ART H A B E N S C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w CASSIE SHAO ALARIC HOBBS CLAUDIA UNGERSBÄCK AIMEE MELAUGH CHRISTIAN HIADZI CATRIONA FAULKNER BIANCA CASTON ANNA MASIUL-GOZDECKA ARIT EMMANUELA ETUKUDO ART a work by Special Edition
I am working inbetween the fields oft ext, image, movement, painting and music exploringboundaries to sculpture, performance to widen fine art apatial and digital in a perseptual, sensual anexperimental way. Abstract concept, thought, linguistic sign and the physical act of art, a touch oftheme, worlds, maker and viewer and trust in images, meaning, referring, existance negotiationfigural, figurative and pure aspects as well as the gap of automatism and conciousness, copy andoriginal are the main areas of conflict I´m interested in. Austria C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w As an experimental storyteller, I recreate the relationship between my body’s physical movements in the world and its incorporeal movements as a result of that. In my work, my body is not limited by form, space or time; but instead manifests itself beyond what is immediately perceptible. I produce work that discusses my body and the realities that it creates. I appear repeatedly in my work; each body a different version of myself, each body a different world, each body a trace of what existence leaves on me. USA To choose animation as a medium for my own artistic expression was a natural decision, as it is the only medium that allows me to visualize and directly conjure forth imagined imagery without limitations or boundaries. My primary inspiration is my dreams. I dream almost every night of the strangest scenarios, and I create animations from them. It is fascinating to let my subconscious brain do the work, as it swallows and digests what I watch, read, and think in my daily life into something I didn’t consciously create, but somehow manifested in the form of a dream. Cassie Shao USA Alaric Hobbs invites you to reenter the more playful, perhaps innocent mindset of a child aged 5-11 years with this project titled; ‘Primary’. Does that mindset, lacking our current over-education in contemporary art, enable us to view these images with a more honest appreciation of the shapes, lines, form, and colour and allow them to move away from the didactic and into the artistic? How does adding understanding and education of the content increase that appreciation? United Kingdom Melaugh’s paintings present a burst of memory, depicting a moment in time and have the potential to be viewed as a door to re-examine past events, inviting the viewer to be transported into a different time and space. References to her grandfather’s experience of being in the army during World War Two are evident throughout Melaugh’s large scale paintings in the form of numbers, dates and descriptions. Realistic painting does not have to reflect reality, it searches for other layers, other meanings, questions, and looks.In my abstract works, I consider each painting as a separate world, a separate reality that I discover and explore. I like to use forms and shapes associated with nature. Forms similar to leaves, boats, stones, scales. Contours of known reality in an unknown world. I observe their interactions among forms and colors. They float in them and define this world, organize, or allow this world to define it. Poland Aimee Melaugh Anna Masiul-Gozdecka Claudia Ungersbäck Arit E. Etukudo Germany Alaric Hobbs ART H A B E N S
Bianca Caston 40 90 66 112 166 4 22 In this issue Special thanks to: Charlotte Seeges, Martin Gantman, Krzysztof Kaczmar, Tracey Snelling, Nicolas Vionnet, Genevieve Favre Petroff, Christopher Marsh, Adam Popli, Marilyn Wylder, Marya Vyrra, Gemma Pepper, Maria Osuna, Hannah Hiaseen and Scarlett Bowman, Yelena York Tonoyan, Edgar Askelovic, Kelsey Sheaffer and Robert Gschwantner. Christian Hiadzi Catriona Faulkner Arit E. Etukudo Claudia Ungersbäck Aimee Melaugh Alaric Hobbs Cassie Shao At the core of my practice is the passion and drive to create an idea that in itself, becomes a catalyst to challenge and enhance the viewer’s imagination. I consider myself the conveyor, the vehicle through which the imagination of the viewer is pushed beyond the obvious.My aim is to demonstrate against the status quo of society, my rejection of mundanity and rebellion against archetypes within a contemporary world; where I invite the spectator to establish a dialogue with my works in order to inspire them.In my work, I attempt to show my aversion towards following the status quo of contemporary society by encouraging the viewer to draw out and observe the beauty of the unfamiliar caught within the ordinary. 132 150 My work is a glimpse into a world of reinvention where my practice examines and reinvents the beauty within objects that have been discarded, lost or are defunct and are refound. With the use of fine hand stitch and beading I create assemblages, exquisite artefacts, shrines of complex and intricate detail, configured from twisted shrapnel and broken jewels to animal bones and beautifully oxidised rusty nails.My practice reflects an ethos of using what is around us to create, the precious treasures I find enables a sense of the familiar but is reimagined, refashioned and presented in a new context and configuration. Catriona Faulkner United Kingdom Christian Hiadzi United Kingdom I enjoy creating layers in my work so the viewer can look beyond the surface. I believe that in the moment of focus , peace is present. I have a minimalistic approach to my work. My goal is that while someone is viewing my work and focusing on the details, diving deeper into the piece.. they get a sense of peace. It’s important for me to know that my viewers are able to see the foundation upon which the layers rest on because all of the foundations are solid. Without a solid foundation peace is impossible. Anna Masiul-Gozdecka On the cover: a work by Bianca Caston USA
