101 241 Special Issue relationship between abstraction and figurative in your practice? In particular, how does representation and a tendency towards abstraction find their balance in your work? Manifesting each painting is akin to solving a Nancy Calef ART Habens Composition In Alter Ego Major
Special Issue 241023 puzzle. I'm obsessed with balance, aiming for cohesion on multiple levels, regardless of the subject matter. Composition and light, contrast, color and movement must all be considered. In Day at the Circus (oil, sculpture, fabric, found objects on canvas, 48" x 48"), the venue invites an abstracted aerial space: lights in motion, ethereal acrobats, mystery and excitement in the face of a child, all evoking a more intuitive reaction. Over the last decade I've also developed a new style: "Planeslashing," whereby I break the plane of the canvas inwardly as opposed to building it up with sculptured relief and applied materials. First I cut through selected finished paintings, then combine them with seemingly disparate pieces from another period, often integrating one or more fresh canvasses, adding sculpture and found objects, and eventually reattaching them. Painting into the deconstructed imagery as a whole, leaving portions of the underlying picture(s) intact, results in a cohesively transformed multi-dimensional work. This abstracted 3D style stimulates my imagination, opening a new world of non-linear concepts and abstractions. I constantly challenge my techniques, break boundaries and eliminate what doesn't work. Marriage (oil, found objects on canvasses 20" x 20"x 4") consists of several stacked paintings, slashed and angled to represent the merging of two individuals in body, mind and spirit. You are a versatile artist as your practice involves many techniques and mediums, including Video, Drawing, Sculpture and Music: what attracts you to such a wide variety of mediums? And how do you select a particular medium in order to express the idea that you explore in your artistic research? ART Habens Nancy Calef
241031 Special Issue Nancy Calef ART Habens The Ref
Special Issue It seems the medium selects me and I have to rise to the occasion. Ideas often come in a flash; then I explore the best way to actualize them. While caring for an elderly aunt with Alzheimers, I channeled my anxiety and frustration over her loss of basic faculties into 104 243 ART Habens Nancy Calef Playing For Your Supper
241051 Special Issue a series of small, simple, brightly colored, wooden sculptures, with movable parts. See Skateboarder with Bird.(wood, watch, wire, acrylic & oil paint, 22" x "4" x 4") They were displayed in the Union Bank lobby in San Francisco for several months. Composing Nancy Calef ART Habens A Day at the Circus
Summer 2015 241083 music is one of my most amazing experiences. I never aspired to be a songwriter until the night my mother died, twenty years ago. I wrote a song about her and music has been pouring out of me ever since. Melodies and lyrics stick in my consciousness. When facing a blank canvas, emotions I have trouble accessing, or are too painful to confront, are Special Issue ART Habens Nancy Calef Marriage
241091 Special Issue often revealed and expressed through sound. Childhood piano lessons enabled me to understand the chords I was hearing in my head. Having studied computer interfaces, I was able to learn sound engineering to further develop the music. Now I share my songs with audiences. As a child model, I performed on demand, and developed a negative identification with the stage. The original music has emerged in a purifying and heartfelt way, and my gratitude and respect for this ability has cut through some old programming. Besides producing the interesting works that our readers have admired in these pages, you are also a writer and you also speak at literary and art forums and you sometimes speak about the role of art therapy in treating eating disorders: how importance did art-making play in your personal maturation and how could art help young generations to face the wide variety of issues that affect our ever-changing societies? Expressing myself through art has provided a foothold with which to wrestle my selfdestructive demons, connect to the world, and maybe earn my keep as a painter. As a young runway and photography model, I developed a life threatening food disorder and was forced to confront my self-loathing. By embracing my artistic passion, while honestly recognizing emotional upheaval as it arises, I was able to channel those negative impulses into disciplined production. By faithfully respecting this commitment, I successfully overcame the harmful behavior. Regardless of the medium one uses: writing, painting, drawing, cooking or playing an instrument, becoming absorbed in the process has transformative potential. Art saved my life, and this is what I share with others. Nancy Calef ART Habens Skateboarder with Bird
ART Habens Nancy Calef In my illustrated memoir: Peoplescapes -- From Purging to Painting, I take the reader through my difficult early years, travelling and healing through the incredible power of allegiance to self-awareness and an artistic path. When writing my story, I became aware of the miraculous support, opportunity and grace that had accompanied my struggle. This has resonated with young people suffering from insecurity and self-destructive tendencies. Over the years your artworks have been showcased, and you currently exhibit widely in museums and galleries in solo and group shows, moreover, you are also a singer: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? And what do you hope your audience takes away from your artworks? Commercialization of one's art is the most difficult transition to make: from lonely studio to the community, trying not to ride the dramatic waves of public opinion. My goal is to get into people's minds and reach their heart, to connect and shake up their view, maybe see life a little differently. Artists learn to revere the process as its own reward, not to dwell on the thousands of hours spent endlessly digging inside themselves, struggling to answer the question: What's the point? I know I will leave my work behind for others to gain some sense of what our age was like; what every day human experiences do we share? What ruled our technology, our dark politics and teetering environment? There is a moment at every musical performance when I must overcome my stage fright to bring love and light to the audience. I've learned to give up my ego in service to those who came to hear me; focusing on the purpose of my song, instead of myself, transcends that fear while enabling me to deliver it from my essence. I try to sustain this in all aspects of my life. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Nancy Calef. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? For the last four years, I have been producing large, topical Peoplescapes and a solo exhibition is in the works.- I'm currently working on a vertical triptych painting exploring three dimensions of existence: heaven, earth and hell. I was recently commissioned to paint one of New York City's historical icons for the cover of a graphic novel to be published in 2019. On the music front, I've been engineering recordings of my original music, and am working on three demos of newly composed songs in preparation for another animated music video. I really appreciate this interview, and hope it inspires others to delve into their innovative selves. An interview by , curator and curator Special Issue 241103
I was born and grew up in India, participating in child art competitions from an early age. Being awarded a top prize at the age of ten in a national art competition sponsored by an Indian corporation with an eminent panel of juries that received national attention, and a solo exhibit of my selected work in a next competition hosted at the Birla Academy of Arts and Culture in Kolkata, India at the age of 11, and being awarded a trophy by eminent sculptor Chintamini Kar during the event spurred me on towards a career as a visual artist. I went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Chennai India. I moved to the United States and continued my education. During a Summer Study Abroad Program offered to me as a a student while completing my second Bachelors degree in Painting at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Illinois USA in 1992, I was influenced by the Impressionist movement particularly by Claude Monet's paintings. After extended visits to Monet's garden in Giverny during my three month's stay, my conceptual concept began developing as a body of work that compares the mental emotion of happiness as cycles of human life, to short-lived garden blooms. I consider both to be ephemeral and continually evolving as does the human life cycle. To visually portray happiness, I regularly employ intense colors that incorporate a variety of texture materials such as fabric, handmade papers, wood, etc. that are combined with the paint to create effects that extend beyond their two-dimensional surfaces. Painted with rapid brush strokes in an intuitive manner, my paintings are typically large in scale as I intend for the imagery to imagine continuity that dissipates at the edge of the canvases that have the painting continued on their sides. As an educator, I have taught academic classes in abstract, acrylic and mixed media painting, that are my mediums of choice for my paintings. In 2005 I was honoured with an invitation by the Keeper of the Royal Academy of Arts to complete a Visitor Artist tour at the Royal Academy Schools where I conducted a talk and image presentation and student tutorials during the paid visit. in 1995, art galleries on Broadway, New York City offered to exhibit my student work in solo and group exhibitions following a solo exhibit at the ARC Gallery/Educational Foundation in Chicago, Illinois in 1994. The shows in New York brought me recognition Lives and works in Vero Beach, Florida USA and Atlanta, Georgia USA Special Issue 24053
2 Special Issue video, 2013 024 Chitra Ramanathan ART Habens through critic reviews in publications including Manhattan Arts International Magazine. Further, through work entered on the internet in 1999 was followed by several of my originals being acquired by individual, business and educational sources such as a pair of large-sized, signed works based on my style of abstraction, a site-specific installation commissioned by MGM Resorts International, USA that are permanently housed inside the Bellagio Conservatory Indoor Botanical Garden at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas since 2004, two largescale paintings acquired by the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana Illinois in 1996, a wall mural measuring 13.8 feet across created at an elementary school in Indianapolis, as some examples of my public art installations. Completing professional artist residencies in Marny sur Seine, France with extended visits to Paris and Giverny in 2010, and the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy in 2012 have helped me further develop my style and work.
