rivkah young
DüSSELDORF WEEK continues here at CHEAP & PLASTIQUE Headquarters (still very very very excited about the announcement of the 8 Kraftwerk shows at MOMA in April—and I shall persevere in getting tickets, OH YES I will)!
Also equally excited to be showing the work of Düsseldorf-based artist Rivkah Young (which arrived from Germany today!) at the Cheap & Plastique booth at the upcoming Fountain Art Fair during Armory Arts Week in NYC, March 9 — 11.
Cheap & Plastique interviewed Rivkah for Issue 7 back in 2008. Since the interview a few things have changed, Rivkah has ventured to New York, we met, sipped red wine and ate delicious steaks together on a rooftop in Brooklyn, and had some nice chats about photography and life.
C & P: Where are you currently living?
Rivkah: Düsseldorf, Germany
C & P: Where did you grow up?
Rivkah: Cologne, Germany
C & P: Were you a creative youth? Did you imagine that you would be an artist/photographer in adulthood?
Rivkah: Yes, sort of.
C & P: How long have you been taking and exhibiting photographs?
Rivkah: I started using a SLR about 12 years ago. My first exhibition was in 1999, as part of an annual university-exhibition at the Zeche Zollverein in Essen, Germany. My first group exhibition at a gallery was in 2001, at the Galerie Lichtblick in Cologne, Germany.
C & P: What do you like most about living in Düsseldorf?
Rivkah: The Kuenstlerkarte, it’s a card for artists, which enables free admission for museums in Düsseldorf.
C & P: Least?
Rivkah: Miserable bikeways, cab drivers and karneval.
C & P: It is a city that has produced many great photographers. Does being in Düsseldorf inspire your work?
No.
C & P: How do you feel about the legend of Bernd and Hilla Becher?
Rivkah: I most appreciate that they never gave up.
C & P: Has the Becher’s, or any of the Becher’s student’s, work influenced you?
Rivkah: Not in first case. Joerg Sasse influenced me. He used to be my teacher/professor at the university.
C & P: Where did you study photography?
Rivkah: No I studied Communication Design at the University of Essen-Duisburg in Essen, Germany. (Prof. Joerg Sasse left the University last year.)
C & P: Has anyone that you have studied with influenced your photographic style or your personal philosophy?
Rivkah: I could never stand any form of educational institution, they kind of bored me. I ditched school as well as the university always up to the limit. I already preferred to watch Tarantula or The Wizard of Oz during my elementary schooling.
Nevertheless I did learn a lot at the university, because I was surrounded by very professional people. I met the artist Wolfgang Zurborn, a photographer from Cologne, before I started to study. We were cruisin’ around and had very interesting discussions about photography and art. At the university I first studied with Prof. Bernhard Prinz, a portrait-artist from Hamburg. In addition I had discourses about contemporary art and photography with Prof. Dr. Herta Wolf. During my main study period, I worked intensely with Prof. Joerg Sasse. He was a great teacher and I received my diploma as he finished his last professorship semester at the university; we left the university together. I think they all influenced my photographic style, not my personal philosophy. The most important thing about them was that they made me feel confident, personally, as well as an artist. They never told me what to do, but always made me scrutinize my decisions.
And finally my friend Peter Wildanger. I met him during his final study period. I’m sure, that he has influenced and pushed me the most, and he still does.
C & P: You most often shoot architectural structures/interiors, as do many German photographers, do you think there is a reason why so many contemporary photographers are drawn to this subject matter in their work?
Rivkah: Architectural structures exhibit tracks of visions, contemporaneity, history, transitoriness and change. It is interesting to observe, which materials were used in a certain period. How does this material look after some years? After 10-15 years? Which vision of future was interpreted architecturally? What connection do urbane architecture and film scenery have? Is there one? These are exciting questions which I deliberate on. I’m interested in architectural scenery, in urban areas as well as in leisure facilities. Thinking back to the 80s, there were these cosmos themes at leisure parks: rockets, martians or space stations, and they are all gone today.
C & P: I noticed that the titles of your images are numbers. What do the numbers in your titles refer to, if anything?
Rivkah: They avoid prescribed interpretations.
C & P: Do you shoot with a digital SLR camera or with a film camera?
Rivkah: I shoot with a digital SLR.
C & P: Do you use the computer as a tool when creating your photographs?
Rivkah: Yes. The taken picture is a sketch, an idea. Similar to paintings, one could compare it to a pre-drawing on a canvas. I have a quite exact idea of how the pictures should look, the colours and the composition. The motives of my images relate to uncertain visual ideas, fragments from my recollection of movies, magazines, or picture sequences, which originate while I’m reading. All of this is mixed together in my imagination. That is what I try to gain and therefore I’m using digital tools.
C & P: The color in your images is often very saturated, do you manipulate or enhance the color in the darkroom or on the computer?
Rivkah: I prefer to take pictures at noon, with a blue sky, sunlight, lots of pretty clouds and saturated colours.
C & P: Also, most of your pictures are people-free, which makes them feel somewhat artificial, a bit like abandoned movie sets, do you use any Photoshop tools to remove people from the pictures? Do you deliberately strive for a feeling of artificiality when composing shots and choosing subject matter?
