Tribe Magazine Issue 6

2009 tribeINTERNATIONAL CREATIVE ARTS MAGAZINE

2 TRIBE MAGAZINE ISSUE 6

ISSUE 6 TRIBE MAGAZINE 3


Editor In Chief

Mark Doyle

Editor

Ali Donkin

Associate Editor

Tilly Craig

Editorial Director

Peter Davey

Marketing Director

Steve Clement-‐Large

Client Manager

Jean Camp

Cover

John Scarratt

Contributors

Elizabeth Dismorr, Mark

Ridley, Rouldolf Polansky,

Natalie Gale, Thomas

McKenzie, Bob Ziering, David

Wightman, Jenny Core,

AlienFox Designs, Rui Barros,

Jim Burns, Francesca Dasso,

Hanaa’ Malallah, Eric Haacht,

Stephen Kirby , Peter Reeds,

Wendy Cook, Genevieve

Halton.

Contact

To Submit:

[email protected]

To say hello:

[email protected]

Full contact details can be

found on our website.

www.tribemagazine.org

Contents page: If you are a designer or illustrator looking for a place to showcase your work, why not apply to be our featured designer/illustrator of the month? tribe magazine likes to mix it up, so to keep our contents page fresh we are looking for talented prac??oners to design us a different bespoke version for each issue that exhibits their unique style. In return we will feature a piece of their work on our back page along with an interview and a larger showcase on our blog. Anyone who is interested please contact Ali at [email protected]

With the first issue of tribe:write fast approaching, it is my pleasure to take the helm in introducing to you tribe issue 6. I have been with tribe only a short few months and am delighted to be part of such an enthusiasVc and passionate team.

As a recent graduate of literature, my hope was to eventually make it into the publishing world. This seemed for a Vme like a distant, impossible dream, so it has been an incredible opportunity to be bought into tribe’s fold and be given a chance to experience first hand how it all happens, and be a part of the process.

The development of our sister publicaVon has been a thrilling experience, and we want to make sure we provide a plaWorm for the same mix of features and interviews with established writers, and submissions from those who have not yet had exposure, but whose wriVng is fresh and innovaVve. Our ethos remains the same across our publicaVons; create, create, create! So long as it’s interesVng, we want to know.

We have already received an eclecVc array of weird and wonderful submissions for the wriVng magazine, from fellow Plymouth based writers to those as far afield as Asia and Africa. These different perspecVves on the world and one’s own imaginaVon make for a diverse and riveVng adventure, and I hope upon publicaVon, you will take as much pleasure from reading them as I have.

Things have been moving so fast and the journey tribe is taking us on conVnues to excite and surprise. We have much up our sleeve that we can’t wait to share with you all, so keep your eyes peeled!

-‐ Tilly Craig, Associate Editor

WELCOME TO ISSUE 6

ISSN 2050-5302

mailto:[email protected]







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Elizabeth Dismorr

Mark Ridley

Thomas McKenzie

David Wightman

Jenny Core

Rui Barros

Francesca Dasso

Transition GalleryMalerei

Painting as Object

Bob ZIering

AlienFox designs

Jim Burns

The Mosaic Rooms

Iraq

How, Where, For Whom?

Hanaa’ MalallAH


The New Girl 1


The New Girl 2 Elizabeth Dismorr elizabethdismorrartist.blogspot.co.uk

8 TRIBE MAGAZINE ISSUE 6Nuts-‐n-‐bolts

ISSUE 6 TRIBE MAGAZINE 9Rectilinear -‐Mosaics


Dartmoor Pony

Mark Ridley


Transition Gallery

Malerei -

Painting as

Object

Obsess, 2011


“If destiny will grant me enough time I shall discover an international language which will endure forever and which will continue to enrich itself⋯its name will be Malerei [painting]. Hans K Roethel & Jean K Benjamin, 'Kandinsky' (1979)

Malerei: Painting As Object investigates painting as a process, its guises and paint as a substance via eleven artists practices, including Helen Baker, Phyllida Barlow, Virginia Bodman, Sarah Bowker-Jones, Sean Edwards, Alexis Harding, Gabriel Hartley, Natalie Gale, Paul Merrrick, Rudolf Polanszky and Sarah Kate Wilson. Each artist shares a love of material and the qualities of their ‘thing-ness’, whether it’s oozing oil paint, found objects, performance or jesmonite. The artists however do not remain slavish to the visceral but also embody and appropriate particular areas of Paintings’ history in their multidisciplinary practices. Malerei: Painting As Object will reveal a painterly investigation of the Modernist concern ‘objecthood’, Postmodern eclecticism and the Post-production – trend of continuous re-working.

transitiongallery.co.uk/htmlpages/malerie.html

Behave, 2012

Natalie Gale


Compression Spring Painting ,1983 Rouldolf Polansky


Camera Boy

Thomas McKenzie


Eric Haacht

erichaacht.co.uk


Echo And Narcissus Stephen Kirby


BOB ZIERINGMovement and emotion are amongst portraiture’s hardest challenges to capture; yet Bob Ziering has made these elements central to his work. From athletes to opera stars Bob’s charismatic motion images captivated TRIBE, so we found out more about the challenges and rewards of capturing this dynamic subject matter.


You choose quite a range of subject matter for your work. Can you tell us what it is that inspires you to chose a subject to illustrate?

I choose a subject when the subject lends itself to my temperament, tickles my intellect, visually excites a visceral challenge to interpret. The investigation is going to take me far beyond my first impression.

Capturing movement has featured in many pieces of your work. What are the challenges of creating the feeling of movement in a static image?

All images/subjects move. Or is it me moving in and out around my subject? Line and the use of drawing implements (like pencil, pen and ink, chalk) have been a perfect tool and motivator.

Archer


Whether figurative or abstract, line in its essence moves. It’s directional.

Do you think that the Olympics will be a source of inspiration?

The Olympics is, and has been, a source of inspiration. Sports are all about motion, activity and speed. My interpretation of action has been the source of advertising and illustration assignments for previous Olympics such as in “The Hurdler”, “The Discus Thrower” and “The Jumper”. It’s a

field day for me. All my senses are on high alert with the Games.

You often keep to a simple colour pallet. Can you explain the reasons for this choice?

My color palette has changed over a long stretch in my career. My work was early on confined to pencil and pen and ink drawing; sometimes with colored ink added but basically black and white. Later I added some color sparingly with dyes, colored

Discus Thrower


pencils, and washes over gesso ground. Color was still an adjunct. This was to change big time with the momentous introduction and exploration of pastels. I could now use thin line, broad line, thin and broad strokes, fields of tone, and, of course, areas of color. My work literally exploded and soon this process was integrated.

As well as movement there is a huge amount of character in your subjects, which is quite exaggerated in some images. Many artists shy way from capturing 'big' expressions, why do you

feel it's important to illustrate those moments?

“Big Expressions” as you call them are for me the moments when I am consumed by my subject. I hear, smell, and taste the subject. We’re communicating. For these moments we are one.

Is it a similar process to capturing movement? Your portrait work also seems to hold a split second on the page.

Dinah Washington

ISSUE 6 TRIBE MAGAZINE 29Runners II


Jesse Owens

32 TRIBE MAGAZINE ISSUE 6Don Quichotte

ISSUE 6 TRIBE MAGAZINE 33Long Jumper


For the portraits, I surround myself with the subject. Photo references of the personality cover my studio walls and, if at all possible, the subject is there in the flesh in my studio. Seldom the case with celebrities, unfortunately. I sort of live with the person, viewing from all sides and as many aspects as time permits. We, as the kids today say, “Chill.” I see the person with my eyes closed, captured in my mind’s eye. This can result in the feeling of a moment caught.

Your techniques seem to be born of a very classical style of drawing, yet, particularly when it comes to some of the more expressive moments, there are elements of the caricature. How do you balance these two aspects?

Regarding caricature. Interesting that you should notice it. I’ve always admired caricature. Early in my career it was my ambition to be a caricaturist. It is a remarkable skill that very few achieve well. To capture the essence of a personality with very little detail is no easy matter. Caricature is certainly not

Alfred Hitchcock


exaggerating the obvious. That becomes “cartoon”, a very different thing.

So maybe it’s my ability to select those characteristics that are often most subtle but most distinctive in that personality and play down everything else.

Your work has been used for poster campaigns in the past. This has afforded them very high profile spots such as your 40 by 40 foot banner for The NYC Opera. Do you enjoy having you work shown on that kind of scale?

Wow! Did I love having my art so displayed! I saw my work in an entirely different scale that someone else had determined for it. Sometimes better than the original – more powerful, even overwhelming. Who says, “size doesn’t count?”

I’m stepping outside my art and a mechanical or electronic process has taken my work to another realm. In the “Don Quixote” banner, a banner of 40 feet, the art commanded attention. Furthermore, it was the largest reproduction of my signature ever. What a blast!


Photography is more commonly used in poster campaigns, as it captures the moment, but with your work you show this can be done through illustration. Would you like to see illustration used more with in commercial campaigns? Is it a good vehicle for fine art?

Photography can be used as a means of creating something beyond the picture. The product has to have an identifiable aesthetic. However, the product of the hand, whatever the tool, from nothing to something, generated by the artist’s creative internal engine, is unique and magical.

The line between illustration and fine art is, in my estimation, only a matter of quality - a dictionary definition. I was an illustrator. So were the cavemen at Lescaux. So were Michelangelo, Picasso, Giotto, Monet, Durer, Parish, Rivera, Wyeth, Kiefer, Turner, etc. and all the artists that painted murals from the 13th century until yesterday. And let’s not forget a few more including Bacon, Hopper, Avedon, Atget, Mapplethorpe, and Cindy Sherman.

The product, in the end, and its quality and gestalt is what make it. Whether it is figurative, representational, abstract, expressionist, non-objective, or unconventional, if the viewer is involved… it communicates… it’s art. <

Interview: Ali Donkin

Hay Fever

bobziering.com


Paramour


Mea Bella


Paramour


Magic Moutain


David WightmanOdalisque

davidwightman.net


Laura

Peter Reeds

peterreedsartist.com


Jenny Core

jennycore.com


The Revenge Project was the most elaborate self-initiated

project I had conceptualised. It came at a time when I had

been renting my studio for a few months, practicing how to

make the designs I wanted to make and after I had worked

with a couple of photographers on other projects, many of

w h i c h w e r e c o l l a b o r a t i o n s . A l t h o u g h I a m n o t a

photographer myself, I suddenly had everything I needed in

order to conceive and conclude my first project, a hybrid

of fashion photography, headpiece and costume design, as

w e l l a s h a v i n g a c o n c e p t o r s t o r y . I ' m v e r y b i g o n

narratives; I enjoy telling a story and there were so many

ways to tell this one . The Revenge Project i s a self -

referential, meta-tale of how I view the creative process. I

don't know about the rest of the artists out there, but

sometimes the undertaking of a new project can feel like

witchcraft, or alchemy. First, you have the aim, or brief; you

have the 'ingredients: the raw materials, the models, the

m a k e u p ; a n d t h e n y o u g o t h r o u g h t h i s b u s i n e s s o f

e x p e r i m e n t a t i o n , s e e i n g w h a t w o r k s , d i s c a r d i n g

unsuccessful attempts, and finally coming up with imagery

and aesthetics which you're happy with. But it can be very

easy to lose yourself in the process and to drive yourself

temporarily and obsessively mad with your project. If you

put your all into it, it can feel like you're birthing some

entity of its own. With no conceivable end, you work

diligently and painstakingly, knowing that if you don't

finish, all your time - and others' time- will be in vain. The

Revenge Project narrative goes with each stage of the

collection: Seance, Possession and Exorcism. For me, those

three stages are necessary and interdependent. The joy at

completing a project and contemplation on the success of

the images is reflected in the ending, however the main bulk

of the story is particularly dark. It begins right after the

end of another project.

The Revenge Project:

AlienFox


After the creative process of a project has reached the crescendo to which it

has been building, I often experience this brief, yet potent, ennui. The

conclusion has been reached; everyone's gone home; the gallery is empty and

all the energy has dissipated. What now? Coupled with the unbearable

realisation that I have been at the mercy of my own generosity yet again,

savaged by my own foolish exertion of energy towards a person who has

disarmingly denied me, the feeling can be overwhelming

Oh, how I'd like nothing more than to use the knowledge I have to destroy

and dominate, to wreak destruction and demonstrate the venom of which I

know I am capable.

The desire for revenge is so easy to understand. Someone has betrayed you or

wronged you; you need retribution. It's as innate as the will for human

survival, as intrinsic as the desire for love. And what makes this voracious

appetite for vengeance so frightening is that it can consume you so

completely. It becomes your armour of justification. The self-righteousness

of an eye for an eye, as the prophecy said, indeed leaves you so blind to

rational, logical thinking that it eclipses any consideration of forgiveness.

You feel encrusted that poisonous yearning for reprisal and, like precious

jewels cut knife-sharp and angular, you can feel nothing but the teeth

grinding in your skull and the mercurial blood in your arteries.

Revenge can be a skill. It is not violence. Revenge can be a talent,

predetermined and cold. But revenge is not a game. It should be feared.

Type to enter text


Those ready and able spirits, those

demons we unleash by vitriol and

vengeance, seek to dominate us - to

own us, to possess us. Revenge can be a

skill. It need not necessarily be

violent; it can be a talent,

predetermined and cold, practiced as

if a sport or an art. But revenge is not

a game - it should be feared, for those

natural spirits we have released now

feed upon the endless cycle of poison.

Once, good and evil, sat seated like

habitual lovers, eternally entwined in

an embrace. But now, through your

self-heresy, they diverge, drawn

towards a darkness greater than

anything in the beyonds where their

thrones lie. They are drawn to your

darkness and they take shape for you.

And in that last nanosecond of

clarity and sanity, you will see that

revenge is an entity of itself. One does

not need to initiate it, for it presents

itself as surely and finally as a carved

epitaph.


The horned evils released shall be in

abundance and the darkness shall at

once appear both overwhelming and

seductive. The flames of anger and

violence are fanned, your ego the fuel.

Thoughts become words, word become

deeds. But even what seems to be the most

malicious and malevolent of ideals, those

which you have disowned, too evil to

admit to, have their seed in the

subconscious, even the conscious - nested

deep within the mind. And no being is

isolated, independent of its

surroundings; each is like a wave,

seemingly riding separate on the ocean,

only to suddenly dissolve and merge

with that which it was always part of.

Know your mind, understand your anger

and feed not the addiction of revenge.

Exorcise that which you alone have

summoned - gilted, golden, glittering

freedom awaits.

AlienFox Designs

facebook.com/AlienFoxDesigns


Smoking Gun


Zit

Rui Barros

ruibarrosart.com


JIM

BURNS

JIM BURNS is one of the most popular

and respected illustrators in the world. His work has graced the covers

of some of science fiction and fantasy’s greatest titles and his iconic style has

influenced a myriad of sci-fi fantasists. He talks to TRIBE MAGAZINE about the

past, present and future.

ISSUE 6 TRIBE MAGAZINE 65The Long Run


You started in pen and ink and airbrush, and now we have digital - what impact has digital workflow had on your creative process?

A big impact!! I should point out straight away that I still work in paints - as well as digitally. In fact my preferred medium is painting on canvas. However, fees over the years have gradually reduced (for all book jacket artists) - primarily due to the very nature of this new digital medium. Commissioning paintings..physical things that may have an intrinsic value beyond their commissioned fee, reproducing them via a sequence of traditional processes including photography, the logistics of handling and storing these items..all this is Stone Age from the publisher's perspective..and digital as in almost all walks of life has totally transformed the way these things work. Even when the finished item is a traditional painting..a client doesn't want to see that..doesn't want the bother of it. So a digital file has to be made at the artist's end..including high quality photography or scanning and translation to readable digital files. So the 'workflow' simply from the physical point of view is radically altered. The workflow in terms of creativity is also, inevitably changed. With fees where they now are..it's very hard for me to justify engaging with a large painted canvas which may take several weeks to complete. It's simply not economic. So

almost all book jacket work I now create digitally on a Mac. I use only Photoshop..never having got to grips with any other digital software. I'm too long in the tooth to start engaging with 3d work..and neither does it interest or excite me much. I should probably investigate the more 'painterly' programs more than I have..such as 'Painter' and 'ArtRage'..and I do intend checking them out more seriously than I have to date. But since 1997 all my digital output has been in Photoshop.Non-book jacket work..meaning mostly those things I create as 'personal' work is where I get the paint and brushes out. I'm aiming here more at a collector market…which seems to be almost exclusively an American market where this kind of material has a bigger following..at least at what we might call the 'higher value end'.I should add that for me the advent of digital has been most liberating in terms of how I go through the process of conceiving, sketching up and doing preliminary work on canvas. It's changed the way my paintings actually look (I think!). Strangely enough, when I bought my first Mac my intention - given that I had a successful name as a science fiction artist and didn't want to spring nasty digital surprises on clients - was to try and emulate my familiar old traditional style, digitally. It has worked that way for me..but the reverse has also been true in that by some serendipitous

The Engines of God


process the nature of the digital method has definitely informed my traditional paintings in subtle ways..not always clear even to me..but it's definitely the case.

How have your traditional techniques helped or hindered your growth as digital artist?

I think some of this is answered above. For me 'digital' is just another tool. An incredible, powerful, versatile tool. I'm completely 'onside' with regards to this tool..not the case with all traditional artists..many of whom - some younger than me..DESPISE the usurper! There is a fairly seamless workflow in my studio between traditional and digital or vice versa. It's foolish to regard (as some do) the computer as 'the Devil's tool'.

The internet has fantastic empowering qualities - artists can now network and share ideas/work on a scale that was impossible 20 years ago and sell directly to clients. In terms of your own personal journey as an artist, what are the good and bad things about this empowerment and accessibility? In general, has the quality of work being produced and shared by these networks of artists gone up or down over the years? Is there too much work out there now?

There IS too much work out there!! And the trouble is..the nature of these tools means that it is possible to create passable images because of the power of the software..without necessarily having much by way of traditional drawing skills. I know artists who will cheerfully admit to this..which doesn't bother me because (and I'm speaking here essentially about commercial commissions) that's where the world now is…The 'bottom line' has dictated that it shall be so and to complain is, I'm afraid..to use the vernacular..pissing into the wind. One has to find 'new directions' as an artist. If one has some talent..you'll find an outlet. My biggest gripe with the sheer volume of digital material being created out there is that beyond the often superficially dramatic punchy image-making, the identity of the artist is becoming subsumed and it is really quite difficult to distinguish one artist from another. The majority of artists working in this field seem strangely inclined to emulate their heroes rather than finding their own voice. Ultimately this makes it boring..and I'm no longer fooled by the superficial drama of digital imagery..unless it is extraordinarily good and 'different'. The same is true of the cinema. SF movies are full of gee-whizz cgi…but most of the time it is yawn-inducing as it has little originality or variation.

68 TRIBE MAGAZINE ISSUE 6The Forever War -‐ Assault Ship


Personally I feel that my career is still in a stage of evolution - so far as more sensibly employing the benefits of the internet is concerned. And my big interest right now is making new, large scale canvases for some projects I have lined up. I find it hard to stretch myself thinly enough to cover all the angles…but these changes in the way it all now works…keeps one on one's toes! To drift out of the here and now..to not keep up as best one can..truly is to be left in the wake of history.

Your work has graced many classic sci fi novels - bearing in mind the adage "you can't judge a book by its cover" and despite that just about everyone does, do you still get nervous about how a client will react to a book sleeve commission? How collobarative is the process between artist and commissioner in the book world?

I must say I preferred it back in the 80's and 90's when the relationship was essentially between myself and the art director - with the occasional (but rare) input of the writer. And because my work seemed to be well-regarded - and I was certainly not short of it (so it was presumably helping to shift a lot of books!) I gained sufficient 'clout' in the field that art directors trusted me to just get on with the job..that my decision making was largely to be trusted. My sketches and roughs seemed to go straight through on a nod more often than not. In the last decade the shift has definitely moved away from this one-to-one relationship between artist and art director. As I understand it..any initial visuals have to pass through committees now..chiefly with the dreaded 'marketing people' having the main

say. One doesn't much possess a 'reputation' any more..an artist's name is an irrelevant part of the process. And more often than in the past..when I read the books and came up with the ideas..now we find that sometimes the book has not even yet been written!! - and 'ideas' are presented to one for the book jacket design..This takes away a lot of freedom of course..and with it some of the pleasure. But again there is no point in railing against the current modus operandi..and it can - as you suggest…make one a little more nervous about passing muster.

What gets you excited in the visual arts world right now?

Well nothing much in the world of 'fine art' that's for sure. It seems to be largely people by talentless bores full of a sense of their own importance and devoid of any interesting ideas. I'm much more interested in the world of illustration - particularly over in the US (where illustration was always regarded more seriously that in the UK) and where artists 'of the fantastical' - with what we might think of as traditional painting skills still keep the flag flying for the application of that beautiful stuff called 'paint'. A new exhibition has just opened at the Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania called 'At The Edge'..an exhibition of this generic material in a mainstream gallery..the biggest ever of its kind. Work by contemporary artists of the fantastical rub shoulders in the same show with Doré, Rackham, Pogany, Wyeth and others…I'm fortunate enough to have one of my canvases on show there..'HOMUNCULARIUM'..and all this suggests that a there is a future for the non-digital end of fantastical art


Can you talk a bit about your current work and the directions it has taken you as an artist?

Currently I'm trying to focus more on my own personal projects. These still largely reside in the world of the 'fantastical'..but given that I don't have to consider things like the narrative presented by a novel, the inevitable limits to expression imposed by clients (no 'mucky stuff' Jim!), compositional requirements (that old book jacket format, allowing for titling etc…was very restrictive) then I would like to think that what you will see more and more of is my OWN imagination at work..and this really means 'darker' in theme…. At least this is where my imagination is taking me..to a degree. I'm not talking dark, dark horror..but more mysterious, darkly atmospheric themes. I'm currently working on a couple of Edgar Allan Poe themed paintings..'Ligeia' and 'Annabel Lee' as well as a few things 'out of my own head'.

The Dreaming Void


As an airbrush artist, you had a very distinct style - it was easy to spot a Jim Burns cover on book shelf. How do you feel about that work now looking back? Do you still use pen and ink or airbrush for commissions?

I was always bemused/amused by the fact that people could easily identify my work! I'm not apologetic about any of it..well 99%. There are a few hated pieces! I was lucky to make a reasonable living from my lllustration and was able to raise a family of 4 children on my own solo income..so I do feel a lucky man. But my favourite painting is always 'the next one' (a sad old cliché I know!). I have a lot of affection for certain work produced during certain periods. Planet Story would count as one such time..when I was paid a monthly sum - almost like being salaried! - over a couple of years producing the paintings for the collaboration with Harry Harrison. My work experienced an accelerative development during that time as so many of the daily little worries were lifted and I was able essentially to indulge myself. I think my work advanced by strides doing that

The Naked God

ISSUE 6 TRIBE MAGAZINE 75Plasma Launch

Tertiary Node


work. I still use the airbrush a lot. Like the computer - it's a useful tool, a weapon in the arsenal.

I think the question of humanity in SF is interesting - it's often overlooked. I think your work does being a sense of humanity to SF illustration. Many illustrators concern themselves with the technology and the grand histrionics of a future world, where people are often reduced to minor figures in a piece. Some of your work has firmly placed the person at the

centre of the illustration, and this is at times quite unsettling because it humanises the future, and so often the way the future is portrayed by illustrators is very dehumanising. Would you agree?

I'd agree with your analysis re: Humanity in images. To some extent..when I first started in this profession..it was the work I was doing for a year or two before I really got much science fiction work which is in part to blame. The work (back then) that rookie book jacket

Pandora’s Star


artists tended to be given was often not-very-inspiring historical romance - which required showing almost invariably the central character(s) on the front of the book. I did quite a bit of this - and to a degree my becoming more at ease with figure work as a consequence meant that they kind of drifted into my SF work..and hung around! Without the earlier work I may well have gone down a more Chris Foss route - with Humanity relegated to bit part players in the background. After a while I realised that people liked my way of doing this stuff and so I got the work..and that's

how it's been ever since. I almost always look at such commissions with the thought.."OK..how can I drop this or that character convincingly into the scene' - rather than looking for every which way to leave them out..as it is the case that poor figure work (if it isn't your forté) is a bit revealing!..whilst dirty great spaceships or weird aliens..who's to tell you what's wrong with them if they are products of you, the artist's imagination?


The Terran Derelict


I first came across your work in Planet Story, your collaboration with Harry Harrison. Are there any other writer collaborations on the horizon? What is the process like when collaborating with a writer?

That was the only collaboration of any consequence! I do sometimes communicate briefly with writers over jacket details when I want a bit of elucidation. Nor are there any projects on the horizon. But never say never! I recently turned down a possible long term collaboration on a 3 volume children's book..with a

writer otherwise known for BIG SF novels. But I need to concentrate on my own work in the immediate future - a promise I've made myself.Suddenly I recall that I DO have a collaborative relationship with the artist Gillian Wearing (one of the BritArt pack along with Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin). This has recently been revived for 'one more job' after I collaborated with her on her 'Pinups' series. This new painting is, in essence a portrait of Gillian herself! As this is outside my usual 'comfort zone' I momentarily forgot! It's nice occasionally to engage with


Darwinia


another creative entity!! One can go a bit stir-crazy in the solitary confines of one's studio!

How do you keep things fresh? What inspires you?

Oh…that's a tricky one to answer!! It invites appalling clichés from me! I think the thing that keeps it fresh really is to still be enjoying DOING it. Once one gets bored..that is immediately reflected in the work. I do have a good imagination and I am capable of conjuring up all kinds of weird stuff in my head..most of it never assigned to canvas or screen. I love Nature and the strangeness that Nature keeps revealing to us..and one thing the computer allows me is to build up resources of 'weird stuff' that I keep in folders and draw on occasionally for inspiration. My own photography is also very much part of this process. Technology too..the products of Mans' ingenuity..I find very seductive.

Is there a process/method/technique/medium that you would like to work with/in that you have not so far?

I have promised myself that having moved from flat board surfaces to canvas or canvas board a year or two ago - I shall follow that - in part at least - with a shift from acrylics to oils. Or rather a 'return' to oils as up until 1980 a large part of my output was in oils..including Planet Story.

What can we see from you in the next few years? Where are you looking to take things?

I'd like to think that you'd see more personal work..larger, paint on canvas, dark-themed maybe..but with what shall I call it??..'grotesque beauty' rather than 'monstrous'. Less obviously 'science fictional'. This with a view to collector sales..maybe some kind of gallery representation? It's hard to say. After 40 years of a certain way of working..the future is certainly Terra incognita for me..but all the more exciting for that! <

Interview: Mark Doyle


Homuncularium

alisoneldred.com/artistJimBurns.html


Muscle Ship of the Lalandian Hegemony


Arkangel


Judas Unchained


Alturas


Camino


Campo


Cena

Francesca Dasso

[email protected]


How did you come to work together?

It's not really “work together” . We exhibited our work together in 2007, first time I came here, they were the only British artists in a show of Iraqi artists, this is how I know KennardPhillipps. Then in 2011, I came up with the idea to do something, because I worked with politics, so asked to do a show about Iraq and because I know this artwork.

Do you think your work compliments each other?

Yeah I think so, because if you compare between me and KennardPhillipps, they saw Iraq throughout the media, just through the media, with me as an Iraqi artist who lived with the war, I think this is a good concept for this exhibition. They are British artists, from the country that invaded Iraq and this Iraqi artists who is free from Iraq and now is in exile in the same country. So he is a British artist I am an Iraqi artists and we work together about one issue. It is about Iraqi, this conflict between art and technique specifically, so if you compare technique, this is my media and this is my technique so if you search the concept of this exhibition it's really big. It is big and it is unique.

Having that same subject, but these different approaches, are the different approaches due to where you come form or is it your individuality as artists?

It is both. I am a political artist by destiny, it is my background. I had 35 years with the war, every day there is war, there is death so it has definitely affected all my concepts and my art and my everything. But apart from this a part of me, a big part of me, is an artist. I have a PHD in art and I spent 35 years just studying art, so on the journey-‐ from the beginning I am an artist, just an artist, not political, but because I'm Iraqi living like this, every day war, every day death... it definately effects everything.

What do you think the perception of Iraqi art is in the West? Do you think that when people here think about art coming from Iraq they assume it will naturally concern the war?

It is a big challenge. Take London for example, it is a big city, a global city and there is a lot of art here and in different ways, there are big techniques, there is a big contemporary artwork work movement so how with my concepts, with my technique can I survive as an Iraqi artist in this city? I'm

The Mosaic Rooms :

Iraq - How, Where, For Whom?

Hanaa’ MalallahIt was with a great amount of excitement that tribe made our first visit to London’s Mosaic

Rooms, a gallery which specialises in bringing progressive work from Arabic nations to

England, to see a joint exhibition of the work of British duo KennardPhillipps and Iraqi artist

Hanaa’ Malallah. ‘Iraq – How, Where, For Whom?’ shows the 2003 Iraq war from two different

angles; KennardPhillips work using media imagery along side the work of Hanaa’ Malallha, who

incorporates destroyed maps and ashen objects into her pieces. In this issue we feature the

work of Hanaa’ Malallha.


in excel but my artwork is not. My art work is flourishing here because there is this big challenge, I have to do something which compares to very contemporary artwork and this city gives me this opportunity so I can see all the artwork in the world and think “how can I challenge this?” I'm not Iraqi, not just Iraqi, we talk about artists as artists.

You say you can't help being influenced by war and your generation growing up. In the 80's your techniques were influenced by that, but it's not just about the war, it's about abstraction...

It's about abstraction and it's figurative I have my practice as a ritual artist. This is about…live with the death, it keeps you thinking about death but with my background as Eastern not Western. If you compare [my work] to Damian Hirst, he works with death as a material, so there’s decay, there’s rotting. For me death is lighter because I have an Eastern background and it's a ritual background. What is revealed after the material decay? I mean I love it, it's a very big concept, but for me it is because of my background, it think about what will stay after death, this will be my project.

In what way do you think you'll explore that? Again through materials?

Yeah, how can I through materials, give a sense to the concept of death as a light thing, a very light

thing. It is because I believe in the other world, I believe, how will I prove it by material, because I work with material, I will find something very light and this is real, and I think this concept is effected by living with death, living so long with the war.

From a Western point of view, with a different attitude towards death, is it quite shocking showing work that is influence by war but it has this lighter feeling?

But you have to examine this, you have to examine the other side so it is the concept of death, how it is as a global thing? Then there is death by human and death by nature, so how to compare this? This is death by war and this is death by natural thing, so this is a big concept.

You were talking earlier about the clutter of war, are your final canvases influenced by the visuals of war? Those images of the museum which was bombed, the broken pottery you mentioned, that seems to be reflected in your work.

It is. They bombed Bagdad two times, very heavily in '91 and again in 2003, we went to the Library and to the Museum to see all the books, just ashes, it is still...everything is just as though you can see it, but if you touched it it would disappear, so it exists and doesn't exist. It really affected all my artwork and my technique but not in a negative way.


