Altiba9 Magazine Issue#1

EDITION 01

Benedict Yu Donghwan Ko Fernanda Avendano Ines Domingues Laia Arnain Loraine Lynn Majd Alloush

Maryamsadat Amirvaghefi Nikolaos Mantziaris Ralph Klewitz Sabina Zentek Sara Vieira Stacy Lovejoy Tsuji Rieko

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Ines Domingues_ Oryntolagus Cuniculos_#2

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Benedict Yu Mountainscape of Void Untitled Conversation Between Heavens and Earth Trapped Island Noise

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Donghwan Ko Hoooome Concealed and Revealed House of Redlines

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Fernanda Avendano Modernidad Concreta 22

Ines Domingues Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine is an independent artist-run international publication which showcases experimental and progressive contemporary art, reflecting modern society and its environment, provoking conversation and action; fostering innovation and diversity of mediums which make today’s art scene so intriguing.

Oryctolagus Cuniculus Untitled 02

Al-Tiba9 Mag covers photography, paintings, visual art, music, film and performance. Al-Tiba9 Mag covers Artists with a primary focus on contemporary visual art reflecting modern society and its environment.

The magazine includes features on art (to add the final number of artists) selected artists from around the globe, it aims to give spotlight and to provide a unique art space for artists. Unlike gallery spaces, it aims also to create a space where individual artists can freely express themselves and become media themselves.and engage the selected artists with our readers and followers everyday through our social media, website and digital issues.

We also publish Biographies, interviews and studio visits with artists and curators who inspire us and our audience.

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Laia Arnain Arte Disuelto 44

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Loraine Lynn 56 Hours beforeafter Manufactum Sac-cha-rine

Maryamsadat Amirvaghefi Basket Bowl You Will Miss Marmar They Have Nine Balls 158 CM Basketball Player

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Majd Alloush Between Water & Home

Nikolaos Mantziaris droga Ethans Cow Human Trafficking

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Sara Vieira 56

Ralph Klewitz WZ01_Mont7 WZ_133_b

2C 2DTO CONCHA FULL MOON RC

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Sabina Zentek »From the deep waters I« »11 A.M/11 P.M.« »Die Summe seiner Teile...« a)»Genius Loci «/b)»Cernunnos«/c)»Phönix« »Membra Disiecta« »Acacia« »Lichtgestalt«

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Stacy Lovejoy Harvest of Talents Potion of Luck Programming Book of A Goal Her Wedding Party Hide and Seek In The Jungle Morning Flight To The Papaya Island New York Subway The Only Way IS Up Traffic Jam In Tokyo 80

Tsuji Rieko Fictionality 2017 Installation

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BENEDICT YU Benedict is a multi-disciplinary artist who explores and works with Eastern Philosophy, Eastern Aesthetics, Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology and Political themes. He holds dual citizenships from both Taiwan and Singapore. With the privilege of being based in two distinct countries, this gives him a unique opportunity to experience lives in both cultures.

With a diploma in Fine Arts from Lasalle College of the Arts (Singapore), Benedict has in store an arsenal of experience in various projects and events. One such example would be the 2015 “Singapore Nightscape 2050” led by Kaoru Mende, CEO of Lighting Planners Associates (LPA).

The event was collaborated among countries including Berlin, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Singapore for the selected participants to discuss and create a future nightscape that will fit into the year of 2050. In 2016, he received a full scholarship from Lasalle and was invited to travel to Vietnam to be featured in 2! Magazine. For his final year 2017 in Lasalle, his self-proposal project won the Dr. Winston Oh Travel Award and was sponsored to travel to Lhasa, Tibet, in execution of his research.

His works have been exhibited internationally in London, Kyoto, Singapore and Taiwan. Based mainly in Singapore, he has exhibited at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Art Stage Singapore. They are also among prized collections of collectors like the Deputy CEO of Mediacorp, Singapore Fashion Director; Jeremy Tan, Pan Xin Construction Company Taiwan, and a myriad of galleries and private collectors worldwide.

Mountainscape of Void, 2016, Books, dimension varied

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Please describe the intention behind your artistic production.

How do you successfully express this intention?

A: I believe is through my vivid experiences of beauty in life. My study in Eastern aesthetic, Chinese literature, and poetry have influenced me a lot to create a certain narrative subconsciously. I would say it’s more philosophical attempt and the idea of using a certain visual language to communicate with my audiences. To successfully convey the message, the synergy between the producer and the perceiver has to reach an equal state. However, the major problem lies in the lack of understanding and knowledge in Asian cultures and mentality. My intension is to constantly give a wake up call to the people around me, let it be Taiwanese, Singaporean, friends, family, social workers, etc. There are many issues I find sensitive and have been neglected, those are the ones I intend to present and to make a change.

Your work treats very sensitive subjects from them, religion, politics, history, all in a very complex paintings where form, landscapes, writing, graphic design, destruction of the image, re-construction of the image, interaction between the history and the actual present. What we find personally compelling though, is that you powerfully express your identity in almost all your paintings. Can you talk about that?

A: What’s my identity? I believe I’m just a floater and traveler of this world, especially between Taiwan and Singapore. I am still searching for my identity and where I belong. In my religion, I believe everything is temporal and nothing will last forever.

Therefore, I am more of an outsider so I can look at things more objectively and give a hand whenever they are stuck in their current situations.

People who give a hand to the needed who are facing problems often have more problems in their lives that they are dealing with right now.

Your process includes painting, sketching, writing and some graphic constructions. In other works, you mix time notions with light as a call for spirituality and mysticism. How can you describe for our spectatorship the relationship between these two important elements in your work? How do you proceed through your art to get to this relationship?

Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

A: I have been actively involved in community services & religious activities since 5 years old in Taiwan. Having dual-citizenship gave me a good understanding of different cultures and mentality of its citizens. Only until I moved from Taiwan back to Singapore at the age of 18 and enrolled in Lasalle College of the Arts, I began to be interested in sociology, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, and politics through the lenses of art. I want to thank many of my lecturers and my program leader who have been critically pushing me out of my comfort zones. Honestly, I feel too comfortable living in Taiwan. In Singapore, it is a total different world.

Your work is very graphic and related to time, identity and human. How do you turn this to an artistic inspiration?

A: In Taiwan, I’m constantly bombarded by street signboards the moment I walk out of my house. Colorful words and background force us to consume their messages. When my parents switch on the TV, visuals and audio also bombard us. As time flies, I can see how easily a shop can be built and torn down within 2 months like it never existed before. I would say my experience of time in Taiwan seems timeless and not bound by my surroundings. I picture myself as an outsider in both Taiwan and Singapore, to stand in a perspective of an audience looking at where I grew up and how the societies constantly change. Things come and go, so why not enjoy the past and the present and to understand what’s missing in this “society puzzles”? These are the experiences I have in life that gave me the source of inspiration when I look back how some of the things are “missing” or “unusual.”

A: Time and light, I would give an example of my experience. I started following my father to the nursing home for voluntary works at the age of 5. We would be singing and sharing stories, taking care of the elderly, visiting room by room. One experience I found that impacted my life was the time when I fed this grandma food spoon by spoon, she mistaken me as her grandson. I nearly felt to tears but I know it will sadden her so I held back. After a few months I believe she was satisfied with her life and has gone back with her ancestor.

My father has brought me to many funerals and has given counseling to the young and the elderly. I see the light shines on my father as he is aging but getting more content and cheerful in life.

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

A: I don't dare to call myself an artist; rather, a mentor and simply sharing teachings and experience of life. I want to be a community social worker, to help the needed and to give guidance in their lives. I find these experiences are very meaningful that teach me lots of lessons.

What current series are you working on?

A: Currently I am collaborating with fashion designers & researching and exploring the fields of artificial intelligence & engineering.

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while painting?

A: Tibetan music (throat singing) If you are not prepared, don’t listen to it. Your ears might not be able to take them all in.

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Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

Currently, I am serving my 2-year military service in Singapore.

In the future, I will be serving military service in Taiwan right after I complete my military service in Singapore. Therefore, I am constrained by time and the freedom to create.

However in the midst of my training, I still found time to do art. At the moment, I am collaborating with Singapore fashion designers. I have an upcoming collaboration with Japanese musicians in Tokyo.

I will also be having an exhibition in Taiwan later on this year.

Gajah Gallery, Singapore for “The New Now�

Exhibition.

Conversation Between Heavens and Earth, 2017, oil and gold paint on canvas, diameter of 60 inch

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Noise, 2016, oil on canvas, 4 sets of canvases, 55 x 35 inches in total

Untitled, 2017, UV paint on collaged newspaper, stretched on canvas, 48 x 40 inches

Trapped Island, 2016, mixed media on canvas, 83 x 60 inches

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DONGHWAN KO I am interested in exploring the spaces that I have occupied in my past and the space I occupy in the present. My works revolve heavily around strong affiliation towards understanding the dynamic nature of the spaces which we define as home. The space of the home is the most personal and private space; it is comfortable and it separates me from the outside world. Also I believe that the home may be the most basic space for everyone and the foundation for all actions and memories. From the vantage point of the home, we create family—our first experience of community. But for me, a home is not a fixed space, but an imperfect space that changes or moves along with time.

It is a temporary space that requires settlement and adaptation. So, while a home gives me a sense of security, I realize that it is a temporary personal space which is unstable and bound by factors that are outside of my control. Also I think that a home is paradoxically comfortable, warm, complex, limited, temporary, divided, and empty.

The spaces I have stayed in for a period of time have all become home to me, both psychologically or physically. I am thinking about finding the meaning of the space I inhabit and considered what home means to me. As an artist living in an era where one moves around and has to remain flexible while staying for varying lengths of time in different accommodations and cultures, adapting to the role of the migratory citizen of this contemporary world.

Concealed and Revealed

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Concealed and Revealed

House of RedLines

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Please describe the intention behind your Hoooome installation. How do you successfully express this intention?

I wanted to show the home as a space embodied by feelings of softness and warm memories, not just a rigid structure. I think that the light and warm characteristics of yarn evoke feelings of home, of the domestic. I tried to emphasize the feel and theme of home by hiding the surface of hard wood and creating a soft and forgiving surface, using the kind of material that might invoke compassion or understanding. I was also inspired by the action of repeatedly wrapping the surface with coloured yarn. For me, repetition has the effect of security and ritual; it allows me to fulfil a task while unconsciously processing my thoughts and research.

Your work plays with the physical and psychological representation of what a HOME is for you, but further than this, it is also a questioning about the human contradictions, usually installed in comfort spaces –maybe-­‐ to be represented as a Comfort zone where the mind cannot be exposed to the confrontation of life. What we find personally compelling though, is that you hide this confrontation with a childhood representation of HOME by using a basic representation of a regular house and using basic colors such as Yellow, Red and Blue. Can you talk about that?

