CONTENTS 05 | PUPA NEUMANN 25 | FARNIYAZ ZAKER 36 | ALEXIS AVLAMIS 48 | MARTYNA JASTRZEBSKA
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pupa neumann
What were some of your most important early influences that lead you to decide to be a photographer? My father was an art dealer. I grew up surrounded by paintings. I was not necessarily looking at them but they were around me all the time. This is for sure my first source of artistic inspiration. When I was 11, my aunt gave me a small Instamatic camera with a cube-shaped flash: it was the most luxurious gift, a magical object like Aladdin’s lamp. It was wonderful to capture memory, to freeze time, to capture my surroundings. As we were quite poor and films were expensive, my mother decided that I should let others photograph me and that I only had the right to take three photos per film myself. So my first emotional tie related to photography was frustration, but I also got taught that each image is precious. Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve. The process is always different. For example, the origin of my last series La Madeleine de Gide was laziness. My friend Isabelle Perrachi, an agent, pushed me to participate in a contest by Havas for the Arles Festival in 2016. The task was to illustrate text passages of famous writers. I chose the shortest text, three lines by André Gide, who wrote about his cousin Madeleine: “My cousin was beautiful and she knew it. She wore her black hair in headbands to better show off her cameo profile (I saw her photograph again) and she had a dazzling skin ....” I wondered who Gide’s cousin was and learned that she was also his wife. I knew about André Gide’s homosexuality, and I read that he never had sex with her, and that’s what intrigued me.
Who was this mysterious woman? That’s how my creative process started for the series of women’s portraits La Madeleine de Gide and my projection on this submissive woman. Was she modern? An idiot? Free? I do not have the answer. I believe that your work is very complex and well - structured; your pictures have different styles from each other: melancholic pictures, as in Les Ravissants, the vulnerability, as in Forever Young, ironic representations that recall the fashion style, as in Daydream, etc. What are the aspects that you think characterize more your work? What subjects do you deal with in your art? You have mentioned vulnerability as the theme for the series Forever Young but it is precisely the opposite. It is about a cougar and devouring mother. This is what I wanted to express in Forever young. The series was put on hold because of the shootings for La Madeleine de Gide, but I will continue working on it. It is quite obvious that my art is about women in our society. That’s my main theme. Without being a feminist, I think that we women must be strong and take our responsibilities. We are responsible for the world. Women are at the beginning of everything. After all, they are the ones who raise the little boys. We have put a lot of effort into finding our freedom and our equality with men, but now that we’re getting there, that freedom is eroded little by little. That’s why each of us has the duty to fight to maintain that freedom.
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Le dos La Madeleine de Gide series Photography Digital print 2016
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I photograph womankind in all its richness and forms, from the insolent and mocking woman to the submitted one. All women interest me. We are all very different, and even inside one woman there are several others. That’s what I tried to show with the series Doppelgänger, women struggling with their contradictions. Tell us about Daydream I started working on Daydream in 2014, at a time when there was much talk about the veil. Gradually the colorful feminine universe was covered with a black veil, so I started making a colorful series (mainly in primary colors) as opposed to the darkness of the ghostly garb. I’ve injected a hint of frustration. The Cry, for example (inspired by a triptych by Francis Bacon), I clearly wanted to be about a woman who suffocates under the veil (this time a bride’s veil). She opens her mouth to scream, but there is no one to hear her. Other images of the series are variations of the same theme, like the woman under glass, or the woman vomiting a veil but also women who, in contrast, gave up and just accept it. After all, as it is not an obligation but a choice, I make no judgment. Women do what they want. In contrast, when it is a man who decides, it becomes ridiculous and monstrous.
Les-ongles-rouges La Madeleine de Gide series Photography Digital print 2016
Madeleine La Madeleine de Gide series Photography Digital print 2016
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In your work, a concealment of the subject’s face is recurring, as in L’après-coup, Fur, Canon de beauté, etc. What kind of message do you want to transmit to the viewer? Tell us about these works. As soon as we see a face, we think of a specific person. The human face is very surprising: it defines a single specific being and not a human in general, which is not the case with the human body. I try to make these pictures universal, by not giving an identity to the subjects. Another aspect of your work is to portray static women, almost lifeless, almost mannequins… The idea that I am most afraid of is the submissive woman, like in the science fiction movie Soylent Green from the seventies,
Les soeurs Les ravissants series Photography Digital print 2016
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Les trophets Les ravissants series Photography Digital print 2016
where women are considered (to be) furniture. Tell us about Misfits Misfits is about the role of women in society, but this time it is the women who have gotten themselves into trouble. Let’s say that the white space is an empty world, where everything is yet to be created. The woman has all the space in the world, and constructs a story around it. For example, in Domestic Violence a naked woman with pretty red shoes is alone with a dresser; her dresser contains its spirit and history. One might think that the woman only has to be beautiful, but a woman is not that simple, she finds a way to get her hair stuck in the dresser’s drawer. Women are complex.
Hauts les mains Les ravissants series Photography Digital print 2016
Les soeurs Les ravissants series Photography Digital print 2016
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La femme cache Daydream series Photography Digital print 2016
Plein air Daydream series Photography Digital print 2016
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Cache cache Daydream series Photography Digital print 2015
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Le chemin Daydream series Photography Digital print 2014
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One of your series that I like best is Splash. The image fragmented into water reminds me the Impressionist painting. Tell us about how you came up with this idea and how you developed it. Splash is about rebirth. A woman merged with water like a child in the mother’s belly. I began to photograph a naked woman under water like an embryo. It was just a simple image, a decorative picture, and I quickly realized it lacked color. So I played around with dresses in bright colors and the reflections of the water. A try to capture a process in progress rather than a fixed state frozen in time, like still frames of a kaleidoscopic vision of a woman who is about to surface, so metaphorically to be born. What about Les femmes sont rentrèes de la guerre? The diptych Women Returning Back Home From The War is an allegory of the courageous and combatant woman, a sort of an amazon warrior. On the left there are sexy women covered in bandages because they have been in battle. On the other side, there are men like children waiting in line to be able to look through the small hole of the “lock” but one of the women is covering it. What are you working on at the moment? I am refining and taking further the La Madeleine de Gide series. I’ve already written a book (out of it), but I want to publish an even more beautiful version. I rarely took pictures as romantic ones and it amuses me to go in that direction. These are pictures that come close to paintings. Seen like that, it’s like renewal.
perdue Daydream series Photography Digital print 2015 Le vent Daydream series Photography Digital print 2015 Le cri Daydream series Photography Digital print 2014
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Le saut Daydream series Photography Digital print 2015 MADE IN MIND | 15
Les-silos Daydream series Photography Digital print 2014
Au solei Daydream series Photography Digital print 2014
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Se voiler la face Daydream series Photography Digital print 2015
Les soeurs Daydream series Photography Digital print 2014
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What are your favorite artists? Medieval art is my main source of inspiration. Paintings and sculptures of the so called dark ages before the dawn of the modern era that seems is coming to an end, remind me of the contemporary violent eruptions of the sacred dimension of existence and the longing for appeasement. As if we were living again a dialectical battle of two coexisting worlds, the manifestation of inhuman punishment and devoted love, Hieronymus Bosch’s Inferno and it’s apparently peaceful counterpart, the medieval Pietà. Erwin Olaf and Diane Arbus are definitly the two photographers that influenced me most. Can you tell a bit about the inspiration behind DOPPELGÄNGER series? A family photo. I had already seen Shining of Kubrick, and the twins terrified me. These same twins were inspired by Diane Arbus’s Identifical Twins. Then I accidentally found a picture of my sister and me dressed in the same way, stareing at the camera, and I thought that we all have a twin that we have to face one day. The one who we compare us with or we are compared with, and who confronts us with the question of who we are.
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What is the role of the artist in today’s society? Certainly, the artist is at the center of his time. An artist transforms the exterior world into a symbolic object, a so called piece of art. Art is the dissemination of the essence of a given epoch, it is the artefact of a precise period of life. In a certain way, art is in a constant struggle with journalism, but art always wins because its means of capturing truth are more refined and subtle. In my case, I proceed methodically unconsciously, avoiding to deliver an explicit message. What role does autobiography play in your current work? I never directly address my own life in my work, but when I look at my drawings of erotic women, tied up, often bearing scars, I think it comes from my childhood. As a young girl I was desperately loving my mum who was sick and who spent the end of her life in a hospital attached to a web of wires and tubes. I saw her naked and the numerous scars on her body. My mother, her illness and death, the passionate love I had for her, are certainly the gravitational center of my creative research.
Fur Photography Digital print 2015
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Amphitrite Splash series Photography Digital print 2014
CercĂŠis Splash series Photography Digital print 2014
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Asia Splash series Photography Digital print 2014
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Chloris Splash series Photography Digital print 2014
ĂŠgĂŠrie Splash series Photography Digital print 2014
Thyia Splash series Photography Digital print 2014
Lilith et Lilith Doppelgänger series Photography Digital print 2012
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Farniyaz Zaker
How did you get into art? Did you attend art school? I have a long-standing interest in Fine Art, particularly in textiles and the way they communicate with architectural space. My work has been exhibited internationally since 2002, garnering numerous awards. In 2006 I graduated with a BA in Textiles and Carpet Art Studies from the Art University of Tehran, where I have studied the techniques, artistic traditions and cultural/geographical particularities of textiles and carpets. But it was only in 2008, when I embarked on an MA in Textile Design at the Winchester School of Art (Southampton University), that textiles and carpets became an intrinsic part of my practice. During that period, I was particularly interested in the richness of garden design carpets and textiles, and in their mutual relationship with architecture. Subsequently, I decided to engage with this subject not only through my art practice, but also theoretically and academically. I had the privilege to be awarded the Lamb and Flag scholarship of St John’s College in 2011, which allowed me to pursue a DPhil (PhD) in Fine Arts (theory and practice) at Oxford University’s Ruskin School of Art. Completing my studies in 2015/16, I used this time to study how sexuality has been embodied architecturally, and to express my insights and questions through my artworks. What are your artistic influences? The spaces and the places that I used to dwell on have had a direct impact on my practice. I believe that the built environment surrounding us is invested with meaning and engenders human subjectivity. And, while I try to express this through my work, the latter is itself shaped by these processes.
There are also a number of artists that have influenced my work, among whom I should mention Eva Hesse, Rebecca Horn and Mira Schendel. One of the features of your work is the use of words, like in text]tiles, [in/out]side…Could you explain to us a bit more what role words play in your conceptual process? Words and text are an integral part of my art practice. I enjoy playing with the parallels between text and textiles, and I’m trying to create a language of textiles. My engagement with language and text as a medium began with a series of artworks that used, altered and recreated textiles, especially carpets. These works compared the intricate patterns and forms of certain textiles to text. The design of carpets, for instance, has often been a vehicle for the stories of those who have woven or commissioned them. Moreover, there are numerous structural similarities between text and textiles, such as their linear and accumulative nature. In my practice, words – rather than being mere passive signifiers – are involved in the making of meaning and the evocation of various associations and experiences. I use words to establish connections between different kinds of materials and spaces. Can you talk about [Ge]wand series; how did it evolve? This series stemmed from my doctoral research, more precisely, from my discovery that the German words for wall (‘Wand’) and dress (‘Gewand’) share the same root. I decided to exploit this for my practice. All the three works – [Ge]wand I (2012), [Ge]wand II (2013), and
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a black dress, a red dress ([Ge]wand III) (2013) – invite the audience to read these words through different materials and contemplate the relation between gender, language, textiles, text and architecture. What subjects do you deal with in your art? In my practice, I position the body, architecture and clothing in a reciprocal relationship. My works dwell mostly on the interactions between and within different built environments. My practice, for instance, asks why open space is a symbol of freedom, threat and vulnerability (the etymological root of the word “bad” is “open”), while place, in contrast, is an enclosed space that symbolises and suggests safety. My sculptures and installations tend to reference the body, clothing, architecture and language. They are often site-specific, i.e. installed with sensitivity to their environment and context. I aim to place my work in a way that allows it to interact with the built environment surrounding it. My work tries to use and redefine the space in which it is installed; and it highlights that the build environment is not a static and neutral space, but that it is empowered by (and empowering) human subjects. What about Primeval Relationship project? Can you talk about this series and the idea behind it? Since 19th century, architects and theorists of architecture have paid increasing attention to the links between textiles, clothing and architecture. Primeval Relationship I and II investigate these connections. Primeval Relationship I covers the walls and floor of the gallery with four hand-woven carpets and their elongated fringes. The four carpets are devoid of ornaments, akin to the walls of a modern building. Primeval Relationship II is a cloth pillar that stands in the middle of the gallery’s space, rhyming with the space’s structural columns. Both works allude to Gottfried Semper’s (1803-1879) theory regarding the origins of architecture in textiles.