It's funny, you were talking about how different the work is between you and KennardPhillips due to your perspective seeing war in reality not through the media, this asthetic, with ash and clutter, but now you've been here your work has seems to have changed in the new pieces which you have done, is it the media influence?

It is from the media, which gives me some relief, to reveal something from my side, I will do this. It's like a resistance.

Talking about the museum and what it represents has the ancient art of the museum, of Mesopotamia has any influence on your work?

Yes, I kept going to the museum because there's a section there, but you keep going to the museum and then there is just ruination. You see this thing every day, every week, and then just ruination, so this effects our technique. Then there is this museum which is full of ruins, ruins again, so there is modern ruin and ancient ruin, it's like collage.

The ancient heritage of Iraq seems so much a part of Iraqi identity, but do you think that particularly through Western eyes, that Iraq has been lost? Do you think that when they think of imagery of Iraq they don't see that they see images of war rather than art at all, weather ancient or contemporary?

It is complicated because there is no line, no limit, this is the artist, how can you layer this in your artwork, it's not illustration artwork, so how to layer all this in one artwork? How can you catch what is Iraqi art globally?

Do you think that contemporary art in Iraq is something that has a positive future?

No. I have contact with them, I was a teacher in Iraq, In a University. Now it is very different, before there is some contemporary. Now for the future I don't know. Maybe something would have happened, maybe, but now, with my contact, there is nothing. They destroyed

everything, a lot of good Iraqi artists fled from the country around the war. So now there's a new generation who struggle with everything, there is nowhere to study because their Universities lost their teachers so there's no one. I have compared with my colleague, she's a teacher in the institute of art, she struggles with everything, there's nothing, for the near future there's nothing.

Are they building new schools in any areas? Do young artists have any opportunities to study in other countries? Maybe. If this happened it would really be good. It needs a big project like that. I know there are projects like this, but because it is still dangerous, if anyone flees from Iraq, they stay there, they don't want to come back.

There are a lot of preconceptions about what people in Iraq are free to do, is art one of those things that there is freedom to practice, or does it happen underground?

Iraq is just chaos, There's nothing, it's just chaos. It's sectarian, there are many people fighting each other, if you do anything they may kill you, for nothing they will kill you, so that's why I fled, so there's nothing. You can't create something or exhibit something, there is just chaos.

You were talking earlier about the role of art, weather art is just art or weather it can help change perceptions of things, or help people develop and grow?

Yeah for me it is important, it is not to say, it is not direct change, to do this or that, it is deep change, deep change with art. You can't capture some deep thing which is needed, with many layers, it is inside, you feel it and I believe in that. What's the point of art if there's no big deep concept going on? I believe in this. For me this is how I can survive, I can survive by art and now I'm still alive because I'm an artist. That's it.


Do you think it should be more of a priority to show politically motivated art? Or art from places where it is harder to develop contemporary art, places which may be in chaos?

No, because for me contemporary art is this big door which is open. You can do anything. It is how clever you are, or how you can deal with this open door. This is a good thing and a very bad thing, but it is an open area so you can do anything, you can use this open door to produce very good artwork. Now I am free to use photography, media, embroidery, just image, which is good, really good. I can choose a car and use this as my artwork and I like it. This is art. Open doors is a good thing.

Talking about the Car/jewellery piece, that's very evocative to the kind of media imagery we see of Iraq. Does something like that have a lot of emotion attached to it for you?

I developed that artwork with the gallery, it's maybe a post modern artwork, contemporary artwork, but if you just give mystery, about this, what is it? So it is both. It is a car from the street now in a gallery but if you know the history then you know more about it.

You talk about how objects have meaning of their own, with much of your work the focus is on materials and how they are used, but the


car (an installed car, the reminent of a car bomb) seems quite different.

It is ready made. I like that, it is ready made art object and sometimes I work with a ready made. At the same time, everyday I work my hand. I do stretches, figurative things, abstract , if there are found objects to hand, I can touch it, I can put it in my artwork, if it helps my concept I use it. With contemporary artwork you can choose anything to deliver your message.

With the car it was destroyed already, but with you're work using ruin technique is it important to be part of the running process?

Yeah, this technique exists by fire, I think how can I deliver this, it's between abstraction and figurative, you see faces and forms in abstraction, so I am a painter, a figurative painter so how can I use my expertise with this [technique], go from figurative studio sketches, so it's many layers, it's not figurative, it's different, that's why I call it ruins technique. It is mine, it is formed in a specfic area. <

hanaa-‐malallah.commosaicrooms.org

Interview: Ali Donkin


Genevieve Halton


Wendy Cook

artbywendycook.

weebly.com


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Tribe Magazine Issue 6

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Transcript of Tribe Magazine Issue 6