Magazine Article- Art Habans

"Unheimlich". Capturing the uncanny is an idea that permeates and haunts every piece of work I develop, for me it is an artistic anchor that helps focus and steady my efforts.

My work has been a varied exploration of this uniting theme. What it means to portray 'unheimlich' in a picture, remains an elusive, uncompromising criterion, through which I have strived to harness and preserve its essence. Essentially what my work exposes, is a glimpse into the human condition, it's facets infinite, disconnected and often inharmonious. Notions of social isolation, states of conscious perception, and surrealism have all been prevalent themes affecting both the technical process, as well as the direction of research. 

The methodology which I use to approach a piece of work is diverse. It aims to make and select so that the viewer experiences a deep sense of intrigue whilst resisting unconscious prejudice. Although answers are not always obvious it is hoped that a sense of self resonates with the viewer and that some of the pictures remain purposefully enigmatic.

Within my work the picture is often taken through windows, broken, stained or reflected. This as a means of diffracting the obvious and encouraging the uncanny, allows focus on the unspoken narrative of the scene. This is best illustrated within my recent exploration into the aesthetic veneer of the "local" which has yielded ethereal facets of the uncanny in the images of the people and structures which inhabit.

The film is called "inside out" it is the development of pictures into film. The focal point, being the individual, a film portrait which takes the voyeur into their environment to see their personal effects or workspace, with layers of rich details, giving an altered sense of place, and blurring of boundaries.

Brenda Bullock works in the liminal area in which memory and emotions transcend perceptual dimension and converge into a multi-layered unity that connects the subconscious and a conscious level. Bullock's multidisciplinary approach conveys symbolic and surrealist elements in a coherent consistency and reveals unexpected viewpoints about the way we relate to the reality we inhabit in, deleting the frontiers between the artist and the viewers. We are very pleased to introduce our readers to her refined artistic production.   

1) Hello Brenda and welcome to ART Habens: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background

Are there any experiences that have particularly influenced your evolution as an artist and that inform the way you conceive your works?

Well, I'm mostly self-taught. Even as an adolescent I knew that a kind of artistry was inside me, and I needed to express it. I'm always conscious of that word, 'need' in that many artists throw around the idea of imploding if they don't project their experiences, but it's funny because it's often true. A life/career without learning the trade would have left me unnourished, and I'm just glad I discovered that early on.

To summarize, I embarked on graphic design, which was a good career in itself, however I ultimately began evolving my work after completing my master’s.

2)  Ranging from sculpture and photography to video and installation, your approach is marked out with a deep multidisciplinary symbiosis between several practices and I would like to invite our readers to visit http://www.brendabullock.com in order to get a wide idea of your recent artistic production: in particular, I like the way your suggestive exploration of experiential concepts as memory, perception and the relationship between Man and Nature, wisely combines to a rational gaze on the contemporary age. While crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a symbiosis between different viewpoints is the only way to achieve some results, to express specific concepts?

A concept is subjective, the viewer derives meaning based on their experiences and perception of the piece. While I could (and have done in the past) translate a concept through a sole medium e.g photography. I feel that the fusion of disciples is more expressive, and truer and cements my intention. In creating this way I feel the work is able to communicate the concept across a wider wavelength of expression. Thus the viewer’s perception is enhanced.

3) I would start to focus on your artistic production beginning with The Space Between, an interesting work featured in the introductory pages of this article. As you have remarked once, it aims to unravel the rich cultural resonance of an ancient pagan tradition: when I first happened to get to know it I tried to relate all the visual information to a single meaning. But I soon realized that I had to fit into the visual rhythm suggested by the work, forgetting my need for a univocal understanding of its content In The Space Between, rather than a conceptual interiorly, I can recognize an attempt to enable us to establish direct relations, reminding us of our shared being and unveiling the connection between different cultural spheres which describes such a real-time aesthetic ethnography... Would you say that it's more of an intuitive or a systematic process?

A topic so linked to memory is wholly intuitive. It's about capturing the feeling of a cultural time when life was a slower pace and there were different rules. What one sees can be interrupted so many ways but an emotion from a piece is lasting and unchangeable. It's that kind of cross-historical empathy which the piece was intended to instil.

4) I daresay that the surrealistic qualities that mark out your works are in a certain sense representative of the relationship between emotion and memory. I find it truly poetically engaging and I have to confess that it suddenly forced me to relate myself to your works in a different way. What is the role of memory in your process? And in particular, do you try to achieve a faithful visual translation of your feelings?

This question would have me unfold a large array of definitions about source-energy and the like, but suffice to say, I liken memory to the wind. It's intangible nature becomes in a sense the powerful component, it's what gusts, blows and howls our present selves into action. We are all riding with the wind of our personal history on our backs. What's important is never turning to face it too often, you'll get leaves and all sorts in your eyes. Instead, let the wind tend you on, and even warm the nape below your collar.

This metaphor carries into my work process without alteration. While it is often tempting to conjure up emotion into a physical art, I find those projects tend to frustrate me because the memory isn't pure. What I try to stick to, is conjuring the physicality of my present self, with the emotions therein relating - but not imitating - a past emotional state.

Essentially, memory's role is to give me the kite of an idea, but not hold my hand while I fly it.

5) The recurrent reference to an emotional but at the same time universal imagery dueled to the fruitful juxtaposition between the reference to elements from universal imagery and a lively approach, which seems to remove any historic gaze from the reality you refer to, offering to the viewers the chance to perceive in a more atemporal form. In this sense, I daresay that the semantic juxtaposition between sign and matter that marks out your art, allows you to go beyond any dichotomy between tradition and contemporariness, as in the interesting inextricable, establishing a stimulating osmosis between materials from contingent era and an absolute approach to Art: do you recognize any contrast between tradition and contemporariness?

I do not necessarily believe the contrast has to be an overt one. Of course, the old and the new are binaries, but there's a crossover, intermingling and flashbacks and old-in-the-new and vintage etc...it all goes in circles.

Regarding my work, I deliberately remove the historic gaze for a reason. Whereas some works rely on that tool, the backward glance to effectively draw up a range of effect by recognizing brazenly the work that has come before. I believe in some instances that a backward glance can labour a piece of art, where it would be served better being orphaned to the eyes of its audience and viewers. Denuded of the responsibility of expectation, a piece of art can for lack of a better term 'be itself' when not foreshadowed by its lineage.

6) I like the way your Ice Sculptures series investigates the way the intrinsic ephemeral nature of memory can acquire a permanent existence, being re-absorbed into the ocean of our experience has reminded me of the idea behind Thomas Demand's works, when he stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological narrative elements within the medium instead". While conceiving Art could be considered an abstract activity, there is always a way of giving it a permanence that goes beyond the intrinsic ephemeral nature of the concepts you explore. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

A disconnect is possible in regard to the production of work, of course, it's the mechanical artistry after all. As far as the process goes, I cannot imagine the same to be true. After all, if the artist has no experience from which to draw, she is embarking on an empty tank. The emotive and sensory nature of the creative process demands fuel, demands feeding. Any artist who attempts to do so without the experience would - I believe - draw out something from themselves they were not expecting. It may not be the direct experience applicable to the title of the piece, or the intention of the project, but this would then morph the work into something else. It's hard to cheat your mind in that way, to enlist a kind of emotional automation.

7) Another interesting body of works that has particularly impacted on me and on which I would like to spend some words is entitled Unheimlich,  unhomely, uncanny: I like the way its dynamic life stimulates the viewer’s psyche and consequently works on both a subconscious and a conscious level. How did you decide to focus on this form of illustration? Do you conceive this composition on an instinctive way or do you rather structure your process in order to reach the right balance?

For me, my work is instinctive and surreal, I wanted to create beauty but at the essence of my subjects, the sublime beauty and, as you may have guessed, uncanny. I allowed my subjects time and space to do and what they were comfortable with. My process was to work with integrity and the genuine. For this series so much relied upon the subjects feeling unwatched, going about their lives, that after sitting by while a welder went about his work, he half-flinched on hearing the shutter snap, having forgotten I was there!

8) As most of the pieces from your recent production, Inside Out is open to various interpretations: in particular, it communicates me a process of deconstruction, re-contextualization and assemblage. What is it specifically about deconstruction which fascinates you and makes you want to centre your artistic style around it? In particular would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting work?

Rather than taking a portrait of the man, I took a portrait of the environment in which like a fingerprint, his existence had imprinted on. The idea was to capture something on the other end of the spectrum from the images daily presented to us. The manipulation of portraiture is commonplace and increasingly effective. De-voiding the scene of its host/subject gave me the freedom to poke fun a bit, but also show how much depth can be gained from a man/woman's shadow. Through the video and the overlapping soundscape, I intended the viewer to 'know' this man without ever seeing his face properly. Interesting to me is the bounds to which this kind of portrait is capped, the periphery where it comes into contact with vanity and is enveloped by it. I don't think we will be seeing adolescents posting pictures of their desk contents/wardrobe collections any time soon.

9) Your works are strictly connected to the chance to establish a deep involvement with the viewers and you seem to aim to delete the frontiers between the artist and the people. So before taking leave from this interesting conversation, I would like to pose a question about the nature of the relation with your audience: in particular, do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process in terms of what type of language for a particular context?

The key word there is context. Commission portraits require a more conscious effort to be mindful of another person's view, their preferences, and their opinions of themselves. That's something you can't get away from, nor do you need to.

When it comes to my work, or indeed community projects in which my audience are more open, then it is a different notion. Any artist in any profession or medium will always produce the best results when adhering to their heart, and their passion. Perhaps some people produce art with a feverish worry over what critics and the public will think, but that's just not for me. Life's too short!

10) Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Brenda. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

And thank you as well!

This following year is a pretty busy one. A big collaboration will result in a projection onto the Elan Valley Dam around November 2016, and I'm also working on several personal projects which I will be posting updates for on my website.