We invite you to engage with the work of our resident artists by visiting The Fragile Power of Drawing - a virtual residency exhibition, presented as part of the 2020/21 Drawing Research Program. Join Hannah as she shares her research from her studio in Los Angeles, while virtually transporting us to the Paris studio-museums through this Q&A series with curator Rahma Khazam. How do you see the relation between your anatomical drawings and the work of Chana Orloff, Ossip Zadkine and Antoine Bourdelle? Chana Orloff, Ossip Zadkine, and Antoine Bourdelle all worked in the realms of figurative art which meant that they most likely had studied the human form extensively and also anatomically. As an educator I’m interested in how artists have historically learned their craft, and I find the best learning happens in an interdisciplinary practice. Even though these artists were working on creating the human exterior, in order to understand that one needs to understand what’s underneath the skin. There’s a good chance these artists studied the anatomy of the human body and drew it extensively in order to master figurative sculpting! Object in Inferior View (pink one in progress, blue is finished), Hannah Stahulak, 2021 While your work is realistic in nature, I like the way you've combined realism and abstraction. Could you talk about how you apply these ideas in these and other works of yours? And especially the tension between realism and abstraction?
I like balancing between the realms of realism and abstraction. Some people see my work as realistic and others have no idea what they are looking at (which I get a kick out of). When I was in school, I really struggled with which camp I fell into, and then realized I can be both. As a person I don’t feel like I’ve ever belonged in only one category, so why should my artwork? In terms of creating, I do usually start with a reference image (usually medical) of some kind. However I am selective with what I use in the reference image, it might only be a portion of an entire image. My drawings usually have no context or background either which can also leave them feeling abstract. I like leaving a lot up to the viewer, the idea I had going into a drawing does not need to be what the viewer gets out of it. I’ve valued artists like Georgia O'Keeffe whose references are from reality yet the viewer gets lost in what they are seeing. Abstract stems from realism, you’re choosing to change parts of it, you don’t need to lose the whole thing. What is special about drawing for you? Drawing is special for me in many ways, but I think the first thing that comes to mind is how drawing is built into every one of us. Some of our earliest records in history are drawn images. From when children are first given a pencil, they know what to do. Drawing is one of the most natural things I think we can do. I’ve always gotten so much satisfaction from drawing, it feels like home to me. It’s a way for me to process my world, my surroundings, my feelings, whether directly or indirectly. To know and love drawing is to have a deep level of connection to yourself and your surroundings. Drawing has in the past been overshadowed by mediums such as painting or sculpture, but it’s at the base of both those practices. I think all good artists have a solid foundation in drawing, because when you can draw you can create anything. About Hannah Stahulak Visit the exhibition online for more video and text conversations with the participating artists.
0 Comments
Our collaborative residency exhibition - Site Visit was a prompt for creating connections despite distance and separations, finding parallels and synchronicity between “visits” to the artworks of other artists presenting their own views. As part of its artist conversations series, Nicholas Hales from South Africa (2019 Resident) shared his views with Peggy Stevenson based in Chicago, USA (2020/21 Resident). Both Peggy and Nicholas’s artworks for Site Visit encapsulate a sense of quietness, solitude and perhaps even hopeful frustration. Each was confined within a room of their own, and chose to use it as the subject of their work. In Peggy’s images, she looks across and out towards the city she has grown to know so well, and in Nicholas’s video piece he puzzles through the light patterns and days passing in his accommodation in Paris when he was too ill to leave it. Both gazing objectively at the scene before them and inwardly confronting the conflict of being unable to leave. In Peggy and Nicholas’s conversation that follows, some of these questions and crossovers become evident and we get to visit the sites of their thinking.
Nicholas: There was something ‘calm and meditative’ for me when I saw your ‘Lonely but Safe’ work. The dark greens and rich olive colours gave me a sense of ‘winter’ and going into hibernation. I’m a fairly introverted person and felt lockdown was going to be like doing a ‘retreat’. And in some ways I welcomed the time to become quiet and ‘retreat’ from the world. So I was interested that you titled it, ‘Lonely but safe’.