ART Habens Chitra Ramanathan Special Issue 403
Chitra Ramanathan Hello Chitra and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about the works that we have selected for this special edition, we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.chitrafineart.com in order to get a wide idea about artistic production. 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 (Honors) in Painting, you nurtured your education with an MBA with a focus on Arts Administration & Human Resources: how did these formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Thank you for interviewing me for your special biennial issue, Art Habens! I should begin by sharing my early background with you. I began drawing and painting from early childhood while growing up in India, frequently garnering prizes through local and national art competitions. A solo exhibition accompanying my winning entry was featured at the Birla Academy of Arts and Culture in Kolkata when I was eleven years old. At the age of ten, I was declared one of the top winners in a contest sponsored by a major corporation, judged 404 Special Issue by an eminent panel of juries which attracted national attention. These initial beginnings laid the foundation for my passion for visual art in later years leading to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Madras in Chennai, India. While enrolled in my second Bachelors’ degree program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign after moving to the United States, I left for France to study art history and studio art in Paris during the summer of 1992. While there, I was particularly drawn to Claude Monet’s Haystack series
Special Issue 24053 depicting changing light situations during the course of the day, as well as the Abstract Expressionist’s work portraying mental emotions. ART Habens Chitra Ramanathan The Effusion
24061 Special Issue Chitra Ramanathan ART Habens Coruscation
Elusive illusions
ART Habens 24081 Special Issue Influenced by both movements, the thought of capturing fleeting and evolving moments in time, not as mere representational observations, but as non-objective abstract interpretations began to take shape in my mind. I chose happiness as my concept, comparing the emotion of the mind to ephemeral garden blooms and cyclical seasons and defining both as transitional while continually evolving. This concept became my focus of my personal and academic research. Happiness as a visual entity with a “formless form” as I have often described my concept, was born. On paper and canvas, I began making drawing and painting sketches attributing a “physical” identity to happiness through abstract imagery, often accompanied by hints of circular forms to denote evolution and movement. At about the same time, I began working on large unprimed, unframed canvases in my studio space at the university as well as in my home studio. Choosing to work large-scale presented me with freedom to explore my thought processes. Swiftly following my graduation, my identity as a contemporary artist became established. As my work in the early 1990s was receiving positive responses in both brick and mortar exhibitions that debuted on Broadway, New York City in 1995 and increasingly online, I saw a need to understand and manage the changing financial aspects of art sales, and enrolled in a Masters’ program in Business Administration the same year, with concurrent solo exhibitions in 1997 and 1998 in New York. During that period, my work began to get more saturated with not just painted imagery, but occasional smatterings of collages. The painting below was created while working on my M.B.A degree. 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 sapiently combined delicate tones with abstract feeling to communicate joyful sensation: would you tell us your sources for inspiration? I studied abroad to learn about art history and studio art in Paris, France during the summer of 1992. While there, I was particularly drawn to Claude Chitra Ramanathan
24101 Special Issue Monet’s Haystack series depicting changing light on the same object during the course of the day, as well as the Abstract Expressionists’ work portraying emotions. Capturing evolving and changing moments in time, not as representational observations, but as non-objective abstract interpretations, began to take shape in my mind. I chose to focus my personal and academic research on the concept of happiness, comparing emotions to ephemeral garden blooms and cyclical seasons and defining both as transitional and continually evolving. I began to refer to happiness as a visual entity with a “formless form,” and I began making drawing and painting sketches attributing a physical identity to happiness through abstract imagery with hints of circular forms on paper and canvas. At around the same time, I began working on large unprimed, unframed canvases. Choosing to work on a large scale provided me the freedom to extend the boundaries of physical space moment with less restrictions to explore mental inspirations of the moment. Apart from the academic and experiential beginnings that I described above, I have derived ongoing inspiration through keenly studying the characteristics and attributes of my surroundings beyond merely the physical properties of selected subjects. I make mental notes of my observations or verbalize those momentary flashes by recording my “inspiration of the moment” in writing. These initial ideas materialize into conceptual imagery as the work progresses in the studio. I also regularly attend art conferences and follow contemporary art institutions and artists on social media platforms to keep up with current trends. Would you tell us something about your usual setup and process? My work process evolves continually with each developing work. I treat painting surfaces with primarily acrylic mediums and mixed media, often dense with collaged imagery and cutting-edge techniques. Rapid brushwork retains both the freshness of my thoughts and the materials. By layering intricately interwoven textural materials with iridescent acrylic paints rather than attached as top-layer collages, my work typically interacts with light in a unique way. I seek to create the illusion of the two-dimensional image visually extending beyond its boundaries, be Chitra Ramanathan ART Habens
Pulsating Rhythms, 2018. Acrylics and mixed media on canvas. 75" X 58"
Special Issue 24113 the surface a canvas, wood, metal, or Plexiglas panel. I do not generally make corrections because I want the work to reflect my fleeting thoughts of the moment. We have really appreciated the way the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances ART Habens Chitra Ramanathan
24121 Special Issue of your canvases create tension and dynamics. How do 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 an artwork and in particular, how do you develop a texture? Chitra Ramanathan ART Habens
Special Issue 2413 I have always been fascinated by the world outdoors. I grew up in a scenic area surrounded by a large lake, which was my favorite place to sketch during my childhood, and recall being fascinated by the interplay of color and texture on transparent bodies of water or solid, undulating greenery surrounding the area. My recent works have also explored similar subject matter relating to nature, but as conceptual compositions. Beginning my career with exhibitions on Broadway, New York from 1995 , painted surfaces of translucent colors, but no definitive shapes – just hints of forms dominated some pieces. In other ART Habens Chitra Ramanathan Joyful Musings Acrylics and mixed media on canvas, 60" X 36" Celebration Acrylics and mixed media on canvas, 60" X 36"
24141 Special Issue works, semi-transparent paint applications in some areas contrast with heavy doses of colors on others. Psychological make-up has played a prominent role in my work, mixing sensory experiences and feelings as reactions to my surroundings. Indeed, I stay connected with my roots in India, and meld memories and emotions tied to experiences there during subsequent visits that get integrated as metaphors into my work today. You are a versatile artist and you combine a wide variety of texture materials, including fabric, handmade papers and wood in order to pursue the brilliant threedimensional quality that marks out Chitra Ramanathan ART Habens Melodious Waves Acrylics and mixed media on canvas, 60" X 36" Lyrical Profusion Acrylics and mixed media on canvas, 48" X 67"
Special Issue 24153 your artworks. What properties that you are searching for in the materials that you include in your works? Because I am deeply interested in producing luminous surfaces to evoke cheerful feelings, I often choose vivid metallic colors or create interference with iridescent acrylic paint, so that the finished pieces glow under natural or artificial lighting. In my current abstract mixed-media paintings, textural materials are incorporated into the paint instead of attaching them to the topmost layer as a superficial collage. Instead, I vary pieces of fabric, thread, enamel, paper as carefully chosen found materials. I carefully research to find materials that are suitable for interacting with different paint properties. Fading, not just through exposure to direct light sunlight but by the fusion of incompatible materials is one of my prime concerns. As a result, I avoid materials that could disintegrate within the painting, leading to affecting the permanence of the artwork. And should a found material be an attractive consideration but does not meet my conservation criteria, I create a replica of what I have in mind such as self-made handmade paper or pieces of watercolor to fit a particular area or areas. We like the way your artworks, and in particular Euphoric and Exhilaration, accomplish the difficult task of visually portraying happiness: how important does everyday life’s experience – including your memories of India, where you grew up – play in your creative process? Could you mention a work that has been inspired by a particular experience? Yes, one important work that inspired me to choose a very large canvas was inspired by the cave paintings of India I meticulously chose a limited color palette, and it is one of my favorite pieces, presently in my personal collection. Following is a photo of the piece. We never stop searching for happiness, and I am humbled that people have found it in my paintings for so many years. “Euphoric” was acquired in 2016, whereas “Exhilaration” was sold at a local public auction the day it was completed in 2003. Neither painting obviously depicts something about India, but they are in fact inspired by the vivid colors of art forms in festivals and spiritual influences that are part of my background. While “Euphoric” is a ART Habens Chitra Ramanathan
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24181 Special Issue spiritual interpretation of happiness, created while I was looking to fathom its deeper meaning, the presence of deliberate circular forms in “Exhilaration” allude to the belief in continual life cycle of birth and re-birth in Hindu mythology that represents the search for eternal bliss. As a lighthearted approach with a more limited color palette, the motifs in the following painting are inspired by mandalas or “rangloli”, patterns with Indian motifs including paisleys, drawn on the floor on the many festive occasions in India, both as auspicious symbols as well as decorative icons. One such work was created by such inspiration titled “Mandala Dreams” and measuring 74.5” X 53.5" Your works seem to convey the idea of spontaneity: do you paint instinctively, gesturally? Or do you rather methodically transpose geometric schemes from paper to canvas? Spontaneity is very important for me. Rapid gestural brushwork in executing my inspirations is key to emphasizing my concept of capturing ephemeral, fleeting moments. Instinct does play an important role too! Inspiration can be fleeting, and therefore, working on the thoughts of the moment becomes important. To that effect I work directly on my canvases, without making significant changes to my initial imagery. We like the way your artworks challenge the viewers' perceptual parameters and we daresay that 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 realize its own perception. How important is for you to invite the viewers to elaborate personal meaning? And what do you hope that your audience take away from your artworks? I cannot help but aspire for my audiences to look beyond the surface level. The goal of my conceptual paintings is just that: encouraging people to look for or interpret imagery beyond basic physical characteristics such as form, line and color. These choices are influenced by different sources for me, be they historical or personal experiences, and I hope the audience also finds significant meaning at some level in them. Meeting those who attend my exhibition openings with questions has been such a pleasure as well as a learning experience for me, and I am happy that my conceptual works have been relatable to Chitra Ramanathan ART Habens
many online collectors as well. The internet has broadened and diversified the ways I try to relate to new audiences. In one instance, the MGM Resorts International organization commissioned a pair of large, signed paintings that have hung in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas since 2004. In 2008, an elementary school engaged me to create a mural onsite that was 14 feet wide and 4 feet tall – where I chose to engage each child in the process, much to the delight of the commissioning authorities. ART Habens Chitra Ramanathan Mixed media with gold leaf on canvas, 3 feet X 5 feet. Private commission, Boston MA 2018 Special Issue 24193
Others have asked for interpretations of their own expressions of happiness. One of these resulted in a three-paneled connectable triptych painting based on the flora in Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny, France that I created for the founder of a business in 2016. Following are photographs of those commissioned projects. As you have remarked once, among the most the Impressionist period and later Abstract Expressionism are your basic influences: what did address you to focus your artistic research on Conceptual Painting? While certain periods of art history have served as the foundations for my work, I wish for my paintings to be an ongoing contemporary dialogue that would be relevant to present and future generations of art lovers. I am concurrently an art educator, and as such am aware that my role as a conceptual contemporary visual artist is as much about giving form to ideas and interpretations as knowing how to communicate about them. Artists as social interpreters have always been messengers and innovators of fresh ideas and actions. Speaking for myself, developing a unique perspective that extends beyond geographical boundaries into one that present-day audiences can relate to and enjoy is my hope and dream. The challenge of nurturing the appreciation and aesthetic appeal of a painting or print within a home as easily as in a public space inspires me to create new work. I would like to continue to offer my art as a relaxing, even therapeutic Chitra Ramanathan ART Habens 24141 Special Issue
outlet, and the reason for my future interest in creating art for the public realm as discussed later in this interview. Artist Lydia Dona once remarked that in order to make paintings today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of painting: are your works painted gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes from paper to canvas? Inspiration, intuition, timeliness, and spontaneity have been the conceptual focus for much of my work. Whether on a large mural or a small piece, I work directly on my chosen surface with gestural, rapidly-executed brushwork to convey my most immediate thoughts. Even on my heavily collaged works, I do not spend much time in deliberation. When a piece does not speak effectively enough for me at a point, I save it for later or discard. However, in conceptual painting, working with and teaching others how to use a variety of media are only part of the process. It is my role as an artist to use materials and media in a manner that aids audiences in comprehending ART Habens Chitra Ramanathan Special Issue 24153
Chitra Ramanathan ART Habens 24141 Special Issue Oahu Dreams, 2018. Acrylics on wood panel. 12" X 9"
Special Issue 24193 ART Habens Chitra Ramanathan and thereby relating to an abstract piece even if it is entirely open to interpretation. Since 1995, when your paintings arrived on the art scene and various art galleries on Broadway, New York City invited you the artist to exhibit in solo and group exhibitions, your works have been extensively exhibited on several occasions and are now in lots of private and public collections: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? And what do you hope your audience take away from your artworks? I define my audience broadly. As an art educator who has taught classes and workshops in painting mediums including abstract art for over ten years, I have often conducted demos of my work at public venues that give large audiences a chance to meet and learn about my concept and materials. I am fortunate to receive appreciative feedback from audiences when teaching, on social media, and through invitations to exhibit, acquire, or collaborate on new works. I also strive to give back through mentorship and feedback for aspiring artists, young and old, who contact me for support. While they are an important audience to me, I have found that the relationship becomes mutual, almost personal! I hope that my numerous fans accrued over the years consider my art to be a source of dialogue, discussion, and inspiration. We have appreciated the originality of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Chitra. What projects are you currently working on and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Looking forward, I hope to focus on public art as the next step in reaching large and diverse audiences. Currently a painting measuring 67” X 48” chosen by the Public Art Review Board of the Orange County Board of Committee Commissions of Central Florida as a loan exhibition is featured in Orlando, Florida. The Palo Alto California Public Art Commission, and the City of Tucson and Southern Arizona have selected me through publicart.org for inclusion in their pre-qualified artist pool for 2019/2020. Alongside continuing to teach painting parttime, I plan to focus on corporate commission invitations, seeking assignments both working individually or within teams on large scale projects.
Egression
Special Issue 4012 Melpomeni has exhibited her artwork in various galleries in Edinburgh of Scotland (Talbot Rice Gallery, Embassy Gallery, Dok Artists space), in Alchemy Film and Moving image Festival, Hawick, UK and in Momus museum of Contemporary Art,Thessaloniki, Greece The sofa, 2018, Video Still Lives and works in Thessaloniki, Greece
2 Special Issue Melpomeni Gaganeli ART Habens video, 2013 024
ART Habens Melpomeni Gaganeli Special Issue Photo Booth, The Tower and the summer, 2019 403
Melpomeni Gaganeli Hello Melpomeni and welcome to ART Habens. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production 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 Degree in Italian Literature and Language from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, you moved to the United Kingdom to nurture your education with a Master of Arts in Contemporary Art Practices , that you received from the University of Edinburgh: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does your cultural substratum due to your Greek roots direct the trajectory of your current artistic research? Through my Literature and Language studies not only I have realized the role of creating a meaning but also I have understand my sensitivity to the power of all the forms of languages. After my first 404 Special Issue An interview by , curator and curator degree I had the impulsion to continue my studies in the field of art practice, because to my mind, art is a visual combination of code elements similar to syntax. Also,my knowledge of the cultural context on the historic development in the
Special Issue 24053 wider world ,helped me grasp and made me wonder about the synchronic reality and current history, trying to put in my art modern questions. Well, I don’t think that my Greek “roots” has influenced my art production, but surely the contemporary historical fact that Greek economy could have benefited from Europe but instead the whole structure was left to collapse and to create a domino effect,has stimulated my artistic response as a creative thinker. This has prompted me to be concerned about the significant relationship between cause and effect.I reckon that I should give a deep and broad glance ,even with humor, seeking the bended truth about the political,financial and even more the humanitarian crisis of Europe that gradually became global and understanding how this affects our aftermath behavior and our personal reality. You are a versatile artist and before starting to elaborate about your artistic production, we would invite to our readers to visit https://melpomenigaganeli.weebly.com in order to get a synoptic idea about your artistic production: would you tell us something about your usual setup and process? In particular, what are your mai sources of inspiration? ART Habens Melpomeni Gaganeli The sofa, 2018, Video Still
24061 Special Issue We live in such a fast paced environment as fast internet, running political occurrence,uber information,fast food life, massive surveillance,target marketing etc.This anxious speed of post Melpomeni Gaganeli ART Habens
ART Habens Melpomeni Gaganeli Special Issue 24073 capitalism along with my full awareness of the acceleration of the things and my struggle to adapt to it,are the facts that inspires my work. The stress of feeling trapped in an accelerant system gives me a The sofa, 2018, Video Still
ART Habens 24081 Special Issue sensation that there is no past or history to be recorded. Usually, this perception of fast driving generates my first conceptualized idea of my art production. For this special edition of ART Habens we have selected The Sofa, an interesting experimental video that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article and that can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/308757930. Whit its stimulating inquiry into the psychopathology of contemporary identity, what has at once impressed us of this captivating artwork is the way it provides the viewers with such a multilayered visual experience, capable of challenging their perceptual parameters. When walking our readers through the genesis of The Sofa, would you tell us how did you develop the initial idea? It all started just observing myself wasting my time on social media and i was shocked.The next day i had deleted all my social media accounts! I was wondering what we are all doing..we all have multi selves ,digital selves with different behaviors, different actions and Melpomeni Gaganeli