Rivkah: I like the moment of rest and factitiousnes arising from it. I prefer scenery where many people pass or sojourn, transferring these to discrete rooms. The displayed scenery appears as deserted, abstract rooms with no dimension. Separated from the concrete relation to their environment, the architectural constructedness becomes visible.
C & P: Do you feel that there is a lot of new, interesting photographic work being created in Germany right now? How about artwork in other mediums?
Rivkah: There are many things going on at Düsseldorf. There is the Kunstakademie on one hand, quite present and successful. On the other hand there are exciting art projects, for example the Das Boehm project, an artistic photo magazine from Katja Struke and Oliver Sieber. Then there is the municipal culture office of Düsseldorf, which promotes different artists and art intensely: cheap studios, exhibitions, projects, and the Kuenstlerkarte, all promoted by the town. This is unique, I think. Nevertheless, Düsseldorf is a small town and that may be the reason why many artist move to Berlin, London, or other big cities. I may move to Berlin next year too…
C & P: Do you shoot in Düsseldorf or do you usually travel elsewhere to capture your images?
Rivkah: I prefer to travel.
C & P: How do you scout out locations for your future photo series? Do you research places to go on the internet? Do people tell you about places that you may find of interest? Or do you randomly travel somewhere with the hope of finding something interesting to shoot there?
Rivkah: I do research for buildings on the internet, in newspapers, magazines, or movies. Mostly when I have a certain idea in mind. Sometimes somebody tells me about a location, but this happens much too infrequently. In addition, I like to choose a place or a city, travel there and wander (dérive) around with my camera. Preferably I like the combination of a researched location as a starting point to wander around.
C & P: What is your favorite architectural movement/style?
Rivkah: My favorite architectural movement and style is the period of the Bauhaus. I would move to one of the Meisterhaeuser in Dessau immediately.
Beyond that, concerning my photographs, all that has no ornaments and was built after the 19th century, inspires me. The architecture of the post-war period is quite interesting: the Hansa-Viertel and the Gropiusstadt in Berlin or single buildings like the Evoluon in Eindhoven, Netherlands. There is also a kind of affinity to the socialist style. As a child, me and my family used to travel to former Yugoslavia every summer to visit my family. Therefore, I like Berlin and feel confident when I’m there, because all of these different styles are located there. This is indeed unique. It is a pleasure to take photos in Berlin and to explore the town. Although Berlin is full of life and creativity, I know no other German town with as much construction, gaps, and margin holes, Berlin is somehow like a gigantic memorial too.
C & P: Do you have a day job or are you a full time photographer?
Rivkah: Currently, I’m working for a local press photographer. It’s funny, because this is the complete opposite of my workflow. I work really slow and it takes a long time until I can finally say I finished an image.
C & P: Do you have an art studio or a space that you dedicate to your photographic practice?
Rivkah: My whole flat is my studio. There are images scattered around, not even one is pinned on the wall.
C & P: Do you ever take on commercial photography projects?
Rivkah: No, hardly ever.
C & P: Do you have any interest in making images in the US?
Rivkah: Yes, of course. My favorites: New York, Las Vegas, Boston, Miami, Arcosanti and Celebration. Hope to travel there soon.
C & P: What artists do you admire? Past? Contemporary?
Rivkah: Past: Henry Matisse and Claude Monet. One of his paintings made me cry from the beauty and all of the colours while I was visiting the exhibition Bonjour Russland in Düsseldorf. And Eugène Atget for his huge documentation of a changing Paris.
Contemporary: Cindy Sherman, Stephen Shore, Gerhard Richter’s Betty and Damien Hirst. Mary J. Blige, Kraftwerk and Madonna.
C & P: Is there an art historical movement that you relate to or wish you had been part of?
Rivkah: No, not really.
C & P: What people / places / things inspire you?
Rivkah: Peter Wildanger. Urban surroundings, summer time, reading books, watching science-fiction movies and going to the museum.
C & P: What could you imagine doing, if you didn’t do what you do?
Rivkah: I would be Alexandra Owens from Flashdance.
C & P: Where can we see your portfolio website?
Rivkah: Here.
peter wildanger
It is officially DüSSELDORF WEEK here at CHEAP & PLASTIQUE Headquarters with the announcement of 8, YES 8!!!, Kraftwerk shows at MOMA in April!
Cheap & Plastique interviewed Düsseldorf-based artist Peter Wildanger for Issue 7 back in 2008. Since the interview a few things have changed, Peter has been to NYC now and I had the pleasure of meeting him during his visit.
Peter will be showing at the Cheap & Plastique booth at the upcoming Fountain Art Fair during Armory Arts Week in NYC, March 9 — 11.
C & P: Where are you currently living? And where did you grow up?
Peter: I grew up and currently reside in Düsseldorf, Germany.
C & P: Were you a creative youth?
Peter: At 14 I dyed my hair pink, began to consume drugs and smash shop windows. In the early 80’s this might have been an expression of creativity.
C & P: Did you imagine that you would be an artist/photographer in adulthood?
Peter: I never would have thought back then that I would grow up. I am actually still working on it.
C & P: How long have you been taking and exhibiting photographs? What drew you to the medium and why did you choose to pursue it seriously?