In one’s childhood, home is the perfect shelter, the safest place in the world and a special place for the family. But when I was growing up, home was an unsafe and changeable space where I had to When I was making this work I was thinking about Russian adapt to different surroundings and cultures. So, I have tried to matryoshka dolls, sometimes called nesting dolls. These are express the contradictory meaning of the home through my works. wooden dolls that open to reveal increasingly smaller dolls hidden I attempted to use primary colours that might be used in children’s inside. The matryoshka doll represents a home or house in Russia. toys to elicit feelings of happiness and play. And the appearance The most interesting aspect of the matryoshka for me is that the of the simple house projects the common image of the home dolls are distinct objects of different sizes, but they all come together that everyone has. However, the inside of the work represents an to create a new object. The matryoshka seems to be a physical unstable, fragile, and empty space. I have therefore tried to express metaphor for family; simply opening and closing the nesting dolls the mixed ideas of home by hiding the surface of a fragile and somehow reminds me of the importance of family. I received one empty structure and creating a soft and colourful surface. of these dolls as a gift when my brother returned from his trip to Europe, and I thought of dolls within dolls as forming spaces within space—homes within homes. I used this idea to apply to a home Your process includes sculpture, installation, mixing different within a home and a memory embedded in a memory. mediums and exploring the space also you mix forms, shapes and colors, you mix time notions between the past and the present.How can you describe that for our readers?

Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

In the past few years, I have devoted myself more to research than to creating works. But after completing my Ph.D. in 2017, I tried to focus on producing works and have since participated more in exhibitions. The Hoooome series has been exhibited in various places and has received a lot of feedback. This year, I will participate in a variety of programmes, including exhibitions and residencies that will offer me the opportunity to leave the UK, meet other people in other countries, and further expand my current practice and work.

Your work is very clean and free, with a definite identity, it is also a meeting point of the IN/OUT, Inside/ Outside. How do you turn this to an artistic inspiration?

I read The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard. I am particularly interested in the chapter titled “The Dialectics of Outside and Inside”. Bachelard believed that the concepts of the inside and the outside often become blurred. The inside can become the outside, and the outside can become the inside. I assume that we cannot simply define the inside and outside of a space by using a wall or blocked structure. I think the idea of home is similar. Staying inside a home disconnects one from the outside world, but a home can also be an extension of outside space. So, my sculptural works create an open space that is empty inside but is not blocked. The works have a structure that is simultaneously closed off from the outside and extended from the inside.

I think that it is difficult to explain the theme of home as just being one thing; the idea of home is a complex and very broad topic. So, I decided to use several mediums. I think that various interpretations, mediums, and forms can express the different ideas of home that each person has. Home is a subject that closely relates to the idea of time, representing yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Because home exists, we can remember, be present, and dream. The home I lived in as a child and the home I am living in now are structurally different, but I think the idea of home is thesame. I believe that home is an object made of memory, space and time.

You are an artist based in Seoul and London, so where is Home for you? London? Seoul? or somewhere else? How do you relate your actual physical home to the psychological one?

The spaces I have stayed in for a period of time have all become home to me, both psychologically and physically. I think I am still finding the meaning of the space I inhabit and considering what home means to me. One thing is certain: without the physical space of home, we can’t imagine ourselves separate from the outside world and can’t rest quietly alone. However, representing or visualising the physical and psychological components that signify home is difficult. It could be argued that intangible objects are closely related to our psychological and physical memories.

I think that a key element in the consideration of home is not so much the object, which is located in space, but our memories and experiences.

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Hoooome

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Hoooome

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while working?

Sometimes I think I want to get a stable job in civil service or as a company employee. I would like to live a predictable life and receive a salary every month, but the joy of creating outweighs my longing for this kind of security.

I listen to various kinds of music when I work, but I like to match the rhythm of the music to my movement. When I make pieces that require a lot of physical movement, I usually listen to rock music. However, when I wrap a simple thread or draw, I listen to quiet classical music.

What current series are you working on?

Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

I am still following themes that have interested me in the past, but I am concentrating on a drawing series now. In the same way I have used thread to create three-­‐dimensional works, I now make repetitive lines with pen to make two-­‐dimensional shapes of houses on paper.

In April, I am going to attend a residence programme in Berlin and also have a group exhibition in Korea. In July, I will be taking part in a residency programme in Lisbon. I am also preparing to attend various exhibitions and programmes in London.

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FERNANDA AVENDAÑO Fernanda Avendaño’s work’s starts from the investigation of public urban spaces, using painting and graphics techniques. She seeks to represent the contradictions present in urban landscape: its utopian planning and its weathering, as well as its material inability to generate emotional ties with its inhabitants, the use of these as transit, its abandonment and ruin. Some places are stilled in time, loaded with the past phantoms that infect the present and their future, other spaces have been glorified and constituted as monuments. Her work is about the status of power of places that play their definitions between: utopia, ruin, heterotopia and monument.

Her body of work is constituted by two paths that are opposed. First, there are paintings made of large amounts of construction materials, such as concrete and low-quality woods, but also using façade cladding matterials such as ceramics, which explore the large format and the material overflow. On the other hand, she has begun to work with flat images, through digital and manual drawing, which seeks to eliminate the trace of the body, as a mechanical drawing.

Fernanda Avendaño was born in Chile in 1993, she studied Bachelor in Fine arts at Universidad Católica de Chile, and made an academic term at Universidad do Porto, in Portugal. In 2017 she won the first place at the Museum of Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna open call and had an honorable mention at the 5th young artist award at the Museum of contemporary art in Chile (Also known as MAC). She has had several solo shows as well as collective, from which we can highlight her solo show “Garden Cities” at MBVM and “Concrete Modernity” at Montecarmelo house of citizenship (Bouth in Santiago, Chile). Internationally she has participated in Uberbau House residency at Sao Paulo and also in shows in Oporto, Portugal (at the FBAUP museum and Prelada Hospital) .

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Please describe the intention behind your painting “Modernidad Concreta” Did you successfully express this intention?

Your process includes architecture, sketching plans in a sort of plane map manner, then painting? I mean, in other works, you split them, cut them, but can you describe that for our lectures?

“Modernidad concreta” is the result of the study of several public spaces that were constructed at the end of 60’ and the beginning of the 70’s, they are very specific modern buildings that were mark

by Chilean history, for their construction and occupation were interrupted by the dictatorship in Chile. This places were born from the modern utopia by did not lived by it, in them -surrounded by it - I felt uneased and estranged by the contradictions these places contained in them. I started to work from that feeling, trying to understand the similarities and differences of this places, trying to evoke the stages, the views and propotions. I think it’s difficult to get a glimpse of the history of Chile from my paintings, because they are not trying to tell a story, I think they are successful in being awkward, beautiful-ugly as some may say, they are successful in containing their contradictions and still sustaining as a whole, that’s my point of view of this landscape.

Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

I studied four years at Universidad Catolica de Chile “Bachelor in arts” and then had a semester abroad in Universidade do Porto in Portugal, were I lived for 8 months. I started to study arts convinced that I wanted to be a painter, but my first year got disappointed about painting and started to learn about etching. My teacher, Rafael Munita, let me in an engraving atelier call “taller 99” were I was in contact with so many artist very passionate about the media, this is the reason why I have so much graphic influence in my work.

Slowly, I made peace with painting and became a assisting teacher in several painting classes, one of the teachers that I assisted, Hernan Miranda, had a printing project, and needed someone who could manage photoshop, softwares and what not, it was from this experience that I started to think about new media and the way technology shapes the way we understand our environment.

All of my work is based in something that already exists, sometimes is a book, sometimes are files, pictures, movies, etc. My work is a study, the visual object is the result of a process of thinking.

When I face a landscape that involves a very specific architecture I usually start from maps, plans and writings that planned the space I am looking at, I then also draw and take pictures of the space, I digitally correct them, draw them in the surface and then paint each plane at a time. As the work reflects a process, the layers of the paintings also reflect time. That’s the beauty of painting: it’s layers of color material, manually shaped, through time.

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

I’ve always also dreamed of being a writer, and I have been writing little things here and there, maybe someday I will publish them. But I also believe it is possible to do both. I don’t want to have children, so I imagine I will have much more time than the average people.

What current series are you working on?

I am working in an artist book, a series of drawings of Latin American cities. I have been thinking for some time the idea of how a book can be a display, how maybe attached to a wall you interact with it differently or maybe how to interact with a painting in the way your body interacts with a book.

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while painting?

Your work is very graphic and related to technology, geolocation and maps. How do you turn this to an artistic inspiration?

I listen to jazz and pop music all the time, except when I am painting. I love silence when I am working, it’s like meditating.

Silence is also very difficult to find when you live in a big city, and I like to think about what our temporary perspective is to understand for this is priceless. landscape. Our body, specially our eyes have learn to understand Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations? the world with technology as digital cameras and cellphones. I cannot conceive a painting that has a traditional composition Currently I am in two collective shows where they invited us to because technology (photography and movies) has insert the idea intervene a bag of cement and a worker's helmet which fit perfectly of “out of field”. My question about landscape has always been related to identity and power hegemonies, my works are just studies with my body of work. Last year was crazy busy and this year I wanted to take some time to think and work, for this reason I around those ideas. haven’t schedule anything jet. I am waiting for the answer in some Your work is very graphic, clean, and mysterious at points. residencies open calls.

What we find personally compelling though, is the simplicity, and this contrast – like a desire to move from our daily devices use into something resembling but in a different point of view. Can you talk about that?

Technology is a tool which contains and gives power, when you look at cities from google earth, for example, not all of them are high definition, this is because google decides which city deserves a better representation. I always try to look over this given idea and, for example, represent all the cities with the same set of rules, erasing this category, creating new ones. Order and power fascinates me.

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#1 Oryctolagus Cuniculus

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INÊS DOMINGUES My work is about trace and evidence, what we can see and what we think we see. I use photography to build labyrinths of reality and fiction in a rediscovery of the photographic image in opposition to it’s ephemeral nature.

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Please describe the intention behind your project “Oryctolagus Cuniculus” Did you successfully express this intention?

Oryctolagus Cuniculus arose out of my interest and research about the functioning of the eye. The nineteenth century was quite important in this theme because it coincided with the invention of photography. Short after this invention, the term optography appeared, introduced by William Kuhn, meaning the possibility of fixing an image on the retina. In an amalgam between the eyeball and the photographic camera, this project is presented between fact and fiction and reveals what the result of the research of the eye, as matter sensitive to light, would be for science.

Photography happens between the past (living eye) and the future (dead eye). An image from the past that only exists through a rupture of the present. It is an act of creation and, at the same time, destruction.My main goal for this project was to create an analysis about photography and its usefulness. The way in which it’s invention guided the development of other scientific studies.

Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

I bought my first camera when I was 15, with money I had been saving over the years. Since that day I realised the importance of photography as a form of expression. In 2015 I finished my degree in Photography at Technology School of Tomar (Tomar, Portugal). I live in a small town in the center of Portugal called Leiria. In 2016 I moved to Lisbon to work, and since then I felt the need to enjoy these years in the capital to continue my academic studies. Between 2016-2017 I completed my postgraduate studies in Contemporary Photography Speeches in School of New Arts at Lisbon University. At the moment I am doing my Master’s degree in Aesthetics and Artistic Studies, path Cinema and Photography, in NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities in Lisbon, Your work is related to physiology, science and also to photography, in other projects childhood memories and thoughts. How do you turn this to an artistic inspiration?

