Peripheral ARTeries Art Review - April 2013 by Artpress

2013 April

Summary

Peripheral ARTeries

"An artwork doesn't communicate anything: it simply creates a mental space. Language, gestures, or rather a masterly brush-stroke of a painter are nothing but ways to invite us to explore our inner landscapes". Thirty years have passed since this Borgesean deep and at the same time provocative statement has been written by the fine Italian writer Giorgio Manganelli. Our net review presents a selection of artists whose works shows the invisible connection between mainstream art and new trends. We have focused on new trends in Contemporary Art, especially by encouraging young artists: anyway, the distinctive feature of our project is to discover creative potentials . Apart from stylistic differences and individual approaches to the art process, all of them share the vision that art is a slice of the world to be shared.

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In this issue

Lisa van Noorden

(The Netherlands)

“The concept of my work revolves around how people act and interact under a given circumstance or within the boundaries of a building. My focus is how human behavior or movement can be transformed into a rich visual

Mario d. Fischer (Austria)

“Mario Fischer’s objects function as a kind of dark metaphor that plays with subtle humor and pointed cynicism with the apparent and thereby produces once more the connotative meaning of terms”

Garric Simonsen (USA)

“The basis of my artistic research explores the possibilities of manipulating temporal moments, physical surface and materiality. Much of what I draw from creatively transcends everyday experiences.”

(Spain)

“The cycle time. Everything is repeated again and again, as a reminder, as if I myself observed from a distance. As I look at my actions may be like repetitive or can be like different each time.”

Alla Rumyantseva (Tajikistan)

“A work of art for me is what excites me, makes me think, and does not leave me indifferent or remains in my thoughts and heart for a long time. ”

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“I love space and light. It would be almost impossible to describe my artistic projects without mentioning these two concepts.Light is present in almost every project of mine, both direct light or video screenings.“

Soo Shin

(South Korea / USA)

Vale Berral Garcia

(The Netherlands)

“Every time I make a painting there's the possibility it's going to be something completely different of form, style and or theme to the one(s) before. It therefore can be considered as an investigation of competence / incompetence”

Diana Spiridou (Greece/Georgia)

“To me, a work of art is a kind of human creation that interprets our world with its own unique way. A genuine work of art offers new fields of action both in senses and mind and therefore, it helps people to gain knowledge and experience. “

Mia Dahye Kim

(South Korea)

“My work is based on attributes of cinema. I deal with the ways to restructure the composition of cinematic narrative investigating the storytelling form in video art.“

Guang Zhu

(USA)

“By founding itself in the fields of math and art, my practice speaks of the intimacy between the abstraction of computational aesthetics and the rationale of trigonometrical equations.”

2013

(Spain)

April

Summary

Peripheral ARTeries

Lisa van Noorden

Lisa van Noorden (The Netherlands) An artist’s statement “The concept of my work revolves around how people act and interact under a given circum-stance or within the boundaries of a building. My focus is how human behavior or movement can be transfored into a rich visual experience. Essentially strippng that behavior or imagery from its meaning and redefining it into a new artistic world. “A key focus in my drawing is on people and their ways of survival and self-protection in our complicated insane environment, from the horrors of war to the fake glitz of stardom. I work very accurate and precise. This accuracy adds to and is meant to emphasize the "untouchable" image of my characters. “I am constantly experimenting with new materials, shapes and techniques, and often the results find their way back into my projects. (Lisa van Noorden) Website: http://lisavannoorden.nl/engels/index.html email to: lisa@lisavannoorden.nl

VOLTE Volte is an interactive kaleidoscopic art installation. Volte recreates our reality into an abstract video-animation where nobody and nothing is recognizable but is merged into a constant revolving detachment of that reality. Volte strips all imagery from its meaning and returns that imagery into an ever-changing, colorful and continually recreated form, which is then again subject to a highly personal interpretation. Volte has the power to recreate beauty out of the ordinary or grotesque. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRWpoWjYTbc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DotjcPg0bo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVZlexRAgYE

Lisa van Noorden

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Lisa van Noorden

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an interview with

Lisa van Noorden We would like to start with our usual ice-breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? By the way, do you think that contemporariness it's just a matter of making art in this epoch?

A work of art in my opinion is a materialized expression. It can be any creative expression, we are creative beings by nature. My 5 year old makes art. In time, she might start making art with an intention, to convey a message, whatever she wants the world to know. About contemporariness, I think I can illustrate it using fashion as an example. When you go to your nearest H&M you will see fashion is in an 80”s revival moving towards 90’s. Still it’s contemporary fashion. Revival fashion is never just a copy of its inspiration, it is always a combination of the old and new. For example it’s neon colors plus globalism, high tech and cradle to cradle. With art it’s the same.. you can use inspirations from the past but you mix them with contemporary influences and themes. You can do that knowingly or just because you were born now and not then. If you don’t mix and just make revival art with the same intentions and techniques like they did back then, then it’s not contemporary art.

Lisa working on childsoldier series

but I never thought of a theme, a concept in my work. I just made pictures to make pictures. Going to the academy was a goal for me from when I was really young. I guess it was so because my father always told me that he wanted to go to art academy, but wasn’t allowed by his parents. They sent him to a house-painter school. I think something in me wanted to reach that goal for him. The downside of the academy was that I found the social environment quite dogmatic. I felt intimidated and I didn’t want that.

Would you like to tell us something about your background? You have formal training and you have graduated at Willem de Kooning Art Academy in Rotterdam. How much this experience has impacted on the way you nowadays make Art?

The academy for me was a very inspiring place. I think it most of all tought me to think in concepts. I had talent already and I had been drawing from when I was a young child,

By then I was already living on my own for two years and I think I was in constant survival mode 6

Lisa van Noorden

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interactive LED artwork for a conference center that your father was a self tought artist in his spare time...

so I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t very receptive to my teachers. I wanted to study painting but I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like the social environment there, so I chose to develop illustration and graphic techniques.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not sure. My father was very talented in all kind of art forms, mostly painting but also drawing and woodcarving. He also was a top talent in his line of work; silkscreen printing. But the funny thing is that.. he was always struggling to find his own subject and visual language. As a youngster he had taken painting lessons from Henk Melgers, one of the members of the Groninger Ploeg. He always kept within that style of painting but

Years later, when I became a teacher myself, one of my former painting teachers told me she remembered me as an extremely pig headed student. Moreover we would like to ask you if in your opinion trained artists has an advantage over self-taught ones... we have read in your bio

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Lisa van Noorden

but also inside the boundaries of those themes: landscapes, portraits, still lifes. The second world war was a life changing experience for him, but he wasn’t able to express that in his art. He couldn’t work with concepts or themes, and he wasn’t able to really reveal himself through his work. But maybe that’s also a thing of his generation. If he had attended art school I’m sure he would have made more profound artworks. Your work deals with new media technology and in these last years we have seen that the frontier between Video Art and Cinema is growing more and more vague. Do you think that this "frontier" will exists longer? Do you think that new media art will definitely fill the dichotomy between art and technology?

With the constant progress of technology and the willingness and ability of artists to keep learning and experimenting, every artform comes within reach. I never think about “frontiers”. In my opinion the answer to both questions is a simple “of course it will”. But new media can be conceived much broader than video, interactive or cinema, it depends on how widely you define “new media” and “technology”. Think about 3d printing and the art forms that evolve from that, or robotics and holographic techniques. New media means a new medium. Thus it can be anything new. I guess in 50 years we will be making art without a medium at all, just projecting concepts or sensations on each other. Although I must say that I will probably not be that artist because in essence I am a drawer. concept for a memorial for child abuse

Lisa van Noorden

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Now we would like to focus on your interesting artwork "VOLTE" that our reader can admire in these pages. Can you describe a little bit about your creative process for this piece?

Volte is a concept that I already hoped to realize a couple of years ago and it emerged because I was looking for ideas which would foster interaction between the artwork and a user/ spectator. I make a lot of commissioned art and within the boundaries of the goals and hopes of my clients I get a lot of crazy ideas. And I came up with this one for a pitch. A new complex to be built for the elderly in Belgium was looking for an artwork to be placed in the garden. So my initial idea was to create a round fountain with an interactive kaleidoscopic video rotating beneath the water surface. A sensor inside the rim would measure movements in the water level, caused for example by wind, leaves, or someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hand. The wilder the water, the faster the kaleidoscope would run. The images would be generated from my drawings. The concept wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t picked up, which I thought was a big mistake, so I left the idea on the shelve waiting for the next opportunity to come along. And that opportunity arose with this client, who was instantly triggered. I changed the concept a bit; the kaleidoscope is activated by people upoading their own pictures, using a more conscious level of interaction, which is possible because the audience will be younger. I know from experience, that most anything can be made technically within time. You know they are experimenting with touchable holograms by using ultrasound? In a while we can kiss a hologram and get it on.

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Lisa van Noorden

Interactive LED artwork Anchor8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPHsudlZPLo

We should underline that "VOLTE" is a team-project: you have established an effective colaboration with Duncan Champney and Stephan Grevelink. The artist Peter Tabor once said that "collabora-tion is working together with another to create something as a synthesis of two practices, that alone one could not": what's your point about this? Can you explain how your work demonstrates communication between several artists?

with new ideas because they are also looking to expand and experiment. They would say..we are working on this technique and I would say: imagine we would use it to visualize this or that. I love it. So I agree with Peter Tabor. Not to mention that the feedback of the audience is important for everyone who has something to communicate: and you have underlined in your artist's statement the importance of establishing an interaction with the viewer. When you conceive a work, do you think to whom will enjoy it?

First I come up with an idea, and then I try to find out what is needed to realize it and who can make it technically. And then, when I find these persons, they inspire me to come up

Yes, when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a commissioned work definitely, 10

Lisa van Noorden

Peripheral ARTeries

the same road for long. I am curious and I can do a lot of different things. This has definitely not helped my career, the inability to repeat myself for a longer period of time has caused me to miss a couple of opportunities which would have made me more known and appreciated. Galleries like artist who are constant and stable in their style. "Like a cloud fire" belongs to a series of "suspended works": could you elanorate a bit the concept behind these stimulating pieces?

In 2011 I got fed up with the flatness of 2 dimensional works and the fact that they needed a wall. Plus I wanted to get a bit more physical with my work. Drawing is very accurate and precise work, at least my draâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;

SummerSpring, drawing-sculpture

I want to offer beauty and fascination, in an intelligent way. When its un-commissioned art I mostly want to offer fascination to myself and that leads to other imagery. I get triggered by lots of things that most other people find disturbing or at least out of the ordinary. I guess I like conflict, which is probably the reason why I rarely keep walking the same road for long. You are a multidisciplnary artist, so we couldn't go without mentioning your drawings and paintings: and it seems that you make a sapient usage of Photoshop. Many of your pieces seems to belong to traditional art and at the same time reflects the features of contemporariness: there's an impressive synergy of styles...

Well yes, I guess I like conflict, which is probably the reason why I rarely keep walking

BeauRotterdam: posters of Rotterdam

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Lisa van Noorden

Volte artwork on an apartment complex

drawings are. I met an artist who cut out statues of foam and I got inspired. But I also knew I’m not a sculptor. So I started experimenting with cutting shapes out of foam and lining them with copper. Now I was able to stage my drawings in a different manner. It’s very fresh. When I like a new technique I promise myself to at least keep using it for a couple of years.

lery in Rotterdam, can you believe it? I live in Rotterdam for more than 25 years but for work it’s not my most stimulating city. However, the skyline is fantastic. I always travelled a lot. I used to work as a new media designer for Shell, and the friends I made there lived all over the place: Dubai, Houston, Moscow. I visited them but contacted a selection of people and galleries before I went. I called those people and told them I would be in town for a week and they were willing to see me.

What experiences have you had exhibiting in different countries? What is the difference between exhibiting, for example, in Europe or in the USA or in Russia? By the way, it seems that Rotterdam, the city where you currently live and works has a deep impact on the way you make art, isn't it?

