Hello Valerie and welcome to NotRandomArt. The current issue is revolving around the problem of communication and identity. Is there any particular way you would describe your identity as an artist but also as a human being in dynamically changing, unstable times? In particular, does your cultural substratum/identity form your aesthetics?
Art is culture. Culture is one of the fundaments of our society. An artist creates the bridges in modern society, and records for future generations. Art reaches out to touch people and to provide them with reflections at a moment in time. An artist is the cornerstone of society, living mainly in the shadows, sometimes fighting demons, in order to guide the many facts of life traversing reckless time.
It is certain that my cultural identity forms my aesthetics, the way I perceive the world today is a result of my cultural evolution in the past. Information is always available and submerges us. It is ambiguous because it opens the doors to a lot of opportunities and knowledge but it can also be extremely tiresome to evaluate all this data. To me it seems we are losing our identity (privacy) on a grand scale without being fully aware. Communication is superficial and without content.
Would you like to tell us something about your artistic as well as life background? What inspired you to be in this artistic point in your life when you are now?
Being surrounded by my parents, both stimulating and inspiring me through their knowledge and passion for art. The light, shadows, colours of my childhood influence my art immensely. I had the privilege of growing up on a tropical island, experiencing different social cultures all around the world; breathing industrial consequences and objectifying political confluence in modern digitalized society.
Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about your identity as a participant of the visual culture?
As I am always expanding my horizons I see everything around me as a subject of art.
I draw inspiration anywhere from Monet's water lilies to Dadaism, from Italian Renaissance Movement to Gaudi and Hundertwasser, from Gustav Klimt's golden kisses to temporary tattoos. My work is a reflection of my influences and the hodgepodge mess inside my head. And as a result, my work is respectively affected.
We are living exiting times where art and digitalization are colliding, immersive experiences are becoming reality, colliding physical and digital worlds, searching and redefining ‘interoperable’ identities and borderless communication in a way that languages are irrelevant.
Since you transform your experiences into your artwork, we are curious, what is the role of memory in your artistic productions? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.
In this series, Thanatophobia, my experiences and my memories are the key ingredient. They intercorrelate constantly. In reaction to my father’s death, I use the camera to describe my inner emotions. I found myself entangled in a complex web of emotions and reactions. I felt disorientated, as if I had lost my place and purpose in life. I was living in a different world.
The memory of my father is omnipresent, I wonder if I am trapped in his bones and if this is my inheritance. Can I regain my identity? Is a part of my dying with him?
The bodies represent myself. The xrays used are in fact from my father’s body. The match is present visually and literally.
What is the role of technique in your practice? In particular are there any constraints or rules that you follow when creating?
The process of creation is the most challenging. Projecting my own feelings and making my art come to life. Walking the line between coincidence and self-conscious manipulation. I avoid constraints as much as possible, they are not compatible with the inspirational flow of creating art. Of course photography –as every form of art- has its restrictions, but building up as much knowledge as possible enables me to try to cross the boundaries of the subsequent limitations.
How do you see the relationship between emotional and intellectual perception of your work? In particular, how much do you consider the immersive nature of the viewing experience?
It intrigues me to unlock ‘emotions’ through my work and to notice the energy looping through to the surrounding subjective environment. Steeling time can be the opening to something totally new, and as an artist I want to contribute to human nature. Provide people with means to reflect, to understand, to inhale colours, to scent, to escape for a moment. As an artist, I’m a director of feelings people pre/tend to ignore.
Thanatophobia is about a very personal experience, the loss of a relative. It immediately establishes a deep involvement with the viewer as we all can relate to such experience in our life. Because of the intense emotions it also triggers some existential questions. Every culture has its own way of dealing with death which I find most intriguing. Weather this is more in an emotional or intellectual way depends on a lot of circumstances. I think about geography, traditions, personal evolution, financial status etc.