Interview with Julia Vogl: Winner of the Creative Works Competition

Text by Bethany Rex

Following the successful Creative Works Competition, Aesthetica Magazine has launched an annual Aesthetica Art Prize. The Aesthetica Art Prize is open for submissions from now until 31 August 2012, and provides an invaluable platform for emerging and established artists, offering contenders a first prize of £1,000. The four shortlisted professional entrants and four shortlisted student entrants will also their have their own exhibition at a venue in York, their work published in the Aesthetica Art Prize Annual and their work praised in Aesthetica Magazine.

We speak with the winner of the 2011 Creative Works Competition, Julia Vogl, an installation artist whose public artwork challenges the role of the artist and art in relation to political events, social behaviour, and the community where her work is shown.

BR: You recently won the Aesthetica Creative Works Competition (now the Aesthetica Art Prize), what made you enter the competition? What does it mean to you to have won?

JV: I kept hearing about the competition, but I didn't pay much attention as I don't usually enter contests. But then I read about Aesthetica Magazine, being a magazine that reflected on art, design, architecture and their overlap of territory, and I thought I would be an idiot not to apply, as my work really deals with that.

It is awesome that I won! It always feels good to win something, but to be part of a publication that features so many really great works and artists is really gratifying. It has been a terrific boost to my confidence, especially at a time where being an artist is fiercely competitive and hard to finance.


BR: Your work Colouring the Invisible was a five storey installation including 150 windows coated in multicoloured translucent vinyl. Could you briefly talk us through the idea behind the piece?

JV: The Slavonic School of Eastern European Studies, at UCL, has this incredible glass atrium, and when I saw it, I felt instantly I had to respond to it. The main subject studied there is language. Despite passport, or national identity, the thing that bridges many who use the building is language. I wanted to make a work that would reflect both the users and the architecture. I surveyed over 450 users of the building what languages they were fluent in. I received over 53 different languages. I linked a language with a colour of transparent vinyl and coloured a third of the glass in the atrium proportionally with the language. So English which was the most popular was turquoise and about 1/3 of the glass is turquoise. I was happy to learn later the architects for the atrium were inspired by Vladimir Tatlin's 1919 The Monument to the Third International (Tatlin's Tower) (never realized) who was influenced by the tower of Babel. As language is invisible, the idea was to transform the space and bring to light all the diversity- as well as draw more attention to the mesmerising architecture- hence Colouring the Invisible.

BR: Your artist statement focuses on the idea that “the art work must respond to site & or community.” Social practices in art are certainly gaining ground in terms of institutional recognition. Would you say your work fits into this genre?

JV: A critical turning point in my art practice came when I worked for Public Art for Public Schools in New York City. My job was to commission permanent art works for new school buildings. There I started to understand the role that public art can have in a community. It can make neighbourhoods safer, it can lead to positive engagement with strangers and generally it can beautify an otherwise neglected area. Here is where I became dedicated to making what I term my social sculptures. I am not interested in making large works that just it in a plaza, but making works that engage people, in either the making or experience of the work. I am also committed to challenging some social issues- and engaging in a social practice enables me to make work to serve as a catalyst for this.

I think institutional recognition of socially engaging works come from a somewhat broken society. Institutions investment in public works, initially seemed to be more prevalent during bad economic times, (The Great Depression, the 1970s and today) when there are social problems that policy is not immediately addressing. Public Art can not replace policy! It can however aid to bringing to light issues that are of concern in a community. Alternatively with immediate social networking and communication, people’s attention spans have shrunk, and social practices, guarantee an instant experience and that is probably very appealing for many institutions.

BR: What are your thoughts on art awards as a whole? Does the art world take itself too seriously?

JV: I think the jury is still out on my thoughts about awards. As a kid I never got any awards, and I was very always jealous of those who did, but I learned to make good work to make good work, and not for the recognition I would receive. I can’t deny that being short listed, or awarded something has made my CV stand out to certain people (including my parents!), and has as a result led to greater opportunities to make more work, and keep doing what I love to do. Also monetary awards, travel awards or studio awards are incredible gifts of encouragement.