For example, in Russia I found that the appreciation for older and experienced artists is much higher than in the Netherlands. Here, gallery-owners pick artstudents from the academy and mold them into their own inventions. Because I did not start out in the artscene after finishing the academy I missed that springboard completely. The first ten years

I’m not very fond of the Dutch artscene. It’s so much blabla. I found it much easier to get a solo exhibit in New York than to find a gal12

Lisa van Noorden

Peripheral ARTeries

of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

Beauty, clever concepts, and the fact that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m able to create something with my own mind and hands.

Volte artwork Like a cloud of fire, drawing-sculpture

Thank you very much for this interview, Lisa. Our last question deals with your future plans. Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

I worked as a decoration painter and illustrator, and after that I re-schooled into being a new media designer. I worked in new media for at least ten years.

If all went well, by the time this article is printed Volte was shown at an exhibition in OpenConceptGallery in Michigan. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m very happy with that because Volte is the first artwork which was created for a client, which is presented as an autonomous artwork.

I never stopped painting but it was not until 2003 that I had my first exhibit. So by then I was not interesting to any gallery. I still like to work in a professional business environment. I train marketing and design professionals in creative concept development. I like talking about goals, marketing, target groups, advertising, social media and all that stuff.

This is an important step for me, as with every commission I am trying to close the fine line between commissioned and un-commissioned art. Volte is the first of my works where I succeed in that completely.

to the artists that we interview: what aspect

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2 0 1 3 A p r i l

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Mario d. Fischer

Mario d. Fischer (Austria) “With his sculptural objects Mario Fischer creates a joyful play with expectations. In an act of apparent deconstruction he intervenes in existing forms and correlations which opens space for new perspectives, for recontextualization and, as a result, uncertainty. The structure of meanings is put gradually in motion, objects are manipulated, its characteristics reduced so far until their usual functionality wavers. “The duality and interplay of what is supposedly participated, towards what it actually is, creates a bandwidth of dynamic processes associated with instability. In anticipation of an event without its arrival you find yourself suddenly in a suspense scenario. With minimal resources, an excited anticipation is generated and so a constant feeling of hovering-inuncertainty is provoked. This precise ambiguity as an indistinctness caused by shift and going beyond the meaning of the inaccuracy in its representation runs through Mario Fischer's Oeuvre. The shift affects not only the spatial component, but also the shift in meaning. “Mario Fischer’s objects function as a kind of dark metaphor that plays with subtle humor and pointed cynicism with the apparent and thereby produces once more the connotative meaning of terms. Along this juxtaposition of precision and uncertainty a thinking about creation of frontiers and formation of differences unfolds. At the same time it is always trying to perceive similarities and to consolidate it to a recognizable identity. Temporal Mimesis, 2010 rigid foam, polyurethane, epoxy, adhesive, pigments

Lejla Mehanovic, 2013 (Translation by Edith Vollmaier)

230 x 180 x 85 cm

Mario d. Fischer

Realized with the generous support of Protozone Photo: Gerhard Ramsebner

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Mario d. Fischer

Peripheral ARTeries

an interview with

Mario d. Fischer First of all we would like to ask you what in your opinion defines a work of Art and what could be the features that characterize a piece of Contemporary Art: it's just a matter of meking Art during these last years?

Well, I cannot tell you how to define a piece of Art or what characterize Contemporary Art, rather I think it is quiet important if a piece works or even not. Everything else comes later. You have a formal training, and you have graduated from University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Moreover you have studied also in London. How in your opinion these experiences have impacted your Art? And how your Art has developed after your left school?

In different ways, because the infrastructure facilitates the process of an individual Art development. Especially due to the wide spread of new perspectives, ideas, staff and opportunities as well as the ability to play, create and exhibit. The time after the ‘safe house’ University, is different and challenging.

Mario d. Fischer

a few years ago: notwistanding this, not few people think that there remains a hidden dichotomy between Art and Technology: what's your take about this?

I guess during my last year as a student I finally realized that my future development will not be Media Art, more likely in a way of Sculpture. At the the same time I also decide that I want to keep the story up and running and to start a new venture beyond. The next step was to find a reasonable studio, since about 2011, the development is continuous.

This is an ongoing subject in history. If you think about the emergence of Photography… Currently it seems that it occurs a sustained approximation between Art and Science. Do you visualize your Art before creating? Do you know what it will look like before you begin? What’s your process?

You art practice involves an effective usage of technology: we have read that you use also CAD in order to design your layers, like in "faceoff" and "royal rumble". So it goes without saying that today's technology allows us to carry out project that seemed to be absolutely unfeasible just

It depends on the project. The idea is always the beginning followed by experimenting as well as failure as a variable is Onboard. Currently I do also relative quickly made works. 16

Mario d. Fischer

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Royal Rumble, 2012 enamel pen on twenty-four acrylic layers, metal rods, bolt spacers

Now we would like to focus on your stimulating series entitled "Temporal Mimesis" that we have admired in the first pages of this article: one of the features that had mostly impressed me is the role of time. In fact this pieces forces the spectator to reflect about the dynamics of perception. Although it's a sculpture, it involves an idea of evolution: do you agree with this?

53 x 34 x 23 cm

lities for perception of formal dependencies, each piece is restrained in a way. Do you experiment with different materials a lot or do you prefer to work within certain parameters?

Temporal Mimesis isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really a series. Works which involves time as a medium for formal or figuration purpose embodies a specific duration of time which are realized using different techniques, intentions and materials. Due to the exotic characteristics of Temporal mechanisms regarding to itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s limited possibi-

It seems that your Art practice often involves the usage of natural materials, like wood, but at the same time you are capable of giving them a "contemporary touch"...

I work and experiment with many different materials and techniques to figure out the ideal material for each piece individually. 17

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Mario d. Fischer

By the way, do you think that there's still a contrast between tradition and contemporary?

I don’t know. Both are important and different proven through historical reasons. Your sculptures are built out of transparent acrylic glass layers, which are posed in a way so that they confront each other when viewed straight on, but due to their fragmented construction there is another layer of confrontation: so it's like there's something hidden that the spectator has to discover. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal hidden sides of the world... what's your point about this?

This series intends to create a juxtaposition of 2D and 3D as well as to generate floating transitions during participation ‘between’ .

Snip, Snap | Schnipp, Schnapp 2012 table / chair: polystyrene, screws, adhesive, polyurethane coat, asphalt, varnish floor: laminate, wood, soil, adhesive 130 x 80 x 90 cm

Mario d. Fischer

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Faceoff 2011 silkscreened on ten acrylic layers, mdf, polyurethane paint 37 x 22 x 30 cm

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Mario d. Fischer

Spannungsbogen | Arc Of Suspense 2012 steel, wood walking stick, rubber, plastic, screws, primer, acrylic lacquer 60 x 150 x 137 cm

Mario d. Fischer

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Now here's a cliche question, but one that we're always interested in hearing the answer to. What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

If a piece is accomplished, including documentation etc. This is always a special moment. Thanks a lot for this interview, Mario: nothing has left to say than asking you about your future plans. Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

To keep working and developing, but the next main goal is to find and work with a suitable gallery.For upcoming news, checkout my website: http://www.mariodavidfischer.eu

Untitled (Table), 2012 23 x 40 x 74,3 cm Wood, screws, primer acrylic paint

Garric Simonsen

Garric Simonsen (USA) an artist’s statement “The basis of my artistic research explores the possibilities of manipulating temporal moments, physical surface and materiality. These investigations impact the tactile presence of my paintings, which often incorporate words that reflect social tropes, fragmented narratives or perceptive shifts.” “Much of what I draw from creatively transcends everyday experiences. Motif, chance operations and the idea of pentimento are at play in varying degrees.” “Viewers of my artwork experience textured surfaces that suggest chaotic order, revealing visual traces of earlier stages of the painting. Incised lines on wood panels and encaustic mediums allow for experimental, sometimes gestural moments when line, color, shape and texture converse intuitively on tactile surfaces.” Garric Simonsen was born in 1975. His work has been exhibited at Platform Gallery (Seattle, WA), Disjecta Contemporary Art Center (Portland, OR), University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI), Seattle University (Seattle, WA), Wheaton University (Norton, MA), Bradley University (Peoria, IL), Zhou B Art Center (Chicago, IL) and Blackfish Gallery (Portland, OR). He has been awarded grants from the Vermont Studio Center, Artist Trust (Seattle, WA) and was a resident artist at The James and Janie Washington Foundation in Seattle, WA. Currently teaching full-time in printmaking and foundations at Whitworth University (Spokane, WA); I hold an MFA from Washington State University (Pullman, WA) and a BA from The Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA).

Ukie Arrives by Tank Tied to a Tree and Visits Floater Dry-point and mixed oil based mediums on wood, 24x30inch, 2013

Garric Simonsen

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an interview with

Garric Simonsen We would start with our ice breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art?

Dada. You have a formal training and you have recently received MFA in Painting & Drawing from the Washington State University. How much in your opinion training does influences art? By the way, do you think that a certain kind of training could even stifle young artist's inspiration?

The MFA program was good for me, I was art historically naive prior to it. I honestly had no idea how deep and wide art is until studying formally. I’ve never thought I needed academia to make art, though being surrounded with like minded people [artists] in grad school revealed much of what I’ve chosen to pursue conceptually and technically today. I was in my early thirties in grad school, and perhaps if I were in my early twenties I would have been stifled. It seems like there is much taboo that revolves around the MFA. I certainly wouldn’t have this career without it, but like anything else it isn’t for everyone.

Garric Simonsen

can tell you I’ll never forget the transformations that occurred during that time frame. The painting somehow embodies the profound spiritual shift I experienced becoming a dad. I’ve done some amazing things, been to some amazing places and met some amazing people, but there’s never been a moment in my life more amazing than right now. The title sums up all our birth years, love is infinite.

Now we would like to focus on your recent artworks that our readers can admire in these pages:in particular we would start from "1975 + 1978 + 2013 = infinity". By the way, could you explain us this title?

As you remarked in your artist's statement, a particular feature of your pieces is the tactile presence: could elaborate a bit this concept?

This painting started a few weeks before the birth of my baby girl, Indie. The tent is a rendition of my late Grandfathers, he used it on mountaineering trips in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. The little pack and ice ax were his too. Anyway, this painting is a symbol of family and of the pregnancy, labor and birth of our child. My partner labored for 38 hours at home, we were up for 66 hours. I

I started working on wood in grad school and became particularly interested in scratching into its surface. Wood has this durability unlike canvas or paper. I’m an aggressive mark maker, so it’s important that the material holds up to some abuse. I’m not sure why more pain24

Garric Simonsen

Peripheral ARTeries

On a Strong Scent Dry-point and mixed oil based mediums on wood, 24x30, 2012

from the Ground Up" your masterly brushstrokes communicate a sense of movement and the same time the recurrent presence of an intense white reminds a visual traces of the process of painting itself: also, your piece "Things Down Here Don't Exist," shows that the human element seems to be one of the nuclear concepts in your Art. Do you agree with this statement?

ters aren’t working on wood supports, it’s so low maintenance. I also wonder why more painters aren’t working in encaustic. Wax has this fleshy, physical presence that I can almost eat with a knife and fork. In person my work has a physicality to it, there is a lot of surface relief and layering. This is difficult for the viewer to experience on a computer screen, so adding phrases like that to an artist statement is important.

Thanks, that sounds nice. As you may tell from that period I was looking at the works of Cy Twombly. He and I share a love for landscape and I believe nature greatly influences both our works. Everyday objects were finding their way

Besides the artworks that we have selected, we would like to mention some of your 2008 pieces: in particular, in "Lightning Strikes

Garric Simonsen

onto my paintings then. Lighting Strikes from the Ground Up was part of about a half dozen paintings on paper that were focused on clouds and atmosphere. These were quick intuitive paintings, finished in one session usually. Things Down Here Don’t Exist was essentially an appropriated section of my studio wall at the time. I just started painting and adding everyday objects lying around. There was a little Ziploc baggy with a green ball in it pinned up next to where I was working, so I painted it too. You seem to be a very prolific painter, and your works seem to be filled with intense emotion. Is painting like a release for you or is it emotionally draining? By the way, is your process same for both the drawings and paintings?

I see drawing and painting as blurred themes in my process, one informs the other equally. Making [things] is something like an emotional release, or emotionally empowering, but never draining. I get a strong sense of accomplishment when I work a painting from beginning to end, I’m definitely more emotionally co-dependent on the process itself, rather than each individual work that comes out. How many paintings do you usually produce at the same time? Do you think that there's a "channel of communication" between different works that have been produced at the same time?

I work one piece at a time. There maybe long months between studio sessions, but that “channel of communication” remains constant, like I never stopped working. It’s not like I pick up where I left off, more as if I’d been working subconsciously during the break. When it comes time to get back into it there’s usually a

1975 + 1978 + 2013 = infinity Dry-point and good amount of production, then pause, repeat. I get bored easily which explains my lack of aesthetic focus. This isn’t a concern, I’m more a believer of making what ever feels good

Garric Simonsen Besides producing Art you also teach: how has this influenced your career as an artist?

Teaching helps me iterate the passion I feel towards creative exploration, it doesn’t so much influence my studio practice that I can tell. If anything, teaching teaches me to communicate better verbally. I like being eccentric in the classroom and I’m sure one could say by looking at my work that it is offbeat as well. Your paintings often reveal a subtle irony and humor: is this just an impression?

My personality is acutely aware of ironic things happening around me and irony is definitely woven into the fibers of my practice. I’m not one to take myself too serious, though in their own way my paintings and drawings have a serious sensibility to them, more so in how limited my use of materials has become. The latest dry-point drawings on wood are detailed and graphic formally, though extremely minimal in terms of materiality. I use an x-acto blade and a mix of graphite powder and vegetable oil to rub into the incised line work. Words have ironic implications as well, especially those paintings that challenge perceptive ideals like saying “God is Evil”, or “Luxury Problems”. Viewers moral standards are challenged or confronted at times by certain arrangements of text. mixed oil based mediums on wood, 24x22inch, 2013

I like the idea that words are arbitrary, or the concept of systems theory. I think what I create refers to itself a lot of the time, or perhaps my art is some conscious visual representation of my experiences, which are often ironic. I saw two burros eating from a giant pile of carrots once, that’s irony!

rather than producing some manufactured style. There’s a lot of painters making the same painting repeatedly to appease a collector base or gallery. That’s just wasted talent in my opinion.

Garric Simonsen

Lightning Strikes from the Ground Up, Oil & Watercolor on Paper, 60x60 Thank you very much for this interview, Garric: what's next for you?

Please contact me for exhibition opportunities. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m always willing to ship and travel! Thanks for the exposure and the opportunity to respond to these questions.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll keep making and showing paintings, my website has news and upcoming exhibitions. 28

Garric Simonsen

Things Down Here Don't Exist, Oil and Collage on Wood, 60x60

Montserrat (Spain)

aka nyx10110

(Fragments of observation)

a Synopsis

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The cycle time. Everything is repeated again and again, as a reminder, as if I myself observed from a distance. As I look at my actions may be like repetitive or can be like different each time. In Realtime is something so relative and imperceptible... â&#x20AC;&#x153;An alternative and prosperous sustainability is possible with an artistic discourse that captures our the imagination and take a critical vision look at the causes of the current economic and ecological crisis. Repeats and we do not realize until too late, because the mist hides from us the horizon. But we who we start and we fall into the same errors. We must take perspective and observe us closely to move forward. In short, be happy and better. To think that us are part of a natural ecosystem that is interaction between all living things with their environment. The different footage are part of an true loop that I made as a performance on a beach in middle of August, a day with a lot of fog. The recording was realized by a photo / video camera and a tripod. In assembly and edition changes are decided between cuts minimalist and aesthetics vintage of type super 8 film that allows me to transmit that idea to observe ourselves in moments in time almost frozen, past moments ...

(2011, 3') Title in english: Fragments of observation Format:

HD720p, H.264, MOV, 16:9, 25 fps, colour, no sound Genre: Video Art /Video Performance

Link to Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/30950254

â&#x20AC;&#x153;This visual style was obtained by modifying the hue by association of the color black to blue and white to green, reducing brightness and saturation as well as with the use of imitation effect old film. It is considered appropriate any monochannel video assembly type, preferably a screening of the work in a High Definition monitor or television. Also possible is a pro-jection a wall or screen. The projector should be placed in the front wall, the highest possible, to prevent interference from the shadows of the public over the image. The measures of the projection can be variables but always main-taining optimum digital quality. Not need any sound system because the work uses silence to communicate the concept.

a sequence of stills from Fragmentos de observacion

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the disciplines of Video Art, Video Performance, Video Installation and LiveCinema. I also work my creations from Meta Photography and Soundscape. As an emerging artist the idea is to progress towards a interdisciplinary work that combines art, science and technology. The concept of my work revolves around a personal relation with the memory, the time and the water. It is my vision of ecology within the new media arts (Media Art Ecologies). I sink or I emerge from the waters ... Thoughts and research on water bodies, ‘hydrics bodies’, about the linkages of human, their societies and ecosystems with aquatic environment, marine, freshwater and wetland (flood and hybrid). It is a fragmented observation of myself and the world around me. The process starts with a cyclical view of this reality, where everything is repeated again and again, like a memory. My actions seem to me repetitive or seem to me different every time, in real time that cycle is a relative thing and imperceptible, sometimes subtle and sometimes brusque ... After observing, I take perspective to move forward ... The presentation can take different artistic forms, but the important thing is my connection with the living spaces limit, where water is life and gives life in a continuous process, where my presence is takes, more or less form, control, order ... where everything is interrelated. Because deliberately, I control my time and then is passed. All at your own rhythm, in a flow of sound and visual movement. It is that interaction with the habitat suggests the past events to give continuity to flow of things, the life ...

was born in Barcelona on a winter night a day 22, but I installed in Girona for family and creative reasons. I studied Geography (University of Barcelona, UB) and Multimedia (Open University of Catalonian, UOC). I’m Environmental Technician and I worked in the area of web and interactive production in relation to issues of GIS and Spatial Planning. My training in the area of Contemporary Art is recent and largely autodidact ... I am enthusiastic about the DIY - Do It Yourself philosophy and everything that involves a conception edupunk, I complimented with courses and workshops in the field of video, photography and multimedia art, interactive and sound as Arduino, Processing, Vj … Currently I develop artistic projects in

To think that we are part of a natural ecosystem that is interaction of all living things with their environment. In the present environment of economic and ecological crisis, I intend bring the eyes to a critical vision with the economy growth and the current patterns of consumption to generate a discourse or debate in the public on a alternative sustainability. I am interested in the relationship can be created between aquatic ecology and technology when working on an artistic level, well as audiovisual creative process, as methodology and as expression interdisciplinary. All Time understanding aquatic ecology in its definition as a study of the interaction of living things, including humans, with their water environment. With a blend of cybernetic aesthetics and retro or vintage style. Some noise analog in digital perfection ...

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an interview with

aka nyx10110 We would like to start with our usual icebreaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art?

I see the work of art as a dynamic product of artistic creation of the human being. Each work of an artist is the vehicle to express concepts, values, perceptions, experiences, emotions ... their worldview and their culture. Sometimes reflects the socioeconomic environment in which it lives and sometimes represents things unreal, imagined or possibilities. If it is good, if you like, if it is beautiful, if it has a social function, aesthetics or ethics, if disturbed or offend ... depends on the observer and largely theorists and subjective criteria. I think the important thing is the interaction between creativity, resources and the artistic process and establish a dialogue with the public beyond the classical concept of beauty and ugliness that allows appreciate its shades, reinterpret it, transform it ... The artwork evolves beyond the intention or idea of the artist and to be a object plastic, visual, sound, body, written ...

Autorretrato en la playa

tic ecosystems. My knowledge to analyze the space as a product of the relationships between the physical environment and human activity or know the techniques to identify territorial diversity, make decisions and resolve conflicts is something I consider key to contribute to a critical and committed debate around sustainability, climate change, planning and management of resources ...

Would you like to tell us something about your background? We have read in your bio that you have studied Geography and Multimedia. How much this experiences have impacted on the way you nowadays make Art?

Moreover have a professional training in multimedia technologies me allows to produce interactive art projects and audiovisual starting from some knowledge of technology, methodology and aesthetic development. It is good access to audiovisual techniques and programming languages u8203 in order to apply at artistic projects without fear and do not for-

Influence me every day because my intention is to express artistic concepts on New Media Ecology. These studies have facilitated me to deal with various environmental issues. I am interested in investigating the interaction, to interdisciplinary artistic level, of living things with aqua32

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work be another. Being autodidact is relative, is not better or worse. Always there are who disapprove. I treasure the independence and I have a very open mind to exploring and educational approaches to edupunk. I am interested in learning inventive, creative, philosophical and ideological attitude of do it yourself. The new digital media and social networks facilitate thinking, teaching and learning in a more horizontal and less predefined, integrating data sources and different tools. I always try to learn on my own, but also participate in courses and workshops. These studies not formal, outside the university and institutional framework, has given me a wider view of what's out there and provide me get in touch with the latest developments in open source and alternative art discourses both theoretical and practical. With self-training there is some risk of becoming isolated, of avoid influences, of not having enough contacts... but good is the rebellion against the official system and a certain pride self-referential. A good dose of expressionism. Looking independent elearning spaces in the field Spanish speaking, I found Visions of Art, online study center for Contemporary Art, established in

forget that they are tools, the important thing is the concept, the process and what the work expresses. The technique evolves and changes constantly before our eyes every day more faster. I like to work a retro aesthetic low tech related, not forget that perfection does not exist and that I always need be willing to recycle myself or improve my knowledge. Vanguards fall into disuse before socioeconomic priorities at a furious pace.

2.0 from Uruguay. His courses are for me a shared experience, didactical and enriching. I have established linkages with participating artists and curators have influenced me in developing my knowledge, my projects and my creative process.

By the way, do you think that self-taught artists have some advantages over artists with a formal education? We were wondering if in your opinion a certain kind of education could even stifle an artist's creativity...

Anyway, you're autodidact or not what matters are the readings, research and hard work experimentation and finding a personal artistic language. Is artistic talent born or made?

I know that my ways were taking me to Contemporary Art. I do not deny that I would have a more formal education in Fine Arts, but then my 33

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a still from

Now we would like to focus on the works that we have selected and whose still can be admired by our readers. Let's start with your stimulating video "Fragmentos de observa-

(2011)

The concept was to transmit the feeling of observing myself far at moments past time, almost frozen but are repeated over and over again in a cycle time. This repeated action seems repetitive but actually is always different from a imperceptible form and relative ... My presence near or distant, the repetition of the action and the absence of sound is a form of talk time and memory.

creative process for this piece?

(2011) can be considered my "debut" not for his realization but for its public presentation and for being the most repercussion is today. It is a piece of video art than 3 minutes. Different footage are part of an true loop that I made to Performance mode on a beach in the middle of August a day with a lot of fog. I used a compact camera photo / video and a tripod. In mounting opted for minimalist cuts and vintage aesthetic remi-niscent of super-8 film. The visual style was reached by changing the hue of the color association black to blue and white to green, reducing the brightness and saturation.

This leads me to think about the possibility of a sustainable alternative. The causes ecological and economic crises are repeated and we are not aware of it until it is too late because the mist conceals the horizon. We start again falling into the same mistakes. If we take perspective and look closely before moving forward we can see that we are part of a natural ecosystem that is interaction of all living things with their environment. It is our 34

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a still from Retrato de un vaso (2011)

video art, photography, sound art, performance. At times I have the help of my husband as an technical assistant. Other projects are more intuitive, I come as long walks on the field or while walking along the beach. I like to always carry a small bag with little notebooks, one pair compact cameras and a sound recorder. Record and record, take pictures ... Often something comes to use that material to experiment with video editing software and audio. Other times only collects for inspiration. It's like energy I do not use to produce any work. I am a little given to chaos and entropy. The events happen in nature in a way and not another. I let myself go â&#x20AC;Ś the disorder of my system comes to a maximum when an order is created with that energy reserved and not used, for new ideas or to investigate and begin the production cycle.

responsibility engage with the balance of our natural environment, recognize the problem and take action. A visual from your works that impacted on me is the fluidity that is suggested by the mix of colors and images... by the way, could you take us through your creative process when starting a new project?

