CONTEMPORARYARTREVIEW Jessica Feldman (Mexico) Biennial Edition Special Edition Installation • Painting • Mixed media • Drawing • Performance • Public Art • Drawing • Video art • Fine Art Photography EMILY TSAI DEBORAH KENNEDY JOSEPH BLUMSTEIN ANDREEA RUS CHAKALAH CRAWFORD ALEXANDRA FRANCIS TOMMY OROSCO JESSICA FELDMAN MAGRIET VAN LOGGERENBERG
Andreea Rus Be that as it may, this catalog or any portion ther eof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without express written permission from Peripheral ARTeries and featured artists.
Peripheral eries CONTEMPORARYARTREVIEW Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico Lives and works in Leeds, England, United Kingdom Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa lives and works in Leeds, England, United Kingdom Lives and works in Southern California, USA Lives and works in Romania Lives and works in Rye, NY, United States Lives and works in the United States Lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA 3 Contents TREVI Special thanks to: Michael Betancourt, Teresa Wells, Jared Schaffer, Jean-Claude Bise, Ashley Cassens, Hildy Maze, Karissa Hahn, Juliana Pepper, Jane Sheiko, Max Savold, Julia Überreiter, Deborah Esses, Margaret Noble, Joseph Goddard, Nathalie Borowski, Marco Visch, Xavier Blondeau, J.D. Doria, Matthias Callay, Luiza Zimerman, Kristina Sereikaite, Scott D'Arcy, Kalli Kalde, Carla Forte, Mathieu Goussin, Evie Zimmer, Dorothee Zombronner, Olga Karyakina, Robert Hamilton, Isabel Becker, Clare Haxby, Carrie Alter, Jessica Bingham, Agnieszka Ewa Braun, Fabian Freese, Elodie Abergel, Ellen van der Schaaf, Courtney Henderson and Francine LeClercq Special Issue 78 108 Alexandra Francis 132 24 Magriet van Loggerenberg Andreea Rus
SPECIAL ISSUE 4 Hello Jessica and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit http://www.jessicafeldman.com.mx in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production and we would start this interview with a couple of introductory questions. Are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as an artist and help you to develop your attitude to experiment? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum direct the trajectory of your current artistic research? Ever since I was young I’ve had a fascination with structures, patterns, and puzzles so I think those elements are very distinctive in my works. I can see those elements even in my paintings as a kid. Also, I think that traveling has been a key element in all the evolution on my art, everything that I see around me that’s new can transform my thoughts into a new idea and I make it my own because like they say “there isn’t an artist that can see the world as it is Jessica Feldman Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico Peripheral ARTeries meets In todays society we are very concerned about fast comunication but we are entirely detached from the people around us. They are just there but almost invisible. We just see parts of moments but are unaware of the big picture. The closeness we feel with someone we cannot see but only write is far more that those sitting next to us and thats increasing in a very fast rate. I paint women because i project my feelings thru them conveying this idea, and at the same time giving them voice. Sometimes they are in fragments giving the sensation of how we make the other person feel or sometimes they are complete but somehow inside waves or geometrical cinetic forms representing the constant movement of life in a hurry and growing telecomunication. Everything today is about social media but there is no real social comunity. With my works i want to give the idea of change, that we can always stop and decide to make things different each day. To give our family, colleages and friends all of our attention and try to find happiness with our surroundings. Each day can be better if we can make some changes in our way of life and modify our minds to reach out and connect. I paint in oil on canvas and its a fusion between cinetic and figurative art. Thats what makes my art stand out and be recognized. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
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11 SPECIAL ISSUE because if he did he wouldn’t be an artist”. When I paint it’s like a trance that I submerge myself into in order to express all of my feelings, emotions, thoughts, and vibes that even though we cannot touch we can certainly feel, so it’s in this state of trance that those pieces emerge. We have appreciated the way the results of your artistic inquiry into the idea of change conveys such a coherent combination between emotional intuition and a rigorous sense of geometry and the body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries has at once impressed us of for the way you provide the viewers with such a multilayered visual experience. New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to 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? I use art as my language, my own way of conveying my thoughts to the world and as complex as my work can seem to be to others, to me it comes very easily in my mind. I’m not always sure about the geometric patterns that I want, but when I start to work everything comes into place. Sometimes the picture I thought of at first is not exactly the final work, it’s a process of thinking and materializing that particular idea. In the end, it’s all about creating a piece that translates into an expression, it’s an idea transformed into a summary. How important is for you to draw from your personal experience, in order to create? How does your everyday life's experience fuel your creative process? I’m sure that all of my work is related to a personal experience. Even though every piece has a story of its own I really like it when I hear other people talking about the pieces because they create another story all together. The viewers are part of the puzzle, it’s the piece that’s missing to make the painting whole because I strongly believe that it’s a passive collaboration. When I have a lot of new ideas I usually write them down for me to do later but I prefer to paint as soon as I have an idea because the energy that I have in that particular moment I express it through my paintings and I’m sure that the viewers can feel it too. It’s a very personal experience that I share with the world because it’s all about what I’m feeling and absorbing in that moment and so it’s true that with each piece you take a little bit of me comes with it. Inviting the viewers to rediscover the presence of people who are just there but almost invisible, we daresay that your artistic practice seems to aim to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface. Austrian historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the audience to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the visual experience: how important is for you to trigger the viewer's imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal associations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? Really talking about understanding a certain work I always say that first you have to like what you see because that’s the reason that a particular piece speaks to you. After that you can try to relate as to what the artist is trying to say, but as I said earlier, it’s a collaboration. You Jessica Feldman eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 12 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries can have different interpretations about my work that can also be true even though they weren’t intended in the first place. I don’t like to be defined as one particular thing because all my pieces talk about a lot of things in one place, It’s a very compressed story. Of course, I depend
13 SPECIAL ISSUE Jessica Feldman eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral always on the imagination of the viewers so I make them participate with my pieces with the idea of movement, something fun that attracts the eye and shifts their view.
SPECIAL ISSUE 16 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries As you have remarked once, you paint women because you project your feelings thru them and at the same time giving them voice. As one the most recognized pioneer of feminist art, Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi, your characters not fall prey to the emotional prettification of a beloved subject. In this sense, your artistic production is a genuine tribute to the issue of women's identity in our globalized still patriarchal and male oriented societies. How do you consider the role of women artists in our age? Do you think that you’re being a woman provides your artistic research with some special value? When I go to museums the quantity of female figures in all the paintings always attracts my attention. Sometimes, I even tend to count the women vs men ratio and the score remains the same until now, more women figures. But this is the thing, almost all painted by men. I can fairly say that sometimes I don’t even find a painting made by a woman and when that happens it makes me think that we are no different than the society before our time. We still have the same structures even though, as women, now we can do anything we want in a lot of places around the world. Of course, there are more women artists than before but we still don’t have the same recognition. I paint women in a different perspective because obviously as a woman I’m sure I give a different point of view, but it’s also important to give women a place, not always as beauty objects but as women speaking through a woman. We like the way your artworks convey such a subtle still effective socio political criticism
eries Contemporary Art Peripheral Jessica Feldman agazine 17 SPECIAL ISSUE about the paradoxical situation of being concerned about fast communication and the emotional detachment from people around us. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artists' role differs depending on which sociopolitical system they are living in.' Do you think that your artistic research responds to a particular cultural moment? How do you consider the power of contemporary art to tackle sensitive cultural issues in order to trigger social change in our globalized societies? Art is the key to change in all aspects of life. Society has transformed over the years and it is art that has made the difference. Art has had many uses, as an educational tool, for protest, and for behavioral modification just to name a few because art changes the way people think and it’s also a reflection of the way we are living. Today’s era is all about technology and very fast living. We want everything now and we are losing the ability to be amazed. It’s a constant battle to think of something very unusual and new to attract the people of this generation and even so for a very short time. I think texting is a very useful tool and the way we can communicate through that technology is incredible, but that said, we are also losing the ability to talk to each other face to face. I think that behavior is something we have to change in order to be closer to the people around us and my way of saying that is through art. Marked out with such a unique visual identity, your artworks feature such effective fusion between kinetic and figurative art, to create such an oniric atmosphere: how would you consider the relationship between abstraction
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19 SPECIAL ISSUE eries Contemporary Art Peripheral Jessica Feldman agazine and figurative in your practice? In particular, how does representation and a tendency towards abstraction find their balance in your work? I think is that we are all a fusion between abstract and figurative because we are composed of both of those elements, Our body and our mind. So, in putting those elements together I’m simply displaying different states
SPECIAL ISSUE 12 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries in one work. The geometric forms that I use to make the kinetic art are the ones responsible for movement and also the idea of waves or particles that translate into this era of technology. The figurative part are the women stating a different kind of emotion that can go from being calm, happy, angry and so on. My art is really a materialization of my thoughts into something that people can see and have fun with. I strongly believe that we all ought to have
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19 SPECIAL ISSUE eries Contemporary Art Peripheral Jessica Feldman agazine fun in life and the only way to achieve it is by playing together. We have really appreciated the vibrancy of the nuances of that mark out your artistic production: in particular, we like the way your artworks show that vivacious tones are not indispensable in order to create tension and dynamics: how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that
you decide to include in a specific artwork in order to achieve such brilliant results? The funny thing is that I love color so much that sometimes I need to restrict my pallet and try to use it wisely. If not, I would have lots of colors in all my works and they would not be convenient to express the way I feel and the idea that I want to reflect. I don’t know if all artists do this but when I have an idea the first thing that comes to my mind is not an image but a color. It’s like if that feeling I can translate it into a color that I see and so then I add some more to have the aesthetic part of the piece. Sometimes I really want the viewer to feel that vibrations and I think about those pieces as more serious thoughts or more energetic ones so I use black and white in them and that way I won’t distract them with colors. You are an established artist and over the years your artworks have been showcased in a number of exhibitions: 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 think that the first thing that the audience feels is curiosity and that makes them stand still, evaluate the painting, and start to make sense of it. That way they are having a good time with the piece and they are having a conversation with it. I don’t think of myself as an educator but it’s very important for me that when people see my paintings they can start a dialogue that can provoke a change in the way they think even just a little bit. They can have a conversation about a piece and maybe get a different idea that I hope will be useful. Almost all of my paintings relate, not only to empowerment and todays life, but also to personal growth. I would really like for the viewers to try to find my voice and to see each piece telling a story, not my SPECIAL ISSUE 10 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
Jessica Feldman eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral 9 SPECIAL ISSUE
story but the one inside each one of them. Even though I’m sharing my points of view in my worlds and my visions they, the viewers, will be the ones that translate them into a great piece. 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, Jessica. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? I’m very grateful for letting me share my work with all of you. It’s been my pleasure and really a Jessica Feldman eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral 9 SPECIAL ISSUE
SPECIAL ISSUE 10 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries great experience. For now, I can tell you that I’m preparing a new kind of series experimenting with different materials and trying to expand my work by also making sculptures. That’s a very new kind of art for me but it has been very satisfactory so I will share those works in my next exhibit in Mexico City. It’s been a crazy work year and as much as I like my past pieces I’m always evolving and learning new things that will nurture my art so the only
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SPECIAL ISSUE eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral 9 Jessica Feldman thing that I’m sure of is that I will have fun making them. Also, I would like to explore the possibility of expressing the importance of caring for our planet and our environment. This is something I want to include in next projects because it’s a very important global problem that needs to be addressed.
SPECIAL ISSUE 4 Hello Alexandra and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit www.artistalexandrafrancis.online in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production and we would start this interview with a couple of introductory questions. Are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as a multidisciplinary artist and help you to develop your attitude to experiment Moreover, how does your cultural substratum direct the trajectory of your current artistic research? It wasn’t until the age of eighteen (I am now twenty four), that I began to consider a career for myself as an artist. Being an artist had never appealed to me despite having created paintings from a young age. It was my family that had encouraged me to pursue this as a career, and I’m now glad that they did. Up until the age of sixteen I had never experimented with different forms of art. My high school primarily taught painting and drawing, which now as I reflect back on those early days, was ridiculous. I began to realise my artistic potential through experimentation Alexandra Francis Lives and works in Leeds, England Peripheral ARTeries meets I am an interdisciplinary artist based in Leeds, England, with a primary focus on the creation of sculptures and installations. The artwork that I tend to create are often audience interactive and revolve around the concepts of fluctuation, natural forms and biomorphism. With my fascination of the natural world, it is not a surprise that I incorporate natural patterns, layers, formations, colour and geometry in the work that I produce. My sculptures and installations are eye-catching, playful and child-like, with the use of bright colours and certain materials, in order to attract attention from an audience of all ages. Recently I have found that I am fond of experimenting with the art form photography. Photography allows me to capture and compare my work as both an image and an object, which provides me with the opportunity to explore my work within both 2D and 3D surfaces. Alongside exploring surface within my art practice, photographing the art that I create within various settings encourages me to also take into consideration the location, lighting – whether natural or artificial, and the presence of an audience. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
SPECIAL ISSUE 8 with various materials and art forms, whilst studying at Leeds City College, and later went on to study on the BA (hons) Fine Art course at Leeds Beckett University, which I graduated from in 2018. I suppose what influenced me most as an artist was having the opportunity to work as a Programme Assistant at The Tetley contemporary Art Gallery, in Leeds. The first exhibition that I ever invigilated was called ‘Painting in Time’ (2015) and was co-curated by Sarah Kate Wilson. Painting in Time exhibited a variety of works from artists such as; Sarah Kate Wilson, Polly Apfelbaum and Yoko Ono, that focussed on the Expanded field of painting and the state of flux/fluctuation. This would later prove to have been a major inspiration to myself, with the creation of audience interactive art installations that fluctuated over time. A good example would not only be my installation ‘I Instruct you to Pop a Balloon’ (2018) but also ‘I instruct you to reconfigure the Space part 2’ (2018). Reconfigure the Space part 2 was comprised of ten sculptures that were created out of strips of foam, and spray painted various colours. These sculptures were exhibited in a space, for an audience to reconfigure as they pleased. Of course, this meant that with every participant, the work changed within the space. I had no control over what the audience did and I enjoyed that feeling. For this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries we have selected I instruct you to pop a balloon, an interesting project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once impressed us of your insightful inquiry into the concepts of fluctuation is the agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
9 SPECIAL ISSUE Alexandra Francis eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral I Instruct you to Pop a Balloon
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11 SPECIAL ISSUE way you sapiently combined element from reality with captivating abstract sensitiveness, to provide the viewers with such a multilayered visual experience: when walking our readers through your usual workflow and process, we would like to ask you how did you develop the initial idea for I instruct you to pop a balloon. I am a very spontaneous individual. If I plan an artwork; how it will look, what materials I will use, how long it will take to create, then I get bored and lose interest. If I plan an artwork or even a project (with the exception of commissions) then I feel as though I am limiting myself to what I create and that’s not always a good thing. So, I just create. I don’t plan. I don’t think about what I’m going to create. I just do it. Take a piece of paper and a pen, for example, and draw something. It doesn’t matter what you draw as long as you do something. Mark the paper. Do anything. You never know what will happen if you do – it’s a huge surprise to your audience and yourself and that’s exciting, isn’t it? At-least I think so. That’s not what happened with I instruct you to Pop a Balloon however. You see, I created this installation as part of my degree show on the BA (hons) course, and as it was part of the course itself, I was required to send forward a proposal in advance. I struggled to think of what to do for this, but one night, laid in bed, I had what you could call a vision. An image in my mind’s eye of what my installation would look like, and I just thought it looked good. I thought ‘why the hell not?’ And so, the concept for the installation was born. I instruct you to pop a balloon is structured Alexandra Francis eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
I Instruct you to Pop a Balloon
SPECIAL ISSUE 12 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries in order to provide the viewers with an immersive, almost surrounding visual experience: what were you aesthetic decisions in relationship to the exhibition space, in order to provide them with such visual qualities? In 2015 I had the pleasure of visiting the Venice Biennale, and it was here that I was first Flowers that Bloom Outside
13 SPECIAL ISSUE Alexandra Francis eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral introduced to the work of Katharina Grosse. As I walked through the installation of pigmented dirt, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed. Her work, ‘Untitled Trumpet’ (2015) had blown me away – and had left a lasting impression on me. I loved that feeling of not knowing where to look, the explosion of colour, the joy I received of being a part of it
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eries Contemporary Art Peripheral Alexandra Francis agazine 17 SPECIAL ISSUE by just walking through the space, and I wanted to recreate that feeling for not only myself, but for an audience. By entering into the box like space where I instruct you to pop a balloon was first exhibited, you were confronted by balloons suspended at various heights, filled with sand and hanging from fishing line. I wanted this installation to also leave a lasting impression on my audience, and I felt that I succeeded in doing that. Footprints were left in the coloured sand that covered the floor of the space, from previous participants – which indicated and was symbolic for a journey through time. It was quite a tight area really, but I felt that only added to the experience, for it made it all that more personal. Investigating the dynamics between the audience and its surroundings, I instruct you to pop a balloon features such effective combination between physical space and captivating abstract feeling, whose background create such an oniric atmosphere: how would you consider the relationship between abstraction and figurative in your practice? In particular, how does representation and a tendency towards abstraction find their balance in your work? Merge them both together I say. It’s like a dream, you’re in a field – something that you would recognise anywhere – but you’re being chased by a purple cow. It’s strange. It’s odd. It’s different. It’s not completely made up but it’s not really all that realistic either, it’s a nice balance between the two. You find comfort in what you recognize, but you may be left confused, frustrated or intrigued by the strange and the unusual. It can’t be real, right? But it’s there, as a sculpture, and it’s happening. I just try to introduce the audience to the middle point between the imaginary and the figurative, I guess. Marked out with such unique seductive beauty on the visual aspect, your artworks are often audience interactive. 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? It is VERY important. My work revolves around personal interpretations! I am not going to tell people what to think or how to feel about my work. That is up to them. I will give them the tools they need to explore the artwork that I create, but that is all. It’s all about their own personal experience, a teacup is only a teacup because we are taught that it is. We are taught that the first is number one and the second – number two. Time exists because we are taught from a young age that it does. You cannot teach people about my art installations. It’s not to learn about - but to experience. If you overthink my work, then you may lose the feeling of experiencing it. So, don’t over think it. Just enjoy it for what it is. There are no boundaries and no limitations. It’s like with my sculpture ‘Solitude’ (2018) that was created (and consequently led to the generation of ‘I instruct you to reconfigure the space part 2’), as part of the Don’t Sift Just Stir workshop and exhibition in Leeds, England. A group of artists got together and created artwork, both independently and collaboratively. This led to a one-day exhibition event – situated across a variety of outdoor
agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries SPECIAL ISSUE 18 Coloured Foam Sculptures
19 SPECIAL ISSUE Alexandra Francis eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine spaces between the three major universities in Leeds; University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett University and Leeds Arts University. I didn’t know what to create as part of this event. Foam was accessible at the time, as was red spray paint, and so I spent less time thinking about what I was doing, and more time actually doing it. A biomorphic, organic like shape emerged, and was used to dominate the street that it was exhibited on, by hanging from a signpost outside Leeds Beckett University’s Portland Way building, and blowing uncontrollably in the wind. As it didn’t depict anything in particular, people weren’t all that sure of what it was, but they seemed to enjoy the experience of seeing and touching the sculpture, and really, to me, that’s all that matters. We can recognize such a subtle still rigorous sense of geometry that pervades your artworks and that creates such a coherent combination between sense of freedom and unique aesthetics: do you conceive you works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your pieces? In particular, how importance does spontaneity play in your work? Spontaneity is incredibly important in my work, as it is in my life outside of being an artist. I’ll wake up in the morning and decide to get on a bus – without planning where I intend to go. I definitely got this little trait from my family. They all do it, which I think is great. I feel as though being spontaneous means that you’re always in the ‘moment’. Where are you going? Who cares. Just go, and enjoy it. You have to find the little pleasures in life, and this, to me, is one of them. We have really appreciated the vibrancy of the intense and at the same time delicate nuances of
SPECIAL ISSUE 12 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries blue that mark out I instruct you to pop a balloon and your artistic production, in general: in particular, we like the way your artworks show that vivacious tones are not indespensable in order to create tension and dynamics: how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in a specific artwork in order to achieve such brilliant results? My artworks often revolve around the use of bright colours, mainly to attract attention. I also use colours and tones that I find appealing personally, because I want to like what I see and work with, but then who doesn’t? As for the actual colours that I use within my work, it is all very random – like myself. It incorporates the colder colours – the blues, the greens, the purples, which are balanced out by the warmer colours – the reds, the yellows, the oranges and the pinks. I am a big believer in colour therapy and the symbolism for colours also – which you may have already guessed. How different colours can affect people and their moods always surprises me. How a bright red can not only be symbolic for love, but also for danger. I suppose that is why I often try to incorporate all the colours and tones within my work – because it feels wrong to leave any out! The work doesn’t feel complete unless I incorporate everything. And yet, in a way, that is simply only in my mind – though others may agree with me. With their tactile qualities, your artworks unveils the fact that we sometimes tend to ignore the fact that a work of art is a physical artefact: how do you consider the relation between the abstract nature of your creative process and the physical aspect of your daily practice as an artist?
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19 SPECIAL ISSUE Alexandra Francis eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine Touch is an important sense; as is hearing, sight, smell and taste. To understand an artwork, I like my audience to experience the work in as many different ways as possible. (Though I would not recommend eating the sand as part of the installation; I instruct you to pop a balloon.) ‘Dreamland’ for example, is an interactive sculpture that I created out of silver bells, that hung from a body of crocheted wool, and was decorated with red artificial flowers. I wanted the work to ring out across a gallery space as people passed it, or physically touched the sculpture. I’m hoping that this was the case, when Dreamland (2018-19) was exhibited as part of the Mechanical Circus exhibition at the 3rd on 3rd Gallery, in Jamestown, New York (2019). The Mechanical Circus was curated by artist and curator Debra Eck and revolved around – you guessed it – a circus theme. If you want to talk a work of art as a physical artefact, then we just have to look at the work of artists such as Yoko Ono, Marcel Duchamp and Claes Oldenburg. They all incorporate everyday objects within their artist approaches – which I think is fantastic. But really, I believe that everything is a work of art, even if other people do not agree with me. Most things start with a sketch, an initial design – which then leads to the construction process. Isn’t that similar to the creation of a sculpture? Also, a sculpture is a physical, often three dimensional object – aren’t artefacts usually the same? There’s a lot more similarities then there are differences between the two. We might as well merge them together. I think we can make something abstract through colour and design. You could make that purple
agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral eries Special Edition 12 SPECIAL ISSUE cow out of paper mache and acrylic paint, and exhibit it in woodland, or a field, or whatever. There’s nothing stopping you from doing it. It’s really all about just being openminded. Your work doesn’t have to make sense. To me, it just has to be fun, visually pleasing and aesthetic. And what do you hope your audience take away from I instruct you to pop a balloon ? In particular, how do you consider the role of emerging online technosphere in creating new links between artists and worldwide audience? We need to work together. We need to collaborate more. Not only as artists, but as individuals – and as human beings. She’s a retail worker and he works in finance – yet they never seem to talk – because they do not know each other, and at first glance, may have nothing in common. It doesn’t matter the colour of your skin, the sex you associate yourself with, your religion, your age or your background. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, if you know a lot about art or if you know absolutely nothing. Installations like I instruct you to pop a balloon have been created to bring people together. People from all different backgrounds arrive from all different areas, cities, and countries, to one single space. They may not have met before, but I instruct you to pop a balloon allows them the opportunity to form a conversation with one another about the work. To maybe even make a new friend. To bring people together. That is what I hope my audience takes away from this installation, and future installations to come. The digital world is a great place for advertisement – but everything seems to be on the big wide web now! It annoys me really. I like the physical; I like the raw and the gritty – but an artwork can be lifted to perfection in different software’s online. It’s not the same I think. As for the advertisement itself, like I said – it’s great. Things go viral all the time. The messages that my work create can be conveyed faster than lightning - with the right people sharing it online. The only problem is that they do not get to experience the work physically and in person, and that’s a damn right shame. 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, Alexandra. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Oh, you’re very welcome. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me. I am currently working on the exploration of nature as artwork, and how sculptures can be exhibited in both interior and exterior spaces. It’s really just a work in progress right now so I won’t say much about it. As for the ideas for the future – that’s a surprise. I’m not really sure yet as I have nothing in particular that I want to focus on
The Reveal
apart from my present art project. Let’s just say that it will be interesting. You can find out more by checking up on my work in the future on my website: www.artistalexandrafrancis.online I suppose I’ll end with a quote that I often find inspiring, by the great, late, George Harrison. “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road’ll take you there.” And he was absolutely right. SPECIAL ISSUE 12 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries Reaching to the Sky Dreamland
eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine SPECIAL ISSUE Alexandra Francis 19 Solitude
SPECIAL ISSUE 4 Hello Magriet and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.artjobs.com/magrietvanlog in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. Are there any experiences that did particularly inffluence your evolution as a visual artist? In particular, how does your cultural substratum due to your previous lifetime career in television direct the trajectory of your current artistic research? From the moment we are born, every impression we form, every person we meet, becomes part of our identity and serves as inspiration for our unique creative output. I was born in South Africa, a landscape of contrasts. The faded, sun drenched hues of the arid Karoo, the dusty brown bushveld. Juxtaposed with the bright colourful Malay quarter of the Cape, purple explosion of jacarandas in Pretoria and the lush ferns and pines in deep forests of Mpumalanga. Another part of my youth was spent in Rome, Italy. I embraced every ounce of magic and have carried it around with me ever since. While in Rome, my father began to paint, and inspired me to draw. And I never stopped. I have always had a huge amount of imagination, a fascination with fantasy. Logic has never made sense to me. No wonder I carved my niche in Television. Making a TV programme is a lot like painting. Filling x amount of time with content that never was and giving it a story is like being confronted with a blank canvass. It keeps you humble, on your knees and the only limits are those of your imagination. A sequence of frames is in itself a series of paintings. The rules are the same. There is focus, content, colour, Magriet van Loggerenberg Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa Peripheral ARTeries meets After a lifetime in television, I became a professional artist. I have held numerous solo exhibitions and taken part in many group exhibitions. My works are displayed in homes and galleries in South Africa and internationally. At heart I remain an Impressionist, but my forays into the abstract have been both exciting and rewarding. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries