibition is in your home country and is articulated in 8 different shows all over Poland: would you tell us something about this exciting experience?
Mila Raczkowska: It's an exciting journey and a
great experience. He collaborates with the prestigious Goldenmark Art Gallery in Poland, which chose me as an artist.
My guardian and curator of the exhibitions are
Your light
Mrs. Ida Sielska, who is a recognized mediator of art. Each exhibition is prepared at the highest level in every respect.
Goldenmark Art Gallery has exhibited my series
of paintings, All Related; at the Goldenmark Art Gallery in Olsztyn, Warsaw, the Winter Salon of the Goldenmark Art Gallery, and at the Goldenmark Art Gallery in Lodz
(link below). https://goldenmark.com/blog/milaraczkowska-all-related/ Another exhibition of the paintings, All Related 'series is planned by the Goldenmark Art Gallery already in moments. I will inform you about the
details on Facebook and Instagram https://en-gb.facebook.com/milafineart/ https://www.instagram.com/milafineart/?hl=en
Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts with us again, Mila. How do you see
your evolution as an artist over time? Are there any things that you do fundamentally different from when you started years ago?
Mila Raczkowska: I have always acted in harmony with myself and the greatest reward for me is
contact with recipients and how they find particles of themselves in my paintings. I do not cease to improve myself - both in the painting workshop and in my personality. I want to be in constant contact with my audience and invite them to experience my perception of reality.
Hello Grace and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://gracekerner2000.wixsite.com/website in order to get a wide idea about your mulifaceted artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, are there any experiences that did particularly help you to develop your attitude to experiment with different artistic disciplines?
Grace Kerner: It is interesting how many times I get asked this question. Honestly, my first art teacher may have been my biggest inspiration and everything else has stemmed from it. Ms Eure, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, taught me everything I know about ceramics. She taught me how to sculpt and how to throw. She taught me how different kinds of clay can work together or glazes to make a beautiful masterpiece. Barabara Eure was my first introduction and thankfully she was, she taught me how to love the earth and the clay it gives to us. In my elementary school years when I saw and learned under her were some of my favorites.
The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens we have selected and our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once impressed us for the way it challenges the viewers' parameters, inviting them to question the idea of beauty in such unconventional way. When walling our readers through the genesis of Mother Nature, would you tell us something about your usual setup and process? In particular, do you create your works gesturally, instinctively?
Grace Kerner: When I create my pieces I try not to think about them as if I’m creating something ugly or beautiful. And generally I don’t mind if people decide that my work is unpallatable to them. It is not my job to make them like my work. But what is my job is to create work that I feels represents the different aspects of my own identity and my own life. If viewers can relate to my art and think it’s beautiful because something inside them recognizes that piece then I will have done my job. It has taken me years to appreciate my own art as
Grace Kerner
something that’s beautiful and worth of being seen and respected alongside thousands of artists who have come before me. I don’t think anyone goes into a museum and loves every piece or thinks every single piece is beautiful to their eyes, but they respect every piece for just being in the museum at all and being worthy of recognition on a larger scale, and sometimes even for having been in the museum for longer than the artist was ever alive. In terms of my genesis of Mother Nature, I’ve always been fascinated with this idea that all nature is connected through a great web of frequencies or waves, I’m not sure of the exact right wording. Like how Aspen trees in a grove are all the same organism, the same tree, yet look like it’s 1,000. So this is why her legs are made from a tree, this is how she connects with all her life on earth, through the roots that she digs underground and the presence she has above.
It's important to remark that you include caring for every piece that might seem destined to be destroyed. Contemporary practice has forged a new concept of art making involving such a wide and once unthinkable variety of objects and materials. American sculptor and photographer Zoe Leonard once underlined that , "the objects that we leave behind hold the marks and the sign of our use: like archeological findings, they reveal so much about us": could you tell us something about your interest in found objects?
Grace Kerner: When we leave things to be, they pick up the residue from every person that sees them. Whether it be a finger print or a breath, we each in our own way affect every piece of art we see. We shape it and form it to fit the narrative we want and the narrative we will see. No museum art looks exactly the same way it did when the artist had just finished it’s creation, whether that be sun damage or anything else I’ve mentioned. So we must always take that into account. The next time you’re in a museum looking at statues from ancient Greece and Rome, know that in those first hundreds of years of being they were painted, red, blue, gold, green, any naturally occuring color you can think of. And every painting was more vivid and vibrant than your eyes could imagine. And yes we have
precautions for this, but no piece will ever be truly the same as when the artist first finished it.
Each of your artworks seems to be laboriously crafted, highlighting the fact that a work of art besides any retrospective look at its ever-present philosophical aspects — is a physical artefact with material, tactile qualities, that especially in Bush People play such a disstinctive role. In this sense, we dare say that your artworks question the connection between what is tangible and intangible to rediscover the concept of materially: how important is for you to highlight the physical aspect of your artworks? In particular, how important is intuition in your creative process?
Grace Kerner: Intuition is all I know. I cannot understand how some artists sketch and have a layout of their piece before they actually start making it. That’s not what art is to me. Art is a deeply personal process for me. I takes all of my intuition and all of my emotional capabilities to produce a piece. None of my pieces are the same at all; some pieces might relate to others or feel similar but they are not. Each piece has been made with the delicacy and care I devote to all the others. There are no sets because there shouldn’t be. Ceramics is not a chore for me, it’s not a means to earn a living. I’m a senior at University of California, Santa Cruz, pursuing a major in maths and in philosophy. My long terms goals do not include ceramics as my main source of income. However, that does vnot mean it isn’t an emotional and physical outlet for me to express my
As an artist particularly interested in the contradictions of beauty expectations, how do you consider the role of aesthetics playing within your artistic process, especially as bearer of semantic value?
Grace Kerner: In terms of philosophical value and relating to language, I believe my pieces have a lot of originality and poignance on their own without even having to put it down in words. I’ve wanted to connect with people on an emotional level that’s deeper than words, in a way that they can look at the piece and remember a moment in their lives when they might have been feeling the same way I did or
do. So even if they know they felt that way they’re not alone in that, and they never will be. I think for a long time when I was younger, I made pieces because I thought they were contradictory to societal expectations, but now I’ve come to realize that in a way beauty doesn’t exist. We can all
decide whether we will subscribe to the societal expectations around us and I have chosen to forgo it’s example in exchange for my own. I think every piece I make is beautiful, and though others may not, as long as I do, my pieces will remain beautiful.
In particular, as an artist particularly interested into having people connect with your art as if they had made it themselves, what kind of experience do you aim to encourage your audience to receive?
Grace Kerner: I would hope that, save for touching and holding the piece, people might have a physical reaction, whether that be brain chemicals flowing, synapses firing or even tears and smiles. What I love about ceramics is the ability for it to be able to be viewed from any angle and how that
changes the experience. Unlike two dimensional art, pottery and other three dimensional pieces have a way of being interpreted differently by everyone simply based on something we cannot control, height. I think this is a fascinating and intriguing point that allows for interpretation I’ve
never even thought of.
Providing your materials with such a brand new life, your works urges the viewers to explore the beauty paradox, inviting them to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface.
Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once
remarked the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' perception in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your
Grace Kerner: I want everyone to have their own understanding of what my work means to them before onboarding my own interpretation. I would hope that if I made a piece with lots of heavy emotions, my audience might pick up on that, but if they saw it lightly, playfully, I’m not going to be
upset. I think it’s important for people to see and explore art in their own way because that’s how we grow and form our brains into complex thinking organisms. I may not agree with their interpretation, but that does not mean it’s wrong, simply different from my own. If it changes my own opinion of my art, I’m glad for the insight, but if it doesn’t, I’m glad for the opportunity to see how it is received and understood through multicultural lenses.
We dare say that symbols play a considerable role in your practice: more especially Angel provides the viewers with such an immersive visual experience: how do you consider the role of metaphors playing in your artistic practice? And how important is for you to create artworks rich of allegorical qualities?
Grace Kerner: I think allegory is all up to the interpreter. If someone wants to read into my art as an allegory for God or politics or something that is there prerogative and will not change my own view. Art for me has always been a way to disconnect from the heaviness of religion or politics or any other institution that has been waying heavily on people’s shoulders for centuries. Art is about emotion, it’s a release. If there is an allegory to be named, then it would be that of my own emotions. I have had a journey the past couple of years with my mental health and fell into a deep depression which was remedied by medication management. However, this way of absolution came at the cost of my artistic drive. As I continued to medicate myself I became less and less attached to my work and so have had to find new ways of interpreting it as someone who doesn’t experience depression would. Not that this is a bad thing, but it opened my mind to the possibilities of viewing art through a more critical and purposed lens.
You are an emerging and established artist, and over the years your works have been exhibited in many occasions: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? By the way, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online
platforms — as Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gracek.ceramics increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience?
Grace Kerner: I think having platforms like Instagram, Facebook and whatnot are key in being able to share art that we as artists intend for every audience. However I will say, even with two dimensional art, there is a certain poignance and awe that sets in when a piece is seen in person through your own eyes and not that of a camera or photographer. I would rather my audience be able to see my pieces in person from all angles of potential viewing so they can full grasp the size, weight and meaning of each piece.
We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Grace. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?
Grace Kerner: I am always exploring the idea of the quote-un-quote unfinished pieces. The pieces that look like a mess or have chunks missing even if the base is intact and sculpting or throwing more of those kinds of pieces. I’ve always loved the idea of the unfinished or the piece that’s not quite perfect because those are the pieces that turn heads. If you look at a wall of the same bowl and one is a little noticeably different, then you’ve got a whole different mindset about the whole set than if it was perfectly even and the same. I’ve been honored to be able to have this opportunity to share my work with a larger audience and perhaps gain some recognition in the process, so thank you ART Habens. Advice I’d extend to myself would be to go to your local museum and just take in the art. Look at it all and really think about how it makes you feel before you read the blurb next to it, usually it will be similar to how the artist felt creating it, but even if it’s not it would be interesting to compare and contract. I believe that all supposed mental health problems have useful outlets to help manage them, mine just happened to be ceramics, but yours could be anything.
Hello Jennifer and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.jennifernsy.com in order to get a wide idea about your mulifaceted artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training: after having earned your Master Degree from the National Institute of Education, Singapore, you moved to the United Kingdom to pursue your PHD Practice-Led Art & Design at the prestigious Birmingham City University. How do your formative years influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does your cultural substratum direct the trajectory of your current artistic research?
Jennifer Ng: Hello, and thank you for this interview.
I was originally trained in Chinese ink painting and calligraphy from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, where I also received formal drawing, painting, and sculpting lessons in my foundational training. Although I have always been intrigued by different materials and technical approaches, I gradually became aware of unconventional materials around me that also possess expressive and communicative potentialities. I later went on to create sculptures, installation works and performances where I could use different kinds of materials in my art. I started to see possible exchanges between them. I
was intrigued by the ways different art forms can move us so differently, and how they interact to create unexpected dynamism. I guess my interest in materiality grew from there, which led me to further explore the intrinsic and imaginative tendencies of materials/objects in my current practice research (on lost objects in my PeranakanChinese culture).
Jennifer Ng
Jennifer Ng
The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens we have selected — and our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory
pages of this article — has at once impressed us for the way it challenges the viewers' parameters, inviting them to question the idea of beauty in such unconventional way.
Thing-ing (series)
Transparent Voices (close-up)
More specifically Terra FErmata achieves the difficult task of inviting the viewers to inquiry into the hidden properties of soil. When walking our readers through the genesis of Terra FErmata would you tell us something about your usual setup and process? In
particular, how important is intuition in your creative process?
Jennifer Ng: I would consider the materiality and visuality of my works to be inseparable. Every material speaks differently. One
material may be less adept at achieving a specific effect than another. This is especially so when expressing the subtleties and complexities of ideas or concepts. As a result, knowing what a material can and cannot do, and testing their limits to find what else can be done to change it, how to change it, and with what - all of these become a huge part of my artistic inquiry.
Responsivity, and most strikingly, failures, they are probably the two things that come to mind as I now recall the processes of creating Terra Fermata. Many things did not go to plan, that is, if there was any to begin with. Intuition does play an important role here, in fact, not even the materials used for this work were pre-planned. Instead, the iron rods, cement and soil were found at different sites, and considered separately with myriads of possibilities, but not always in relation to each another. It was more about dealing/playing with the materials, observing/discovering their materiality, and moving on from there.
In hindsight, I feel that awareness and attention to things are vital qualities to have . Reaction towards this awareness is needed to transcend a normal vision/object to an artistic one.
We dare say that symbols play a considerable role in your practice: more especially Terra FErmata provides the viewers with such a multilayered visual experience: how do you consider the role of metaphors playing in your artistic practice? And how important is for you to create artworks rich of allegorical qualities?
Jennifer Ng: It is not always important, but sometimes it is necessary. It largely depends
on the subject matter I am dealing with , and the kind of interaction I would like the viewers to have when they encounter the work. For some of my works, I seek to achieve a more visceral effect. I have always admired works that hold our attention and keep us there long enough for us to feel something about it. These works connect to us immediately and sensorially, where we don’t have to think of anything else but to just contemplate on its sheer physicality. I feel that Terra Fermata works on both levels, where the metaphors/narratives and materiality are inextricably linked, where the markings and imprints left on surfaces also function as entry points into the work.
As you have remarked once, the different finishes on the balls highlight some of the hidden properties of soil. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: how important is for you to trigger your audience's perception in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood?
Jennifer Ng: Indeed, materials seek to engage, or as mentioned, provide a space for viewers’ active participation in the work. This dwelling, as I would normally call it, can be deliberate or subconscious. The comprehension and interpretation of the work may well be rooted in the physical form of the work, but it is also fair to say that it is seldom confined within it. As we attempt to harness specific materials or objects to convey artistic ideas, it may not always be possible to keep interpretations within those ideas. With personal associations such as
private memories or life experiences in the mix, interpretations would almost certainly be organic, and so it should be. For example, in this instance, the use of soil, a substance which is often considered a base material, in its rawest form, can be worked on and transformed at will. Different levels of physical involvement and treatments resulted in different finishes on the soil balls. The visual outcomes may also engage the viewers in less direct ways. This base material is also a substrate or foundation for life/growth, deposits/sediment/erosion, and may carry the connotions of accumulation/ concealment/ embeddedness/ elimination, and so on. Likewise, there are other aspects that are less obvious, such as the viscerality of lost –invisible labour, hidden marks, and needless to say, time. In other words, intepretation is an inherently private affair. By being that, it is also inherently open in the grand scheme, if that makes sense.
We really appreciate such stunning materic, organic quality of your artworks, and We have been particularly fascinated with the way it challenges the viewers' perception and parameter, inviting them to question and rediscover the concept of materially on the intuitive level: how important is for you to highlight the physical aspect of your artworks?
Jennifer Ng: The physical aspect would always be the first point of contact or encounter with my works. I believe the physicality of my works to be necessary. As the process of creation is not always visible, the physical markings left on the surface of the work may be the closest clue to its inner workings. In my works, I enjoy creating and seeing this relationship between physical/tangible and the non-physical/illusory. The physical aspect
The Quietest Big Bang
of a work of art is like the basic condition that draws the viewer in. It is also an attribute that lures the viewer into a liminal space where what cannot be seen has to be imagined. Incidentally, on a more literal note, we could look at the white spaces on Chinese ink paintings, where the void/emptiness can be expanded upon by the viewers. It is a nondescript space that engages the imagination, and a breathing space that could be activated.
Terra FErmata is the result of a proficient collaboration with artist Wilson GOH and it's no doubt that collaborations as the one that you have together are today ever growing forces in Contemporary Art and that the 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 proficient collaboration?
Jennifer Ng: My collaborator, Wilson Goh, is an established, classically trained musician and vocalist, as well as a performance artist from Singapore. It was indeed an exciting experience for me to work with someone who is not only proficient in sound, but also with visuals. There were moments where our ideas flow seamlessly, also times where they collided, and we had to work separately to sort out our processes. For me, it was interesting to observe how we have understood materials differently. We lived in the same neighbourhood when Terra Fermata was conceptualised and made, and the soil we had collected for the work was mainly from that area, a small town in central Singapore. The soil quality was different with each batch of soil we collected. Sometimes, we could get dry and hard soil, while sometimes we could only find wet and soggy soil that needed a long time to dry out. We worked with what
we could get hold of. The process of harvesting and waiting, and finding, digging, and handling of something so organic, was quite unusual for city dwellers like us. The process of making the soil balls was quite a laborious one. It required many hours of sifting through soil, rolling and shaping, before drying, waxing, and polishing them to achieve the desired effects. The stands were also carefully designed such that they were flat and levelled enough for the balls to stay atop them. The entire process was rather organic, from having to work with nature, and around each other’s schedules.
You often draw inspiration from Nature and Terra FErmata unveils the myriad treasures the earth offers that most do not stop to consider or even begin to see when we keep to ourselves within our urban landscape. How do you consider the role of everyday's life experience playing within your artistic process?
Jennifer Ng: I consider my artistic process to be crtically rooted in my everyday life’s experience. I feel that a huge part of my practice is influenced by place, which then becomes the framework where the work materialises. Terra Fermata was conceptualised from a patch of nature in an urban environment. The aesthetics reflects that quite evidently. As the materials were collected over time, from different sites, the iron rods were salvaged from building sites and the moulds were commonly available cardboard boxes, I would imagine them to be very different had it been worked on at a different place. It would be interesting to explore a possible extension of Terra Fermata in the UK. In fact, the space here has a very direct impact on my current practice. My close proximity with nature here has changed the
The
way I work. I am interested in how the expansiveness of nature is also contrasted with circumscribing situations in our changing world. I remember having conversations with some natives here, and they commented that being so used to the nature surrounding them, they no longer see it. I found that really powerful. ‘Indifferent-Interdependency’ is a response to this inattention. I worked on the idea of symbiotic relationships in the natural world, and how we are connected and disconected from it. Boundaries between flora and fauna merge and collapse as they appear to have morphed into a single unit. They probably have no concept of the larger picture, and increasingly we don't either. There is much to be done to highlight this predicament.