There are projects that are based on research on current problems in reference to a particular environmental issue. The beginning is my family and personal memories about my living space. I think of how they have changed or are affected by socio-economic structures, natural disasters ... I like to write down my thoughts, make small sketches, simple drawings ... Then try taking it to a more universal level to convey the concept using the most appropriate tool : 35

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a sequence of stills from Bosque de Agua

Water is a recurrent subject in many of your works: just think not only to but also to

dynamically around you. In the video installation Voy hacia donde las olas huelen a sol (2012), inspired by the poem Sentido y elemento important that power over me the coming and going of the waves, walking and find the travel from ignorance to knowledge. While in (2012-13) is the sound of the sea as the wave propagation between two environments, at the boundary between the atmosphere and the ocean that serves me to evoke the power of the image as distorted memories a rainy day, of that travel.

"Retrato de un vaso" and your recent series "Bosque de agua" . What is your personal relationship with the water? How your artistic performances and aesthetic are inspired by these 'hydric concepts'?

From childhood feel attraction to water and the places that flows. I see it as something familiar and intimate, as a vital need to be near her. When I started my environmental studies I immediately realized that my specialty would be geomorphology and hydrogeography. Today, on March 22 is World Water Day. As an activist fight for protect the human right to water, sanitation and purification. It is an indispensable resource for the future of life on the planet. Influences the creation, transformation and destruction of my social and natural environment. The process of my work is a dynamic fluid, variable and sometimes chaotic ... and like water, finds its way in a continuous cycle of evaporation, transpiration, precipitation and displacement.

In the recent series Bosque de agua (2013) raised the power of water as a force of nature, I think of the rainforest, in the threatened forests, coasts and wetlands overexploited amazing places in the world who deserve protection. Looking at the reflections on the effects of the storm on the beach also think in my own creative process: take a walk, shoot and record, make mistakes, make more errors at work in the studio. But practice makes perfect. The distortion, echo, what blurred are part of my aesthetic and conceptual option.

Retrato de un vaso (2011) is a recorded action experiencing visually and sound from an everyday domestic object that occupies the space gradually ... A glass of water spilled. We travel that space and the object becomes a mirror of our questions, as time and space flow

Your work deals with new media technology and in these last years we have seen that the frontier between Video Art and Cinema is growing more and more vague: do you think

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that this "frontier" will exists longer? Do you think that new media art will definitely fill the dichotomy between art and technology?

Not to mention that the feedback of the audience is important for everyone who has something to communicate: and you have exhibited your works in many sides of the world, in particular, "Fragmentos de observa-

The phenomenon of expanded cinema is a trend today, with filmmakers coming out off the screen and the movie theater to perform pieces exhibited in spaces of galleries and museums. There will always be new opportunities to say things out of traditional and formal formats looking fragmentation, disrupting continuity, interacting with the audience ... It is sometimes difficult to find the channels of distribution and exhibition.

exhibition in Scotland. When you conceive a work, do you think to whom will enjoy it?

I am part of the selection of video artists of Hybrid Identities, an International Art Festival that exhibited during the last weekend of March

The border is very vague when talking about visual artist like filmmaker who rescues materials and other in Super 8 amateur film formats with the concept to remix or recover audiovisual memory, when venturing into the short documentary, or when projecting moving images as experimental films, as diverse physical matter. Moreover VJing the entire phenomenon of is no longer limited to clubs, Mapping extension or underground sound visualization. And the Live Cinema like performance a / v experimental in real time that helps digital technologies, the space of representation and multidisciplinary collabo-ration to create a hybrid transmedia format, a multimedia artwork that require ephemeral get rid of prejudices about what is the cinema.

Retrato de un vaso (detail)

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in the creative space The Old Ambulance Depot in Edinburgh, organized by International ArtExpo as a curator with Luca Curci. It makes me particularly proud because it will not be the first time you can see Fragmentos in Scotland. Last spring was screened at the Short Film Festival New Juice. When one of my works is selected to be displayed anywhere in the world get emotional me I get stressed out. My message is communicated to a diverse audience and the work already is not entirely mine. I'm not particularly concerned that his personal opinion is good or bad, I do not conceive the works to like some and others, I prefer to generate some kind of critical thinking in the public, whether positive or negative is welcome. What I like to think is that they can generate ideas about the relationship between art and science and technology. There's a question, that we often ask to the artists that we interview: what aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction? As I mentioned I am happy to reach the public with my work, but what I like most of artistic work is when I make the first approach to a new project,Â is a maximum time of creativity and a lot of nervousness because it it will evolve and change but I do not know how or when. After when leaving to make field work I enjoy my relationship with the environment and with the cameras and recorders.

Thank you very much for this interview, Montserrat. What are you working on at the moment? And what are your future plans?

I see it as the film-eye method of Deziga Vertov for experimental-scientific study of the world that I see with the camera, I recorded with the camera and I organize with the edition later.

I am currently working on the next phase of the project, where I intend to produce a video installation that plays with nonlinear narrative interactively in a kind of memory game with 38

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a still from Voy hacia donde las olas huelen a sol

paths that are branched and intersect, as a daydreaming. To realize I'm using open source programming language Processing. One of my other projects is a work in progress for a Performance that links Live Cinema and interaction with objects that I call 'hydric bodies' through sensors controlled by the open hardware

platform Arduino and a graphical development environment for music and multimedia. The concept of the play focuses on water pollution of our rivers. Thanks to you. peripheral_arteries@dr.com

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Alla Rumyantseva

Alla Rumyantseva “The work

plays with the structure of the digital color model RGB, displaying the mixture of three basic colors-red green and blue. Interactivity is an integral part of the artwork. The viewer encounters the screen , which displays a multicolored. “Unpleasant-to-the-eye , disordered image. A choice of three pairs of glasses with colored lenses-red green or blue – is offered to the viewer. Looking through the colored glasses, one sees a more coherent picture, though this time the world is monochrome, reduced to a single color. “Besides, each shade of color shows a different shade of the plot: the details that arise in the green version disappear in the red , details of the blue picture are obscured in the green. The difference between views can be considerable, as the same inscriptions can be read both

as «Yes» and «No», depending on the filters; people are marked with bar codes in one color, and decorated with fun patterns in another.

Alla Rumyantseva

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Alla Rumyantseva was born in 1977, Dushanbe, Tajikistan She graduated from the Technical University of Tajikistan, specialty - fashion designer 1999- 2005 y.- workplace: TV Company “Safina”, designer. 2005 -2013 y.- workplace: LLC “Angor”, 3d animator. Selected exhibitions : 2006y. - Exhibition «A Parallel»,Dushanbe, Tajikistan. 2007y. - Videoart Festival «Pusto» Moscow. 2009y. - Videoart and animation Festival «Kurye International Video Festival», Istanbul 2010 y. - exhibition «Stills», Kazakhstan 2010y.- «One Minute Film Festival», Germany. 2011y.- 54nd Venice Biennale, Italy.

RGB 2011 Video installation, 2:20 min. Media-play: Take a look at the TV screen through red, green and blue glasses. By changing the optical mode, the viewer changes the image.

Alla Rumyantseva

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an interview with Alla Rumyantseva We would like to start with our usual icebreaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art?

A work of art for me is what excites me, makes me think, and does not leave me indifferent or remains in my thoughts and heart for a long time. Would you like to tell us something about your background? We have read in your bio that you have worked in advertising for a while. How much this experience has impacted on the way you nowadays make Art?

To begin with, advertising resorts to video art techniques one way or the other. A moment came when I felt like creating something new, something more complex and multilayered.

Alla Rumyantseva (A photo by Aleksey Rumyantsev )

By the way, how new technologies as DSLR and digital editing has impacted on your process?

I felt like experimenting with various forms, techniques and images. That made me into a video artist.

I didn’t use any of these technologies, I used video camera Sony Z7.

Your work deals with new media technology and in these last years we have seen that the frontier between Video Art and Cinema is growing more and more vague: do you think that this "frontier" will exists longer? Do you think that new media art will definitely fill the dichotomy between art and technology?

Now we would like to spend some words abfocus on your interesting work "RGB" whose stills can be admired by our readers in the pages of the current issue. Can you describe a little bit about your creative process for this piece?

In response to your question I would like to cite the film „Matrix“,“If you take the red pill, you will find yourself in a wonderland“.

In my view, the frontier between the two will always be there. I believe that new media art will combine art and science because with development of new technologies an artist receives new tools for implementing his ideas and intentions.

To give you further details, I should say that when the idea came to me, I began walking around the city wearing different colour sunglasses.

Alla Rumyantseva

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A still from RGB 2011 Video installation, 2:20 min.

excited my imagination and I tried to share it with my viewers.

My first feeling reminded me of my childhood when we as children tried to look at different objects through pieces of different colour glass. That sincere astonishment that we can see the world in a different way and the feeling that we can look into a different reality dawned on me again and I suddenly was eager to carry all that through my work. A world of vanishing objects and suddenly appearing mysterious signs- all that intrigued me and

A visual from your video that impacted on me is the effective synergy between colors... by the way, could you take us through your creative process when starting a new project?

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to say something very definite because new projects are born all of a sudden under the ifluence of some events, so the process varies from case to case.

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Alla Rumyantseva

Not to mention that the feedback of the audience is important for everyone who has something to communicate: and you have underlined in your artist's statement the importance of establishing a dialogue with the viewer. When you conceive a work, do you think to whom will enjoy it?

I don’t think of any particular viewers when I start a new project. It is important for me that anyone who sees my work finds something for themselves. What experiences have you had exhibiting in different countries? What is the difference between exhibiting, for example, in Russia and exhibiting in Turkey, or Italy or in Germany? By the way, we would like to mention your participation to the Biennale di Venezia in Italy: what impressions have you received?

I have exhibited in different countries: France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia. The difference is that the audience in Europe is better trained, more competent. In Europe the artist has more chances to be noticed as one can meet some world famous figures that happen to come and visit such public events. For instance, in the Biennale di Venezia, I was lucky to receive a very flattering comment on my „RGB“ work from Michelangelo Pistoletto. Of course, such moments can’t but inspire the artist to new creations.

Exhibition at the 54nd Venice Biennale, Italy

What impressed me most in the Biennale di Venezia is of course the scope, the highest level and a wide range of works. Every one can find something there that will strike them and stick in memory for quite a while.

Alla Rumyantseva

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There's a clichĐš question, that we often ask to the artists that we interview: what aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

I get the biggest satisfaction from the reaction of the viewer. When the viewer feels suddenly amazed having put on the glasses, I experience genuine enjoyment because I managed to make them feel delighted and taken by surprise, which means I achieved my aim. Thank you very much for this interview, Alla. What are you working on at the moment? What are your future plans?

Now I am working on light installations. My future plans are to create 3D projections in real time and space. peripheral_arteries@dr.com

Alla Rumyantseva

2 0 1 3

A p r i l

(Spain) An artist’s statement

“First of all, I must say that I love space and light. It would be almost impossible to describe my artistic projects without mentioning these two concepts. Light is present in almost every project of mine, both direct light or video screenings. By the way, I deal with light as a space creator, usually by means of installations or video-installations, in which light is sometimes protagonist and other times mere device to understand the proposal. I’m essentially interested in creating and recreating spaces, environments, atmospheres, taking shape to different emotions and feelings. Anyway, I love to build diverse spaces in which the viewer can be putted in (real or metaphorically) in order to better comprehend the projects intention.Regarding the content of my pieces, I usually work with personal experiences. Most of them are autobiographical and speak about different moments in my life. Memories, couple relationships or the role of women in our society are recurrent themes of my work, always treated from a critical and analytical point of view. 48

8984 (noches) 2012 Audiovisual installation: sponge mattress, 4 plastic bags with colored liquids, tubes. 4 videos (2’04’’). Variable dimensions.

