Barry Wolfryd CAMILO CÁRDENAS ELLA YOLANDE BRITNIE WALSTON MARIA SOLITAIRE MARQUES DE JADRAQUE GEORGE LORIO HADI KHANI ALEXANDRA EFIMOVA BARRY WOLFRYD ART LandEscape A r t R e v i e w Anniversary Edition C o n t e m p o r a r y
SUMMARY Britnie Walston México C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w USA Hadi Khani Philistine Schaele, the French writer and philosopher of art, says art is as an attempt to create an ideal world, a world of images and pure emotions alongside the real world. A clear example of this word can be seen in Khani's paintings. Simple and fluent paintings with colorful surfaces that boldly distance themselves from the palette of nature and roll with happy and playful colors and, like other modern works, are somewhat easily avoided. His paintings are extremely deep and curved surfaces and lines with their fluidity make it easier to understand these depths. In most of the works, the road plays a key role. Endless roads that invite the audience to the infinite land. A journey to the depths of dreams and imagination . Special Issue Marques de Jadraque Spain / USA Since I was a child I has been interested in Figure, Portrait, Movement, and light.I'm is interested in all the materials that I can adapt to my paintings: Oil, Charcoal, pastel, cement, ink, acrylic, spray paint, etc... And adapts it to my paintings, depending on the series he paints.My inspiration comes from living day to day, from my travels, from contact with people, from what I reads, from what I sees in other artists, from the conversations with friends, from the cinema. To sum it up somehow...Right now I'm interested in figurative abstraction, inspired by this spring and the colors of nature. Iran Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Ella Yolande United Kingdom By looking at ecological systems and structures in nature, I use digital and physical processes to create surreal biomes and reimagine relationships between, and with non human worlds. This is a way for me to acknowledge current climate urgencies and encourage people to think about our interwoven existence with our surroundings, as well as stimulate playful thinking on imaginary and speculative futures. I work between video, sculpture, drawing and digital media, experimenting with installation and expanded cinema practices. My curiosity about different ecosystems, local habitats, extinction, deep sea worlds, gardens, fictional hybrid organisms, metamorphic states and interspecies entanglements is driving my current work. The work’s focus is on the conciliation of different dichotomies that get their strength from everyday life. The work shows an interest to analyze objects as symbols and displace the context so to expand my semantic field. I appropriate the objects and personages from popular culture, whether local or foreign and reinvent them in a way to create reflection. It is my pursuit that my work becomes an “absurd” narrative for us. The icons and objects in my work are part of a larger internalization, which catapults us to what is both evident and unpredictable. Even though I explore distinctive themes, the basis for all of my work is the portrayal of elaborate symbols, icons and objects that we recognize consciously or intuitively across the globe. Growing up near the Chesapeake Bay, my landscapes and abstract work as a whole, are inspired by the beauty of nature; often depicting the absence of human presence, liberation (“set free”) and freedom (“being free”). Though my diverse range of work requires different creative processes and mediums, they are all influenced by the same subject matter: freedom. In my landscapes, I portray the personality of nature through the use of exaggerated brushstrokes and abstract color. For example, using dramatic horizontal brushstrokes for a warm analogous red, yellow, and orange sunset sky. The water may follow with a gradient wash of blue to turquoise with a dappling of white paint for mist to capture the crashing waves. This creates a surreal paradise for the viewer to reflect, escape, and appreciate all the beauty that surrounds us. Barry Wolfryd Anna Fine Foer Maria is a self-taught creator of photo art, paintings, and photography. Leaving a successful international career at the board level within sales, marketing, and administration she found her strength and courage to follow her soul´s calling when nothing else worked to bring her to health. It was then her unique voice developed.Maria´s paintings show a world beyond, of magic and natural forces. They are intuitive, visionary, and multi-layered stories unique to each piece.Her photo art is layered with structures. She plays with the photos until elements telling a story is enhanced.All of Maria´s artwork encourages imagination, providing the viewer with an emotional and intangible experience. Maria Solitaire Sweden
Special Issue Special thanks to Miya Ando, Juerg Luedi, Urte Beyer, Beth Krensky, Rudiger Fischer, Lisa Birke, Haylee Lenkey, Martin Gantman, Ariane Littman, Max Epstein, Nicolas Vionnet, Sapir Kesem Leary, Greg Condon, Jasper Van Loon, Alexandre Dang, Christian Gastaldi, Larry Cwik, Michael Nelson, Dana Taylor, Michael Sweeney, Colette Hosmer, Melissa Moffat, Marinda Scaramanga and Artemis Herber. SUMMARY Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW United States As an immigrant from Colombia working as a multimedia artist, my creative practice is concerned with questions of forming and performing identities. Through personal exploration and performative acts, I aim to highlight diversity of thought and investigate the role of identity within the human experience. This process is rooted in my personal experiences and the research that I pursue to better understand the experiences of others. I see art as an agent for individual and cultural identity formation and retention; a fundamental component of our social fabric. The current global social climate is particularly tender around issues of belonging, emigration and either welcoming or rejecting the ‘other’. Camilo Cárdenas Colombia My sculptures subtly arouse concern with visual prods into contemporary issues. I use a narrative of social engagement to generate discussion with my constructions. Current images comment on ecological destruction and view of renewal. My sculptures contemplate nature’s provision of trees as they are the source for human shelter, oxygen, and avian refuge. Like human skin, bark conforms to a tree. Like skin, tree bark heals with scars. The end grain of logs notes the distortions in the growth rings resulting from injury-a callus. It is similar to the swelling around a cut in human flesh. The primary surface of the sculptures is fallen branches and twigs. 4 28 Ella Yolande lives and works in the United Kingdom George Lorio lives and works in the United States Britnie Walston lives and works in the United States Alexandra Efimova lives and works in Russia Maria Solitaire lives and works in Sweden Marques de Jadraque lives and works in the UK and in USA Hadi Khani lives and works in Iran Barry Wolfryd lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico Camilo Cárdenas lives and works in Boyacá, Colombia 50 72 86 108 134 160 190 Russia Alexandra Efimova Man is the Creator, and man is the destroyer-a topic that has been bothering me for the past three years. Over the past century, we have made strides in technology, medicine,and science, but we have turned a blind eye to many things... How has our home (planet Earth) changed during this time? Man has been competing with nature all his adult life, but the events of recent years, and 2020 in particular, have clearly shown us our powerlessness. Everyone wants to be special, unique, embellishing themselves in photos in social networks, and if you dig deeper-everyone is the same, like plastic mannequins in the shop Windows that we love so much. The society of consumption, degradation or the pause before a significant leap forward? This is a question I asked myself when I was working on this project. George Lorio
Hello Ella and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https:// www.ellayolande.co.uk in order to get a wide idea about your mulifaceted artistic production, and we would start this By looking at ecological systems and structures in nature, I use digital and physical processes to create surreal biomes and reimagine relationships between, and with non human worlds. This is a way for me to acknowledge current climate urgencies and encourage people to think about our interwoven existence with our surroundings, as well as stimulate playful thinking on imaginary and speculative futures. I work between video, sculpture, drawing and digital media, experimenting with installation and expanded cinema practices. My curiosity about different ecosystems, local habitats, extinction, deep sea worlds, gardens, fictional hybrid organisms, metamorphic states and interspecies entanglements is driving my current work. This has resulted in the video piece Radiolaria 2020, the digital drawing Future Fountain 2020 - which also acts as a proposal for the large scale sculpture I am developing, and the upcoming video A Garden of Skeletal Sproutings 2021. Radiolaria 2020 draws on visual references from ocean dwelling creatures and microscopic organisms, along with Ernst Haeckel’s work on radiolaria. These organisms are minuscule, elaborate mineral skeletons that can act as an indication of ancient climates and extinct life forms. They are a crucial, if sometimes invisible part of many ecosystems and, through their use in geological dating can provide an insight into the histories of our planet. I’m interested in focusing on something as small as a microorganism, as a way to start looking at the importance and complexity of the ecosystems we are intertwined with. I’m intrigued by organisms that fluctuate between different states; beings that exist in a fluid, transitionary state between plant, mineral and animal and plants that are sexually fluid. This hybridity is interesting to think of in terms of adaptation and resilience to rapidly changing environments. I’m compelled by ways to bring the digital and organic together and what these processes might look like. Generated depictions of nature, world building and how this links to ideas of utopia hold a fascination for me. I want to explore ways in which this might stay rooted in physical organic systems and feed back into thinking critically about our relationship to our surroundings. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Ella Yolande
interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you hold a BA (Hons) in Intermedia, that you received from the Edinburgh College of Art: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moving to and studying in Edinburgh gave me the space to really start exploring and forming a practice. I started bringing together different mediums and interests that had previously been kept relatively separate. Looking back I’ve always played with different materials; whether painting, recording video or making felt sculpture drawings. Having a studio in the context of an art school allowed me to start seeing where these different elements could meet and how they could be used more purposefully to explore research and concepts. The course I studied was very inter-disciplinary and I was surrounded by artists working in an array of different ways which was an exciting space to be in. The concept of Intermedia itself is concerned with expanded ideas of artistic practice and this crossover of processes, research and disciplines is something I’m still very interested in. You are a versatile artist: your practice encompasses video, digital-based media and sculpture, experimenting with installation and expanded cinema practices: what does direct you to such multidisciplinary approach? Moreover, are there any experiences that did particularly help you to develop your attitude to experiment with different artistic disciplines? For me working across multiple mediums opens up many different options for approaching an idea. It’s not something that is based on a conscious decision but is dependant more on the specific project and my curiosity to learn and try new processes. I’m excited by what might emerge when different disciplines meet, and I see this as similar to when visual artists work with scientists, writers or musicians. This connects to working collaboratively, skill sharing and being open to input from other peoples disciplines. When areas of my work cross over with others, often those working in slightly different mediums, this can be really fertile ground for interesting discussions and generating new work. This potential for a cross pollination of ideas and forms is really exciting and something I am driven to explore more. I also like having a balance of working digitally, with say my video work and then in a more physical, hands on way when Ella Yolande scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
I’m working with sculpture. It engages my body and thinking in different ways and helps to keep things flowing. I enjoy it when these different processes and materials feed into each other - for instance when sculptural forms or textures, work their way into moving image work. Whilst it can be useful to set parameters for myself and really hone in on developing skills in one medium, I also get excited by the prospect that there are so many potential creative tools and always something new to learn. For this special edition of LandEscape we have selected Radiolaria, a stimulating project 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/459878704. Drawing inspiration from German artist and biologist Ernst Haeckel's reasearch about radiolaria, your work unveils the bond between invisible aspects of Nature and the complexity of our unstable ecosystem: when walking our readers through the genesis of Radiolaria, would you tell us something about your usual setup and process? Ella Yolande: Radiolaria emerged from research into different watery ecosystems, extinction, the role of microscopic organisms in layers of climate scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
history and humanities impact on these systems. I am constantly collecting notes, thoughts and pieces of text and simultaneously playing with different imagery in the form of drawings and moving image. The video in Radiolaria is Ella Yolande scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
created from a combination of different sources - I collected footage from my surrounding area, particularly by the sea and the many rock pools and sea anemones present. I also had the chance to film down microscopes at ASCUS Lab in scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Ella Yolande scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Edinburgh, so there are little glimpses of this footage throughout. Woven and layered into this are digitally created forms that take as a reference illustrations of radiolaria and microscopic imagery and descriptions of these skeletal structures. Once I formed a sequence of text, I structured the imagery around it. The piece gives just a little glimpse into or acknowledgment of these organisms and the ideas I have been exploring. With its rigorous sense of symmetry, the footage of Radiolaria seems to be meticolously conceived, and we have been particularly fascinated by the ambiguous aesthetics that marks the point of convergence between real parts of the environment and the digital realm: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? Having a balance of imagination and reality is important for me as it allows a broader creative engagement in ideas, both for me and hopefully the viewer. Work that balances science, research and ‘reality’ with imagination is more fluid and creates or leaves space for people to explore ideas whilst staying grounded in ‘reality’. Materially this also relates to the interweaving of the ‘real’ and the digital. This is where I really enjoy playing with visuals and imagined forms that stem from actual segments of organic matter.
considered an allegory of the process of human knowledge: how do you consider scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition The initial colour, texture and form of all the digital elements in my work come from these physical details. I’m compelled by ways to bring the digital and organic together and what these processes might look like. There’s definitely a playing between the two for me. Everything I work from is based on forms or structures in ‘reality’ and imagination allows me to expand on this - for instance researching ancient microscopic life forms and seeing documentation or interpretations of theses beings, but then imagining them on a completely different scale; reemerging and growing into the size of trees, what that might look like, what kind of environment they would create, what that might mean… Generated depictions of nature, world building and how this links to ideas of utopia all hold a fascination for me. I want to explore ways in which this might stay rooted in physical organic systems and feed back into thinking critically about our relationship to our surroundings. Radiolaria can act as an indication of ancient ages and provide an insight into the histories of our planet. In this sense, we dare say that your artistic research in the theme of radiolaria could be
the role of metaphors playing in your artistic practice? And how important is for you to create artworks rich of allegorical qualities? Ella Yolande scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
Within the vastness of the ocean I was interested in focusing on something as small as a microorganism as a way to start looking at the importance and scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
complexity of the ecosystems we are intertwined with. I think allegory can be a fun, intriguing way to engage with an issue and the nuances involved. This way of highlighting something can leave space for people to have personal input. Working with metaphors can be a useful method for drawing parallels and fleshing out with rich imagery. Something I am currently considering in my work is how explicit I want the concepts to be and in the case of video work, how narrative or linear it should be. I’m more drawn to exploring and presenting an issue in a more ambiguous, allegorical way than a being explicit. Your practice links artistic research with multi-media technology and we have really appreciated the way you draw from scientific imagery, to expanded the relationship between Art and Science: how do you consider the relationship between artistic research and scientific method? In particular, how does in your opinion art could be used to explain scientific themes? Artistic research and scientific method are both ways to explore a problem and ask or answer questions. Whilst often they might be presented as quite separate, they are both based in various methods of creative inquiry. Art can make scientific method more approachable for those not in the science community and scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Ella Yolande Land
vice versa. I’m interested in when the two work together. I think having the balance of imagination and creative speculation that is based in reality and scientific research can produce some of the most interesting, thought provoking work. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Especially in the context of the current climate urgencies, it’s important to work in a space that simultaneously holds scientific knowledge, embodied knowledge and the freedom to creatively imagine futures, alternative systems and world building practices. Through your artistic production you explore the themes of ecology issues and environmental consciousness. Many contemporary artists, such as Thomas Hirschhorn and Michael Light, use to include socio-political criticism and sometimes even convey explicit messages in their artworks: as an artist particularly interested in bringing in a new perspective environmental issues, do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical issues that affect our everchanging society? Ella Yolande: I definitely think they can. The ability for art to draw people into the worlds of science or politics in creative ways is really valuable and can make it more accessible. Artists can highlight issues, draw parallels and suggest creative solutions in a myriad of ways, often addressing the entangled intersectionality of the current issues we face. It’s also a way to orchestrate encounters with these issues on a more emotional, embodied level. Staying grounded in and responsive to ‘realities’ whilst being able to speculate about imagined realities can be a really valuable way to start building around alternative scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Ella Yolande Land
systems. At the moment we’re seeing a lot of artists reacting to the many issues we face and often doing so through speculative fictions, science and world making, as away to work towards and for something, instead of always being against. We appreciate the way you sapiently combined sense of beauty with the urgence to raising awareness in the viewers. In this sense, we dare say that you used beauty as a tool to reach the depths of consciences, in order to sensitise the viewers: do you agree with this analysis? In particular, how do you consider the role of aesthetics playing within your artistic research? Ella Yolande: I don’t consciously set out to make something beautiful but I agree that playing with aesthetics can draw people in and make work more appealing to engage with. The environments and forms I’m scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
looking into are also just very beautiful already so that feeds into it. I see a lot of my current work as coming from the same place, existing in and growing out of the same speculative environment. Inevitably this probably feeds in to there being a strong cohesion of imagery threading it all together which is something I’m enjoying leaning into. Your works have fascinated us for the way they invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the viewers with freedom to realize their own perception. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? I want to leave space for people’s imaginations and interpretations. This is something I’ve been considering a lot recently, how explicit I want my ideas to be - especially when talking about ecology and climate urgencies - I don’t want one fixed message to be forced on people. I think it is more interesting to create slightly surreal spaces to explore these issues. I want there to be this underlying understanding of and resulting engagement with ecology, the more-thanhuman and how as humans we impact these systems but with the flexibility to interpret and grow from these points. 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, Ella. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? The two main things I am currently working on are a new video piece and a large scale sculpture. The sculpture is based on the digital drawing Future Fountain 2020 and is midway through production. Tendrils and seed pods are starting to emerge and it is taking the form of a large colourful papermache structure which will eventually hold fluid. The video piece - working title Imagining a Garden from Skeletal Sprouting - explores a future imaginary ecosystem, where fossilised skeletal sproutings, hybrid scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Ella Yolande Land
organisms and extinct life forms reemerge, forming vast, fluid networks. I’m interested in looking into how knowledge and information is exchanged within natural networks such as mycelium; along with how organisms have adapted, their defence mechanisms and how some fluctuate between different states. I’m interested in exploring how this hybridity can be thought of in terms of adaptation and resilience to rapidly changing environments. I am drawing on ideas within Haraway’s ‘Staying with the Trouble’, Merlin Sheldrake’s ‘Entangled Life’, ideas on queer nature, Robin Kimmerer’s ‘Braiding Sweet Grass’ and Astrida Neimanis texts on Hydrofeminsim to form the project. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Hello George and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit www.georgelorio.com in order to get a wide idea about your multifaceted artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training, and after having earned your Bachelor of Arts in Art Education, you nurtured your education with a Master of Fine Arts, that you received from My sculptures subtly arouse concern with visual prods into contemporary issues. I use a narrative of social engagement to generate discussion with my constructions. Current images comment on ecological destruction and view of renewal. My sculptures contemplate nature’s provision of trees as they are the source for human shelter, oxygen, and avian refuge. Like human skin, bark conforms to a tree. Like skin, tree bark heals with scars. The end grain of logs notes the distortions in the growth rings resulting from injury-a callus. It is similar to the swelling around a cut in human flesh. The primary surface of the sculptures is fallen branches and twigs. They are fragments of trees and are ephemeral. Constructing a sculpture alluding to a living tree with these vestigial pieces, relics, is a form of incantation: a poetic activity. This visionary reconstruction functions like letters to words, words to sentences, or sentences to stories; an activity of sympathetic magic will invigorate the arboreal canopy which affords refuge to both avian and human activity. I enjoy the physicality of materials. I am fascinated by found matter; following that inclination, I am presently using twigs from neighboring gardens and parks to construct fictions of trees, stumps and logs. I usually do not alter the natural color of the sticks. I glue them to an armature and complete the attachment with an overlay of transparent matte medium. The placement of the cross-cut sticks forms a veneer with a pattern where the growth rings appear. Pattern ritualizes the form allowing modifications which embellishes the original observation from which it emerged. Swirls and concentric curves are apparent, reminiscent of goddess culture motifs. In a few sculptures, the shed epidermis (bark) becomes a pre-historic human signature: hand motifs, man’s mark of impact. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets George Lorio
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the University of South Florida: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum direct the trajectory of your current artistic research? George Lorio: The University of South Florida (USF) had a reputation of being very progressive in its academic program embracing contemporary modes of image making hybridizing the traditional approaches to address pertinent aesthetic issues. Though located in Gulf of Mexico coastal plain of central Florida, at that time several decades ago, art from New York City was the paradigm. It George Lorio scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Fragment
framed my work ethic, my commitment to resolving an image which spoke to salient concerns. My current social justice and ecological visual statements have their origins in the discussions and visiting artists of that time hosted by USF. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape and that our readers have already had the chance to get to know in the introductory pages of this article, has at once captured our attention of your artistic production is the way it raises questions about the physicality of materials, to develop such engaging visual experience, as well as your sapient use of associative structures: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us something about the genesis of Slide Inventory? George Lorio: Physicality of materials is an issue eschewed by conceptualists. I enjoy smelling, touching, visually examining forms and surfaces which interest me. I am seduced by the sensual to frame a concept. Even to establish a narrative with the exploration of my sensations. I enter this consideration through the visual examination which defines my imagery; I do not render what I see in the forest. I construct fictions of trees, stumps and logs; they are reinterpretations of living forms. This is a usual direction of my rumination as I walk through neighboring woods. “Slide Inventory” is not a title which I use in reference to my current works; I prefer to use “Concerns”. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, swirls and concentric curves are apparent reminiscent of goddess culture motifs: how do you consider the role of aesthetics playing within your artistic practice? In particular, how important is for you to ''use'' beauty to trigger the viewers' imagination addressing them to elaborate personal interpretations? scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
George Lorio scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Splindered
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George Lorio scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land George Lorio: I was buoyed by the research in the Language of the Goddess by Marija Gimbutas: swirls and concentric curves are apparent reminiscent of goddess culture motifs. These motifs rekindled my interest in prehistory as I observed the same shapes and forms in tree wounds and injuries. Like human skin, bark conforms to a tree. Like skin, tree bark heals with scars. The end grain of logs notes the distortions in the growth rings resulting from injury-a callus. It is similar to the swelling around a cut in human flesh. A cross section of a tree trunk with a partially healed wound reveals an infolding of the Cambrian layer (just under the bark): two distinct opposing swirls attempting to close the gap in the bark and undersurface. When I synthesize my various relevant observation of the woods, I am conscious of the seductive surfaces which I incorporate arousing the viewers interest and maintaining the sense of beauty. Your are presently using twigs from neighboring gardens and parks to construct fictions of trees, stumps and logs. New York City based sculptor and photographer Zoe Leonard remarked once that "the objects that we leave behind hold the marks and the sign of our use: like archeological findings, they reveal so much about us". We'd love to ask you about the qualities of the materials that you include — or that you plan to include — in your artworks: in particular, what does direct you to use found materials? George Lorio: Fallen branches and twigs are fragments of trees and are ephemeral. Constructing a sculpture alluding to a living tree with these waste pieces (relics) is a form of incantation-a poetic activity. Though many of my sightings in the woods deal with dead or decaying forms, there is a grandeur in these remnants which captivates me from which I derive my images. Zoe Leonard’s conceptual
Crotch
approach to representation is informed and seemingly structured by photography even extending into three-dimensions with found objects which question assumed notions of representation. I too use a conceptualist model of presenting my tree constructions filtered through a pared down modernist focus eliminating extraneous detail yet referring to my initial observation in the forest recorded in snapshot on an I-Phone. Your work could be also considered as an allegory of our connection with natural environment: many contemporary artists, such as Thomas Hirschhorn and Michael Light, use to include socio-political criticism and sometimes even convey explicit messages in their artworks: as an artist particularly interested in ecological issues, do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical issues that affect our everchanging society? George Lorio: Thomas Hirschhorn explores and collects waste manufactured items assembles them in massive collage-like presentations; the items are left in the condition in which he finds them. Michael Light is a photographer on a grand scale; he uses aerial photography presenting vast landscapes as found culturally drawn surfaces. Both are very impressive to me. In contrast, I seek the intimate in my work. I construct objects or spaces which reflect my body proportions and which I can physically install and move. Artists can play a supportive role in the dialogue for social justice and awareness of climate change reference the works of Cristo. I am excited by the forest floor; it is a space, a room, of many interests for me. Upon closer inspection, one can see the damage caused by indiscriminate felling and trimming trees. The abuse maybe vandalism by insensitive hikers. The forest has remarkable abilities of renewal. Regrowth noted on mature trees are obvious scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
George Lorio scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Mother
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but still beautiful bearing witness to the organism’s resilience. Many species of trees possess a life span of productivity well beyond that of humans. Nature’s resource of trees is the source for oxygen, air pollution mitigation, carbon capture, limitation of soil erosion and city cooling via the arboreal canopy. These are by-products of photo-synthesis: climate restoration through the normal life cycle of trees. Raising in a place of extremes as New Orleans framed your vision of life, as well as ten years living on the border with Mexico changed your view of contemporary culture and our collective social responsibility. : How important was for you to draw from your personal experience, in order to create your artworks? And how does your daily life's experience fuel your creative process, in general? George Lorio: I always sought to express art which resonated with my experience and values. Growing up in a flamboyant city with multi‐cultural roots offered exciting challenges. Those childhood impressions of the public and private spaces linger with me today. The French Quarter (oldest part of New Orleans) was a site where the distant memory of the town could be appreciated. It was also area of license where any was possible. At the time of the “9/11” bombing of the Twin Towers, NYC, my sojourn as a professor at the University of Texas in Brownsville on the Mexican border altered my aesthetic. Viewing the ambient drug wars, the desperation of immigrants, and the collapsing Mexican democracy due to endemic political corruption and perceiving the curious lack of commitment for dialogue to offer solutions for the growing racial division, wealth inequality, and environmental decline in my own nation, I changed my insular focus of my art to embrace more topical issues. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW George Lorio Land
Spiral detail of interior
Bough Breaks
My creative activities are supported with my daily constructions of images related to my research of woodlands. It's important to mention that you taught art in four colleges and universities in various parts of the US for thirty-three years: did your work as a teacher influence you as a creative? In particular, did you ever draw inspiration from the creative process of your students? George Lorio: Art is a visual language. In all my art classes, I define this language as a process of establishing a dialogue first with oneself and then with the viewer. To articulate the language is to provide meaningful insights to the viewer via a work of art, a visual statement. Tapping the personal reservoir of experience and sensitivity affords the student/artist selfawareness and confidence. Grasping personal understanding, students produce works which scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW George Lorio Land Dryad Dryad
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validate the individual and, when shown, add to the discourse within the college community. I feel that art is not an elitist involvement but a tool within the process of self-development which is the core of liberal arts education. Because an art course is a vehicle of synthesis, the perceptions and skills which are acquired in other disciplines can mesh and mature during the concentration of image- making. Interacting with my students was mutually beneficial. I learned sensitivity to diversity. I taught mostly undergraduates both male and female from various ethnic, racial, and nationalistic origins. Frequently, I would ask for their comments on class content and, if I were showing my art in a local venue to which they attended, I encouraged discussion on their perception of the images. Over the years you had you artworks internationally featured in a number of group and solo exhibitions including your recent Dreams and Nightmares, at the Gallery Underground, Arlington VA: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? George Lorio: I use a narrative of social concern to engage dialogue. My sculptures convey my comments on ecological destruction and renewal. I wish to embolden my audience to demand change to prevent the further destruction of the very natural forces which supports all life on the planet. Protect our trees. As the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? George Lorio: Social media is a prevalent force for influencing and conveying information, both accurate and false. I participated in a concerted effort to convince members of minority communities in the United States to vote last year by altering two dimensional reproductions of my sculptures with inserted texts. These were provocative and representational, easily read at a distance, asserting the value of individuals casting a vote in the national election. They were broadcasted over social media platforms and printed and posted in communities. Activism is important. 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, George. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? George Lorio: I presently constructing more abstracted arboreal forms echoing my sojourns in the woods employing natural found materials. I remember a wonderful show, Marking the Infinite, contemporary Australian Aboriginal art mounted in the Phillips Collection (Washington, DC) in 2018: the vertically painted logs which were totem-like and the flattened bark surfaces embellished with patterning. That experience possibly influenced my embrace of found materials from nature (twigs, sticks and bark). Those works noted the artists’ cosmology; in contrast, my imagery is not as metaphysical but political in valuing trees and their function as agents of ecological replenishment. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW George Lorio Land An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
Hello Britnie and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.bnwart.com in order to get a wide idea about your multifaceted artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training and you hold a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art, that you received from the Goucher College, Towson: how did these formative years — as well as your studies in Greece — influence your evolution as an artist? Britnie Walston: Goucher College is a private liberal arts college, so it gave me a broad education and knowledge of art. There I studied painting, dark room photography, drawing, sculpture, and art history. I even had the opportunity to take an independent study course for painting, had my first solo exhibition, and a critique class in my last year of college. Studying Growing up near the Chesapeake Bay, my landscapes and abstract work as a whole, are inspired by the beauty of nature; often depicting the absence of human presence, liberation (“set free”) and freedom (“being free”). Though my diverse range of work requires different creative processes and mediums, they are all influenced by the same subject matter: freedom. In my landscapes, I portray the personality of nature through the use of exaggerated brushstrokes and abstract color. For example, using dramatic horizontal brushstrokes for a warm analogous red, yellow, and orange sunset sky. The water may follow with a gradient wash of blue to turquoise with a dappling of white paint for mist to capture the crashing waves. This creates a surreal paradise for the viewer to reflect, escape, and appreciate all the beauty that surrounds us. While my landscapes require a more traditional approach, my abstract work consists of a variety of unconventional techniques to capture elements of color and texture. My current body of work is created with acrylics through a method that never gives the same results twice. One of the most used techniques in my abstract paintings, is the method of mixing individual acrylic colors, floetrol, silicone, and water followed by a blow torch. Together, the chemical reaction creates cellular forms. I also achieve different results using household objects such as strainers, straws, and frosting spatulas to manipulate the design. Although this technique is methodical, it still possesses unknown mysterious results while creating exuberant energy throughout the composition. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Britnie Walston