Special Issue 4012 Anna Masiul-Gozd
2 Special Issue Anna Masiul - Gozdecka ART Habens video, 2013 024 ecka
ART Habens Jordi Rosado Special Issue 403 Dragon`s Eye, 80x60
Anna Masiul - Gozdecka Hello Anna and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://agozdecka.art.pl and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you graduated from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum direct the direction of your current artistic research? Anna Masiul - Gozdecka: I was born in Warsaw (Poland) during the communist era – grey and sad. In my childhood the only four available books illustrated in color were "History of Art" which was like a Bible for me and the only real painting in our house was done by my parents' friend, painted boldly in a very impressive way. These two elements were my foundation in origin. Nobody in my family who was touched painfully by history had an opportunity to develop a talent; I was the first and I fell in love with beauty and color. The years at the Academy was a special period in my life. Finding the way between "giving in to training" and my individual cultural background was not easy. In fact, I started to discover my path only years after graduation, when I was able to distance myself from them and also from being under the pressure of rapid development and expectations. I allowed myself to paint a lot of paintings that I always wanted to paint. I allowed myself to paint them badly just to see how I 404 Special Issue An interview by , curator and curator would feel with it. Sometimes I felt good with it, sometimes not. From then on I redefined what I really wanted to create. My advice would be to find your inner master and trust him. Select and look at all the inspirations, education, but from a different perspective. Let go of control, efforts, let something happen, let inspiration be ab-
Special Issue 24053 sorbed, and then let go of these inspirations. The fascination in color may have been learned or consciously shaped, but it is this basic aspiration, the subcutaneous river that drives my search. Marked out with such unique visual identity, the body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens —and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way you use your visual language in a strategic way to counter-balance subjectivity, offering an array of meanings. When walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you usually develop your initial idea for your portraits? Do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? Anna Masiul - Gozdecka: To answer this question, I have to go back to the source itself, why I paint at all. I am fascinated by the beauty of the real world. The play of light, shadows, mid tones, reflections, subtleties in colors and spaces. I watch the world and I sometimes notice something weird, something that would slip away and that I would like to save. Portraits fascinate me, because of this whole show of light and shadow comes the space of the human psyche, the whole inner world. However, to build a cycle, you need to go deeper into history, practical and schematic actions. I certainly work very intuitively, but this intuitive action must also have solid foundations, such as artistic skills and composition. This also includes tearing down schematics and avoiding “secure paths”. Blue seems to be a recurrent colour in your pallette and we have particularly appreciated its thoughtful nuances in Dragon`s Eye, as well as the way you combine delicate tones with geometric patterns in The Scent Of Rose creates tension and dynamics. How does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in an artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures in order to achieve such brilliant results? Anna Masiul - Gozdecka: I never have enough blue, especially turquoise. It is a kind of counterpoint in my palette, it emphasizes, enhances and contrasts other colors. Contrast is the main skeleton of the image, both in terms of color and form. Searching for textures is a deep need for me, which breaks all blockades, patterns, "ruts" in thinking. And here my work is very intuitive- creating the right contrast, texture, form, balance of composition gives me physical pleasure, As you have remarked in your artist's statement, you consider each painting as a separate world, a separate reality, that you discover and explore: how does everyday life's experience fuel yur artistic research? Anna Masiul - Gozdecka: When I talk to people and read what they write - whether it's thoughts, posts, books, listening to their stories, I see separate but intertwining worlds everywhere. I watch how the dog sees the world and how the cat sees the world, and for each of them, there is a separate story about the same world. Similarly, with paintings, they can come from one cycle, have some common features, but each of them has its own story, rhythm, poetry, which is ART Habens Anna Masiul - Gozdecka
24061 Special Issue separate from all the others. This should be the case if we want to avoid repetition (duplication). In the real world, in everyday life, nothing is always the same, every day is a new day and I want to discover this newness. Anna Masiul - Gozdecka ART Habens The Scent of Rose, 80x80
Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us, : how do yu consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? Anna Masiul - Gozdecka: I see many reasons in this quote. How we perceive the world ART Habens Anna Masiul - Gozdecka Special Issue 24073 Catch The Moonlight, 100x100
Do Not Cry In The Wind, 80x60
Dragon`s Eye, 80x60
Anna Masiul - Gozdecka ART Habens 24081 Special Issue and what we want to say about it determines what we create, our experience, dreams, feelings and expressions. I think that man constantly creates and changes ideas (adapting to reality). However, the relationship between reality and imagination is crucial in artistic creation. Reality is the basis. There is nothing more perfect than the world of nature, the laws of physics, language rules, mathematics. What Would You Like, 100x100
ART Habens Anna Masiul - Gozdecka Special Issue 24073 We all understand that. At the same time, imagination shapes the concept, interpretation and nothing is impossible here-absolutely no limits! Imagination can fly far beyond understanding but man needs understanding. Therefore, to find it, I need a coherent and logical language of reality. For me, painting from observation, exploration of the real world enriches my approach All About Your Indifference, 100x100
ART Habens 24081 Special Issue to abstraction. Abstraction is a kind of reality, something that is outside, before or in between (the actual subjective picture of feelings). It is an abbreviation, a kind of haiku, while realistic painting can be compared to a story. I need both that I combine sometimes. With their unique multilayered visual quality, your artworks highlight contours of known reality in an unknown world and seem to inAnna Masiul - Gozdecka Space To Think, 100x100
Special Issue 24093 vite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to adRoad To Nowhere, 100x100 ART Habens Anna Masiul - Gozdecka
24101 Special Issue dress them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? Anna Masiul - Gozdecka: This is a very important statement. It is amazing for me to hear what people see in my paintings, especially children who are absolutely sincere. I sometimes provide several hooks along with the canvas so that the new owner of Anna Masiul - Gozdecka ART Habens The Bird Song, 80x80
Special Issue 24113 the painting can hang it vertically or horizontally according to his imagination of my painting. I am fascinated by how people open up, interpret it in their own way, find parts of themselves in my paintings. Therefore, I would prefer not to give titles at all, allowing viewers to opt for their own title of my work. However, not everyone has such courage and often need some attachment or guidelines. I Need Dream To Live, 100x100 ART Habens Anna Masiul - Gozdecka
Your Sadness Is Mine, 80x60
24141 Special Issue Your artworks often are marked out with explicative titles that sometimes reflect personal feelings, as Your Sadness Is Mine and that sometimes seem to speak about the outside world, as All About Your Indifference: how do you go about naming your work ? In particular, is important for you to expressly tell something that might walk the viewers through their visual experience? Anna Masiul - Gozdecka: Recently it has become much more important to me because my approach to my paintings is changing. Partly because (which I never let it happen before) it has become a self-therapy, which results in even less pressure on the result (which is surprising, often giving better results). Painting is also a fairly long process during which various changes occur in me. Often, my titles refer to literature, which I experience while painting, reading books or listening to audiobooks. I treat painting as a kind of poetry, and the title becomes a metaphor for me, a complement to the picture. Finally, I encourage viewers to give their own titles and why not? By doing so, it adds an element of light and fun which often inspires me. You are an established artist and over the years your artworks have been internationally exhibited: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definetely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Anna Masiul - Gozdecka: I have to admit that I love these technological changes. Every day I can see great paintings from around the world, I also have contact with people who react to my art. When this contact was very limited, galleries rarely shared viewers' opinions and comments. And this is something that gives me a lot of power and desire to continue creating. Now I know I don't create in a vacuum. At the same time, I have realized that looking at paintings in reality and on the internet is totally different and difficult to compare, that's why I always recommend visiting live art exhibitions. We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Anna. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Anna Masiul - Gozdecka: Thank you also for this inspiring conversation. Currently, I am continuing the cycle of "Personal, liberating abstractions". Working from a different approach to the portrait, there might even be something new that may appear. However, I never close any cycle, my development is like a coil, after some time I return to old topics, but I see them from a different angle and find its complement. It is not worth closing anything, especially if you are as “hungry” for art as I am. Anna Masiul - Gozdecka ART Habens An interview by , curator and curator
