Artist Talk at Viewings 1

A new series of events called "Viewings", dedicated to experiencing the dynamic relationship which occurs when art is vewed without the intellect of mind, has opened in the ARTROM Network artist presentation space in Rome, Italy.

When we stand in front of a work and simply see and feel, a personal dialogue begins ... an intimate relationship. After all art is communication. ~ Elizabeth Genovesi, Founding Director, Artrom Network.

As one of the participating artists with my #here2here series, I was privileged to be at the Vernissage Party of Viewings 1, and to also take part in the Artist Talk Series.

I am happy to share here, the talk I gave at this event:

My love of photography began as a small child. I had a tiny box camera and would line up my neighbourhood friends with their arms folded across their chests to take their photos. I also loved communicating - I probably spoke too much in class :) I set up a home telephone system - a little switch board with lots of wires and two other phones - that was a gift designed for children, throughout our house and would proudly call my Dad in the morning when I woke because I knew that that meant he would bring me tea in bed before I went to school. I loved technology. I once took my transistor radio to school, put it in my blazer pocket and then through a tiny hole in my pocket, (not sure where the hole came from!) had the wire of the earphone go up under my blazer into my ear under my one pony tail. Eventually I acquired a walkie talkie. When I learnt to drive I made sure I had a CB radio - a citizens band radio - in my car and at home and would spend evenings chatting to unknown people far away.

My curious nature meant that I read a lot, and my mother says she would often find me reading a book, with only one sock and shoe on when I was supposed to be getting ready for school.

When I started my website four years ago in April 2011, I had two topics I wanted to write about. The first was technology and in particular cyberspace -the mindspace we find ourselves in when we communicate online. The second was mindfulness - paying attention in a particular way - on purpose, in the moment, non-judgmentally. Finding a suitable name for a website which covered these two seemingly very different issues proved interesting. After much thought and discussion the website here2here was born.

It referred to a non-located space beyond normal time and space where people could chat and exchange info - the place where your here met my here - here2here; and it was also a call to come out of autopilot and be totally present in the now - here2here.

I began to write about mindfulness and especially about the need to be mindful when using technology.

I had embarked on a photography project for myself, called mobileart. When I arrived in the UAE I was inspired by the stories of the bedouins who were nomads. Always on the move, they knew as they wandered through the desert what it was like to have a centre that would always be changing.

Using only my mobile phone, I would take photos of that which I found beautiful and share each one immediately via twitter enabling the photos to become mobile. I hoped too that the project would be a sharing of a consciousness on the move. There’s a video of the project on youtube.

Shortly after that I got my first iphone, posted my first picture on the 11th day of the 11th month 2011, on the then one year old Instagram, and shortly after that discovered a whole new world - the world of apps.

I began to follow blogs about them, gather them but most importantly experiment with them. On a daily basis. I still do that - the world of apps is fast moving and fast changing.

Realizing that cyberspace was very much like Baroque art where scenes flow into each other and into the space of the viewer with the viewer determining the centre of the spectacle at any moment in time, I started my first series entitled Digital Archways. Your here and many other heres are brought to my here via the interface of a screen but I can choose what I pay attention to and also how I give it my attention.

I had also started photographing the skyscrapers of Dubai at the time, and so using photos of Dubai architecture, looked more at the architecture of cyberspace, and created the abstract series called Corridors of Cyberspace.

All of these visual expressions began to accompany and add to my writing.

Communicating and sharing visual outcomes online became a great source of encouragement.

The major turning point in my work, came, I believe, when I began to experiment with slowshutter photography on my iphone. A flaneur by nature, I was often out walking and so I began taking photos of people whose energy somehow spoke to me. I don’t know how else to express that. Remember: The longer a camera’s shutter remains open the more light it takes in!

The capturing of these moments called for me to be very alert and aware, so this form of photographing not only flowed out of my mindfulness practice but also became a mindfulness practice in its own way.

Excited by the results I was getting, I began to take these images one step further and intuitively, using various apps, give them a painterly effect.

I edit the slowshutter image with apps. I create my own textures on an app. These are blended into aspects of the image on another app. I add atmosphere with other apps and I actually “paint” on my iphone screen with others. I have learnt to work on resolution using an app and I even have an app which is like a miniature laboratory telling me more about the megapixels and megabytes of each image. This became important when I realized I wanted to print large scale.

I have over a period of time come to realize that these artworks embody much that is important to me: Rootedness and Movement occurring simultaneously, Emptiness and Fullness, Essence and Presence. They are not only a visual portrayal of a non-located space, whether it be cyberspace or the space where everything comes into being, but also call one to be mindful, aware and present. In them my writing, my intentions, my love of photography, my love of art in all its forms, have all come together and found expression. For this reason, this series here to be viewed and experienced in Rome is a very special one for me.

When working with these images, I often feel as if the outcome is simply moving through me, and so I believe that each one will speak when and how it is meant to.

I have included the hashtag in the title of this series #here2here, as just as hashtags bring data from all over into one place, so the artworks in this series come together to acknowledge diversity on many levels, but at the same time call out for respect of the other, encouraging the knowledge that we are all more similar than we realize. The crossing over of the lines in the symbol for a hashtag are a reminder of our interconnectedness and interbeing.

The artworks are printed onto wood in Germany. On a visit there, while looking at different ways to present my work, I came across a young artist who had recently started out printing in this field and was also eager to support other artists. Our here2here collaboration has been a pleasure so far. The fact that the artworks are printed on wood is a reminder to me to stay grounded. What is more rooted than a tree? But despite its groundedness a tree has life flowing through it all the time in a myriad of ways.

Rootedness, Movement, Emptiness, Fullness, Essence, Presence.

#here2here

The series can be viewed on my art website or below via youtube:

At the end of the talk I also gave a demonstration of how augmented reality could possibly be used with art.

Holding my ipad up to one of the artworks on the wall, I scanned it using the Layar app and then chatted about what appeared on my screen.