2 Special Issue Alaric Hobbs ART Habens video, 2013 024
Geology Rocks, Spray Paint And Pen on Paper', 70x100cm, 2019
Alaric Hobbs Hello Alaric and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.alarichobbs.com and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. Are there any experiences along with your cultural substratum that did particularly influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how did you develop your attitude to experiment with different techniques? Alaric Hobbs: Hello there, it’s a pleasure, and thank you for your time. Whilst studying Contemporary Crafts I realised that geometry was always the main foundation throughout my work, so in my final year I just got really into the simplicity and forms of the shapes. My experience after I’d graduated was a horrible, depressing time and I wasn’t creative for a year. A year passed until I was creative again, but I was poor and reminded myself of what made me enjoy art in the first place; which was drawing. Pencil and paper is practically free so I combined my knowledge of geometry and turned it into illustrations. 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. 404 Special Issue An interview by , curator and curator 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 tension between pattern and form to inquire into the relationship between the didactic and into the artistic: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process,
Special Issue 24053 would you tell us how do you develop your initial ideas? Alaric Hobbs: I’ve gone about the process in several ways. I used to really concentrate on a certain shape and try using an idea with that but then found it constricting after a while. Mostly, the ideas come from something I have read or researched. Sometimes I can picture the final drawing in my head straight away and that will be the final result. More often, I play around with certain aspects of what I have in mind for the illustration, this can be a few sketches to many variations until I feel I have the final outcome of the drawing. The final shapes used depend on the concept and story of each one. We have really appreciated the way your artworks embody an interface between the figurative and the abstract form. 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? Alaric Hobbs: I feel that the finished drawing is the reality of my imagination when it comes to that piece, although I will find the drafts again in the future and still like some of the ideas that weren’t developed further. A lot of the time I’m not specifically looking for ideas for a new piece, it could be ART Habens Alaric Hobbs
24061 Special Issue Alaric Hobbs ART Habens Let's Talk About Mental Health, Spray Paint And Pen on Paper, 70x100cm, 2019
ART Habens Alaric Hobbs Special Issue 24073 Scutoid, Spray Paint And Pen on Paper, 70x100cm, 2019
ART Habens 24081 Special Issue something I happen to be reading and then I would start thinking about how that would be cool to share with others by turning it into something visual. For example, I’m currently recovering from an ankle injury and had to take injections against thrombosis, this got me researching blood clots and then I found an Alaric Hobbs Haem, Spray Paint And Pen on Paper, 70x100cm, 2020
Special Issue 24093 article about how a young man coughed up a complete blood clot from his lung and the shape of it alone was instantly a final piece for me to draw. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, how does adding understanding and education of the content increase that appreciation? With their unique multilayered visual quality, your artworks stimulate and expand the viewers' imagination beyond the obvious, encouraging your audience 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? Alaric Hobbs: It sounds quite egotistical but I don’t particularly want the viewer to interpret the piece based on what they believe it to be. I’m open to suggestions and what people have to say but the drawings always have a meaning behind them. Although, I think it is best for the viewer to see the image first, conjure up an idea of what they perhaps believe it to be if anything and then to read the influence or meaning behind it. That way they’re either informed, correct, surprised on whatever they believed the drawing to be which I think makes the experience slightly more exciting. New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to ART Habens Alaric Hobbs
24101 Special Issue Alaric Hobbs ART Habens Vector Equilibrium, Pen on Paper, 28x36cm, 2015
Special Issue 24113 ART Habens Alaric Hobbs Square Root, Pen on Paper, 70x100cm, 2019