Special Issue 4012 Bhopal Installation photograph, The Glassworks Derr Lives and works in Derry, Northern Ireland, UK
2 Special Issue Aimee Melaugh ART Habens video, 2013 024 y. Aimee Melaugh. Photo by John Deery
ART Habens Jordi Rosado Special Issue 403 Supporting Cast 2019 Oil on canvas 167 x 205 cm.
Aimee Melaugh Hello Aimee and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit http://www.aimeemelaugh.com and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you graduated from the Ulster University with a First Class Honours (BA Hons) in Fine Art Painting: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum direct the direction of your current artistic research? Aimee Melaugh: Hello and thank you to the Art Habens team, I’m delighted to have been selected for your publication. It was through studying the BA Hons degree in Fine Art Painting at the Ulster University that I gained an understanding of different art forms and transformed my artistic practice completely. Through taking part in group critiques, all of the students helped push boundaries with each other’s work and this experience made us constantly re-evaluate our processes and working methods in the studio. My work would be completely different if I hadn’t have studied the BA in Fine Art. I don’t think I would feel so comfortable working on such a large scale and I wouldn’t be producing the work I am now. I am often drawn to explore subjects that interest me within my own culture and family history and my artistic research is evolving to include worldwide issues such as climate change, exploitation and freedom of speech. Marked out with such unique visual identity, the body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens, and that our readers have already started to get to know in 404 Special Issue An interview by , curator and curator the introductory pages of this article, has at once captured our attention for the way you use your visual language — and in particular symbolically charged images, as the clown mask in Supporting Cast — in such strategic way to counter-balance subjectivity, offering an array of meanings. When walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you usually develop your initial idea for your portraits? Do you
Special Issue 24053 create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? Aimee Melaugh: Supporting Cast is one of my most recent paintings, developed in line with my current artistic research surrounding narcissism and narcissistic traits. I had read about how narcissists often cast victims to play a role in their life and thought the title would playfully hint at this idea. Supporting Cast, however, whilst based on my personal experience has been interpreted by viewers, even in a political sense. I find it interesting how viewers of artwork often interpret the work in different ways and sometimes relate through their own life experiences. I always write down possible painting ideas and potential titles of work as soon as the ideas pop into my head and eventually, multiple ideas begin to merge into one and I have a rough idea for a painting. I often collage images before beginning to project the ideas onto a canvas. However, I find that my initial ideas end up changing once I begin, as often images will translate differently once painted. Sometimes I start a painting, then leave it for months if I’m unsure where it is going and come back to it once I have another idea to add or another collage to merge on top of the existing image. I think I do create instinctively or at least that is what leads the direction of a painting after it begins from the initial methodical approach. My paintings are often influenced by film, literature and real life experience. Ideas have in the past, come from images in war literature or old family photographs. Tuam, was inspired by the revelation that human remains of babies had been discovered buried in a small town in County Galway in Ireland and the remains were to be exhumed. I was inspired to create a painting to raise awareness about the topic of Magdalene laundries. Blue seems to be a recurrent colour in your pallette and we have particularly appreciated the way its thoughtful nuances in Aside creates tension and such sense of dynamics. How does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in an artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures in order to achieve such brilliant results? Aimee Melaugh: Blue is often used throughout my work as I find it can create a lifeless and eerie atmosphere within a painting. Inspiration for Aside came about through working as part of the Art Department on a feature film set in Derry. I was inspired by the concept of how a false reality can be created through art and film, this then began to develop into ideas surrounding false realities within war and traumatic events. My most recent work has changed a lot in terms of my colour choices as I want to explore warmer, earthy tones with the aim to be more experimental in my approach. I use a variety of mediums when painting, such as liquin, dammar varnish, stand oil and linseed oil and often experiment using squeegees and different materials to add and take away layers of paint. My own psychological make-up may unconsciously influence the nuances of tones within my paintings as I put a lot of time and thought into creating the work, however instinct often directs the finished product. Your work is a collective exploration of traumatic events which have taken place throughout history, and as you have remarked in your artist's statement, references to your grandfather’s experiences of being in the army during World War Two are present throughout your work: how do you consider the role of memory — including familiar and historical ones — playing within your process and how does everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research? Memory is an important aspect explored throughout my work, in particular I tend to focus on memory in relation to trauma and the impact ART Habens Aimee Melaugh
