ISSUE I
GALLERY
JULY 2020
MALCOLM HEBRON
Inktree 2, mixed-media ink on A2 paper with sticks and salt
Inktree 4, mixed-media ink on A2 paper with sticks and salt
ARTIST STATEMENT
These images are made in ink on A2 paper, applied with an assortment of sticks at a distance from the picture surface. They were made outdoors, and no digital processing has been used. Texture is created through various dilutions and the application of salt. They are part of an ongoing project of daily and repetitive art-making, images made as part of a continual process of seeing and registering the act of seeing with marks, in various media. The point is more the process than the product, the activity than the end result.
Each work is not a point of closure but an opening into the next one, a point in an evolving series. What is being aimed for is an intense act of engagement with both the visible world and the imagination, leading to a state akin to meditation (a formative influence is the work of Frederick Franck, The Zen of Seeing). The reference point is always an object in the world, but the process of rendering might go some way from that starting point. The object, the ding an sich, is present but transformed through the act of depiction. The underlying principle is that art-making is an experimental activity, in the sense of a risked heightening of experience.
Real sticks were used as part of a commitment to drawing nature using nature’s own tools. Paper was laid on bumpy grassy ground. Ink was applied using a long bamboo stick, with both arms, sometimes blindly, to get a boldness of stroke and to surrender control. This ‘free’ movement of the stick creates accidental strokes and effects and at the same time responds to impulses beneath the conscious mind. The resulting image is a graphic trace of an irrecoverable act of looking.
MALCOLM HEBRON lives in the UK and divides his time between Winchester and Exeter. He is an academic writer, literary critic and edits the English Association journal The Use of English. He has a strong interest in Hispanic culture, and is currently working on a translation of some medieval Catalan literary texts. Artistic interests are photography, drawing and the craft of bookbinding. His overarching interest is in the nature and benefits of the creative process, and the fundamental importance of risk and experiment for the fulfilled life. Find him on instagram @hebronmalcolm.
CAOIMHÍN DE PAOR
Coill, visual art/poetry hybrid
ARTIST STATEMENT
The extinction of the Irish Elk is often attributed to the overgrowth of their horns, a negative evolution that may have seen them become trapped in the forest. However, as masters of their domain, it is difficult to imagine them as anything other than graceful creatures, passing between the oak and ash. Coill was inspired by this emotion; the comfort felt in a place that is home to you. The pictures were taken at the Dark Hedges, co. Antrim, Northern Ireland.
CAOIMHÍN DE PAOR is a geology graduate from Cork, Ireland, living in Edinburgh. He works primarily with flash fiction, short stories and visual poetry. He can be found online @Kevinjuly.
MANUEL DELGADO
"Girl with a Pearl Earring” triptych. This artwork belongs to a series of inclusive poems in English and braille titled Painthical, which seeks to represent the content of famous classical Flemish paintings in a non-dogmatic interactive way to the general public, including people with disabilities. Painthical does not aim to establish the objective, if any, substance of the work, but rather to present it poetically as an intermediate suggesting step before even looking at the real painting.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I aim to develop expansive and innovative modes of writing about, with and as art. Within the visual arts discipline, I am focused on Art Writing.
Endorsing Maria Fusco’s “11 statements around art writing” and following Wittgenstein’s assessment on “the case” as everything the world is, I work on multidisciplinary political poetic practices. I seek to compose critical art forms from my non-orthodox artistic education, taking advantage of my theoretical basis in Law, Political Science and Philosophy.
In that sense, I am an outsider artist.
My works set philosophical essays in modern aesthetics. That is the reason why researching constitutes an ineludible part of my artistic production, being a myriad of critical reflections which later on becomes the aura of any Art Writing output. By fostering joint practices that combine poetry with illustration or photography or music, I focus on delivering a future memory of today’s images. In that regard, I promote collaborative projects for depicting an utter panorama of political processes, which are in the end based on many individuals’ perspectives.
Art Writing becomes the subtle (visual) footnote of our time.
MANUEL DELGADO graduated from Law & Political Science at ICADE and has an MA in International Relations from the Spanish Diplomatic School and an MA in European Political Studies from the College of Europe. A Brussels-based Spanish professional, Manuel considers himself an outsider artist focused on the “Art-Writing” discipline through poetry. His poems have been included in “The Circle 19: A Brussels Anthology."
BRECHT LANFOSSI
Zero Calories, mixed media collage printed on 39.37 x 39.37 inches canvas
ARTIST STATEMENT
To describe my work or make an artist statement, it's best to start by quoting two men:
“In the future, humans will be able to simulate entire universes quite easily. And given the vastness of time ahead, the number of these simulations is likely to be huge. So if you ask the question: ‘Do we live in the one reality or in one of the many simulations?’, the answer, statistically speaking, is that we're more likely to be living in a simulation.”
– Silas Beane
“Our brain simulates reality. So our everyday experiences are a form of dreaming, which is to say, they are mental models, simulations, not the things they appear to be.”
– Stephen Laberge
One could argue that what Beane says is nothing new. Artists are already simulating universes for their viewers in a seemingly effortless way. Because of the immense range of works and styles in art, the number of simulations is already large. An artist offers viewers the opportunity to live in this variety of simulations for a while. And Laberge states that things are not what they seem to be, which can be traced back to every artist’s work. In their own context, artists let viewers experience this noble fact.
While creating my artwork, I always keep the ideas from these quotes in my mind, hoping to share them with any potential viewer.
BRECHT LANFOSSI (alter ego: nozem) is a Belgian surrealist collagist/digital painter inspired by dream-like and psychotic consciousness free of reason and convention. He is a Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK Ghent) drop out who never gave up the idea of making some “art” one day.
A way to interpret Lanfossi's work is to consider each work as a scene in a sort of vague state of mental functioning where symbolism dominates the whole experience itself. On the other hand he believes that it would be complete nonsense trying to answer the conundrum concerning his aesthetic creations.
He also doesn't like to use the word “art” for his works because of the grotesque sounding connotation it carries with it. For the artist himself doing what he does is just one of the many existing desperate ways of escaping the global enslaved mind we are all currently living in. He thinks doing that sounds a lot better than the superficial, rat race-driven chaos that has become our norm. More of his works can be found online @nozem.art.
LUANA GÓES
Justice, digital collage
ARTIST STATEMENT
For this particular piece titled Justice, a digital collage seemed like the best fit. The image of protests and cops are something being seen so much in the current news with the Black Lives Matter movement gaining force all over the world, so I wanted to convey that raw image and emotion.
I made this artwork not only to show support as an ally, but also to represent what has been going on in the community: we need justice for black lives. Police brutality, laws and history; a lot of it was constructed based on prejudice and injustices that we, as a society, need to overgrow.
LUANA GÓES is a 17-year-old mixed media artist and designer from Brazil whose work includes traditional and digital mediums.
CARLY CHAN
Marine Exploration, layered papercut and ink
Feline Basics, colored pencil and ink
ARTIST STATEMENT
Marine Exploration is a three-dimensional representation of the ocean and the depths of our exploration; although water makes up so much of our world, we still know relatively little about it. There are incredible mysteries just waiting to be discovered—creatures even stranger than the blobfish or the yeti crab, potential solutions to issues on land, information that could possibly save lives—but the vast majority of the ocean remains unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored.
Feline Basics is a series of colored gesture drawings from a cat cafe, a timed exercise to capture each model’s essence. The variation and intersections of shared characteristics—primary colors, artistic style, and subjects—serve to highlight each cat’s distinct individuality, while simultaneously connecting each component to the broader composition. It reminds us that no matter how different we may seem on the surface, there’s always more that brings us together.
CARLY CHAN is an artist and designer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work often revolves around her experiences and the cultures around her, culminating in art that seeks to express perspectives and aid local communities. Carly has been recognized by the National YoungArts Foundation, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, Anthropologie, and the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Some of her other work can be found online at www.carlychan.com.
ESTER
PETUKHOVA
Disappearing cabinets and students in the church cafeteria, 22 x 30 inches
Full Bracket, acrylic on paper, 22 x 30 inches
ESTER PETUKHOVA is a Russian-American Artist who immigrated from Vologda, Russia in 2001 to the Pacific Northwest. She is a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon University’s: School of Art studying Painting. With an interest in cataloging various objects, environments, and systems at the intersection of Russian and American identities, she uses painting, sculpture and video to navigate. She seeks to produce work that isn’t contingent on one identity or the other, but a culmination, or rather, a newly invented language free to exist outside of established categories. Ester has participated in a number of shows across the U.S., her first large group exhibition being at New York University’s: Rosenberg Gallery in 2016. She has been recognized with several national awards including those with the Scholastic Art & Writing Association and SUBPOP Records. Find her on Instagram @esterpetu.