THE WOMAN IN THE W/MALL Installation Something There Was That Must Have Loved a Wall, Pi Artworks Gallery, Istanbul, 2016 Electric motor and wooden letters 30 x 35 x 5 cm - 12 x 14 x 2 inches 2016
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[Ge]wand II Installation Arte Laguna Prize, Arsenale Venice, Venice, Italy, 2014 Ink on white paint Dimensions variable 2013
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Primeval Relationship IÂ Installation Something There Was That Must Have Loved a Wall, Pi Artworks Gallery, Istanbul, 2016 Wool and cotton 80 x 450 cm - 31,5 x 177 inches 2014
What role should the artist play in society? In my opinion, one’s practice should be informed by, but not limited to, one’s own personal story and experiences. In other words, the artist should be able to reflect on her/his ‘contemporaneity’. Could you describe to us the Untitled-2010/2011 site specifically? How did you come to the project? Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in Middle Eastern art on the art market. It seems that some artists have promoted themselves (or were promoted) by reproducing exotic and Orientalist clichés about Islam and Muslim women. The image of a veiled woman in black (often
[Ge]wand II (Detail) Installation Arte Laguna Prize, Arsenale Venice, Venice, Italy, 2014 Ink on white paint Dimensions variable 2013
often connected to violence and oppression) has been one of the hallmarks of this phenomenon. Untitled-2010/2011, which was exhibited at the Sharjah Art Museum and consists of a wallpaper featuring a repetitive colourful veiled woman motif, both symbolises and challenges (through inversion) the mass production of such clichés. What role does autobiography play in your work? The spaces and places that I have dwelled on have engendered a personal significance that exceeds their physical dimension and is reflected in my practice. In other words, my works are an account of my spatial existence.
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What are you working on at the moment? I am working on an installation entitled Poetics of a Non-Place. The term Non-Place was coined by Marc AugÊ, who used it to describe places that are incapable of evoking a real sense of dwelling, such as stadia, airports, terminals and refugee camps. I have already mentioned that some of my work engages with the dichotomy of open space = danger vs. enclosed space = safety. Poetics of a Non-Place breaks down this dichotomy, by creating an enclosed mazelike space that is also open and transient and hence incapable of evoking a sense of dwelling and belonging – a Non-Place. The work is an examination of the spatial dimensions of liminality, ranging from boundaries, borders and disputed territories to environments that people pass through but do not live in.
[Ge]wand I Installation A House is Not A Hotel, Pi Artworks Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 2014 White cotton fabric, ink and mixed media Dimensions variable 2012
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The Cone Place Site-specific installation, Primeval Relationship, The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2014Â 5000 paper cones Dimensions variable 2014
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a black dress, a red dress ([Ge]wand III) Site specific installation re-enveloped, King Way’s Corridor, Goldsmiths College, London, United Kingdom 2013 MADE IN MIND | 33
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Primeval Relationship II Site specific installation, Primeval Relationship, The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2014 White fabric, foam, mirrors 30 x 30 x 300 cm - 12 x 12 x 118 inches 2014
[in/out]side (Detail) Site-specific installation, Hart Synnot House, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2015 Ink on fabric 50 x 450 cm - 20 x 177 inches 2015
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Somatic Memories II Primeval Relationship, The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2014 Acetate sheets and paint 50 x 85 cm - 20 x 33 inches 2014
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[in/out]side (Detail) Site-specific installation, Hart Synnot House, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2015 Ink on fabric 50 x 450 cm - 19 x 177 inches 2015
Farniyaz Zaker is an Iranian born UK-based artist. Located between architectural theory and gender studies her art-practice and writing largely deal with the nexus of body, society and place. Her practice ranges from site-specific installations to video, sound and drawing. Much of her practice explores how bodily practices and spatial awareness define our sense of identity, belonging and the very concept of knowledge. Her work is both generative and corrosive of boundaries, such as the one between architecture and clothing. It often employs transparency and opacity, repetition and memorisation, text and textiles and plays with notions of the public and the private, the physical and the psychological. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards. In 2011 she was awarded the Lamb and Flag scholarship from St John’s College of the University of Oxford, which enabled her to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Art. She was awarded the Birgit Skiold Memorial Trust Prize in 2011 at the International Print Biennial; and most recently, she has been selected for the Arte Laguna Prize 2014 (Sculpture and Installation Section), in Venice, Italy. farniyazzaker.com/
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Alexis Avlamis
When did you first become interested in art? At the age of 14, I had the chance to explore up close the George Costakis collection of Russian Avant-garde art. I was struck by the pioneering work of Wassily Kandinsky. He was one of the most original and influential artists of the twentieth-century. His “inner necessity” to express his emotional perceptions led to the development of an abstract style of painting that was based on the non-representational properties of color and form. Up close, his powerful, vibrant and beautiful compositions moved me deeply, and that day was crucial to pursue an artist’s path. A year later, I took Painting and Ceramics studio classes at Bennington College in Vermont, USA; a life changing and encouraging experience, which also led me to the decision on becoming a painter. Who or what is your biggest influence or inspiration right now? Currently, I am reading a monograph on the extraordinary work of the American sculptress, Lee Bontecou. Her beautiful and intriguing biomorphic sculptures
Noah’s ark, detail Coloured and mechanical pencils, pen and ink, oil pigment sticks and gouache on paper 116 x 137 cm - 46 x 54 inches 2009
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Explosion, detail Coloured and mechanical pencils , crayon,gouache, pen and ink on paper 160 x 180 cm - 63 x 71 inches 2009
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Agony, detail Coloured and mechanical pencils, ballpoint pen, gouache and charcoal on paper 56 x 75 cm - 22 x 30 inches 2009
and drawings fascinate me, as well as her bold decision to drop out of the gallery scene, devoting herself to teaching and focusing solely on her sculptures. Another artist whose work enchants me is the Swiss-born Symbolist Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901). I am currently immersed into his striking “Island of the dead”, perhaps his best-known painting. Böcklin produced several different versions of the painting. All versions depict an oarsman and a standing whiteclad figure in a small boat crossing dark waters towards a rocky island. In the boat there is an object, usually taken to be a coffin. The white-clad figure is often taken to be Charon, and the water analogous to the Acheron river. Böcklin himself provided neither public explanation as to the meaning of the painting nor the title. What themes do you pursue? The main theme is the notion of Utopia, a vision for an ideal manifestation of the future. I explore the concept through the rendering of artworks that delve into the notion of Utopia in a topographic manner, leading to the creation of cosmographic maps. These otherworldly landscapes merge the outer space, science fiction, digital age, world myths, the east and the west, nature vs industry with an urge for exploration and adventure. My drive is to create symbiotic relationships between the various elements that appear on the surface and impart a state of a Jungian wholeness: a state in which consciousness and the unconscious mind work together in harmony. When all of the elements of a piece combine to make a balanced, harmonious and complete whole.The result is suggestive: a cluster of various microcosms inviting the viewer to explore both the parts of the whole and the sum of the parts.
