151 SPECIAL ISSUE and videos. I do not feel like repeating it. If I did it, it would be a different performance. An important experience with the public space was my need to give a social answer through an intervention. The statue of one of the most influential Brazilian poets of the 20th century, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, on Copacabana Beach, had its glasses stolen for the ninth time. They were ripped off by an act of vandalism. In response, I began to create eyeglasses for him. I would wake up at 5 in the morning so I could get it done without the audience interference. It is a very touristic venue, the statue stands just by the shore at Atlântica Avenue and people sit next to him to take photos. When I put the first one, made of resin, a toothed frame, it was gone in less than two hours. So I decided to make ephemeral. The second one was made of stuffed biscuit. It lasted all day. I was not there the whole time to watch it, and to study people’s reactions, but a lot of people took photos and published them on Instagram or Twitter. When I came back at night it was still on the statue. Not on the next day, it was not there anymore. The third was made of Brigadeiro, a typically Brazilian sweet made basically with chocolate and condensed milk. I've already changed the name of this work about three times. In fact, names are complicated when work are constantly changing not only physically but also inside your head. Meanings change over time because in fact you are also changing internally. So, the last name (I do not know until when) that I found quite pertinent was "You are tough, José!". It's inspired in an excerpt from Drummond's poetry: “And now, Jose?”, which represents an existentialist crisis questioning future since nothing has a sense of being, but nevertheless it shows strength and hope to continue before the absurdity. Paula Blower eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries SPECIAL ISSUE 152 Pigs cannot look up at the sky, 2016 - shoes made of pigskin
154 SPECIAL ISSUE Your performance seems to be very analytical, yet they strive to be full of emotion: how much importance has improvisation in your process? Exactly because it is a process with a strong emotional load in its elaboration that I value what each performer has of more intimate to connect with the work. In O Antidesfile, for example, one of the suggested directions to the performers was a self-portrait movement. This expression was created during an art-life workshop. Just as I relate to materials in the process of designing both the idea and the parts to be used in performance, the performer must also relate. It is transference from my construction and conception to a personal relationship with the material. Essays were mainly done to explore this interaction. That's why the way and the moment they perform are improvised. And why the presentations are unique. Your works inquires into the nature of perception and you once remarked that literature inspires you and for the freedom of expression I try to materialize it: we daresay that a part of your work is about the experiment to make visible volatile phenomena: would you say that the way you provide the transient with sense of permanence allows you to create materiality of the immaterial? What transfers the materiality of the immaterial, I believe is our share of imagination and relationships that we create before the symbolic load that the work represents. Therefore, I also choose non-conventional materials because I choose according to their symbolic strength. Literature is insight by the fact that words, their compositions and meanings have strong power in transporting places and sensations. As in dreams. Depending on your empathy power you can smell and taste, for example. Within the literature, I love to feed myself from the magical Paula Blower eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 154 realism of Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Massimo Bontempelli, and Haruki Murakami, for example. I love the sense that instead of birds, there are fishes swimming through my window. British multidisciplinary artist Angela Bulloch onced stated "that works of arts often continue to evolve after they have been realised, simply by the fact that they are conceived with an element of change, or an inherent potential for some kind of shift to occur". Do you think that the role of the artist has changed these days with the new global communications and the new sensibility created by new media? I think the only important thing this current new set of global communications and media actually do is to expand our possibilities, and our potential outcomes. The interactions are simply amplified. The world has changed, but not the artist role (whichever his/her role is). Over the years your works have been showcased in several occasions and one of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context? Certainly the public has a strong influence on my decisions when it comes to exposing a job. I try to make the viewer feel invited to relate almost intimately to the work. As for example in the last exhibition I did, a solo show The Roossevelt's Picnic, at 4bidgallery in Amsterdam, under curatorship of Yujin Song. In a part of the space the public was invited to sit on cushions on the floor to contemplate the object more closely. It is a way for the viewer to be on the same level as the work. Almost in a get-together with the piece, the cushions suggested a picnic and a letter on the wall, a silent conversation with a teddy bear. It could be an exhibition for children. The video installation, next to this space, was made so that the viewer could watch the projection seated on the floor, in company of the bear that by far seemed cuddly and inviting, but from near the reality was another. The bear was pale and made by hand with spoiled pig skin. Contradictory natures combined in one body. Depending on how far you look from it, you will feel the ambivalence between the object and material. These relationships between the public and the work are motivating and can serve as inspiration for future works. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Paula. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? Thank you all from Peripheral ARTeries for the opportunity with stimulating and pertinent questions. When it comes to the future I think of Japan. But it's hard to say since it's a job most of the time inspired by chance. In fact, the future for me is like a little box of bees that I need to pick up to produce the next piece. agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
Paula Blower eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral 24 Rosted Pig skin- The Roosevelt's Picnic, 2017 SPECIAL ISSUE
The best paintings occur when I let myself go when I am not always fully aware of what I’m doing. Hours can pass when I am in the flow I can forget to eat and time can be irrelevant its sort of like a meditation. I am intuitively driven by colour. I don’t overthink my colour choices just go with my intuition. When I am drawing my subjects I am concentrating more on conveying the emotion the mood. I work on the floor, the wall whatever I need to get close to it. After a while I become part of the painting. I have drawn since I was a child and I get a thrill when I see colour whether its on a fabric, a flower or inside a temple in Asia. Travelling and looking is all food for Inspiration Clare Haxby Lives and works in Reigate, Surrey, United Kingdom Clare has spent the last 10 years living in London and Singapore actively and collaboratively organising art events and Open Studio from a historical black and white house in Singapore. In 2013 and 2015 she exhibited her powerful architectural paintings of Singapore at solo shows at The Fullerton Hotel Singapore and later at The American Club of Singapore. Since returning to Surrey Hills outside London in 2015 Clare has exhibited in group shows in Rome, Venice, Buenos Aires and Argentina. This summer she is one of 90 contemporary artists exhibiting at Flux Exhibition London at Chelsea College of Art The Victoria and Albert Museum in London and The French Embassy in Singapore collect Clare’s work. Clare Haxby An artist’s statement
SPECIAL ISSUE 158 Hello Clare and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. We would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training and after having completed your Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Chesterfield Art College in Derbyshire, you nurtured your education with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking, that you received from the prestigious Kingston upon Thames University, in London: how do these experiences influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? And in particular, how does the relationship between your cultural substratum due to your British roots and the years you spent in Singapore inform the way you relate yourself to art making? When I left school and went to art college at the age of 16 my art teacher at school who nurtured my interest in art and was a fabulous teacher called Miss Phinn said….’oh they do all sorts of crazy things at art college…. you can knit a teapot if you like “ I though fabulous I’m in !!!. What I loved about my early art years training is that it is such a time of experimentation. I loved working and learning about photography, textile design and printing and ceramics alongside my painting and drawing. At Kingston University I had an amazing tutor Susie Allen who mentored me and encouraged me to go to the Victoria and Albert museum with my book of life drawing I had created in mono print and they purchased one for their special Clare Haxby Lives and works in Reigate, Surrey, United Kingdom Peripheral ARTeries meets Drawing inspiration from beauty of nature and environment, Bristish artist Clare Haxby's work provides the viewers with an intense, emotional visual experience: her body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages, successfully attempts to trigger the viewers' perceptual parameters walking them through the liminal area in which perceptual reality and the realm of imagination find a consistent point of convergence. One of the most impressive aspects of Haxby's work is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of questioning contemporary visualization practice: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating and multifaceted artistic production. An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
161 SPECIAL ISSUE Clare Haxby eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral collections department. Today I am still passionate about experimenting and trying new things, travelling to places I haven’t been before is one of my favourite things to do. Having lived in Singapore for 8 years ( because my husbands job got moved there) this gave me not only an opportunity to travel and experience new cultures and places around S.E.Asia but in terms of my work I had a huge growth in terms of output and opportunity. Living in Asia had such a positive impact on my work that it will always be part of me and as such is part of me and my brand. I can’t tell you how exciting it was for me as an artist to travel to places like Bali, Thailand, Bhutan, Yogyakarta with a sketchbook in hand. As a creative and visual person you cannot fail to be inspired by everything around you the future the rituals the jungle and the city life. Singapore’s diverse architecture of heritage and also uber modern buildings forms my largest collection of paintings to date. Now I am back in Surrey and London I am painting the architecture of London so I am always inspired by my immediate environment and by places I visit. I am a British artist yes and I am proud of that. I am from Yorkshire and I have a strong work ethic. I have always used what time and energy I have available to me to develop my work and myself. The results of your artistic inquiry convey a coherent sense of unity that rejects any conventional classification. We would suggest to our readers that they visit https://clarehaxby.com in order to get a synoptic view of your work. While walking our readers through your usual process and setup, can you tell them something about the evolution of your style? My style has evolved over the years and now I feel I have really arrived at my own style.I hadn’t painted buildings or architecture as a subject before but a friend also an artist suggested I paint Singapore or Ubud, Bali 2 places I had spent a lot of time in. I wasn’t keen at first as I was painting organic subjects like flowers and birds but she suggested I paint ‘landscapes’ in my textile mixed media style and it triggered something in me. I am not a traditional landscape or painter of buildings but when she said that I thought yes that would be fun, treating the paintings almost like a textile design. I am a colourist and I love to use colour to convey the mood of a place or a building, I don’t overthink it, its more of an intuitive choice. People ask why did you choose yellow for the sky in Keppel Bay but to me I just wanted to convey the heat and humidity of the location and I didn’t want the whole painting to be blue. My process for the landmark paintings is that after making preliminary quick sketches and taking photos for reference I draw up the image onto the canvas back at the studio with an artists paint marker, I take time working out the best scale and composition, the design layout of the piece and then I work in acrylic paint and glazes building up layers of colour. The detail which comes later on in the pieces I use a combination of painting and printmaking mostly working with mono print onto Chinese paper or small linocut pieces. For some paintings like ‘Emerald Hill Shophouses’ I have used vintage stamps of
SPECIAL ISSUE 162 Singapore and Malaya which link into the history of the Peranakans and the wealthy Chinese spice merchants from these areas who lived in the shophouses which were live / work units. My paintings on canvas are either acrylic on canvas or mixed media on canvas For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected Marina bay Sands Singapore and Raffles Hotel Singapore, an extremely interesting project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your artistic research is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of Marina bay Sands Singapore and Raffles Hotel Singapore would you tell us your sources of inspiration? And how did you select your subjects? In particular, do you think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist? I started painting my series of ‘Singapore Landmarks’ and the first painting I chose was Raffles hotel as it s synonymous with Singapore and is a beautiful building with a lot of history. There was no grand plan at the beginning of the series I was merely trying to paint a new subject matter and also I was painting on a much larger scale. I was experimenting with a new subject and a new scale. I focused on all the areas I find interesting so in the Raffles painting I focused on the life at the foyer with customers coming and going meeting the Raffles doorman, the decorative ironwork agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
163 SPECIAL ISSUE Clare Haxby eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
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165 SPECIAL ISSUE on the foyer, references to the rooms inside the hotel such as the Tiffin Room and The East India Rooms I made the text signs in mono print on paper and incorporated them into the painting. Raffles is a beautiful colonial hotel and I wanted to convey its elegance and its history. Marina Bay Sands was the second painting in this series and in contrast is a new and very modern piece of architecture. Designed by Moshe Safdie it is an architectural giant and the new modern landmark of Singapore. Singapore is a fast growing city, the rate of building in Singapore is phenomenal. During my time there we saw MBS emerge from the ground and grow till everyone was talking about it. I have painted buildings that form part of my personal experience swell as buildings that attract me for their interesting design. Raffles Hotel and Marina bay Sands reflect the 2 sides of Singapore very well, the old and the new , the heritage and the modern, the history and the future, both have value both are fascinating to explore and paint. You ask what the central ideas are behind my work, in general I am painting an emotional response to the subject, with the buildings, the landmarks I am painting the mood the essence of the building. I want to convey the presence and the power that particular piece of architecture has or convey a little of its story, its history. Raffles hotel is an elegant building in the tropics and the green and whites hopefully go part of the way to describe this landmark Clare Haxby eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 166 As you have remarked in the starting lines of your artist's statement, the best paintings occur when I let myself go when I am not always fully aware of what I’m doing: how would you consider the role of chance and improvisation in your work? In particular, are your works painted gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes from paper to canvas? I am always always open for chance and improvisation in my paintings, thats often where the best creativity happens those accidental brush marks that just ‘say’ exactly the right thing! With the landmark painting there is a certain geometry that i am working with as I need the buildings to have straight walls but beyond that it is always a journey letting the painting evolve into itself. I do find that the more uninterrupted time I have the more the natural creativity flows and The Palm House of Kew Gardens I have just finished has a real mixture of detail and almost abstract areas in the painting which I really like The gingerly paintings in particular work very much on capturing all the accidental splashes and brush marks. They are very ‘painterly’ and expressionistic and much looser than the landmarks. They are fun to paint, I move a lot when I am painting those paintings so they are quite a physical experience and the energy is transferred into the paintings I think, they have a gestural quality You seem to draw a lot from direct experience: with a consistent focus on the theme of nature, landscape and buildings, we daresay that you are inspired by natural wonders as well as by your travels. Do you spend a lot of time exploring the places that we can admire in your paintings or do you rather instantly capture the spirit of the flowers that we admire in your artworks? Yes I am always gathering inspiration from my immediate environment as well as when I travel as travelling somewhere you haven’t visited before is exciting, its different and there are new things to see around every corner. I am never sated which can drive my travelling companions a bit mad! When I lived in Singapore we lived close to The Botanic Gardens so I would visit and draw there often and the Ginger garden was my favourite spot, I fell in love with the gingerliness and developed a series around them. The gingerly paintings are about journeys and meetings aswell as being about the tropical flowers of Asia. For me these flowers represent my own experience of travelling to another continent and the extraordinary people i have met because of that. I have chosen titles for my gingerliness that reflect that such as ‘Magenta Meet Me at the Ginger Lilies’ I think The Fullerton Hotel has been my most ambitious painting to date because of the scale and the detail….all those windows. It is a building with such an interesting history as the Post Office building and a hospital and also a hideout during the war. The painting contains over 130 vintage stamps that I collected and having designed the painting like a huge postcard I was able to use the stamps al the bottom and in the square at the top like on an actual postcard. agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
167 SPECIAL ISSUE Most of these stands including a first day cover all the stamps have the singapore frank stamped on them so the stamps all went through this building when it was a working postal sorting office before it was turned into the luxury hotel it is today Clare Haxby eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
SPECIAL ISSUE 170 We have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances of your pieces, as the stimulating Marina Bay Sands, that shows how vivacious tones are not strictly indispensable to create tension and dynamics. How did you come about settling on your colour palette? And how much does your own psychological makeup determine the nuances of tones you decide to use in a piece and in particular, how do you develop a painting’s texture? Someone said to me a while before I started this painting ‘ You never use blue, You don’t paint in blue” and this was correct up to that point. I do tend to have a lot of pink , green purple paintings ….but the subjects I had been painting hadn’t called for a blue palette until I painted Marina Bay Sands. I knew exactly what blues I wanted to use to represent this giant shiny architectural giant of Singapore’s marina. I don’t always paint the sky blue though to me a neutral beige colour was actually going to compliment and emphasise the blue of the rest of the painting. My colour choices are really instinctive I just have quite an immediate feeling of what is right for each piece. I build up the texture using layers of glazes, on the 3 towers I used a handcut stencil for all the squares and then overllayered this with tiny squares of silver leaf its quite a meditative process when I get into the detail. The tiny trees onto of the boat like structure on the top I created in mono print as with other details on the lower part of the painting. If you look carefully I have included the name of the architect Moshe Safdie within one of the towers. Your artistic practice seems to aim to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with freedom to realise their own perception: while clear references to agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
171 SPECIAL ISSUE perceptual reality, some of your paintings as The Ginger Lilies Called Me, reject an explicit explanatory strategy: the vivacious tones of seem to be the tip of the iceberg of the emotions that you are really attempting to communicate. How would you define the relationship between abstraction and figurative in your practice? In particular, how does representation and a tendency towards abstraction find their balance in your work? I love playing in that space between representation and abstraction. I sometimes yearn to do some more Clare Haxby eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 172 abstract works but because of my interest in pattern, decoration and the detail that goes with that I don’t seem to be able to create a totally abstract piece but I do like constantly experimenting and I do want to encourage my viewers to have an reaction to what I am painting. With the buildings people often have a personal connection or memory associated with a place or a building and as an artist you are facilitating a capture of that experience. Buildings have energy and I think I can pick up and translate some of that so that the essence of the building is conveyed. This is all part of the process and instinctive its not something that I ‘try’ or agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
173 SPECIAL ISSUE really work at doing. With the flower paintings these are more emotional pieces as they represent the personal and physical journey and in particular the connections I have made with new people and the friendships I have made whilst being open to embracing new experiences and opportunities. The style is less formal more gestural and expressive and the colours are bright. I did think about calling one ‘not for wallflowers’ Your style is very personal and conveys both rigorous geometry and vivacious abstract feature: what influences outside the visual arts inspire and impact your approach to making work? Moreover, do you pay attention to the work of your contemporaries? If so, is there anyone in particular you feel inspired by? I am a painter and a textile designer, I used to sell my designs through agents as surface pattern design years ago. I am drawn to pattern and the decorative arts and I think this comes through in my paintings as I tend to focus on the decorative elements of a building like the ironwork on my Raffles Hotel Painting. I love interior design and doing up houses. With my husband we have renovated and redesigned several Victorian properties in England. Some of the design work we did was featured in Interior magazines. Yes I love the work of artists Miranda Scozcek and Marise Maas I love both these artists use of colour and their choice of subject matter, Marise Maas focuses on the detail of everyday life and turns them into powerful contemporary paintings. I love her horse series and with Miranda I love her colour juxtaposition and the animal symbolism but mostly I just love looking at the paintings and appreciating them, her colours are like jewels. I love the textiles of Australian designer Florence Broadhurst and design company De Gournay. Clare Haxby eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries SPECIAL ISSUE 176 You recently joined the Athena Network in London and you are a member of the American Women of Surrey: do you think that your being a woman provides your artistic research with some special value? I love hanging out with women and I have a network of very inspiring women entrepreneurs in my business and social groups as well as some really good friends who are the most amazing support. I was part of The Athena Network in Singapore and now I have joined Athena Network in Barnes It is an excellent resource and support network for women in business and inspiring to be around other women on their entrepreneurial journey. I am lucky to have friends all over the world now as a result of my expat time in Singapore and I like being part of an expat group as well back home as we have that shared experience of the sometimes crazy and chaotic pattern of expat life. My experience is that of a woman, it is just my experience. I am a female artist, a mother and I have lived in several places. I think all these things inform my work. Over the years your works have been internationally showcased in several occasions and one of the hallmarks of your work is its ability to create a direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language you use in a particular context? I can’t control how people feel when they
177 SPECIAL ISSUE view my paintings but as you have asked I think I do really appreciate hearing from my collectors as I do get sent some truly heart lifting words My client Clare Nyman the founder of Peach Tree Jewels in Australia sent me this “I can’t even begin to explain how much joy this one brings to my home in Avoca beach AUS, Clare Haxby you are a superstar, Meet Me at the Ginger Garden lights up the room we love it so much!” Clare Haxby eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 178 I get some very moving words sent to me from my clients across the globe. I can’t tell you how uplifting that is! Having said that when i am painting I am not really considering the viewpoint of the audience, I think that would be distracting and it would be a mistake to try and paint what you thought people wanted, because you can never really know that. I am painting from my authentic centre and the right agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
Clare Haxby eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral 179 SPECIAL ISSUE audience will be revealed later. I think the only difference is when painting a commission, you are painting for a client but even then a client has booked you to paint because they love your style and handwriting so as long as the client gives you freedom to do that, to trust that is the best kind of collaboration on a private commission. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Clare. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? Thank-you so much for interviewing me , your questions are great, very in-depth, you have made me really think! I always have lots of ideas the ones i am focusing on for this next year is to work on my London Landmark paintings I would like to paint The Michelin building and Tower Bridge. I am investigating collaborations into textiles, creating some designs for fabrics and also I am talking with a partner about an exhibition in Singapore in a Black and White House. I always have so many ideas its like the reverse of creative block….creative too much? haha I have to reign in my ideas due to time constraints but lets just say future plans also involve Florida Landmarks as I visited Miami Art Deco and Ernest Hemmingway’s House in Key West this year. I have got a business coach now and she has made me Focus on a plan for this year so I can sleep and enjoy my growing family alongside all my creative and business projects. Success for me is as much about a great work,life balance with a heap of travelling thrown into the mix . An interview by , curator and , curator [email protected]
SPECIAL ISSUE 180 Experimenting with a wide variety of materials to express the ideas she explores, artist Val Wecerka's work rejects any conventional classification regarding its style, to address the viewers to a multilayered visual experience. In her (Un)geschriebene Briefe series that we'll be discussing in the following pages, she successfully attempts to trigger the spectatorship's perceptual parameters, with a deeper focus on a complementary dialogue between materiality, content, the exhibition space and the encounter with the viewers. One of the most impressive aspects of Wecerka's work is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of inquiring into the liminal area where the abstract and the figurative find an unexpected still consistent point of convergence: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating and multifaceted artistic production. Hello Val and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid background and after your studies in Textile at the National Art College in Sliven, Bulgaria, you moved to Austria to nurture your education at the College Val Wecerka Lives and works in Vienna, Austria Peripheral ARTeries meets I am a fiber artist and fashion designer who is inspired by the colors, textures, shapes and patterns found in nature and in various cultural expressions found around the world. My spiritual practice of prayer and studying sacred text are an important part of my process as well as inspiration. My work is also heavily influenced by my practice of re-purposing materials. The work is slow and is a contemplative practice for me to renew my mind, slow down, dream, pray, and listen. I am interested in how art can become alive on the human form and I am honored when I get to witness a person's inner transformation as they put on a garment that makes them feel beautiful and alive. An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
183 SPECIAL ISSUE Val Wecerka eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral for Fashion and Design in Vienna: how did these experiences influence the way you currently conceive your works? And in particular, what did draw you to turn back to Painting after your journey in the field of Design? When I moved to Austria, I was accepted to study at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna majoring in ceramics. As I was not able to yet speak German , I decided to start my education at the College for Fashion and Design and concentrated in learning the language. After a year passed by and I also won a prize for Design, unfortunately I was unable to continue my studies because of limited study places., So I turned back to studying at the University. I applied again successfully, this time for painting and Tapestry. This is how it all began…. I would say that my fashion and design works were influenced by my paintings and not the other way around. In almost all of my fashion designs one can find motives from my paintings. Your works convey a coherent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification. Before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit https://www.valwecerka.at in order to get a synoptic view of your work: in the meanwhile, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up? How much importance has spontaneity in your work? In particular, do you conceive you works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your pieces? How do you select your subjects? In particular, do you think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist? Yes you are absolutely right. There is something like a red thread, which runs through my artworks, nevertheless spontaneity is tremendously important for me. The central theme in my work is the past but keeping always the future in mind. For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected (Un)geschriebene Briefe, an interesting project that our readers have already started to got to know in the introductory pages of this article.
SPECIAL ISSUE 184 What has at once captured our attention of your artistic inquiry is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of (Un)geschriebene Briefe would you tell us your sources of inspiration? And how did you select your subjects? I was born by the Black Sea and I miss the sea a lot here. The colour blue has a very strong attraction for me. I came to Vienna in 1992. Being all alone, the only way to communicate with my parents was to write letters. In the beginning, I adapted the letters written between my parents and I to abstract signs or abstract scriptures. Then I looked for people in similar situations on the Internet. I also found these letters by Freud, like between Freud and Jung, or between Einstein and Freud. I copied and modified them, aiming to omit the content in order to concentrate exclusively on the external aspect. For me, these feelings were much more important and it is often impossible to describe them. Then I went home from time to time took things with me, wrapped in agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
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187 SPECIAL ISSUE newspaper. I wanted to retain these memories, so I started to place them on the canvas and to colour them, inserting them into collages. At first the canvas was flat, then I started to cut out the letters and to make collages with them. In some sense, I wanted to put them away and I did not want to see them that clearly, so I hid them under a newspaper. You are a versatile artist and the spectrum of your artistic interests covers a whole range of topics rather than one single working style, from the figure to abstract ornamental formulations: what draws you to such cross disciplinary approach? What are the properties you are searching for in the materials that you include in your materials? And in particular, when do you recognize that one of the mediums has exhausted it expressive potential to self? In Bulgaria and also other former socialist countries, artists were given a solid classical education. Among the compulsory subjects were still life, portrait and nude drawing, along with abstract painting and textile design as well. In textile design, we were asked to stylize concrete forms. I was always Val Wecerka eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 188 torn between abstract and figurative painting and could give up neither one nor the other. Since 2006, I am working only in the abstract field. At the moment, I am moving away from the 2-dimensional painting into the picture/object. The materials I use support this process. They must fulfill their mechanical or static purpose and be stable or tell a story as the Bulgarian newspapers, agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
189 SPECIAL ISSUE which I use for my collages. This creates a kind of intertextuality and intermediality Your successful attempt to reveal the deeper resonances of moments could be considered as a search of the Ariadne's thread that conveys elusive information and that at the same time reveals turning points and even unexpected scenarios. You address your audience to a Val Wecerka eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
SPECIAL ISSUE 190 partecipative and multilayered experience, playing with sybolic references, as writing, belonging to the realm of memory: German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about it? Morever, would you tell us agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
193 SPECIAL ISSUE something about the importance of symbols in your pratice and their relationship to memory? In contrast to me, Ariadne is a sad figure. My Theseus did not leave me alone on an island. Also, the search in memory is more complex and difficult than freeing itself along the red thread from a labyrinth. The written text serves as a symbol of memory. Val Wecerka eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries SPECIAL ISSUE 196 Despite to clear references to perceptual reality your visual vocabulary, as revealed by the interesting Possible geometry, has a very ambivalent quality. How do you view the concepts of the real and the imagined playing out within your works? How would you define the relationship between abstraction and representation in your practice? ”Possible geometry”, is very strong influenced by my textile work. The elements, grouped together in a certain way, geometrically or as written, show the possibility of a rereading of reality. I alienate the
197 SPECIAL ISSUE functions of the materials used, but keep their associations - I always start with the perception that psychologically interests me, quite intuitively, and bring together things that do not necessarily belong together and build a space, my space with materials To remind me of something. Your works address the viewers to challenge their perceptual parmeters and allow an open reading, with a wide variety of associative possibilities. The power of visual arts in the contemporary age is enormous: at the same time, the role of the viewer’s disposition and attitude is equally important. Val Wecerka eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 200 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries