103 SPECIAL ISSUE Tyesha Moores eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral the evolution of your style? In particular, would you shed light on your usual process and set up? What technical equipment do you prefer? In the beginning of my career...I'm still in the beginning *laughs* but around 18 I was extremely heavy into 90's fashion photography. I never was exclusive to African American people until college. Learning about the likes of Carrie Mae Weems and Lorna Simpson changed my entire outlook on photography! For the first time I viewed it as an art form that’s where the identity came in, however as a person I'm extremely versatile. I change my look often so my work migrates with those changes. As far as my process. I'm a die-hard Canon photographer! I don't see that ever changing. I usually take about two weeks with an idea and the juices flow. In studio, strobes are my life. On location, I use one or two canon flashes with my Canon 6D. I like to use softboxes or bouncing the light most often. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article has at once caught our attention of your artistic inquiry into the point of convergence between beauty and identity is the way you have been capable of creating an autonomous aesthetics: when walking our readers through the genesis of BLACK would you tell us your sources of inspiration? And how did you select your subjects? BLACK started as a semi-joke in my portfolio class almost a year prior to my graduation. It was a combination of me speaking to my peers and teachers and them being clueless with some of my wording along with one of my best friend's Kristina saying "this should be a series!" With all of those things combined BLACK was born. Initially, I just sat down with my friends and came up with a list of words that we know were derived from African American people! From there I picked words that could actually have visual representation with the great Peggy Gentleman. Then I spoke with my friends other cultures to get definitions and formal with others. I volunteered my friends in the photos as models, and thank God they did! The bulk of who you see are my female friends. Some photos came more organically like when I visited my father's neighborhood which is on the south side of Chicago and is predominantly African American. Lastly, I had many of
SPECIAL ISSUE 106 graphic design friends with the font and the layout of the photos. What's important to me is the fact that this is/was a labor of love. The African America musical scene is one of the most influent in our contemporary age: how does music influence your work? Music! Ah, yes! I began my love for music with my Dad Tyreese before I could even talk. The flavor, the vibes, and the variations in African American music makes the world go round from hip-hop, jazz, blues, and R&B. When I need to start a new project my headphones go on then the moving photos, like a movie reel flow in. Solange and Beyoncé Knowles, more specifically influence me the most. Solange takes an avant garde approach. Solange has influenced my use of color and mixing patterns on my models for years. Their latest works LEMONADE and A Seat at the Table lyrically provoke different emotions and making me so proud to be an African American woman with making timeless, unapologetic work like "Formation" and "Don't Touch My Hair". The question is how doesn't it! A part of your work focuses on the theme identity photography with the agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
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109 SPECIAL ISSUE African American community: how much your personal history does inform your work as a photographer? In particular, how does your experience as an African American fine art photographer from an urban community fuel your creativity? When I was growing up I didn't have much of an idea with what fine art was. That thought still ring true in the neighborhood I'm from. I came from Chicago's west side where people are trying to just stay alive long enough to finish high school. Art is seen as white people activities or merely exclusive to the rich. Those thoughts fuel me to bring fine art as more of an accessible avenue for young creatives all over urban communities It shouldn't be viewed as a luxury or something reserved for "weird" people. On the flip side of that, there are so many different personalities and businesses to pull from creatively. Black people have what I call an "extraness" about them that for me as an artist will always keep interested in creating for and from. You are also involved into fashion photography: how do you consider the relationship between fashion and identity? Tyesha Moores eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 110 Fashion for me is a part of my identity. Therefore, the worlds will always collide and overlap in my work. At times one can be without the other, but things that are a part of me will reflect in my work. The relationship is reminiscent of yin and yang, so to speak. As you remarked once, your ongoing series LIGHT addresses the stigma i grew up with, that dark skin girls were "too dark" to wear bright colors. 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". Not to mention that almost everything, ranging from Caravaggio's Inspiration of Saint Matthew to Joep van Lieshout's works, could be considered political, what could be in your opinion the role of Art in the contemporary age? In particular, how much importance does have humour in your process? Art in this day and age is the voice of the people. Art is where the trends originate. It's where people look for the latest happenings. I think without those things the world would be dull. To me artists are the dictators of agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