Ascending Coloured pencils, watercolour, oil pastels and marker pen on paper 170 x 170 cm - 67 x 67 inches 2010
Can you talk to us about your approach in general? What characterises your work? My practice is improvisational in nature and suggestive. On a first reading, the imagery seems complex and enigmatic, making oneself question if there is any meaning at all. But, meaning becomes secondary to a subtle, ambiguous and atmospheric arrangement of emotions and thoughts. The emphasis is given on biodiversity, as seen in nature as well as on an ongoing interest in the variety of life on earth. The outer space, , technology, aerial views, geometry, flora and fauna, repetition, obsession, rhythm, eastern and western art forms: they all feed my process. In addition, reading mountain maps and hiking has greatly informed my work, by drawing trails, dotted lines, zig zags, contours, beams and rays are recurring details and serve as connecting bridges. Words, sentences and quotes play an important role, too. As I scan the image, I carefully select the spot on the painting surface, where it feels to be the most appropriate for my choice of words, as if the picture is a traveller’s map, where each toponym has its own name and history. Besides the meaning (if there is any), the phrase, the sentence, the word or the number become an integral part of the composition, differentiating themselves from the rest of the visual information, since written language appears to be more familiar to the human eye. Maybe, I subconsciously play with what historian Plutarch said in the past: “Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks”.
Duality Acrylic and coloured pencils on canvas 200 x 200 cm - 79 x 79 inches 2010
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Could you tell us about Cosmic Unity? How did you come to the project? The series Cosmic Unity is comprised of approximately 45 paintings. It came from an intrinsic need to harmoniously unite the complexities of the world and the intricate forces that shape it. It is strongly characterized by a black background and various silhouette vectors found on the internet. The use of black color as a background emerged from an admiration for Kandinsky’s early works painted on a dark canvas, influenced by Bavaria’s local folk art. another trigger was looking down into luminous nightscapes from a higher level, for example a mountain peak. I sought to create a sense of drama, bringing bright colors to stand out, as seen in folk art and embroideries. perhaps, the presence of black corresponds to eternal silence and darkness at the end of life. By going against it, hope rises from within the canvas as a bright light, like an instant flash reminiscent of a fabricated universe in constant motion and change.
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Tell us a little bit about your process, how do you begin working on a piece? Constructing alternative realities, I start working from scratch without the use of preliminary sketches or photographs. my motivation is to go with the flow by tapping into a stream of consciousness, while taking advantage of any accidents that might occur during the process. usually, I paint with acrylics, pen and ink, encaustic, ballpoint pen as well as colored and mechanical pencils. regardless of the medium, the seeds of my ideas sprout and grow organically as I improvise, weave, add and overlay. various forms of natural and manmade organisms are interdependent and seem to live together in harmony. The dreamlike outcome brings into mind visionary architecture, space-machines, weather phenomena, mythical hybrids, mountains, material culture, numbers and texts, to name a few. The visual result is a cluster of various microcosms inviting the viewer to explore both the parts of the whole and the sum of the parts.
seLf-controL Coloured and mechanical pencils, gouache and charcoal on paper 56 x 75 cm - 22 x 30 inches 2011
Envisioned Acrylic, coloured pencils and ballpoint pen on paper 140 x 160 cm - 55 x 63 inches 2011
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The butterfly effect Acrylic on canvas 100 x 100 cm - 39 x 39 inches 2015 42 | MADE IN MIND
A forgotten parachute Acrylic on canvas 50 x 50 cm - 20 x 20 inches 2015 MADE IN MIND | 45
Easy rider Acrylic on canvas 100 x 100 cm - 39 x 39 inches 2015
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I hope my work functions as a spiritual journey, a magical world where someone can project his/her own association of ideas and experiences. When a series comes to an end, I step on to the next one.
Whatever the style or materials employed, the subject matter has constantly been dreamy “landscapes of the mind”. My fuel is restlessness, patience, doubts, faith and persistent good working habits.