Peter: I began seriously taking photographs at around the age of 16, as the world seemed so strange to me that I wanted to hold on to every moment. To keep things in mind was my main inducement. Later came the question about what I am actually making and how things change when they are transferred into a picture. Currently, the posing of these questions is the decisive impetus of my work and photography seems to me the ideal medium for that.
C & P: What do you like most about living in Düsseldorf?
Peter: Life is quite relaxing here.
C & P: It is a city that has produced many great photographers. Does being in Düsseldorf inspire your work?
Peter: I would not attribute my inspiration to the city and its prominent photographers, rather to my colleagues with whom I live and work.
C & P: How do you feel about the legend of Bernd and Hilla Becher? Has their work influenced you?
Peter: I think at the time they simply photographed what interested them without a prearranged, complicated concept. It is nice to think that out of this a theme developed that they worked on for a lifetime. There is something very reassuring in that.
C & P: What about the work of their students? Is there one that you particularly identify with (Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Jörg Sasse, others)?
Peter: Identification is too strong a word. There is work that I appreciate, for example der Rhein, by Andreas Gursky or the Grenoble-Block by Jörg Sasse.
C & P: Do you see these photographers around town? Is there a place where all of the Düsseldorf photographers meet up to share a beer?
Peter: There are places where artists meet, such as the Mikrogalerie. Generally, Düsseldorf is a “private” city, which means apart from public events there are rather smaller circles and group exchange.
C & P: You most often shoot architectural structures/interiors, as many German photographers do, do you think there is a reason why so many contemporary photographers are drawn to this subject matter in their work?
Peter: I can only answer that question for myself. I am not so interested in an adequate display of a concrete building. In that sense I am not an “architecture photographer”. But as a “city kid”, my perceptional abilities have been calibrated by the urban space. So I have a precise idea of dimension, proportion and coloration. I “know” what color bricks are or how big an air conditioner is in a yard. But there is a great potential for confusion in this prior knowledge when it is confronted with pictures. Things change then. It is at this point that we begin to be astonished.
C & P: Has anyone that you studied with influenced your photographic style or your personal philosophy?
Peter: At the University in Essen, the city in which I studied, a very special climate of exchange and cooperation between the students ruled. One can say that it was not so much individual persons, but the voice of the whole that influenced my work. One can also see how close the relationships built at the University were, in that we formed a group there that continues to exist years after our studies. This combination of competition and working together is still very productive.
C & P: Did you study photography at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art? Is this where Jörg Sasse teaches?
Peter: I studied at the University of Essen. The program at the time was called (and renamed last year) Folkwang. Jörg Sasse taught there from 2003 to 2007.
C & P: I noticed that the titles of your images are numbers. What do the numbers in your titles refer to, if anything?
Peter: Titles of my pictures serve only as identification. Using abstract titles, I want to avoid offering a context for the work. Looking at a picture, particularly a photograph, one is immediately compelled to name that which one sees. There is the danger that one does not perceive the impression itself, rather this descriptive appellation. That is an obstacle that is necessary to overcome in order to open up the view. Somehow an illustrative title would make this more difficult.
C & P: Do you shoot with a digital SLR camera or with a film camera?
Peter: For many years I have been taking pictures solely with digital SLRs. This is more of a practical than an ideological decision. It’s important for my work to produce a huge stock of images at first. The raw material for the work process are snapshots. I take approximately 15,000 pictures in a year. About 10,000 undergo light computer editing. It would not be possible for me to accomplish such an amount with an analog camera. But the question of analog versus digital is, as I said, not a principle. For some time I have combed through the purely analog Archive of the Ruhrland Museums with great interest. And some of my work is based on old, analog pictures.
C & P: Do you use the computer as a tool when creating your photographs?
Peter: Yes, the computer is a tool that makes my work possible. The first step of the workflow is sorting the images in a databank. A relational databank is not only a way to order images, but also an instrument of perception or cognition. It is interesting, for example, to collect all pictures with street lights. You realize that there is an unbelievable amount of different models. The world seems suddenly so rich. Then you can set up subcategories, lights in the country, in the city, in other countries, etc. Thus a synchrony is generated allowing to search for patterns and structures that else wouldn’t be discovered. Another possibility is to set up abstract categories, such as sorting by color, proportion, layers and so on. And for instance suddenly a reddish golden brick wall appears next to a picture of a bull fighting arena with golden yellow sand. This is helpful in order to overcome the motif, the purely descriptive comprehension of pictures. And then the gaze remains fixed on a particular picture and there are no more words left to explain this amazement.
After the selection process is carried out, I try, to extract that which captivated my gaze. It is difficult to grasp this purely visual process with words. Thereby we would lose exactly what this work constitutes, that which is not comprehended in words falls away. Working at the computer basically is like taking a picture of a picture of a picture.
C & P: When looking at your images it seems that space, scale, color and light are all very important to you. Do you strive to create very graphic images?
Peter: Although there’s the same expression in German I am not sure what a “graphic image” is supposed to be. A constructed picture? Or a picture whose linear movement is in the foreground? An abstract or somehow clean image? During the process of creating the image, a series of questions is produced in relation to space and proportion, color and light. On one hand I need to have full control of the image in order to come to the point, but on the other hand it’s important to grant sufficient space to random-elements that always emerge in pictures. In this respect the editing process is always a balancing act. Understanding “graphic image” as a term which relates to another artificial media sounds a bit like constructing a hierarchic relation between photography and graphic art. However, I think there are far more points of reference to different artistic medias than just that one. For example, often I ask myself sculptural questions, perhaps, how the spatial experience of a three dimensional object in a picture is reproduced, or what is visible from a specific position. Summing up the finished work is a result of a multiplicity of decisions; there is nothing done in a predetermined style.
