KYLE COTTIER

KYLE

COT TIER

When did you first become interested in art?

I traced cartoon characters as a kid on a little portable light table. Started there, and then in grade school, I had a friend whose older brother was a graffiti artist. I got all these hand-medown illuminations on the world of street art from a 9-year old. That really cracked me open and gave me a focal point and where I began to express myself artistically.

How did you get to where you are today in your practice?

Accidents and failures mostly. I studied printmaking and darkroom photography in high school and that carried over into my freshman year of college. That was the first time I had an actual studio and I remember just wanting to experiment and make really large works, made a lot of not-great work. This was also the first time I was able to draw from live models and I fell in love with the human figure like a lot of artists will do. I think that sort of naturally led to working sculpturally. Having large scale pieces surrounding me, I started seeing them as objects as opposed to flat works, whether it was on paper or scrap wood I found off the streets and crudely nailed together. I became more interested in craft and I believe that's what sculptors do. The desire to represent the human figure for me now has become inverted. Much of my work currently is centred around the absence of a human presence.

What has been the most challenging aspect of your art career?

There was a point where there never felt like there was ever enough time. I'd devote myself entirely to the process of the work and the creation became all that mattered. There are definitely still those moments, I think it's necessary, too, every once in a while. The most challenging part is reminding myself to balance my life out more. Art or inspiration, for me, is constantly entering my subconscious. I found when I work incessantly that I shoot way past a certain sweet spot and start eating my own tail.

Where do you find inspiration?

Nature never fails to give me my greatest insights. The problem with that is nature has already perfected what it's doing. I try to create art that relates to how I experience nature as a human. Nature can be intimidating but it's easily the entity I meditate on mostly.

Which artist do you look up to? Any

artists you're loving at the moment? This is always a funny question for me, not to sidestep talking about other hugely influential sculptors or visual artists that are super important to me and the work I'm making, but poets are my favourite. Mary Oliver is and always will be my most worn compass. Recently, I read Jennifer S. Cheng's, MOON: LETTERS, MAPS, POEMS, and it was so devastatingly eyeopening. Poets help me connect one thing to another or they help me ask the right questions. Oliver wrote, "Do you think there is there anything not attached by its unbreakable cord to everything else?"

What's one thing people should know about you?

I'll soon be starting a year-long artist residency at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg starting in June.

ANAIS-KARENIN

Page 7: “Dual Unity” Video Page 8: “Dual Unity” Series Page 10: “Fluids Aren’t Body Or Space” Page 11: “Soulless Nature” Page 12: “Dual Unity” Installation

APRIL WINTER

Page 15-18: “Hide And Seek” Series

LEONARD BABY

Page 20: “Avery” Page 22: “We’ll Get Through It” Page 24: “Lux”

DORSA AHARI

Page 26-31: “Spring Collection” Series

ALESSANDRA AKIWUMI

Page 32: “Phantasma I” Page 34: “Phantasma III” Page 36: “Phantasma II”

NATALIIA OSTAPENKO

Page 38: “Memories”

MACIEJ KODZIS

Page 5: “//D-01” Page 41: “//LN8-08-CYCLOPS” Page 42: “//INS-10” Page 44: “//ABNMT-02” Page 46: “//R-02” Page 48: “//RC-02”

BRIAN SMITH

Page 50: “So That You May Remember” Page 52-53: “Now Seems As Good Time As Any” Page 54: “Figgot Tree!”

KERRY RAWLINSON

Page 56: “Foot As Desert Landscape #6” Page 58: “Foot As Desert Landscape #22”

YANNIC TOSSING

Page 60: “Everyday Supper” Page 62: “Infected Table”

ASIA STEWART

Page 65: “Legs Is Legs”

ANGELICA YANU

Page 66-69: “Iyeska”

KYLE COTTIER

Page 70-73: “This River Beneath The River” Page 74-76: “For What Of Nails”

BACK COVER:MACIEJKODZIS