Peripheral ARTeries Art Review - MAY 2013 by Artpress

2013 May

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.

peripheral_arteries@dr.com

In this issue

Emilia Dubicki

(USA)

“My drawings and paintings are emotional and intuitive responses to light and dark, structure, form and scale and their relationships in landscapes both real and imagined.” chinatown dealer in abstract city

Inbal Nissam

(Israel)

“My work challenges different appearances of painting. I create bodies of work that deal with fractions of collective or individual memory, trying to bring those pieces in and out of a fragile moment of awareness or forgetfulness.”

Michael Filimowicz (USA)

Open Books, The Vase Book

“Roswell Antistory composes a borderlands anti-narrative on a video game platform, depicting an anonymous runner in the American Southwest desert racing through cactus bushes and careening off an alien” Lingua Aqua

Sam Dougados

(France)

“Sam is a selfmade artist, born in 1976, living in Biarritz, South West of France. He has been materializing his feelings and emotions into art pieces for the last few years. He began by writing, then painting, then sculpting and now he focuses on land art , environmental art and installations.

Wooguru (South Korea / Germany)

Wooguru

Fusion

“This is a dance soley for dance's sake. I've been pursuing the certain pure dance since i began to dance. I just want to do what i have to do. And dancing is what it is for me. And now dancing is no longer a sort of tool for me. Dancing is my being itself. So i should constantly discipline myself for my being by my own way to dance.

Peripheral ARTeries

Petronela Semancikova

“My visual vocabulary is personal as my artworks initially reflect my private world, but my inspiration also stems from situations and obstacles where in a certain stage of life, most of people find themselves in. I have a strong personal connection with each of my works.” Knot

(Portugal)

“In my process of artistic creation I explore the relation of the photographic image with the temporality. A "time" of history, and the history of photography, in a process of reflection on the support material, the medium itself and its nature reproducible.” Picture #01

John Kokkinos (Greece - Canada)

Digital Labyrinth II

“I use a combination of various media (watercolor, stain, limestone, acrylic and rice paper) to give me a large range of expression with what appears as random results. The originality of this combination of media rises in spontaneous areas of rhythm and movement on a three dimensional surface.”

Ann-Marie Brown

(Canada)

“My portrait and figure pieces are an exploration of coming face to face with the other, of the slippery quality of memory, of my relationship to encaustic, and of that medium’s possibilities. Using encaustic (wax) and oil on canvas, I paint overlapping layers to imbue a sense of motion and texture. I appreciate the unpredictability of this process. Mistakes interrupt the intention for a piece, and allow for the initiation of a dialogue with the emerging painting.” Winter Wood

Molly Bradbury (USA)

“Transmission challenges the viewers perception of linear time, and proposes that perceived time is often plastic. As the viewer watches the piece, the frequency of familiar objects within the frame expands and contrasts, without a discernible loop beginning or end. What is assumed to be real time is distorted and stretched, through an apparent lengthening of event durations within the frame.” Transmission

2013

(Slovakia

May

Summary

Peripheral ARTeries

Emilia Dubicki

Emilia Dubicki (USA)

“Nature and outdoor settings often serve as starting points for my work. My drawings and paintings are emotional and intuitive responses to light and dark, structure, form and scale and their relationships in landscapes both real and imagined. I want to convey a flow of energy and movement in the work, at the same time seeking to reach a depth that draws the viewer to his or her own interpretation of place and feeling, a journey into an internal landscape of the spirit. “The resulting paintings are made in the studio. Compilations of memories, emotions and visuals are interpreted and expressed in the moment of painting where there is no distance between vision, feelings and the brush. I work primarily with oil and acrylic paints, charcoal, pastels, ink, pencil, and some collage on canvas, wood, and paper. “Drawing is very important and freeing to me in that it serves as a form of note taking, a way to be as specific or unspecific in capturing a thought , idea, or vision. I am represented by the following galleries: Able Fine Art, NY, NY and Seoul, South Korea Julie Heller Galleries, Provincetown, MA Fred. Giampietro, New Haven, CT Southport Galleries, Southport, CT

Chinatown Dealer in Abstract City 3, 26x 26

Emilia Dubicki

Peripheral ARTeries

Emilia Dubicki

an interview with Emilia Dubicki

(photo courtesy of the I-Park Foundation)

Hi Emilia, welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview asking you what in your opinion defines a work of art and what is the nature of your relationship with music. By the way, are you a work in silence type?

viewer, art can be anything that moves you by way of the senses, or emotionally or spiritually. Life is art: everything around us that makes us think and feel and react and create more. Music illicits all sorts of responses from the listener and,for me, it provides inspiration for making paintings and while painting the music is transportive. So one art form helps generate another and the art then is cyclical. Sometimes I work in silence but not usually. Music is a vehicle to get outside of my own thoughts, a way to silence that constant chatter in the head.

Thank you for having me on the pages of Peripheral ARTeries. What defines a work of art? I see you’re going to make me think right from the start here… I guess if the intention of the creator is to make art, then whatever he/she creates is art, at least from the creator’s point of view. As the 6

Emilia Dubicki

Peripheral ARTeries

Recent paintings on the studio work table

Brushes and paint are a good way too but the music helps to move me from the head to the soul to the canvas or paper more quickly.

sa. I hear loud Miles Davis and I visualize a Franz Kline painting: the energy, the action painting, the trumpet, all of it getting mixed together. You listen to Beethovan’s Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) and without an actual painting in front of you, you can be transported into one, transported into the countryside to take the journey with Beethovan. Beethovan said music was “thinking in sounds.” Painting then is feeling in colors, or feeling in light and form – I’m sure that’s been said more eloquently.

By the way, I'm sort of convinced that music brings a temporal aspect to paintings and paintings bring a physical aspect to music: could a symbiosis between two apparently different media give birth to a completely new kind of art, or just reveal hidden features of what we use to call "tradition"?

You look at an abstract painting by Stuart Davis and you hear the jazz. So, yes, paintings bring a physical aspect to music and vice ver-

The tradition is there. Of course there are music videos and we can think of the visuals as 7

Peripheral ARTeries

Emilia Dubicki

one big painting whether they are depicting a lyrical narrative or are more abstract in nature. Before getting in the matter of your Art production would you like to tell us something about your background? I have read that you earned a MFA in Creative Writing and Literature: I guess that it plays a role in your Art practice...

I’m interested in writing and literature, and like music, writing can be very visual, but painting, go figure, is even more visual and that seems to be my chosen method of expression. A well written poem though, is like a great painting. There’s a limited amount of space and material to pack a punch, to convey your message and/or feelings. With writing, I learned about self-editing and editing is really key. You have to go over your work and delete what’s unnecessary, put in the right details, and this applies to painting as well. If something’s not working you have to be able to let it go, but first you have to be able to recognize what’s not working and often this is where you go with your gut. I believe in stepping away. Then you go back to your piece and revisit it, see the work with fresh eyes. Now let's focus on your artworks: I would start from Chinatown Dealer in Abstract City. A visual from this piece that has impact on me is the red paint flooding downwards. Can you tell us a little about this feature?

This painting is inspired some by New York City’s Chinatown, such a stimulating place in all its activity. The red of restaurant signs and storefronts is probably what stayed with me when I was working on the painting in the studio. And then red is the pulse of life and when I’m in Chinatown, I

Emilia Dubicki

Peripheral ARTeries

feel like I’m on the pulse surrounded by so much to see, hear, smell, taste, the movement of the crowds and the traffic all create an amazing energy. I try to bring this flow of energy into my work. Can you describe your methodology when creating your abstract art? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a painting?

Walking around Chinatown was great preparation, and while I was walking I wasn’t necessarily thinking I’d make a series of paintings inspired by my walks, but an experience like this, for example, stays with me and comes out in part through the art. Everything is preperation for a painting really. It’s like we have our own personal psychic cloud storage where our emotions, our mind’s eye visuals, our soundtracks and stories all go and comingle and at certain intervals they arrange or rearrange themselves and tell you they want to be painted. Sometimes the message comes through in a persistant whisper, other times you get yelled at by what sounds like a broad swath of passionate red paint. You have stated that real -and especially natural- settings often serve as starting points for your works, which are however the result of a personal conceptual revision, as we can recognize in Black River. Does your process let you to visualize your Art before creating? Do you know what it will look like before you begin?

Nightness, 30x30

Yes, often I do see the painting before I paint it, or at least I see a general idea of the painting. It usually changes but I do mostly begin with something, even it’s just large sections of colors and shapes. The surprise of what you’ll get when you paint

Peripheral ARTeries

Emilia Dubicki

East Haddam Pond, 70x70

is what makes painting great. When you can get so into making the work that you’re not thinking, you’re just painting whatever it is you’re feeling. Black River started out with the colors of black, whites, and blues which then

formed themselves into this sort of landscape that is a combination of actual landscapes I’d experienced and a landscape of a more internal place.

Emilia Dubicki

Peripheral ARTeries

This Bird, 54x98

Another stimulating artwork of yours that our readers can admire in these pages is East Haddam Pond: as you have remarked in your artist's statement, this is a perfect compilation of memories, emotions and visuals...

Vity. And even though I'm aware that this might sound some naif, this reminds me the way Hitchcock achieved to scratch the nerves of his audience in The Birds...

I loved watching The Birds movie as a kid. It just looked so great in that black and white and it was scary and made me feel so anxious... and although I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thought of the film as having anything to do with This Bird, who knows? We store all these images and memories and feelings in that personal psychic cloud I mentioned. Maybe the bird emerged from some old mental nest. See what I mean about everything being preparation for a painting?

East Haddam Pond is inspired by an actual pond, but I painted it in the studio after days of looking at the pond in different light and weather conditions. It was a bright and clear morning when I bagan this painting but clearly that had no influence on me. I will keep the pic of "This Bird" as desktop background: I must confess that this is one of the pieces of your art production that has mostly impressed me. I love the way few brush strokes are capable of summing up a concept: not only the concept of a bird, but all its related ideas: freedom, space, vitality, and in my opinion a good deal of aggressi-

When I set out to make this painting all I was thinking was that I wanted to paint a large bird on a large canvas. The act of doing this was freeing and then like you said, the bird represents freedom. This bird is kind of mena11

Peripheral ARTeries

Emilia Dubicki

February 15, 12x12

menacing though. I guess I can’t just relax. Which brings us back to Hitchcock. Which can bring us back to Beethovan’s Pastoral symphony where you’re in the calm countryside and suddenly a storm of sound breaks out. Where a piece of music, a painting, a poem, a movie, for example, take you, especially if it’s unexpected, is why we love art -- the unknown coming from a familiar form. I want to experience that immediate rush from a reaction or sometimes it’s more of a gradual feeling that makes a slower emergence in the spirit and I welcome it over a period of time. You are represented by several galleries all around the world: from USA to Asia. What experiences have you had exhibiting in different countries? Moreover, what are in your opinion some of the challenges for a sustainable relationship between the business and arts?

My paintings have been to Japan and South Korea but I have not as yet gone there myself. I like to think of my work tra-

black river 3, 26x26

Emilia Dubicki

Peripheral ARTeries

veling to other parts of the world, even without me. It’s like releasing the paintings for others to see and I’m happy for the opportunity (could the bird be a metaphor for all of this?). You know, I just keep painting and don’t dwell too much on the business stuff. It’s a distraction to get too caught up in that. Just be true to the work, be honest with yourself. That’s the most important thing. Make good work and don’t worry about what others are doing or not doing. Oh, and self-edit. And go look at art. Just wondering if you would like to aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? And what gives you the biggest satisfaction?

I really enjoy painting and drawing and getting lost in that world of forms, structures, shapes, colors, and images that emerge. If it’s going well I am right in the moment and have hit the off button on all of the other junk that’s been running through my mind. I feel fortunate to be able to inhabit a lot of different worlds through my painting. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Emilia: my last question deals with your future plans: anything coming up for you professionally that you would like read-ers to be aware of?

