Third Issue
magazine
KRISTIAN RASMUSSEN 路 BILLIE BAILEY CHRISTINA ELVIRA GODSK 路 JUAN BARQUERO FELIX DOLAH 路 AXEL VAN DER WAAL 路 ADEY 1
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Welcome to the Third Issue of the Novam Artem Magazine, the spring 2018 release.
cover by Axel Van Der Waal
Novam Artem is an international art society. We exist in order to present new art and cultures at the heart of you; the public - the hub. Our goal is to inspire you, for you to seek out, indulge in and be awakened by the variety of works the contemporary art world has to offer. We wish to provide the emerging and neglected international artists with a platform - a voice to the laity.
editororial & design jakob hindhede connie boe boss poul brasch
We salute the diversity of a free artistic culture; presenting the thriving creative of today’s art world... We’ve made this with an international outlook; collaborating with visual artists from all around the globe to dissolve all borders that might exist... We’ve made this so that you, the reader of this magazine, can gain further insight into the often-unnoticed and flourishing creative universe that surrounds you... With this, we encourage you to open your eyes; we hope you will explore more of the creativity that too often stays hidden in your everyday surroundings...
general contact hello@novamartem.dk sales & marketing sales@novamartem.dk editorial contact magazine@novamartem.dk contributors kristian rasmussen billie bailey christina elvira godsk juan barquero felix dolah axel van der waal adey printed at mølholm print nrd. fasanvej 91 dk-2000 frb Novam Artem IVS DK-37891584 Copenhagen Denmark All rights reserved! No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means without the publisher’s written permission.
Enjoy
Special thanks to tina vehage lorien & gallerie lorien
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painter
FELIX DOLAH „Every single brushstroke I perform is perfect in it’s imperfection. Imperfect as life itself. It emerges what must emerge when I unify these imperfections.. Due to the fact that I can talk about whatever I want, I will gladly use this opportunity to respond to the question I lately get very often; Why did you entitle one of your works Teheran? (page 6-7) I never visited Iran and I dont know much about it... or do I? What I know for a fact is that over the past year I got an immense amount of messages from Iran. People who wrote to me telling me that they feel connected to my works. I don’t want to know why... I don’t want explanations for why they feel like this, but I love it! I guess it is well important to know that I never sat down, saying to myself: Ok Felix, today you will paint a picture dealing with Iran. What I did was the exact same thing I do every day. I tried to bring a slight piece of my own inner world onto the paper. At the point when I was halfway through I thought: Iran! Again, I dont want to know why. But it felt absolutely right. But why Teheran? Its very simple, yes, even trivial: For me “Teheran” sounds better than “Iran”. That’s why. Think of it as you like, but for me it’s one of the most wonderful works I have ever done. It shows me that Art is able to overcome distances, languages, prejudices and borders. It makes it possible that we, as human beings, are able to communicate without words, no matter who we are. And no matter where or when we are. And right now I remember the last sentence from the last interview I gave. It was a quote of Hamlet. I will end this text the exact same way: Words, words, words”.
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PHOTOGRAPHER
ADEY
AdeY is a British born photographer based in Malmö, Sweden. His work captures those little moments of social oppression, humour, isolation, anxiety and depression. It recognises that we not only change in relationship to our environment but that our environment adapts to what we become. The images depict imbalances evident in the contemporary society today by directly addressing issues of gender, normative behaviour and how society forces us to choose one direction or path. The subjects show our venerability, loneliness, strengths and expectations whilst highlighting the correlation between body and space. By questioning the constructs all around us his work has been met with constant censorship on social media and has been removed from an number of different platforms. His open letter to Instagram gained international recognition by being shared though a number of news and media outlets. AdeY’s work has been exhibited throughout the world and in 2015 he self published his first photobook “Right and Left”. During 2016 AdeY collaborated with Swedish photographer Kersti K and print publisher This Very Instant to produce the split zine “Avalanche”. After the success of the first collaboration they released the second split zine “HEATH” in 2017.
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painter
JUAN BARQUERO “It’s just my feelings, everything is spontaneous without sketches or imposed scenarios! “ Juan is a French painter born in Chile, currently based in France. The art of Juan Barquero isa sophisticated psychological double articulate in the circles and techniques that reach themes of sensuality, corporeality and temporality. A poetic sensibility suspends parts of the human condition could otherwise be felt. Juan’s work traces a journey into a vast body is always skillfully rendered by the designer and the painter. Celebrate the sweet contours of the female body with fine, sensual, fluid lines that refer to the dance without restraint, an intense by introducing sustainable themes of sensuality, corporality and temporality.
