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| Oltre I'immagine/My MEDIA (Italy)
interview/cover story di Nadia Andreini |
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Q. Briefly describe your early work.
A. I majored in art in college and got my master degree in audiovisual art from Philadelphia College of Art. I began my career as an art director in New York and later became a photographer in the late ‘70s. With the stimulation of the art movement around me, I felt that my work as a commercial photographer failed to challenge my creative side so I tried very hard to practice photography as a fine art on the side. I tried different mediums for my work, but I failed to break free from the limitations of photography, capturing only things visible to my eye. I tried to use lighting effects, color shafting and collages, but it wasn’t until I got a Quadra 950 with photoshop in 1992 that gave me the solution to create a new media. Q. Can you describe your first work with the computer? A. All of my work done before my first computer was created in the color darkroom working with 8x10 enlarger to pin register so I could collage images down to one picture. Working on the computer made this much easier. For my first project, I felt like I needed to present something that I was very familiar with. In my case, this was traditional Chinese culture, specifically the very popular Chinese zodiac. Every year there is a new animal, tiger, rooster, horse, etc… So I made a series of 12 part human part animal portraits, one for each zodiac animal. Q. Your visual research focus on the elaboration of a photographic image. What attracts you to this? A. I think the most fascinating thing is that you can take a photograph of someone and how you can modify their portrait into your interpretation of the person’s personality. Suddenly the subject becomes a medium for me, one that I can work with. Our art world didn't have something like this before and the images can bring the viewer into a new experience. Q. You started in 1992 with Photoshop. Now that the technology has evolved, are you trying new one to bring the viewer to interact with you work? A. In the beginning I was really focused on the portrait of the subject, but after a few works, I started to take advantage of digital photography by photographing the subjects in a studio and placing people in a different environment. Using the technology of faster computers, I was able to create giant compositions for the final shot. I also used animation for my Origin series and remade my 108 windows series into a audio/visual slideshow for the Venice biennale. I have thought about new ways to express my work, but I am cautious about making the focus of my work the technology rather than the message. Only using the modern technology as a way to gage my progress is a dangerous area. If I focus on just trying to stay ahead, I have to compare my art to what everybody else is doing. Each time I see art events such as Art Electronica, I end up being influenced. I end up spending a lot of my energy to compete with other people, which I try to avoid since I think art should be more enjoyable. Q. Did you use other subjects apart from human and animals and why? A. I haven’t used any subjects other than humans or animals because I feel the need for a subject that we can easily relate to. Q. Are you still working for advertising? A. I do freelance work to help generate revenue but I try to concentrate mainly on art. Q. What is left of the previous experience in the new works? A. This work (the one with animals) is a lot of things I never tried before, first work with real animals, second to find some message to deliver from the point of view of the animals. The other thing is a big breakthrough; I used to work for commercials using fancy lighting. With the computer I can change a lot of things, now I photograph with existing available light. I have more fun, less technical things to worry about. Q. What was the research behind the latest projects? A. For my previous projects, I researched the Chinese zodiac, Buddhism, reincarnation, evolution, and animal books. Once the New York Times had a special issue focusing on the new technology related to our life. They invited artists involved with technology to come up with some work, images. For this I created this series of images of how man evolved. After my early work on the Chinese zodiac and reincarnation theology, I did not want to be framed as an artist capable of only relating to the Chinese culture. I saw that I could work about technology, evolution, a western topic. Q. Can you talk about your new projects? A. I was planning to start a new projects about the future of us, the future of life. I dropped it because I involved the Shanghai Biennale 2006, which I made a new Shanghai version of my work "Nightlife", the "Xintiandi". Right now, I'm preparing a collaborated work about "Dream" together with a sculptor for a comong up museum show in Japan, 2007. It's not very easy for me to come up with something new. I try not to repeat myself. I spent the same amount of time thinking than the time I spend working. I believe that a good idea is not something you simply squeeze out.
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Introduction:
Helen Ferry / HYBRID Ars Electronica 2005 |
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E-mail: Manimals@gmail.com |
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