Thank you for making me think...and feel. At least I felt like I was thinking. I’ll be showing paintings in Connecticut this summer and lining up another show or two for the coming year. Folks can visit my website www.emiliadubicki.com for images and information and I’m also on Facebook and You Tube. Black River 3, 26x26

peripheral_arteries@dr.com

Inbal Nissim

Peripheral ARTeries

Inbal Nissim (Israel) An artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement

My work challenges different appearances of painting. I create bodies of work that deal with fractions of collective or individual memory, trying to bring those pieces in and out of a fragile moment of awareness or forgetfulness. I am searching for foreign ways of experiencing painting, and I find them in the form of multiplicity. By treating the wall as yet another canvas, the paintings can hold varies ways of each other. Even though this action exists in the realm of painting, at the same time it destabilizes In the past few years I have developed a separate process for painting, which stands apart from my process of installing the work. Using the paintings as units for installation. The painting installation calls for a different me-thod of observation, It demands a gaze of a constant movement, that searches and wonders between the images, their content and their meaning, claiming and looking after the possibility of a visual reading. During this layered process I am moving and shifting from one place in my mind to another, I am working in the wide open space of the search. While i am drawn after the magic that one single painting can offer, I attempt to widen and expand the borders of that single painting. I invite in the dialog that can be developed between the works, Gathering the potential for one painting to carry the genetic code of the others, leaving the opportunity for them to be one, as well as separate independent paintings. (Inbal Nissim)

All is less than it is all is more, 2011

Installation of 100

Inbal Nissim

oil canvas, 40x50 cm. each

Peripheral ARTeries

Inbal Nissim

an interview with

Inbal Nissim 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?

I think that a work of art can not hold definitions. It carries the magic of contradicting all definition, and does not stay faithful to any of them. Every framing attempt will be missing, and will turn its back to the origin; to the experience and to the work itself. As for Contemporary art I think it is a product of its time, which exists and operates from and manifests the needs of this period, which I believe leans on remains, memorials, and ruins of cultural history. We are living in a techno-logically progressive society, which at the same time feels very much suspended. There is an overflow of visual information and redundant exposure to influences of mass media and archival materials. And so I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe that contemporary art has a clear agenda, instead, I see it as a residue of all these components.

Inbal Nissim (A photo by Eyal Pinkas)

process. Since I graduated 2 year ago, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve continued develo-ping this process in a daily studio practice, and created several bodies of work that are continues, focusing on different ways of experiencing painting. Moreover, in 2004 you earned a scholarship for the Academy of Fine Art in Prague: has this experience impacted on your art practice? By the way, have you found relevant differences between your native country's scenario?

You have a formal training in art and you have recently received your Master of Fine Arts from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, in Tel-Aviv. How much training has informed the way you make art nowadays? And how has your art developed since you left school?

Every opportunity to spend time in different places and work there, is wonderful. Prague was my first experience working abroad, and since then I had several chances to work in different countries. Traveling is a catalyses that has a major effect on me. Being outside of a familiar zone, disconnected from my everyday studio routine is liberating and refre-

My MFA studies are a significant part of my artistic development. The structure of the Bezalel MFA Program helped enrich and elaborate the way I think and operate. It gave me practical, as well as conceptual and mental tools to reach farther and deeper into in my 16

Inbal Nissim

Peripheral ARTeries

Open Books, 2013 Painting Installation, Oil on Canvas and Ink on Paper

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?

shing. When I was in Prague I joined the monumental sculpture department (which is funny, being a painter). There was a great group of artists and wonderful professors in that academy. Nevertheless I was painting

There is a fine thread that escorts me from one body of work to the other, and I continuously strive to elaborate and refine it. Ideas, thoughts, meanings, and images are traveling, moving and shifting from one place to another in my work. There is an echoing repetition that interests me, as I develop and enrich images, ideas, and concepts.

of the monumental artistic sculpture only exists on paper... Most recently I participated in a residence program called AFFECT at Agora Collective Berlin. The residency revolved around collaboration in practice. There were 5 more artists and we shared one working space. It was very much about researching and expe-riencing different methods and opportunities for artistic collaboration.

In the beginning of a process , I know only vaguely what will happen, my starting point is to follow an idea or an essence that possessed me and work with it in a relatively random way. After being invested in these materials for some time, the specific potential is revealed, allowing me to work towards a whole

This was a wonderful opportunity to not only change scenario, but also my studio practice. 17

Peripheral ARTeries

Inbal Nissim

All is Less Than it is All is More, 2011 - detail

ensemble on my way to my intentionality. This process encompasses awareness and intuition that are functioning simultaneously, and I think that both are present in the work as well as in the process when they are accumulating layers of information. I have no special interest in technicalities, sometimes I just want to eat my oil paints... I work in oil on canvas and recently ink and acrylic on paper - I like the idea of being loyal to those traditional means when trying to extend the borders of painting.

All is Less Than it is All is More, 2011, painting installa

per, flying in an unrecognized space. This work took over me like a storm. It progressed very fast and was unusual to the way I have painted before. The project developed out of a previous series titled Setting Tables, which dealt with the emergence of physical studio materials that were reflective of the metaphysical materials of the creative act. The paper came back each time in several appearances. I fell in love with its simplicity and the baggage of meaning that it claimed, and so decided to work and focus only in and with this image. All is Less Than it is All is

Now we would like to focus on the artworks that our readers can admire in the pages of this issue. Let's start from "All is less than it is all is more". Could you take us through your creative process when starting this project?

All is Less Than it is All is More is a painting installation assembled of 100 oil on canvas paintings, identical in size (40x50 cm.) They all describe the movement of a white sheet of pa18

Inbal Nissim

Peripheral ARTeries

Less Than it is All is More carries the opportunity to â&#x20AC;&#x153;shape shiftâ&#x20AC;? and transform its essential spirit from one space to another .

All is Less Than it is All is More, 2011 - detail

In the featured installation there is representation of movement and repetition, an experience of dismantling and trail of reconstructing - a reflection of disability, an

More had several stages of development. The process was fascinating and intense, more and more canvases were crowding in the small studio, and the idea got extremely expended - it was overflowing. In early stage of the process it became clear to me that I am dealing with a major event of multiplicity; multiplicity of options, possibilities, and wishes. The final installation of 100 oil on canvas paintings was deciphered around the first exhibition of this work. Of course this was one of many different possible installations; All is

Setting Tables, 2010, 60x50, Oil on canvas

Peripheral ARTeries

Inbal Nissim

Open Books, 2013 - detail Painting Installation, Oil on Canvas and Ink on Paper

tempt to extract something vague out of a deep silent memory. The work has been installed twice in different architectural spaces and each time fulfilled and embodied itself again with a new assem-bling of painting. I hope to have the opportu-nity to continue implementing the endlessness of this work allowing the flexibility of the work and its search after a new life. Another series of yours that I have found very stimulating is your recent series entitled Open Books: it goes without saying that there's a clear continuity with "All is less than it is all is more"... By the way, even though this might sound as a naif question, all the pages of the books that you have painted show paintings: this suggests me a meta-art concept and reminds me some of Magritte's pieces...

Open Books, 2013 - detail Painting Installation, Oil on Canvas and Ink on Paper

kinds of moments; widely open, about to be closed, frozen in a flipping pose. Inside the books there are elements such as an upside down bowl, a bowl as a hole, black holes, interior with a snake coming throw , an altar for unclear something, an eye looking at the viewer, and especially vases.

It is true that in a way Open Books series is a natural development of All is Less Than it is All is More, the sheets of paper formed into books and the movement of the paper transformed to motion of flipping pages. In Open Books the paintings are much more concrete, they involve more elements and things are happening inside the paintings. The installation is consistent of open books in all

The vase is an ancient form, with deep relations to archaeology and art history, a containing element that can easily be cracked or shattered. I think of it as a hidden black hole for a mystery and for all that has been forgotten or wanted to be forgotten. The whole event of flipping pages is a frozen moment of 20

Inbal Nissim

Peripheral ARTeries

And so it Entered - from The Blind Mentor Series 2012- 100x80- Ink and acrylic on paper

The work on this series was a concentrated process. I was working with elements and images that were occupying me during that year. I wanted to process them freely and intuitively without thinking, just painting, and so I used ink and acrylic on paper. That enabled me the immediate spontaneity I needed. The interiors and the existence of an open space in the paintings was something that I was long in-

something on the verge of disappearance. I like your concept of meta art in relation to this work. I see it as a situation of an eye observing an eye, a dialog over a dialog. And we couldn't do without mentioning your series The Blind Mentor. The paintings are definetly more colorful and while in the aforesaid series your pieces seems to claim space, here space has been absorbed by the paintings themselves... moreover there's a recurrent sense of motion: what was your inner inspiration for these series? The Three of Us from The Blind Mentor Series

The Blind Mentor series was made in one month during the AFFECT residence program

2012- 70x50- Ink on paper

Peripheral ARTeries

Inbal Nissim

interested in. Since my paintings generally describe the thing itself, very close to the surface of the canvas, they usually isolate something and present it as the major focus. Here I wanted to widen my perspective of observation and open the space - it is something I continue doing today in my studio; thinking about zooming in and out of the same event. In your artist's statement you have remarked that your paintings can hold varies ways of communication between themselves: they echo each other. This is a very stimulating concept: could you elaborate it a bit for our readers?

When I talk about echo in relation to my work, I mean to describe a feeling analogical to a whisper that bounces back after a shout. It is a tail, it lasts longer, it repeats. When I work on a process of what is going to be a painting installation, I develop the paintings as singular pieces that concern each other. They emerge together, within the relations that I conduct between them. The paintings all surround me in the studio. I allow each painting its own rhythm and stage of development, as I look to create a community of paintings. During this process of work all kinds of different possibilities for dialog, connection, and communication between the works can open up... I think of this potential as another essence of endlessness. By the way, do you think that there's a similar channel of communication between works that are conceived in the same time?

Most definitely yes, and at the same time no. In the overall essence of a process, I would say definitely yes. The channel of communication is similar and I try to keep it and bring it closer to itself. At the same time, during the process of painting the channel of communication turns and splits. I am searching the difference, the unusual in the similarity of the general, and try to save and encourage it.

Tears , 2011, Painting Instalation, Oil on Canvas

Inbal Nissim

Peripheral ARTeries

Mirage, 2012, 38x28, Ink and Acrylic on Paper

Just wondering if you would like to answer to a cliche 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? Well, actually ain't that cliche...

I think that is a wonderful question. The biggest pleasure for me is work itself. Painting, arriving the studio every day, diving in the adventure, taking it with me in my head back home, and coming back to that arena the next day again. The most satisfying part is to install the work in a different space, detached from the studio, fulfilling independent life in front of other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyes. Thanks a lot for your time and your thoughts, Inbal: 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?

Thank you for your questions! I am currently working on a new body of work, large canvases on which I am composing architectural spaces of painting installations. I also started a collaboration with the photographer Oran Hoffmann It will be a dual project that we hope to exhibit www.inbalnissim.com at the end of the year. (Photos of Inbal Nissimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s artworks by Eyal Pinkas)

Micheal Filimowicz

Micheal Filimowicz (USA)

Michael Filimowicz is a multidisciplinary artist working in the areas of interactive media, experimental video, sound art, creative writing and public art.

Stills from Stepping on Light

He is also founder of Cinesonika, the annual international festival and conference of sound design. He teaches at the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. 24

Michael Filimowicz

Roswell Antistory composes a borderlands anti-narrative on a video game platform, depicting an anonymous runner in the American Southwest desert racing through cactus bushes and careening off an alien, who eventually teleports out of the scene, taking the giant maracas in the process, which rattle bounce and shake and at times halt the progress of the runner, giving the interactor something to do. After the severe loneliness of the desert runner becomes unbearable, the interactor can click on the runner to return to the beginning, if that indeed is where things began.

Micheal Filimowicz

An interview with

Michael Filimowicz

Can you tell our readers a little about your background? Please tell us something about your evolution as an artist and what has lead you to become the artist you are today.

My earliest creative ambitions were related to writing, and so my first university studies were in literature and philosophy. But during that time I was gravitating toward visual forms such as video and drawing, so I had a brief engagement in grad school with architecture and design before eventually fully migrating to sound and film, which was my focus at the School oft he Art Institute of Chicago, where I got my MFA. After that I spent 5 years in documentary production, mixing docs full-time during that period, & from which I migrated into academia, which allowed me to expand my creative horizons beyond sound design and documentary. Throughout this period and of course up to the present I continued to develop my writing skills and the kinds of writing I do, so that to date Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve published poetry and fiction, including some science 26

Micheal Filimowicz

fiction, but also creative nonfiction, essay and in the last few years peer reviewed academic writing. I find that writing helps me unify, conceptually at least, all of my explorations across the various mediat that I work in.

phic rather than photographic sensibility. So ironically it is my interest in games that is restoring my interest in analog production, namely drawing. Which artists -if any- have been major influences on you?

An adjective that could sum up in a single word your art is "kaleidoscopic": your art practice ranges from video to sound, from public art to photography. In particular, digital editing seems to play a prominent role in the way you produce your pieces: by the way, I was wondering if you also work with traditional analog media...