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multidisiplinary artist
AXEL VAN DER WAAL If you ask him, Axel will say he came to be an artist out of a place everyone knows, called boredom. Silencing, invisible boredom. Its expected cycles, its wasted time, and the insignificant objects it leaves along the way. That fascinating boredom, made out of the same elements that put an end to it, is central to Axel’s work. His particular interest is in the expression and feeling of time, and how it shapes and is shaped along with our connection with nature and to each other. The results have taken many shapes including experimental music, video installations, illustration, even sculptures with furs and feathers. Among his current work is a series of animal head pieces in which a shape is modelled out of wire and discarded material, dressed by natural furs, and completed with a wide range of weird and wonderful items that Axel sources and collects. The final pieces are worn, and characters such as the Rabbit appear - along with their own way and ability to exist. The playful side in Axel’s work becomes a universal invitation to share deeper concepts with the artist, despite himself. Animal heads trigger empathy with those creatures seemingly out of place. Music comes to life when heard, even when it is seemingly from another world. In his latest work, Axel illustrates poems and invites you into a world, which this time is not his. In 2017 Axel collaborated with French author Martin Ludwig to create “Mes vies désoeuvrent”: a selection of contemporary poems that look at everyday matters and thoughts, with a welcome dose of self-mockery. The digital paintings (featured in this issue) accompany readers along a poetic, inwards journey. But not only. By creating tangible illustrations, Axel aims not to impose his vision on the reader, but to give each of those worlds created by Martin’s words, a way to exist on their own, be reinterpreted, be their own world, or someone else’s. Axel’s creations remind us of the many worlds within a world. He shares his and leaves room for ours, through a process that remains accessible to all, and ends up being as humbling as it is empowering.
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ILLUSTRATOR
KRISTIAN RASMUSSEN “Systems” started with one question: How complicated an issue/topic/matter can a single image hold? For example would it be possible, in a simple way, to show the alienating and dehumanising effects of using social media in a single image? The question bifurcated: What should the focus of such images be? And how should they look? The answer to the first question ended up being discourses — images that could unearth the invisible puppet strings of modern life. This also gave birth to the title of the series, Systems. In other words, the series should be a language for modernity’s hidden power structures — all the stuff that controls us but we don’t talk about, because we don’t have a language to express the ramifications of these power structures or, just as importantly, what it feels like to be a subject living under these. The answer to the second question: Simple, but easily recognisable — something highly idiosyncratic with its own ruleset and internal logic making it work like its own visual alphabet. But it also needed to tickle my creative ego — it had to be something fun and exciting to create and explore, like creating a vast jungle and having the individual artworks serve as a map through the wilderness.
Belief System
{ Excerpt from Motivations, The stories and motivation behind Systems }
Steve has it all figured out. He knows how it all connects. No one can tell him a damn thing! Steve finds his state of complete enlightenment glorious. No one can stand Steve!
Beauty
{ Excerpt from Motivations, The stories and motivation behind Systems }
Discipline! Control! Restrain! Do as we say! Discipline! Control! Restrain!
Beijing
{ Excerpt from Motivations, The stories and motivation behind Systems }
Welcome to the Fourth Ring of Dante’s Hell. — where the worst of fascism and inhuman demands to productivity and efficiency has merged into the most dehumanising machinery in history. Dear citizens of Beijing: Give a cough if you can hear me..
Dogma
{ Excerpt from Motivations, The stories and motivation behind Systems }
There is no such thing as an absolute!
Emissary
{ Excerpt from Motivations, The stories and motivation behind Systems }
When Steve started working for the company he was considered a reasonable and nice guy.
This meant Steve pressed pause on his personal ethics and beliefs many a time — orders were orders.
Company rules were strict: Don’t let anyone get in our way. We do things our way or not at all!
Till one day Steve realised there really wasn’t anything left of “Steve”. He had become the living embodiment of company rules. He had become the system he worked for.
