Fabian Freese Peripheral ARTeries
When I began to work with Director Alexey Tarán in Caracas in 2004, I realized that during the creative process dance was only a point of departure for composition. Later I discovered that besides performing, I also had a tremendous interest for directing and expressing my feelings through art.Since I was very young, my passion for cinema was very strong, and my older brother Vicente Forte (a visual artist and writer) became one of my greatest influences by teaching me to love this art form from an experimental and independent perspective. During my childhood there was always some video camera documenting our family moments, birthdays, graduations, trips, etc, and either my brother or my mother would always be in charge of directing the filming. Despite the fact that these were very informal family documentations, it later became something serious for me and I am sure that it was had a great influence on my incursion into film directing later.Upon my arrival to the United States in 2007, I had the opportunity to formally develop my first cinematographic works, some in collaboration with Alexey Tarán, and some others co-directed by my brother Vicente, the rest of them written and directed by me, all of them bearing some important relationship to movement, even when this element may not be so evident in a few of the works.Filmmaking became a personal means of expression and I have not stopped since; I am still a performer, but when it comes to directing I prefer to stay behind the camera.Throughout the development of my projects, my own life experiences have also been largely influential, specially those involving my nuclear family: separation, lack of communication, memories. In Latin America, families tend to be very close and I remember mine as particularly intense in this regard: it didn't matter what we went through, good or bad, we would continue to be a dismembered but very close family, united through bonds that would never break. To see my family become diluted over the years due to exhaustion was a very crude experience and I remember that since a very young age I promised myself to reunite them once again.My work deals with “in-communication” (or lack of communication), about that invisible thread thread that binds us to a common life despite and beyond our differences. Echoes Peripheral ARTeries Carla ForteA still from Interrupta
Carla Forte Peripheral ARTeriesthat harbor secrets that can only be heard in silence.Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece? Initially, in order to get the work going on any particular project, there must exist some kind of motivating concern or interest for something, someone, some theme to be developed. From that point ideas and stories are born, always connected to my own experiences. The need to create and to say something is an essential point of departure and it doesn't matter how difficult it might be to achieve it, I have to do it.Before beginning to shoot, I first make the
project conceptually possible in my mind; I do not limit myself creatively and anything that might seem impossible I just transform into something simpler. I prepare a script or a schematic outline of the scenes; not many takes are done because time is short, since these are low budget (or zero budget) productions. Shooting can take up to twelve days, in the case of a full feature, or just a few hours or a couple of days in the case of a short film. However, my last project, a documentary named The Holders, took 4 years of production, involving an intense and arduous process of research and investigative work undertaken by Alexey Tarán (as Producer and Director of Photography) and myself at the facilities of the Miami-Dade County Animal Services shelter, a place where dogs and cats are dropped off and abandoned daily in our city and eventually killed off when they have surpassed the maximum length of stay in the wait for a home.I make special reference to this work because Peripheral ARTeries Carla ForteA still from Interrupta
despite the fact that it was a project for which initially there was no money at all, nor the best equipment for documenting, we did have an immense will and determination to make it happen and to tell the story. As a vegan and activist for animal rights I was resolved to make this film, which ultimately in 2015 was named Official Selection for the 32th Miami International Film Festival.Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from ''Interrupta'', an extremely interesting work that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit your website directly at https://vimeo.com/61962211 in order to get a wider idea of it. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration? Interrupta talks about family. In general, families are held together by strong bonds, by common experience, daily life, the passage of time that makes us age together. The family thus exists while at the same time all of us are independent beings, unique individuals capable of supporting ourselves. Every family has its own distinctive seal, its marks; we grow up and take on our own paths, carrying a certain past and history.For this project, I decided to work with my mother, my father and my brother because it would serve as a reunion for us. Getting together for a few hours to experience each other individually and as a nuclear family was an integral part of the visual experiment. Dancing was the point of departure for the story, because I think that each individual has a unique and very particular way of moving, and because at the same time there are memories that recur in the body and make us dance or act in a certain way.For the development of each scene, each one of us had to choose an element or object to interact with or at least to be kept in the frame during the shooting of the scene. This element was to be something that really identified us as human beings, something that made part of our daily lives. This element or object acted as a means to show that even if we are alone we will resort to something, whether out of necessity or routine.Interrupta portrays each individual separately in this common home, and although none of the scenes are shared collectively by the family, the memories become one.Carla Forte Peripheral ARTeries
Interrupta is based on a poem I wrote, and to each of the performers I gave a fragment of the poem to be read as part of the scenes. Every excerpt was written and assigned according to the particular individual. Nothing was done randomly. It is a common poem that explains who we are and where we are going.I remember a lot of laughter and mockery during the shooting process, typical for a Latino family full of humor. However, my older brother cried upon seeing the end-result, because behind this entire story there is something that reminds us that we are not eternal and that the space we once occupied will also be empty.I definitely love the way with which, by heightening the tension between reality and perception of it, ''Interrupta'' establishes a refined visual equilibrium between still images and movement, as well as between dialogue and silences, exploring the concept of emerging language and direct experience... so I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?My stories are definitely a reflection of who I am and every element I employ has been influenced by some experience.I use the camera in movement in many of my works because dance is always present Our eyes are in constant movement; we look anywhere without much thought; we arrive at any unexpected situation. We are always moving, even when we sleep. Life occurs in a Peripheral ARTeries Carla ForteA still from Interrupta
sequence shot that does not stop.I think silences are important moments that give any situation or routine a break, a rest. There is a lot of noise in our surroundings; we are affected daily by external factors that make us react to their stimuli, which constantly confirms and reminds us that we are not alone and that we are surrounded by situations that we cannot control by ourselves.The use of black and white is fundamental in many of works because a second after I have written this line I have already been past, while the use of color revives any experience because nothing dies in the attempt.I have never experimented with creating any work that is disconnected from my life or my experiences. However, I'm not closed to the possibility of directing scripts or proposals by other artists. Nevertheless, I am sure that in order to do this I would immerse myself in their experience, I would try to live it in some way and feel it as mine as I need in order to be able to tell the story.Another interesting work of yours that that we have selected is entitled ''Staring at the Ceiling'': what has mostly impressed me of it is the way you alter individuals'experiences of space and time through fragmentation, which urges us to explore the boundaries between identity and the perception of the Self. As a result, you investigate about common gestures through a new perspective, creating -like in Sergej Parajanov's films- what you once defined a parallel universe in which the palpable and the desired become possible at the same time... Can you introduce our Carla Forte Peripheral ARTeriesA still from Interrupta
readers to this fundamental concept?Staring at the Ceiling is a work based on a poem by my brother Vicente, which was later turned into lyrics by my friend and Miamibased music composer Omar Roque.It is a very individualistic story and I would dare say it's even egotistical. We have all stared at the ceiling. Thinking of something while our gaze is fixed makes it appear simple; however, the mind is capable of traveling to any other place or situation. This work is a tribute to the ability that we all have to transplant ourselves to that ideal place or memory. I still see my father often travel for hours while sitting on his chair. It seems as if he is simple quiet and introspective, but beyond that simple description I know that my father embarks on to the adventures of his own stories in his mind.Thoughts become fragments because we cannot live our mental experiences in the “real” world. We skip from one place to another and we turn the mind into a fictional realm in which we can make any thought reality. Nonetheless, this realm does not exclude suffering, because regardless of where we are our memories and conflicts spring up naturally.Staring at the Ceiling is a voyage through physical stillness and mental desires. It explores the capacity to travel in our own thoughts and live in a parallel world that distances us from reality; it is an escape from routine and monotony of daily life to free ourselves from society and yet remain enslaved by our own desires.In ''Staring at the Ceiling'' you have developed a highly individualistic visual language, which gives birth to a deep interplay between directness and distance. A fundamental element of your shooting style is no doubt the recurrent use of Peripheral ARTeries Carla Forterefined, central composition. Why did you chose the anamorphic format?The amorphous format was chosen with the intent of creating a sense of enclosure, of feeling trapped in our own thoughts; a notion that no matter how free, we are always bound by our own social and personal constraints.Each and every one of us holds a unique world of our own that is constantly trying to please its whims and desires. I think it's difficult to know other people because in a sense we never get to know ourselves fully.Many of the comments that I have heard from people after seeing this work have to do do with them feeling afraid when they are watching it, or that they experienced a feeling of anxiety. In a way, I do narrate about a very intimate world A still from Stairing at the Ceiling
Carla Forte Peripheral ARTeriesthat holds a dark side of my desires and thoughts.There always seems to be a sense of narrative in your works and I find that your filmmaking is rich of references: in particular, I can recognize a subtle Raul Ruiz's touch in your films. Can you tell us your biggest influences in art and how they have affected your work?I am a constant flux of influences because every day, when I go out to the street, I find myself surrounded by strange people that always leave something within me: sounds, situations, a wholeness that helps me carry on with my day to day. I believe many of my influences derive from seeing my father cry, chasing after the dog who runs astray in the streets, the homeless person asking for money at the corner with the traffic light, the neighbor's folkloric music, my aunt's uproarious laughter, my mother singing, the lack of communication between people. All of these moments become one more scene in one of my stories. However, I must say that there are many artists I admire and that certainly their works have created important marks in my life. Among them are Alexey Tarán, Lars von Trier, Bela Tarr, Jim Jarmusch, Jan Fabre, Reinaldo Arenas, Fernando Pessoa, Steven Soderbergh, Francis Ford Coppola, among others.You are the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Bistoury Physical Theater and Film: I think that interdisciplinary collaboration is today an ever growing force in Art and that that most exciting things
Carla Forte
happen when creative minds from different fields of practice meet and collaborate on a project: could you tell us something about your experiences in this sense? By the way, the artist Peter Tabor once said that \"collaboration is working together with another to create something as a synthesis of two practices, that alone one could not\": what's your point about this? Can you explain how your work demonstrates communication between several artists?I am co-founder of Bistoury Physical Theatre and Film and currently Executive Director and Film Director of the company. I have worked as collaborator in the choreographic works of co-founder Alexey Tarán, integrating film as an important component for the development of his works. Every creative process thrusts us into a new world where not only dance and film join. Bistoury is a research and experimental space in which local artists collaborate. We have had the pleasure of working with visual artists, musics, dancers, actors, poets, singers, among others, making every process and experience truly magical.I find collaborative creation to be an extremely interesting process because it involves getting to know others and allowing others to get to know you in a very personal way, “viscerally” as my brother would say. I think that in order to achieve a good collaborative work there must be profound research and immersion, artists must believe in one another, egos must be put aside and the artists must plunge together into a shared world.I am forever grateful for the participation of collaborators in my work, because I consider them an essential key for the process as well as the final outcome of the project.Now, as usual, I would pose you some questions about your relation with your audience. During your career your works have been extensively exhibited in several occasions, both in America and Europe, and I think it's important to mention that you recently received a Honorable Mention at both Los Angeles Movies Awards and Lucerne International Film Festival... It goes without saying that feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist: I was just wondering if an award -or just the expectation of positive feedback- could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? I sometimes wonder if it could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art... I believe that feedback is vital. However, the point of departure for each of my works has its origin in honesty, in a personal and sincere source of concern, of interest, in who I am. I believe that if we created thinking initially about our audience then surely we would cease to be who we are to become an infinity of tastes and approaches and likely end up doing nothing, It's inevitable to think of the audience during the creative process because we too are audience for others, and later they will be the ones to issue their opinions, to dissect, to laugh or cry, to reject or embrace the work, those who decide whether to applaud or to get up from their seats and leave. That entire wave of emotions that I hope to arouse when I present my work is underlaid by fears, insecurities and expectations, but what holds me standing firm is knowing that my work is a true reflection of what I am. I have had moments of recognition as well as moments of criticism, and I believe that both are healthy and necessary for both personal and artistic growth. I have heard say that to go backwards is a good sign that we are on the right path.In regards to the relationship between art and business, what isn't business in today's world? To me, art is foremost an activity that reflects a need to communicate what I feel, but I do believe that an artist should be able to live off her work just like a doctor lives off her practice.Carla Forte Peripheral ARTeries
Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Carla. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?I am currently working as collaborating film director and performer in Alexey Tarán's most recent project, named TRIBE, a work that tells, through physical theater, stories of homeless people who live in the streets of the city of Miami (https://vimeo.com/116922384). This project is extended through artistic residency in Barranquilla, Colombia, for the development of a video dance, thanks to the exchange program of the National Performance Network US, along with the Red de Artistas del Caribe (Caribbean Artists Network) in Colombia .In 2015, I will be shooting my two next feature films, one titled Imagimundo and another one that remains untitled for now. The latter will be based on the family and will have both a documentary and a fictional component.I believe my work will find itself evolving through the new experiences yet to come; breathing with active consciousness lets me into a reality of greater suffering but one apt to be fully lived, enjoyed and then turned into a magical realm to be explored and interpreted by the audience.Peripheral ARTeries Fabian Freese
Fabian Freese Peripheral ARTeries
I walk the border between painting and photography, using one to augment the other in terms of visual interest. Normally I travel around and do shootings at different places like Rome, Florence, Munich, London, Luxembourg and especially at old castles and at the sea. Usually I do a time exposure with my camera to fix about 1 to 3 minutes per picture. After this I create an abstract composition with stripes and place them on the large prints using aluminum dibond plates. My work employs different materials such as varnish and foils. I apply these in varying degrees until I feel I've accomplished my goal of expressing something that I consider visually stunning. One of the main themes of my artwork involves contrast, such as that existing between old and modern technology.Fabian Freese was born in 1982 in Wuppertal and lives in Germany. He spent a large part of his childhood in nature, playing with wood and water, which influenced his sense of beauty and aesthetics. When he was a teenager he developed some experience by doing Graffiti. Today he works with time exposure photography to create his Lightpaintings with LED lights; he also works on different painting series, such as the Playground Series about faded childhood memories, and the mixed Media series, which is a combination of painting and photography. Freese studied visual Arts at the Freie Akademie der bildenden Künste (fadbk) in Essen, Germany, and graduated in 2011. Since 2011 his artworks have been exhibited in countries across Europe, America and Asia.(Germany)PeripheralARTeriesFabian FreeseFabian FreeseAn artist's statement
Big Ben 2 - Londonfoils, photo on alu dibond , 75 x 75 cm , 2013
PeripheralARTeriesAn interview withFabian FreeseFabian Freese's works could be defined as small cosmologies, where everything is shown to be connected to everything else: in particular, I have found interesting the way he triggers a process of translocation in time and space, in which the viewer's perception of the meaning of objects is ruthlessly put to an incessant process of revision.His multidisciplinary approach allows him to get free from the restrictions of a particular technique, conveying the expressive potential of painting, photography as well as digital editing in a consistent unity. So it's with a great pleasure that I'm introducing our readers to his multifaceted artistic production... Hello Fabian, and a warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. To start this interview would you like to tell us something about your background? In particular, how did your studies of visual Arts at the Freie Akademie der bildenden Künste influenced you and impacted on your evolution as an artist?All my past life, I have done some education in arts, from my childhood on, in times of elementery school I did art classes to get first experiences in using colors and brushes etc. Later in my year as I teenager I did Graffitis for a few years with friends of mine. We went out at nighttime from the houses of our parents a did these sprayings at bridges from the motorways or other buildings. That was a strong experience to create big pieces of Graffiti with spraypaint in a short time and get away after it and go back home. One night we got caught by the police and I stopped doing it after this. Then I focused more on legal art by painting on canvases in an art association which had a class every week. After a while, creating art became or more more a main part of my life and in 2006 I decided that I would
Fabian Freese Peripheral ARTeriesexhibition view of the artist booth of Fabian Freese at the art fair Art in Redlight in Amsterdam / Netherlands in December 2014
like to go to a art academy to get a deeper knowledge of this field and to improve my skills. I showed my portfolio and was accepted for my studies of visual arts. That changed nearly everything in my way of creating art and my thoughts about it. All got deeper in the years of my studies and that influenced my entire life. I learned a new open way of thinking and reflecting things I have done. My personality growed with the years of the studies till I got my degree in summer 2011.Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your works? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece? The process of producing my works is all about decisions. I start at a point and go on with a decision, every step considers the decision I Peripheral ARTeries Fabian FreeseBrandenburg Gate 2 - Berlin, foils, photo on alu dibond , 60 x 80 cm, 2012
Fabian Freese Peripheral ARTeriesmade before and I react on it in the next step. So the works grow within this process. But mostly it all starts with thoughts in my mind. I create the works in parts in the mind before I start to produce them in the real life. There are a lot technical aspects in the mixed media artworks with the use of the lightpainting photos. I have to care about all the technic like the camera and my LED lights at the places I take the pictures. Mostly I do these pictures by nighttime, but the places like Piccadilly Circus London or Collosseum Rome are always packed with people, so I have to take an assistant with me who cares for the camera when I walk there and do my light performance while the time exposure goes on. I use different types of lights which can shine in different colors to get diverse color compositions at these spots. I was at a lot places in the past years, many cities in Europe, but also Los Angeles and Las Vegas in the USA. The next trip is to Miami Florida for a group show I join and I will surely produce new lightpainting photos there.Collosseum - Rome, foils, photo on alu dibond , 60 x 80 cm, 2013
Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from your Mixed Media works that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to visit your website directly at http://www.fabian-freese.de in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration? My mixed media series is a walk on the border of painting and photography. It combines elements of both fields to create a deeper expression. In this series, I do a lightpainting photo first and print it on large Aluminium Dibond plates. In the next step I create an abstract composition with foils and spraypaint in contrast to the figurative photo. So the work is figurative and abstract at the same time, for the eyes it generates a kind a window with the vertical stripes on the picture through which you can look into a futuristic cityscape with these lights inside the space. It reflects the modern times and the possible future we will walk through with all these Peripheral ARTeries Fabian FreeseCastle Benrath BW + Stripes 1, foils, photo on alu dibond and spraypaint on metal, complete 120 x 260 cm , 2010
contrasts of our time. In these series I work a lot with contrasts, like color contrasts between red and green or contrasts between figurative and abstract or big and small or glossy and matte. All these elements reflect the human being in all it facettes and shows us that we have so much opportunities every day from which we have to choose ours.I have appreciated the way you go beyond any artificial dichotomy between tradition and experimentation, taking control and advantage of different and sometimes opposite techniques. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, you walk the border between painting and photography, using one to augment the other in terms of visual interest: in this sense, multidisciplinarity is a crucial aspect of your approach and it's remarkable the way you are capable of creating such an effective symbiosis between elements from different techniques, manipulating language and recontextualizing images and concepts: while crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts? Sure, we can not only look into one direction of one specific field. We have to connect different fields to get a deep knowledge of things and should change the perspective from time to time to get a wider view on things. Our mind connects these different views into complex thoughts which represent the things in a completer vision. In my artworks I try to get the viewer to think about things and the different elements of it helps in this process. You start to ask questions and start to think. The contrast between old and modern technology is a recurring theme in your works. However, I can recognize that -rather than drawing inspiration from a distopic imagery- your works communicate such a symbiosis between past and present and I daresay that this creates such a Syncretism, an harmonious mix between apparently opposite aspects of our Reality... do you agree with this analysis?Yes, thats right. The present and the future is always connected to the past. We would not be who we are today if there wouldn‘t be the past we all went through. The past made us to what we are today and shapes our future, we should learn from it and don‘t make the same mistakes twice. I try to express this in my artworks with Fabian Freese Peripheral ARTeries
the use of old architecture and modern technic like the LED lights I use in my Lightpaintings, sometimes also when I do contemporary up to date artworks in lost and destroyed buildings. In the past, these buildings were used with it‘s functions like hospitals or factories, but now they are relicts of these past times and I connect these times with the present and the artistic expression of our time and actually with me as an artist who has never seen it in it‘s original use.By the way, in these last years we have seen a great usage of digital technology, in order to achieve outcomes that was hard to get with traditional techniques: do you think that an excess of such techniques could lead to a betrayal of reality? By the way, have new technologies as DSLR and digital editing impacted on your process?I use the technology of the DSLR camera for my lightpaintings, that is very helpful at the shootings to see the results immediately an the Peripheral ARTeries Fabian FreeseChurch 2 - Luxembourg, photo on alu dibond, 2010
display of the camera to react on it in the next picture. But for me, the lightpainting with the camera is more a performance with the light inside the space of the picture. Thats actually painting for me. I use the camera as a tool in the field of painting, to see the results of what I did with the LED lights in the images produced with the camera. It‘s a kind of documentation of my light performance. That is an real artistic process for me for what I don‘t need digital editing. That would be a fake in my eyes, if I would manipulate the images with digital software like photoshop. Sure I optimise the colors a bit, but never change the picture itself in a manipulated one. Another interesting project of yours that has particularly impacted on me and on which I would like to spend some words is your Lost Places series. Many contemporary landscape photographers as the Edward Burtynsky and Michael Light have some form of environmental or political message in their works. Do you consider that your pieces are Fabian Freese Peripheral ARTeriesPark 1 - Rome - Italy, photo on alu dibond, 2010
Peripheral Peripheral ARTARTeries eries Fabian FreeseTrainyard 1 - Wuppertal, photo on alu dibond , 2014
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in a certain sense \"political\" or do you seek to maintain a neutral approach?They are a bit political, I think we should also use old things and see what these things like old buildings were worth in the past times. They have a history and I think we should appreciate this instead of pulling these buildings down to build new clinical clean homes on the same places. We can invest in these old historic buildings which have special charme. Me myself I live in building from 1899 in a quarter of Wuppertal with lots of old houses with the nice architecture from about 100 years ago. In these lost places photos I search for artistic expression with shows the typical aspects of these places, although it is in a very bad condition in these days with all these destroyed items on the floor and broken glass everywhere. I search for a kind of beauty within these spaces, I think my photos are very aesthetic. Sometimes I use candles or LED lights to give the space my own view in another light. Peripheral ARTeries Fabian FreeseThe Playground Series is about faded childhood memories. These are playgrounds from different places, faded and blurred, like memories from distant childhood. These playgrounds are the symbol of childhood itself. Most people have good feelings when they think about play. The bold color fields at the side of the canvases represent the now. They are abstract, allowing the viewer to insert their impressions of living today in the painting. Their vertical stripes form bridges between different times. They represent the thoughts about the future and the colors of life today. They relate Fabian Freese on his Playground seriesRed Light - Factory Barmen, photo on alu dibond , 2014
Fabian Freese Peripheral ARTeries
Peripheral ARTeries Fabian Freese
Fabian Freese Peripheral ARTeriesWater - Factory Barmen, photo on alu dibond, 2014Peripheral ARTeries
In your Playground Series you have effectively explorated the theme of faded childhood memories: what has mostly impressed me of this body of works is the way, by referring to each other memories, you offer such an Ariadne's thread that lead the viewers to evolve from a passive audience to an actively involved part of the piece of Art itself... so I would ask you if in your opinion personal experience an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process, I mean both for conceiving a piece and for enjoying it... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience? I think experience is a main part of creating artworks or any other creative expressions. For me, I reflect the things I have gone through in Peripheral ARTeries Fabian FreesePlayground 1, oil, spraypaint on canvas, 60 x 120 cm, 2013
my artworks. It is always a personal thing for me which also reflects my personality as a human. The creative process comes out of the things we did in our past lifes, everything is connected to everything. For me as an artist it is all a process of creativity on my life. We decided things everyday and have to live with the consequences. A creative process is very near to that, you start at a point and then you decided how you go on with this in the next step or next decision. It all grows with the time, in the life and in the artworks. But you have to reflect on it very often and react on it to reach new dimensions. The person with its own experience who watches the artwork has also am main part in the expression of the work. He connects his own experience he made in the past to my artwork and thinks about himself and his experiences he made in his own childhood. That is part of the work and makes it complete with the viewer involved to the artwork. Now let's deal about the relationship with your audience: during these years your works have been exhibited in several occasions... it goes without saying that positive feedback, although are not definitely indispensable, are capable of providing an artist of an important support. I sometimes wonder if the expectation of positive feedback- could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? I sometimes wonder if it could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art... For me, the positive support is quite important. It is always good when someone likes my interpretation of art. That is very good to go on in my artistic process, to see that people like what I do. But I see it different who says something about my work, if someone says something, who is not into this art business, he likes it in general, then I am happy with it but don`t think about it deeper. But if somebody who knows about art says something, I hear to the words in a another deeper way. These are thoughts I think about. Critic is a good thing to improve things, if you are willing to reflect your work and change things.Fabian Freese Peripheral ARTeries
Fabian Freese on his Wheelchair SeriesIn this series, I like to show how the society sometimes still sees people with disabilities or different backgrounds, color , race, handicap, religion etc. The light cord stands for all these people from all over the world. If someone sits in a Wheelchair, you look at the person in another way than you would, if he would not sit inside it. That changes the way you deal with the individual and that is not good at all. We should help each other instead of killing us when someone is different or thinks into another direction like myself. All people are worth the same, no matter of the differences or where you come from. We are all one.
No Person 3, photo on alu dibond , 2014
Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Fabian. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?I have a lot things going on. In 2016 I will have solo show in Adelaide in Australia and will be there for about 3 weeks, I am really looking forward to this experience. This year I join 3 - 4 art fairs with my gallery and with an art associations from Vienna / Austria which supports me. And I also have 2 soloshows this year. Parallel to all this shows, I improve my Peripheral ARTeries Fabian Freese
They show how our times go on in such a fast speed. This technic from the 90ies is like stoneage in our time. I thank you for this interview, I really appreciated it! Thank you very much!work and work hard on new artworks and series. I did a brand new series called „Time Flows Series“ with old Mobiles or Gameboys etc. These are objects mounted on wood plates, all sprayed in white color. Fabian Freese Peripheral ARTeriesPlayground Mosel, oil, spraypaint on canvas , 100 x 220 cm, 2013
As technology and life become more blended we are forced to reexamine notions of reality, identity, and our relationship to others. We are constantly sorting through bits and pieces of unbalanced information, trying to navigate between substance and artifice. How will we know what to take seriously in all this colorful noise? Things can go in any direction at any moment. It’s like trying to build your house on a fluid landscape. The challenge in my work is to take the external influences and the internal pulses and find the harmonies, or highlight the discord. If I’m lucky I’ll learn something about myself …or at the very least, pull a little humor from the frustration. Compositing video is just an extension of painting in layers or assemblage in sculpture. I have a background in these areas so I easily connect them to the work I do in video. Coming from that place makes it easy for me to degrade and or reinvent images because I’m less concerned with photographic purity. Someone once compared my videos to T.V. on crack! (USA)PeripheralARTeriesDee HoodAn artist's statementDee Hood
Peripheral ARTeries
PeripheralARTeriesAn interview withDee HoodThe very first feeling I received when I had the chance to get to know Dee Hood's works, is that Art and Technology are not separated at all, and that it's always possible to go beyond any artificial boundary that limits the intrinsic continuity between such apparently different sides of the same coin. Multidisciplinarity is one of the strenght of her approach: borrowing techniques from painting, sculpture and time based media, her experimental video accomplish the difficult task of leading us to rethink about way we perceive the outside world, but also, urging the viewers to investigate about the existence of unexpected relationships between opposites aspects of the reality we inhabit in. It is so with a real pleasure that I would like to introduce our readers to her stimulating works. Hello Dee, and a warm welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid multidisciplinary training, and you hold a M.F.A. in Visual Art from the University of South Florida and during these twenty years you have earned a wide experience as a teacher at the Ringling College of Art and Design In Sarasota, Florida: how do these experiences influence you as an artists and on the way you currently produce your artworks?Thank you so much for your interest in my work and for the opportunity to share it with your viewers.I’ve always been comfortable crossing media boundaries, moving from painting to sculpture, installation, video, etc. Everything you do as an artist informs everything else. In sculpture you learn about physical balance, you take that knowledge into a painting and you better understand visual balance, etc. then you start thinking about the broader implications of balance and imbalance in life and now ‘balance’ becomes content. Everything is connected.In college you’re exposed to new ideas, new perspectives, you’re introduced to rebel thinkers and artists breaking tradition. If you have the courage to keep an open mind, wow…its like Alice in Wonderland! Once you’ve traveled down the rabbit hole you can never go back to a black and white world. I’ve tried to nurture that sense of adventure and exploration in my students. We live in a time of hybridization and hyper speed changes in technology; we have to remain flexible, curious and open. You can never get comfortable as an artist. Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece? It starts with some idea that’s been rattling around in my head, an entry point, but I have no image of what it’s supposed to look like in the end. I gather all the misfit pieces; orphan thoughts, found audio, video clips, perplexing emotions, etc. and start placing them together. Eventually I get down to the bones, the essence of what I’m trying to say. It’s an on going dialogue of passion and reason, truth and lies. I am always reexamining what I believe, what I’m willing to believe. Every time I’ve ever started with a definitive idea, I ended up with a predictable outcome, so I have to let go and trust the process. It’s essential for me to experiment, to try this thing with that, and so on. It knocks me out of whatever narrow perspective I’ve started with. Sometimes it’s a struggle, because I’m
Barbara Bervoets Peripheral ARTeries
stubborn and I want what I want, but there’s nothing to discover down that road. The technology allows me tremendous freedom to manipulate images and audio. The possibilities are endless! A naked guitar player in the middle of NYC is an odd enough video clip, but when you add some psychedelic colors phasing through, it becomes unearthly. A lot of my work deals with technology as content in some way. This particular video was called ‘Real Life’ and I wanted to prod the viewer into reconsidering notions of reality and identity. Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Sensory Falsity, an extremely interesting work that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit your website directly at: http://www.deehood.netor your YOUTUBE channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ31nA0Yh8U in order to get a wider idea of it. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration?This piece started out of my own frustration. We are immersed in a world of multilayered images and sound bites that are often out of context. Misinformation is constantly streaming through; hand held devices, television, the news, the grocery store, workplace, etc. If we don’t consider the source or do some fact checking we could end up with a whole bag of stupid by the end of the day. I used video clips from Times Square in NYC, the classic hodgepodge of information to emphasize the issue of context. There on the electronic billboards are Kim Jong-un, M&Ms, the national debt, a Lexus, etc. It’s all flashing in brilliant colors with no hierarchy, so we start to perceive things as equal. I tried to push the absurdity of these experiences. I wanted viewers to walk away from this piece thinking about the validity of their own constructs. Where did that information come from, am I adding to the lie or am I clarifying a truth. I find myself using sites like PolitiFact.com, Nationmaster.com and Snopes.com on a regular basis these days because there is so much erroneous information being passed along. What has particularly impressed me of Peripheral ARTeries Dee Hood
Dee Hood Peripheral ARTeriesSensory Falsity is the way such multilayered experience is capable of bringing a new level of significance to a concept, recontextualizing the ideas behind it: and I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense your works force the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive not only the outside world, but our inner dimension... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even \"encrypted\" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a
way- to decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this? There is certainly a lot of coded information in our world, the most obvious thing I can point to is advertising. We are bombarded with images of flawless young women, selling everything from cars to toothpaste. The message of youth and perfection has given rise to a multi-billion dollar business in beauty products. Even Peripheral ARTeries Dee Hood
preteens are becoming obsessed with an unrealistic body image. The real danger is that we come to believe that this is the definition of beauty. Its easy to get caught in a circle of shallow thinking when you’re culture surrounds you with it. I am truly grateful to artists who have forced me to consider new perspectives, or to gain a deeper understanding of the human condition. I remember seeing Anslem Keifer’s lead books years ago at the MOMA in New York. For the first time in my life I could comprehend the number of people killed in the holocaust. There wasn’t one word on the pages, they were just these enormous books made of lead sheets, but in my mind I started seeing how many handwritten names would fit on one page and it suddenly became very personal. It was no longer an incomprehensible number; I could visualize the individuals that made up that staggering figure. Keifer’s piece is another example of coding information, the weight of the lead, the size of the books, the dull, unreflective, grey…its all used to trigger associations and emotions that our minds must decipher. It’s about one of the foulest moments in human history, but there was an unexpected poetic beauty in the way the piece spoke to me. I would like to focus on another interesting aspect of Sensory Falsity: towards the end of the video, you have effectively juxtaposed elements from what I would define our traditional imagery - as water and rocks - with colorful digital sequences that in a certain sense replicates the dynamism of water bursting into rocks. Moreover, the video ends with a still, snowy landscape that, rather than breaking the rhythm, seems to bring the narrative to another, maybe more general level, questioning about the roots of our perception... I definitely love the way, by heightening the tension between reality and perception of it, this work explores the concept of emerging language and direct experience... so I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?I use my personal experience as a ground to Dee Hood Peripheral ARTeries
Peripheral ARTeries Barbara Bervoets
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start building on. This is what I know first hand, this is what I feel, what I think, and then I start looking at other perspectives. We can experience something tragic in our lives but we choose how we want to carry that experience. Sensory Falsity, evolved because I was feeling these waves of anxiety about keeping pace with everything, including the technology. Whole days have completely disappeared into the abyss of my computer. Toward the end of the piece I’m trying to remind myself that I am still in control. I can choose to return to a sense of calm; I can return to nature. I create chaos and stillness. What is real and illusory is all a construct. Water has always been important in my life, that’s why it shows up so much in my work. I grew up on the beach in Florida, and now I live on a river. Having water nearby has always had a very soothing effect on me. I can have a miserable day and come home and sit on my dock and in no time, my mood is elevated. I think personal experience lends authenticity to an artist’s work but so can empathy. Maybe because I have a scientific background, I'm always delighted to come across an interesting example of how Art and Technology can establish an effective symbiosis, as in Going Along, so I would like to use this occasions to ask what's your point about this fruitful contamination... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that new media art will definitely fill any remaining dichotomy between these apparently different disciplines: and I will dare to say that Art and Technology are going to assimilate one to each other... what's your point about this?I love the image of fruitful contamination! The combination of technology and art has been a game changer. As the cost of technology comes down, more artists are able to explore its vast potential. You look at the installation video work of people like Camille Utterback or Philipp Geist and you realize this is just the beginning of an amazing direction in art. A former Ringling student, Lesley Flanigan is getting a lot of recognition for her work with experimental electronic music. Artists, R. Luke Dubois, and Tristan Perich are also at the forefront, creating incredible new work in the area of electronic art. I reference technology a lot in my work because Peripheral ARTeries Dee Hood
it’s exciting, daunting and loaded with unanswered questions. It’s not just the outward appearance of art that is changing, but our paradigms, our language, our symbols, etc. As these shifts take place, we need to examine them, explore their meanings and consequences. New possibilities and opportunities are being created for artists everyday in this area. You have to stay abreast of what’s happening, you have to be willing to Dee Hood Peripheral ARTeries
Peripheral ARTeries Barbara Bervoets