It would vary by the medium, since I work across various forms of mediation. Often it is artists or works that are cross-modal in some way that have had an impact, for example Toru Takemitsu’s film music and sound design has deeply affected my sensibility in audiovisual media. Xenakis visual scores (his UPIC system) or works like the Philips Pavillion (the Varese/LeCorbusier collabora-tion across architecture and electronic music), or actually sitting through the entire Ring Cycle have been influential . Writers have had a major impact, such as Borges, or poets like Ted Hughes and Joseph Brodsky. In film, it would probably be Tarkovsky and Stan Brakhage. But like anyone probably it is more the case that hundreds of artists have had untraceable

It’s true that my work pretty much centers in many ways on the personal computer. Down in the Dock at the bottom of the screen are all these great applications that do everything— animation, games, video, sound, writing, programming, interactivity etc. Years ago I used to draw a lot and I have been wanting to return to drawing for some time. Especially as I am now exploring gaming platforms, I have a reason to draw again because many video games have more of a gra27

Micheal Filimowicz

fiction and have taught this genre as well, and I visited Roswell a couple years ago and the UFO museum there. Right now in the U.S. there is a political moment where there may be some major reforms made to immigration law, since the last presidential election has shown Republicans that they will not be winning many future elections if they continue with their usual anti-immigrant rants and stances, central to which is the image of the Ultimate Fortified Wall built to withstand all Mexican traversers. So this artwork plays on this â&#x20AC;&#x17E;complexâ&#x20AC;&#x153; that is both real and virtual, mixing the desert fantasia of alien visitation with the figure of a person making a run across the border lines.

micro-influences on me that I am not quite aware of. Now let's focus on Roswell Antistory: I would suggest to our reader to jump to http://filimowicz.com/uploads/Misc/Roswell_Antist ory.zip and have a more concrete idea of your artwork... in the meanwhile, could you take us through your creative process when starting this project?

I have a long-standing interest in the American Southwest, the desert border areas of the U.S., both as an actual landscape through which I have taken several road trips as a photographer, but also as a popular cultural zone of mythemes. I have published some science 28

Micheal Filimowicz

as narrative, but usually this discourse is focused on highly normative and traditional notions of narrative (e.g. the story arc, Aristotle, Campbell, media convergence etc.). Current and future work of mine is exploring the use of video game platforms to explore anti-story.

The affinities between photography and architecture are at their most focused in the imagery of windows and their close cousins (mirrors, reflective panes, opaque and translucent panels). Every photographic frame is a building in miniature, with its vertical "walls" and horizontal (and metaphorical) "ceiling and floor." A walk down a street with a camera involves resisting and (eventually) giving in to these ready-made images which announce themselves to the photographer's eye. Windows are like photos that demand to be taken, with an insistance like a whisper, "We are already photographs anyway – just do it already – take us with you."

Another work of yours that we can't do without mentioning and that has impressed me is "Stepping on the Light": our readers can view some stills of it but, again, I would suggest our readers to watch it directly at http://spatula.ca/sotl/pg.php?s=index. This piece explores the creative potentials of portable digital devices...

And I envision the border area as a space between two walls, which could be understood as the banks oft he Rio Grande but also the division in the psyche which is this American Fantasy of the Totally Secured Border. A complex is not quite a logic (and thus not exactly a narrative), it is an agglutination of affective symbols that subsequently generates various mythos. So I identify the strategy of this artwork with what in literary theory has been called anti-story, using the trappings of narrative but subverting their usual functions. Much of course has been written about games

I don’t think an artwork always needs to involve a long and protracted production process, of course sometimes we should dive deep into craft and produce elaborate works but just as importantly is to create quickly, almost as quick as an idea comes and goes, to produce lightly and fast, on the cheap and on the go. Our miniaturized and mobile devices now carry extraordinary media pro29

Micheal Filimowicz

Chicago in 2007. By chance, she happens to be a neighbor of mine now, living just two blocks away, a wild coincidence. Melanie is a very established art director and sculptor in the film industry here in Vancouver, but she also has a fine art background as well, and has made films and exhibited kinetic, holographic and other sculptural work.

duction capabilities, you can pack a complete film studio in your back pocket nowadays, which means the whole gamut of audiovisual or motion-visual media has attained a status historically accorded to pencil and sketch pad. You have been involved in public art projects, like Lingua Aqua. You have established a fruitful collaboration with Melanie Cassidy and Philippe Pasquier: could you tell us something about this effective synergy?

Philippe joined the faculty at SIAT (School of Interactive Arts and Technology) shortly after I did, and he and I are basically the two faculty members with the strongest interest in sound design, so there was a natural synergy there as well. We come to sound from very different places, though. His background is artificial intelligence, which of course is very far removed from my background in poetics, film

I met Melanie in grad school in the mid-90s (Art Institute of Chicago). She is Canadian and after school she moved to Vancouver, and fortuitously I ended up accepting a full-time faculty position at Simon Fraser University, so after a five year hiatus in our friendship, we re-connected after I moved to Vancouver from 30

Micheal Filimowicz

that we want from it, it may no longer be about the network per se so much as about colocation in general. If look at the online ecosystem, we are stricken by an enormously great number of web services that present works which are accessible for immediate feedback on a wide scale and attract massive attention. Their authors rarely claim them being the works of art or seek a legitimacy from the artworld, even they often act anonymously... maybe that the challenge could be to rethink individual authorship so that it is no longer synonymous with capitalism but rather with what Guattari calls ‘resingularisation’, an individual or collective struggle against homogenisation of institutional domains... what's your take about this?

and philosophy, so any collaboration between us can’t help but be complementary, since these two areas have so little overlap.

A premise of systems theory is that there are no pure or stray isolates, at some point anything that escapse some system simply gets captured by another system. So any re-singularisation will most likely intersect with multiple systemic contexts at once, each of which can claim the supposed singularity simultaneously in some capacity or function. An older concept related to this is William James’ notion of “eachness.” I think the sociotechno shift that’s occuring now is essentially a shift from the old notion of there being “gate

What is your take on the impact of networked technologies on aesthetics of collaborative practices?

So far networked technologies haven’t attained the level of immersion, transparency or immediacy that most other media can enjoy almost automatically by default (unless the media work happens to strategize against this). With delays, connectivity or resolution issues, the aesthetic response or comportment we are aksed to take in networked collaboration seems to be toward noise and glitch of course but perhaps more importantly toward a kind of extended patience in the audience reception, or a laboratorial detachment. Too often networked means not-worked or not working in comparison to a desired futural state of the technology, at which point perhaps we will start calling it “multi-space” or “transterritorial” or some-thing, because once the network eventually attains the full immediacy 31

Micheal Filimowicz

famous cybernetic organism who modifies itself as it modifies its world that has modified it, in overlapping loops. So I would say that if you want to re-singularise, you probably also want to recontextualize your resingularisation! Build your nest, which will change you….

keepers” of some kind (let’s say, the critical intelligensia, which bestows legitimacy on works, individuals or practices, who creators in some sense produce for, in a closed economy of insiders, as Bourdieu analyzed in Distinction) and a mode that I will just call “tribal” which is about simply building your constituency, your “fan base” etc. So now, for example, instead of “literature” being a triadic structure composed of author, audience, and a publisher who thinks they can make money by finding an audience for the author, there is just the direct appeal to finding an audience by a producer, and the prestige of gate keeping is disappearing. But this gate keeping is identical to the whole notion of criticism itself! The Experts who know– through their deep knowledge and training and gate-kept peer reviewed writing– what is Best, are no longer important in the chain of production and consumption, or at least, they have no functional role to play. In short, the Gate Keepers are now, or may as well be, Bystanders instead. Web 2.0 is a cancellation of criticism as well as the middle-man distributor, and essentially Anything is Good if it is Liked By Many. That’s the cultural space we are transitioning into I believe, and it is both entrepreneurial and tribal at the same time. So independent producers can commodify themselves (become a brand of Self) in the capitalist mode, and if they do not, what other system captures them instead? That’s the question. My guess as to what a solution might be is to imagine that we, let us say, a kind of Isolate (a singular “each”) can to some extent fashion for ourselves an environmental envelope of some sort. After all, we are not beings in the world—we are beings in a world on the earth. Organisms modify their local environment as they inhabit it, so between each of us and the cold hard universe is a domain of modified existence, the

We have read that your work have been exhibited all around the world: is there a particular exhibition that has impressed you and that you would like to mention?

Probably most significant in terms of scale and impact was SIGGRAPH 2010, just the fact that the Art Gallery featured only about a dozen works in the Los Angeles Convention Centre with over 20,000 attendees was extraordinary. Spending a whole week near our artwork Cursor Caressor Eraser (a colla32

Micheal Filimowicz

required CV maintenance of listing it as a line item.

boration with Melanie Cassidy again and Andres Wanner) with visitor after visitor interacting with it was terrific.

Thanks for your time and your thoughts, Micheal. Our last question deals with your future plans: what direction are you moving in creatively?

By the way, your works have been often awarded: we would like to remember that your work has been awarded as Best Experimental Film at the Indie Talent Awards in Los Angeles. Feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist, but do you think that an award could even influence the process of an artist?

It’s been pointed out to me recently that many graduates of architecture schools these days are finding employment in the video game industry, since for many years now the starting wages of architects have been abysmal, with most who do find employment relegated to CAD duties. As a former architecture school drop-out myself, I am finding a re-engagement with three dimensional space coming back into my work through game engines, animation and virtual worlds generally. So that is where a lot of my work will probably gravitate to in the next few years. Also, thanks for the opportunity of this inteview!

My promise to myself is that if I feel that something like my “reputation” interferes at all with my creativity or ideas in some way, I will just produce what I want anyway but under a pseudonym. As an academic one has to constantly attend to one’s CV, it’s like a garden that needs weeding and planting on a regular basis, and I am a terrible gardener actually. I am appreciative of an award but I try to forget about it after the professionally 33

Peripheral ARTeries

Sam Dougados

Sam Dougados (France)

Sam is a selfmade artist, born in 1976, living in Biarritz, South West of France. He has been materializing his feelings and emotions into art pieces for the last few years. He began by writing, then painting, then sculpting and now he focuses on land art (beach art), environmental art and installations. When he lost his last job a couple of years ago, he decided to do only what he loves, work for himself, create and express himself in his art work! His influences come from pop art, contemporary art, street art and Mo-ther Nature herself. Most of his work takes its sense and meaning from the outdoors, he installs his work in nature and nature into his work. He likes when nature and art interact together as can be seen in the sculpture "I NEED" where the reflection of the water is as much part of the piece as the installation itself.

Today he focuses on beach art, a kind of graffiti created at low tide on beaches around the world. This work is double as he takes photos of the beach art. Using the different aspects of photography he gives a specific atmosphere, a more poetical reading to the piece.

Most of his artwork lives with its surrounding and may completely disappear with time, this ephemeral aspect increases the way we care about it.

He also works on sculptures, which are mostly installed outside. 34

Sam Dougados

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Le Tunnel, 3x2,5x2m Wood and acrylic

Fusion

Find more Samâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s artworks at www.sam-dougados.com

Rambarde 35

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Sam Dougados

An interview with

Sam Dougados Hi Sam, we would start this interview with our usual ice breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of 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 guess what is important to define it is the approach. Doing a draw or a painting for fun because we like that is different, I think to do it after reflexion, research and with a global artistic approach. Generally we know it ourself and it's not easy to feel and claim truly that we are an artist.

Yes, I'm a self taught artist, I did some commercial and marketing studies because it was a more open way and my dad worked in that kind of job. My parents used to buy some paintings, my dad opened a photo club in the compagny he worked for, they listened to a lot of music, my mum created her dresses, was an excellent cooker and I was curious enough about all that. When I was 12, they had a big accident and my father stayed handicaped for life, loosing and learning again all the human basis and senses like walking, speaking, breathing, tasting...

A work of art is made with truth, passion, time in a global approach. Please tell us something about your background and how it has informed the way you produce art nowadays: as far as I have read in your bio you are a self taught artist...

Sam Dougados

Peripheral ARTeries

To art even if it was not an easy way. It was like an hidden evidence for me you see clearly when you are free of everything! If I had known it before, I would have done art studies for sure to bring me skills, knowledge I'm learning by myself now. Art school and art diploma are a key to open some heavy doors like art instituations, galleries like if you were better from an art school! I think art school teach you how to create more with your brain and when you're a self taught artist, you probably create more with your heart! Both are importante but formal training may influence your creativity, inspiration more on an intellectual way at the expense of feelings!