Peggy: I very much like your initial comments on “Lonely but Safe”. It was (and still is) a very unusual time to be a street photographer, and although much of my work takes place by its very nature “outside”, I also welcomed the time for sheltering in place and keeping safe. Like you, I’m actually very introverted and putting myself out on the streets and capturing city life as I see it still requires a certain mental preparation for the attention I might receive as a result. While I welcome and build connections with people if I am photographing them, my first instinct is to always try to capture a moment without people being aware in order to capture their more real expressions. To me, this is always the beginning of a “story” and my work has always been driven by the need to discover what that is and to tell it in the best way that I can.
Nicholas: I’d like to hear your thoughts on the effects on a ‘global lockdown’, individually and collectively. In my work I’m interested in the process of going ‘inward’ and the transformation possibilities of what I felt in lockdown. Your ‘street’ photography seems a lot about connection to people and a city. What was lockdown like for you, as we went into ‘interior’ spaces, both literally and figuratively? How did that affect you and your creative practice? Peggy: As the pandemic was raging on, along with the numerous protests that swept through the country after the death of George Floyd, the images I ended up photographing from inside my living room weren’t necessarily “street photography”. We’re now in a semi lockdown again because of the recent surge in the virus. I appreciate that you called my place calm and meditative -- I did end up writing more, and drawing and painting during the lockdown. I guess these were more therapeutic than anything. I have also picked up my film camera again just to find something new-ish to do. Nicholas: I will look forward to seeing how your work develops, particularly as a ‘street’ photographer in a pandemic, where public spaces have become a rather contentious space. It is really interesting that you are actually quite an introverted person and you have to prepare yourself when you go out to take your ‘street’ photographs, as you interact with your subjects. Sometimes when we put ourselves in uncomfortable positions it forces us to grow. Peggy: I agree that growth is indeed uncomfortable when we plunge ourselves into something new, where we’re not completely in control. There’s a different kind of energy driving the work— but I also think that’s where much of the kernels of your ‘true’ art, or if you like, your true self, emerges and flows. I watched your video "The Bedroom and the Spring" and I really liked the format you chose, and I particularly liked the voice and pacing. There was something almost poetic about it. How did you decide on this approach to interpreting the theme Site Visit? I liked how you turned your being ill into the story and that Paris and the residency became more of a side note. I especially liked the images in the ending where you created a kind of ghostly movement in the room. I'm really interested in your process of selection and ultimately what inspires you to create. Do you see yourself as a storyteller? Does the written word dictate your art? Or does it grow alongside… Nicholas: This ‘narrative’ storytelling aspect is something new in my visual art. I guess there is an overlap in our works, as your street photography and your ‘interior’ photographs are windows into an unfolding story. I’m always interested when we see an individual image, how we create a story in our minds. Sometimes close or widely different from the ‘truth’. About 9 years ago I did a screenwriting program. I’ve written a number of scripts over the years but this is the first time I used narrative storytelling in my visual art. It was a fun project to incorporate these two aspects of my creative work. I had the initial story in my mind. Getting sick before I left for Paris and then being sick in Paris and watching the residency slip away while in bed, waiting to get better and then having two really great experiences near the end of my time in France, once I got better. The drawing workshop and then the trip to Lourdes. In screenwriting there is a process whereby your protagonist has a ‘want’ and a ‘need’. The want is what he or she wants from a particular situation. The need is something they need but they are often unaware of this in themselves. Often in a film a protagonist gets their need met but not their want. I was kind of playing with that concept in this piece. The ‘ghostly’ images was a visual metaphor for the process of being confined in a room, being sick and the process of getting better. There are some overlaps with the present global lockdown and the pandemic. Peggy: It’s very interesting to see what went into your creative process. I liked that there was an element of discovery for yourself, being in Paris but unable to do the thing you were there for, and then to go into these other experiences that pushed your creative output in a new direction. I really liked your discussion on what people want as opposed to what they need and how these things unfold in ways we don’t expect. I was born and raised in Manila, the Philippines, a city very different in climate and culture of Chicago. It wasn't easy to adjust and much of what I set out to do was simply to try and capture the feelings of “being here” as compared to “being there” and slowly, the story grew. One of the happy discoveries I made for myself was that the feelings of connection I built through the years of this practice eventually helped connect me to the city in a deeper, more personal way. I selected my photos for Site Visit with this in my mind—a sort of short story featuring the city as the main character experiencing something out of the ordinary. Of course I am also the unseen character in the stories, since I am the one 'fleshing' out the city. On that note, I was really hoping to dedicate my time in Paris to figuring out how to step inside its essence and learning more, not just about Paris or people but also myself and how I might be inspired in new, unexpected ways. Hopefully we’re nearing the end of this global pandemic and we can safely travel again soon. Nicholas: You mentioned that you have picked up your film camera. Interested to know what camera you have? What are you filming? I’m working on a ‘film’ piece but entirely created ‘digitally’. It is an installation piece which I thought I would try and create but with lockdown and less money around felt a digital version fitted the zeitgeist a bit better. Peggy: I decided to take a different tack photography-wise, by going back to film and shooting with much more deliberation. I was referring to my old SLR camera and have started using it again, instead of my DSLR. I embraced the DSLR and loved how liberating it was not to mind the end of the roll. But, after years of working this way, I’m trying to figure out my way back to creating work that speaks more authentically for me right now, and possibly lead me down a new path in creating connections between images and stories. I’m sure it has a lot to do with the virus and the lockdowns, and the distances separating all of us. Anyway, I dug out my old canon EOS Elan II (for black and white) and an old Minolta for color film… I’d be very interested to see your installation piece when it’s finished! I like installation pieces particularly for their story hidden inside the piece— I’m always curious to know what the piece is saying to me and to the world and what it made me think of. Finally, I came across this the other day and I thought I’d share it with you: “The basic project of art is always to make the world whole and comprehensible, to restore it to us in all its glory and its occasional nastiness, not through argument but through feeling, and then to close the gap between you and everything that is not you, and in this way pass from feeling to meaning. It’s not something that committees can do. It’s not a task achieved by groups or by movements. It’s done by individuals, each person mediating in some way between a sense of history and an experience of the world.”— Robert Hughes, The Shock of the New. Does this resonate with you too? Do you have any particular artists or writers you go back to again and again? I was greatly influenced by seeing the works of Walker Evans and I look at his work when I feel in need of inspiration... Nicholas: I resonate with what you said about ‘feeling’ and Hughes quote. My work is driven by ‘feeling’, I have a thematic framework that I know I’m investigating but then let things flow within those lines. A lecturer once told me to create a conceptual frame, like two railway tracks and then let things flow between the two tracks. I try to just let my feelings flow and see what the subconscious brings up. What I’m drawn to and what resonates with what I’m investigating. I liked Hughes' quote but I’m always slightly distrustful of anyone saying, this is what art is about or this is what art should be doing. We all are so different and unique. I’ve more gone for ‘Art is life’ and that really encompasses everything. Peggy: I agree with you in regard to quotes as a mere guidepost in your own personal expression of your art—and that it’s all part of the process. I’ve really enjoyed talking about creating and the creative practice, as well as the exchanges we've had on each other’s work—it's not often you get a one on one chance to connect with another artist from a different part of the globe and have a discussion like this! See all the Site Visit works on Artland Read other blog posts or head over to our IGTV and Vimeo channels for artists in conversation by Valentina Eyzaguirre, Chile / United Kingdom (2019 Resident) Experiences charge already known objects and places with new meaning. That is what happened to the knowledge I had of the colour ultramarine blue, specifically of the International Klein Blue version, while participating in L’AiR Arts residency program. There, in Montparnasse, where that particular version was created, it struck me in an intense way, as if I was seeing it for the very first time. Suddenly I was noticing it all around Paris, breathing the idea behind Yves Klein’s spiritual pursuit through his colour blue. I have been a victim of that hypnotic blue hue... Does it have something to reveal to me, to us, to art? Something that I set myself to find out, and in the process I have been using ultramarine blue pigment to paint monochromes on paper, which I glue together and pierce afterwards. The shape of those holes represent organs. Abstract ultramarine blue organs made out of layers of torn paper. That blue is the vehicle with which to navigate into yourself. That blue is the colour of home. Blue is indeed the colour of our world. Blue is the colour of the sea and the sky. Blue represents the infinite and the great beyond. Blue is a sacred colour. Blue is the colour of memory, of dreams, of nostalgia. Paris est Bleu series, Valentina Eyzaguirre for Site Visit exhibition
Clare Patrick, our Site Visit exhibition curator, chatted with Henrietta MacPhee based in London, UK (Arts Research Residency 2019) and Chris Lashbrook from Toronto, Canada (Photography Research Residency 2020/21) about the similarities in their approaches to material and dimensionality. Artists reflect on their experiences of participating in Site Visit and of the importance of residency programmes. Henrietta MacPhee’s practice is centered in clay. Modelling by hand and painting on the clay she creates a language that blends the visual and tangible to create entertaining illusions and a sense of complexity that traverses the border between 2D and 3D. She portrays scenes of poetic tenderness and humour, interweaving metaphors for embracing life’s diversity of peoples and their cultures. It is playful, representing an innocent yet thought provoking relationship with the material form. Chris Lashbrook trained in analogue processes and was taught to love black and white film. He has a passion for contrast and the intense tones of gray available through the analogue medium. Since embracing the power of this combination in the digital world he has also developed a love for the subtleness and richness of contrast in colour. Bringing together artists in collaboration from around the world, Site Visit has been an opportunity for artists to connect across physical distances and foster new connections and collaborations. In our Artists in Conversations series, it has been wonderful to make these interactions available for the public to engage with too! Clare Patrick: When you think of Site Visit, what comes to mind? Chris Lashbrook: Site Visit during COVID makes me think of near and far, across the world from my backyard, Bev Butkow’s interconnected web of disparate dots, of art, place, people, light, dark, contrast, dreams & realities through a shattered looking glass, change and transition over time (even over the course of minutes/hours/days/months/year and changing light) Henrietta MacPhee: Individual and shared experiences of visiting a place and connecting with people. I made a piece that relates to a memorable moment shared with you Clare of our visit to the Quai Branley museum at night and the Eiffel tower lighting up our way, a spectacle experienced by many who get a chance to visit Paris. I was totally entranced by the lights of the Eiffel tower and my ceramic triptych for Site Visit is meant to be viewed in a sequence so that it gives an impression of movement, and the twinkling lights as your eye moves across and detects the differences. For me it’s all about the action of making art, sculpting, throwing, painting glazing and firing, then I’m immediately moving on to the next project. When the work is finished, the motivation has gone, the work is complete and the dust falls. In fact, some of my ceramic pieces are designed to move, by rocking or swinging or turning to keep the dust from settling. CL: I was fascinated by your comments about dust in regards to your triptych - on one hand, stagnant and on the other shimmering. Dust is also cumulative, living and mobile (wipe it off? blow it away?) and how it appears to add to the sense of movement on the surface as you move it. Dust would also travel with the object and thus take/share a piece of the local environment wherever it goes. CP: Where is the first place you'd like to go once travel is allowed again? CL: Paris the L’AiR Arts Residency. Then I’ll tack on a trek in the Swiss Alps. HM: I would love to go to Mexico, for the colour and the traditional arts. I’d like to see artists making the tree of life sculptures and ex-voto paintings. While I was doing the L’AIR Arts residency I saw some exhibited at the Outsider Art Fair. CL: How was the L’AiR Arts residency Henrietta? HM: It was such a brilliant experience. I went in October 2019 as part of the Art Research residency. We had a full schedule of studio visits, historical walks, art fairs and discussions with artists and curators. I ran a clay workshop at an international school, I joined a ceramic studio and worked on my plein air ceramic painting project. Mila is a brilliant host and will help you navigate your art practise in the city. Paris is magical, you will love it. CL: This will be my first residency. I am totally self-taught and a year ago I would never have imagined that I would be doing a residency at all, let alone in Paris. HM: This is my second residency, I went to Shanghai in 2018. Both opportunities have given me a wealth of ideas for future work and I have made some lifelong friends and connections with other artists. They have also pushed me out of my comfort zone by being given the opportunity to talk about my work to the public. My career hasn’t been straightforward either and it took me some time to get on the right path. I wasn’t encouraged to study art and I read Classical Studies at university. The ceramics began as a weekly evening class after work. My enthusiasm grew and eventually I decided to do a ceramics diploma and now my passion for clay and the process of making art has completely taken over. CL: It's almost as though we have both arrived at our destination now, a place we have envisioned but has taken some time to get there which is all part of the Site Visit, our creative vision. It's like we arrived at “Destination Artist” by different yet similar routes. And yet, one can never truly “arrive” as an artist …… CP: What is your favourite memory of sending or receiving a postcard? CL: The best postcard I ever sent was a 13-page custom one made up of stories and sketches as a friend and I drove from Winnipeg to Vancouver. The letter included poems, drawings, time checks, cigarette breaks, food stops – i.e a real-time, moving travel log. HM: That’s a great idea, a postcard can capture a moment as well as multiple moments on the journey. The movement of the postcard is part of the story. I remember sending a postcard to myself designed to engage the postman. The postcard was a portrait of a person with a long fringe and he had to lift the fringe to see the address. Much of my work is made to be interactive and playful. CL: Yes, the marks of the traveling, passed between hands or sorted through machines. Even the postal workers play a role and leave their marks. As part of Site Visit project I sent an aluminium postcard to Mila in Paris and can’t wait to see the impact the mailing system has on it. CP: Could you tell us a bit more about how you arrived at the ways you use the materials of your chosen mediums in unexpected ways? Chris, you print your images onto interesting surfaces, challenging the idea of a ‘pristine print’ and encouraging the print and the surface to have a relationship that informs the final work. Henrietta, your work plays with dimension and illusion on ceramics in unexpected ways. What prompted each of you to work in this way? CL: I like to explore the use of unique material combinations in both the image itself and the mounting & framing materials. This is something I learned when working with architects in my previous home renovation business. The use of thin “reveals” and hard/sharp edges to establish depth and crispness are essential for defining the beginning and end of an image. Using Fibonacci proportions also results in an emotionally relaxing and pleasing finished image – unbeknownst to the viewer, the math works its magic on the soul to complete the picture. I’m actually partially colour blind so the geometry of an image really matters to me when shooting and when framing & mounting a finished image. The space, depth, borders and shadows around the photograph give the final image room to breathe and to stand out. I’ve recently been experimenting with raw aluminium panels as a printing medium using a die-sublimation process. The aluminium is very thin and rigid and has hard, sharp edges. The raw version of the material also has an interesting side benefit to a colour photo. The metal finish replaces the white of the original file and gives the photo a unique look. I used this with one of the postcards from the Site Visit project and mailed it so the mail processing system can add an unmanaged and unique patina to each of the individual finished postcards. The aluminium is paramount to the effect. I have a large assortment of images shot through shattered glass so the sharp edges of the random fractures in the glass serve 2 purposes – to diffract the overall image and add a query about “what is that?” and to still retain multiple points of sharpness in front of the blurred image. A sharp image is still really important to me so I don’t print on highly textured materials, as this tends to soften the final product. HM: I am interested in what I see in the world around me, the ordinary and the extraordinary, which is everywhere when you re-look. I record ideas in quick sketches, notes and photos. These things usually mull in my mind for a while and get mixed up with my other memories. In the studio, I find clay to be a very versatile material. I get a sense of alchemy and risk when working with it and firing it in the kiln. It has captivated me and kept me on a long journey of investigation. I was introduced to the idea of sculpture a few years ago by a studio colleague and the process has been intuitive since then. I sometimes combine a sculpted form with the flat surface of a more abstract form on which I later paint to join in a gently trompe l’oeil style. Painting is - really the essence for me, it is the process that draws everything together. I like looking at different surfaces such as textiles, wall paintings and ancient pottery to consider different ways to depict a story on a 3d form. Combining the visual and tangible language to create a sense of illusion, requires the viewers participation in the work to complete it. I hope they get a sense of delight from the piece just as I do while making it. CP: What is a lesson you've appreciated learning during lockdown? CL: The challenges of closeness vs isolation – don’t confuse the 2 because they are both as mental as they are physical. The mirage of touch and the value of physical sensation. The veil through the looking glass (broken/shattered) HM: Creating space and how important this is to me. Getting rid of unnecessary things, moving to a larger studio, making space in order to create new work. Tending to my mental and physical space, to live and create. Creating space in a world when we are feeling closed in. Site Visit has opened the channels somewhat and it's amazing to be having this conversation now!
|
keep in Touch!News and resources shared on this community platform are meant to further the engagement, stimulate active thinking, and create pathways for knowledge transfer and cross-cultural exchange. Archives
November 2023
CategoriesCover Image: L'AiR Arts residents, Multidisciplinary Program, January 2020
|