24061 Special Issue art can have on the viewer through their engagement and interaction. Coal Shed was inspired by my grandfather’s experience in World War II, but also by more recent memories and experience of conflict in Northern Ireland. I am particularly interested in how artwork allows for the exploration of historic traumatic events which in turn generate sensations to produce a reaction in the present. I find that memory is an important aspect to consider when exploring traumatic events as personal memories may trigger different responses through the spectators and generate a sense of empathy amongst some. I am interested in how when interpreting a piece of Tuam 2019 Oil on canvas 210 x 195 cm Aimee Melaugh ART Habens
ART Habens Aimee Melaugh Special Issue 24073 Aside, 2019 Oil on canvas, 163 x 200 x 5.5 cm
ART Habens 24081 Special Issue artwork, the viewer’s personal response is subjective and dependent on events that have taken place in an individual’s life. I am also interested in how a viewer of art only has the ability to connect on an empathetic level, they will never feel the degree of emotion the victim would have felt during the traumatic event, as a ‘muted dose,’ of trauma is all that can be presented. Everyday life experience fuels my artistic research as I am drawn to some subjects rather than others. Sometimes a seemingly meaningless encounter will become the beginning of a painting and new theme. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us, : how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? Aimee Melaugh: I agree that even though aspects of my work are heavily focused on realism, they are derived from images I have initially put together through my imagination. My paintings sometimes are even just inspired by a colour, then the image begins to form through collaging and manipulating different images. Imagination is the most important aspect, as ideas within the work need to connect and I am constantly pushing my practice so that it does not focus solely on realism, but on presenting a force of trauma. My paintings, Fuse, and Lull, were inspired by a previous painting I had completed during 2019 titled, Vain Exterior. They explore the same ideas of stripping something back to its authentic form, opposite to the theme explored in Supporting Cast, which focuses on how narcissists have tendencies to cover up their true self with a disguise. I feel that imagination and reality are inseparable, however perhaps emotion shapes imagination. With their unique multilayered visual quality, your figures in your paintings are often blurred and merge into their surroundings and seem to invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? Aimee Melaugh: I feel that through my work I aim to provide a space inviting viewers to project their own ideas. Inspiring viewers to participate in discussion and respond to the work is something which I am continually trying to develop and push throughout my practice. It is one of the most difficult aspects of painting, especially for someone who loves to paint realistically. I find that I am constantly trying to leave out certain sections of a painting and paint over others whilst layering images to try to abstract what is going on within the painting. I don’t always want to simply provide the viewer with an image of trauma but an image which produces sensations and has the power to trigger an emotion. I often try not to simply describe an experience of trauma whether it be historical or personal, but allow the effects of such experience to inform my work. Hopefully then a reaction will be provoked within the viewer and discussions will be sparked. Personal interpretation is important if one is to connect with the work on a meaningful level. Your artworks often are marked out with explicative titles that sometimes reflect personal feelings and that sometimes seem to speak about the outside world, as Waiting For Thunder: how do you go about naming your work? Aimee Melaugh: Titles for my paintings which were completed during 2018 were taken from war Aimee Melaugh
Installation photograph Tuam at Platform Arts Belfast 2019 photo by Simon Mills
Special Issue 24093 literature as I wanted the collection of work to relate and ideas to flow between the pieces. As my work started to develop towards the end of 2019 and become more personal, I started to explore how titles can change the meaning of a piece such as Vain Exterior. This title does not refer to anything visually within the work but was inspired by exploring the idea of how a skull represents stripping everything back to its basic authentic form in response to ideas surrounding vanity. The title, Aside, was inspired by research I had carried out in relation to film terminology. ART Habens Aimee Melaugh Coal Shed 2018 Oil on canvas 200 x 200 cm.
24101 Special Issue Aimee Melaugh ART Habens Bhopal 2019 oil on canvas 168 x 200 cm
Special Issue 24113 ART Habens Aimee Melaugh Vain Exterior 2019 Oil on canvas 50 x 60 x 3.8 cm
24121 Special Issue I had encountered the description of, ‘When a character in a film breaks the 'fourth wall' and directly addresses the audience with a comment.’ As the painting was inspired by working behind the Aimee Melaugh ART Habens Blood-Shod 2019 Oil on canvas 28 x 32 cm
Special Issue 2413 scenes on a film, I thought it was an interesting title as it almost describes what I often try to achieve when painting which is to break a barrier between the artwork and the spectator. ART Habens Aimee Melaugh Waiting For Thunder 2019 Oil on canvas 26 x 28 cm
24141 Special Issue Aimee Melaugh ART Habens Fuse 2019 Oil on canvas 50 x 60 cm
Special Issue 24153 Shelter 2018 Oil on canvas 160 x 190 cm. ART Habens Aimee Melaugh
24161 Special Issue Your artworks also raises awareness on topical issues that affect our unstable society, as the interesting Bhopal: Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "artists’ role differs depending on which part of the world they’re in": does your artistic research respond to a particular cultural moment? In particular, do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical issues in our globalised and everchanging society? Aimee Melaugh: I don’t think my research responds to a particular cultural moment, however my previous work was focused on World War Two as I had so much inspiration and images at the time and a body of work just seemed to form around this particular topic. I think Bhopal, was the first painting where I wanted to try something new and explore a topic that I had only heard of through research at the time. I was shocked at how extensive this catastrophe was, and although it had happened in 1984, the effects are still seen today and was inspired to create a painting in response. I understand how artists’ roles tend to differ in relation to which part of the world they are in, as external influences often play a huge role in the work I create and the people you are surrounded with also tend to have an impact. I do think artists can raise awareness on topical issues today and it is probably more important to do so in today’s ever changing society. Since graduating, you have been selected to exhibit at the Royal Ulster Academy’s 137th annual exhibition and the ArtisAnn Gallery Emerging Artist Exhibition, moreover, you will also have a solo exhibition at the Verbal Arts Centre in Derry in December 2020: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the viewers in a physical context is definitely the most important one, in order to snatch the spirit of a work of Art. However, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to the online realm — as Instagram — increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Aimee Melaugh: I think social media, especially Instagram, when used correctly can be a great way to get work out there and connect with an audience, meet new artists as well as discover art galleries worldwide. However, online platforms can be negative at times as seeking validation through likes and followers isn’t something which should be the most important aspect with art. Direct connection with viewers in a physical context is an important aspect of exhibiting to ensure that the impact and energy of the art is experienced. We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic production and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Aimee. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Aimee Melaugh: Thank you for the opportunity to share my ideas and processes behind my work. At the moment I am preparing and planning work for an upcoming residency at St Augustine’s Old Schoolhouse, Derry in conjunction with Art Arcadia. The one month residency will be taking place in April 2020 and will be completed with a solo exhibition taking place from 1st-9th May. The focus of my new work will be responding to issues such as attachment to location, connection, transition, social deprivation and freedom of speech. The goal for the exhibition at the end of the residency is to create a contemplative space for the viewer and to provoke questions and discussions surrounding the topics explored. In the future I would hope to create much more work on a larger scale and explore subjects in an abstracted sense and of course to reach a wider audience through both online and traditional gallery exhibitions. Aimee Melaugh ART Habens
Special Issue 4012 Lives and works in Vienna, Austria
2 Special Issue Claudia Ungersbäck ART Habens video, 2013 024
ART Habens Jordi Rosado Special Issue 403