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an interview with

We would like to start with our ice-breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art?

I really think Art is everywhere. Of course, there are pieces that are created with a specific artistic purpose, but I do not only pay attention to these works of Art. I like to see artistic contents in everything that surrounds me, it is also a huge source of inspiration to my own works. However, what in my opinion defines a work of Art is not its appearance, but a desire to express something to the public. For me, the big works of Art are the ones that keep you thinking after seeing them and activate something in your brain. You have formal training and you have received Master's Degree in Visual and Multimedia Art from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. How much in your opinion training influences art? And how has your art developed since you left school?

(a photo of Luis Marco) By the way, how much an international

I think training is not essential in Art, but it becomes a plus on artistic practice. I can speak from my personal experience as an Art student when I say that University training is completely responsible for my broad vision of the global Art scene. It is not just a place where you can learn different techniques, but an area to be explored and where you get to develop your personal style. I left school in July last year and I actually continue with the same line of work. I would like to continue exploring the forms and contents of my pieces, always introducing new elements and thoughts.

Regionale des Beaux-Arts de Rennes â&#x20AC;&#x201C;where you have spent about nine monthsâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; has impacted to you? Have you found relevant differences between your native country's scenario?

Arts de Rennes had a big impact both to my personal and professional projects, because a project is not only the hours of work dedicated to it, but also everything that surrounds it. To explore the artistic practice in another country and culture, to share knowledge and experiences with other artists from different 50

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You are a multidisciplinary artist: your art ranges from video to installations and performances. How do you choose a particular media for your works? And what technical aspects do you mainly focus on in your work?

I love to work with space, objects and light (both direct light or video screenings), that's why I feel more comfortable in Installation Art. I do not always follow the same steps in order to produce my pieces: sometimes I start with a concept, something I want to reflect and make the public reflect about, and some other times I choose a material and I start working on it. Some of my works have relevant technical aspects, but I have to confess that I am increasingly less interested in technical devices. I like to use the Technology as a way to express something, and not as the main focus of the work. Now we would like to spend some words about your interesting project "Estadios Intimos", which could be translated as "Intimate Spaces". Can you describe a little bit about your creative process?

" is a theoretical research

countries is something that you can only experience while carrying out your project in a different place. These are circumstances that may considerably enrich and favour the development of the project.Â There are substantial differences between both scenarios: French Art schools focus on the creation of projects from the very beginning of the studies, whereas in Spain we have more variety of contents but we begin with our personal projects later. Matriz

I have learnt from both educational systems and that's why I consider this kind of exchange so satisfying and stimulating.

2011 Sponges and wire. 38 x 17 x 22 cm.

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and formal experimentation project whose starting point was, broadly speaking, the work with different objects, with video and space. The project's aim lies precisely in working with these three concepts (main themes of my artistic practice) in a multimedia installation, always relatiing to the general topics of the project: intimacy, memory and body (specifically a female and absent body). Anyway, I worked with the objects and videos in two different ways, always bearing in mind their relationship with space. When it comes to the objects, I developed an experimental work (using almost everyday objects), in which chance became an important aspect. The objects, which are somewhat surrealistic, were created from a random encounter of materials. However, the work with the videos was much more studied; they should reflect much specifically the concepts and themes mentioned earlier: intimacy, feminine condition and perception of its own body... Finally, I generated a multimedia installation with the videos and objects created. Considering the concepts from the videos and the final appearance of the objects installations, I established a dialogue between the video images and the objects (between shapes and thoughts), creating some kind of scenography in which each viewer could make its own interpretation.

tant is the role of your audience for your artworks? When you conceive a piece, do you happen to think to whom will enjoy it?

It is extremely important. I always speak about feelings and emotions in my pieces; I speak about me and my thoughts, but also about emotions everybody can feel. As you said, this feature becomes more clear in both works you mentioned: "Lavabo Interactivo" is an interactive installation, so the audience is actually the detonator of the work and " " shows a close-up of someone who is directly looking in the spectator's eyes. The appeal to the audience is in both cases evident, but I like to imagine that the public can also feel the same way in other more intimate and less appealing pieces.

of Tears) you have used yourself as subject. It goes without saying that this enhances your personal emotional involve-ment in your works, which is extremely autobiographical. But at the same time it "drags" the spectator, lighting up empathy... This feature is evident also in "Lavabo Interactivo" (Interactive washbasin). How impor-

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explain below). Anyway, I find new Media Art very, very interesting, I think new media artists have already reached brilliant results and also that there is still a lot to be discovered on this artistic branch. In a technology and skill driven world, it is normal that every aspect in it may be influenced by technology, of course also Art. If they are going to assimilate one to each other, I don't know, but I won't go that far. I think in the near future we will see lots of pieces of Art related to Technology, but in my opinion traditional techniques such as painting or sculpture will also continue filling museums and galleries. You are a videomaker and our reader can admire some stills of your recent work entitled "Threshold" which is a foundfootage realized combining 16 mm film with digital video images. In these last years we have seen that the frontier between Video Art and Cinema is growing more and more vague. Do you think that this "frontier" will exist longer?

"Threshold" was totally an experiment. I participated in a workshop in which we learnt https://vimeo.com/24560357 2011 Digital video: 5’01’’.

As we have already mentioned, both your education and your works are intrinsically connected to Multimedia Art. Do you think that new media art will definitely fill the dichotomy between art and technology? I would go as far as to state that Art and Technology are going to assimilate one to each other... What's your point about this?

As I already mentioned, I like to use Technology in order to express a particular idea or thought. My work does not experiment with Technology itself (with the exception of "Threshold", which I

Lavabo interactivo 2010 Interactive installation: projector, washbasin, webcam, computer, loudspeaker, software.

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A sequence of stills from the video Threshold

It seems that the writings of the spanish

about found-footage and telecine techniques. I found it really interesting and I ended it up with some pretty quaint images, so I decided to use them in an experimental video, combining them with digital video images.

impact on you. He is not very well known to the wider masses, so it would be great if you could elaborate a bit your interest in his works...

I rarely can imagine people going to see a Video Art piece to a cinema. It is true that the frontier between Video Art and Cinema is sometimes very thin and we already have examples of video artists who shot films or film directors who made experimental films with typical Video Art techniques. But I think this experiments do not get out to everybody. Anyway, I think it is very interesting that this kind of practices continue developing and presenting different variations.

What interests me most of his works is his concern on the concept of intimacy (which I actually share). He distinguishes between privacy and intimacy, making transparent the differences between both concepts. Broadly speaking, he bases his thesis on a spatial sense to make this distinction clear. Private actions are, while it may appear redundant, those that take place at the private sphere, especially at home.

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Fluidos 2011

By contrast, intimate actions imply some kind of complicity and, even if they generally happen in the private space, they leave this spacial data and install themselves in a less physical space in which trust and communication become central elements.

Audiovisual installation 9 plastic bags with different liquids. Digital video: 3’50’’

it would be great if I could carry them out in a residence abroad in Europe. At this moment of my artistic career in which I am trying to expand my horizons, I think that a stay like this would definitely favour my process of work.

Thank you very much for this interview, Blanca: what's next for you? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

I will participate in April in a collective exhibition in Alicante (Spain) and I would like to make a stay out of my country after it. I am now working on my next series of pieces and

peripheral_arteries@dr.com

Soo Shin

Soo Shin (South Korea / USA) an artist’s statement

“My work deals with the grey area that lies between utopia and dystopia, and the inseparable nature of faith and struggle. People seek and long for the light of truth, love or even a savior in their lives. However, the desired destination does not arrive under our feet easily and we have to continue our journey of “seeking” through blind faith. The struggle of not knowing and uncertainty are sometimes shaded by the stories of beautiful ending or promised words. However, the most part of our journeys are still in progress, doubtful, and obscure. “To understand the world as it is, not what it becomes: bad or good ending in the future, I spotlight the border where reality and faith meet through my work. “In my work, I play with the ideas of light and darkness, near and far, and chaos and order and incorporate those elements as one entity. I mainly use discarded materials as a metaphor of seized longing that still has the possibility in fixing. With those materials I create forms that are sacred but still have precariousness in them. The structures are neither falling apart nor standing. Often people have conflicting beliefs to one another, but the struggles and desperation in faith must be the common ground among one another. (Soo Shin) 56

Soo Shin

Peripheral ARTeries

Soo Shin

an interview with

Soo Shin First of all we would like to know something of your background, and how your experiences has impacted the way you make art. By the way, what's your point about formal training? Do you think that a certain kind of training could even stifle "free inspiration"?

I was born in Seoul, Korea but now live and work in Chicago, Illinois. My art practice when I was in Korea was mainly focused on painting. I moved to Chicago in 2008 and attended graduate school at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The interdisciplinary curriculum of the school changed my practice quite a lot and I've realized that art is about the subject and artists should try a multitude of mediums to find efficient ways to communicate with their audience. I don't think that formal training is needed to be an artist but it is definitely helpful to one's practice. Being in that smaller setting of the art world, having regular critiques, and interacting with individuals whose interest is art as well helps artists to be objective about their own practice. Learning about the difference between how the way others see my work and how I see my own work has helped me to think harder on the specific reasons for my choice of form, materials, and colors or ways of making. This method of thinking inspires me and has expanded the range of my choice of materials significantly.

between Art and Technology: what's your take about this?

I do not incorporate high technology in my practice. Therefore, I don't really feel I have a substantial comment to make on today's technology. However, I intentionally make my work rough and choose a crude way of making so that the works may have some human qualities to them such as imperfection. In a way this is quite the opposite from technology. I believe that this imperfect human nature invites the audience to approach to my work even closer. You often work with things lived, used, rusted, broken: it would seems that your Art besides displaying the character of the object achieves to show the history of the object itself. Do you agree with this?

It goes without saying that today's technology allows us to carry out project that seemed to be unfeasible just a few years ago: not withstanding this, not few people think that there remains a hidden dichotomy

I do use discarded materials. The materials are fairly well recognizable for their intended use and their histories can be easily understood. However, I focus on their present 58

Soo Shin

state of no longer having any purpose rather than their function in the past. I use them as a metaphor for dead end or desperation. Their current state of functionless and no-place to fit in anymore is more significant in my practice.

Peripheral ARTeries

The idea of home is usually warm and embracing, but I think that home can be quite brutal since you let your guard down. I have done much research on run down and abandoned houses to make sketches for this project. I used construction materials such as concrete, metal rods, and wood flooring. I started putting parquets on broken Styrofoam, welded the metal rods, and poured some concrete floor plates, which I had then broken into smaller pieces. There were a few shows where this piece was displayed and each place it was arranged almost entirely the same thanks to the drawings that were made previously. The

Now we would like to focus on your installation The duality of Home, that our readers can admire in these pages. Can you tell us about your process and set up for making this work? And what technical aspects do you mainly focus on in your work?

I wanted to create a home that has some sense of precariousness and vulnerability. 59

Soo Shin

image here (ARTeries) was taken at my solo show at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL. The floor there was made from the exact same material that I used in the piece, so I guess I have to call this picture a happy accident.

nally, as an artist, yes, my role is to question what we believe as the truth. I don't think that there is any definitive truth or answer to most things and to me questioning is a way of approaching to what is going on currently from all directions.

As you have marked in your artist's statement "People seek and long for the light of truth": do you think that on of the role of an artist could be to reveal hidden sides of life or nature?

Do you think that there's still a contrast between tradition and contemporary?

I think that they cannot be separated, contemporary came from tradition. The word â&#x20AC;&#x153;differenceâ&#x20AC;? might be more suitable to talk about the relationship between tradition and contemporary. I think that contemporary is more about questioning the frames of tradi-

I think that every artist has his or her own idea of the artist's role in society. I do not want to say an "artist's role is ---", but for me perso60

Soo Shin

tion and outcome of extensive researcher, not following one defined answer.

Artists are blessed in a way to have found what they want to pursue and to have opportunities of communicating with the public, the blessed need responsibility.

Not to mention that art should have an effect, or at least should communicate something. Do you think that artâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purpose is simply to provide a platform for an artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expression? Do you think that art could steer or even change people's behaviour?

As long as they decide to show their work in public, it is about communicating something, not one way of self-expressing. Even if the work is about self expression I think the maker should have a moment to think about what she or he wants to talk about through visual forms. Thinking about what would be seen as well as what they make is a responsibility of the artist.

To me, art is about communication and the sharing of ideas and experiences, not so much about self-expression. I think that it is easy to forget that, since most of the process is one person, that the artist is involved. 61

Soo Shin

one that we're always interested in hearing the answer to. What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

I usually start my ideas through short writings or sometimes just the combining of a few words. Then, I spend some time to find metaphorical materials or an image for the writing and this also involves numerous drawings. This part of my practice always feels like solving riddles, I enjoy this the most. Sometimes I realize that some of my answers for the riddles are wrong ones, but I still finish the physical works. Other times when people think about similar ideas to my original writings, through viewing the forms, it feels like I have finished those riddles successfully. Experiencing that the work can convey the idea, regardless of difference in language, personal background, and culture is always very satisfying and gives me great reason to continue what I do. Thank you for this interview, Soo. My last questions concerns your future plans: are there any new projects on the horizon?

Thank you for being interested in my work and me as an artist. I have several new sculptures which I am working on in my studio. The subject is still the same but the forms are quite different.

Soo Shin

Vale Berral Garcia

Vale Berral Garcia (The Netherlands) An artist’s statement

Every time I make a painting there's the possibility it's going to be something completely different of form, style and or theme to the one(s) before. It therefore can be considered as an investigation of competence/incompetence.

In my work I am trying to investigate the relationship between time and grilled chicken, between intermateriality and cute kittens.

Even though art doesn’t necessarily has to be funny, an artist must never take him- or herself too seriously.

‘ In his paintings he employs images, from his world, friends and family, thus establishing a very personal connection between his former profession as a chef and his current practice as an artist.’

‘The paintings of Vale are the result of close observations of daily life in his home city Amsterdam.’ ‘Vale Berral is constantly exploring bars and finds possibilities to expand and stretch the scope of creating in and with paint.’

‘Clowns, carrots, monkeys, algebra, masturbating opera singers, windows, rainy days, bombings, inner space, outer space, prostitutes, philosophy, anal worms and the Doppler effect form a constellation in Vale Berral Garcia's body of work.’

‘V uses existing imagery from a countless pool of objects as subjects for his paintings.’ 64

Vale Berral Garcia

Peripheral ARTeries

Vale Berral Garcia was born in 1973 in Cordoba, Spain. He lives and works in Amsterdam. Telephone number 06-52173259 E-mail: vale_berral@hotmail.com Website: www.valeberralgarcia.com EDUCATION 1996-2000

Academie voor de Beeldende Kunsten St. Joost, Breda Autonoom, vrije schilderkunst 1993-1995

Opleiding Tolk/vertaler, Maastricht Engels, Spaans EXHIBITIONS 2012

painters embassy appels gallery, amsterdam 2010

-‘Huisjes, hekjes en boompjes’ Solo exhibition at Studio-K, Amsterdam -0pen ateliers Oost Group exhibition Centrum voor Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam 2007

Galerie de Vrijplaats Group exhibition 2005

Charity group exhibition for Y.I.P. Art Posthoornkerk in Amsterdam, Auction in Paradiso 2003 and 2004

rdoba, M laga and Madrid

performing Canard a l'orange

2002

2011,

‘See through’ Solo exhibition Zeezicht, Breda

oil on canvas, 25cm-30cm

2001

‘Sushi!’ Group exhibition at NBKS, Breda 2000

-‘Blasphemous rumours’ Group exhibition at B1, Eindhoven -‘Kaffers’ Group exhibition at Vrije Jongens Amsterdam

Vale Berral Garcia

Peripheral ARTeries

an interview with

Vale Berral Garcia First of all we would like to ask you what in your opinion defines a work of Art and what could be the features that characterize a piece of Contemporary Art: it's just a matter of making Art during these last years?

Books have been written about it and people are having discussions about that question as we speak. Whatever it is that defines an artwork for one person can be something completely different for the next. We could go on and on about form an content but let's not. I guess you know it when you're 'on to something', when things happen on the canvas that turn out better than what you intended because the matter, paint in my case, reacts in mysterious ways. A lot of the times though, it's a struggle and you try to manage the paint in such way you don't produce a piece of crap. When this works, it's a good day. You have a formal training, and you have graduated from Academie voor de Beeldende Kunsten St. Joost, in the Netherlands, where you live and work. How in your opinion training has impacted on the way you make Art? And how your Art has developed after your left school?

A formal training here means that you get a studio and you are pretty much free to do what you want, but don't expect you're gonna be taught a lot of stuff. And I think that is the right way actually. I believe that in some countries a formal training consists of actually learning to paint and copy things and that's a good basis but it should also be about exploring, investigating and looking. 66

Va le Berral Garcia

Peripheral ARTeries

By the way, do you think that your personal background and especially your former profession as a chef plays a role in your creative process? We would go as far as to say that it has provided inspiration for many of your pieces as "hulkwantsfries" and "Canard a l'orange"...

In the past I have made a few very large sushi paintings. They are 300cm by 350cm and represent small sushi rolls. But at those sizes they become gigantic sushi monsters. As for my background, I was born in Spain and actually I'm the only one of my family that isn't living in Spain. I was raised bilingually and grew up listening to Spanish music and eating paella. And I still literally get goosebumps when I hear certain flamenco songs. Calle del aire by La Caita for example or Naci en Alamo by Remedios Silva Pisa, both coincidentally from the same movie, Vengo. By the way, I don't think duck and orange is a very good combination. Now we would like to focus on the artworks that our readers can admire in the pages of this issue. Let's start with "The Daily News" Could you take us through your creative process when starting this piece?

Let me start by saying that nine out of ten paintings conceal multiple paintings because I re-use the canvas and paint over a work when I'm not happy with it. As a result, the canvas becomes multi layered and gets 'body'. Every layer reacts in a certain way to the layers to come. And this particular painting has at least ten former layers. By scratching, sanding and polishing you sometimes get the result you want. I painted 'The Daily News' because a while ago I was walking by the canals here in Amsterdam and it was raining. I mean it was pouring. As I walked up to a tree to look for shelter I saw this old man standing in the

Vale Berral Garcia

blurpklein

oil on canvas, 2012, 100cm-200cm

and "That's Going to Hurt" are marked by a sharp black... is there a precise reason for this contrast?

pouring rain holding a bunch of flowers and when I looked closer I saw the old man was crying. 'What's up old man?', I asked. He told me that he was sad because his wife used to stand on that exact same spot every day to feed bread to the birds of the Keizersgracht, when she was alive.

About a quarter of my paintings are mostly black or dark grey. The rest are characterized by soft colors. I'm sure there is a reason. A precise reason I couldn't tell you.

And every year he put flowers on the bench were she sat down to read the newspaper after feeding the birds. I was in an altruistic mood so I offered to buy him a jenever at a cafe down the canal because old men in this city like drinking jenever.. It was at this point that I realized the old man wasn't that old.

I have noticed that white is a recurring color in your palette, and it figures prominently in many of the pieces of this work, mixed with a soft, delicate green. Any comments on your choice of palette or how it has changed over time?

I use secondary colors mostly and the color you speak of is a derivative of a bucket of paint I found on the street. It was a soft grey paint. I used it for several paintings, mixed with different colors. I don't like using primary colors for some reason. Maybe it has to do with my youth. Growing up I saw a lot

Actually, he was a rather young Chinese tourist who was looking a bit scared. Anyway, I bought myself a jenever and decided to paint a bunch of flowers. Some artworks of yours are characterized by soft colors, while other pieces like "Ice

Vale Berral Garcia

with a sofa, music installation etcetera. Up there I make all the small paintings, mostly sitting down. While downstairs there is a lot of space to make large works. Over there I paint standing up, with bigger brushes. So, yes the studio does affect my work in the sense that the small paintings, made sitting down have a completely different quality to them ('The Daily News') than the larger ones made standing up ('blurpklein'). I used to have a smaller studio before and that was cool because I shared it with another painter who had a lot of old vinyl records. Sometimes we put on a Julio Iglesias record and sang along loudly. I rarely do that nowadays but I think my work has improved.

The Daily News oil and alkyd on canvas, 2013, 30cm-25cm

primary colors. Our heavy boned neighbor Mrs. Bolneus liked the primary colors. But then she re-married. Her new husband was one of those people who hated primary colors. Well, hated is somewhat strongly put. He loathed them. One day, we saw mrs.Bolneus (who now was called mrs. Vouwfiets-Bolneus) running up the street screaming, wearing nothing but a few red, yellow and blue ribbons. I remember my father said; 'Son, I think that was the last time we saw Mrs. Bolneus.' Can you describe your studio space and how, if at all, that affects your work?

Right now I have a rather large studio with high ceilings. It consists of two floors. The top floor I have arranged like a cosy living room

Vale Berral Garcia in his studio, Amsterdam

Vale Berral Garcia

that's going to hurt oil on canvas, 2012, 100cm-100cm

Do you visualize your Art before creating? Do you know what it will look like before you begin? Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your process?

tweeboomstammetjes oil on canvas, 2011, 50cm-40cm

That depends on a number of things. I'm not someone who draws a lot, I rarely make sketches or studies. Well, sometimes I do. But more often I visualize it in my head and start painting. Therefore I often fail. But that's okay. By failure we learn. That sounds lame, sorry. What I meant is that the end result is born out of many former failures. Paintings I have painted over and scratched off like I said before.

What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

Just being in my studio is good. Thanks a lot for this interview: nothing has left to say than asking you about your future plans. anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

t can be a very long process. Painting. Drying. Waiting. Kicking it. Till it becomes something. Or not. Then I start over or don't look at it for a long while.

Any immediate plans for exhibits and the next series of works?

I'm constantly working on new series, this year I might apply for a short artist residency abroad

question, but one that we're always interested in hearing the answer to.

Vale Berral Garcia

Fire and wood on paper 2012, 40cm-25cm

Diana Spiridou (Greece) An artist’s statement

“At first sight,

the works look like conventional paintings but they actually are short videos (5 minutes) changing slowly and gradually. The motion is almost imperceptible so it is necessary for somebody to stand in front of the works in order to notice it. These works have no start and end. Their actual starting point is the function of human sight.

“The

video

is constantly vibrating, giving the sense of a moving canvas. They are videos but they neither require nor they demand from the audience a full time watch just because they have no start and end. They are not paintings, but they give to the audience the opportunity to see them as static pictures due to their slow motion.

“The material

is not only the video, with the meaning of the moving picture but this slight almost imperceptible motion as well. It's of special interest the kind of picture that arises or will arise from this motion. The final work is closely related to this motion, it takes its form from it, it depends on it.

Diana Spiridou

Peripheral ARTeries

Diana Spiridou

an interview with

Diana Spiridou Let's start with our ice breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art?

To me, a work of art is a kind of human creation that interprets our world with its own unique way. A genuine work of art offers new fields of action both in senses and mind and therefore, it helps people to gain knowledge and experience. Speaking about the art of our times, I do have the opinion that an artwork being made nowadays includes all the artworks of past times as well. The whole history of art is someway “being carried” in it, either as acceptance or as refusal. And there is not material matter of course. You have a formal training, and you have recently graduated at the Athens School of Fine Arts, majoring in painting. So we would like to ask how much the training in painting has informed the way you produce Art nowadays.

Diana Spiridou (a photo by Sarah Spiridou)

Please tell us something about your evolution as a painter and what has lead you to produce video installations like the ones that we have selected for this issue.

I can certainly recognize an influence. It has to do mostly with the material I chose to use. I have been trained in way that brought me in touch not only with traditional painting but also with some more “modern” or “current” kinds of artistic expression such as video art. I really thing that the conception of “video-paintings” couldn't have occurred nowhere else.

I know that my passage from paintings to “video-paintings” seems something like natural evolution. Actually it didn’t happen that easily. I didn’t start with the intention of making video I have been led to it. Actually, I just wished to add motion in traditional painting . Up to now, motion has only been suggested. So, I felt that there are things that cannot be told through traditional painting,

It was exactly a mixture of situations that had to do both with my personal life and my presence as a student in ASFA that led me to this.

Diana Spiridou

Peripheral ARTeries

A sequence of stills from Video Painting

changing situations for instance. In my work, motion becomes a basic element of construction. That way, a fourth dimension is being introduced: Time.

have no start and end. Their actual starting point is the function of human sight": could you elaborate a bit this concept for our readers?

Through the use of video, time is no more a suggestion, but becomes something almost “palpable” that contributes to the creation of the work. So, video arose as a result. On the other hand, I still regard painting as my base. Even after “video-paintings” I haven’t stopped working with brush.

Μy video-paintings do not really have any start and end. In other words, they are not narrative or they have this characteristic at a very low degree. I could say that my target is to present memory with all its complicate process and its successive transformations.

The challenges I faced in brush–painting have helped me to realize things about videopainting and vise versa the solutions I come up with in “video-painting” help me to broaden my horizons in painting. To me, Painting and “Video-painting” are both mediums of artistic creation that in different but equally important ways have something to say.

And I wanted this to be done in a sole work and in the most suitable way. My experience (partially gained at ASFA, as I mentioned before) led me to video. With a choice like this, I gave to time the role of a constructive element. Time forms the flow of the images and shapes the final result. This way, is formed a very specific kind of motion, that takes place into the frames of the traditional “picture”.

There's a relevant part of your artist's statement when we can read that your "works

Through this process I have jumped to the conclusion that both vision and memory

Diana Spiridou

Graduating exhibition in ASFA, (2012)

(ASFA as Athens School Of Fine Arts)

Can you tell us about your process and set up for making your work? What technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work?

function selectively. Stimuli are constantly absorbed and reformed again and again into basic mental materials that are similarly used and reused according to our needs, judgment and will. By using video I have the opportunity to present all that process in a way that allows viewer to participate in it while at the same time he gazes at a fully completed work.

I begin having a picture in mind. It has to do with the general lines of the final result. Then I work exclusively on my P.C. It is a digital work of art. I'm especially interested in resemblance to the traditional paintings so I make every effort even the brushstrokes to be visible.

Now we would like to focus on your artworks video-painting 1 & 2, whose stills can be admired by our readers in these pages. We should underline that they are video... what was your initial inspiration?

By the way, have you always primarily focused on landscapes? And what is the significance of the landscape in your art?

I'm greatly inspired of the amazing way that memory works. Each time we recall memories they never come to surface the same way. As I said before, I thing that memories are constantly reformed so, after a long time what we experienced once is quite different from this that we keep in mind now. Each recall brings one more slight difference. Despite this fact, memories and “real” incidents seem to be exactly equivalent for us.

Landscapes give me the opportunity to make a direct reference to painting. I could say that “video-paintings” can be understood as pieces of experience that function in a triple way: They are installations, so they have to do with the experience of space. They (usually) are landscapes, so they bring in mind the experience of place. And last but not least, they are pictorial surfaces, so they are clearly connected with the experience that a traditional painting gives.

Diana Spiridou

Graduating exhibition in ASFA, (2012) (ASFA as Athens School Of Fine Arts)

The evolution that is suggested by a video brings a temporal aspect to paintings: could a symbiosis between two apparently different media implement a completely new kind of art, or just reveal hidden features of what we use to call "tradition"?

ge in mind. But usually this happens to change while working. The final result is always a surprise! we're always interested in hearing the answer to. What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

I thing that “video-paintings” can be seen as an answer -an answer that uses digital vocabulary- from the side of what we call “tradition” to the challenges of our era.

When working on video-paintings, sometime during the process, emerges the result that I have in mind, that moment reveals what the final work could look like.

Do you visualize your Art before creating? Do you know what it will look like before you begin?

As I said before, I always have a general ima-

Diana Spiridou

Mia Dahye Kim

Mia Dahye Kim (South Korea) An artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement

My work is based on attributes of cinema. I deal with the ways to restructure the composition of cinematic narrative investigating the storytelling form in video art. I examine the way moving images construct stories and the way people perceive stories from a series of moving images. The concept of scene in cinema -a series of action in a single location- is deconstructed and expanded in my work with mixed time and space. I weave images in a non-linear way and create an open narrative. The story is completed with audienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interpretation of the images and it shows the way people draw a story from a series of moving images based on the previous experience of cinematic narrative convention. The investigation usually appears as non-dialogue or silent video projects with multi screens. The sequence of time and space is deconstructed and rearranged through more than one screen.

I focus on the concept of space for the further experiment combined with text, photography, and object installation in a wider perspective on visual composition. I bring the idea of scene in cinema into a physical space and represent the scene in a real space. Audiences are invited to the literal meaning of the scene where the event on the video happened and recorded. The footages shown on the video and the displayed objects on the spot perform a role of evidences of the cinematic event.

The mixed time and space break up the causality of the event and constantly provide fragmentary information. Audiences are asked to assemble the information and find the continuity of the story. Time and space are compressed and extended by a story in cinema. I experiment how the multi-layered structure of time and space leads a story, and emphasize the visual experience with no sound.

The recorded space on the video is connected to the real space, and the two different sta-

Mia Dahye Kim

tuses of the space are synchronized. Also, the narrative is expanded with the structure of multi levels by the combination of the different mediums. This presents space as a framework of storytelling based on the narrative feature of places, and audiences infer the descriptive relation from the different mediums. The narrative develops by the way audiences investigate the space. The cinematic narrative becomes a tangible experience in a real space crossing the boundary between fiction and non-fiction. Dealing with cinematic time and space, my work on open narrative is extended to experiment on the concept of cinematic reality and fiction. This is to explore the visual language in video art emphasizing our perception of cinematic experience.

Mia Dahye Kim was born in 1981, in Korea. She has earned her BA in Cinema (focusing on Film Directing) from Sangmyung University, Korea and then she received her MA Art and Media Practice from the University of Westminster in London

A Room of One's Own video

Her works have been screened and exhibited all arounf the world: from Asia to Europe. She currently lives and works in Korea.

the installation view of A Room of One's Own

Mia Dahye Kim

an interview with

Mia Dahye Kim We would like to start with our usual ice breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? And why you have chosen video as media for your art practice?

Among all the definitions of art, what I value the most is meaning of work. I’m not usually impressed by only technique itself. Artworks should indicate new perspectives on our lives beyond just looking good with great techniques. They should expand the scope of our thinking but at the same time, they should touch our emotions, too. Well, those are at least what I pursuit in my work. Actually, I’m very cautious about addressing my work as “art”, and that’s why my goal is to make something I can 100% proudly call “art”.

Tea Popovic

I studied cinema in my undergraduate course. As a film student, we learned how to make film with “film”- usually 16mm film because it costs less than 35mm. Suddenly, there was a big hit of digital filmmaking and I became interested in digital films. In 16mm film making, the lighting method and camera operation were difficult and I needed many people for my crew when I wanted to make a film. But digital video was different. It was simple, cheap, and easy. I always wanted to do something experimental but my professores valued well-organized real sto-ries more.

Mia Dahye Kim

In these last years we have seen that the frontier between Video Art and Cinema is growing more and more vague: do you think that this "frontier" will exists longer? By the way, do you think that new media art will definitely fill the dichotomy between art and technology?

Talking about the material itself, cinema embraced video after digital filmmaking emerged. About form and content, experimental film became a genre in cinema long time ago and video art seems like a part of experimental film to some extent. I think video art is an active attempt to bring storytelling method into fine art. It’s basically a time-based art. You can repeat and reorganize time through the moving images.

Then I found out about media art. I saw video-based works in media art exhibitions and I thought that was something I wanted to do. Also, I was wondering about the difference of visual languages between video art and cinema. That was a start.

Mia Dahye Kim

A sequence of stills from â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Violent Thingâ&#x20AC;?

new art form. But media artists should be aware that art is not a field of competing new technologies.

That was something new in traditional art. Now, video art is also a part of new media art. Because of all the video-based works, there have been a lot of examples of applying cinema theories to media art. But in many cases, even from the beginning, the language of video art is different from cinema, and now with the development of technology, we need new visual aesthetics for new media art. Yes, the boundaries are really vague.

You have a formal artistic training you have received BA in Arts focusing on Cinema from Sangmyung University, Korea and then you earned your MA in Art and Media Practice from the University of Westminster in London. We would like to ask you how much in your opinion training influences art practice? We were wondering if in your opinion a certain kind of training could even stifle an artist's creativity...

Actually, even the definitions of video art, new media art or experimental film are not clear. In my case, I exhibit my work in gallery spaces and I can also screen my work at the cinemas as it can be categorized simply as a short film. Art and technology are already successfully combined and sometimes technology leads a

You can practice your artistic techniques by yourself. However, in the school, you should learn all the aspects of what you do.You should 83

Mia Dahye Kim

A sequence of stills from “Shrine”

program, performer (actor) are the basic setup for my work. For a technical aspect, there are always certain skills I want to achieve in editing and in a final displaying form. The synchronization of multi screens, the format of video, and devices for video output are usually main technical issues.

know how your work can be engaged in historical, social and philosophical perspectives. School can help you to see your work objectively and arouses your self-awareness on what you do. The only case it blocks an artist’s creativity is when you are not allowed to try new things. From my BA in cinema study, I broadened my point of view on visual art and found out what I was really interested in film. I could make my own films and learned about little bit of everything since cinema is a very complex genre. And in my MA course, I learned more about contemporary art and the way to see my work in a contemporary art frame. I practiced reasearch method and applying theories to my work. I would say academic training was helpful in my case and I enjoyed it. Maybe because I’m interested in theories as well. Can you tell us about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work?

It always starts with a single image. I develop the image to multiple images then I think about what form or genre can be suitable for the idea. I usually research a lot. I search related books and other works for references. I’m interested in interpreting other mediums into video images so text, painting, and photography inspire me a lot. Camera, computer with editing

Mia Dahye Kim Now we would like to focus on your stimulating artwork "Shrine: House of Dream". What was your initial inspiration? Can you describe a little bit about creative process of this work?

artists, Nam June Paik and Joseph Beuys, and connected my idea to their common interest in Shamanism. I imagined bringing them in the way shamans bring spirits and asking them the meaning of art. I became an artist/shaman, composed imaginary conversation between them, and traced the process from the nature to art in the project.

I’ve always been interested in shamanism, especially the symbolic performative feature of its rituals. It’s a part of Korean tradition and the visual images always fascinated me. One day, I thought living as an artist was similar to living as a shaman. Both are in the middle of two worlds; they are aware of another world beyond the reality searching for meanings and both should touch people’s emotions. Then I moved to Berlin. I wanted to do something related to Berlin or German art while I was there. Finally, I came up with my two favorite

You have described an artist as a shaman, focusing on the artist’s intermediate role between the real world and the world of imagination. I would go as far as to recognize a sociological role off the artist... do you agree with this analysis? I was there to ask you if you think that Art could play a role in facing social questions...

Art can appeal to emotions and it can be more powerful than logical persuasion. In this sense, art can be means to convey social messages, and actually, we have witnessed many artists’ social activities in art. One Korean artist said “Artist should be like shamans – should be able to make people laugh as much as shamans do and make people cry as much as shamans do”, this is what I wanted to emphasize about the role of shaman and artist. It’s more about emotional comfort.

A stills from “Shrine”

Mia Dahye Kim

A sequence of stills from “The Violent Thing”

Could you elaborate a bit the function of the Moon in "Shrine"?

sequences coexist on the screen. The three videos are shown on the screen simultaneously and they constantly interact with one another. The project is inspired by Edvard Munch’s paintings. Therefore, it is an interpretation of paintings into moving images, and it became a story of a couple focusing on the powerful emotions in Munch’s paintings.