C & P: The color in your images is often very saturated, do you manipulate or enhance the color in the darkroom or on the computer? Do you try to shoot against grey skies purposely to make the color of the subjects pop?
The world is still more colorful. The color space at the photographers disposal is pathetically small. But within these constrictive limits is color on an abstract layer, that stands in relation to the expectation of the viewer. It can fulfill or disappoint; it can also create wonderment: when shadows are blue, then they are blue. The coloration is always a decision that I make from image to image. I have also created a series of images with very quiet color.
Peter: The question about the sky in conjunction to color is very interesting. In the real world the sky is the vastest observable space. Everyone that has stood on a beach before the ocean and over it the deep blue, cloudless and limitless sky, was probably overwhelmed by it and took a picture of it. At home you then have a small photo in your hands with three stripes: the yellow-gray of the sandy beach, a blue-grey sea and the blue-white sky. There are few flatter pictorial spaces as a cloudless sky in a photograph. That this is often grey is the product of the European climate!
C & P: Also, most of your pictures are people-free, which makes them feel somewhat artificial, a bit like abandoned movie sets, do you use any Photoshop tools to remove people from the pictures?
Peter: Rarely, but it has come up. It is important to me to control the spatial and time disposition. I arrange how concretely an image is associated to a time and place. I like to have the opportunity of confusion and the resulting opening of perception. When people appear in pictures often they “obstruct” the view. There takes place a very rapid classification. However, not showing people in the pictures is not some basic principle to which I adhere.
C & P: Do you feel that there is a lot of new, interesting photography being created in Düsseldorf right now?
Peter: Yes, lately there has been a series of very interesting work in the field that comes from former students of Jörg Sasse.
C & P: Do you shoot in Düsseldorf or do you usually travel elsewhere to capture your images?
Peter: Both Düsseldorf and abroad. One picture of my Zanzibar series taken from my kitchen window. Another is from Quito, Ecuador. The territory of my work is very sweeping.
C & P: How do you scout out locations for your future photo series? Do you research places to go on the internet? Do people tell you about places that you may find of interest? Or do you randomly travel somewhere with the hope of finding something interesting to shoot there?
Peter: Actually I only have to take my camera in hand to make a picture. However I do research as well and the research is a motivation to locate a specific place. But it often happens that idea of a new picture is not made in this location, rather along the journey.
C & P: What is your favorite architectural movement/style? I love Berlin because I love the mix of architectural styles there, from super contemporary and modern, to communist-influenced GDR, to more classical, Baroque. Do you find that most German cities have this mix of styles? Which architectural style are you most attracted to for photographic purposes?
Peter: In Berlin the difference in building culture between the two former German countries is naturally quite apparent. A vision of “modern” life was developed here also, at least for a time, roughly the “Hansaviertel”. I like it also very much. In other German cities the extent to which the building styles have been mixed depends upon the degree of destruction in the Second World War. One can stroll through the central part of Hamburg and only see the chic, renovated old buildings from the Wilhelminian style. Conversely, Köln or Düsseldorf are strongly marked by post-war architecture.
For my work I cannot say that there is a particular building style that interests me. Of late it is more important to me to ask how the present time will be remembered in 50 years. What will be forgotten, what remains waiting to be recorded in images?
C & P: Did you travel to Zanzibar to shoot the “Sansibar” series? Did you explore the Michenzani area while you were there? Were you interested in Zanzibar because of the East German tower blocks constructed there in the 1970’s and the contrast between this area and the more tourist friendly Stone Town?
Peter: It is interesting that you are aware of the GDR buildings. Very few know about them and that a relationship existed between Tanzania and the GDR. It is strange that the GDR is relegated to history in Europe, but survives in Zanzibar, museum-like. I would, for example, be interested to know if the faucets or the light switches came from the GDR and what happens when these parts break. Are there still original replacement parts or is there a special post-socialstic style evolved?
As I visited Zanzibar, I found that the apartments are highly sought after and that the neighborhood is thought of as a good place to live. It is funny that tourists are drawn to the old city, with the notion of experiencing the “real Zanzibar”. What will happen in 200 years, assuming that the GDR buildings are conserved for so long? Will they also become a tourist attraction?
What led me to name my work “Zanzibar” is the fact that most people have already heard the name of this island once. Actually, everyone knows “Zanzibar”. But few know were the island really is or that it all has to do with an island off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. So “Zanzibar” is one of these strange words that remains diffuse by association. And that is a good starting point for my work.
C & P: Are the images for the “Innen-Aussen” series taken in the same area or are they grouped together based on other factors?
Peter: The series “Inside-Outside” begins chronologically before “Zanzibar”. The images are composed of different locations, amongst others around Köln, Berlin, and Nijmegen. My interest referred to (and could still be considered to be) the borderline between a very limited enclosed space and a potentially unlimited environment. How much are these two spaces intertwined? What relationship exists between them? How do these spaces change when they are reduced to two dimensions? These are the questions which have led me from concrete motifs to this more abstract theme.
C & P: Could you tell us a bit about the “/ Spacetime” series?
Peter: The origin was a folder on my hard drive, rather than an image concept. It comprised the pictures at the beginning of my above-described work process. Along with the approximately 150 pictures that until now can be seen online, there are still many hundred more. The pictures are all somewhat smaller than 20x30cm. For exhibitions I have assembled together blocks of pictures, 3×6. In contrast to “Zanzibar”, every picture in this series has a fixed point of reference in a spatial-time coordinate system. I am excited about how these pictures will change in the future. Will I think, “this is how the first decade of the new millennium looked”?
C & P: Do you have an art studio or a space that you dedicate to your photographic practice?
Peter: Yes, I have a space reserved for working on art. But it does not mean that much. I actually only need a table and an electrical outlet.
C & P: Have you ever been to NYC or the USA? Do you have any interest in making images in the US?
Peter: I have unfortunately never been to New York City, but I spent a long time in Los Angeles. I would very much like to visit New York. There are so many pictures of New York, that a kind of vacuum arises from the name. To me it sounds like “Zanzibar”
C & P: What artists do you admire? Contemporary? Past?
Peter: What fascinates me so much about art is not something I can pinpoint on another time.
C & P: Is there an art historical movement that you relate to or wish you had been part of?
Peter: I do not want to live in another time, not at all in the past. And I don’t want to be part of a movement.
C & P: What people/places/things inspire you?
Peter: A few weeks ago I bought a little pumpkin plant and every day I observe in amazement how this pumpkin grows bigger and bigger. I have already spent hours gathering information on pumpkins. I ask myself where the ones I bought from the nursery have come from.
C & P: What could you imagine doing, if you didn’t do what you do?
Peter: I do not wish to do anything else. Everything is possible.
C & P: Where can we see more of your work on the web?
Peter: Here
kraftwerk!!!
cheap & plastique at the fountain art fair
It’s Fountain time again! Mark your calendars.
John Jurayj
Untitled (Mirror Image, #18), Oil on Orange Mirrored Plexiglass, 48” x 36”, 2008
Cheap & Plastique interviews Brooklyn-based artist John Jurayj for Issue 9.
C & P: Your work deals with events that have taken place in Lebanon and how war and internal conflict have affected the country and its people. Your parents emigrated from Lebanon to the US before you were born. Have you been to Lebanon? Do you still have family in Lebanon?
John: My father’s family still lives in Lebanon, both in Beirut and in Kousba to the north. I have visited regularly since the end of the civil war in the early 1990’s.
C & P: I see that you have shown your work in Beirut. Is the reaction to your work different in Beirut than in NYC?
John: I think that the work is read differently depending on where it is shown. The viewer and his or her background, knowledge, and experience alters the work’s meaning. Certainly when the work is shown in the Arab world, and in particular in Lebanon, its resonance is different. The ostensible subject matter is fore fronted by the viewer’s subjectivity.
Untitled, Installation View, Participant, Inc., NY, 2011
C & P: You just showed your work at Participant, Inc. Gallery in NYC. Could you speak a bit about this show.
John: I have been working for a number of years on two different projects that are inter-related yet formally different. Undead furthered my explorations of “disrupted representation”. A non-profit and, in particular, Participant, Inc., allowed me a lot more leeway to show what I needed as opposed to what might work in the market.
C & P: The show included a video work, (Untitled) We Could Be Heroes, who are the figures in this video? Is this your first time working in this medium? Do you think you will create more video work in the future?
John: This is my first video but since its creation I have continued to explore this medium and have a large piece in my current show at Alberto Peola Gallery in Torino Italy. Untitled (We Could Be Heroes) is a piece sampled from my early paper and screen print work of the same title. It is an anthology of significant political players of the Lebanese Civil War, including American politicians. All the “men” are equalized when their eyes and vision are disgorged.
Untitled (Luggage), cast gunpowder and plaster, 14.75″ x 21.25″ x 7.25″, 2010
C & P: Your sculptures of luggage, (Family Baggage), made of plaster and gunpowder, have been referred to as “ghost objects.” Do you intend these objects to function as memorials in any sense? If so, are they meant to evoke memories of people or of broader concepts?
John: As opposed to a memorial which has the intent of commemorating, these objects are shadows or ghosts that float alongside the present. They are the darkness, the other side of what we see.
C & P: Given that the sculptures are of luggage and contain gunpowder, have you had any trouble shipping the works for exhibitions?
John: Not yet…
C & P: I imagine they might not easily clear customs.
John: You would think, but they always make it through. Maybe things are not as tight as they say.
Untitled (Boy With Shorts), Gunpowder and Ink Screened on Polished Stainless Steel, 67” x 44”, 2011
C & P: Can you speak about your use of mirrored surfaces/stainless steel in place of traditional canvases? Is this more of an aesthetic choice or is it intended to give rise to an interactive element in the work, as the viewer sees their image reflected back at them from within? With this particular series, Untitled (Undead), the reflective quality of the work seems to drive home a sense of not only being a witness after the fact but also of participation or complicity in past events, as the viewer sees themself with a “ghost image” of a dead figure.
John: Mirrored stainless steel is commonly used in psychiatric and penal institutions for safety purposes. I find this popular use important to the meaning of the work. Of course mirroring is a critical phase in child development and its absence can produce a rupture of self. In the case of painting, the mirror dissolves the privileged and separate space in which viewer stands, participation and implication is not a choice.
Untitled (Girl With Shorts), Gunpowder and Ink Screened on Polished Stainless Steel, 67” x 44”, 2010
C & P: The figures in Untitled (Undead) are painted from images of those killed in the Lebanese Civil War. Where do these images come from? Newspapers? Are they published images? Are these people strangers or do you have
a personal connection to them (are they relatives or friends of your family)?
John: The people are anonymous and are sourced from journalistic archives. It is important that their anonymity be the bases of the attempts to give them dignity through verticality.
C & P: Do you always work from photographic sources in your painting?
John: No, my abstractions are pure material as representation.
C & P: The subjects in Untitled (Undead) bring to mind Robert Longo’s Men in the Cities drawings from the late 70s. Interestingly, the figures and poses in both end up looking very similar although the intentions behind the work are completely opposed. Longo’s figures are jumping into the air, celebrating being alive, whereas your figures are fallen men and women, lifeless. However, your subjects seem to take on an almost triumphant air of reanimation when removed from their original context and placed upright and vertical. Could you talk about your decision to present the work like this? Have you looked at Longo’s work as a reference point?
John: Longo is not a reference point though I am conscious of the reflection. That said, I am interested in my work echoing the history of other work, whether recent or the deep past.
I think that it is best to let go of the anxiety of influence and play with the productive possibilities of aesthetic recycling. Whereas Longo seems to celebrate motion and the city, I am more interested in an attempt at changing time and altering space. Whether that is possible or not is also part of the work. It could be a heroic failure.
Untitled (Mirror Image, #27), Oil on Yellow Mirrored Plexiglass, 48” x 36”, 2009
C & P: Are you a fan of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s work, particularly the Mirror Paintings? Have these works influenced your decision to paint on a reflective surface?
John: I am a fan of his materials and some of the possibilities that his work opens up, though I am not interested in the seeming passivity and politeness of his work.
Untitled (Marine Barracks, 1983, #2), Oil on Linen, 74” x 84”, 2006
C & P: You studied architecture as an undergraduate, when did you decide to pursue artmaking rather than a career in architecture?
John: Architecture was a compromise with my parents. It allowed for me to have some aesthetic expression while maintaining the illusion of stability and social acceptance. It really wasn’t me. I have never functioned well in compromise and group settings. What drew me to architecture as a kid was my inability to distinguish between destruction and construction.
C & P: In your earlier work you paint pictures of buildings being bombed using a very colorful, day-glo palette, even though the paintings depict somber subject matter. Your newer works are rendered in much more subdued tones. Can you discuss this change in palette?
John: The nature of the materials actually changed—from traditional oil to silkscreen. And then there is depression which is always at my edges.
C & P: Do you mix gunpowder in with the paint/silkscreen ink in all of these works? How did you first begin working with gunpowder as a medium?
John: Yes, gunpowder is in all the screen printing and casting. I was looking for a medium other than standard ink or plaster to actualize instability, corruption, and volatility.
Untitled (Purple Diptych, #10), Digital print on watercolor paper with burn holes and purple mirrored plexiglass, 58.25” x 74”, 2011
C & P: Your paintings seem to have progressed from using buildings and architecture as their primary subject matter to using images of people. Can you talk about this progression? Is it indicative of a shift in your interest in subject matter or something necessitated or dictated by the particular cycle of work?
John: The work moves between source material which is public and spaces which are very personal. I think this is a continuous circle.
C & P: Do you paint specific buildings in Beirut? Do each of the buildings that you depict have their own story?
John: Yes and no. In general, anonymity prevails, yet certain moments such as the bombing of the U.S. Embassy or the U.S. Marine Barracks are iconic and unavoidably knowable.
Untitled (Orange Diptych, #8), Digital print on watercolor paper with burn holes and orange mirrored plexiglass, 56” x 73.5”, 2011
C & P: What painters/artists having you been looking at most recently? Past? Present?
John: When I paint my paintings, I look at myself. Otherwise, Warhol seems to always shadow me.
C & P: You teach at both SVA and Cornell, how does teaching influence your practice?
John: It allows me to be on the front lines. Thinking and rethinking what is pertinent, what is possible, and what is the point.
C & P: What are you working on right now?
John: I have been working with bricks cast in gunpowder and am thinking about a large scale sculptural installation to honor my father, and reflect his death.
nicolas wollnik
untitled, 11d01, 57 x 42 cm, 2011
Cheap & Plastique interviews Berlin-based artist Nicolas Wollnik for Issue 9.
C & P: You are currently living in Berlin. What do you like most about living in Berlin? Least?
Nicolas: Berlin is a city that has in many ways still a lot of space to offer both mentally and spatial. A lot of people use this space to act, be productive, and creative, which establishes a continuous stream that can be very inspiring and beautiful. At the same time this freedom, and sometimes overwhelming possibilities of cultural and contextual involvement, can be paralyzing.
C & P: Is Berlin still a reasonably priced place to live? Are artists still moving there because of this factor? Does being in Berlin inspire your work?
Nicolas: Especially when looking at the housing market, Berlin is definitely catching up to more wealthy and expensive cities in Germany and Europe. Artists that arrive to Berlin from Barcelona, London or NY, and are used to higher rents, will still be able to afford living and working spaces in Berlin.
Although I hope that the city of Berlin will eventually commit more to artists living here and provide more affordable studio spaces. Only time will tell if there will still be these opportunities in five years.
untitled, 08b01, 70 x 120 cm, 2008
C & P: You run a project space/gallery in Berlin called Minken & Palme, why did you decide to open a space to show other artist’s work? What sort of work do you most often exhibit? What section of Berlin is the gallery located in? Does running a gallery space affect your own artistic practice? If so, how?
Nicolas: Georg Parthen and I have been running the space Minken & Palme, in Kreuzberg, for two years now. We wanted to explore the possibilities of showing art we relate to, playing around with a combination of artists that actually made sense to us, and we wanted to give people the chance to use MP, and us, as a counterpart for collaborations to evolve new forms of presentations and develop site-specific works.
For us it is a very pleasing and fulfilling way of getting in contact with other artists, their works, and curators we cooperate with.
It definitely broadens ones own experience with each new show that is set up.
C & P: What are your favorite places to see art in Berlin?
Nicolas: There isn’t a certain place I enjoy art most. It really is always depending on the current show that is being displayed.
C & P: How long have you been taking and exhibiting photographs? What drew you to the medium and why did you choose to pursue it seriously?
Nicolas: I´m not even sure if you are right about considering my works being photographs. I do enjoy working with photographic material though and exploring the mediums possibilities. I really got in contact with it, when I started studying in Essen in 1998. It probably took another couple of years until I discovered strategies and methods to work with photography in a way that really interested me.
C & P: Did you study photography at the University of Essen, with Jörg Sasse as a teacher?
Nicolas: I started visiting classes of Jörg Sasse about a year or two before my diploma, without really completing a project. The way photography was dealt with and talked about in his class appealed to me. What I really liked about him being a teacher was the fact that he didn’t push in any one specific direction but generously shared his knowledge of all kinds of art and has always been able to focus on the ambition you brought in.
I was lucky enough to work with Jörg Sasse as a tutoring professor on my final project.
C & P: How do you feel your art has developed over the course of your career? What interests you now that didn’t interest you when you started? Do you enjoy pushing the boundaries of photography?
Nicolas: I think that there are quite a few similarities in recent works and works I´ve constructed 5 years ago. The greatest development might be that today I’m more aware of what I don’t want or try to achieve while working on my pictures. One topic I am constantly returning to is space and its transformation as it is constructed and reflected within the picture.
untitled, 11e01, 57 x 42 cm, 2011
C & P: Do you shoot with a digital SLR camera or with a film camera?
Nicolas: I use a digital camera for most photographic material I gather for my works but in the end it has never been of any interest to me how the footage or raw material for my works is generated, because in many ways my work really just starts with viewing, organizing, sampling and composing the collected material.
C & P: I noticed that your images are “untitled” and also include a number. What do the numbers in your titles refer to, if anything? Do you feel that it is better for a title not to reveal anything?
Nicolas: A title can be very important for a certain piece; personally I didn’t have had the necessity to title most of my works.
The number in the caption of my work is purely an archive number, that helps identifying a work if you don’t stand in front of it.
I do have a little distaste for titles, ones that are more important than the image itself, especially if you get the feeling that the title, or the description of the picture, is the most interesting part, or a story you have to listen to, to immerse into the visual. Maybe that is because I value the non-text based nature of art as a quality.
C & P: Do you always use the computer as a tool when creating your photographs? Are your final pictures always a result of a technical process?
Nicolas: For a lot of my works I use a camera or a computer or both. Sometimes I use the technical process for the mere purpose of accurate reproduction in order to limit variations of necessary elements. Sometimes I use pens, pencils, and brushes.
untitled, 11f03, 57 x 42 cm, 2011
C & P: Could you explain your process of creating an image? How do you begin work on a picture, do you begin with an idea in mind (of the final outcome) or are the images a result of layering and experimentation? Do you have a specific procedure?
Nicolas: I never know what the final work will look like, exactly. In the work process there are a lot of decisions to be made, which partly have to do with what I try to accomplish, and which elements and colors I try to emphasize or reduce. The rest are decisions that are based upon the picture itself, which possibly result from experimentation but a lot from constant questioning the autonomy of the image.
C & P: How do you know when an image is complete? Do you place constraints upon yourself when creating an image?
Nicolas: A work is finished if I see it printed on paper, in the decided dimensions, and by looking at it, think it’s done.
C & P: It seems that most of your images have a landscape or interior space as a base. Are these images that you have shot yourself, or do you use found imagery? Or is it a mix of both kinds of images?
Nicolas: I mostly use material I have collected myself, but I don’t want to limit the possibilities and have also used found material that was necessary and influenced the final work.
untitled, 06b04, 38 x 50 cm, 2006
C & P: Do you have a databank of images that you work with? Where do these images come from?
Nicolas: I do not work with a structured archive, where at a certain point I can search “sun” or “tree” images. Generally the amount of drawn and painted material is overweighing the photographic material and both are structured in footage folders, which relate to single works or a group of pictures.
C & P: Are the base images for the constructure series taken in the same area or are they grouped together based on other factors? Could you tell us a bit about the origins of this series?
Nicolas: The starting point for the constructures was the relationship between architecture and its surrounding. I wanted to explore the structured and built intervention and construction within a possible context or setting. These two parts of fore- and background interact in different ways within the picture, with regards to content or on a formal level. I didn’t want to depict actual buildings or simulate utopian concepts within mountain areas but rather detect possible influences by constructions on their spatial location and in the end strategies of composing form and ground within the picture by layering, absorbing, or reflecting elements of each other.
C & P: Layering both separates and unites the image. Do you want people to recognize parts of the constructed image or do you want them to look at the composition as a whole?
Nicolas: I try to find this vague line between recognition, association and abstraction, because this is the moment a picture demands attention and openness.
Remembered or recognized elements might support or distract a one-sided perception. Additionally I construct most works for a close and a distanced viewing, e.g. in some pictures the composition completely falls apart, when looking at it from two feet, but at the same time opens up a detail level you wouldn’t be able to perceive from ten feet.
untitled, 07c01, 46 x 67.5 cm, 2007
C & P: Some of your final pictures have elements from handmade drawings and other computer generated imagery layered into them. Are these your drawings? Or are these found? How long have you been incorporating these non-photo-based types of elements into your work? And what was the reason for doing so originally?
Nicolas: Since I started my studies I have always worked with more than one medium and never solely concentrated on one discipline. Towards the end of my studies I explored different working methods and strategies to filter those aspects I was interested in.
C & P: What are your thoughts on the relationship between photography and drawing? What makes you want to juxtapose the two mediums
in your work?
Nicolas: Photography and drawing are two strategies for me to work with images and create pictures and both are highly fascinating to me. They can, to a certain degree, quote each other but in the end have completely different and separated origins to result in an image.
C & P: When looking at your images it seems that space, color, form, and scale are all very important to you. Could you talk a bit about what you are trying to evoke with these constructed images?
Nicolas: I want to reflect the phenomena of spatial perception. From my point of view our recognition and orientation starts with conceiving form, color, shading and lighting. In my works I try to filter and abstract certain aspects of these correlations within the complex and sensual experience and transform them into the plane of the image. So it is more the construction of the characteristics of a place I’m interested in more than its actual appearance.
C & P: It seems that you are interested in a spatial experience in a 2D format. What interests you about representing three dimensional reality as a two dimensional surface of an image? Have you ever worked as a sculptor? Does sculpture influence your work? Are there any particular sculptors that you are looking at?
Nicolas: In the work Verplanung (planar planning) I started with the idea of mapping houses, apartments, and living spaces without using the mathematical functionality for orientation of blueprints, roadmaps, and topographic maps, but rather focus on the atmospheric impression one gets with being at a place.
I wanted to create a new kind of cartography, a visual equivalent to the space-human-relationship one gets at these spaces in order to give the viewer the possibility to get an emotional, archetypical or atmospheric impression of these places.
untitled, 11d03, 57 x 42 cm, 2011
C & P: You say that you are interested in the “gradual decomposition of objectness.” Could you talk a bit more about this.
Nicolas: By looking at photographs the brain indicates and names the elements in the picture. I want to avoid the situation, where you purely describe the parts of the picture in your mind and attach your remembrance of the denoted objects to the image. In this scenario I try to erase or diminish the objectness with various methods to have an undisguised view on the visual presence of the piece.
C & P: Your work reminds me a bit of the paintings of Albert Oehlen. Is he an influence at all? Are you influenced by other abstract painters? Other artists?
Nicolas: I know Albert Oehlens work and have looked at his pictures. You could call him an influence since I believe that everything you have seen affects one’s own work no matter if it is because of similarities or contrasts to your own work. Seeing something that is very close to your perspective might arouse the need to more precisely formulate your own ambition, which eventually helps you being more clear about your aim or goal.
untitled, 07b01, 60.5 x 89.5 cm, 2007
C & P: Some of the abstract patterns in your work also brings to mind graffiti. When I first spent time in Berlin I did notice that there was graffiti everywhere… does graffiti influence your work at all?
Nicolas: I don’t think graffiti specifically influences me, it might rather be the quality of painting and paint in general that I am concerned with that sometimes shows in my works.
C & P: When your work is shown in a gallery how important is size, scale, and sequencing? How do you usually exhibit your work?
Nicolas: Some of my works really don’t get along too well, they will try to kick each other off the wall, because each of them needs its own space. That is one reason I mostly choose a very clean and distanced hanging with enough white or wall in-between. I couldn’t imagine them hanging on top of each other either. For each work there are set dimensions I wouldn’t change for any reason. The size is imminent to the picture by the level of detail and the dimensions of single elements in my works.
C & P: Where can one see your work online?
Nicolas: Here and here.
canned hamm
Graphic design almost broke my brain this evening, thank you Canned Hamm for making it all seem better!
conversation and contemplation
Images from Aicon Gallery‘s Méré Humd(r)um—Contemporary Art from Pakistan exhibition. Show is up until February 25, 2012. Go check it out!
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