They say a man only dies when thought dies, so for me, photography has a crucial role in memory, to keep a man alive in those who remember him. My connection with photography began as a resource to the past, for forgotten memories, that I have been reconstituting. I use photography to be able to forget, it serves as a memory aid as if it were a wunderblock. The construction of remembrance work as an amalgam of experience and fantasy. The fantasy represents the gaps of our memory but it is through it that I create my projects.

Your work is very graphic, clean, and mysterious at points.

What we find personally compelling though, is the simplicity, and this contrast – like to express a deep research in a simple way, is this because you want the viewer to get access easily to your work? What’s the importance of the simplicity in your projects? Can you talk about that?

The aesthetics of my work is directly related to my personality and the ways I find to express myself. With my works of art I seek the look of the observer. They only exist when they are seen and interpreted. In my opinion, I can only convey to the viewer the feelings and the restlessness through images that redirect the look. I always present ambiguous images because I want to let the viewer find his own answer and interpretation. Without the spectator there is no work.

Your process includes architecture, nature, laboratory research, a sort of psychoanalytic theory, then photography?

I mean, in other works, society is a subject, in other is science but both related to same process and research, can you describe that for our readers?

In order for the work of art to become an aesthetic experience, it is necessary for the work to have in itself a certain symbology that reaches the third person and participates in the process of creation and sharing of the emotional experience. Of all my impulses, I use photography for representations of desire of the imagination. Return to the path of reality in terms of it’s imaginative life and fantasy.

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

My background was in science and technology until the end of high school. When I entered university I immediately felt a desire to continue photographing and to have a connection to the art world.

I feel I am on the right track and not neglecting any other professional career. The photograph serves different areas, so I can always turn to science to develop artistic projects.

What current series are you working on?

At the moment I am developing a project on the Abduction of Proserpina, a sculpture of the seventeenth century based on Roman mythology and that explains the creation of the different seasons of the year.

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while painting?

My artistic process is obviously influenced by what surrounds me, by my interests and of course by the music I hear, mostly from Portuguese bands. I was born in a city called Leiria, which has a very strong music culture, with very good emerging bands. I can not fail to highlight the band First Breath After Coma, undoubtedly one of my greatest influences Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

In recent months I have participated in many contests and artistic residency to be able to expose my work and take my art to as many people as possible. So I might have new exhibitions and partnerships happening soon.

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#3 Sidereus Nuncius

#4 A Prova

#5 Ultima Imagem

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#6 Spectrum

#7 O Olho

Teorema do confronto

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LAIA ARNAIN Destroying the image with chemicals to create a whole new world.

Arte Disuelto is composed by several illustrations with an unique technique: the application of solvents and other chemicals on printed images with dry brushes and various natural elements such as branches and leaves. This way I create a new world in another dimension.

Photos printed in satin paper, various brushes and a solvent can are the base of Arte Disuelto, a project I started in 2015, after practicing this method I discovered while playing with chemicals on magazines.

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Please describe the intention behind your work. How Do you successfully express this intention?

I don’t think I have any specific intention, I feel that my works transmit my feelings or sensations, I don’t use to think when I paint, sometimes I’m surprised when I see the finished work. I don’t feel comfortable when people read my works, because I feel like an open book and others can see what I usually hide, I’d rather be an anonymous author.

Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

I have always loved painting, when I was 6 my parents signed me up to a small art academy in my town, I was one of the first students they had. It’s carried by a couple of artists who during those years made me feel at home, taught me different forms of plastic arts, from oil painting, watercolors, charcoal to engraving, sculpture with mached paper, wood, clay... I went there until the end of high school, I entered the artistic baccalaureate but soon I realized that wasn’t for me, since I didn’t feel comfortable with the teaching system and I didn’t want to enter the fine arts either. So I started a 4 years course of graphic art in a comic school in Barcelona, ​​as I have always love - and I still like - comics, I thought it could be my future, and although I realized that wasn't my way either, there among many other things - I learned to work digitally (which I don’t like to use artistically, but I must admit that it’s very entertaining and it works well to earn your salary) I also learned new painting techniques, like for example gouache, during that time, one day at home I discovered by pure chance, playing with solvents and other chemicals the technique that I currently use for my works. In that school, although in some aspects I didn’t like it very much, I had some very good teachers that motivated me to continue in the world of the arts, since in some moments I had ups and downs, now I am sure that it is what I want, although I know that is not an easy road.

Your work is very graphic and related to photography, identity and human being. How do you turn this to an artistic inspiration?

My works are always guided by the photography base, which I usually get from fashion magazines, sometimes even from advertisements, the process of searching for the image is usually long and it is based on finding something that would fit to be transformed into one of my characters, they are usually very basic photographs, I prefer that they are empty and the center of attention is in the human figure, that is why the fashion magazines work well for me, although I hate the modeling poses. I usually set especially in the eyes of model and that’s how I know if it could be one of my characters. Then I modify them completely and make them mine.

Usually only their eyes are what remain from the original image.

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Your work plays with mixing different techniques such as photography and painting process, destruction of the image, interaction between texture and lines and a dark representation of the soul. What we find personally compelling though, is that you express emotions based on a real life moments captured by your camera to move them in another dimension where you can express your thoughts freely – like to keep a deep feeling hidden behind your multilayers solvent process. Can you talk about that?

My works are based, unwittingly, on loneliness and melancholy. I work starting from a magazine image and I transport it to another world, where my characters, with long limbs, live in it. I like to think that they live in a parallel reality like ours, where time has stopped and they are lost in there.

Your process includes painting, sketching, mixing different mediums and exploring new techniques that are not traditional in paintings even most of your work at first make us think about old techniques. In other works, you mix time notions between the past and the present, the black and white with very pale colors. How can you describe that for our readers?

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

Actually I started to study art without being sure about it, I knew I wanted to do something big with it but I thought it would be something secondary for me, I was about to study Zoology.

What current series are you working on?

The “Dissolt” series, which I started in 2015.

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while painting?

I don’t like listening to music while I paint, it distracts me. But currently i’m obsessed with a singer named Samantha Hudson.

Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

In May I have an exhibition in Barcelona and another in October. I have several projects in mind. I would like to take my works further, to different places.

Everything always has a before. It’s very difficult to do something new without being inspired, based or directly using old techniques, and I think that's what it is all about, to look for new techniques without forgetting the old ones. I really like very marked brushstrokes, the big contrasts between dark and light and the feeling of "dirty" in my work. I don’t like to use bright colors, if I did it I couldn’t convey those feelings, I think my works are based on that, on the pale, the dark and empty colors, those colors I mainly get by dissolving the inks of the images with different chemicals.

You are an artist based in Barcelona, how do you get inspiration by your city, the people around you, your memories and daily activities. What’s special in there?

Actually I'm from a town not far from Barcelona, I was born there and I'm still living there. It is such a small town that we don’t even have a bar or a cafe. It is surrounded by forest and is very quiet, I think that is what really inspires me to paint. I lived 2 months in Barcelona and it was impossible for me to do anything artistic there, I do not like Barcelona, whenever I have to go I come back with a headache, there are many people and too many tourists. I would love to live in the middle of nowhere alone. I really like solitude and I think that's something you can see at first sight in my paintings.

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56Hours

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LORAINE LYNN What does it mean to evade the act of identification and is it even possible?

I breach boundaries and pull from different disciplines to explore concepts and interrogate existing social structures, examining their histories in order to produce critical commentary within my work.

Embracing change as the only constant in production acts as a driving force within my artistic practice. I use materials and methods that are fluid, such as glass, video, fiber, and installation as means to explore issues of labor, social structures, identity, and the scripts that all of these follow. Breaking these scripts in order to challenge and redefine existing ideas, as well as produce new ways of thinking is the main objective within my work.

This is achieved through the recontextualization of objects, actions, and materials through acts of repetition. Theories of performativity suggest that gestures aid in the assignment of identity. By rendering these actions unrecognizable through repetition the typical scripts are broken. This act of subversion allows for a particular question to be posed: What does it mean to be unnameable?

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beforeafter

Manufactum

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Please describe the intention behind your installations. How do you successfully express this intention?

I approach installation as a subtle shift in the spaces I chose to work with. I have a growing interest in architecture and the unique qualities of space that every building has (even if it’s hidden away from the everyday eye). Glass is a go-to material I use when I work in installation as well as textiles and plastic/wrapping material.

Glass has a history of being apart of architectural space that many conceptual artists in the 1960’s explored and I look back at them for inspiration. I’m not too interested in tapping into beauty, which can be a fall back in most glass work. My intention with many of my installations is tension and also an exploration of materials that are linked with mass-production and consumption. I express this intent with a loose approach that appears unstable, like it’s ready to collapse or “give up” in any given moment. This, if successful, induces a hyper awareness that causes the viewer to take in the space and material in an entirely new manner. There’s not a whole lot of spectacle in these works as I prefer a subtle approach at the moment.

Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

When I was first interested in pursuing a career in art I was studying photography and drawing. Despite that, I am trained professionally as a glassworker - it’s been about ten years since I started learning the process. I received my BFA in glass and sculpture and my MFA in three- dimensional studies. I still find myself fighting to shake off much of the rigidity that comes with training in a craft. I appreciate the beauty and skill of the process but try not to get caught up in it. Even when I was concentrating in glass I still worked with different processes, such as weaving, ceramics, video, and installation. I am endlessly thankful that I’ve always been flexible as an artist.

Your work plays with placement of the form, destruction of the volume, interaction between space and lines. You own the space with your large scale sculpture but in the same time you leave it very fragile, just like to be melted in the space and it gets part of it. Can you talk about that?

There is a power in being subtle and I use that in my work. The quiet presence of these sculptures adds to their ability to evoke a multiplicity of reactions, which leaves them very “open.” This is the kind of work I’m drawn to making because it takes into consideration the piece’s interaction with any space it’s placed in, rather than just being set on a pedestal and expecting the audience to ignore that decision. I also think the fragility in my work comes from the material choice of glass - people immediately think of an object that is made of glass as something that could easily break, but it’s a material that has a lot of strength to it. The transparency of the materials I use - not only glass - also leads back to the idea of fragility because of how it highlights the vulnerability of being in plain sight simply as it is and not being able to hide. The draw to working in this manner, especially when it comes to architecture, is the ability to activate a space that was designed with a specific goal in mindand bringing new meaning to it through an artistic intervention.

Your process includes photography, human body, mixing different tools, and exploring new techniques such as in your project, Sac- cha-rine, where you work with photographic prints on paper and magnets. Tell our readers more about this?

I think it’s important in artistic production not to be tied down to one method or material. For me it allows the exploration of multiple ideas in ways that aren’t stifling because I don’t constrict myself.

With Sac-cha- rine printing the photograph on fabric and being flexible with the hanging and mixing of materials was important to Your work is between sculpture and installation and related to the over-the-top quality of the work. Saturating the composition in pink and using techniques such as weaving with found imagery fragility, architecture, and space. How do you turn this to an was also important to the conceptual - albeit straight-forward artistic inspiration? foundation of the work. Being able to think outside of boundaries or conventions when it comes to artistic process allows for more ways I turn this into inspiration by allowing the sites and buildings I of expression and interpretation, which is what I love about art. I interact with on a daily basis to act as catalysts for new ideas for love when a stimulating conversation or critical dialogue happens projects. It’s easy to disregard the spaces and architecture we because of an artist or a work they’ve created. interact with frequently because it becomes so familiar and a part of the everyday routine. I am inspired by the challenge of thinking of ways to interact with these sorts of spaces and how materials and objects can change them, as well as people’s awareness of a space they’re overlooking due to familiarity. The same goes for the preconceived notions people have when it comes to objects and materials. If I’m able to use fragility and tension to shift someone’s consideration of these things, that really inspires me.

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APRIL In your statement you say: Theories of performativity suggest that gestures aid in the assignment of identity. By rendering these actions unrecognizable through repetition the typical scripts are broken. This act of subversion allows for a particular question to be posed: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE UNNAMEABLE? How do you answer this question if I return it back to you?

To be named is to be known and exist in a space of comfort or familiarity. For me, to be unnameable is to exist in an in-between space that is uncomfortable and slightly out of reach. There’s almost an uncanny quality to something that can’t be named, as if you know it and the answer is on the tip of your tongue but never makes it past that point. It becomes lost, which can be frustrating.

To be in that space is interesting because it brings up feelings that lead to further investigation and allows people the possibility to imagine a space or existence outside of what is standard. Being unnamable is ambiguous and that’s what fascinates me so much about it.

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They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

I’m neglecting being a writer! I see writing, even critically, as an important part of my artistic practice, though I don’t give it the attention it deserves. I love to get out and go to exhibitions that feature work that, to me, is relevant, fresh, and exciting. I try to write about art exhibitions happening in my region, but have put it on the back burner due to working on my own artistic work and teaching load. Making it a priority becomes tricky at times. It’s one of the careers I’d love to be doing if I wasn’t focusing on being a visual artist.

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Sac-cha-rine

What current series are you working on?

Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

Currently I am furthering my exploration of the material of glass in installation. I am producing a series of clear glass sculptures that utilize the material’s inherent quality of refraction to manipulate spaces. It’s on a smaller scale than I usually work but the idea is progressing. I am also working on a site-specific series that uses glass and clear wrapping to bring forth feelings of tension in the viewer due to the instability they perceive in the work. I see it as an evolution of ideas I had in myprevious installation work before/after.

Currently I have a solo show at River House Arts in Toledo, Ohio featuring textile work and some site-specific glass work. I recently had some photographic work, 56 Hours, in a show in Rome, Italy. I don’t have any current collaborations, but am planning some video work with others I’d like to make and get out soon!

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while painting?

For concentration I go for classical music, but if I need a more energetic mood when I’m in the studio I opt for hip hop or rock.

David Bowie or the Kinks are some of my absolute favorites.

Garage music is always a go-to as well. Anything I can get lost in and focus on the work is good studio music for me!

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MAJD ALLOUSH

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Majd Alloush (b. 1996) is a Syrian Artist working with print-making, moving image, photography and installation to radically re-think his outlook on various subjects of his concern. His style of documentation through art complements his vision towards the subjects he adopts; politics, self-exploration and psychology are some of the few topics that drive his art-force. By taking over more areas of troubled subjects, Alloush aims to continue exploring the policies of the mind through his art. The human psyche against nature - politics against conscience - time against space, these are some of the contradictions that Alloush sees as central to human existence and deserve to be encompassed as social theories and documented through art. By placing his viewer on a perplexing track, Alloush intends to strategically create work in which his vision begins throughout the piece, and ends in a similar manner: an ironic narrative in correspondence to the real world.

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and the subject matter has been blurred; art remains.

You are a Syrian artist, how do describe being an artist in I always intend to deliver what is beyond the matter, I anticipate Syria during the actual political situation? delivering an informative piece that is both visually and conceptually able to be put up for debate.

Personally, life is a string with various knots. Each knot is a complex variation of our existence, and to be able to survive we have to Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist? unveil each one of them. Body language, counted as a component of these knots, is a vital form of expression – a concealed matter to I’ve always worked with printmaking and photography, although be mastered: Body language is an assembly point for survival and I’ve recently adopted new mediums such as moving image and love. installation art, my core always roots back to the mentioned techniques above.

It is the land, it is the nation, it is the sounds hidden underneath – politics for me is only a tool to express and reach what we all want.

Your work plays with print-making, moving image, photography and installation to express his outlook on Your style of ‘documentation through art’ using the technique various subjects of the world. What we find personally of photo-journalism complements your outlook conceptually, compelling though, is that you express your artistic production How can you describe that for our readers? between a call for survival and a call for love. Body language and human being are two major influences in your work. Can It is ironic, we look at many cases through the media’s lens, we you talk about that? sympathize. In “Between Water & Home” I also used a lens, what makes me different than those broadcasting severe cases? So I Every single detail in life is an inspiration, and that is widely known. adopted the style of photo-journalism combined with art. I want to The tectonics of the earth versus the breeze orchestrating a flower’s see my concepts as if captured by photo journalists. choreography – all can be inspiration. So why can’t politics be art?

Why can’t my identity and where I come from be art? Why can’t I visualize my pain through anything I create? The world is at pause, 42

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“Between Water & Home” – Photography

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

Basically, everything that I dream to be is somehow related to art, but to answer your question I would say a professional skateboarder.

What current series are you working on?

I am working on a performance piece titled “Sensory Gating Undone”, exploring memory & brain recollection.

Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

I am currently preparing for a group show in Landshut, Germany titled “Kunst Im Dialogue” (Art in Dialogue)

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MARYAMSADAT AMIRVAGHEFI Maryamsadat Amirvaghefi was born in Tehran, Iran in 1989. Amiravghefi works are the mixed media medium of painting, video art, and sculpture pieces. Amirvaghefi completed her MFA at the University of Arkansas School of Art, Fayetteville, Arkansas. She completed her BFA at the Sooreh University, Tehran, Iran in 2013.

She is currently Instructor at the University of Arkansas School of Art. She has had group shows in Tehran and USA. She curated 2 shows from Iranian and American young artist in Tehran. Iran and Fayetteville. USA. Her works have been published in Studio visit magazine and Average Art Magazine. He lives and works in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

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I was warming up I had been waiting four years for these games It was important to me Everyone knew I was the best Iranian Gymnast My body was completely covered I wanted to return to Iran after that game It was too tight; they could see all of my bones I covered my body with a big flag until the final moment I heard my name announced from the speakers MARYAMSADAT AMIRVAGHEFI, from Iran I arrived at the floor I somersaulted There was no applause Everyone seemed shocked with my perfect form I was running and jumping I looked like a butterfly Everyone started to cheer for me They showered me with flowers Without a doubt, I deserved the gold medal When my feet touched the ground, I bowed The cheering voices disappeared slowly For about 5 minutes, it was pitch black Suddenly they turned on the lights They called my name again I was shocked I kept performing when the lights went out Did anyone see my performance?

Whether it’s spending countless hours in the studio without visitors or presenting an exhibition and hoping that it’s attended by the public, “Did anyone see my performance”, is a statement that many artists ponder. In many ways, aspects of being an artist parallels the life of athletes. Both will often train in solidarity for a public performance(s) that are judged or evaluated by others, whether critic or layman. Whether intentional or not, this leads to scenarios where someone is determined successful (i.e. a winner) or unsuccessful (i.e. loser).

As our society becomes more global, there has been a shift in the ways in which individuals obtain information or participate in events. No longer is someone limited by geographic location, as there are no technological advances that allow both national or international connectivity. Whether an American wants to watch a soccer match in the United Kingdom or view images from the most recent Venice Biennial, it is possible through and monitors.

However, this luxury is not without drawbacks. These screens present material that has been filtered and edited. This means that everything receive via the sources can, and should, be seen as ‘second hand information’. Much like theory of ‘wag the dog’, this kind of dissemination of cultural information makes me question who is really ‘winning’ and ‘losing’.To me, Art is game while I wish there was not winners or losers, it is clear that within the art-world there are people who are deemed successful (winners) and unsuccessful (losers). There are a number of variables, some legitimate and other spurious, which determine the trajectory of a contemporary artist. Politics, gender, social standing, and ethnic background all play a large part in the evaluation of an artist’s work while other aspects go overlooked. I cannot help but feel that certain groups of artists are automatically categorized based on the aforementioned classifications. As a female artist that was born in Iran, a predominately-Muslim country known for violent dictators and discriminatory views towards women, I am forced to acknowledge my relationship to masculinity and the perception of individuals around the world. I wonder if it is possible for me to ‘win’; whether in life or the art-world. In trying to reconcile my situation, I have determined that sports, more specifically sports related imagery, are legitimate vehicles for exploring notions of ethnicity, gender, and politics By putting myself at the center of the work and by focusing on the autobiographical, I am able to consider the political and personal views surrounding a young Muslim woman who lives with constant uncertainty in the United States.I have arrived at a place where I now ask the following question: If I were to win (become successful), does the game end and will I have incentive to continue?

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.158 CM Basketball Player. 00:02:30. 2017

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Basket Bowl. Earthenware with Wilson tennis balls.

Variable dimensions. 2017

They Have Nine Balls. Acrylic on panel. 48 x 60 in. 2017

.They Have Nine Balls. Acrylic on panel. 48 x 60 in. 2017

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Please describe the intention behind your work “Basket Balls” Did you successfully express this intention?

In this body of work, my goal was to explore ways in which art and sports provide a forum to highlight social structure, gender equality, nationality, and political issues. My emphasis is on the way in which artists or athletics create an emotional connection and the effect of gender and nationality on their practice. I propose that certain aspects of being an artist is similar to being athletes.

Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

My emotion typically guided me. I went to Azadegan art school (Tehran. Iran) before university. It was really good, I learned how to do more than when I was in college. I completed my BFA at the Sooreh Art University, Tehran, Iran in 2013. I decided to go to art school because I was a super emotional person and it seemed to be the only way I could make my mind empty. It was like receiving information from the things that happen around. In university, I learned how to take in information from things around me. My first semester was during the Green Group Movement. Our school was located on a street where everyone protested and it was impossible for us to ignore that. People would protest from one square to another square, one square was REVOLUTION Square (Enghelab) and one was FREEDOM (Azadi), that influenced me a lot. Because of censorship, it taught me to say “political” things in another encoded language, through humor or metaphor. As a member of the new generation of Iranian artists, I understood that I would not have a chance to be international artist by staying in Iran. After having had several exhibitions in Iran, I figured out that, according to the political issues like sanctions I have to leave my country to improve my work. I’ve moved to the USA in 2015, I completed my MFA at the University of Arkansas School of Art. Your work is very minimalistic and related to the western.