111 SPECIAL ISSUE Tyesha Moores eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
Port au prince, installation , West End Gallery, 2015 SPECIAL ISSUE 112 creativity. Humor is a great opener to people's mind. When something is humorous one is likely to give it more attention so this is extremely important as an artist. More specifically, BLACK derives from the racism in American currently. Racism can be a heavy topic so maintaining a balance of humor makes it less of a straining conversation. agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
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115 SPECIAL ISSUE Photographer Thomas Ruff stated that "once nowadays you don't have to paint 1 to be an artist. You can use photography in a realistic way. You can even do abstract photographs". What is your opinion about the importance of photography in the contemporary art? I think that photography plays an underrated role in contemporary art. Its seemingly watered down due to Tyesha Moores eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
119 SPECIAL ISSUE cell phones becoming more popular for people to take pictures. I will be the first to say the quality is astounding! I don't think that the quality comes with the art aspect. A person can take a visually appealing photo with an attractive face, but what is the thought process? The importance comes with the accessibility. I feel it attracts people the fastest. People are more likely to pay a photographer more than any other artist. Over the years, your works have been included in group exhibitions shows in the Chicago area and one of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context? My audience as an artist are very important. These are the people receiving my work. I consider more of their interaction than I do the reception, because I know some people will love my work and some will consider it too forward in the wording. A happy medium between the two is what I'm looking for. I want my audience to have a learning experience and also be able to have an aspect of fun in the same breath because as I said before, art can become heavy in some ways. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Tye. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? Thank you to everyone involved with the Arteries so much for considering my work and I for this experience! I currently am continuing the LIGHT series and beginning a new one NAPTURAL based on African American hair. Down the line, I see my work continuously combining identity and fashion. I see me publishing books to make it more accessible to African American people. Tyesha Moores eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
SPECIAL ISSUE 120 Hello Monique and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you attended the Art Akademie voor Beeldende Kunst. How did this experience, along with your residences in Valencia influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? At the art academy you do not only solely learn to use the different techniques and materials. Your work will constantly be critically examined by teachers and other students. This way you develop a helicopter view to look at your work and the work of others. You learn to join the experiment, the process, and to focus on what is your vision and what you want to show with the autonomous work. Becoming an artist only starts after you finished the art academy. Both on a personal as on an artistical level you develop a style and identity through the years, and yet it is subject to constant change. You need to constantly step out of your comfort zone in order to develop. The last couple of years I like to be influenced by working and living at many different places as an ‘’artist in residence’’. You will always bring the same fascination and vision, though in a different setting. A new environment and new senses will bring fresh impulses. That is what I am looking for, this makes the subject to change process really interesting to me. The results of your artistic inquiry reject any conventional classification, still convey a consistent sense of unity: before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://www.morutten.com in order to get a synoptic view of your multifaceted artistic production: while walking our readers through your process, we would like to ask you if you think that there is a central idea that connects all of your work as an artist. The central idea in my work is the human, who the human is under the surface or behind the mask. Vulnerable, pure, real, in all its nakedness Monique Rutten Lives and works in Eindhoven, The Netherlands Peripheral ARTeries meets Addressing the viewers to a multilayered journey through the liminal area in which perceptual reality and dreamlike dimension find a consistent point of convergence, Monique Rutten's work is both figurative and abstract. In her body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages he accomplishes the difficult task of exciting the observers to motivate their imagination to create personal associations and to extract the stories behind her images: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to Rutten's stimulating and multifaceted artistic production. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
Monique Rutten Photo by A.Verspaandonk
123 SPECIAL ISSUE Monique Rutten eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral sometimes painful, angry, solitary or in resistance. The last years a decor developed in my work, the human in a setting or environment where he has to adjust his behaviors or has to step in line. Ten years ago the focus in my work laid more on the human. In my work nowadays the focus is more on the human within familial, religious or political context. Within our democracy we suppose to live in complete freedom. What is freedom? Parents, religion, politics, they subtly influence us in how we are supposed to feel and behave. This all starts in childhood, our parents do not mean it in a bad manner, but we are taught in childhood already to step in line. Stepping in line will even be rewarded, authenticity as well? How authentic and real are we able to and do we dare to be. How complete do we dare to
SPECIAL ISSUE 124 be? Are we allowed to feel pain, sadness, loneliness, anger next to happiness and humor? Several experiments have shown that humans easily go with the flock. The people with power will make sure we step in line, but what if you zoom in on the individual? Who are we behind this mask of insecurity? In my work you will often see something that is not right, a silent or open protest against imposed expectations. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries 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 have provided the results of your artistic inquiry into the notion of childhood with autonomous aesthetics: why did you decide to center such consitent part of your imagery on childhood? I do not especially focus on childhood, but you do see it frequently in my work. Next to my profession as an artist, I work a lot with damaged children and youngsters, I help them via drawing and painting. Everything starts in the youth. A lot can be narrowed down to experiences in childhood, family and nurture. Children are easy to influence, but their world of fantasy and sense is often very rich. Pureness is effected by influences from outside. You see some examples of this in my work: an innocent child playing on poisoned terrain, reluctantly posing for a Sunday afternoon photo and the boys of the seminars who did not see a realistic image of a woman: it can be holy Maria, or a prostitute. Your work have a seductive beauty on the surface, still you seem to addresses the viewer to capture what is beneath the surface of your images and the stories they convey: how much important is for you the narrative level of you agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
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127 SPECIAL ISSUE painting? In particular, how much everyday life's experience does fuel your creativity? Of course every painting tells a story. I find it important however that every painting also raises emotions and questions. If a painting is done well, it will do that. This is the reason why I use paintings as a medium and not writing for example. My paintings are no literal story, they are an interpretation of stories I hear, see, or experience myself. Life experience and experiencing, growing in time, following new art developments, influence of literature, economics, politics all over the world, society its problematics, new media, all are influential to the art that is being made nowadays and they keep the art renewed and alive. How much importance does play spontaneity in your work? In particular, do you conceive you works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your pieces? It is a combination of both. I do use old black and white photos, this can be photos from my own youth but also photos I found in a second hand store of people I do not know. Next to that I also make a lot of pictures myself. It is all supporting material, in which I of course use my foreknowledge, technique and skills. This process sometimes take months. Taking this time to think about what I want to do brings me closer to the work I want to make. I do also want to surprise myself sometimes. In the painting there should also be room for improvisation, experimenting, intuition and feeling. Unexpected twists and turns should not be rules out, but can strengthen the painting. We have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances of your pieces, that draws Monique Rutten eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 130 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries the viewers though a journey into the uncanny and shows that vivacious tones are not strictly indespensable to create tension and dynamics. How did you come about settling on your color palette? And how much does your own psychological make-up
133 SPECIAL ISSUE determine the nuances of tones you decide to use in a piece and in particular, how do you develope a painting’s texture? The black and white photos from the fifties and sixties is what inspires me mostly in choosing the color. In my eyes a bright color is usually too dominant in a painting very easily, and I like to use a balanced set of colors. I also like the transparency on the canvas a lot, if it fits the thematic. I often scour parts of the paint of, so something ‘’pure’’ comes from underneath. I combine the painting with drawing, oil painting and charcoal on canvas. Monique Rutten eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
137 SPECIAL ISSUE The ambiences of your paintings are marked out with captivating dreamlike quality and while referring to reality they conveys such captivating abstract feeling: how do you view the relationship between concepts of the real and the imagined playing within your works? Everybody has his own reality and interpretation. In my painting I try to show the reality, I don’t want to make it more lovely than it is. I try to show the truth, the human behind the mask. The truth within its own context of youth, family, education or within a bigger context like society, politics or religion. I don’t necessarily need to tell my own story, but I do sometimes tell the story of other people (for example the boys of the seminars). I combine this story with a sense of ambiance, fantasy and feeling. In my opinion this is what makes the work interesting. Monique Rutten eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries SPECIAL ISSUE 140 Your artwork are pervaded with images rich with symbolic features, as uniforms, plus recurrent references to childhood. German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about it? Morever, how would you describe your personal iconography and what is the importance of symbols in your imagery? That is the iconography I use in my work as well, as long as it strengthens the work in its deeper meaning. This is however not an imposed meaning, but an interpretation of expression and thus subjective. Sometimes it is easy to recognize the symbol, it is meant to streghten the image. Some examples of this which you can see in my painting are the deer and the antlers of the deer. For me this is a connection with the higher, the spiritual. But nothing is exclusively holy, the antlers grow out of control and are also controlled by a darker side. You see a devilish figure in the back who doesn’t only show lovely virgin imagine. The boys of the seminars are in a costume, a straight-jacket for twelve year old boys. Are they being told that the woman is a prostitute or a holy angel? They were given a specific picture and they grow up in a strange world without woman. The truth is some of these many young boys were sexually harassed by the catholic church as well. The other painting: You must listen to the leader, or the Dutch childrens song ‘’1, 2, step in size’’ is inspired by the fanfare in my own youth. It tells a story of fitting in with a silent protest. The painting: Children play everywhere, is meant a bit ironically. The danger sign in the background shows how double the work is.
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Monique Rutten eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral 143 SPECIAL ISSUE We like the way your artworks, rather than attempting to establish any univocal sense, you seem to urge the viewers to elaborate personal associations: would you tell us how much important is for you that the spectatorship rethink the concepts you convey in your pieces, elaborating personal meanings? This is of course important, and I hope they dare to take a look at themselves behind the outside as well. If art was solely meant as a mean of expression to myself, then I would not have to exhibit my work. Over the years your works have been exhibited in several occasions, both in the Netherlands and abroad. One of the hallmarks of your work is the capability to create a direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decisionmaking process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context? The painting looks at the viewer, it confronts and is direct, sometimes is might scare or confuse the viewer. The viewer may find it sad or weird. It can also lead to recognition and touches the viewer. For me, there is also humor in it. My paintings get many reactions and that is what I want. I think it is nice if a painting confronts, calls for discussion or questions, or gets an adverse reaction. I don’t want to show a lovely setting, this would decrease the meaning and the image. This is a An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] way in which I do think of the viewer in my paintings. I have been exhibiting in an ‘’artpub’’ for a while, where I also worked at that time. My paintings where constantly a topic of conversation, it lead to a reaction. In this manner, I am not considering the viewer when I make the paintings. The painting has to catch the eye by itself. I follow my own road and vision and focus on what I want to show, in my opinion an artist has to do his or her own thing. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Monique. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? Everywhere you go, you bring yourself and your own way of looking at things. A new environment adds new sensations and impulses to your work while the core of your work stays the same. While I lived in Valencia, they were celebrating the fallas. Thousands of young and older people were dressed in costumes from the previous century. I photographed these people (often children). They posed very proudly but often had a bit of a fake smile. My fascination then goes to the one girl who didn’t want to laugh and just looked a bit angrily into the camera. In the future I hope to have more of these experiences all over the world as an artist in residence, but also to exhibit at these fascinating places.
Shlomo Israeli In my photographic work I try to explore what the eye usually ignores, which is not illuminated and what is seen as a passing moment had gone. The many years I have been in music permeated the works. Very few photos come from music or musical instruments - but complexity, flow and mystery that I love in music find their way in all the works. Lives and works in Jerusalem, Israel B-Site Festival / Error 404 502 410 & “Dust”/ Manheim 2015 / Germany An artist’s statement Shlomo Israeli
SPECIAL ISSUE 146 Hello Shlomo and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. Are there any experience that did particularly influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to the aesthetic problem in general? My childhood home was not a house that was particularly interested in art. When I was 17, I visited Monet's home in Giverny, France. It was my first encounter with Impressionist art. I felt an immediate connection and a sense of pleasure until my mind was blurred. This feeling has been with me all my life. Today, as an adult, when I try to find out exactly what created that feeling, I understand that it was a combination of elements: surprise, colorfulness that behaves differently than I knew, borders that are not always clear, an ability to convey an atmosphere ... Even though I was painting a lot at the time, music took on a more important place in my life. I listened to Israeli music, rock and pop. The Beatles were my great love. Jazz and world music appealed to me because of the free ability to express, and in classical European music I was drawn to the Impressionist period, which in a fascinating way was also integrated with the Impressionism in the painting. I especially liked Miles Davis and Claude Debussy. The great influence of my university studies was the American composer John Cage. Thanks to his philosophy, little by little, I discovered one basic aesthetic fact that is found in almost everything I loved: rules are important and must be studied and controlled. Otherwise Shlomo Israeli Lives and works in Jerusalem, Israel Peripheral ARTeries meets Fine Art Photographer Shlomo Israel's work draw the viewers through a multilayered visual experience: his photographs address the viewers to challenge their perceptual and cultural parameters. In his series that we'll be discussing in the following pages he accomplishes the difficult task of exploring what the eye usually ignores, which is not illuminated and what is seen as a passing moment had gone: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to his stimulating and multifaceted artistic production. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator [email protected] agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
149 SPECIAL ISSUE Shlomo Israeli eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral the work is accidental and not based on a continuous and evolving statement. But if you want to find a unique language you need to find a good way to break down the rules. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would suggest to our readers to visit http://www.shlomoisraeli.com in order to get a synoptic view of your work: in the meanwhile, would you like to tell to our readers something about the evolution of your style? In particular, would you shed light on your usual process and set up? What technical equipment do you prefer? Photography with me is not a daily work. I'm not one of those who hangs out with a camera at any given moment. The reason is simple: when I take pictures I am almost entirely into the camera and my energies are directed to it only, and you cannot walk around like that in the street ... I am aware and ready for the moment when I enter the mood of taking photos. At that time, the world around me changes. I start to notice many details around me, such as the shadows and the location of random figures. At first I worked according to all the rules: I framed the photograph before I pressed the button, and made sure that the focus was in the right place and that everything was positioned correctly. The classic form of work created an important aesthetic basis in which I realized that most of the pictures eventually came out as I had planned in advance and that I controlled the camera. From classical technique I moved slowly to a more abstract form of work. I began to "break the rules" and try to decipher what better expresses my personal feeling about the object being photographed. At the same time, I made a lot of attempts at working with layers and combining several pictures into one picture. It was a time that taught me a lot about myself and I was finally able to find personal expression in taking photographs. Today I do not work in layers but try to find interesting natural moments in the situations I confront. I gently use the image processing program to highlight textures and details, but never create them artificially. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article has at once caught our attention of your successful attempt to explore what the eye usually ignores is the way you have been capable of creating an autonomous aesthetics: while walking our readers through the genesis of Movements series would you tell us your sources of inspiration? My visual inspiration in general consists of two elements: textures and people. Sometimes also a combination of both. When I photograph a landscape or people on the street, I prefer them to be on the
SPECIAL ISSUE 150 move. Thus you can create a sense of brush strokes within the photograph. In fact, it's an idea taken from Impressionism. Even when we look at the landscape in our own eyes it is not static, not always in focus and always have blurred areas. I especially like these areas. In landscapes I am not looking for the beautiful or the breathtaking, but for the special character and relationship between the various elements. I like to photograph people when they are not aware of the fact that they are photographed. I do not like to stage pictures even though some of my attempts were not bad at all, so I do not rule out the idea. It's just less natural to me. I tend to rely more on the random moment and the instinct. I prefer to photograph people move or stand under special light and emphasize the fact that in this situation not all the details are clear. . From 2010 to 2017 your camera slowly turned from a documentary tool to a way of expressing feelings and thoughts. Your works combine realism with insightful abstract feeling: are you particularly interested if you try to achieve to trigger the viewers' perception as a starting point to urge them to elaborate personal interpretations? I’d like to draw attention to the passing feelings of the beholder and not only to those feelings which come naturally. The beginnings of my artistic photography came from feelings. I traveled with friends agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries