TERENCE BERCHMAN

Terence is a Fine Arts student based in Mumbai.

Chloe Briggs (CB): I think you are very perceptive about your own work and your working habits. Can you tell me about the particularity of working online, and how it suited you as an artist?

Terence Bercheman (TB): Mostly working hours. The online courses are very flexible, the working hours you can work like two hours, have lunch, you know, work again, take a break etc. And also work as long as you want. From what I understand, on the in-person course, you might not be able to do that, you have to consider things like the access to the studios, etcetera, things get a bit complicated. And I guess all your friends would be there, I don’t want to say ‘distractions’ because that sounds like a bad word. But, you know, there are a lot of things happening at the same time. Here it is just me, focusing on coursework and my artistic development. It is comfortable to be at home at least for the first year, and then come to Paris.

CB: Why do you want to be an artist? Why is it important to have artists in the world?

TB: I don’t know why artists are important in the world, but for me personally, it’s because of the freedom that is associated with it. I don’t know of any other job where you can earn money with so much freedom associated with it. You can travel the world, or settle or a mix between the two. Whatever you like. There are no rules. I have also been attracted to expressing myself visually ever since I was very young, and it has contributed to my personal development as a person. Before I started painting and drawing - I mean discovering things visually - I would say I was not proud of myself as a person. I waslets say, misguided. I thought of the wrong things as important in life. I used to draw a lot as a kid but I kind of just lost it (Drawing), and I found it again, Thank God I did! I can’t imagine how I’d be otherwise.

CB: What a beautiful thing to saythat a creative practice helps you focus on what is important in life. I believe that is true. Could you describe a moment of discovery this year where you were like, ‘Oh, that’s new!’?

TB: For the project this week I’ve been working between digital and analog. I had done some digital work before, but I never thought about mixing it with analog - doing collages etc. I think the biggest revelation for me is materials: how many different materials there are and how many different ways you can use them - the textures they create, what they mean. And we’ve talked about the process, how I learn’t that the final work is not necessarily the most important. Right? What you learn while you’re doing it, things you observe, that holds more importance for me now. Its the experience rather than making a product which is also one thing I like about being an artist – if you’re doing it right.

CB: I think you are probably one of the wildest students in terms of mixing materials. For example, recent mud painted on photographs - unlikely connections that are really exciting. For the ‘Earth’ project, it seemed to me that you were literally lifting this space on planet Earth, where you exist - lifting it for us to see it. It was like an amazing portal into your world- the trees, the backyard where you played as a kid. That work had real resonance for me.

TB: Yeah, for that project the materials were really important for me. That’s how I chose the rocks and stuff that I used, they were from places where me and my friends hung out. But with the final results, I’m not really that impressed by what came out, but it was very new for me personally to go out and collect materials to work with and it’s exciting.

CB: I am going to leave you with a last question. If you have any advice for yourself one year ago, what would you say?

TB: Be ready to learn a lot. Keep an open mind and keep with your assignments!

CB: But you you always manage it, though! I think you should give yourself credit for the work you do.

TB: Sometimes barely.

CB: You always manage it. You have high expectations of yourself. I think also, the reality of a creative process is that it is not always constant and flowing, is it? That is the natural way of it.

TB: Yeah, that’s why I like this course, it takes you out of your comfort zone You need to do it, even if you’re not really feeling it or thinking it is working, something still has to be created. And then slowly, you learn that getting out of your comfort zone becomes ironically comfortable.