As the company’s foremost field agent Steve followed company protocol to the letter, no complaints. So — as they say in the business — eggs had to be broken …
R.I.P. Steve
Excel
{ Excerpt from Motivations, The stories and motivation behind Systems }
Another rant from the famous Swedish statistician: “Take a look at these ten people from an undisclosed village in The Southern Hemisphere for example: Last year they made an average of 10$ a year, but this year they make an average of a 100$. — Now, that is progress you can take to the bank!”
remaining members of the study group still makes 10$ a year.”
Question from the audience: “But your numbers also show, that it is only one of the people in your study that has had an actual increase in his yearly income, which rose from 10 to 1000$ due to him brushing up on his Java scripting skills. The nine
We don’t live in The Modern Age, or The Atomic Age or any such Age. We live in The Age Of The Spreadsheet.
A jolt rushes through the Swedish statistician. “Bah! Only persnickety fools concern themselves with the individual!”
Reducing people to numbers is its most defining trait.
Japan
{ Excerpt from Motivations, The stories and motivation behind Systems }
Japan was once defined by craft and honor. Then the British paid a visit. Trade negotions ensued and things changed. Now Japan is an inhuman, techno fetichistic behemoth cut off from it’s roots. Get back, Nippon, get back to where you once belonged ‌
Malkovich
{ Excerpt from Motivations, The stories and motivation behind Systems }
In the movie Being John Malkovich (1999, director: Spike Jonze, script: Charlie Kaufman) it is somehow possible for people to enter the mind of actor John Malkovich and see the world through his eyes. — hilarious, thought provoking. Makes you think. If it’s true that all culture is laced with ideology … Is watching a movie the same as seeing the world through the eyes of someone else?
Social Media
{ Excerpt from Motivations, The stories and motivation behind Systems }
The machine is vast and all-encompassing. You can really communicate with this machine. — with anyone at any time, any way you want. Talk, discuss, share ideas, refute ideas, you name it. But the machine can never let you be with anyone.
painter
CHRISTINA ELVIRA GODSK Christina Elvira Godsk’s work is often recognized by her humanized creatures and genderless individuals - a constant element in her work. Her paintings often resemble a distant and melancholic universe. Existentialism and human duality are a central point of her work – always influenced by her own questions of life at the moment of creation. The longing for something unknown has chased Elvira throughout life; and from this feeling grew a need to express herself through art. Her paintings portray a paradox between the known & the unknown, the obvious & the obscure, the spiritual & the carnal - unpretentiously, the many aspects of life. Elvira is attracted to colors, patterns and, as an artist; she is constantly experimenting with different materials and techniques. The use of figurative and naive language bears a resemblance to Street Art, Expressionism and Art Brut. “Christina Elvira Godsk portrays the psychological -like physical state in a quite easy, effortless and visually strong way. Excellence is the product of her artistic work that results in a simple, graphic and aesthetic work with great metaphorical appeal. The visual language is distinctive. Christina Elvira Godsk understands humans. She understands herself for good and bad. Observations and experiences made with great empathy. So much nerve in the pictures, and in such an ambiguous way. At the same time, the work might appear introverted and modest - the quiet deep water – then suddenly it demands a lot of attention and so much need for expression”. text by Poul Brasch
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painter
BILLIE BAILEY She has always drawn and painted, at first only with oil paint, but in the latest years she’s been working with stippling (dot-art) as a concept. The Australian/Danish artist Billie Bailey accommodates the world, with its moods and sensory overstimulation, by making art, and she finds peace in stippling - here the world can be embraced and processed. The product of her exertions creates an ethereal and dreamy cosmos - where the harsh world can be avoided in a very feminine, sensual and almost girlish style. However, make no mistake: There is confidence and force behind each work of art. There is a great deal of whimsy humor that makes you smile by her quirky, sometimes ironic creatures and thought-provoking juxtapositions. As if her withdrawal into her own artistic universe lets her come back strong, and her sensitivity blows life and nourishment into her works in a vital way. “I focus on how to meet the needs of everyday life, to be withdrawn and present at the same time, with all senses open. Each artwork speaks in a discrete implying way, about the battle to be present in a modern woman’s life, when one might, in fact, long to be in a dream”. based on text created by blogger coboboblog.
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social media connect kristian rasmussen : ins @stratentast billie bailey : ins @billiethepainter christina elvira godsk : ins @elviragodsk juan barquero : ins @two_edged felix dolah : ins @felixdolah axel van der waal : ins @axelvanderwaal adey : ins @__adey__ @novam_artem
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