How has your style changed over the years? II see my work as an evolution of visual vocabulary, skills enhancement, brainstorming, meaning and vision. Progress, though, is made through back and forth steps and by occasionally making pieces that serve as a milestone in the course of my practice. It’s funny to see how crude my paintings were at the beginning and how they evolved from naïve-like to abstract and to neo-surrealism.
Tell us about Phantasmagoria Series As a word, Phantasmagoria is a marriage of old French fantasme and the Greek agora – assemby. It is defined as a confusing or strange scene that is like a dream, because it is always changing in an odd way. The paper-based Phantasmagoria series is linked to the notion of transformation and originated from a technical need to jump
Controversy, detail Encaustic on canvas 150 x 150 cm - 50 x 59 inches 2006
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from the visceral encaustic technique to colored pencils, ballpoint pens, aquarelle and charcoal. These materials offered me the vehicle to work with surgical precision and build up a series of twenty intricate and ethereal drawings. Viewed up close, the images may appear labyrinthine, dense and complex. Viewed from afar, the pieces may look like islands, maps, aerial views, anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figures, cross sections, totems and solid rocks. The main characteristic here is visual polysemy, which in turn draws information by anthropomorphism: the attribution of human motivation, characteristics or behavior to nonhuman organisms or inanimate objects, for example rocks, clouds and water. Commonly found elements are faces, stripes, fir trees, shelters, breasts, peaks, shark fins, arrows, bricks and buildings, to name a few. Each drawing displays words and phrases, written in Greek and English. Some of the quotes are borrowed from influential writers and philosophers, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Jorge Luis Borges or Mikhail Bulgakov. Some others were conceived from a necessity to verbalize my emotional reasoning, to communicate and convey messages to the audience. These words are either spontaneously made up or recalled from my childhood. They follow the direction of forms and shapes, such as rivers, roads, waterfalls or staircases leading to the sky.
Overflow (detail) Encaustic on canvas 160 x 250 cm - 63 x 98 inches 2007 Entropy Encaustic on plywood 200 x 200 cm - 79 x 79 inches 2008
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Alexis Avlamis was born in Athens, Greece in
Center, Finland. Publications and interviews in-
1979. He received his BFA (hons) in Painting and
clude the Fresh Paint Magazine (International
Mosaic from the Athens School of Fine Arts.
Issue 11), The Best of IEAA award (PixaLib), the
He has been selected for «Anthology», Charlie
Hesa in-print (Helsinki), Mamut Art Project (Istan-
Smith London gallery – the «Artist Statement»
bul), the Drawing Center’s curated Viewing Pro-
show, CICA Museum, S.Korea – shortlisted for
gram and Art21’s: “Inside the Artist’s Studio” blog
the Bloom Award, Cologne and is twice a laureate
(January 2010).
of the International Emerging Artist Award, which
Through improvisation, intuition and by tapping
saw his works showcased in Dubai and Brussels,
into a stream of consciousness, he constructs
respectively. He has attended artist residencies
“landscapes of the mind” aiming at a cosmic unity,
such as Vermont Studio Center, USA – the Beijing
where everything, existent and fabricated is con-
Studio Center, China and the Arteles Creative
nected.
Under siege, detail Encaustic on canvas 220 x 250 cm - 87 x 98 inches 2008
alexisavlamis.com
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Martyna JastrzEbska
How did you get into art? I wasn’t born into a family with artistic roots, but I grew up believing that the world has to be observed and that we have to find our own way of expressing important issues. For me, art has never been about creating “something pretty”, but creating commentary on the surrounding reality and the processes which I witness and I am part of. Processes which fascinate and scare me. In my opinion, art has always been about posing questions and engaging in communication. What influenced you as an artist while growing up? I am keenly aware of who I am, what I want and why I’m doing this and not something else. Still, I believe that an artist who claims to be fullyformed is an embarrassment. I am focused on the journey and driven by an insatiable hunger. Where do you live? How important is your environment in shaping your work? I do not have a sentimental view of Poland, but living and working here is my own choice.
WAITING Sculpture Bitumix 2014
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Saturday Photography 2016
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Classroom Installation Bitumix 2014
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VERGESSENHEIT Installation Bitumix 2015
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Tales of The Old Continent vol1 Installation 2016
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WAITING Sculpture Bitumix 2014
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W is for wall A is for anger I is for incline T is for tic-tack I is for injustice N is for naught G is for good
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It is a country of contradictions, unfinished processes of social awareness. For an artist, such a place has its benefits. I work with themes of denial, deformation of memory and history. This can be done in other places, or as an observer from abroad. For the time being, I wish to remain “inside” until I have the strength to struggle with my own country. What type of materials do you use for your sculptures? Tell us a bit about how you’ve arrived within your current practice. I work with different materials – currently with neon light and concrete, but bitumix, which is my signature technique, is what I find really one of a kind. It came to be over countless experiments, which I conducted to test new solutions and combinations. I was looking for a substance that was liquid and durable, smooth and grainy, glossy and matte. And black. What is the meaning of the object’s transformation through the bitumen? Why did you choose this? Can you talk about the idea behind? I created this material when I was beginning my work on pieces that discussed symbols and meanings, and how they can be deformed and suspended in a state of change.
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Over those 4 years, after a series of health issues (bitumix is initially highly toxic) I learned to fully control this material. The airways and skin must be protected, because exposure to the components of the mixture can cause both burns and frostbite; moreover, it might lead to a miscarriage. Bitumix is based on a bitumen and glue mixture. The Bitumix is layered upon a form, composed mostly of plaster mesh and gypsum. It is then modelled, reinforced and secured. Depending on the scale of the piece, it is a process that takes at least several weeks. Bitumix can be matte, gloss, rough or smooth. It can bloat or drip. It can be used to work on pieces ranging from small to large. Every installation or piece functions autonomously. What symbols or forms I discuss when constructing my works depends on a given design and the subject I’m working on at that moment. While photographing the “Saturday” installation, bitumix came into direct contact with my body. I had it in my mouth and on my face – I started to really “perform” this material. Could you tell us about Waiting? How did you get this idea and what is its history? Is it your first urban intervention? A friend of mine told me that she’s not buying an apartment because a war may start soon,
and having a flat in Poland would be pointless then. But war is raging across the world already. People are afraid, and the constant waiting – for worst or better times – is frustrating. Archaic, simplified shapes of bombs that haven’t exploded, caught in decay, but still very dangerous, ready to be detonated at any moment. WAITING was not my first design in urban space. It’s also not finished yet. I created a new object for each location – selecting the small, humble areas of the big city. I was interested in the interplay between surprise and fear. I had a problem with placing my work in London - the piece, from the metro there, returned to Poland and now awaits to be housed in a new place. What do you think about public art? what do you think should be its role in our society? Considering how far-reaching it can be, public art should ask questions about our daily lives. I don’t see the point of littering cities with transparent objects that society will leisurely get accustomed to. What is your dream project? For me, art is not the means to make dreams come true. I see it as a struggle – with myself and the audience. I think of dreams in terms of time – to manage to reach the age of 99 and, like Louise Bourgeois, work until my final days and still have something important to convey.
A different state Sculpture bitumix 2014
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Martyna Jastrzębska (born in 1987) – an interme-
Martyna Jastrzębska continues exploring the no-
dia artist and a graduate of The Academy of Fine
tions that began in the work entitled Once Upon
Arts in Gdańsk .
a Time (2013) – the “unmemory” – a deformed
Since 2013 Martyna Jastrzębska has been work-
consciousness, the “bad” memory that impairs the
ing with “bitumix” which constitutes her signature
clear message of symbols and events.
technique utilising a variety of mixtures of glues
Currently during doctoral program (PhD).
and bitumen. This material has become the means of expression for the artists’ interests – focused
martyna-jastrzebska.com
around imitating organic and ambiguous matter. Placing objects and symbols that function in the popular imagination in new contexts has been an important motif in her artistic activity.
Once Upon a Time Installation Bitumix 2013