Claudia Ungersbäck Hello Claudia and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit http://www.claudiaungersbaeck.com and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training in Printmaking and Philosophy: how did those formative years and your cultural substratum influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, are there any experiences that did particularly help you to develop your attitude to experiment with different media and art disciplines? Hello ART Habens, thanks for your invitation. Well, I was always interested in both, language and image. When I was six, I got a diary from my mother as a present and I used to combine words and drawings together as complimentary as well as separate parts. My nursery teacher was the opinion I would become an author, I used to spend a lot of time with her as she lived across the road. From an early age I loved to read, watch movies, draw, write and tell stories but I didn’t consider myself an artist until quite late. I don´t consider myself as an female Austrian artist either. I used to speak like an adult quite early, I was raised standard German with me and when I started attending kindergarden I couldn´t understand the other children with their dialect but am into languages quite quick and easy. Maybe that is 404 Special Issue An interview by , curator and curator a reason I was and am more aware about languages and I still don’t feel familiar with attributes like “Austrian” but I have this specific melody and rhytm when I speak and this is something you can also find in my work. I grew up in the countryside, there are just houses, a castle, pub, bakery, shop and a church until I was 14 and went to boarding school in a nearby town. That was great, there was a library, some cafés and
Special Issue 24053 people of my age outside of class. In fashion school we did a lot of drawing. Everything from designs, to patterns and technical Drawings what always had to do with figure, technique, various materials and narratives. I also drew when I was bored during lessons, which I was quite often. Around that time I became interested in fine art but still finished with fashion school in order to get a job and I did long no artistic work at all. I was raised catholic what caused problems when I got older. I liked church when I was a child, I used to read in front of the others during mass. Once a priest didn´t wanted a girl nearby the altar and refused letting me bring the wine. That was the first time I can remember when I started becoming suspicious on reality. There are a lot of storytellers and musicians in my family, my grandmothers wrote stories down, one of them fictional but with inner truth and the other wrote during second world war al lot on daily matters and is a interesting chronicle. There have also been composers in my family. I grew up with stories about the second world war, my grandfather used to speak a lot of that specific time and what happened and my parents told me and my sisters and brother, this is something that formed definitely my character in a way. Politics and history and their narrative and awareness is something important in my family as well as discussions about it. Experiments are something I also grew up with - in a world with experiments in cooking, sewing, working on the house and garden, inventing plays and stories. I loved picking cherries with my uncle who had a farm in order to make schnaps. We were standing on ladders leaning on the tree for weeks, laughing and telling stories while picking. I also liked working, playing and picking in the woods. When I was a child I wanted to become farmer also, but that didn´t work out for some reason, later on I wanted to be designer and now I´m artist combining my experiences, needs and wants. The wish to have a farm still exists in a way but I don’t think I’m realizing this also in just one lifetime. I am very sensitive to an overload of images and text as I can’t get used to it finding them everywhere. I find it exhausting in a way even though I prefer living in a big city at the moment. I like silence, air, movement, space and quiet places otherwise I can’t think but I also dance a lot and am interested in music. Art education started with nudedrawing classes when I was in Dublin. I was 20 then I got to know interesting people who had to with music and art, one run a bar in Vienna and so I came to Vienna. I looked for a job, I quit and took the decision for a contuniative art education and started working in bars. Printmaking taught me a way to rethink a drawing in many ways, analyze it in steps and helped me to concentrate on an image more than painting did. I learned to think in negatives and mirrored while working on copper, stone or wood. We also had a good formal training, space and guidance for experiments. Philosophy and printing has something in common - it is thinking within an image or a language. I am a curious person and don´t take everything for granted, everything in the world is made by someone in a way. I remember working on my first etching - I made it and was thinking: okay, I know how it works what am I going to do now? Maybe ART Habens Claudia Ungersbäck
24061 Special Issue easy this question keeps me going and looking for new ways of visualization. I started reading philosophy and poetry during my A-levels in fashion school and went at University quite late, after my printmaking education and after working at theatres. I still do study, but more in a Wittgensteinian way, one sentence and thought after the other. I am not the best scientific writer. I live in-between this old analog world and the possibilities of a new digital world - I like the smell of oil as well as cutting movies. Your artistic production combines personal aesthetics with such a unique conceptual approach, and the visual language that marks out your artworks seems to be used in a strategic way to counter-balance subjectivity and offers an array of meanings. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of ART Habens —and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way you explored the point of convergence between text and image, to invite the viewers to question the evokative power of symbols and patterns: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you develop your initial ideas? I read a lot when I´m interested in something, I want to understand everything from the scratch. So I’m kind of extremely focusing myself on a topic when something passes my way – I try to understand the world in images: Why is it like this and why not different? Like, the way I see things for example. Why does everything seem to be so complicated? I try to order impressions and want to transform them, handle them in an artistic way. I am a kind of a cross-border commuter, philosophy also starts with wondering and reflecting and there are long stories of muses. I rarely remember my dreams for example, I wake up with a sentence and a specific pitch as if this would be the summary of what I have processed during sleeping. I listen into the day, I make coffee, I write my thoughts down and rethink. That’s how I start my day, that’s how I get on with my work. I just start somewhere I´m into, I deas and the next steps pop up while doing, writing, painting or cutting. It’s sort of like I’m remembering what I´ve seen or read.In my second year of printmaking studies I found a book in the library about Goyas work. It had a copy of the speech he held in front of the Academy in Madrid printed in it. The speech was about drawing from nature and not from artworks like sculptures, as this was the normal way of studying art at that time. He did not make many friends with that speech but he had me. Goya worked a lot with sayings and I as well have a saying for nearly every situation. Sayings describe certain topics of what is happening in a poetic way. They are little poetic moments and pictures in everyday life, I, however, don’t follow a specific strategic way, I amble. We have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances that mark out some of your artworks, and we like the way they create tension and sense of dynamism: how did you come about settling on your color palette? And how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your artworks? I loved blue since I was a child. I wanted to Claudia Ungersbäck ART Habens
ART Habens Claudia Ungersbäck Special Issue 24073 have everything in blue and started crying when I got a pink schoolbag. It is the colour my eyes and is the colour of utopia, of the Absolute, and of communication. Later on there came black. I had my colourful phases as well but using colours often has something obtrusive. I am very careful when using colour and focus on the form, the technique, the deep shadows of a colour, material or subject. When you´re careful and conscious you notice the fine nuances of everything. I try to catch this feeling. We have really appreciated the way your artworks embody an interface between realism and imagination, as well as the way you include elements from ordinary experience, as you did in in stilllife_cab. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination playing within your work? And how does everyday life's experience fuel your artistic research? The linguistic relation between image and imagination does not exist in German. There is “Vorstellung” – something concrete in front of reality - and “Phantasie” ,which is used more as the opposite of reality but is a means of painting in the head and combining thoughts. I agree with what Peter Doig is saying. What is in front of me is always strange, but what is in my head seems to be familiar, it feels true and real but it is not independent. I perseive and process with my whole body and see the world though my experiences and I do my work in this way. The process of art is making this subjective
ART Habens 24081 Special Issue Claudia Ungersbäck
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