24121 Special Issue reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? In particular, how do you consider the role of chance and improvisation playing within your creative process? Alaric Hobbs: More recently, I have tried breaking away from the rigidity of geometry, as much as i love it it can be quite restrictive at times. I did a few drawings to try and break out of this form that I’d gotten used to where I used one of my illustrative styles that was inspired by all things natural, such as cracked earth, thunder and lightning, roots and rivers, etc as its own shape and found it was freeing and even ended up looking like some sort of ancient alphabet, which I enjoyed. With regards to the improvisation it really depends on my mood, the context and the shapes. I could start an idea and really get into it at first and after a while decide that it looks shit and drop the idea completely. It’s always an idea there that I could possibly go back to and interpret in a different way in the future. We have appreciated the way you artworks, as the interesting Vector Equilibrium, reveals the connection between Art and Maths: how do you consider the relationship between artistic research and scientific method? Do you think that there are liminal areas where Art and Science blend together to create one single discipline? Alaric Hobbs: I value the scientific methods because they are the basis of much of my Alaric Hobbs ART Habens
Special Issue 2413 artistic research. I often use a diagram or alter it in a way that it becomes one of my drawings. There are so many examples where art and science blend together to create a single discipline. Like before cameras were invented and illustrators had to draw the human body in all its aspects. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under". Does your artistic research respond to a particular cultural moment? Moreover, what could be in your opinion the role of artists in our contemporary age? Alaric Hobbs: It depends on the image. Some of the symbols I’ve drawn are used in various cultures throughout the history of the world and I mention this in the text of each one. I think artists could highlight equality and racism, where the viewer will perhaps read or see something that they weren’t so aware of or didn’t fully understand before. Lately, I’ve been researching diagrams of hair follicles and they are always shown, bar one of someone who is caucasian, that in itself is a problem right there. It’s as if POC don’t exist, which is very problematic. Your artworks have often short still explanatory titles, as , that allow you to clarify the message while maintaining the element of ambiguity: how do you go about naming your work ? In particular, is it important for you to tell something that might walk the viewers through their visual experience? Alaric Hobbs: Not much thought goes into the titles really. I just name it what it is. The illustrations are there to inform the ART Habens Alaric Hobbs Web of Wyrd, Pen on Paper, 18x35cm, 2015
24141 Special Issue Alaric Hobbs ART Habens Truncated Rhombohedron, Pen on Paper, 70x100cm, 2019
ART Habens Alaric Hobbs Special Issue 24153 Uranus(LOL), Spray Paint And Pen on Paper, 70x100cm, 2019
24161 Special Issue viewer so starting with a simple, self explanatory title hopefully invites somebody to read what it’s about. So far, the only time I have gestured people to alter their visual experience is when I displayed a large, format drawing that turned 3D when using the red and blue 3D glasses. That was cool because I got to interact with the person and they got to interact with the artwork. Over the years your artworks have been exhibited in several occasions and your had the solo 'Primary', at Das Gift, in Berlin: how do you consider the participatory nature of your relationship with your audience? Direct relationship with the audience in a physical 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, https://www.instagram.com/alarichobbsartist — increases: how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Alaric Hobbs: I enjoy connecting and meeting with people, if not for interesting interactions but for inspiration and artistic connections, so I see that being inherent. Personally, I believe Instagram to be an unhelpful platform for artists most of the time. I found myself getting stuck with that, feeling like I had to produce something for social media to gain likes, when really, that isn’t coming from my soul, from within, and therefore my audience can tell that’s not genuine. I have been trying to remind myself to do it when it feels right for me, despite what society or social media tells us. Those things are flawed systems most of the time anyway. We’re fed things that mostly aren’t true or our own reality. The internet can be positive and helpful, by finding events or happenings in which we can actively get out there, meeting and greeting people in person. Also, word of mouth is a lovely attribute. 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, Alaric. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Alaric Hobbs: Thank you for the complement and thanks again for this interview! My latest project has been focusing on elements of anatomy, highlighting tiny aspects of us as people that we may not already know. I’m thinking that I need to branch out and create a combination of 3D shapes with free-flowing lines. I see that being an exciting duo. Alaric Hobbs ART Habens An interview by , curator and curator
Special Issue 4012 Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA
2 Special Issue Cassie Shao ART Habens video, 2013 024
ART Habens Jordi Rosado Special Issue 403