Yet I do feel that certain parts of the art world pay to much attention to what is written in a CV rather then the visuals in front of them. I really liked that the application to Aesthetica Creative Works, was purely based on the work. Yes the art world takes itself too seriously, but that might be a response to the incredible demand to be apart of it. Strangely I think that those who make their own opportunities have more fun and become more successful - even if the road is longer!

BR: Do you think winners of these kinds of awards should receive monetary prizes? Is the scene too money driven these days?

JV: I like that this year they are offering, exposure in Aesthetica, and a show, as well as money. Standing out in the art world means continuing to make work and have it be seen but it also means getting your name out there. But of course at the end of the day an artist needs to eat. In fact I don’t think enough competitions or opportunities in the art world supply monetary rewards, and it is assumed that artist will work for free. I think only one part of the art scene is money driven, in my field, Public Art, many of my works are unsaleable. When I showed at The Affordable Art Fair in October - I wrote friends encouraging them to come see my work - with the understanding that my work was neither affordable nor for sale. Still the AAF supported me- and that was really great!

BR: How would you say that your style has developed over the years? Have you been influenced by any particular artists?

JV: I have always loved architecture, Lego, Bauhaus/Modernism, and textile design- this feeds into my aesthetic sensibility. I have also loved political campaigning- this comes from wanting to know what people think and understanding the world we live in. Conceptually I am captivated by Eliasson, Christo & Jeanne-Claude, and more recently Tino Sehgal and Francis Alÿs. I came to the Slade in 2009, as my undergrad Professor would describe me as “a bull in a china shop.” A bit all over the place but with determination. The Slade really allowed me to explore and then find a rhythm, and even create a manifesto to make strong works that would include all my loves- so I could make the work with a process that really excited me.

BR: What’s next for you?

JV: Recently I was included in the Catlin Art Guide, edited by Justin Hammond- it is a survey publication of the top 40 new emerging artist in the UK, so that is pretty cool. I am currently waiting to hear back from the Arts Council about funding my project HOME, a visual audio installation to pop up in London during the Olympics.
I am also working on my curatorial debut with the project ART VENDING. You will just have to stay tuned for where you might encounter that project.

I am always applying, proposing my own projects, experimenting and working in the studio. I have learned that the art world does not give you a time line of when things will happen, you never know tomorrow I could get an e-mail from The British Museum commissioning me to make a work for their incredible atrium. More likely I could also just get a call from a friend to be part of a group show in Peckham. Either way, it seems like there are countless exciting opportunities for an artist today, so I am just going to continue making good work and time will tell me what is next!

From 27/02/2012 - 03/03/2012, Julia Vogl will take part in YBA 2.0 Series, a group show at Frameless Gallery, with Thomas Adam and Sarah Pager. www.framelessgallery.com

For further information on Vogl's work, visit her website - www.juliavogl.com

The Aesthetica Art Prize is open for submissions until 31 August 2012. For further information see the website or call +44 (0)1904 629 137. If you would like to find out more about the finalists of the Creative Works Competition, you can purchase a copy of the Annual 2012 here.

Caption:
Colouring the Invisible, Installation Shot
Courtesy the artist

Jean-Marc Bustamante | Peintures Carrées (Square Paintings) | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac | Paris

Text by Matt Swain

Peintures Carrées (Square Paintings) is a new exhibition of works on square, screen-reprinted Plexiglas by French artist Jean-Marc Bustamante (b. 1952). Bustamante is a noted conceptual and installation artist who incorporates ornamental design and architectural space into his work. Emerging principally as a photographer in the 1970s, Bustamante has since explored the space between photography, sculpture, architecture and decor. His work represents mental landscapes and combines different artistic languages where past experiences blend to create a unique visual experience.

This new series of work, titled Colorito Colorado, makes reference to the Renaissance era when the key characteristic of the Venetian school was colour rather than drawing, with form achieved by painting in layers. Indeed, the initial impact is all about colour and the colours are dazzling. The shapes are reminiscent of simple, computer scribbles that could be construed as flattened sculptures. The process begins with Bustamante expansively drawing or applying large strokes of colour with felt pen on graph paper. Any trace of human interaction in the form of brush strokes or the layering of paint is removed through computer processing, and the image is then transformed on Plexiglas by the traditional process of silk screening. The Plexiglas plate is held in place by steel studs and defined by a steel frame.

In this context, and in the use of industrial processes, it is not surprising that some critics have made reference to Warhol in terms of simplicity and ethic, although Bustamante's work suggests that there are secrets to be uncovered and a greater level of detail beneath the somewhat flat, simplistic exterior. Bustamante likes to intrigue the viewer and this ambiguity leaves much of his work open to interpretation.

These works significantly develop his exploratory techniques using light and colour. Cardinal (2010) shows a falling range of colours set against a background of simple grey lines which serve to cast a shadow upon the gallery wall, symbolising motion versus stasis. This ambiguous relationship with form brings a sense of detachment for the viewer which can also be seen in Spring (2011). Using the same combination of colours, this relies less on motion and more on the stability of the senses.

Throughout, Bustamante's work is both playful and refined. Radiant (2010), possesses flashes of colour upon water whilst Mercator (2010) is the most direct work here, hinting at the artist's background in photography as well as giving a static chaos that explores the philosophical boundaries between painting and photography. Symbolically, the simplicity represents Bustamante's rejection of the poetic snapshot that is synonymous with French creative photography.

Bustamante's unique visual sense of the world lies between space and the context of place as well as the relationship between industry and technology. Ultimately, light and colour have replaced mass and gravity at the heart of his work, creating a renewed sense of timelessness. These works consistently attempt a new and thoroughly modern kind of painting and successfully offer an alternative way of looking at pictures for a brighter, simpler future that has been shaped by the past.

Jean-Marc Bustamante, Peintures Carrées (Square Paintings), 10/01/2012 - 25/02/2012, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Debelleyme, 7 Rue Debelleyme, 75003, Paris. www.ropac.net

Aesthetica in Print

If you only read Aesthetica online, you're missing out. The February/March issue of Aesthetica is out now and offers a diverse range of features from an examination of the diversity and complexity of art produced during the tumultuous decade of the 1980s in Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, opening 11 February at MCA Chiacgo, a photographic presentation of the Irish Museum of Modern Art's latest opening, Conversations: Photography from the Bank of America Collection. Plus, we recount the story of British design in relation to a comprehensive exhibition opening this spring at the V&A.

If you would like to buy this issue, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Better yet call +44 (0) 1904 629 137 or visit the website to subscribe to Aesthetica for a year and save 20% on the printed magazine.

Visual Games | David Evans' Critical Dictionary | WORK Gallery | London

Text by Travis Riley

The exhibition’s title puts in mind an idea of declassification and redefinition. It is borrowed from Georges Bataille (1897-1962), whose Critical Dictionary was printed as a regular section of his surrealist journal Documents (published in Paris from 1929 through 1930), and functioned on the basis that “A dictionary would begin from the point at which it no longer rendered the meanings of words but rather their tasks.” This endeavour is embodied in David Evans’ curation of the exhibition. Far from attempting to become the usual invisible curator, he has made his presence very clear, structuring the works in the show dictionary-like, around a series of terms, each of which has one or more artwork to engage with it.

The clearest moment of declassification of a term comes in the threefold definition of ‘R/Rotten Sun’. On the far wall, facing the gallery entrance is the most immediate piece to fall under this header. Penelope Umbrico’s Flickr Sunsets (2010) consists, as the title would suggest, of sunsets appropriated directly from a Flickr search. In each case the image is cropped close to the sun, and printed at 4” x 6”, regardless of quality (or pixellation). The photos are arranged on the wall, as a grid, with no white space between them. The repetition causes the luminescent orbs to lose their individual significance, and although their light has been captured, no true sunlight can emanate from the resulting photos. These are rotten suns, but this is due to their flawed depiction.

In Dominic Shepherd’s Black Sun, (2008) the sun does not wish to be light. It is a circular, black mass, stuck, to a pre-existent (previously sunless) photograph. The appropriated image is Silent Water (1946) by Anthony Peacock. It is essentially a gaudy postcard image, comprising of a nude woman, some still water, and a wooden rowing boat. The image is given a strange weight due to the stark, contrasting addition. The black sphere, hanging precariously above the woman’s head, appears to be in woodland, not the sky, but nonetheless takes the label of sun. Without the context of its definition given by the picture’s title this intervention wouldn’t be a sun at all, and yet the viewer is given no choice. The sun is not only rotten in colour, but also because it is only a sun by a thin denotation.

The final image in this curated triptych is David Hazel’s Untitled (2005). It is a circular print comprising of a pure white circle at the centre that gradually emanates into blackness at its exterior edges. It is the opposite of the solid edged Black Sun that faces it across the room. A de-definition is contained in these three rotten suns. Their separate depictions cannot be reconciled, and if the viewer wished to find meaning in the term, they would be forced to choose between them. This fulfils Bataille’s idea of a critical definition. The contention between these pieces can no longer concern the meaning of the term only its task, those things to which it will be assigned.

Critical art has the potential to be humourless and overwrought, however in this exhibition, it is critical playfulness that takes the fore. Despite the underlying framework, the selected pieces do not lambast or condemn their subjects, merely reflect upon them. Under ‘G/Greenwich Meridian’ comes Simon Faithfull’s 0°00 Navigation (2010). The piece is a series of monochrome photographs arranged in a horizontal sequence, ceiling to floor. A lone male figure is depicted, travelling the route specified by the title, however Faithfull’s chosen photographs of the pursuit add a narrative of their own.

Unable to deviate from his inflexible trajectory, the figure is depicted in farcically avoidable situations. Most striking is a needless immersion, chest-deep in a pool of water. On one hand this implies a reductio ad absurdum criticism of the seemingly arbitrary placement of this significant line. More apparent however, is an inherent self-criticism. The rule-based journey entails an absurdity in its strictures. The Greenwich Meridian’s purpose is not to be walked, and as such the criticism falls on the walker as much as the route.

Throughout the exhibition small pockets of interrelation can be found. The theoretical work of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) and Guy Debord (1931-1994) plays an especially formative part in much of the art shown. A particularly strong Debordian psycho-geographical theme can be drawn between Faithfull’s 0°00 Navigation, Paola Di Bello’s La Disparition (1994), a Paris tube map with damage implicit in its printed reproduction, and Office of Experiments’ Overt Research Project (2000-2009), a photographic attempt to map advanced labs and facilities in the UK.

The exhibition follows the dictionary protocol throughout, but this is not an attempt to comprehensively capture all letters or terms. It is a dictionary, but freed from the rules of meaning, it seeks to investigate the detail and find correlative patterns. Here lies the strength of the exhibition. In all of its curatorial intent, it retains a fundamental principle; in a critical dictionary there can be no definite meaning. Evans’ curation forges a categorical framework, embracing definition, but refusing to use it as a constraint.

Critical Dictionary, 27/01/2012 - 25/02/2012, WORK Gallery, 10A Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NG. www.workgallery.co.uk Event: One Plus One: Picture Editing After Bataille, David Evans and Patrizia Di Bello in conversation, Wednesday 15 February 2012 6.30-8pm, RSVP to press@workgallery.co.uk

Aesthetica in Print

If you only read Aesthetica online, you're missing out. The February/March issue of Aesthetica is out now and offers a diverse range of features from an examination of the diversity and complexity of art produced during the tumultuous decade of the 1980s in Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, opening 11 February at MCA Chiacgo, a photographic presentation of the Irish Museum of Modern Art's latest opening, Conversations: Photography from the Bank of America Collection. Plus, we recount the story of British design in relation to a comprehensive exhibition opening this spring at the V&A.

If you would like to buy this issue, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Better yet call +44 (0) 1904 629 137 or visit the website to subscribe to Aesthetica for a year and save 20% on the printed magazine.

Captions:
Office of Experiments, Overt Research Project, 2008-2009. All images courtesy the artists