Your artistic production also reflects your unique exploration of our relationship with our surroundings. Scottish artist Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic works of art are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us, how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production?
Jennifer Ng: I am not sure if I would be able to imagine without the basis of reality. I am not sure if that is even possible. However, I am aware that although imagination involves conscious thinking, there can also be a great deal happening in the background, such as snippets, fragmented or incomplete ideas/concepts that do not necessarily mean anything at all. They can come from anywhere, like textures on random surfaces, an indiscernible sound, an elusive form or shape. They can be rather helpful when visualising something. The translation/oscillation between reality and
imagination is a process not to be underestimated. Artists deal with things yet to be materialised/created, and this process essentially puts the artist at the threshold of knowing. This process also does not end here,
instead, it continues with the viewers.
You are an established artist, and over the years your works have been internationally exhibited in many occasions: how do you
consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? By the way, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/jenniferngart increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience?
Jennifer Ng: Now with social media, we
obviously get to see so much of art everyday.
We could be instantly transported to galleries/studios, and read about artists and their ideas on their webpages, instagrams, facebooks etc, often even before you see the actual artworks. To a large extent, interactions with art and artists have become more versatile with online platforms, and can be very enaging in terms of idea exchanges and collaborations. The extensive and almost boundless reach to almost anyone in the world is definitely
amazing, and unprecedented with regard to disseminating artistic productions and achievements, as well as the speed in which they are done. I see technology aiding and expanding the ways we encounter art.
The whole social media experience definitely changed the way I encounter and experience physical works of art, especially if I first see the works on instagram or facebook before seeing the actual thing. Seeing a work in pixels and reading online comments about it before forming our own opinions about, can be seen as a form of
interference, when direct viewing is presumably the intended mode of engagement. I feel that when visitors come into my studio, and commented on my art in the flesh, the conversations are certainly more dynamic and immediate, with plenty of room for expansion and clarifications. This allows me to interpret their comments in a different way compared to online comments.
Comments/advices can have an impact on what artists choose to produce and post on their social media. Artists could be charting their artistic journeys based on likes and follows as a result, rather than focusing on their own creativity and ingenuity. I guess there will always be challenges as we move away from what we have been used to. The challenges here lies in that we are now harnessing alternative communication platforms for something that are meant to communicate in very specific ways (excluding art that is designed for digital consumption). I feel that the tactile quality of physical artworks is something unique, and nonreplaceable, at least not by today’s technology, not by a long shot. This is different from saying that traditional and online/digital experiencing of artworks cannot overlap. To me, the intertwining between the two can be a very exciting venture. It is not always possible that one can lead to the other, but at the very least, I believe that they can be mutually supportive of each other.
We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Jennifer. What projects are you currently working on,
and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?
Jennifer Ng: It is my pleasure. I would also like to thank you for inviting me to share my art on such an amazing platform.
At the moment, I am working on a few things. I am putting together a body of works that are produced from my research, on lost cultural materials/objects, which include performance documentations, sculptures and paintings. They are process-oriented experimentations, what I would consider, the‘workings from inside-out’. I am also excited to see how far I could push myself to explore the visuality and materiality in my paintings. I am focusing much of my attention in developing painting series inspired by nature. Made with Chinese ink and waterbased mediums on paper, I aim to recreate/mimic indexical imprints of germination, growth, decay and regeneration through gestural marks and natural traces, particularly, lifeforms that have accumulated and thrived over time. I might take it a little further, to explore semi three-dimensional formats, or incorporate video or sound works. Finally, something I have yet to mention, is that Terra Fermata #1, 2, 3 has gone back to nature, as part of the plan to illustrate the continual change to the environment. The balls were broken down and scattered back to where they came from. My collaborator Wilson and I may be working together again soon, to develop this project further. Something exciting to look forward to!
Hello Sheryl and welcome back to ART Habens. We had the opportunity to introduce our readers to your artworks in our previous special edition released in 2019, and we are now particularly pleased to discover the development of your artistic production. We would like to invite our readers to visit your social media sites.
https://www.sherylluxenburg.com
https://www.instagram.com/luxenburgsheryl/ https://www.facebook.com/sher.luxenburg
ART Habens would like to focus on your triptych entitled To Everything There Is A Season. The dimensions consist of three six-by-three foot panels, acrylic on linen. This project took two and one half years to complete. How did you begin this journey to paint something larger in scale than you are accustomed, and why did it take such a lengthy period of time to complete?
Sheryl Luxenburg: Thank you so much for all your support. This project never would have been possible without the support from an important international private collector from Germany. Albrecht von Stetten, chairman of The Ibex Collection, is described as a leading world collector of super realistic contemporary figurative work. He had been travelling the globe since 2013 to find the most talented painters from around the world and support their work, intent on helping them to develop the highest profile in the art world.
About five years ago, Albrecht contacted me in the hopes to buy a few of my paintings. Upon closer inspection of my works and developing a close relationship with me, he later
wondered whether I might be interested in participating in the Ibex Masterpiece Project. His idea was to select about 25 or so of the most accomplished painters in his collection, and provide them with the financial resources for them to create something more special than they had ever created before. The plan was to then showcase the works around the world with an exhibition beginning in New York City. I was honoured to be invited, but because I was one of the later
Sheryl Luxenburgpainters to be invited, I knew I would need more time. I had learned that all the masterpieces took between two and one half years to upwards of five years to complete.
I asked Albrecht what dimension he expected of me and he sent me the list of everyone’s dimensions. I got out a calculator and simply decided to design the dimension to the mathematical mean. I also had to consider my limited studio space and believed I could more comfortably handle three panels, each at six by three feet rather than six feet by nine feet.
You ask why did it take two and one half years to complete? There are two reasons for this. First and foremost, is that an Ibex project demands the highest level of precision and technical skill. One needs to pay incredible attention needs to the minute details, and all planning stages need to be clearly communicated. Secondly all design, preliminary drawings and all painting stages need to be recorded and sent to Ibex via a dropbox system at each interval. There is considerable administrative work beyond the studio work. The dropbox method is recorded for educational purposes at a later date and to fully honour the painter’s ideas from beginning to end.
So, Albrecht certainly placed a fire under me to undertake such a project, but with the COVID19 pandemic and the Ibex Collection having to close their doors due to restricted international travel, it remains to be seen whether the project will eventually land up in the collection. The Ibex Collection executive need to see the final project in person to be assured it conforms to their strictest levels of performance. So much is up in the air.
To Everything There Is A Season is a particularly important project, in fact you have stated several times, it has been ‘your project of a lifetime’. Why was it so important for you to create this project which relates strongly to your professional education and experience as a clinical psychotherapist as well about a
topic that you have unfortunately personally experienced?
Sheryl Luxenburg: I had the support of the Ibex Collection and had otherwise been receiving international attention, so I was confident I had the platform to be able to paint
this triptych and use the work for activism purposes. The Ibex Collection was fully supportive. During the initial invitation to join the Ibex Masterpiece project, I was soon approaching a milestone birthday, so I decided to as they say, go big or go home. I decided to work on a masterpiece that would further
enhance my technical skills, and with all the preoccupation to make the most intrepid statement possible.
Have you ever previously painted a work which served as the inspiration for the cre-
ation of the triptych?
Yes, in 2007 I painted an acrylic on linen painting, eighteen by twenty four inches called, The Best Of Me. It had to do with surviving a few heart attacks earlier in 2007. These cardiac events were very challenging
PREP FOR UNNI'S TORSO, FOR TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON, WATERCOLOUR AND INK
to overcome both physically and emotionally and I wanted to celebrate survivorship with this work.
Would you tell us something about the cathartic aspect of the project because as an experienced psychotherapist and a fine artist, I imagine you intentionally considered the therapeutic value of speaking up.
Sheryl Luxenburg: Yes, I understood the therapeutic value was long overdue. I came from a highly unstable home. My parents married young, my mother age 19 and father age 23. They were unhappy from the beginning of their marriage. My mother emotionally left the marriage early on as she would leave the house every night. This left me home with my father who for as long as I can remember sexually abused me in the form of trying to touch my breasts. This type of incest was all I ever knew, and being born into it I never knew it was wrong, even though it felt extremely uncomfortable. I was born in 1954 and no one ever spoke of such things. There were no Canadian laws protecting children from such abuse until 1988, when changes to the Canadian Criminal Code and the Canada Evidence Act specified what constitutes child sexual abuse offences. These new laws expanded the opportunity for courts to receive children's testimony.
My parents finally divorced when I was 13 years old and the abuse intensified during weekly custodial visits. In fact the abuse continued until I was well into my 30s, married and with a child. As the years passed, the secrecy I was carrying felt hypocritical because as a professional mental health practitioner, I was trained in the mandatory
reporting abuse to the authorities and would do so when the occasion would arise in the course of my professional duties.
For not one moment in my life have I ever doubted that my father loved me, but I also and more importantly have had to acknowledge that he horribly exploited his position of power as a parent. I never confronted him during his lifetime and he passed away in 2015.
I was brought up and groomed to feel sorry for my father. I tried to remain strong and ambitious to carry on with my life. I had friends and did well in school. I distinctly remember never wanting to return home and would stay for entire weekends in the home of my best friend. I remember feeling physically self conscious, but never knew why. In fact I didn’t realize how psychologically damaged I was until decades later in the late 1990s. My father always acted as if he genuinely loved me, but as my parent’s marriage fell apart, I became his confidante. Understandably my father was devastated by my mother’s rejection and he was lonely. As I grew to be an older teen and young adult, I became aware that this grooming was a distraction from the fact that he was objectifying my body for his pleasure. With the help and support of my husband, safe people, my psychology training, a few decades of distance away from my father, and psychotherapy, I have worked hard to find the freedom from the confusion and entanglement of this highly upsetting situation.
Given my clinical psychology education in the 1970s, I was trained to use DSM which is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, a classification sys-
tem of officially recognized disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association. This manual is used by all mental health professionals to ensure uniformity of diagnosis. As I became well educated about personality structure, emotional functioning and anxiety disorders, I came to realize that my father had been suffering from a mental health condition revolving around a generalized anxiety disorder and a cluster of behavioural disorders associated with the impulse disorders, namely Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Disorder. This new-found knowledge provided a greater understanding into my father’s psychopathology, but I must confirm that no amount of compassion will ever exonerate him from his criminal wrongdoings. To this day I have to live with the fact that he had been committing an indictable offence for all those decades and it went unreported.
In 2002 I chose to tell a few family members and close friends about the abuse. I received loving support from everyone, but have never gone public until now. My attitude changed when I learned about the American #MeToo and #Time’s Up movements. The victim, the psychotherapist and the artist in me began to realize that if I was to support and encourage all sexual abuse victims to speak up, I would need to use my voice and my art to share my story.
Can you describe the aesthetic choices you made in conceiving the triptych? As well, why did you decide to dispense with colour and choose a unique monochromatic feature?
Sheryl Luxenburg: The triptych is meant to portray a street scene. The background is meant to portray a cement wall with 3 por-
traits of a topless woman covering her breasts. The covering of the breasts are a defensive yet assertive stance saying no to abuse. The viewer cannot see the breasts in order to protect her privacy. The 3 portraits embedded into the inanimate cement wall is to show that trauma occurred in the past and belongs in the past. The metaphor of the inanimate wall means it is not alive and doesn’t belong in the present. There is intentionality to separate the past from the present.
Given I specialize in a flattened depiction of space, which intentionally lightens the subject around the perimeter of each shape highlighting a 180 degree view, and whereas in regular realism the shading is darkened around the perimeter to illustrate a 360 degree view, I used a regular realism method for the background figures and a flattened depiction of space for the life size figure. The animate figure standing life size on the street shows survivorship. The interplay between regular realism and the flattened depiction of space realism worked well because it accentuated the contrast between the background figures and the foreground life size figure.
The background figures symbolize not only surviving incestuous sexual abuse at the hands of my father but also in surviving several heart attacks due to Systemic Lupus. All these situations were a challenge to live through and it has taken me a couple of decades of positive strength to recover. The black border around each panel was created in order to punctuate and honour survivorship. I decided to dispense with colour and go monochromatic because I felt it
strengthened the message I wanted to deliver.
As I have reviewed your work over the years, I notice that you leave few elements to chance or mere aesthetic complacency. I would go as far in saying that your artworks are similar to architectural structures, each element be they transparent shower glass which speaks of isolation, or dripping water as a metaphor for tears and cleansing, you deliberately use symbolism to strengthen your powerful allegories. In To Everything There Is A Season your communication appears even more poignant as the arm gestures are clearly communicating ‘Do not touch my body’ and the central figure standing life size presents with a rather defiant demeanour. How did you develop this aspect and why did you leave even less room to interpretation and ambiguity?
Sheryl Luxenburg: I did not want to leave anything to ambiguity. I had been struggling for decades with having to keep my feelings bottled up, and I wanted to publicly state that sexual abuse is a criminal offence.
As you remarked to us a few years ago, you had an epiphany two decades ago when you realized that your subject matter was a direct projection of the psychological struggles you were having in your life. Therefore it makes complete sense that the subject of To Everything There Is A Season, taken from The Bible is about survival, transformational growth, recovery and healing. This aspect of your approach reminds us of the ideas behind Rebecca Horn's artworks ‘to create art that throws a lifeline to whom creates it, and that at the same time provides the viewers with a deep moral compass’.
Sheryl Luxenburg: As you reveal great wis-
dom and self awareness of reality, your artistic production has again attracted our attention for its multilayered quality. Besides being incredibly eye-catching for it’s irrefutably aesthetic features, your paintings challenge the viewers' perception, urging them to overcome the dichotomy between what may be a painting recreated verbatim from your photographic source material, and what belongs instead to the realm of imagination and exaggerated fiction. Switching between photo-realism and expressionistic hyper-realism, how do you play with the tension between the real and the imagined? In particular, why is it so important for you to give life to images where you are able to create the illusion of reality in order to communicate your emotions?
My fine art education from the late 1970s through the mid 1980s fostered the development of my photorealism skills, but in the last twenty five years I have become more interested in playing with the exaggeration of reality.
Your personal story reminds us of a quote by artist and poet Max Ernst when he underlined that ‘every human being and not merely the artist has an inexhaustible store of buried images in the subconscious, and that it is merely a matter of courage or liberating procedures of voyages into the unconscious, to bring pure and unadulterated found objects to light’. How do you consider the role of your subconscious in your artistic process?
Sheryl Luxenburg: When I initially designed this project, I believe I did so for the most part with conscious intention. Because I had never spoken up before about the abuse, I wanted to be sincere and forthcoming. Only
towards the end of the design stage did I realize that In portraying the characters, I had unconsciously been also trying to acknowledge the fact that I have survived a few heart attacks due to Lupus in 2007. The figures embedded in the cement wall is a symbol of this life threat.
British artist Chris Ofili once stated ‘that the studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibition is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending. So an exhibition is not a conclusion’. What should we expect as a next step from your artistic production?
Sheryl Luxenburg: I think we can expect more of the same, continuing with the aftermath of speaking up and what that looks like in my life.
It is important to remark that you want to use this project to raise awareness for the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. We deeply support the way To Everything There Is A Season draws from your personal feelings of upset and struggle, and it is wonderfully educational that you have found a way to transform your pain to paint in order to create this powerful proactive force. Experiences such as sexual assault leave us with a sense of disbelief, confusion and outrage. Sharing ones story about abuse and then what survival looks like can serve as a role model for others hurting. It is our honest opinion that we find your artistic production as highly unique because it breaks the barriers of language to create an opportunity for universality.
Sheryl Luxenburg: Thank you for all your support. I truly appreciate it. The project has been ongoing, a gift that keeps on giving. From the time of its release in late 2020,
many people in the public have come forward writing me emails, telling me that they read the project, and have now found the courage to speak up and get professional help.
An interview by , curator and curator
Hello Bransha and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.bransha.com and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You are a multidisciplinary artist with a solid formal training and after started your education and career as a painter, you continued to profound your artistic skills more towards photography and film: how did these experiences influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, are there any experiences that did particularly help you to develop your attitude to experiment with different techniques?
Bransha Gautier: Hello it’s nice to be here. There are many experiences that had an impact on my evolution as an artist as basically everything we do has, so experimenting with diverse techniques and playing in different art fields brought me enormous pleasure and even enriched my career to the fullest. Yes I started my career as a painter, creating a bit unique style that brought me a lot of international exhibitions, therefore I travelled to many exotic destinations that completely reshaped my life and stirred my path from painting more towards photography and motion picture. There were times when I thought it would be better to profound one skill rather than work simultaneously with several however today I realise that multidisciplinarism was the way for me to go. As if one art field was the portal to the other so my curiosity kept growing and even today you can find me working in
completely new art media. I get very passionate about everything I do and it occupies my whole time and being! When I start to paint e.g. I can’t stop until I’m done and sometimes it takes a month to complete one art piece. As if some higher force possessed my mind and body that doesn’t let me do or think anything else but paint. It’s more-less the same in all other art disciplines
Bransha Gautier
that I work in. Truly for me art is like a sacred space especially painting, sculpting, fashion and everything that I create with bare hands (non digitally). It transcends to the whole other dimensions and as a reward, aside from a great personal satisfaction, it gives me also an opportunity to exhibit in prestigious photo festivals, oil-painting biennales as well film and new-media festivals all around the world, that would be impossible otherwise.
On some deeper level everything in life is connected and that is how my art also led from one art-field to another. My paintings were highly inspired by Viennese Secession and I guess I turned from painting into photography while exhibiting and working in Korea and Sudan. I fell in love with their both so fascinating and yet completely different cultures and costumes that I wanted to capture every single moment with all that beauty as seen through my eyes...
The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article has at once captured our attention for the way your exploration of the theme of crosscultural psychology is the way it goes beyond any kind of self-referential exoticism, creating a bridge between the viewers and the culture that you drive them to explore: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you develop your ideas?
Bransha Gautier: Actually I mostly don’t develop them at all. My best ideas always come when least expected, when deeply relaxed in meditative state and sometimes even occupied with other things. Most of the time when you're still and not trying to steer
things in a certain way is really when the magic can happen. So on the surface it looks like that everything happens accidentally, I just stumble upon some situation on the street or as it happens a festival is just happening at that moment etc. so I was very lucky to capture some precious moments in time that also thought me to look at the whole world differently as well that magic is all around us, if you can get above your noisy mind that is. I don’t have a typical setup and creative process because for me art comes from deep within; it’s the reflection of that current, specific and unique moment that exists only then. Maybe there are repetitive similar imaginary but what you capture is that unique essence that can’t be expressed verbally. So even though I tried to plan a few times how I’ll develop my ideas and put them in motion and even tried to analyse the whole creative process as soon as I start to work it always turns into something completely different. Therefore I approach my urge to create open minded and from there the ideas are born not the other way around. I just let them out, that’s all.
New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you carefully plan your photographs or do you work more instinctively? In particular, how do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your creative process?
Bransha Gautier: As mentioned briefly in previous question, I get the best results working on instincts with open mind and heart. If I travel somewhere specific of course I like to do my research and find out what’s most of my interest, especially since I like to
explore ethnic tribes. However as life will have it, usually you end up creating even better shots while spending time with locals. It is not always easy to have a life as an artist, especially if you live in less developed countries so in general the role of chance
both for an art object as well an artist itself, is pretty important. On one way in art world unfortunately everything is about connections or to say it more politely “to be on the right place at the right time with the right people” However, in my opinion, to be a
good artist you only need to have urge to create and bravery not to give up, everything else will line-up itself: the funds, circumstances, publicity and so on..Regarding photography I would spend some time working on post production but I rarely shoot
in a studio. I like natural environment, daylight and traditional clothing and surroundings.
We appreciate the way your works constantly capture surrounding life, intriguing the viewers also in ordinary things that belongs to such a variery of cultures:
regarding to your experience of teaching in Sudan, India, as well as in Brazil, Korea and China, how does your everyday life's experience and your memories fuel your artistic research?
Bransha Gautier: Pretty much! I was very lucky to experience these fascinating cultures
in person with their mesmerising customs and rituals. It’s one thing when you visit a country as a tourist and the whole other dimension when you are living and working with locals. These experiences had an enormous impact as well on my personal life as on professional line on work. My life got whole other meaning
enriched with new languages, stories and legends from different continents, diverse spiritual practices that you can also see in my artworks that are field with folklore scenes from all around the world. And despite very different customs, everyday rituals, religious or political views all people just want to be
loved and accepted. Not only that we all share same basic needs but even beyond that there’s a greater picture that united us all. And that’s what my art is all about! About unity in diversity in all its abundance with thousands subcultures and their countless traditions. The best hope of humankind is to
maintain as rich in a diversity of social types as possible and unity in diversity is the highest possible attainment of a civilization, a testimony to the noblest possibilities of the human race. It plays a very crucial role in maintaining a peaceful coexistence with the people with diverse culture and background. It helps us to stay together and stay united despite our dissimilarities. All these approaches and experiences have been very enriching, influenced and complemented, to evolve as an artist.
You often draw from popular culture, and you created animations inspired by Depeche Mode and Chris Cornell among the others, and we really appreciate the way you acheive to show the point of convergence between traditions and cultures from different corners of the world, unveiling our profound need for oneness. As an artist particularly able to ring out the values of multiculturalism, how do you consider the relationship between Tradition and Contemporariness? In particular, do you think that your artistic research respond to a particular cultural moment?
Bransha Gautier: That animations were specifically created for Depeche Mode’s Facebook Takeover from a photograph that was previously part of Anton Corbijn’s stage pre-encore project and was screening on Delta Machine World Tour in 2013/14. Another was a tribute to Chris Cornell after his tragic death. It has been said that to be original you have to go to the origin and create something new so that link between traditional and contemporary is always there as coexistence of the past and the present. In the centre of my artistic work is ethnicity in all its glory with its rituals and spiritual practices. Regardless if animations or photography my pieces portray
humans believes in different time zones and places. I like to explore ethnic tribes and their customs. I approach these subjects not only from aesthetic point of view, to showcase their colourful folklore but to convey the
message that educate humanity and leads them to reflect on important contemporary issues. If there’s an influence on my artistic research and approach I would say that it’s humanitarian, social one rather than a
particular cultural movement. I travel all around the world and I’m especially touched and concerned with a female role in a certain societies, behaviour of human being as well ecological issues that tend to be often linked
together.
Your artworks feature such unique strong colors that you sapiently combine with rigorous composition, and that we can admire especially in Red for passion: how
does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of your tones and why did you decide to include such kind of signature in all your artistic production?
Bransha Gautier: I absolutely love bold
colours and somehow I always travel to countries that overflow with vibrant complexion. If you visit India, Mexico, Thailand, Brazil the dynamic culture, streets, flowers are on every corner, as if you enter in
an ancient folk tale. Colours represent different emotions to people living in various regional, geographical, and religious divides but colour, in essence, has been a large part of my consciousness as well. I love to use vibrant nuances to enhance the richness of a culture or as a synonymous with religion – an expression of faith and beliefs. Other times I would use eccentric, multicoloured shades to emphasise the intertwined world of inner and outside realities. As seen by our prehistoric ancestors red is dynamic and continuously breathing fire colour that symbolize blood and danger “Red for passion- Wrong Fashion” is a series of photographs that I created to support animal rights and raise awareness about cruelty on animals in fashion industry that are every year brutally slaughtered and experimented on for the makeup and clothing industry. Change starts by each one of us. We have the choice to stop the cruelty by choosing other fabrics instead of leather, wool or fur, and buying cosmetics which have not been tested on animals.
As you have remarked on your artist's statement, in your opinion photography and art in general should primarily exist to spark change in the world and help humanity to develop better and further: how do you consider the role of artists in our globalised and everchanging society?
Bransha Gautier: Art is a form of non verbal communication and therefore transcends the limits that language places upon words to convey ideas within linguistic criteria, so in my opinion art should deliver questions or raise awareness on most important topics of today! We as artists have an obligation to reshape the world for better trough art. Like before when true journalism was still alive the same way artist should display the society they are living
in, raise awareness about racism, sexism, feminism etc. Art brings oneness in differences. It binds people with all their differences including lifestyle, dressing sense, rituals of worship, etc to live together with harmony in one bond of humanity. I think that art must have an expression of reality. I try to create force within a visual movement. Despite being a static image, you can feel the dynamic, energetic atmosphere. I always try to give into social criticism in support of human rights as well animal rights and freedom of expression in general. Art is a powerful tool and it can be an endless source of ideas and inspiration that continuously opens new questions and hypothesis
You also create stimulating animated films and another work of yours that we would like to introduce to our readers is entitled The Golden Year of Awakening and can be viewed at https://youtu.be/iNP1CmNs8c4. We have been deeply impressed with your sapient and extremely personal use of animation techniques to provide the viewers with such immersive visual experience: what were you choices on a technical and aesthetic aspect in order to achieve such brilliant results? Moreover, how would you characterize your animation style?
Bransha Gautier: Thank you. The Golden Year of Awakening was created for a Magical Mind TV, that’s a short educational mini TV series about art and spirituality. It’s based on profound teachings of leading spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle, Osho, Krishnamurti etc. as well people who overcame major life obstacles. It exists to help people in need in overcoming their physical disabilities so I had a pleasure to meet and interview some really amazing people like Mimi Kirk a 82 year young lady
who is one of the healthiest people in the world without any medication whatsoever. The Golden Year of Awakening is originally created for 2017 however it is applicable anytime every year, every day when we finally awake from a deep dream we are living in. Around the time of filming there was a China Lantern Festival in town so I thought with all that mesmerising lights it would be a perfect fit to the message I wanted to deliver and with a little help of Adobe After Effects, I usually work with, the magic happened indeed :)
Sound plays a crucial role in The Golden Year of Awakening and we particularly appreciated the way you mixed moving images with Queen's masterpiece Innuendo, in order to create such captivating visual rhythm: how did select the soundtrack and how do you consider the relationship between sound and moving images?
Bransha Gautier: Oh yes the one and only: Queen! An innuendo as an insinuation or intimation about someone or something emphasise perfect how everything just points to something much greater then ourselves, much greater that we actually know. Only because we label things with words doesn’t mean that we really know or understand them. There’s much more to a plant, dog and even simple chair! Innuendo can literally translate to "Hidden Meaning" revealing the meaning of the universal questions - life & death & that invisible essence that surrounds all. This profound song with all its mixed musical styles is still after 30 years absolute masterpiece and it just proves how Freddie Mercury was ahead of his time and how real music is made for life, not like today’s season’s hits where you can hardly distinguish one singer from the other. But I guess with all
the lies, corrupted politicians all around the world and fake news we are living today it’s no wonder that the music is as it is. We can learn right from Innuendo:” Surrender your ego be free! Be free to yourself” I would like to end my explanation with quote from Plato: “Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and
leads to all that is good, just and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate, and eternal form”
Do you think that being a self-taught film maker and photographer, provides your artistic research with some special value, urging you to keep learning more and more?
Bransha Gautier: Well, academic training in some art fields definitely straightened my self-
taught knowledge, however in other study and learning never stops. I spent years researching materials, mediums, shapes as well art history and ethnology. I think learning and improving yourself is of most importance! Not because you have to prove yourself to someone nor for a degree specific but purely for yourself, as food for your soul and brain. On that way our imaginary is expanded, consciousness as creatives reach a greater dimension and new
ideas as well improved skills are born or reborn. By learning I don’t mean only artistically but also emotionally, spirituality etc. In my opinion evolution is not over and we are on this planet to develop further and greater all together as beings in human, animal or plant form
In a controversial quote, German photographer Thomas Ruff stated that ''nowadays you don't have to paint to be an artist: you can just create photographs in a realistic way". Provocatively, the German photographer highlighted the short circuit between the act of looking and that of thinking critically about images: how do you consider the role of photography in our contemporary age, constantly saturated by ubiquitous images?
Bransha Gautier: Today everyone is a “photographer” Especially with Instagram and other social networks from selfies to the explosion of food snapshots; I think we are a bit overwhelmed in general with quantity lacking in quality. I miss a bit time before smartphones where people still read and were able to have a conversation without reaching for their phone every five minutes. Same with photography where popularisation of smartphones and filters are applied. In some ways, the widespread proliferation of amateur content does destroy professional and hobbyist works, whether they be photos or articles and professional journalism. Even documentary photo/video shots today are too much if you consider that people will rather film a person in danger then instinctively helped! Still I don’t won’t to generalise and of course I think there are today absolutely amazing photographers who bring art of photography to the completely new level I’m just a bit into -less is more- mode.
You are an estabished artist: over the years you have participated to a number of exhibitions, including biennales in London, Beijing, Bangladesh, Shenzhen to over hundreds of exhibitions and film festivals all around the world: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definetely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, and especially in these hectic days, to the online realm — as Instagram https://www.instagram.com/branshagauti er — increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience?
Bransha Gautier: Artists need an audience today as much online as physically. I have to admit that I’m neither a fan of online exhibitions & social networks nor I’m active online as artist should be. I find it rather an ego boosting waste of time, to be completely honest. I rather devote myself to nature and further realisation of my ideas and reduce my time online to the minimum. Still I do share updates about my upcoming events and/or publications on Instagram/ Facebook and personal website. I prefer my artworks to be seen physically, during exhibitions. It’s completely different vibe when the observer feels the artwork live as on screen and it’s important to truly understand the work. Also it’s nice to meet peoplein person; it’s more personal and intimate.
We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us
and for sharing your thoughts, Bransha. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?
Bransha Gautier: It has been a pleasure talking to you! Well, I’m always working on several projects at the same time, including
two large art installations that are a mixture of many diverse mediums and materials and will be first shown to Viennese public. Both of these multidisciplinary works are inviting the observer to rethink and reconstruct themselves from observation and the generation of meanings in order to establish intense and
fruitful relationships in the cultural field. I also have some interesting exhibitions and further interviews on the doorstop therefore my work is always in so much motion that I can’t wait to finally have a well deserved and long, long vacation! :)
ART Habens
Hello Efka and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.efkaodehnal.com and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have solid formal training and after having earned your BA in Photography from the Tomas Bata University in Zlin, you nurtured your education with a MA in Fine ArtsMedia Arts, that you received from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK), in Ghent, Belgium: how did these experiences influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural background direct your current artistic research?
Efka Odehnal: First of all, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss my artwork. As far as I would like to think, that the educational and cultural background didn't influence my artistic research that much, it did quite opposite, but not in the way most people would expect to. The study of photography taught me patience, perseverance, attention to detail, resistance, and perfection. Most of my artwork of that time was driven by the need to go against the rules given by academic assignments, to prove to others that there is always another angle of view. The study of art theorists like Rosalind Krauss or John Berger helped me a lot and inspired my
early artworks. Nevertheless, I felt frustrated by being limited to one medium, just to later find out that those limitations are determining my artistic research.
My cultural background had a similar effect on my artistic evolution. Thanks to the possibility to travel and discover various cultures and countries, I realized I am irritated by a social and cultural discourse of art, that the art and especially photography
Efka Odehnalinfluenced by culture became such a cliché, there is nothing more to discover. Therefore, I tend to concentrate just on the phenomenological side of art.
The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article has at once captured our attention for the way the dynamics of perception, highlighting the relationship between abstraction and reality: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you develop your ideas?
Efka Odehnal: It is very challenging to reveal the process of my ideas as they are continuously evolving and transforming, but once I am satisfied with the establishment of the idea I am trying to find and focus on the core of the concept than expanding it. That is why my recent artworks are very pure and minimalistic, sending one strong message but yet leave the viewer for developing their own thoughts. When I start to work on a new project I become obsessed with it, I am trying to perceive it from all different angles, read literature, make sketches, and play with the observation. (This is the way how I can accomplish visually captivating images.)
We have appreciated the way your Meditation on Space series seems to invite the viewer to complete the work of art by personal associations. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once underlined
the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto: how important is it for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations?
Efka Odehnal: I think that the importance of the viewer's imagination is crucial in my latest artwork, especially in the project Meditation on Space. I am asking the viewer to engage with my pictures, to stop,
take a breath and think, meditate, fill the void with their own interpretation while watching the geometrical shapes, reflections, and intersections. I want to show the viewer that his perception can be
deceiving, illusional. Meditation on Space I., II., and III., are a series of triptychs consisted of one single setup and captured from three different angles, creating new
imaginary space and looking for the old ones.
As you have remarked in your artist's statement, you are constantly capturing the surrounding life, and you are intrigued
by ordinary things: how does your everyday life's experience and your memories fuel your artistic research?
This everyday experience is my major inspiration. From the moment I wake up I
watch and observe the surroundings, it is an unlimited source of ideas and thoughts. I am captivated by examining the forms of lights and shadows, how the sunlight is going through objects, how the light
streams are broken over the structures of materials into the new shapes of shadows.
Efka Odehnal: My project The Specular Preservation is about recreating the image
by using a mirror. It is a research of light, traveling through reflection and preserving the original appearance. Another thing that is fueling my research is definitely Still-Life. It is my favorite photography discipline as there is a strong importance of composition and light. It can be set-up still life, but what I find more interesting are the randomly found ones. I enjoy inspecting the objects that someone composed before me. Are they having any significant reasons?
What kind of symbolism we can read in them?
Those are questions that are constantly occupying my mind.
Your artworks — and in particular Unclarified Lucidity — are marked out with such refined sense of geometry: how did you develop this important aspect of your artistic production?
Efka Odehnal: As I already mentioned, when I start a new project I become captured by its topic, therefore the study of geometry was necessary. I played with geometrical shapes for long weeks until I found the right forms and compositions. It was urgent for me to find an elegant composition of geometry in order to stress out the illusive behavior of glass.
We have really appreciated the way your artworks, especially the interesting N°1 and N°2, create such a unique ambiance, through the sapient combination between abstraction and fragments of reality. Scottish artist Peter
Doig once remarked that even the most realistic works of art are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us: as an artist particularly interested in the theme of the perception of reality, how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production?
Efka Odehnal: That could be a very extensive answer, in fact, I have written the whole thesis about this relationship. In short, it is already complex to determine what reality is and how is perceivable because, in the end, everything ends in our imagination; and our imagination is shaped by experiences and memories.
We perceive reality with our senses, but the perception can be delusive, thus leaving the space for our imagination.
Those are very obscure terms with a close relationship, which are crucial in my artistic research.
In a controversial quote, German photographer Thomas Ruff stated that ''nowadays you don't have to paint to be an artist: you can just create photographs in a realistic way". Provocatively, the German photographer highlighted the short circuit between the act of looking and that of thinking critically about images: how do you consider the role of photography in our contemporary age, constantly saturated by ubiquitous images?
Efka Odehnal: What I thought, Thomas Ruff was trying to point out, is that photography became a standalone part of art, unlike 150
years ago when photography was used as a tool for capturing reality in order to use it as a sketch for an artist's painting.
Then for many years, it developed into a
craft and yet not a piece of art. However now, photography is already part of our lives for at least two generations, we don't think about it as people one century ago. It became an every-day element, so
nowadays you don't need to be an artist to create photographs.
On one side, it is amazing progress that brings a lot of advantage to technological development, on the other side, I believe,
everything that is popularized is soon to be destroyed.
The pure beauty of photography is gone; everybody is able to take an enormous
amount of instant pictures and share them with the world within a minute.
As a versatile artist, and although the focus of your artistic research is
photography, your creative production encompasses many other disciplines: what does direct you to such an interdisciplinary approach? In particular, are there any experiences that did
particularly help you to develop your attitude to experiment with different techniques?
Efka Odehnal: During my studies, I found photography limited to express my ideas and thoughts. I felt that to be able to support my photographs I need other disciplines for it. Questioning the reasons and purposes of photography itself became my primal topic. What really helped me and influenced me in such a way were theorists like Vilem Flusser, Karel Cisar, Charlotte Cotton, or Roland Barthes.
I've found the interconnections for my artistic practice especially in video and installations, it came naturally when I was experimenting with one project and it was important to me to ''bring the viewer in'' to discover and examine my photography installation.
Then I started to use these elements more often until I realized how imperative is to engage the beholder with my artwork.
Since your first show in 2009 in Brno, your artworks have been internationally exhibited in several occasions: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definitely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to the street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases: how it would, in your opinion, change the relationship with a globalized audience?
Efka Odehnal: I am not a huge fan of social media and I still believe that art belongs to real physical spaces.
It can definitely help a lot of artists to become visible, known, and even popular and it absolutely has the power to reach a bigger spectrum of audience, but in the end, it doesn't have any selective regulations, thus everything is available to everyone and the one can be overwhelmed by the quantity of the online art which turn into one of the many...
I think that is completely crucial for art to have the audience in physical distance.
We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Efka. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?
Efka Odehnal: It was a very nice opportunity to discuss my artistic practice. I hope I will be able to explore the phenomenon of light and space in deep. I keep circling around these topics for a while and I enjoy that there is still so much to discover. Naturally, those subjects are currently driving my research and I expect I will hold onto them in the future too.
Thank you very much for the chance to present my projects and I appreciate the time you took for analyzing my artworks.
the entry 240 x 190 cm
An interview by , curator and curator
Hello Reiner and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.reiner-heidorn.de in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production and we would start this interview with a couple of introductory questions. As a basically autodidact artist, are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as a visual artist? Moreover, how did you come up with the idea of your Dissolutio painting technique?
Reiner Heidorn: I grew up in Southern Bavaria, next to the Buchheim Museum, where in the 90ies I was very impressed by Kirchner, Nolde and Mueller. They have works of Dix, too.
So I started with drawings, than installed a huge table with all sorts of crayons, ink, pencils and kept on producing.
Soon later the table became a room, and since 1998 I had a own large studio. At a certain point of my career
I had the strong urge to disappear, and I found microscope images of chlorophyll and freshwater, which came next to the idea of dissolution. I adopted the pointillism of these botanic and biological images with a certain technique of dripping oilcolors with turpentine and
Reiner Heidornpigments, to create a endless universe, which at least brought me sort of peace and calmness.
The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens are marked out with such unique visual identity that reflects the personal technique that you have developed over the years. What has at once captured our attention of your your approach is the way you use visual language in a strategic way to offering an array of meanings to the viewers: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, we would like to ask you if you create your works gesturally, instinctively. In particular, how do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your creative process?
Reiner Heidorn: It may sounds like a joke, but with the years I´ve experienced, that the best way to create these universes is to work in a very high speed with fury and despair :)
My surfaces are resulting, if someone does everything possible wrong during working with oilcolors. I´ve developed all these mistakes into my own technique.
wetgrassnight 180 x 240 cm 2017
I tried once to paint with patience and consideration, but the result was much worser. The secret is to make everything look improvised, but it is absolutely controlled, as far this is possible in this area of artworks.
If you may have achieved a good painting, you should repeat it at least ten times, to reduce the improvisation and have a result that was in your mind. Than you are able to repeat styles, that you think are worth to establish.
We have been particularly impressed with the sense of movement that marks out your interesting othersurface and we really appreciated the way your artworks create such enigmatic patterns, communicating an alternation between tension and release. How does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include moment by moment in your artworks?
Reiner Heidorn: When I start a new idea I always work in series. I do small and large canvases at the same time and finish everything with speed and without thinking too much about the process. In my gesture I
aim to do the sort of figures, like flowers or plants as rough and childish as possible.
I have no interest in a reproduction of reality. I wish to create a feeling of hover, like in a dream. It is no point to discuss, if this painting is over or under
water, everything is pure fiction.
When exploring the relationship between man and nature — as the interesting u are here for a reason — you create works of art that challenge the viewers' perceptual parameters, to create inter-
othersurface 160 x 400 cm
zones of sensory perceptions, that invite the viewers to recognize elements from natural environment, as forests, lakes and plants: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? In particular, how does
everyday life's experience fuel your creative process?
Reiner Heidorn: “u are here for a reason” was ment literally if someone steps in front of this painting and starts to watch it, he does it for a
ART Habensreason.
I want to use this term as a title for a show, so when you are surrounded by a series of my monumental works, the originallly essence of existence as a trash producing human should occur.
I want people to think about how unimportant they are. There are maybe horizons or woods in the paintings, but this is secondary. The canvas has no beginning and no end, it could expand infinite or present the smallest critters in water, in a cell.
We daresay that your Dissolutio technique allows you to create new kind of languages that expand and even trascends the nature of human perception, and more specifically we definetely love the way your fogland series invites the viewers to elaborate such a wide number of interpretations. French Impressionist painter Edgar Degas once remarked that Art is not what you see, but what you make others see: how would you consider the degree of openess of the messages that you convey in your creations and how open would you like your works to be understood?
Are you particularly interested in arousing emotions that goes beyond the realm of visual perception?
Reiner Heidorn: As I had international shows, I recognized, that in every country viewers share the similiar
impressions. Though I mainly take my inspiration out of the direct environment here – and I mean strictly
my hometown with a few surroundings – the language of my paintings and the floating universes are always causing a nostalgia, a wish for weightlessness and at the same time hope and calmness.
All the things, that are not appearing in my paintings convey a sweet tranquillity. At least I think I really
managed to transfer my wish to disappear and to feel unimportant. When the location is beautiful, a selection of my works let people walk in, as if they step in a church or a huge cave.
Your artistic research is engaged with social commentary and topical issues as
climate change or the alienation of man with regard to his natural environment. Many contemporary artists, such as Thomas Hirschhorn and Michael Light, use to include socio-political criticism and sometimes even convey explicit messages in their artworks: do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical
issues as that affect our everchanging society? And how do you consider the role of artists in the contemporary age?
It´s interesting that I´ve done these works before the discussion about climatechange appeared. Especially my botanic makro chlorophyll paintings are than seemed to be the visual
fogland 1 200 x 250 cm
appearance to fill this gap between political and social movements and art. As I now create nearly without compromise only botanical works in thousand shapes of green and wanted to transfer the issue of exploitation, destruction and greed,
the paintings became examples for topical issues of our time by itself.
A particular feature of your artworks that has at once impressed us is the way you achieve to create such unique sense of depht with monochrome tech-
nique: would you tell us something about this aspect of your approach? In particular, how do you determine the nuances of tones to be included in your paintings?
Reiner Heidorn: When it comes to the explanation about the range of colors,
it is more a issue of the technique and the use of pigments, oilcolor, turpentine and linseed oil. This is not very creative, it is more chemistry. You have to know, what you want. But as I had explored the same creations over and over again, I now can work safely
without any surprises. I know what´s happening when I set up the mixtures. I´ve also learned, that all in all the paintings are much more impressive the less variations or bold figures are happening in them. From the wild to a serious harmony. At least the random
plants in tiny environments are a good source for learning, how to lead your arm with the brush.
You often work with large, oversized canvass, that, as in mentalflood, provide the viewers with such
immersive visual experience: how do the dimensions of your canvass affect your workflow?
Reiner Heidorn: The larger, the easier. With the gesture of the whole body I
achieve the greatest results. Even if I choose to do some sad and grey large works, when they are really large, they have a moving aesthetic. It is much more difficult for me, to do smaller works with success. I could produce
endless without limits, it´s like painting your own jungle, where or why shoud it end?
You are an established artist: over the years your artworks have been internationally exhibited in several occasions, including your recent show „the long awaited“, at LeiXiang Gallery, Taipei: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? By the way, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram and Vimeo — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience?
Reiner Heidorn: The main thing is, that during the process of painting I don´t have any audiences, exhibitions, trends or social media platforms in mind. I simply don´t care about my own ego either. It´s not essential, if I´m hungry, cold, tired or anything.
Everything that counts is the result of a good painting. The first instance of critic is me. I destroyed many works, which surely would have been applauded by
u are here for a reason 200 x 250 cm
the
viewers worldwide. When at least I have a nice new canvas, I than step back into reality and do all the marketing tools, which are useful to show my style.
When I by myself are satisfied with the new work, nothing can harm this personal success.
Than you have to meet real people to make something real happen.
That means real shipping trucks, wrappings, you have to sit in a plane and talk to the business partners. Social media tools are helpful, but they can´t never be a substitute for
real meetings. I´m glad that no laptop in the world can transport the depht of an original painting. You have to go and see it.
https://www.instagram.com/reinerh eidorn/
We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Reiner. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?
Reiner Heidorn: I prepare shows for 2022 in Germany, Austria, Italy and China. I would wish to do much larger works one day and hope to achieve some residencies international.
What also more and more happens is, that I can change canvases for goods, so I have the hope, that my artworks are becoming sort of a currency. And I could do as much as I want :)
Hello Einav and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://einavzei.wixsite.com/mysite and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you hold a degree in Design from Kibbutzim college, classical animation studies and art student at Shenkar college: how did experiences influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural background direct your current artistic research?
Einav Zeichner: The studies exposed me to many different techniques and demonstrated how much I love multidisciplinary work and experimentation. It led me to explore intellectually the subjects I was interested in, And also to experiment with graphic, fashion and product design. The combination between design and art made me engage in the boundary between the practical and the impractical. For example, creating accessories that can be worn but will still be unusual and non-commercial. My main interest was the combination between beauty and rejection which included harmony and strangeness in different mediums. The animation enabled me to bring images from still to life, gave me a greater awareness and knowledge about the body, movement and rhythm.
In the last year of the degree I worked on my final project, and my advisor was the artist Masha Yozefpolsky who was a great inspiration for me. The subject of the project was “Abject”. According to Julia Kristeva’s book “Powers of Horror”, the term refers to that which has been distanced or secreted from the body, and has been transformed into the “other”. The
despicable, which unsettles identity and the system, refuses to respect boundaries, stances and rules, thereby resisting control. The project was an autobiographical journal and it included Haiku inspired texts - poetry I have been writing since the age of 17 - alongside photographs that included dead animals, hair and refuse.
Highlights from the project can be found in the following link:
https://einavzei.wixsite.com/mysite/anesthesia The culture we live in seeks to purify itself and
Einav Zeichner
do away with anything that appears ugly, different, sick and diseased, anything we would not want to be although humanity is inherently contaminated. I understood that our world is hyper-designed and overly aesthetic. There is too much of everything and everything looks the same.
Therefore, I chose to collect existing objects and evoke in them a beauty and meaning that will invite people to get closer and even identify with them.
The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens has at once captured our attention for the way it questions the materiality of the image, as well as for the way you sapiently challenged the audience's perceptual parameters, inviting them to question the themes of perception and experience: we would like to start this journey in your artistic production with Rolled Newspaper, a stimulating work, that has impressed us for the way it highlights its deep relationship with human body: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how did you develop the initial idea of Rolled Newspaper?
Einav Zeichner: The idea began in my research on the body and abjectness, the ways in which the physical body serves as a locus of control, discipline, monitoring, or social and political opposition in Western culture, a construct of the relations between body and identity. The question of how our corporeality is formulated in relation to identity was examined, what types of monitor and control systems are our bodies subject to, particularly the female body in modern times, and to what extent do we choose our own body image? In addition, is there a difference between fashion when it comes to women’s attire and the female body? Newspapers are cheap and readily available, industrial, dirty and smelly, many people spend
time with it in the bathroom or on the bus, and it passes through many hands. This type of paper comes and goes and is of little significance. The vulnerable paper became a stable unit which cannot be torn, an act intended to render the cheap valuable and transform the industrial into a “one-off”.
As a versatile artist, your creative production encompasses Photography, Drawing, Painting, Prints, Sculpture, Jewelry, Animation and Video: what does direct you to such multidisciplinary approach? In particular, are there any experiences that did particularly help you to develop your attitude to experiment with different techniques?
Einav Zeichner: I think that curiosity is the starting point which leads me to experiment with different mediums. When I think of an image, I treat it as both two and three dimensional. The ability to diversify without sticking to a single medium allows me to think and act freely, without boundaries. My approach is to taste new things without a fear of failure. All mediums are related and work together, they create a rich and diverse world that reaches a wider audience. My passion for any given medium arises at different stages of inspiration. Every medium meets a different need, and together they form a single coherent sentence.
As you have remarked in your artist's statement, your work is created and Influenced from what exists around yourself, at home or on your way: as an artist whose work is particularly influenced by transitions and changes in life, how does your everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research?
Einav Zeichner: The past two years have been very significant for me and have provided me with food for thought and action. Relationships,
places and objects which are and have been a part of my life are transforming, and this is reflected in an abstract way in the work. There are days when images or social circumstances occupy my mind. They come up while I am riding the bus, in the shower or talking with a friend, and I cannot get them out of my head until I create something from them. In addition, moving out of an apartment shared with roomates in noisy Tel Aviv to my own place in the quiet suburb of Ramat Gan enabled me to connect to myself and provided me with the physical space needed to work. My family moved out of the apartment and left behind possessions, objects and leftovers. As a result, a large part of my art during this period has been based on “cleaning house” and sculpting with existing materials. In addition, the camera obscura photo was taken in my childhood bedroom after it had been emptied and repainted. It was like going full circle.
You are particularly interested in using unconventional materials, leftovers, especially those that are perceived as "despicable". New York City based photographer and sculptor Zoe Leonard once stated, "the objects that we leave behind hold the marks and the sign of our use: like archeological findings, they reveal so much about us". We’d love to ask you about the qualities of the materials that you include — or that you plan to include — in your artworks: in particular, how important is for you to use found and recycled materials?
Einav Zeichner: Reuse is a substantial part of my work. I see no reason to purchase materials when I am surrounded by so many materials, all of which bear history, memories and energies from the past. I aim to take an object and transform it into something dynamic, to take it apart and simplify. The use of materials that have been discarded and orphaned transforms my work into a type of resuscitation and adoption. I performed a different kind of act in my self-portrait photo, in
which I am wearing my wedding gown after it was dirtied with mud following my divorce. The pure white look of the wedding gown, together with all the beauty, make-up and hairdo before the wedding felt like a costume.
Your artistic process reflects a deviation from the original, processes of abstraction and transformation into a new object. Scottish artist Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic works of art are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us, how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production?
(Here we have reserved space for The-Wolf and Thong, that if you like you could mention in your answer, as well)
Einav Zeichner: Indeed, most of my artistic process derives from imagination and the subconscious. The work is made in an intuitive way and images are created, sometimes provocative images, which are familiar to us while still being hard to identify. Like Freud’s “The Uncanny”: strange, disturbing, mysterious, incomprehensible. The combination of familiar and foreign creates a feeling of discomfort and alienation. Freud describes the fantastic experience as a frightening situation which leads us to a well-known memory which has been repressed in our minds. In the Wolf project I created leftovers of a body that were eaten by a wolf. Each and every part became an independent object, which was photographed as a stand-alone portrait with a character that is at once both dead and alive. The images creating both a sense of alienation and belonging, in order to elicit in the viewer feelings of discomfort, excitement, appetite or repulsion. The same type of alienation is expressed in a different way in the wire Thong. Here the reverse act is executed - taking an
existing object, a fabric thong, which we wear on our bodies for most of the day, and rendering it useless and even dangerous and painful. At the same time, the underpants take on a new meaning as a “shield” against sexual assault or an expression of female empowerment.
Your artworks — as the interesting Internal Organs series — reflecting such stunning organic quality, through reference to parts of human body, and we appreciate the way your works allude to meaning through symbolic and visual references: how important is for you to
trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations?
Einav Zeichner: It is important for me to trigger the viewer’s imagination by deviating from clear illustration. I avoided adhering to
anatomical correctness, and the viewer can connect what he sees to whatever he wishes. The work comes close to depicting something familiar, but at the same time a certain detail might pop out and cause the viewer to think again.
Your artistic practice is made out of intuition and intuitive connections: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? And how do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your work as an artist?
Einav Zeichner: For me art is a means to convey feelings and conduct a discourse that cannot always be expressed in words. Improvisation
leads me to places I could never reach if I planned ahead. It enables me to be the person I am at any given moment, to undergo a meditative experience. Most of my works are created instinctively , with influences from different artists, such as: Urs Fischer, Laura Kalman, Tom Friedman, Daniel Spoerri, Zoe Leonard, Sarah Lucas, Annette Messager and Jorinde Voigt.
We sometimes tend to forget that a work of art is a physical artefact with tactile qualities, and we really appreciate the way Synthetic meat reflects this aspect: as an artist particularly interested in highlighting the materiality among the viewer, how important is for you to highlight the physical aspect of your artworks?
Einav Zeichner: It is important to me that the public that sees the work is attracted to it, wants to examine it from up close and even touch it. I aim to cause them a sensory experience, whether pleasant or not, to elicit thought and imagination, to create surprise, excitement and movement. I also strive to make them question whether the object in front of them is dead or alive, the same feeling of strangeness I spoke about before. It is like a breaded chicken cutlet, which is coated with crumbs so that the diner will not notice the dead animal inside.
How do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definetely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? (if you like you can include the link
https://www.instagram.com/einavzeichner to your Instagram page, in your answer)
Einav Zeichner: Exhibiting my work in a physical exhibition space, and my own personal
presence alongside the audience, are very important to me. I am always interested in hearing and seeing reactions and developing a dialogue with people from inside and outside of the art world, to give the audience a sense of
meaning while they are in the gallery. Moving to an online platform is challenging and requires marketing know-how - all information is conveyed through photographs, although I have received positive feedback on such
platforms. I am active on Instagram and you are welcome to follow me:
https://www.instagram.com/einavzeichner.
We have really appreciated the originality of
your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Einav. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of
the ideas that you hope to explore in the future?
Einav Zeichner: It was a pleasure to participate and share my work. Thank you very much.
Today I am at a bit of a crossroads, I am trying to reset the system and examine what I want to take with me and what I am finished exploring. At the moment I am continuing to research new textures and shapes, the relationship between the object and the subject.
I hope to start working on a larger scale, to move beyond the intimate space of my home and be exposed to new areas.
An interview by , curator and curator