Cassie Shao Hello Cassie and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.karasucassie.com and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and after having earned your Bachelor of Fine Arts, in Animation and Sound Design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, you nurtured your education with an Master of Fine Arts, that you received from the University of Southern California: 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? Cassie Shao: Back at SAIC in Chicago was where I officially learnt to animate. From making small animated fragments to creating an independent short film, I not only was taught the fundamentals of how to make animation but more importantly the concept of experimentation and the potential of animation as a medium. I studied under independent animator Chris Sullivan, who made the feature length animated film Consuming Spirits. The film was raw, dark and utterly honest that heavily expanded my vision of what animation could be. Along with other instructors like Jim Trainor and Joe Meredith, who were also independent animation artists themselves, the experience always focused on 404 Special Issue An interview by , curator and curator conceptualising, encouraged experimentations and embraced the most unique characteristics reflected in one’s work. The experience fundamentally influenced how closely I place my animated works to the core of being me. I learnt to always look deeply into myself as a being that reflects, and is reflected in my surroundings; to marry the conscious with the unconsciousness, and to not be afraid of
Special Issue 24053 breaking the rules. I also established my sound design aesthetics there favouring unconventional sounds. It seems to have become one of the major characteristics that enhances the surreal and dream-like atmosphere of my films. The MFA experience at USC gave me, after establishing a solid approach to art concepting and filmmaking, access to experiment with a wide range of animation techniques, and all the support I could get from both experimental animation artists and animation artists that have worked in the industry. I started making mixed-media works as I began animating various art forms and discovered the possibilities of mixing and blending both digital and analogue mediums. Each step I took pointed me towards a more complete artistic vision and a clearer direction as I try to build animated experiences that evoke otherworldly perspectives. I was also highly inspired by my artistic collaborations with USC alumni Katie Gately, the most talented experimental sound designer based in LA; and Robert Wolf, the most talented music composer based in LA. I hope to establish a future collaboration bond with both of them as well as other artists. It was definitely a fulfilling journey combining both my experience at SAIC and USC, although completely different, but completed each other in a way that made an evolution in my artistic approach possible. I have had some other routes opening up to me in-between, but I made decisions and it now seemed inevitable that each single incident lead me to where I am now. Being a Chinese filmmaker who went through multicultural education, as I did schooling in New Zealand before enrolling in colleges in the States, I feel a sense of melancholy that I carried from my ART Habens Cassie Shao
24061 Special Issue Asian roots. It influences the way I think and things I am fundamentally attracted to. Obscurity and insecurity seems apparent in the way my mind works. There is always a sense of restraint, an appetite for stillness and isolation, and a tendency to build an iceberg where most of the thoughts are buried under the surface. There is no strong sense of “ending” in my Cassie Shao ART Habens
ART Habens Cassie Shao Special Issue 24073 culture, everything is essentially ever-lasting. That gives me the tendency to continuously ask the question “then what?” and try very hard to see beyond me, but then only to find everything circling back to me —— which seems to be what the culture predicts as well. It also gives me curious results as I write. I write before I begin to make the film,
ART Habens 24081 Special Issue throughout, and sometimes even after the animation is done. It is one of the most important elements that weaves through the piece. I find myself translating between the languages as some of the phrases pop into my head more naturally in English, while others in Chinese. I have to say I am not the best translator, but I enjoy the way how strange sometimes English phrases sound when packed into a Chinese way of speaking. Uncommon use of words excites me. It adds onto the experimentation aspect of my works as well as taps into how my mind works unconsciously digesting words and sentences. I pay special attention to the phrases, the way they were spoken and what they speak of, in my dreams; gradually they became one of the elements that shine vividly still in my head when I wake up. On the other hand, I realise that Asian texts are often viewed as symbols in the western culture, and that gives me a fresh view on my native language as well. For this special edition of ART Habens we have selected There Were Four of Us, an interesting work 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 animation film is the way you use your visual language in such a strategic way to challenge the notion of how animation as an art form intersects with our existence and consciousness. When walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you usually develop your initial idea for your works? Do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? Cassie Shao: It is definitely a lot more instinctive. The fact that I primarily work with Cassie Shao
Special Issue 24093 dream imageries shows my fascination with the unconsciousness; which does not only appear in the form of dreams, but also as accidents and intuitions. I plan very little in the beginning as I simply lay down a central idea, concept and an overall structure, and then I just sort of let it naturally evolve throughout the period of production. Animated works in general take years to make. Seeing that as an advantage I try to open myself up to all sorts of possible changes and developments throughout the year. A lot of the times I feel like I am “going with” whatever I am feeling at a certain moment: if I find myself reincarnating an image in my head repeatedly or being fascinated with a particular emotional pulse whether in real life or in dreams, I incorporate them into the film. I also find myself consciously looking for patterns and similarities in those moments that moved me, and deliberately tailoring the film to reflect more of them. These two processes go on simultaneously and I cannot honestly say which of them I do more. But they seem to be, in the end, complimenting each other to strengthen the bond I have with my works. There Were Four of Us was the first production for which I drew heavily from personal experience and presented the reality with dream imageries. The initial idea was based on a dream I had of me being trapped in a room with three other people, trying to figure out a death and the question “who did it?”. It was really a dream that stuck with me because I intensely felt waves of fear, hopelessness but also curiosity like I have never felt before. The film was just going to be me re-creating and translating those emotions into the picture. The same year I was planning for the film, my grandfather passed away. What I found of his death that moved me the most, apart from the ART Habens Cassie Shao
24101 Special Issue weird incident at the moment of his death(as he was dying my aunt tried to contact my parents but for some reasons her phone just went blank, the blankness lasted for a while, which directly resulted in my parents not being able to see the last of my grandfather), was a book I found on his bookshelf after his death. The book instructs you on how to live until a Cassie Shao ART Habens
Special Issue 24113 hundred years old. I wondered, even remember asking my cousin, if grandfather really wanted to live to a hundred years old. It seemed a foreign concept to me, I felt I would never wish for the same; but the fact that he had it, hoped to achieve it, and this kind of hope might have played a part of pushing him closer to death made me again feel intensely ART Habens Cassie Shao
24121 Special Issue the fear, the hopelessness and the curiosity. I didn’t know until all the emotions reincarnated at that moment that I was going to tell his story with the dream I had. After deciding that, I reconsidered the film with a lot more examples from my daily life that made it the way it is now. I take similar approaches with the actual production. My usual process being, after creating the 3D environment, I digitally draw and animate the characters, and then experiment with under-the-camera animations such as paint on cel/paper, paint/sand on glass, pastels, stop-motion etc. (I also did a bit of screen-printing with There Were Four of Us), and lastly composite them all together. I am very open to happy accidents. One of my favourite analogue backgrounds of the film happened because I misplaced cleaning wipes on a piece of coloured paper. As I went to remove the wipes, the paper had faded spots on it that look much like rain-drops. With the help of digital distortion, it then became this interesting and vivid texture. Similarly, if at a certain point, I have a feeling of a shot being complete, even if it wasn’t actually “finished” as planned, I would happily trust my instincts and leave at that. It seems that for There Were Four of Us you drew from your personal experiences, and in this sense, we dare say that your works is for people who want to look beyond the present physical and explore the dissection of the life experience: how do you consider the role of memory playing within your process and how does every day life's experience fuel your artistic research? Cassie Shao: When I remember things, I remember a fraction of a second, a seemingly Cassie Shao ART Habens
Special Issue 2413 unimportant gesture or a close-up of someone’s forehead. Those moments remain with me with the most intense emotion, while the rest of what happened always seem more like a blur or a conscious invention. It in a way explains why I prefer to work in short forms with deconstructed and fragmented timelines. It also is the reason why I love to work a lot with emotions instead of actions. Sometimes I feel like my characters are not doing anything apart from feeling —— a bit like in a theatre setting, they sit, walk around or they fall down (I love seeing plays). When they gesture, they don’t gesture to convey the meaning of a movement but a feeling. I find myself trying to reach the viewers through emotions we might once share. I present what I have felt, in the way I felt and remembered. It influences the way I think, write and dream; and it is directly reflected in my works. One thing I never stopped doing is to write. Most of the time they are mumbling or murmuring that I would never show anyone, but they are a form of everyday life experiences that remain with me aside from my memories. A lot of the times the urge to write was triggered by something I saw or heard, sometimes I write to myself instead of converse. Once in a while I will find in a long paragraph, one sentence that despite coming from completely different circumstances, miraculously align with what I was trying to say in my films; it would then become a part of the voice in the film. Sound plays a crucial role in your work and we have highly appreciated the way it provides There Were Four of Us with such an enigmatic ambience capable of evoking such an uncanny sensation in the viewers: why did you decide to include such sound ambience? And how would ART Habens Cassie Shao
24141 Special Issue you consider the relationship between moving images and sound? Cassie Shao: In my opinion, sound is just as important as the visuals. It is an essential element for building or enhancing the overall atmosphere. With my works, I often aim to create an immersive “animated experience” rather than a more linear film. Sound, whether Cassie Shao ART Habens
Special Issue 24153 intentionally or not, has the ability to completely alter how one is surrounded in an environment. The way I approach sound resembles the way I hear in my dreams: a lot of times I understand without hearing. It is almost as if I am inventing the sounds in my head, hearing them as how I think they should be heard when I step upon a scenery or ART Habens Cassie Shao
24161 Special Issue encounter an entity, much like knowing the answers a step ahead of hearing the questions. All that process happens in the back of my head; it somehow results in me hearing a door squeaking sound as someone turns their head. It makes me feel uncomfortable yet in an addictive way that I don’t consider the experience complete without it. The other aspect is that I deliberately try to steer the audiences away from designated emotions. I do that both by using saturated and garish colour palette as well as by creating unconventional soundscape that may be jarring at times. It is the displacement of sounds and visuals the puzzling pieces I place in the films. Sometimes, I put the sound at the center of the stage accompanying a black frame, with intent to snap the viewers out of a fluent string of narratives for a second. I do not wish for the viewers to be instantly sad or sorry because the theme of the film revolves around death and the death of a family member. I see the sound and the visual working together as the trigger to a chain of reactions or a train of thoughts, triggering the viewers to be curious about the lives reflected upon the deaths, and about how the other lives reflect our own. We have particularly appreciated the way There Were Four of Us forces and subverts the viewers' perceptual parameters, Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni once stated that ''we know that underneath the displayed image, there is another, one more faitCassie Shao: hful to reality'': as an artist particularly interested in the exploration of the dream realm, how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination playing within your work as an animator? Cassie Shao ART Habens
Special Issue 24173 Cassie Shao: I think the infinite possibilities of relationships between reality and imagination is why I chose to do animation in the first place. It is the medium that is the most challenging because we have the most freedom. Whatever choices we make, there lay a piece of ourselves underneath. I don’t think one could overlook the reality’s influences on their dreams and imaginations, and vice versa. I like to think that the conscious and the unconscious walk hand-in-hand, and that when I look at one I am seeing the other reflected. It doesn’t seem to be something one could hide or look away from. Looking back at the films I made when I thought I was strictly making imaginative films, it is still clear that my reality is buried in there somewhere, everywhere. I am making discoveries on both sides. A lot of times I find myself talking about a moment or a feeling that struck me, that inspired me to create a certain imagery and asking questions for which I don’t have answers to. I thought that insoluble questions are nevertheless worthy of, if not especially, being asked. By looking at my works I sometimes find pieces of answers, or sometimes, more questions that I didn’t know I had. It is much like keeping a dream journal and observing the dreams in a way, it is looking at the reality from an intimate distance; that I am both inside and outside, experiencing and observing. I wanted to be closer to myself, at the same time hoping by showing the vulnerabilities and contradictions in me, I am drawn closer to the others and to this world. Synched, an interesting work that can view at https://vimeo.com/313236148 has at once struck us for the way you created images of the surroundings marked out with such sense of geometry, that provides the result of your artistic research with consistent surreal ART Habens Cassie Shao ART Habens
24181 Special Issue cinematographic quality. How did you develop your style in order to achieve such captivating results? Cassie Shao: With Synched, I was definitely going for a minimalistic feel and viewing everything as a gesture. The geometric block made of smaller cubes is a gesture of modern Cassie Shao ART Habens Cassie Shao
Special Issue building, and the falling of the cubes is a gesture of destruction. I imagined a world that is perfectly symmetrical and took it quite literally as I drew out a rough design of a simple platform with two blocks at each end. The design reminded me of the animated film Balance, which I remember seeing years back that stuck with me not only because of its 19243 ART Habens Cassie Shao
24201 Special Issue morality-questioning ending but more of the fact that the whole film happened on a simple platform with a few identical characters. Through simple gestures, it was able to convey complex storytelling and in a way made us imagine the whole wide world behind it. Like many of my other works, the last shot of Synched is both the end and the beginning of the film. Although being the last shot, it was the first image I thought of. In the case of Synched, the camera slowly zooms out to reveal the world with falling cubes. Once the whole geometry is set, what happens within becomes a lot clearer. I remember when I was making Synched, I was looking at a lot of pictures of the sun being portrayed as a perfect circle. After a while I felt like whenever I see circles I see the sun. Furthermore, whatever I put in place of the sun also becomes the sun. This was the inspiration for experimenting a bit more with the minimal, symbolic world, where the shot of the staggering objects in front of the sun and the falling pills came from. The other thing I thought about a lot is as to how I make the characters and the world look like they belong in the same space, given that the characters are hand drawn while the world is computer generated. The thin outlined look were directly taken off the characters and applied to the environment; and the hard edged flat-looking shadow of rendered elements were added back onto the characters. They both soaked up the characteristics of the other. These are sort of examples of that instead of being upfront and transformative on the surface, I always find myself naturally drifting towards subtlety and oddity, making them the quality and aesthetics of my works. Cassie Shao ART Habens
Summer 2015 2413 With their unique multilayered visual quality, your paintings — as the interesting Yuan — are often blurred and merge into their surroundings and seem to invite the viewers to look inside of what appears 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? Cassie Shao: It is completely open for me as to how people interpret the work. It is very important that I provide space for the viewers to “actively participate” in relating and projecting what they see onto themselves, and hope for them to reach further within themselves. I aim to provide an experience; a structure with stylistic choices that hopefully provide guidance as to which road I am leading the viewers down to. I try to convey through imagery that best represents how I feel, and communicate through the emotions. Often my stories and feelings are very personal, and I was once told because of that, it may evoke distance between the film and the audience because the film feels like it deliberately made itself “hard to understand”. Like Yuan, this is a film about a friend of mine that passed away. I took a few lines from his notes that moved me tremendously and presented with what my fragmented memory has left of him. During the process, I blended my memories of him with what I feel upon the loss of him, then the feeling of dealing with loss in general, then of what I remembered in a book describing it as “swimming Special Issue ART Habens Cassie Shao
24221 Special Issue alone across the dark sea” (thus arms in the ocean scene). This train of thoughts happened in my head and it is somewhat unique because it is a combination of what I experienced so far in life. I, however, don’t think the viewers need to necessarily understand this thought process to feel what they feel about the film. I hope for the texts and the visuals to remind Cassie Shao ART Habens
them of what they experienced, what they feel strongly about because what we feel strongly about is what is important. I personally am not keen on explaining my works, I hope it is all in the work itself. Even the confusion and the greyness is a part of it. I’d be happy for people to both understand or not understand my films. I hope for the viewers to feel the emotion I ART Habens Cassie Shao Special Issue 24153
intended, to sink into the space I created, and to be curious about what is beyond the surface; this is just about the level I would like my works to be understood. I had some people say that images stuck in their head after viewing and became what they dream about for the next few days. I liked that because it feels like a conversation between us left impressions. In general, I am better at leaving impressions than explaining clearly in detail so I would just do that. Over the years you have exhibited your artworks on several occasions, and There Were Four of Us was recently screened at the China Independent Animation Film Forum “”: 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? Cassie Shao: The best screening scenario is probably at a festival in a programme with other films that all vary in style. With the audiences opening themselves up to be thrown into the minds instead of looking for specific things to grasp onto, and without me being there afterwards to talk about it potentially altering what they experienced or think they should experience. It would be a virtual but deep-touching relationship that we share silently. I have shown at galleries, film festivals, released videos online on Vimeo, and I have my Instagram presence (instagram.com/karasucassie). With Instagram, I noticed that the artists would, in Cassie Shao ART Habens 24221 Special Issue
ART Habens Cassie Shao order to promote their full length work, put an excerpt of the works on their Instagram. It often results in people watching only the excerpts, realising and deciding the value of the art based on purely a section of it —— sort of like in the digital age we listen to one song instead of the whole album. We then in a way have to consider each excerpt its own small piece. I often have trouble finding the excerpt that best represents my piece because many sections vary in style and in the emotions they convey. If I post a few it looks like I am posting several completely different works, not to mention that presenting at such short length essentially changes how it feels and what it says. There is also the inevitable looping option, where the moment is stuck within itself instead of moving forward. It at times works with the aesthetics of animation, which is the notion of repetition and expanding time, but it definitely challenges both the artist and the viewer on their relationships with the work. Although, it perhaps, on the contrary, provides a larger space for where the viewer’s own imagination comes in. Ultimately, I think one just needs to be okay with however their works are interpreted, and be open about the possibility of being inspired by however it is presented. 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, Cassie. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Cassie Shao: Aside from making commercial or collaborative works, my next independent project Special Issue Summer 2015 2413 will be a short film named This is a Story Without a Plan (working title). It is about two characters constantly witnessing an explosion very slowly
Cassie Shao ART Habens 24221 Special Issue happening in every corner of their lives. The project will expand on an animated moment (of an explosion), that supposedly lasts only a split second in reality, and make it present and forever remain. The explosion may be profound, or it may be refracted, reflected or easily
ART Habens Cassie Shao Summer 2015 Special Issue 2413 overlooked. The two characters will experience the explosion from all sorts of angles, and in various surreal settings inspired by my dreams. It is at an early stage of production, so I am still feeling my way through it but at the moment it aims to be an exploration into both their
Cassie Shao ART Habens 24221 Special Issue relationship with the explosion and with each other. The idea generated from the time I felt like I was watching the deconstructed of my life takes form in an explosion slowly unfolding and I was unable to do anything about it. At the same time, I felt like I couldn't look away and had to witness it happening, so that it would eventually be done with. It is also possible that as I observe, I intervene in its existence and at some level, I change it by just looking at it. This next film will serve as an experimentation and exploration into this idea, the feeling of uncertainty and again and always, the fragmentation of time. I also intend to bring analogue mediums more into the foreground with this film, having them become the subjects, rather than mostly being the background in my previous films. I have been going to artist residencies (so far Yaddo and MacDowell in the United States) to work on the film. Both are located in a rural setting in a forest up on a mountain, which is a drastic change from my usual setting in urban cities. I have already discovered an increasing number of presence of trees, deformed rocks and organic shapes in the film. It will be interesting to explore what draws me to them specifically as well as what is being reflected in those decisions. An interview by , curator and curator