How do you turn this to an artistic inspiration as an Iranian artist from Tahran living in Arkansas?

I try to be different from the recognized elements, which are far from the expectations of western viewers. My work is presented as an autobiography that is gender based. As a female artist, and specifically a female artist from the Middle East, I have to deal with the negative view toward Muslim women and women who are from authoritarian regimes. People in the art world expect to see these women as weak and submissive. As a result of these expectations, I often wonder if my viewers have been waiting to see some specific cliché in my works. I wonder if it is possible for me to ‘win’; whether in life or the art-world. In trying to reconcile my situation, I have determined that sports, more specifically sports related imagery, are legitimate vehicles for exploring notions of ethnicity, gender, and politics.

Your work is very clean, and mysterious at points. What we find personally compelling though, is the simplicity, and this contrast between logotype of popular sport brand such as Wilson but in a neutral atmosphere. Can you talk about that?

Your process includes photographic plans in a sort of expressing a representation of the real, then painting. in other video works, we find also the same relation between the atmosphere and the body. Can you describe that for our readers?

Over the past year, I have been more interested in utilizing source material within my studio practice. By selecting images from the internet or other digital sources, I can manipulate the existing images to create a new narrative that is more aligned with my content. The use of a screen, such as my laptop or cellphone, allows me to highlight the barrier and distance between me (the receiver) and the original event. This also permits me to blur the line between what is fiction and reality.

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

I’d love to be a journalist.

Or a tennis player.

Or a firefighter.

Or a cop really.

Or a teacher to kids about video art.

Or someone who works at a sports store, selling tennis balls and the like – really anything to do with tennis.

What current series are you working on?

Im recording some new videos but im not really convinced right now that I will ever edit and show them. This is sort of how the process goes – make 10 things, show 1 thing. There is a big editing-out process.

Additionally I’m writing more poems. There is one I really like that is about my accent – because I feel uncomfortable talking around people quite often. They look at me like im strange.

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while painting?

Im really watching Iranian Iron Man competitions. Also I like to listen to Iranian rap music. But the music isn’t important for me at all. I really feel addicted to the texts (lyrics). People like Hichkas and Sepehr Khalse. Their lyrics are just about the political and social problems in Iran, they don’t give advice to people of how to fix it, just say the problems. In addition, the way their voice sounds is as harsh as their words – I like that.

Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations in the US and in Iran?

I am descended from the prophet Muhammed – I’m going to cut the moon in half just like he did so long ago. You know, that is the kinda thing I could really get into. Miracles!

The simplicity comes from that; I have to cut a lot of information to give the audience just enough. I want to give people the best piece of the cake.Also a logo like Wilson is internationally recognizable, this is to say that these logos are something that transcends culture – Wilson is not only western – we live in a world where these symbols are anywhere.

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.You Will Miss Marmar. Acrylic on panel. 48 x 60 in. 2017

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NIKOLAOS MANTZIARIS Through my art I try comment mainly on social issues. Each one of my pieces is very specific and has an accurate meaning and explanation/message. I believe you can like something that looks beautiful but you can only love something that means something deeper to you and emotionally touches you. That’s when the artist and the viewer walked the same thought paths.

Concerning how I make my art and my materials, I believe that each technique and each material have a right place and a right time and it’s up to each artists taste to use them properly. Materials are the artist’s bridges to let his thoughts out Human Trafficking

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Please describe the intention behind your art production; did you successfully express this intention?

The intention behind my art production is to create something that visually attracts me and at the same time mean something deeper, something specific like a fear, a message, a lesson learned, a social problem , even a riddle or exposing something hidden. But there has to be something. Something deeper to share with the viewer and allow him to connect with the artwork emotionally. I believe I successfully expressed this intention since more or less all my artworks have a precise meaning/ message. It might be obvious from the first look or hidden, but there is always something.

Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

Art came to me as an urge to make my environment look and feel better. As a child and teenager I expressed it by decorating my room and later on my apartment as a dental student. At that time it was only an effort to make my environment look better. There was always a great feeling of satisfaction and pride I had after I was making art, combined with a feeling of dissatisfaction I had from the life I was living , that made me want so badly to make my space and walls look better and eventually make me feel better just by looking at them. Through all my studies I kept making art on my walls ( from collages to painting and mixed media etc) and the moment I left that apartment there wasn’t a single inch left free. Then I started working as a dentist and there was no time for that shit anymore. I had to oppress it and ignore it , but that shit kept coming unasked out my heart and my mind and my eyes and my gut . It matured inside me and moved a step forward from something nice to something more. Something meaningful and deep too. It was two years ago that I decided to make something serious and try to go public with it, and 5 months ago I completed these 24 artworks.

In your work you treat very sensitive subject : Human trafficking and drugs… your process is a self-therapy, a deep research about yourself. How do you turn this to an artistic inspiration?

Society is my artistic inspiration, mainly humans and their behaviors.

I wouldn’t say it’s much about me and my experiences. It is mostly about social issues and situations that make people suffer and feel pain, from human trafficking, to drugs, blood diamonds, war etc. I try to capture this pain and suffering and create an artwork that can produce this captured feeling to the viewer and touch him emotionally.

Your work is very graphic, mostly black and white. What we find personally interesting though, is the expressions of you drawings.Can you talk about that?

Your process includespainting andgraphic illustration? I mean, in other works, you use very clean lines black drawings and white background; can you describe that for our readers?

How do you relate your work to you and to your society?

My black and white drawings represent my first body of work, and the reason they are black and white is because I originally made them with the purpose of creating a 3D wall based sculpture. The black part would be made out of metal and the white part would be made out of dental porcelain (not exactly white but pale yellowish white in the color of teeth). But due to the extremely high cost and construction difficulties I decided to print it on fine art paper for the beginning and later on proceed with the original plan. Actually even in the prints, it’s not totally white, but rather pale yellowish.

Concerning the second part of the question, of how my artwork relates to society, I believe it’s inspired by society and relevant issues. From people’s behavior and precisely situations which are emotional.

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

Currently I am working part time as a dentist and part time as an artist. Besides don’t forget dentistry is not only science but art too.

From fillings in cavities to dental prosthetics , they all involve some art.

What current series are you working on?

Currently I am working on my new body of work which will be mainly mixed media. I enjoyed a lot combining materials and techniques when I was producing my second body of work (mixed media sculptures ) and got inspired for many more pieces, that I decided that my next body of work will be also on mixed media.

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while painting?

I wouldn’t say it’s a specific genre, rather than music that inspires me. From classical music to jazz blues, rock and rock&roll. From Ludovico Einaudi to the Animals and Eminem rapping. It has to be inspiring and expressive .

Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

I was invited to participate in two group exhibitions in London, one curated by Leyden Gallery and the other one at the Asylum Chapel curated by Red&Black, and also a group exhibition in Paris and Lisbon curated by Kathryn Millar around the theme of social justice and art

Concerning the expressions in my drawings I don’t think there is much I can say. I usually think about the thing I want to ‘’talk’’ about and first I express it with words in my mind and then visualize these words as a whole concept. I start with a basic sketch and then using my pareidolia I start seeing things from faces to figures, objects etc, which I highlight to make them more obvious and visible to the viewer. And the process goes on and on until the final result satisfies me completely.

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Ethans Cow

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RALPH KLEWITZ The topics of my artistic practice and research in fine arts raise cultural, ethical and political questions and I negotiated those in various geographical contexts with meaningful and meaningless; intangible and tangible contents.

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APRIL Please describe the intention behind your time-based media productions. How do you successfully express this intention?

Most of my artworks I create without having a specific intention behind. Instead, I am inspired by topics that I encounter in my life, which I give form in various media, such as in my time-based works. But then again, it is not that straight forward. For instance, I never give myself a task to intentionally infuse my art with a specific concept. Instead of working goal oriented, I experience that my mind and emotions work processual by adding, editing, mixing and resampling thoughts and impressions that I sometimes consciously grasp, analyse and contextualize. In addition to the latter, I also include in my art making a myriad of other encounters that I experience in my life that are hazy, ambiguous and chaotic.

Contextualised differently, during my artistic process, I combine decisions that I base on analytical thinking together with intuitive acts that more likely emerge from my subconscious mind. Due to the complexity, cross-fertilisation and dilution of those influences, I only partially understand my art making.

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Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

Looking back, I realise that I took my artistic practice increasingly more important at some time in the beginning of the millennium.

The urge to create occupied gradually more of my time and I kind of sucked myself into the art universe, in which I act and react ever since. At that time, I also changed my career from being a commercial designer to become and academic. Deriving thereof, I engaged in my MFA and later in my doctoral studies, where for both, I centred my artistic practice as the fundament and outcome of my artistic research. Thanks to my academic commitments, I give myself the freedom to make art by doing what I want, instead of being steered by the art market. Thereby, I value my financial independence in my artistic practice is pivotal, and I claim that I would never have produced these bodies of work, had I been dependent on commercial conditions in the art world. Sure enough, I thereby hinder myself to become more established and recognised in the scene, but until today, I value my artistic and academic freedom higher than fame and financial success through my art. On the other hand-side, it would satisfy me to be more often invited for group and solo exhibition in museums.

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cognitive-emotional engagement with the above-mentioned concepts. Thereby I recognise that some aspects of the latter remain in my conscious, others in my subconscious mind. This interrelation could be the fuel when making art.

Your process includes video, photography, live performance, public interaction, mixing different media.

In other works, you mix time notions between the ‘before’ and the ‘after’, and work with black and white and typography. How can you describe that plurality to our readers?

Your work plays sounds and images, space and time, destruction of the image, interaction between nature, architecture and the public. What we find personally compelling though, is that you achieve an amalgamation of the audio and visual elements so that the two NOT ONLY complement one and another but also convey new content and expression, like to establish new conditions to reconstruct new basis.

Can you talk about that?

Your work is very graphic and related to time, identity and human. How do you turn this to an artistic inspiration?

Philosophical concepts such as time, space, the self and the other, are often topics that I contemplate and negotiate during my active and passive art making. Sometimes, I also adapt aesthetic languages that originate from graphic design and typography, when I feel an urgency during my artistic process. In the larger realm of my video artwork production, the two pieces that you have chosen to showcase in this issue only peripherally represent my practice.

Generally, the majority of this body of work comprises of single, static video clips that I took, which I then later combined with soundtracks that I composed and produced.

Reflecting again on your question of my artistic inspiration, perhaps my process emerges from my awareness of, and my

Building on my previous answer, mostly I don’t emphasise on the choice of medium in my artistic process. For instance, I don’t want to hone a skill or technique in which I become better over time. With this mindset, I also use tools and instruments that I don’t have an understanding thereof, like when making my soundtracks. I don’t have a formal musical education, or more specific, I forgot everything what I learned in my flute lessons back in primary school.

Emerging from this medial innocence, I experience that dilettantism and nativity are Working with video art, often the first great sources to make art, a quality that production step after taking the footage is infuses my artistic process which will never that I detach the original audio track from come back. For instance, the two pieces the clips. I don’t really know why I do that, that you have selected in this interview perhaps because most of the clips I take are my very first video artworks. Looking are with a static camera, thus the footage back, I am conscious that I won’t be able is visually boring, compared for instance to create those pieces again because after with Hollywood movies. Not indenting almost 10 years, my artistic practice has to create works that are entertaining but brought me to other places, where I don’t instead touching on other, often not so know the way back anymore. In a way, I am comfortable states of minds, I experience almost sentimental by realising that, even that there are great potentials in the creation though my bodies of work have expanded, of soundtracks. As an artistic background I lost some natural ignorance that I had activity, I thus continuously expand various when I stared making video art. Thereby, I kinds of archives, comprising of video don’t consider that my art became ‘better’ takes, photographs, sound recordings over the years, but perhaps more refined and own musical compositions. When and informed, also through the crosscreating a video artwork, I sometimes start dialogue amongst the works that I made with the making of the audio track and over the years. Moreover, I am interested then find out, which moving and/or still to challenge categorical and binary images work with them. During a process oppositional thinking, including logical it can happen, that I then I get fascinated thinking, of which the latter, I only partially by a visual phenomenon, which motivates consider in my artworks. Referring to your me then to search for, and/or create, question of time, instead of ‘before’ and new sounds that I did not consider at the ‘after’, I am thus more interested in the beginning of the process. Then, there is the ‘during’, or in the processuality of, and in, option of combining both the visual and comprehension and incomprehension. audio track, plus the possibility to either work with written or spoken language.

By leaving these options open as long as possible, when making those pieces, I often virtuously jump from one extreme artistic decision to another, work steps that I did not foresee before, until I reach the point where I can ‘let the work go’. I reach that state often, when I self-interpret so many different access gateways for interpretations, that I lose control over my artwork. This completion point feels both satisfying and uncomfortable, an emotional awareness that I also value when contemplating about art made by fellow artists.

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They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

These days, I don’t feel that I neglect a career by being an artist, artistic researcher and a lecturer. As my doctoral studies come to a close, I light-heartedly play with the idea to embark a PhD in Quantum Physics, or sometimes, I have the urge to invest more time to generate financial wealth. I am not sure if those are momentary ideas, or if sometimes in my future, I refocus my energy to pursue one of those ideas, or perhaps something completely different. For the time being, I am quite happy to continue to progress in both academia and art.

Which current series are you working on?

One main focus in my doctoral dissertation is the reflection of a body of work that I evolve comprising of sculptural works and room installations. Somehow, I keep on being fascinated to expand this work group, perhaps due to my fascination of the infinite possibilities when creating these pieces, and also because most of those works are related to the everyday life. During my artistic process, the daily life grew out as a topic that keeps me captivated because it is omnipresent, immersive and universal. I tentatively commenced this work group in 2010, and captured the momentum two years later, where over the past 5 plus year, I created over 500 artworks thereof. After finalising my final draft of my dissertation, I felt the urge to focus again more on my single channel video artworks, for which I invest more creation and production time as for my 3D works, which are more affective and spontaneous.

However, I am still fascinated by the topic, and I thus keep on producing 3D works, besides my videos. Perhaps these two body of works complement each other. In a bigger picture, they represent for me artistic propositions, which emerged from how I experience contemporariness in my life. Thereby, I interpret the narrativity inherent in my 3D works are just as processual as my time-based media artworks.

What is your favourite genre of music that you listen to whilst working?

When making art, I often work in silence, as this way, I can best immerse myself in a project. When being engaged in production and repetitive tasks, I often keep my brain busy with a wide range of genres, traversing through different styles and époques. I know, that is a very post-modernist response to your question, but then, that’s how it is. For example, I remember that a few years ago, my playlist included a Robbie Williams album, followed by an audio recording of an Adorno lecture. Somehow, these eclectic sound experiences that I embrace reflect how I experience life.

Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

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I keep on participating in open calls for artwork, which works well for me to share my art with the art world. The next big event will be my public defence of my doctoral dissertation in Helsinki. Also, I am negotiating with a museum curator in Switzerland to mount a solo show, yet it is early days to be more specific about that. In terms of collaboration, just recently, I co-facilitated with a colleague a workshop with creative writing BA students, who took my sculptural artworks as starting points to write poems. My intention is to interpret their written artefacts and re-contextualise the students’ works back to my creative practice. Deriving thereof, I am quite excited to write a journal article. http://ralphklewitz.blogspot.co.uk/

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SABINA ZENTEK Based in Berlin, Germany, Sabina Zentek is a fine artist and graphic designer with an insatiable curiosity to explore the mysteries of life and science. Her work has been published worldwide in various art- and design books and scientific publications.

She corporates with numerous sustainable institutions like the IASS (Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies) and Seed – promoting entrepreneurship for sustainable development.

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From the Deep Waters II

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Please describe the intention behind your work. How do you successfully express this intention?

My creative practice combines alchemy, math, metaphysics, philosophy, scientific research, and object-making to investigate the relationship between the human and environmental nature. The resulting artworks give shape to the battle of wills between the two, and the path of surrender to the unknown. The visual language of these paintings, drawings and sculptures connects the sacred to the profane by exploring the psychological and physical relationship between spiritual practice and the human body/nature.

While exploring the intersections of art and science, I collect ancient and contemporary books, magazines and studies with scientific topics like sunspots, magnetic fields and nature's living circuits, all of which have a direct impact on a human being's life.

By transposing the resulting scientific measurements into graphical notations, I thus transform scientific research into artworks. Art is an natural energy storage, a reflection of ourselves and a quest to understand the physical and transcendent world. It's my attempt to capture the complexity and beauty of the underlying mechanisms that bind us in an emotion.

Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

After graduating from university as an artist and graphic designer in 2003, I movedfrom a very small German town (Münster) to berlin with a suitcase with about 700 photographs, collages and drawings. I was very fascinated by the Berlin art scene of the 20s and read many books about expressionist and Dadaistic poets and painters which lived many years in exile. At the beginning, I did an internship in a design agency just for fun and worked together with several exhibition- and fashion designers. Three months later I got a contract for a permanent position as an art director. For me, it was a very hard time. On the one hand, the design directors and customers where very satisfied with my work and told me that I've often visualized exactly that kind of pictures and ideas they had in mind. On the other hand, I wasn't able to work as a designer and an artist at the same time because for me it was difficult to separate between the customers and my own feelings. To my mind, art has to be pure and not the product of a commercial service.

Since 2011 I'm working as a freelancer for projects in the context of environmental protection and human rights. I really like it and have enough energy to do my personal art projects again.

Your work compares the complexity and force of ocean water with the inner landscape of a human being. How do you turn this to an artistic inspiration?

To my mind, environment and human beings are closely linked together in a very sensitive way and both have to be handled with care. Everything beautiful is very fragile and belongs to a circulation of life. As a scientific illustrator I'm every day confronted with that kind of eco-esthetics. They become part of my inner self in a way that they influence me and vice versa.

What we find personally compelling in your work, is that you hide a powerful side, in an uncertain way, the fragility of your work all together is becoming just like the strongness of the ocean, we also notice that your work in based on the negative/obscure process just like meeting fragility and power together.. Can you talk about this duality? What does it mean for you?? Can you describe this to our readers?

Fragility and power are two very important parts of a chain of self-awareness. Just like an immortal mala. You can't drop one of it's elements without breaking the whole circulation. In Germany, there is an old adage: »In der ruhe liegt die Kraft« which means that strength is to be found in serenity.Its a longing for a more delightful and sustainable life and accepting the nature of inner duality.

Something beautiful?

The awareness of deep emotions.

And.. Something fragile?

Relinquishment and transformation of feelings you can't hold on forever.

If these two things become your next inspiration, could you explain the production process?

At the beginning, I often dream of my new drawings and paintings in a very intensive way.After those nights, I start with writing down many annotations and drawing lots of very small sketches. I often use digital aids like copier to blow up the very fine lines and to break them.At the end, I realize the result in a handmade drawing again.

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist.

What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

I was never interested in becoming a perfect housewife.

What current series are you working on?

Currently I 'm working on »From the deep waters«, »11 A.M/11 P.M« ( a series about soul love andthe connection with angels) and »alternative altars« which is about connecting with mother earth and personal natural spirits.

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while drawing?

I really adore the music of » The Velvet Underground«, »Bauhaus«, »Patty Smith«, »The Cure«and many more bands of the wave and post punk area. And I often listen to grunge as well –in July, I'll visit an »Alice in Chains« concert in Berlin. I also like to recommend the soundtrack ofJim Jarnuschs very beautiful film »Only Lovers Left Alive« with the lovely Yasmine Hamdan.

Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

You related the human mood and/or personality types to the ocean and that they are closely linked together in a very sensitive way and both have to be handled with care. How do you explain this fragility in your work?

If I'll be satisfied with my complete new art works, I'll participate on some shows from summer 2018. Right now, I'm working on my own website and hope to upload all pictures and texts by May.

I'm like many other artists some kind of an emphatic hyper sensitive autism. And sometimes I think and feel like a nerd (-; ISSUE 01

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SARA VIEIRA My artwork is the result of a continuous search and reflection on the parallels between the present-past-future; an introspection between multiple exterior universes (landscape, human beings and other life forms) as well as inner universes (memories, thoughts and intentions). The introspective need dictates a state that allows the manifestation of gesture that will dictate the poetics of the work and its concretisation. Temporality, rhythm and movement arises not only as concepts but also as symbols and influences that build and compose the dynamic and visual narrative. the sense of unity and belonging between multiple temporalities or their negation / absence are visual manifestations revealed in the singularity of the drawing.Contemplative and introspective action characterises not only my work but also personifies my being; this nature of observer are revealed as a methodology inherent in my artistic practice, as well as a quality of my existence. I consider my whole cosmos a source of unceasing inspiration, which has made possible and encouraged the construction of all my artistic work.

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Please describe the intention behind your art. How do you successfully express this intention?

When I refer to intentions in my artistic work or project, I am particularly referring to the motivations and thoughts that are absolutely inherent in me as a singular being. However, I recognise that these intentions are also shared by those around me, I consider that they are in general something deeply rooted in the human being. These intentions that guide and inspire my work are memories of a past history, yet with repercussions on the present and future; feelings we all know, such as happiness, sadness, loneliness or love; feelings of belonging and involvement with the All or even revealing sensory experiences. The form of expression arises in a coherent and spontaneous way when the motives are true and real; there is something of form, symbolic understanding or even glimpses of spatial and chronological transcendence.

Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

The years of formation in Portugal were the beginning of something bigger, they were years of hard work, enriching not only the acquisition of technical skills but also the mastery of plastic elements (ceramics, engraving, serigraphy, photography ...), but also artistic speeches, observation and questioning. In my first year of my degree in Plastic Arts (Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Caldas da Rainha - Portugal) I was confronted with the fact that I had to unlearn how to draw, how to break the mechanisms we often incur in exercising - and this experience was striking. Despite the constant contact in a bubbling atmosphere of creation was contagious and a tremendous source of daily inspiration. After graduating in 2009, I spent two years in plastic experiments, I also took the opportunity to travel and for the first time I was involved in teaching the Arts in a public school; an experience that was very captivating, for the first time I found myself immersed in an enthusiastic and creative world without a connotation of the art market, and this experience led to the next academic stage: Masters in Arts Education (Universidade de Lisboa – Faculdade de Belas Artes // Portugal).

The master's degree was a constant challenge to my pedagogical skills as well as to my artistic practices. The first year was a year of reading, research and also hard work, but it enabled me to know an academic atmosphere in the broadest sense of the term and to acquire a range of skills that are sometimes neglected in higher education because they are assumed as acquired data (writing, oral expression, conceptualization). The last year of mastership was undoubtedly the year of solitude and conquest; the path of the dissertation is always an individual path, obviously with great support from the teacher’s, but a path of solitude and individualised learning. The thesis is over so was the challenge! Even before the defense of the dissertation, I became interested and enrolled in the first year of the Master's Degree in Cultural Management (Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Caldas da Rainha - Portugal), a school where I graduated and was one of the best skills acquired to make progress and establish my career as an artist! It was a year of collective construction, collaborative thinking and understanding of artistic structures and creation of cultural projects - it was a delightful year!

Currently I continue to train mainly through the e-lerning system, namely the MOOC program of the Center Pompidou - Paris.

As a person it has always been important for me to acquire skills, learning - not stagnation. It is important for me to continue to satiate myself culturally.

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Your work is very graphic, visual, and technical but also a continuous search and reflection on the parallels between present-past-future. How do you explain the time process in your work?

The issue of temporal spatiality is a problem well circumscribed in my work. Time is a curious element in my perspective and understanding. Over the years the approach of time was always established as rectilinear, as an irreversible experience, at least that was my way of understanding; but over time and with an event that disturbed my universe -the loss of my grandmother - I began to be particularly interested in this conception. Today my understanding of temporal spatiality could be represented graphically as a circle.

When I mention the parallelism between present-past-future, I refer to how we can evoke the past in the present through memories or evoke the future through the embodiment of our desires; of projecting intentions in the present time to a future that we consider non-existent, yet under construction. Graphically, time is a catalyst element of my artistic work and through it I arouse chance, error and the unexpected that perpetuates and continues; as an intention that challenges their destiny and proceed in a kind of communion and that moment for me is harmony.

the relationship between the cosmos and your artistic production is a fundamental unity in your process where movements and symbols co-exist together allow the manifestation of gesture that will dictate the poetics of the work and its concretization. How do you turn this to an artistic inspiration? the simplest way to express my creative process is through what I consider a graphic translation. The world is a deeply inspiring place, not only the outside world but also that world that belongs to us; that we can describe as our inner world. The gesture is undoubtedly a powerful energetic force and in my artistic practice the symbiosis between gestuality and symbol is indeed a fundamental process. The transformation of these relations into symbolic fields is in itself an inspiration; where the visual poem is constructed in function of this intimacy between Gesture - Symbol Movement - Time - Chance - Error ...

Your work plays with placement of the form, destruction of the image, interaction between texture and lines, colors with a deep. What we find personally compelling though, is that you hide face expression in almost all your collage – like to keep a deep feeling hidden behind your multilayers collages.

Can you talk about that?

And will not our whole existence be a game between textureslines = place-time (?); color-depth = exterior-interior? What is so delimiting of these same layers, not only in my work, but also in reality? I consider the border very tenuous ... Each layer is a partial truth, a partial experience and in symbiosis can fill in something deeper and closer to the All. I like the idea of graphic oxymorons, of improbable coexistence, of total bias, of creation through deconstruction. The multiplication of planes, the repetition of gestures, the gradation of the texture are forms of accentuation and not of hiding; even if its result collapses in the deconstruction, the principle was creative.

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Your process includes painting, sketching, mixing different mediums and typography. In other works, we feel immediately how you care about the lines, the colors and the background. How can you describe the process of turning conclusions of a continuous search to lines, colors and text on the small scale, Can you tell our readers more about that?

The human scale, or the hand scale is important to me; there is in it a very specific principle of gesture. My relation to the subject is intimate and presupposes the same spatial dimension. The graphic translation is based on this principle of proportion, instilling a feeling of closeness, intimate delicacy that would only be possible in this dimension. There is also a symbolic gestural appropriation of the act of sewing and writing. “Line - Color - Background" are basic elements of creation, they are pure conceptual and visual components; key elements of my artistic practice.

What current series are you working on?

I began to take an interest in the appropriation of elements linked to advertising and graphic communication. I focused on this concept of resorting to what is already available and that for some reason challenges me to reuse something that already has its complete life cycle: Memories behind the story. I started studies on the principles of colour vibration: what the mutations of the line and the plane in relation to the adjacent colour or not. Oscillations between opposing chromatic pigments. I have always been motivated by the fact of working on multiple projects at the same time, it allows me the principle of non-obsession or focus - an observer perspective on a higher plane.

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while working?

I do not have a favourite genre, but artists I particularly appreciate: the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Dead in Vegas, NU, Poliça, Cigarrette after sex, Nicola Cruz, Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, Sigur Rós, Tei Shi ... and having a companion with a close relationship with musical production, it is obvious that music has a considerable weight in my daily life.

Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

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I am currently working as a cultural mediator at the Anticipations foundation in Paris. In my artistic practice I have invitations for exhibitions and collaborations in the Czech Republic and Hong Kong; nevertheless I remain closely linked to the artistic field in Portugal.

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

Being an artist was not my choice, it is intrinsic to me. obviously that when I say I did not choose, it is partially false, but also partially true. The choice was based on the simplest principle when we want to hide behind a profession: Do what brings you happiness and joy!

The choice should be based on this principle, we would deal with fewer frustrations in everyday life. I do not feel like I'm neglecting any other road, I know I'm on the right track doing everything I'm supposed to do ... no regrets.

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STACY LOVEJOY Stacy Lovejoy is a multimedia artist based in Portland, OR, who was born and raised by a family of gracious parents. She has always painted, glued, cut everything on her way, and done things that others would never have come up with. Her first exhibition in 2008 and was organized in a desk drawer. The pieces were microsculptures made of used chewing gum. She revealed the objects to everyone, evoking from the viewers a strong interest in her creative personality and art.

Stacy Lovejoy is mixing the genres incessantly. Her practice includes a wide variety of disciplines ranging from painting and sculpture to installation, performance, and writing. She expresses herself using different media such as clay, resin, plastic, wood, sharp words, metal, fabric, as well as found objects. Lovejoy’s artwork has been presented at solo shows and numerous group exhibitions at venues including: JanKossen Contemporary – New York, NY | CICA Museum – Gimpo-Si, South Korea | Lesher Center for The Arts – Walnut Creek, CA | Austria Biennale – Viena, Austria | Flat Color Gallery - Seattle, WA | ART4 Museum – Russia, Moscow | Basic Space Gallery - Portland, OR Her main goal is to awaken people, tickle their mind, and say: “Hey guys! This world is too simple to be taken so seriously!” I wish for people to realize that being an adult is the same as being a child, but with far more benefits. As an adult, you belong to yourself and the most important thing is that you have a choice! It means you can have as much candy as you wish, even in place of dinner! And you can wear your clothes inside out, crawl the whole day instead of walking, and climb a tree with a candelabra on your head.

In the “Transmigration” series I explore common situations after global scale reincarnation, during which all the people came back to Earth as plants.

“Super Power Tools” is comprised of 17 sculptures. The objects are a part of “The Radiant Thread” series that tells the story of my engrossing journey to subconscious with the purpose of finding my mission on Earth. The artworks symbolize the points and discoveries that brought me closer to a core understanding

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Can you tell us a little about your formative years as an artist?

Can you describe your process of creation for the readers?

How are your sculptures related to the paintings?

My art journey began when I was in the first grade, perhaps a bit earlier. Some of my first memories involve making art, and as a result, I asked my mom to sign me up for an art class. For some reason, I was the youngest student there and the others were much older and mature in their art. Everybody was painting horses; an animal I had, at the moment, never drawn in my life. I started my piece but was not satisfied with the result completely, especially after I saw how beautiful and realistic the works of others looked.

I tried hard to make my painting perfect, but after all the efforts I made it remained nothing but the painting of a child. I was extremely shy to show my work to the audience; my heart rate was probably as high as 1,043,385 beats per second. Because of this fear, I ended up painting over the canvas with the thick layer of chocolate colored paint and then I flew out of the studio with my face red as a crimson shrimp. That was the day I realized that realism in painting would never be my primary focus, ha-ha.

Each series contains both paintings and sculptures. Nine times out of ten, I start with 2D works that are smoothly swaying and end up with 3D objects such as sculptures and props for the art show.

To reach the essential textures and make the process of creation alluring, as well as to eliminate the perpetual procedure of washing 1,745,768 brushes, I invented the technique in which I chaotic ally pour liquid mono-color paints directly onto a c anvas. I often use sticks and other improvised tools to turn the nimble paint into bizarre plants, creatures, and shapes by twisting, dripping, and merging. I like the layers to be smooth, thick and almost sculptural; it brings the artwork to life and evokes in the viewer the strong desire to touch or even eat it. The process of creation is absolutely unpredictable; and it is a real fun, I should say!

After some time, I took other art classes and nailed academic art training in university, but none of that has ever fully resonated with my personality and vision. I have always been an outsider who creates art intuitively, through a purely personal experience.

Your work is extremely graphic, colorful, yet simple at points, especially your sculptures. What we find personally compelling though, are the signs of nature, life, science and this contrast – common situations after global scale reincarnation, during which all the people came back to Earth as plants. Please describe the intention behind your project “Transmigration.” Do you feel that you’ve successfully expressed it?

In comparison with painting, in which the process is a completely improvisation, I always have a sketch as well as a technic al drawing for each sculpture piece in advance. In addition, it often requires using hardware tools such as drills, saws, and grinders that make the process less spontaneous and more precise, in the beginning. Then, I am sewing, gluing, cutting, baking, polishing, c arving, painting, and so on. I absolutely adore training my resourcefulness by creating fantastic al objects out of nothing and filling them with the vital energy that transfer through my hands. It is a truly magnificent ceremony comparable to wizardry.

