Art by Artists

A quick audio interview by Stan

I had a lovely conversation with Stan from Art by Artists project about my practice. I’d like to share some of it here as well.

What’s your background?

My background is in architecture and product and collectible design.

How does this impact how you see the world and create art?

From architecture I inherited a strong interest of looking at things in perspective, from a great distance. So much so that my first serious series of work is inspired by aerial photography.

And from working in design I brought resourcefulness to my practice. My main medium is ceramic, but since I have experience in working with many different materials I’m not scared to try unconventional techniques. I think I feel more freedom to experiment and break the rules than proper ceramicists, as I haven’t learned the rules to begin with.

Did your upbringing prompt a specific reference point within your work? Is your work informed by certain concepts or themes from your childhood, background, socio-economic status, and where you lived or were raised?

I’m quite certain that my upbringing and my past echo in my work, although it’s hard to see all the influences in real time. Sometimes you need the benefit of hindsight to clearly understand where your ideas stem from. 

For example right now I’m working on a project about the feelings of home and belonging. And I know that it is largely brought about by my own experiences as an immigrant, by my attempts to find home and how this seemingly simple concept can be anything but simple, for many of us. I think the notions I explore can be universal, but I do build on a deeply personal experience.

Who are your biggest influences

It varies from time to time. I’m very influenced by what I’m reading each moment. 

For a while now I’m reading a lot about landscapes - as a painting genre, as a concept; how different artists and thinkers tackle it. So my influences are John Berger, Georg Simmel, Sezanne, Barbara Bender’s and Margot Winer’s collection on landscapes and immigration. 

There are many more I’m sure that I can’t remember; but I do think that ideas aren’t born in a vacuum of my own head. Rather absorbed by osmosis and reinterpreted. 

What are you focussing on right now 

Right now I focus on two large series of work. Both are inspired by very personal feelings and reflections, although you probably wouldn’t say so by looking at them. They are series of landscapes made entirely in ceramics. I am simplifying matters here, but briefly:

One is dealing with the concept of rootedness and, consequently, unrootedness and home. And another one is about my restlessness and wanderlust. It’s amazing how making a particular work can make all those brooding emotions settle and calm down.

What is the biggest challenge of being an artist?

The usual I think. How to create a sustainable practice in the capitalist world. How to carve enough time to make all the work you feel you need to make. How to understand what matters, truly. 

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Honestly, it’s the same advice I would give myself now :)
Get out there, experiment more, do more different things and don’t be afraid of rejection or embarrassment. 

Have you ever tried any unconventional mediums or techniques?

With the work I make, I believe I always work with unconventional medium and technique. I make low-relief wall hanging landscapes in ceramics. Normally clay tends to be used for three-dimensional objects, so with these flat pieces I always try new things and invent ways to make it all work. I focus a lot on tactility of my work, it is very important to me that people can and are drawn to touch it. I think our contemporary culture tends to overemphasise vision, and touch often gets abandoned.

But going back to my process, I spend weeks and sometimes months  on a single piece, without a clear understanding of what I am doing or if it’s going to work. Because with clay you always work in the future somehow, imagining the outcome in your mind’s eye. And at the end, you put your precious object in a metal box to burn at 1250 degrees celsius and cross your fingers. None of it feels conventional to me, even now.

Do you listen to music or have any other type of background noise while you work, or do you prefer complete silence?

It depends. When I need to think with my head, like when I’m designing a work or mix the glazes, I do that in complete silence. Any noise would distract me immediately.
But at the stage when I need to think with my hands, so to speak, I like to listen to audio books or podcasts. 

This habit uncovered a very interesting  aspect of memory to me, that I’d like to explore further in the future. When I touch an old piece of work, I immediately  get a glimpse of a character or setting from a book I was listening to  while making it. It is completely uncontrollable and it doesn’t matter how long ago was it. It’s a bit like time travelling, very magical. 

What’s the best reaction someone has had to your artwork?

Often people look at my work out of the context of a ceramic studio and don’t understand what is it exactly of what it’s made of. I like this baffled reaction, a bit of confusion; it means to me that it made someone stop for a second and shake up their thinking. I think this is what art at its best is very good at - make us slow down a bit and let go of our assumptions, if only for a moment. 

What do you hope people take away from your artwork?

I know I can’t predict anyone’s interpretation of my work or any other. I heard in a podcast lately this idea that “all vision is a hallucination, what we see is a creative act”. And it resonates with me. We all bring all of our experiences with us every time we engage with art. 

I have to believe that everything I think about, feel, dream of, and reflect on will somehow infuse my work, whether I intend it or not. My biggest and most optimistic hope is that people looking at (or touching) my work will pause and take time to create their own interpretation, that my work will spark a feeling, a memory, an association with some personal experience. I’ll never be privy to it, but this quick encounter creates a connection between us. This is what art I love does to me. So my biggest dream is to do that for others.