The moon represents the feminine power of the nature. In Korea, shamans are usually women and it’s a female-dominated world. Shamanism is about the nature and its power or spirit.We believe the nature consists of two contrary powers of dark and bright, male and female, cold and hot, etc… The moon is in the pair with the sun and related to our emotions and unconciousness. Therefore, the moon is shaman and shamanism itself.

Now we would like to spend some words about another interesting artwork of yours, "A Room of One's Own", whose still can be admired by our readers in these pages. Can you tell us about your process and set up for making this work?

A feature of "Violent Things" that has impressed me is the sense of movement of still shot. Moreover I can recognize a channel of communication between the three videos...

It started with a simple idea, which was to make an intimate self-documentary video crossing the boundary between fiction and non-fiction. And I also wanted to try other mediums. It turned out to be a site-specific

The story is divided into three videos by three different time sequences and the three time 86

Mia Dahye Kim

A sequence of stills from “The Violent Thing”

You have exhibited in several countries around the world: is there an exhibition that you would like to mention in particular? And what experiences have you had exhibiting in different countries? What is the difference between exhibiting, for example, in Korea and exhibiting in Europe or in the United States?

installation project. All the events on the video happened in a room and the video was displayed in the room with texts, photos, and object installations in the final form. The room itself became a part of the work and the story was brought into the physical space out of video. The video showed fragmentary episodes of what happened in the room and other mediums indicated subtle and somehow abstract satuses of the events adding different layers to the narrative structure. It was like a crime scene with all the evidences, and audiences were invited to investigate the scene.

I find screening events easier to communicate with audiences and to get feedback directly. Because there’s usually a director’s talk session so I can directly talk to audiences. It’s always interesting to see their responses. The way they understand my work is important as the narrative I make is completed in audiences‘ imagination. The environment around me influences a lot to my work. I’m a wanderer and from some point, I get more chances to show my work out of Korea. Audiences from different culture show more

I liked the fact that private place became an open place in the site-specific concept. I was spontaneous in the process so it was interesting to watch the result. 87

Mia Dahye Kim

A still from “A Room of One’s Own”

ges. Finished works themselves are satisfaction. But I guess the biggest satisfaction comes from when people like my work and understand my intention on it. Because I want to interact with people through my work.

active responses and it’s good to know their perspectives from different background. Some works based on the culture I’m from, such as the shamanism piece, get more positive responses in the western countries. I guess people are curious about something they are not used to.

Thank you very much for this interview, Mia. What are you working on at the moment? What are your future plans?

to the artists that we interview: what aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

As a video artist, I have to think about using new digital skills but the thing is I’m more attracted to the traditional film form. These days, I’m thinking of the way to connect physical space and online space with a story as well as working on a film script. Also, I feel the necessity of theoretical research. Maybe another degree? I don’t know. I’m thinking about it now. Anyway, thank you so much for your interview. It was also a good chance to remind myself of what I have done and what I would like to do in the future. peripheral_arteries@dr.com

Getting an inspiration which thrills me, the feeling that I’m really into something, working together with good performers or actors, getting positive responses about the final form, having chances to show my works... Also, I like the fact that I’m working in a contemporary art with cinema study background. I believe my background equipped me for better understanding of moving ima88

Mia Dahye Kim

stills from “Shrine”

Guang Zhu (USA) An artist’s statement

“My practice in art and exploratory research originates from mathematician Ian Stewart’s quest to see whether there is a “mathematics of life.” As an amateur mathematician, I simplify the topic by asking and exploring the question: Is there a geometry of sensuous, artificial movements? “As an emerging artist, I use equa-tions and computer code to craft abstract creatures that are imagi-native and charismatic. Each piece of art is not only manifested from the craftsmanship of code and equations, but also helps to further progress the research on geometry and parametric equations. “By founding itself in the fields of math and art, my practice speaks of the intimacy between the abstraction of computational aesthetics and the rationale of trigonometrical equations. In doing so, it reifies my potential artist merit and recalls the origin of digital visual culture in this age of booming technology 90

Guang Zhu Guang Zhu, an Artis’st Biography “I work with mathematic equations and computer code to craft lifelike, complex movement that appears as harmonic abstract geometry. It attempts to reflect and fantasize D’Arcy Thompson’s hypothesis that life is founded on the mathematical patterns of the physical world.5 Despite their artistic merit, my works are also the results of the examinations performed for my continuing research on the history and mathematics of parametric equations discovered before the 19th century. As an emerging media artist, I hark from the Renaissance attitude of wholesomeness, where science and art progress according to the beauty that we see therein.

Website: www.guangless.com Email: bha.guang@gmail.com

“I studied at NSCAD University in Halifax, Canada, where my experimental works of sound and film were showcased on radio channels and at film festivals. In 2012, I completed my graduate study at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the Interactive Telecommunication Program (ITP), with a focus on the art of mathematical visualizations. My collaborative piece Beluga was a part of the Big Screen Presentation presented at InterActiveCorp’s (IAC’s) headquarters in New York City. I have since continued to work on my thesis project, The Parametric Courante. Its research component has grown more in-depth as its artistic outcome has become more sophisticated. I wish for all the aspects of my work to contribute and inspire the evolvement of computational aesthetics in innovative technology and the integration of mathematical concepts into digital art.

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an interview with

Guang Zhu First of all we would like to ask what defines a work of Art for a many-sidedness and versatile artist like you are.

After struggling to accept the many-sidedness of my work, only recently do I feel certain of being an artist. I realized that versatility itself is artistic and mysterious. I think this kind of art is defined by the innocence of the artist’s intention, which has been the same for artists throughout history— that sense of passion for creating that absorbs you, you can’t do or think of anything else. It defines art, for me.

Guang Zhu

(a photo of Tian W Liu)

A popular artist who focused his career on exploring the borders between Logic and Art was the Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher, as

It goes without saying that your Art has been influenced by your studies: you have recently completed your graduate study at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the Interactive Telecommunication Program.

do you like their works? And have other artists or scientists influenced your work?

I like the works of M.C. Escher and Rene Magritte. Escher desired to transcend certain aspect of mathematics in his art. Even now, typology and entropy are complex subjects for mathematicians to grasp—it must have been such a labor of love for him to internalize such topics and then externalize into visual art. There is a deep sense of mental suffering which sometimes makes me uncomfortable with Escher's work.

How in your opinion has your training informed your art production?

The NYU program has offered me a strong platform to explore my passion for mathematics and art. At first, it was a struggle to communicate with my colleagues and professors about my artistic vision; the ITP gave me a better sense of how to process my artistic visions. It is no longer just an idea of representing mathematical concepts in the forms of art. Now, I actually go back to equations and the matrix, and use them like raw sculpture materials. I am grateful that I’ve learned how to program and have been exposed to the creative engineering environment, which has allowed me to better understand my own artistic merit.

And I love the poetic yet surreal, logical aspects of Rene Magritte’s work. When studying in the ITP, I read many books by contemporary mathematician Ian Stewart, who popularized the new scientific research dimension combining biology and mathematics. It recalled on many of my own imaginations. I am a huge fan of elder scholars like J.S. Bach, Henri Poincare, and Piet Mondrian 92

Guang Zhu

Peripheral ARTeries

Beluga Mimi Yin, Guang Zhu Performers: Maddy Bullard, Lulu Soni

with code led me to imagine an aquarium filled with “equation creatures.” Then, I thought about working out a coherent “narrative” within myself as an artist, so I could mediate the “aliveness” of each equation with computer programming and some sculptural compositions.

Music: Jacques Offenbach's opera Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Act II: The Barcarolle

Now we would like to focus on your artwork “An Aquarium of Equations” that our readers can admire in these pages. Can you tell us about your process and set up for making this work?

The project is not finished yet. The “creatures” are made, supported by my paper, “A Prelude to the Parametric Courante.” I am now working on the physical aspects of exhibition.

An Aquarium of Equations started as an obsession with the cardioid equation discovered in the late 18th century. I started to research its relevant histories, mathematical meanings, and artistic applications. At the same time, I examined the cardioid function by using computer code to apply various algo-rithms and number sequences. It was a surprise to find that one function can generate infinite visualizations.

This part is a bit tough, as it is limited by funding and exhibition space. In any case, within the budget and other reality factors, I will try my best to create a sense of two environments existing in one physical space. The installation should acquaint visitors with a sense of watching ocean creatures or looking through a microscope at “living” equations.

The experience of researching and exploring 93

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By the way I would like to suggest to our readers to visit your website: there’s a another stimulating artwork of your entitled “Beluga”...

Yes! Thank you for mentioning “Beluga.” It is a beloved project created by my collaborator Mimi Yin and myself. The project was first presented in 2011 at the ICA building in New York. We hope to translate the project into a web browser, so as to reach a bigger audience, refine it, and present it again, hopefully! Do you think that nowadays there still exists a dichotomy between art and technology? By the way, do you think that Science is assimilating Art or viceversa?

I am very biased. I think that regarding to art technology is not real in the a way that pet animals are a bit odd when it comes to the concerns for the extinction of wildlife. About the assimilation between art and science, I am not sure. The question makes me nervous, to be honest.

I would go as far as to say that the more time it passes the less I can recognize concrete differences between Art and Science... what’s your point about this?

It is a hard question. I do believe that both artists and scientists have great passion for life. The way they execute their passion is ultimately different, because of their knowledge-base and intuitions. Paul Dirac once said, “If one is working from the point of view of getting beauty into one’s equation...one is on a sure line of progress.” And he was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, talking about the subjective beauty within science.... 94

Guang Zhu

Peripheral ARTeries

and physics. I believe that stand who we are and how it comes to the perception Ludwig Wittgenstein has a topic.

we do not underwe function when of art and music. lot to say on this

But for me, if something that I perceive seems beautiful, I assume that there is a logical set of laws behind it. I might not ever be able to fully understand the laws, but I endeavor, as an artist, to simulate the connection between the rational and the aesthetic, like a cinema.

Some of the most recent and popular applications of mathematics in Art involves fractals and Chaos Theory. In particular Chaos Theory was thought up in order to explain what classical physics could not. It’s an is an extremely fascinating field and I cannot forget that I spent lovely hours in reading James Gleick’s bestsellers when I attended college, years ago. This reminds me an interesting aspect of your art: the “balance between the rational and aesthetics”: what’s your point about this?

Would you believe it —I have not yet read Gleick’s books! I think it is wonderful how he has popularized the concepts of mathematics

Peripheral ARTeries

Guang Zhu

Your works have been often showcased on radio channels and at film festivals. In particular, we would like to remember the VIDA competition of art and artificial intelligence. Moreover An Acquarium of Equations has recently received the Manhattan Community Arts Fund (MCAF) 2013 grant. Feedbacks (and Awards, of course) often are capable of supporting an artist, but do you think that an award could even influence the process of an artist?

Thank you for mentioning MCAF; it is a great organization. From my own experience, I think the deliberate acknowledgment and confirmation provided by an award is what young artists need the most. When we are still in our late 20's, it is always tempting to give up art and switch to something more stable, and awards sentimentally help artists to keep working. Regarding the influence of an award on the process of a project? For me, it is very little. we’re always interested in hearing the answer to. What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

thing coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

Thank you Peripheral ARTeries for taking the interests of my work! Later this year between September to November, my installation An Aquarium of Equations will be on exhibition in Manhattan.

I love every aspect of my work. The best part is the moment when I finish designing the code for the equation and click the run button— suddenly, there are the unexpected movements in front of me!

When all the details are confirmed by the summer time, I will put an announcement on my website. It will be exciting and a little bit emotional.

Unlike some art practices, most of the time I don’t know exactly how the algorithm will turn out until that point. I change a number from 2 to 3, and I look at the result and think, “Really?!”

Website: www.guangless.com Email: bha.guang@gmail.com

Thank you for this interview, Guang. Our last question deals with your future plans: any-

An interview by peripheral_arteries@dr.com

Guang Zhu