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

Honestly, I really believe that being an artist is the only conceivable way for me to breathe. I am a multidisciplinary artist with several I have been always into bold, simple shapes and easily primary genres such as sculpture, painting, installation, and understandable bursting colors. I also love the way they interact with performance art. It means to a ccomplish a project I do various the variety of textures.The story behind “Transmigration” started things that are often related to a wide range of professions such a long time ago, when I was a tiny blue spider, and I heard about as being a writer, musician, builder, seamstress, and so on. I have reinc arnation for the first time. I bec ame absolutely fascinated by never been bored because such work requires a vast amount the concept that I have an almost unlimited amount of lives, as well of knowledge and skills that I learn, or invent, on a daily basis as the ability to choose any body for the next inc arnation. Since through the process of creation. This precious experience is that moment, I’ ve become quite obsessed with the idea of spending unexchangeable. my following life being a flamboyant tree or a tropical plant, say a Ravenala or Tacc a chantrieri. In my opinion, flora representatives In one of your previous interviews, you told about how you are the wisest creatures in the world. Using their fibers, they c are an eternal child and art allows you to maintain this state arefully absorb all sorts of air pollution as well as people’s negative of being. How do you turn this into an artistic inspiration? emotions, thoughts, and vibes; and then exhale the endless amount of shining oxygen drops in return. In simple words, trees motivate Creating art takes me back to my childhood - the time when I was me to stay relaxed and to gently spread the light regardless of the a happy-go-lucky, sensitive, almighty, sometimes naive, but always circumstances.I started work on “Transmigra tion” last fall. Back genuine. I live life with my eyes wide-open, with a constant need to then, I did not have any particular idea in mind. However, the more be astonished. I always surprise myself by doing silly a cts such as paintings that showed up the more I was realizing the things wearing crazy outfits, buying only yellow colored food, or crawling I pictured are not just colorful flowers and plants. Each of them the whole day instead of walking. These things highly increase my had its own voice and a strong character. They literally pushed level of abstra ctness, provoking the strong desire to share with each other while yelling, shaping themselves, and picking the right people the world the way I see it. Thus, through art, I am giving colors to be dressed in. I felt their powerful souls...a nd eventually, I my soul out, to unite and motivate humanity to become free of any realized that I deal with worldwide reincarnation. boundaries, norms, rules, traditions, and prejudices established by the society.

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The Only Way IS Up

Sounds quite impressive. What current series are you working on?

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while painting?

I am the type of person who works on plenty of projects at the same time. The one I would love to tell you about is called “ The Precious Moments.” The project is dedicated to people who lose track of time interacting with social networks, and the internet in general. “The Precious Moments” are robotic sculptures that come to life in the presence of a human being. This interactive art project that combines art, philosophy, and modern technology was originally conceived as a reminder with the aim of awakening humanity by allowing people to estimate the trajectory toward which their life journey is moving. The massive, colorful sculptures are going to levitate above pilesof countless, transparent minutes that peopl e unconsciously waste on a daily basis. The objects start to breathe, expanding in the center or shaking all over when someone approaches. Such a movement represents the awakening from sleep; an uplifting, and a shimmering, fountain of free energy. A state in which a person expresses their soul by embra cing the maximum speed limit that ma kes them feel invulnerable, omnipotent and immortal. The production has not started yet. We are currently in a process of finding the funds for its realization.

Fingers crossed, the world will see it in the very near future!

While I am working at my studio there is always some etherealelectronic-synth pop- experimental music in the background. I absolutely adore the sounds that make medance like a baby lizard, elevate my body, and boost the spirit to the sky and higher… I am an enormous fan of Tunde Olaniran, FKA Twigs, Chromeo, MØ, etc. I am literally working on my projects and dancing around at the same time quite often. Oh, boy! It is such bliss!

Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

This year looks to be pretty promising an d hyper-productive. There are a number of shows that are coming up in several States from Washington to New York, as well as around the world. Recently some of my art pieces bec ame a part of Bienn ale Austria.

In addition, I am going to present my artwork at the CICA Art Museum, in South Korea, at the end of May. It will be my first show on the continent and I am ecstatic about it.

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RIEKO TSUJI Born in 1991 in Tokyo, she received her BFA from photography and contemporary art course of Kyoto University of Art and Design in Japan. She also studied video and sound art at Zurich university of Arts in Switzerland through an exchange program.

Since she has frequently travelled abroad these recent years, she is researching the misunderstandings due to cultural diferences and communication through socialmedia and video calls between people who live far apart from one another. Her artwork is mostly based on non-famous narratives like her personal experience and she tries to make them sharable with audience. She often uses material which does not remain as a form such as sounds, smell, temporary sculpture and performance to represent ephemerality which she has dealt with as her life-work theme.

She currently studies at Bauhaus University Weimar as an exchange student and belongto the Global Art Practice MFA program, at Tokyo University of the Arts.

Fictionality 2017 Installation

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Please describe the intention behind your work. How do you successfully express this intention?

It all started when I realized it’s strange that I don’t have any Twitter or Instagram or Snapchat account even though I’m surrounded by many friends who are enthusiastic about those social media.

Internet can make people connected, and I agree it’s romantic that we can get to know someone living in the other continent but I was also scared of sharing my private life with random strangers.

This work was made to clarify and estimate the use of internet as a communication tool.

Your work plays with what we see and what we think we see; the relation between a real form and the representation of it, destruction of the image, interaction between space and volume. What we find personally compelling though, is that create at the same time a real and a virtual space where forms volume can be represented in many different ways depending on the views, the space and the time. Can you talk about that?

Another reason why I decided to make this work was the experience when I lived abroad. There was a Japanese festival I wanted to participate by all means, so I asked friends to relay it via Skype.

During the exhibition, the installation work and also the audience The image was rough and interrupted, but it was so much fun I are shot by the small webcam. It was very interesting to see how could somehow feel the atmosphere of the festival. Since there people in the gallery reacted to being in the video which was is a time differences, I could also felt I was time-traveling while I watched by the anonymous audience. Some people avoided to was watching night festival and eating my lunch at the same time. show their face, some people said hi to someone behind the screen, Through my work I wanted audience to experience this strange some people said it made them paranoid. The whole process of feeling of traveling through the screen. I like a German word being in a screen is actually almost same as being tagged on a “Fernsehen” means television and can be literally translated like photo on the internet as everybody might experienced before. gaze into the distance. When I was exhibiting this work in Tokyo, But once it is presented as an artwork, people start to think about some friends watched my work from their country and I really their daily behavior from a different perspective. It might give an enjoyed talking with them through the system of live streaming. opportunity to realize how posting photo can threaten someone’s Also, it was nice that some audience saw the video on the internet privacy or how it’s funny to talk online with someone who you don’t first, then came to see the actual work in the gallery. I loved when know at all. It was nice that people received an impact from that a they said it was completely different from what they imagined and little bit surprising production. expected by watching video! My mission succeeded.

Can you talk a little about your formative years as an artist?

The Earthquake in 2011 was the biggest turning point for my artistic activities. I had most thoughtful period at that time. Until then I had been just enjoying making artworks as a pleasure but I became not able to keep the same way. A month after the earthquake, I got shocked by one sensational artwork, LEVEL7 feat. Myth of Tomorrow

by ChimPom. It made me think like artists do not only paint for themselves but they use their wits to tell a message to others. So I entered university, majored contemporary art and photography and learned a lot about journalistic role of arts. Eventually I found I prefer not to make my work too political nor didactic but I always try to include social issue in my work. Especially I’m interested in phenomenon caused by distance or traveling, cultural difference and digital communication since I studied in Zurich, Switzerland in 2014. In terms of medium I like to use any kind of material, I’ve learnt multiple methods at school and every time I choose the most suitable way for the concept

Your process includes installation, digital devices, Phone devices, cameras and others technologies to create the real/ virtual dimension.. In other hands, you use NO FILTER – FICITIONALITY to create your own reality.. How can you describe that for our Readers?

I think I just clipped an ordinary scene in our everyday life, emphasize its detail, change the shape and put it in the gallery. I just realized strangeness of virtuality and extracted its features, this is not my own reality but a common one. In my opinion, one of the most important thing for artists, whether to take pictures or draw a picture, is they have to carefully consider how to cut out the reality with certain intention.

Your work is conceptual, long duration and live installation showing the gap between things in the real world and virtual world both in analog/digital platform.. How do you turn this to an artistic inspiration?

When I was wondering how I could represent the interaction between people and social media, or the gap between virtual and real world, I just found NASA was broadcasting a live footage from the International Space Station. That fake-looking stream video, fantastical view of space and astronaut was just impressive and marvelous! So visually the installation was influenced by that video, and also I approved chatting system of youtube as super nice communication tool. Isn’t it chill that people all over the world could have a conversation while they are looking at the earth together? I believe artists are not activists who advocate a particular position but more like who can mesmerize others with their universal idea. I don’t argue social media is good or bad, my work allows any interpretations.

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Actually I live in Germany since last summer! I admit I could come up with the idea of this work because of Tokyo. It is a truly pretty busy city and people are always sending messages each other for the project or whatever. Before I moved to Germany, my cell phone rang from morning till midnight. I felt my life was invaded by phone and laptop, absorbed into virtual world. One of the reason why I decided to keep turning the camera constantly during the exhibition is because I wanted to show the craziness of no private time.

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

Being an artist is my oldest and biggest dream and it has been not changed until today. But I recently suspect artist cannot be a job because once artist decided to be commercial, the purpose of their creation would be different. I like making products to sell too but it would actually not my very first preference.. So to be honest I feel very anxious that I’m deviating from standard course to be able to earn as an adult. After graduating from college next year, I would love to start working and learn how art can be connected to business, especially concerning the art festival.

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What current projects are you working on?

I am thinking about how to make the distance relationship more comfortable. Skype, of course, but recently I heard a nice story about giving a plant as an alternative self. By watering and watching the growth of it everyday makes you feel as if the person is nearby. After all we need an analogue objects to get a sense of security and connection. It’s interesting theme to explore and also I simply want to make a sculpture with plants! Now I am testing so many way to make my idea more concrete..we will see :) What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while painting?

I don’t have any preference about music so I pick up some songs which I want to sing! But I’m not a super good singer so mostly I sing alone in studio, never perform in front of people. But I can sing with in Karaoke! It is a very magical space, you should experience it when you come to Japan ^^ Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

My solo show is going to be held at Prenzlauer Studio / KunstKollektiv (prenzlauerstudio-kunstkollektiv.com/) in Berlin during the 1st week of June! It is going to be about the plants as an avatar, Skype call and sense of home. While I was traveling around the world I forgot where my home is. Anywhere can be home and anywhere cannot be home. It’s a complicated feeling. My struggle will emerge as an artwork to share with you! Come to visit me :D

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JONATHAN IRAWAN

Jonathan Irawan is a multidisciplinary designer from Australia who specialises in the union between art and technology. His Architectural studies and training equipped him with computational design tools and skills that enable to tackle projects in a variety of scales and applications, ranging from biological experiments, architecture, interactive installations to graphic design.

He is currently the resident computational designer for HASSELL Studios in London and acting Creative Director for Barcelona based Pulpo Collective.

He has designed and put together this magazine issue for Al-Tiba9.

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VIVID Lights Sydney - NACRE - PULPO Collective

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