Under the Lightning

He fought a lot to not only stay in life but have a descent one with many kind of pleasures, the kind of ones we forget easily and don't see in our fast life. I think, years after, that all this past increased and developed a lot my sensibility, my taste for nature and life in general. I started to write poems when I was a teenage, adult I tryed to paint, then sculpt; that was a way to materialize my emotions and curiosity; I did it naturally and the positive feedback encourage me to continue. I presented some sculptures for a first collective show in Spacejunk Gallery in 2006 and in 2008, when I lost my last job (and girlfriend at the same time), I decided to think for myself, do what I wanted, make me pleasure and involved me 100% in-

Pac Man

Peripheral ARTeries

Sam Dougados

Prendre le temps

Before starting to focus on your artworks, I would like that you tell us something about your creative process and especially about your set up for making your works. By the way, do you visualize your works before creating? Do you know what it will look like before you begin?

Speaking about the beach art, the sand drawing are offen improvised. I come on the beach and let the inspiration coming. Sometimes I had specific ideas but because of the sand banks, puddles, I couldn't draw them as I wanted so I did something else and also using them on my draw as the photos Empreintes Digitales or Playground for example. When I start, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t visualize the entire work even if i did a sketch on the sand before. I'm looking for a global harmony so I can add lines or draw until I'm satisfied.

Code Barre

sent one third to half of my artworks on the beach.For the environmental art and installations, it's thought before except for some cellular concrete sculptures. Now let's concentrate on your works: I would start form "Code Barre", that I find very stimulating for the synergy between Nature and the "Man Made World"... what was your initial inspiration?

When it's a sentence, it's more easy more evident and they are generally thought before coming on the beach. I also have a sketch book where I write my ideas which may repre-

My beach art work could be compared to street art by using a common place, easy access and 38

Sam Dougados

Peripheral ARTeries

So my draw was to make people, bather think about that, this freedom or the eventually business of the nature, of a common good. By the way, I would go as far as to state that there's social criticism in it and moreover I can recognize a subtle irony... Do you agree with this or is it just an impression?

It's exactly that as I explained, put the beach saleable, in promotion to show the risk of our society where everything is almost buyable. Few month ago we heard about a big chinese business man who sold (or gave, I don't remember) some can of fresh air because the one of big cities is so much polluted you can't breath it without risk! An artist friend from Biarritz, living now in Berlin, The Wa, did a towel parking in the same idea on the beach next the one I use and I “answered” him the next day with the quotes dedicated to surfers“Promotion de Noel, -20% sur les vagues de moins de 1m” (Christmas sold, -20% on waves less than 1m high).

understanding. I quickly saw the power of my art to express, diffuse an idea, a concept which can be saw by thousand of people in few hours during the summer. The bar code is the iconic design of our commercial world and a beach is probably the iconic place for freedom. It shouldn't be owned for business but there is private beaches, hopefully not here on the bask coast but on the Cote d'Azur (Cannes, St Tropez etc) it's really common and there is only 1 or 2m free to let people walk!

L’homme racines

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Sam Dougados

Your pieces are intrinsically ephemeral, and remind me ancient Mandala Sands... so I would compare them to living organisms, which interacts with the environment: the wind caresses and strikes them, they react modifying themselves as any other organism... do you agree with this analysis... or is it too much weird?

My natural “canvas” is living, organic; it changes everyday. It's very different to work outside with the environement than in your studio where everything is always the same, the light doesn't change. In general I look for this interaction between my art and the nature and my art and the public. You give more attention to something wich doesn't last, you appreciate a flower or a butterfly also because they don't live long time and the the programmed death of this work is a part of it wich people are very aware of. I wrote a quote of Robert Doisneau who said that the beauty, to be emotional, needs to be ephemeral; it fited well with the beach art. I also don't have limits except the time to work but I don't have a frame, no border, it's very interesting in your creative process and of course, all that interacts with your work. It's also a reason why sometimes it doesn't work, you are not inspired, the light is bad, you don't find the good angle for the photo etc..

?Cube

Actually I also work on sculpture using salt. So the piece is living, changing depending the weather (dry or humid) and the owner of the piece will have the choice to keep it like that or put it outside, into the environnement and let it live and “die” to discover the message of this ring he won't know before.

The wind, the light, all that also interacts with me! When you are alone on winter, smeling the sea, hearing the birds and the waves, tasting the salted fog… you feel alive, aware about YOU, organism living and acting in close relation with mother Earth! It could be a very sensational experience when all that magic works. For my installations, I also try to to find an interactivity like with the sculpture I NEED wich can't exist, take sens without its reflexion on the water.

It's also a question about the link we have with the nature, who we use it, respect it and our power on life. It goes without saying that your artworks are

Sam Dougados

Peripheral ARTeries

Point Virgule 60 x 25 cm, beton cellulaire, acryl

when you can stay alone compare to summer when there is thousand of people around you. The fall or winter is better for the light, the wider space free of people and the photos may be easier to take. In summer you can touch a large audience, you can use the people into your composition, the interactivity works better and ther is always someone who come to ask you some question wich is also nice cause you see directly how it works, how you touch people. strictly connected to the chance to create a deep interaction, since rather than modify the space, your artworks are the space in which your audience, a large number of people, enjoy your pieces: so, how important is the role of your audience for your artworks? When you conceive a piece, do you happen to think to whom will enjoy it?

Sometime they applaud from the top, most of them are respectfull but other walk on your draw as if you weren't there and when you leave, you give your artwork to them and you try to catch something interesting on photo. So the artwork live a second time, sometimes a kid will play with it, dance inside, sometimes people run and follow your lines. You never know what to expect, it's never the same but generally, they like my work and make me know it which is a satisfaction; I take pleasure to giving some! It's a virtuous circle.

As I explain before, this art work is in 2 parts: first on the beach, free, ephemeral, then the photo, its work and edition. I practice beach art in every season so it's pretty different in winter 41

Peripheral ARTeries

Sam Dougados

We have read in your bio that you have been recently awarded at the first Mymemory world beach art championnship in Jersey. Is there a particular exhibition (we would better say "performance" or "location") that has impressed you and that you would like to mention?

This championship was a great opportunity for me to meet other beach artists, We are do not do it that regulary around the world but I discover some more and more. Each of us has his style, sometimes I can hear, this not art, he doesn't invent anything. Of course I din't invent that, we all already wrote on the beach something when we were young. This is a technique as painting is, I discover it on a surf video but each of us express himself with his own style. We all had a different approach of it in Jersey and that day the jury who was composed by artists liked the way I used the space very widely and gave me the price but I'm not better than the others. What has impressed me is how quikly this art touch people and allowed me to travel for. My goal is to find some beautifull locations around the world to let an ephemeral â&#x20AC;&#x153;artprintsâ&#x20AC;?, and share them in nice photos or book. Even though this might sound a bit naive, I have to admit that there's a part of me that envies your art practice. Spending time in lovely places while working to one's art must be great, so it's hard to

I need The other big satisfaction is to travel for, to be invited in beautiful places to do what I love, to discover new country, people and share this art with them.

we're always interested in hearing the answer to: what aspects of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

Thank you for this interview, Sam: nothing left to say than asking you about your future plans: what's next for you? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

My biggest satisfaction is to be able to live with my art, defenitly and actually, beach art is the main part of it. I'm very thanksfull to the people who buy my photos and let me follow my dreams!

I'm waiting for a (positive) answer to go in Quebec in small north island to rake their beau-

Sam Dougados

Peripheral ARTeries

Tamaris People

tiful beaches, I will participate to an environmental art festival, Sculpt' En Sologne this summer with an installation on a lac and an other one, Vagabond'art, between Lyon and Geneve. I waiting for foreign galleries answer to have show with them and will try to make a road trip along the coast to Portugal with my rakeâ&#x20AC;Ś and my surf! Thank you for your interview Obvious Ring

peripheral_arteries@dr.com

Peripheral ARTeries

Wooguru

Wooguru (South Korea / Germany)

This is a dance soley for dance's sake. I've been pursuing the certain pure dance since i began to dance. I just want to do what i have to do. And dancing is what it is for me. And now dancing is no longer a sort of tool for me. Dancing is my being itself. So i should constantly discipline myself for my being by my own way to dance. Therefore what i want to express is always only one. The will for the complete immersion for my being, this is my dance.

Wooguru

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Wooguru: a biography 2013 HomeBase Build in Berlin _residency choice (partnering with Month of Performance Art in Berlin) homebaseproject.org/ 2012 Stigmart/10 one of selected 10 artists by world wide open call stigmart.weebly.com/ 2013 PLATOON BERLIN collaborating for 'salon art and tech) and my own performance. Platoon.org 2013 Dimanche Rouge in Paris - selected for experimental art dimancherouge.org/ 2012 Movement research in New York A.I.R choice -but it was canceled because of new york address. sarahholcman@movementresearch.org 2012 Medea Electronique in Athens 'wooguru free dance' medeaelectronique.com/ 2011 MAP choice _MAP _artistic creation incubating system of_Seoul foundation art and culture 2011 Chuncheon international mime festival DOKKEBI Award Finalist â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;be terrifiedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; showing selected 2013 Muzej Pokreta_movement museum muzej-pokreta.org/mup/ 2013 SWITCH for moving image in dublin s-wi-t-c-h.org/ 2012 international streaming festival in Hauge in NL streamingfestival.com/ Other 2007-2010 worked as a freelance designer, Collaborations with ADIDAS, FUBU, SKONO, Eco party mearry and more 2008 BA Hangyang university, Clothing and Textile 2007 began to dance

Wooguru

Peripheral ARTeries

an interview with

Wooguru Hello Wooguru, a warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: first of all we would like to ask you something about your background and what has lead you to become the dancer you are today.

Thanks Peripheral ARTeries for inviting. It’s honor for me. Before I became a dancer, I was a fashion designer and educated about clothing and textile. But one day, I thought that I wanted to express more essencial things in my mind without any materials. So I began to dance on the street since late winter in 2007. Because dancing is always the most precious thing for me. And there are some blurred but definite images in my mind. So I decided to try to actualize these things. And I wished that’s the right way to approach my essence. And I never regret my decision. Can you describe your relationship with dance? What attracts you to it? What’s the underlying philosophy?

Dancing is my own way to discipline myself for the complet immersion. All I want to express is my being itself. So I have to make an effort to be the one who I want to be. And I want to be strong mentally and physically. So I don’t dance for my emotions and self-pity. Those are just shells around me. Therefore I concentrate on training my body itself instead of the invisible shells. Have you been influenced in your way of working by your experience with other choreographers?

Actually, I never have worked with other choreographers. Because I never have experienced with all kinds of formal education for dance. 46

Wooguru

Peripheral ARTeries

Do you think dancers find their work interesting because it engages their brains, their imagination, not just their bodies?

Honestly, It’s hard to tell to me... It totally depends on each individual. We all got our own way to creat something. Do you have a background in music?

Yes. I got pretty complicated background about music. First, my mother was a professor of the piano music. And she wanted me to be a cellist. So I’ve been trained cello for 5 years in my teenage years. But I always felt difficult to keep time. After quitting the cello, I was queer for playing guitar. And when I was 21, I sold my cello then got a Tae-pyungso(korean tradition horn) without my parents knowing. I seriously wanted to be a rock star like Jimi hendrix. But like any other boy, I just wanted to believe that I was a hidden genius. hhhhhhhhhaaaa Is rhythmic quality important to you?

No, and actually I do think all sound caused by my movement is not music. So I think “Is SOUND quality important to you?” , it would be better question for me. And I want to tell you why I make that sound while dancing and what it means to me. First of all, dancing is the most free form for me. So I had to set me totally free from the outside world. So I began it from only my body without any sound and music. Then naturally some sound arised from my movement. Then I amplified that sound to focus more on my dancing. So that sound is a reflection of my improvised will to the complete immersion. So It’s important for me as another core to complete my dancing moment. Therefore I care the sound quality and try to find more suitable sound by collaborating with other noise musicians. 47

Peripheral ARTeries

Wooguru

Can you describe the process you go through when you’re developing the choreography for a show?

I wish to be free from being conscious of my dancing self. So I always train my every movement what could be a single dancing sequence. But actually for now, I got only one work. So I am now working with 4 other projects to extend my dancing territory. Choreography, in a way, is such an act of courage and self-confidence. Where does that come from?

Well, I am not sure about that. At least I never needed to do something special for dancing. I just follow my instinct. Is there a particular exhibition that has impressed you and that you would like to mention? By the way, I would like to suggest to our readers to watch to your interesting videos that we have linked in these pages... In particular I like your recent performance in Berlin at Madame Claude...

First, Thank you so much your kind interestment. And I prefer experiencing a kind of experiment about showing space such as Platoon Berlin. Maybe it’s one of the most experimental place in berlin. Of course they are so serious but joyful. aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

I love dancing the most. so I always appreciate that I can still move like this. And actually I am so boring person. There is nothing special for me. I just like to practice everyday to develop my movement over and over. Even after the show, I couldn‘t feel something special. But I like a calm state of mind. 48

Wooguru

Peripheral ARTeries

Than for this interview, Wooguru: maybe that the most important question now is: what projects of yours can we look forward to in 2013?

1_invisible drawing : grey area –it’s about relationship between dancing and drawing. I am working with one painter (christine cheung) and 2 other femal dancers. 24th april to 4th may. 2_salon revolution combining art and tech. First one was in 16th march with a composer (tatsuru arai) and a dancer (elisa pluta). And second will be in September or October in 2013. 3_ HB festival(Home Base Build in Berlin residency) 6,7th July. 4_MPA event (month of performance art in Berlin) 21th may. 5_AV format 16th May 6_project space ‘II II // I’ around August And 7_my own performance at Platoon Berlin – everything that I do is for this performance. It will be around November or December in 2013 with ‘lifeloop’(noise musician). And I am looking for a suitable engineer for my flexible lighting system. And maybe some events will be added. So please check continuously my facebook-! http://facebook.com/wooguru

peripheral_arteries@dr.com

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Petronela Semancikova

(Slovakia)

An artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have been exposed to various types of media, mostly digital. I have always enjoyed the variety and different possibilities of expression, but in the end, I felt the need to dig and find my preferred material. During my personal exploration I fell for textiles. I believe working with this medium fulfills me visually as well as in the form of experience. My visual vocabulary is personal as my artworks initially reflect my private world, but my inspiration also stems from situations and obstacles where in a certain stage of life, most of people find themselves in. I have a strong personal connection with each of my works.â&#x20AC;? (Petronela Semancikova)

Petronela Semancikova

Peripheral ARTeries

The other side II (2012)

95 x 85 cm

Peripheral ARTeries

Petronela Semancikova

an interview with

Petronela Semancikova Hi Petronela, we would start this inerview with our usual ice breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? Moreover, what could in your opinion be the features that characterize a piece of Contemporary Art? Is it just a matter of making Art during these last years?

Before, in times without modern technology, the painters for example mastered their technique to capture portraits, situations, etc. in an incredible manner. They were and some of them still are recognized artists. Nowadays, as cameras become a common part of our life, it is not necessary to picture anything without a message; and this is what contemporary art means to me: a message that an artwork carries, a sense why it was created. From my point of view, any kind of work, even if beauti-ful and precisely elaborated, without its point stays only a craftsmanship. Please tell us something about your background: we have read in your bio that you have recently earned your BA in Fine Art, focusing on Experimental Media. How has this experience impacted on the way you make Art? By the way, do you think that artists with a formal education have an advantage over self-taught artists?

Petronela Semancikova (A photo by Katerina Motylova)

I needed to rest from computer and I had been self-teaching how to sew for a few months that time. I found sewing very relaxing and I really enjoyed working with textiles, so I started to explore and experiment in the field of textile art. Otherwise, the BA studies were a life changing experience for me. I questioned myself every single week, I learned how to listen to my spirit. Thanks to our great lecturers, I also got to know how to face everything I had tended to avoid.

During my university studies, I spent 2 years in course of HND Interactive Media. This field is very complex and we were introduced to various types of media, 2D, 3D animations, sound production, photography and its manipulation, web creation, interactive installation, etc. It gave me an incredible overview in the field. During my BA Experimental Media studies we were given freedom to experiment with any kind of media. I felt like

I believe it is much harder to start as an artist without an education. Nowadays, skills can be gained in tutorials, courses and self experimen52

Petronela Semancikova

Values (2012)

Peripheral ARTeries

97 x 64 cm

because I depend a lot on fabric, it always slightly changes as I go to the store to choose fabrics for the work. This process by itself is very inspiring and sometimes I find even better textures and materials as I visualized. It is always an amazing moment when I find something I feel it was made specially for my artwork! :)

tation. But I believe it's a discussion with your lecturer and accredited feedback that has the largest value during the art studies. Before starting to focus on your artworks I would like that you tell us something about your creative process and especially about your set up for making your works. By the way, do you visualize your works before creating? Do you know what it will look like before you begin?

Unfortunately it is not always so bright, and sometimes I buy materials I don't use or I cannot choose anything at all. It is also a part of the process.

Most of the time the inspiration comes all of the sudden. Usually I keep the idea in my head for a few days, then I try to sketch it on paper. Of course I have a vision of the final piece, but 53

Petronela Semancikova

Peripheral ARTeries

The other side II (2012)

95 x 85 cm

Now let's focus on the artworks of yours that our readers can admire in these pages: I would start from a very stimulating couple of pieces entitled The Other Side I & II. Could you tell us something about your initial inspiration for these pieces?

As you have remarked in your artist's statement, you have been exposed to various types of media, mostly digital ones but then you have chosen textiles. I was wondering if the tactile feature of this media has provided to fill the immateriality of digital media: textiles allows to establish a tangible contact with the artistic idea during its developement...

This work was created during my BA studies and it reflects the process I was going through. In one moment I did not know where I was going and what the life had prepared for me. Many people that go through a change in their lives feel insecure and concerned about an unknown future. Because it touched me personally, I felt the need to reflect and debate it. I perceive my works as kind of a therapy, too, and during the process I was inspired to create another piece, The Other Side II.

Of course, for me working with textiles is not only about the final outcome. It is the whole process that is included, the variety of materials, the feelings and sounds that they create.

Petronela Semancikova

Peripheral ARTeries

Summer is missing you (2012) 60 x 60 cm mixed media

Another work of yours that I have found very interesting is Summer is missing you: I must confess that the first thing that it has reminded me is a bicycle wheel, and even though this might sound a bit naif, I find very remarkable the evocative potential of this artwork: it has an effective capability of communicating...

and precision because of the delicate material. It took a few hours to create the net and it was a great experience. Otherwise, this work carries my memories that are very tender and fragile... A feature of Up and down that has mostly impressed me is the subtle nuance of colors and an impressive mix between light colors and the black that appears like a dark spurt...

As I stated above how important for me is the process of each work, this one takes the full credit of it. The work required a lot of patience 55

Peripheral ARTeries

Petronela Semancikova

Knot (2012) 75 x 75 cm

I find very interesting the contrast between the soft nature of textiles and the idea of scissors that arises form Cutting their lives... how did you come up to the idea for this work?

This work reflects strong connection in relationship that becomes obsessive and bounding. In sake of protecting the loved ones, their journeys are being cut and deformed. Personal space and freedom to make own decisions are missing.

Up and down (2012) 80 x 120 cm

would you tell a bit about this feature to our readers?

Your artworks have been recently exhibited

By random flow of color is shown a random outcome of a single day. Some we remember for a long time or they influence us strongly, some of them are forgotten as the color of the other day overwrites it. The work was primarily made by gravity and random wind currents and other random aspects.

tant is for you the feedback of your audience? By the way, when you conceive a piece, do you think to whom will enjoy it?

It is always very precious for me to receive an objective feedback, but to be honest, during the process I don't think of anybody but me. I definitely do not target my works for a specific group of people, but yet when the work is done, I visualize where the work can be hangingâ&#x20AC;Ś :) On the other hand, the

So even if I had some initial vision, this 15 days project ended up looking slightly different. But this is what I like about it the most, this is what is this artwork about. 56

Petronela Semancikova

Peripheral ARTeries

High living (2011)

Thank you a lot for your time and your stimulating thoughts, Petronela: 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?

exhibition in Austria was a very nice experience, I am looking forward to more of them. Just wondering if you would like to answer artists that we interview: what aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction? Well, actually

Thank you very much for this opportunity. I welcome everyone to visit my online portfolio, I always update my blog when something big in my artistic career is about to happen!

I believe I answered this question gradually during this whole interview. But what I love about my work is the way I can discuss my deepest thoughts without unveiling too much.

I wish this magazine a lot of success. Thanks! peripheral_arteries@dr.com

N dia Rodrigues Ribeiro (Portugal) An artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement

"In my process of artistic creation I explore the relation of the photographic image with the temporality. A "time" not only inherent to the mechanical process and therefore his suspension, but also a "time" related to the personal memory, hence I use pictures of my family archive in some works an attempt to find a response from the past. A "time" of history, and the history of photography, in a process of reflection on the support material, the medium itself and its nature reproducible. "I have been exploring the use of photo paper (BW and chromogenic paper negatives) as photosensitive material in the production of unique prints, evidencing the principle of negation (the subtraction) - the symmetry of the visible. "I am also interested in the deconstruction of all the paraphernalia that surrounds the photography.

email: nadiarodriguesribeiro@gmail.com website: http://cargocollective.com/nadiarodriguesribeiro

Picture #01

an interview with

We would start with our usual ice breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? And how you first became interested in photography as a visual medium?

ded a general arts course after I joined in Fine Arts-Painting at the Faculty and only then I began to photograph. You have a formal training both in painting and in photography: you have received you BA in Fine Arts from the University of Lisbon and then you started to study for you BA in

"Art is a human response to a specific convocation. The gesture manages death and begets life, resubmits the work of art to its origin and makes and remakes. It is inventing a testimony to a moment in which we are no longer present ... fits all and nothing (â&#x20AC;Ś)"

Tomar. How much these experiences has informed your current art practice?

They were undoubtedly two positive experiences that influenced my artistic practice. The fact that I have had as initial education Painting for 5 years - gave me the bases to be able to develop a multidisciplinary artistic language. Still in FBAUL at Lisbon, I attended

Although I do not shoot from childhood, I always had contact with photography even if only by revisiting the family albums, very related to memory. During high schools, I atten60

Picture #02

the 3 levels of Photography class (optional technological discipline) where I acquired some theoretical and practical knowledge and which I could also develop the oriented project, although I consider that there were some gaps in education.

tique allowed me to structure a more concise work.

This led me to want to obtain greater knowledge in this area - Photography - and also because most of the projects that I was developing, I resorted to the photographic medium. Spent about a year after I finished my education in Painting, I joined in the IPT at Tomar, where I did a degree in Photography.

I would say that's not the equipment that dictates the quality of a photographer but, among other things, its ability to tailor the means it has available to the concepts of each particular work. One aspect that interests me is the question of democraticity of the image and deconstruction of the whole apparatus associated with photographic means. Considering this and answering to your question, I've used various photographic media. Since the

What type of cameras do you shoot with? And which is your most-used lens? Which one item of equipment would you say is the most important to you?

There I got a full training in several areas: historical, scientific, artistic, contemporary cri61

appropriation of images produced from webcam chatrooms, the photograms (where there is only light and photosensitive material), pinhole (where there is no optical medium), the cameras of small, medium and large formats. Using both analog and digital media and also deepening the alternative processes. Basically, having a solid photographic education, be able to develop its own language, adapting to each project how to use the medium. Now let's focus on your series De sensivel-

our readers the meaning of this title? And how you did come up to the idea for this work?

, is a portuguese title which can be translated as "About a decade earlier memories of the symmetry of the visible". This serie consists of 10 photographes, 5 which are from my family album and the others are unique prints (chromogenic and BW paper negatives). Most of these archival images are from the 70s and 80s, roughly a decade before my birth (1984). The other images that arise in response to this past (the memory of those memories) earn almost a character as an object to be unique prints, photographed on paper and therefore, negatives. A negative is not more than a symmetry of reality, the visible.

Picture #07

Paintings by Friedrich, in this man's relationship with the landscape and with the abyss. In the process of revisiting the past through the family album, there was a great work of editing / selection of images to find the final five images, because there were many images and the majority valuable photographic. For this idea to pose/ instant, I believe that although they may seem antagonistic the two concepts, these are closely related. Even the images improvised, there is always something about the pose that assumes photographed, no one is indifferent to

Personally, I can recognize a marked "touch of a painter" in your pieces: especially in #02. Do you ask to your subjects to pose for you or do you prefer to improvise your shots? By the way, how do you decide on locations & subjects?

Picture # 02 is one of the images of my family album and somehow there is a certain romanticism that photograph similar to some 62

I like the way you get the red tone in many of the shots that our readers can admire in these pages, for example #1 # 5 and #7: could you tell us a bit about this stimulating feature?

Well... there really are totally garish images, mostly red. As I mentioned earlier, the series beyond the family archive, consists of unique prints (chromogenic and BW paper negatives). These pictures with dominant red color are chromogenic paper negatives. Just think that a negative always establishes a relation of symmetry with the real, maybe if we have a black and white vision is more

a camera, to know what is being photographed. Also what appears to be strictly commanded lives on himself in what is transitory. Mostly it can be said that my work is constructed, this series in particular, the new images are a "response" to the past, either because there are elements that which may want to refer memories. This response to the past was rigorously constructed in some cases I went to the places of the family archive imagesâ&#x20AC;Ś observe, think, shoot.

Picture #09

easily perceived this contradiction - black/ white. Here just think of the color wheel RGB / CMY and realize what are the opposite and complementary colors. In fact what I was photographing mostly tended to the greens and blues and also chromogenic paper is adapted to receive a lower color temperature to daylight, thus making the evidence with a dominant even redder. In your artist's statement you have remarked that one of the main aims of your work is to explore the relation of the photographic image with the temporality. So you create an effective synergy between the evolving dynamism of time and the apparent immobility of a photo ... could you elaborate a bit this interesting concept?

The photographic act is always a suspension of time, a interval that can be instantaneous or even more extended period (seconds, minutes, hours, days). I've done pictures with several hours of exposure using a pinhole camera, where the possibility of error is most happening and why these images were in themselves performative character, in addition to being photographing at the time, ephemeral elements - ice. Reflecting on my academic path, I think I'm almost obsessive character in methodology, generally I use notebooks where I write various data, including: location, date, time of the day, exposure time, aperture (if applicable), the meteorological state, etcâ&#x20AC;Ś This spatio-temporal context often does not come out of these books, the images are no longer rooted to a specific site and will now be somewhere in time more or less near. This relation establishes that the photograph in time, has a great relation with memory, one of the aspects that also interests me is the archive and particularly the family album. If we also consider this transition of time, on an evolutionary and democratization of the image,

Picture #04

Rodrigues Ribeiro

Picture #06

there is an interesting aspect that has to do with this question all the apparatus that often this will round the photographic medium. I would state that a recurrent characteristic of your art practice is experience as starting point of artistic production: in your opinion, is experience an absolutely necessary part of creative process? Does imagination play a role in your process?

The fact that I had an education with a practical component also quite stark, allowed me to be in contact with the materials, resources, equipment

and after these technical aspects seized, there may be a continuous experience. I believe that once dominated media is much easier to begin to build an authorial language. In the process of my work, I like to be present at various stages, I may in some cases need help, however, to be present not only contributes to greater reflection about the work and therefore a trigger ideas and enrichment process creative. In this regard, it serves as an example to laboratory practice in the darkroom and the whole process of development of the image, this intrinsic relationship with the image appears, in my case, largely influences the evolution of the project and the entire creative process. Obviously the imagination is important in the process. What are the most important influences that have moved you as an artist?

There is much that influences me, just be aware of what is happening in the world and stop to observe and think. Very simple things can lead to a project. There are several artists that I admire a lot and some of them are also influenced in my work as: Karl Bossfeldt, Michael Wesely, Vera Lutter, Abelardo Morell, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Thomas

Picture #03

to. What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? And what gives you the biggest satisfaction?

I try, of course, be aware of what is going on in the art world, researching what young artists and also colleagues doing and exchange opinions.

It is a constant learning process, which each project becomes always a new challenge and each time it is overcome, I can still amaze.

What is the most challenging part about being a photographer for you?

and images with us: what's next for you? Have you a particular project in mind ?

Is a constant redo until you get to the final result. Sometimes a lonely work but always shared, after all photography is a form of visual communication.

As I finished a degree in Photography relatively recently, I needed to organize and edit a series of images, structure the site. Some festivals and photography contests are following. Yes, I've been working on new projects.

we're always interested in hearing the answer

Picture #10

John Kokkinos

John Kokkinos (Greece - Canada) An artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement The subject of wireless communications technology fascinated me. I imagine the billions of daily transmissions as various shapes, sizes and speeds making a crowd of busy, mind-boggling patterns in every possible layer of global air space. Still there is clarity. My approach to painting is complex, very similar to the subject. I use a combination of various media (watercolor, stain, limestone, acrylic and rice paper) to give me a large range of expression with what appears as random results. The originality of this combination of media rises in spontaneous areas of rhythm and movement on a three dimensional surface. I use alternative tools and many times I build implements in order to move the paint uniquely. The contrast of the rice paper to the heavily built acrylics suggests the struggle between the natural and the man made worlds.

John Kokkinos 47 Michael Drive, Richmond Hill, ON. Canada johnkokkinosart@gmail.com Biography 1953 born Athens, Greece. 1963 immigrated to Canada. 1973 became Canadian citizen. 1973-1975 Toronto, Ontario, Central Technical School Post Secondary Special Art Program. Digital Labyrinth II 2013, 137x183cm Acrylic, watercolor, stain, rice paper and limestone on canvas

John Kokkinos

an interview with

John Kokkinos We would start this interview with our usual ice breaker question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? By the way, what are in your opinion the features that characterize a piece of Contemporary Art? It's just a matter of making Art during these last years? What defines a work as a great piece of art is a popular question. If we examine our knowledge of art history (of which I am a huge fan), we see relatively recent trends (in terms of the last few generations) that have developed from figurative, to abstract, to minimalism, to the work using new materials and media. The new trends in art have not changed the fundamental principles I look for: composition, colour, rhythm, texture and balance. Good use of these gives the viewer a sense of an elevated visual experience. Contemporary art needs to take the artist and the viewer to a new place, a new visual experience. You have a formal training and you have studied at Central Technical School in Toronto. How much in your opinion training influences art? And how your Art has developed after your left school? By the way, do you think that a certain kind of training could even stifle young artist's inspiration?

John Kokkinos open minded, yet some challenged me a lot about my ideas. I left there with confidence, but I know my artistic strength grew over many years after graduation. The young artist can be stifled if they do not gain this confidence during their training.

I would agree that the type of training affects choices and inspiration of the young artist. Who the teachers are; how broad or narrow their emphasis; the type of atmosphere they create affects the direction the student will take upon graduation. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult for a young artist on their own to be confident about what they will focus on long term. They look to their teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; taste and careers quite often as a starting point.

We have read that you were just ten years old when you moved from Greece to Canada, so it goes without saying that you have absorbed American culture... just wondering if your Greek origins play an important role in your background as an artist.

But I think young artists need exposure to many disciplines and time to mature and understand them. Then they can develop their own thought process needed to make great art. My own art training was very comprehensive. My teachers were

I would say that my Greek background has shaped me only partly as the artist I am today. In our culture when I was growing up, we were openly

John Kokkinos this issue. Let's start from your recent pieces entitled "Conversations" and "Digital Labyrinth II " that our readers can admire in these pages. Can you tell us about your process and set up for making these works? And what technical aspects do you mainly focus on in your work? I begin with the rice paper part of the painting. I place wood, strings, cardboard, and rags on a flat surface, then I place the rice paper on top of it all and begin to pour various colours watercolours and stains onto it. I allow some absorption to occur, and then put heavy weights on top of the paper. I introduce heat to quickly dry some areas of the

expressive.-for example, singing and dancing at family gatherings; discussing politics around the table, not holding back. Painting is another form of expression in front of others, I suppose. I would say my current work is mostly influenced by American and European art. Contemporary culture and trends in design, fashion, architecture, electronics, film and music have an important role in my paintings. If I was to select one Greek artist that influenced me the most, I would say El Greco with the dynamic expression in his paintings. Conversations

Now we would like to focus on the artworks that our readers can admire in the pages of

Acrylic, watercolor, stain, rice paper and limestone on canvas 2013, 140x193cm.

John Kokkinos

Solar Wind, 2012 , 147x244cm, acrylic, watercolor, stain, and rice paper on canvas of the painting while other areas are allowed to dry slowly. The paper is then collaged onto the canvas with acrylic gel.

By the way, could you take us through your creative process when starting a new project? In particular I would like that you tell us something about the genesis of Subsurface Flow, that is a complex and very stimulating piece...

Next, I create stripes of acrylic paint that are collaged on to the painting surface. Once this is done, I create the spherical shapes stratified with various colours. This gives the viewer a textural surface that changes as one glances over the work. Often, I grind limestone and mix it with my paints to give me a flatter textured surface, which I contrast with glossy areas. I spend a long time looking and absorbing the shapes and composition.

Before I begin a new painting, I start by sketching various ideas and try to find shapes that best represent the subject. Once the painting begins, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t follow the sketches. I respond to the actual painting. The end result may be totally different from the original thoughts.

I have a middle step which is to photograph the painting and by using Photoshop I create variations I am considering. This gives me a quick view towards the final stages of the painting. Discovering different approaches and techniques stimulates my creativity and allows exciting results.

Subsurface Flow was painted over two months. The painting is 144 inches long; allowing me enough area to create the various shapes and textures. It is divided into nine perpendicular sections that flow into one another. The purpose of these sections is for their representation of time and evolution.

John Kokkinos made worlds: do you think that there's an irremediable dichotomy between these apparently opposed worlds? Maybe that Art could build a bridge between river sides? The natural environment is constantly being depleted by Man. Manmade environments take on an ever increasing presence while nature tries to carry on and adapt. Possibly the dichotomy I am expressing is that natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s adaptability which we fear presents undesirable mutations, may also offer its chances of survival â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and ours. Moreover, I would go as far as to state that Art and Technology are assimilating one to each other: it seems that we are going to a more "artistic" technology... what's your point about this? I feel art and technology are two separate entities. Art today uses technology in the process of creation either as a tool or a subject. I mentioned before about how I use Photoshop to see possibilities in the middle stages of my paintings.

Digital Flow, 2012, 86x76cm Acrylic, watercolor, stain, and rice paper on canvas. .

A visual from your artworks that has particularly impacted on me is the white color. Especially in Digital Flow and in Solar Wind, it suggests me the physicalness of the neighbouring space: can you tell us a little about this feature? The white areas in my paintings give reference to the values of the neighbouring colours. White defines the neighbouring space and gives the viewer a chance to understand both the colours and spaces. The use of white does not necessarily symbolize one specific thing. I am fine with viewers taking on their own interpretation. Still, I can see the use of white motif is reminiscent of either a winding river or perhaps a manmade roadway. In a line of your statement you refer to the struggle between the natural and the man

Intersecting waves, 2013 122x122cm Acrylic, watercolor, stain, and rice paper on canvas

John Kokkinos

That is they may feel tempted to keep to one track instead of exploring the development of new themes or even ways of working, becaue they received a positive response at one stage of their career. In my case, some of the awards I received were from figurative work; but I felt the need to keep changing my art.

Your artworks have been awarded several times: is there a particular exhibition that has impressed you in particular and that you would like to mention? By the way, it's obvious that feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist, but do you think that an award could even influence the process of an artist?

I do not see this development and change as undermining my maturity or validity as an artist.

I feel some artists may be influenced by awards.

John Kokkinos

Thank for your time and your thought, John: our last question deals with your future plans. Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

to the artists that we interview: what aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? And what gives you the biggest satisfaction? The act of painting and expressing my thoughts is by far the most enjoyable for me.

I have two solo exhibitions this year in Canada which I am thrilled about. I am seeking an art dealer whose enthusiasm will give the work more exposure.

To stand back and look at the painting and see a new creation can be thrilling too.

Izabela Oldak

(Poland)

“I live to create, I create to live. “The art is a link. It is beyond the historical, geographical, social divisions. In the same time it has the potential and possibilities to unite. It is the language, the reflection, the mirror of existence. “In my art I combine craftsmanship with conceptual and spiritual aspects. I am trying to find the legacy of mythology, folklore, tradition and old believes. I am getting back to the roots, when human life was connected to the natural environment and when the arts were considered spiritual, magical, a secret language used in many rituals and rites. “I make my artworks manually, with the preciseness of a craftsman, because I think that these skills are important and are coming from mankind’s talent. I use a lot of symbolical and conceptual aspects, because the brain is an enormous force and I like to challenge it. “I refer to mythology, legends and folklore, because I see it as the most incredible set of knowledge which indicate universal truths, behaviorism and spirituality.

Peripheries of the subconscious 195x180cm, ecoline on the bull's skin 2012.

Izabela Oldak Education 2008 – 2010 MFA, Research & Practice in Art, Dutch Art Institute, ArtEZ, Enschede, the Netherlands. 2002 – 2007 MA, Painting Faculty, Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Poland. 2006 – 2007 Fine Art Course, Trent University in Nottingham, Great Britain. Selected solo exhibitions - Worshiper of the Rainforest, performance, San Miguel, Leyte island, the Philippines, 2012. - collection of works, Gallery of the MDK in Zabrze, Poland, 2012. - Wild Self, performance in the park in Mooste, Estonia, 2012. - Kunst Voor een Beter Leven, mural at the Newtonstraat 54, The Hague, the Netherlands, 2011. - Realm of the Gods, Stichting id11, Delft, the Netherlands, 2010. - Break on through to the other Side, Dutch Art Institute, Enschede, the Netherlands, 2010. - The Echo/ Diary, Annex of the Athens School of Fine Arts, Rethymnon, Crete, Greece, 2009. - Fashionable Paintings Spring/Summer 2007, Art & Business

Works in art collections of - Contemporary Gallery Zrenjanin in Zrenjanin in Serbia. - Bielska Gallery BWA, in Bielsko-Biała in Poland. - Zadra Gallery in Warszawa in Poland. - Jalovik Gallery in Jalovik in Serbia. - Foundation Valparaiso in Mojácar in Spain. - Hotel Alejandro, Tacloban, the Philippines. - UNIQA Insurance Pte.Co in Budapest in Hungary. Awards, Grants, Scholarships - Art scholarship from the City Council of Bielsko- Biała, Poland, 2011. - Grant from Stokroos Foundation, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 2010. - Audience Award for Diary at the 39th Painting Biennial - Bielska Jesień, Bielsko-Biała, Poland, 2009. - Artistic scholarship from the Polish Ministry of Culture, 2006/ 2007. - Socrates/Erasmus scholarship from Nottingham Trent University, Great Britain, 2006/ 2007. - Artistic scholarship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland, 2005/2006.

Izabela Oldak

an interview with

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

For me Art is a language which was formed from the experience of the sacred. Throughout centuries the understanding of the Arts transformed and became more and more trivial. What is important for me as an artist is to get back to the transcendental and magical roots of the Arts. 2) You have a formal artistic training and moreover you have studied in many European universities. Do you think that this transnational experience has informed the way you make Art nowadays? And how much in your opinion training influences art? We were wondering if in your opinion a certain kind of training could even stifle one's creativity...

Having theses educational experiences I came to the conclusion that there is no one good system, but thanks to this diversity I was able to explore more fields in the arts, learn and use different media, get theoretical knowledge and meet a lot of different people.

Izabela Oldak Worshiper of the Rainforest, performance, San Miguel in the Philippines, 08.11.2012. Picture made by Butz Eguia

needed to over and over again redefine my ownstyle, looking for the right tools to express myself. Often in such educational systems I was the rebellious one and my needs and expectations towards educational systems were never fulfilled.

Regarding education sometimes the influence is so big that the artists canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even get to develop hers or his own style, following some trends or the individual taste of the teacher. Often students donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even understand what they do, which becomes visible when they need to talk about their art projects.

The final style and very apparent subject I actually found and developed after graduation, thanks to reading, exploring, meeting people, traveling and going to many Artist-in Residence programs.

What I also noticed is that after graduation many graduates do not know what to do from that point on. I had many moments where I

Izabela Oldak

cycle Incarnations Mokosz 50x70cm, acrylic, ecoline on canvas, 2012.

How has your art developed since you left school? Can you tell us your biggest influences in art and how they have affected your work?

objects. I also met amazing people and artists there, among them his last wife MaĹ&#x201A;gorzata Borowska. From my new friendships and trips to that amazing place I started to get the idea to unite artistic- esoteric underground and to not be afraid in using art as magical tool.

Recently The biggest influence upon my art was a discovery of a magical place Piastowska 1/7 in Katowice, which for 50 years was a working and living space of an artist: Andrzej Urbanowicz. I got there already after his death, but the place still has his spirit, it is full of his artworks, and magical

Another biggest influence and creation of site-specific perception I developed thanks to many travels and projects I did abroad, especially in Estonia, Serbia and in the Philippines.

Peripheral ARTeries

Izabela Oldak

Now we would like to focus on the works that our readers can admire in the pages of the current issue: let's start from the series "Incarnations". Can you describe a little bit about your creative process?

At the beginning of my creative process is the thought, the issue, the need to express something important to me. The cycle Incarnations is my comment upon the matriarchal system being depicted as the Goddesses and the patriarchal embodied in the fighting male animals, attributes of each Goddess. In the same time the Goddesses are portraits of members of my family. When I get a clear calling I do research about the characters I want to paint, and further I choose members of my family to whom I want to give in a symbolical way power and meaning of each Goddess. After that I paint the whole image and from one painting naturally another evolves. There are many Goddesses- powers, ideas which want to be brought back to our consciousness and that is why I do it in my art.

Higher self 90x90cm acrylic, ecoline, ink on canvas 2011/ 2012

We have been intrigued by your artwork entitled "Incarnations Mokosz" which remindsto an undefinetely remote past: what was your inspiration for this piece?

The biggest inspiration for me was a myth about Mokosz - a Slavic Goddess, by painting myself as Her I wanted to unite with this energy and power. Your Art often has references to mythology, legends and folklore: do you think that there's a dichotomy between Tradition and Modernity?

I see it and it makes me worried. That is why I am trying to search for reminiscence of past knowledge, spirituality and craft in legends, mythology and folklore. I am also traveling to places where I can still find the old traditions and believes well preserved and continued.

The Source, 120x120cm, acrylic on plasterboard, 2012

Izabela Oldak

cycle Incarnations, Hekate, 50x70cm, acrylic, ecoline on canvas, 2013 By the way, you artworks "The Source" and especially "Peripheries of the subconscious" seem to going beyond this dichotomy, isnt' it? I can recognize an effective synergy between apparently contrasting patterns...

It was done to face my darkness and to purify it. The negativity is imprisoned in the artwork, therefore it is overpowered and it canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t create an obsession in the mind anymore. As you remarked in your artist's statement, "Art It is beyond the historical, geographical, social divisions. In the same time it has the potential and possibilities to unite".

The Source is a painting inspired and dedicated to Polish esoteric artist Andrzej Urbanowicz and indeed it touches this what is beyond all divisions and the material world. The source is the beginning of everything. Peripheries of the subconscious is a painting which refers to Jungâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theory of the shadow, where from the subconscious of a dreaming person all the fears, phobias, traumas, desires are emerging.

Do you think that Art could play a role in facing social questions? And what in your opinion is could be the role of an artist in the society?

I strongly believe that art can influence and 81

Peripheral ARTeries

Izabela Oldak

Apotheosis of a Myth: Fertility Goddess and War Goddess, Peripheries of the subconscious Exhibition- Ninth circle of Obsession, Contemporary Gallery Zrenjanin, Zrenjanin, Serbia, 2012

something to communicate. When you conceive a work, do you think to whom will enjoy it?

even change people and therefore the environment. When art touches important issues it can be a great tool to start the changes. Many artists are taking an active role in this process, some point out the spheres of conflict, lack of freedom or justice.

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it directly to people more to the environment, by making site-specific works. There are some paintings which are specially ordered with need for energetic charge, and those are made totally with this intention and especially for certain client.

Others, including me, are bringing back old values and lifestyles as a direction for a new lifestyle. Artists always had the role of a trickster, belonging to society as the joker in the deck but being also an outsider, who, with needed distance, can observe, comment and direct the attention of the others.

Besides producing your own Art, you are also a curator: how this impacts on your work as an artist? Moreover: would you like to tell us something about the Art scene in your country?

Not to mention that the feedback of the audience is important for everyone who has

Being a curator I found absolutely amazing 82

Izabela Oldak Thank you very much for this interview, Izabela. Our last questions deals with your future plans... what's next for Izabela Oldak?

My closest plan is to go for a residency at make a new video work together with the Dutch artist Ruben van Klaveren. Further I want to develop my curatorial projects: a group exhibition entitled Going back to the roots, and a third edition of Beyond Time Artist-in-Residence program I am a curator of Autumn I will spend in Indie, where I want to study the meaning of a mandala pattern, Hindu philosophy and cosmology as well as the shamanistic past during my stay at ViceVersa Foundation in Goa.

Wild Self, performance at MoKS, Mooste, Estonia, 2012.

However my biggest dream is to make an artistic farm in the mountains, where, next to agritourism with an organic vegetable garden and animal farm, I will have a possibility to organize a residency program for artists, have a space for shows, workshops, conferences and my own studio. I would also develop a natural healing studio and build a temple for Nature worship.

work, which gives me an opportunity to collaborate with others, to meet other artist and to participate in the moment of their creation. I really do enjoy meeting and work with other artists, this also help me to identify myself as an artist and share our experience. Another factor is to enlarge a subject of my interest as the theme of the exhibition to which other artists contribute. Therefore the issue is commented on, explained and illustrated in a much broader way. The art scene in Poland is really diverse and very hermetic in the same time. Most of my curatorial project I do outside of the biggest art centers to have more freedom or abroad. to the artists that we interview: what aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

The biggest satisfaction is that my artworks, actions or workshops become an inspiration for others. There is nothing more beautiful for me than to see that which I do gives such emotions to the once receiving it.

Izabela Oldak Autoportret

Ann-Marie Brown

Ann-Marie Brown (Canada) An artist’s statement

“My portrait

and figure pieces are an exploration of coming face to face with the other, of the slippery quality of memory, of my relationship to encaustic, and of that medium’s possibilities.

“Using encaustic (wax) and oil on canvas, I paint overlapping layers to imbue a sense of motion and texture. I appreciate the unpredictability of this process. Mistakes interrupt the intention for a piece, and allow for the initiation of a dialogue with the emerging painting. As the layers build up, the figure is fragmented and obscured, allowing the whole of the painting to highlight a glance or gesture. A piece is finished when it fully articulates a moment in time.”

Jak - from the Boxer series

Stumbling Towards Manhood

encaustic & oil on canvas

12 rounds in boxing... 12 months in a year... 12 spins round the sun before adolescence... 12 boys alone in their corner"

102 cm by 76 cm

“I gave each model a set of adult boxing gloves when they came to the studio, then waited to see how they adjusted their stance to fit the role.

“Stumbling Towards Manhood" is a woman's eye view of the formation of masculine identity.

“The resulting paintings bear witness to pressures perceived and fears felt.

“The series was born out of watching my preadolescent son and his peers posturing. Jostling for position in a very physical way, while grappling with an onslaught of messages about what it is to be male.

Individually the paintings are intimate portraits, and as a body form a critique of the weight of expectations that young boys face.”

Ann-Marie Brown "Ann-Marie paints the human figure as it engages her being and her daily movements. She captures the sensation of a human being, becoming, growing, chan-ging, yet simultaneously having arrived in its fullness. Her figurative paintings there-fore shift between form and formlessness. She captures a moment of stillness, an image seen, sensed, in 'the blink of an eye'. She paints from the eyes of compassionate experience, witnessing life in its raw infallible beauty. Her paintings explore the mercurial duality of existence; creation and disintegration. This simple circularity and the tension of its continuous change is captured through her layer upon layers of paint and wax. The effect is mesmerizing and as one moves before her paintings the figures also appear to change, follow, revealing the unsettling tension of form becoming and its arrival." - Joanna Mackenzie-Enga SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011 Galerie dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Avignon, Montreal 2008 Linda Lando Fine Art, Vancouver

Landseer - from the Boxer series

2007 Galerie d'Avignon, Montreal 2003 Vancouver East Cultural Centre

encaustic & oil on canvas 102 cm by 76 cm

2002 Atelier 31 Gallery, Seattle 2001 Atelier 31 Gallery, Seattle

Ann-Marie Brown is currently represented by Galerie d'Avignon in Montreal and The Orange Art Gallery in Ottawa

Ann-Marie Brown

an interview with

Ann-Marie Brown

(a photo by Krista Ockenden)

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

that I paint. I’m painting people with the idea that they are more than the sum of their parts. b. Technical training is a great thing, there is a craft element to art making, and you need to know how to use the tools and materials. Developing an awareness of the history of art is also useful... Contemporary art is a conversation, and you want to understand the context that you’re working in.

I would define a work of art as something that functions as a bridge between the artist and the viewer. We would like to ask you something about your background: we have read that you have studied Cultural Studies at Trent's University and Religious Disciplines in Europe. Do you think that this trans-national experience has informed the way you make Art nowadays? And how much in your opinion training influences art? We were wondering if in your opinion a certain kind of training could even stifle one's creativity...

c. Regarding certain kinds of training being stifling...once the student has a grasp of the materials and a sense of what’s gone before them, they need to summon the courage to make the art they want to make. That part is up to them. How has your art developed since you left school? Can you tell us your biggest influences in art and how they have affected your work?

a. What artists are drawn to, what we spend time studying can’t help but inform our practice. In Europe I was operating from a place of faith in the idea of God dwelling in us, of our physical bodies as vessels for the divine. That idea has shifted and expanded for me, but the influence is there in the figures

Since leaving school I’ve been looking at paintings, seeing what works, trying to figure out why. The painters who’ve had a huge 86

Ann-Marie Brown

FallFly1 encaustic & oil on canvas, 122cm by122cm

influence on me are Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, and Heike Ruschmeyer. The common thread in the work of each of

these artists is that their images invoke a visceral response. 87

Ann-Marie Brown In your artist's statement you have marked that mistakes interrupt the intention for a piece, and allow for the initiation of a dialogue with the emerging painting. Could we conclude that a mistake is not just a chance of improvement, but the improvement itself? All in all, the "footprint" of a mistake clearly reveals the impulses of creativity..

I think that the marks made by working with mistakes add to a piece…that the scratches and spills reveal the wrestling match that went into making the painting. I meant something else in my statement though…I think that the mind that is painting is more interesting than the mind that’s thinking about painting… So, if you have a process that doesn’t allow you to visualize a piece and then methodically arrive at that piece…there is a chance for your engaged self to intuitively push the painting into a realm that wasn’t available to your conscious mind. Now we would like to focus on your series "Stumbling Towards Manhood", that our readers can admire in these pages: we have read that it is "a woman’s eye view of the formation of masculine identity". What was your initial inspiration? Could you take us through your creative process when starting a new project?

I believe that artists has a better chance of saying something useful if they paint what they know. For the past decade I’ve been a mother, so I’ve been looking very closely at children. And anything that you look at closely reveals it’s complexity. Each new project begins with a single painting. This series started with the painting of my son Devlin. With watching him trying to find a place in the world of boys. The rest of the paintings followed, and became a body of work where each piece draws strength from the others.

Winter Wood encaustic & oil on canvas-76cm by 76 cm

Ann-Marie Brown

By the way, we would like learn some technical feature of your process, that consists of heating wax to a molten state and then applying it to a canvas. Can you describe a little bit the genesis of this process?

Encaustic is an ancient technique that involves heating wax and mixing in pigments and oil paint. There is sculptural quality to the medium, because you are building up the surface. I have a lot of knives in my studio, because I build the surface up, and then scrape it down in parts. In structuring the composition the play of thick and thin areas of the surface matters as much as colour and form. In between the layers, I go

Esten - from the Boxer series encaustic & oil on canvas 102 cm by 76 cm

Ann-Marie Brown

in with a brush and oil paint to work on the details that give emotional meaning to the piece by drawing focus to a gesture or glance. As you have explained, the "Stumbling Towards Manhood" series was born out of watching your preadolescent son and his peers posturing: in this case, "children's dimension" in a certain way "communicates" to Art... Now we would like to turn the question round and ask you if in your opinion Art could play a role in children's education... what's your point?

Art does play a role in childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s education. Drawing is a developmental stage that emerges around 15 months. The impulse to make marks is a strong as the impulse to walk or speak.

Water Dreams, encaustic & oil on canvas, 76cm by 76cm

That impulse can be nurtured by giving children tools to expand their mark making, and by showing them examples of art that widen their notion of whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s possible.

I can recognize a subtle social criticism in your artworks. Do you think that Art could play a role in facing social questions, steering people's behaviour? And what in your opinion is could be the role of an artist in the society?

There are so many ways of being an artist in society, that the roles are as plentiful as the artists. That said there is art being made that is facing social questions and steering behaviour. The street art of JR the Parisian guerilla photographer comes to mind, along with the graphic artists who are creating icons of the Idle No More movement . Arif, encaustic & oil on canvas-102 cm by 76 cm

Ann-Marie Brown You have traveled quite a lot: to far off regions of the world including Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. It goes without saying that travelling has an impact on everyone: what aspects of travel have influenced your artistic production? By the way, what differences -if any- have you found between "Western" art and "Eastern" art?

I don’t think that the notion of Western and Eastern art is very useful at this point in time. I think there is a globalized culture informed by technology , and there are artistic subcultures within different countries drawing from a huge wealth of shared images and ideas. Some of the most interesting work being produced right now involve hybridization ... showing the influence of mass global culture in works that incorporate materials and ideas that are coming from all sides. Brian Jungen's series Prototypes for New Understanding which consists of aboriginal masks assembled and sewn from parts of Nike shoes, is the strongest example of this that comes to mind.

Taren, encaustic & oil on canvas, 102 cm by 76 cm

It’s brilliant...If you haven’t seen it, look it up right now! There's a cliche 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?

The aspect that I enjoy the most is making the paintings. It is hugely satifying to be in the studio painting, and I realize how lucky I am to get to spend my days doing that. Thank you very much for this interview, AnnMarie. Our last questions deals with your future plans... what's next for you?

I’m currently working on a series of paintings that look at the experience of inhabiting a female body throughout the decades. That’s as far into the future as I can see. Red Chair encaustic & oil on canvas 102 cm by 76 cm

Molly Bradubry

Molly Bradbury (USA) An artist’s statement “Transmission challenges the viewers perception of linear time, and proposes that perceived time is often plastic. As the viewer watches the piece, the frequency of familiar objects within the frame expands and contrasts, without a discernible loop beginning or end. What is assumed to be real time is distorted and stretched, through an apparent lengthening of event durations within the frame. ”Lines appear and fade away, producing slowly fading after-images, causing the viewer to see colors that are not present in the video itself. Occasionally, large blurred lines pop onto the screen for only a moment, perceptually in sync with the audio. What is perceived is often a product of the perception, and not a reality being perceived. “The visual order of Transmission serves as a super-structure, with an infinite time frame. Meanwhile the audio functions within a micro-structure, moving between small passages exploded out into minute long phrases. The sound I produce for my video works provides the viewer with a suspension. No longer is the viewer self-aware, but rather seeing themselves engaged in relation to the piece they are standing in front of. “This is not a passive perception of visual and sonic material, but rather an engagement with the experience of one’s own perception perceiving visual and sonic motion playing against one another. (Molly Bradbury)

A still from Transmission Video

Molly Bradubry

an interview with

Molly Bradbury Hi Molly, welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. I would start this interview with our usual introductory question: what in your opinion defines a work of Art? By the way, how you first became interested in video as a visual medium?

In my opinion, a wide variety of things can be considered art, but to me important art is judged by an experience in relation to the object (or non-object as the case may be). I look for that feeling of being choked up with emotion, unable to explain that feeling to another person through words. An experience that is fully non-verbal, but completely overwhelming.

Molly Bradbury Before getting in the matter of your artistic production, can you tell us about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, on what technical aspects do you mainly focus in your work?

The two most important elements for me are time and color. This goes for both the image and the sound. There is an interesting phenomenon that happens when watching/listening to something that has a distorted relationship to time. I starts to feel like time is folding in on itself - both moving and standing still.

Initially I set out to learn the trade of filmmaking, but had sensibilities that were less about storytelling and more about visual experience. I’ve also studied music since childhood, so the ability to compose in time visually came very naturally to me. While working as a film and video projectionist for a museum back in 2001, I made the switch in my own budding practice to shift the focus from narrative to experimental time-based work.

Visually the color palette I use makes use of colors that are impossible in pigment, and only exist in light. In sound I shoot for a balance between acousmatic sound - where the sound comes from a recording and is then manipulated - and electronic sound, which is usually produced from feedback or the signal processing itself.

I would like to ask you something about your background, I've read that you are currently working for your MFA at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque: how much in your opinion training influences art?

When these elements all start to work together, there is an odd experience of otherness. The competition within the piece between the representational and the side-effect of signal processing causing an unusual tension for the audience. It is important to me to start with audio and visual recordings of real, physical objects. Though the signal processing pulls the piece away from the original source materials, the residue of that original grounds the piece in our experience of the world.

In my graduate school experience there was little training, but a lot of opinions thrown around. Overall I found that pedagogy was sparse, replaced by a seemingly endless critique of whether the “red one” was better than the “blue one”. It is a challenge to maintain a critical distance from the endless opinions of professors and colleagues in order to not have your practice stifled. Clearly, I am not an academic. 94

Molly Bradubry

A still from LovStrom Now let's focus on your works, whose stills can be admired by our readers in these pages. I would start from LovStrom, that I have found it very stimulating: would you like to tell us something about your initial inspiration for this work?

your technique in composing and producing the sound for your videos?

I use a few different strategies in producing the audio for my work. In the case of the sound from LovStrom, I started with a recording I had made of a bank of older cathode ray tube televisions, specifically the high-pitched squeal. With CRTs, as the image changes, the squeal changes therefore creating a greater variability in the timbre of the sounds. The original sample was then slowed down 20 times to get a pitch in cello range. In doing this the timbre was expanded and drawn out, and the subtle pitch shifts within the sample became more pronounced. The texture that made the original sample tinny made the slowed down clip velvety and warm.

I was programming a new patch in Max/MSP/Jitter for signal processing another piece entirely. At one point I started experimenting with different video clips, and discovered LovStrom. The audio was then composed to fit the pace and complexi-ty of the imagery from samples I had previously recorded and manipulated. Though the components of LovStrom were very intentional, the combination of elements and the resulting piece were, in a way, accidental. This video shows a symbiosis between evolving regular forms and an as geometrical sound pattern: would you tell us something about

To compose the piece I did a â&#x20AC;&#x153;tape musicâ&#x20AC;? process. I layered tracks of the same sample on top of one 95

Molly Bradubry

another, altering the speed of each sample by percentages that would give me a slightly diminished triad. I then moved the tracks around in relationship to one another to compose the sound. So yes - absolutely geometric. Another work of yours on which I would like to spend some words is Apollonia: could you take us through your creative process when starting this piece?

The sound piece from Apollonia came first. I had made the sound about 2 years prior to the video, and hadn’t made the right video to go with it. When I listened to the sound again, I could imagine what I wanted the piece to look like immediately. I set out to make a piece that was completely indulgent visually. The footage I started with was already beautiful, and I challenged myself amplify that beauty further - towards the sublime. Two interesting things happened in the final edit. Abstraction started taking priority over the representational elements in the image, and suspended time started overlapping with linear time.

A still from Apollonia composers including Part. I’ve held onto, and still experiment with composing from a formally constrained position. There is something mysterious that occurs in the liminal space between image and sound. I’ve found this experiments that sound occupies the mind in a way that facilitates a more intense looking. Similarly to Part’s compositional system, I too utilize a drone to base a compositional form. Other elements working in contrast with a drone can create an enormous opening up of tonal relationships. In my sound practice I like to go a step further and compose inharmonics against the drone, causing a greater complexity of relationships.

One of the features that has mostly impressed me in your art production is the effective synergy between video and sound. In particular, in the aforesaid piece LovStrom I can recognize something that I happened to discover by chance years ago in the works of the interesting -but far from the mainstream- Estonian composer Arvo Part: an apparent minimalistic style that is capable of revealing an unexpected complexity...

I think that synaesthetic bond between video and sound comes out of an equal treatment of both parts. From recording through editing and signal processing, the recording go through equivalent permutations. In my undergraduate education at Mills College I was exposed to a signifiant number of minimalist

I would like to mention another recent work of yours entitled Transmission: you have summed up a stimulating feature of this work in your

Molly Bradubry Besides producing your artworks, you also teach: how this influences your career as an artist? And have you ever happened to be inspired by your students?

Teaching provides an interesting opportunity for me to synthesize knowledge of the histories of sound, video and cinema while thinking about how contemporary time-based practices connect to the past. The conversations with students at a novice level about things that I know so well is really interesting. The insights of undergraduates towards work they’re being exposed to for the first time is so interesting. For the time being however, I’m taking a break from teaching to focus on making art. I have a tendency to spend an inordinate amount of time developing a specific pedagogical approach for each group of students, catering to where their interests and talents lie. I love teaching and take it very seriously, though it is a discipline in itself. Now here's a cliche question that we often ask to the artists that we happen to interview: what aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction?

The quick answer would be the moment when everything snaps together and I can no longer explain to myself why the piece is good.

statement: what is perceived is often a product of the perception, and not a reality being perceived... could you elaborate a bit this concept for our readers?

Thanks a lot for this interview, Molly: what's next for you? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

What I’m getting at is how perception itself is a priori to experience. The statement is my way of pointing towards bracketing out interpretation - or thinking, really - from the experiencing of the work.

As I’m doing this interview I am finishing up a massive 3-channel, 70 foot wide video projection and sound installation for Warehouse 21 in Santa Fe, NM. That will premiere on June 14th. I will also have work in a three person show opening the same night at Zane Bennett Contemporary Art Gallery in Santa Fe, running until July 19th. I have new shows coming up all the time, so it is best to check

The real magic of Transmission is something that happens in the eye - not on the screen. That experience of “ghost colors” or color in an afterimage is the provocative content of the work, though it is not in fact in the work. Though it is clique to say “the viewer completes the work”, in the case of TRANSMISSION it is absolutely true.

http://www.mollybradbury.com for an updated list of events. In the fall I’ll be moving to Los Angeles to raise hell! 97