Monday 16 November 2009
Wednesday 9 September 2009
Interview : My Ine: always seeking the truth…
Eileen Botsford-Velissaropoulou
My Ine: always seeking the truth…
Text and interview by Gioula Papadopoulou*
click for ther interviews & publishing >>
“Ine” (είναι) in Greek means “being”, “existence”. It is a really complex word and has many different uses in the Greek language. “My Ine” is not just “my being” or “my existence”. It goes further and deeper than this, to all the essential elements and qualities of one’s “being”: materially, emotionally, spiritually, philosophically, symbolically, and so on.
“My Ine” is the title and content of the video work that Eileen Botsford-Velissaropoulou has prepared to present in the context of the Florence Biennale 2009. At times dominated by a constant and persisting exploration of identity (personal, social, cultural, transcultural, global) through complex theories and multi-cultural connections, Eileen Botsford-Velissaropoulou approaches her “ine” in an unexpectedly fresh and direct way: simply by being herself. She consciously chooses to translate “my being” into “being me”. Something that seems to be simple and naïve maybe, but -on the contrary- is actually very difficult to achieve in our times. And she is not afraid to do so.
She began her project with a complicated brainstorming, a labyrinth of information and ideas, explaining her thoughts and process of thinking online, in a “digital sketchbook”, as she calls it. But, as she writes in a text about her project: “The more complex my plans became, the less I could feel the truth in them. So I stopped.”
As an artist that follows her instincts, she decided to discard everything outside her and keep the only real “tool” of her being: herself. She writes about this turning point in a highly emotional, but direct way.
“I woke up one morning and cried. I got my camera, switched the music on and started ‘painting movement’ with all I’ve got, myself. I was 3 months pregnant and although my ‘είναι’ and my body was changing, it was still me. I made a video, with no real beginning, end, or hidden meaning, just exposure. I am not sure what it is, but whatever it is, it’s true, that is all I really care about.”
Concepts and terms like nudity, truth, exposure, sensuality and voyeurism, video as a mirror, the body as a tool, are dominant in the piece she created. In the following interview, Eileen Botsford-Velissaropoulou analyses the morphological and conceptual aspects of her upcoming presentation in the Florence Biennale and explains everything about her work.
Interview:
GP: Rosalind Krauss stated back in the seventies that video is a narcissistic medium and related video-art to the “mirror stage” of Lacan’s theory. More than 30 years later many artists still use it for the exploration of their body –and soul. Is video for you primarily a mirror? And what is for you the symbolic meaning behind the reflecting surface?
EBV: Through my practice as an artist using video art, which at times depicts my body, I would agree in part that at times I may be using it as a narcissistic form of expression. Agreeing to this is not a confession, more of an observation of my method of practice, as if to also help myself understand why I am driven to this.
Interestingly, to a certain extent I would also agree with Krauss that Lacan’s “mirror stage” theory on infant development, can be observed in a more complex version through self-performance video art, including my work. The visual identity given from the video reflection of one’s self, does indeed supply an imaginary wholeness to the experience of a fragmentary real we have in our consciousness, even if this practice takes place in our adult life. Lacan’s theory also highlights the relation being developed between the ego and the body, a process, that I believe we develop and practice throughout our life, sometimes as a self-explanatory method, sometimes as a way to understand what our ego and material being really is.
As a whole, my aim is to explore who I am through rawness of images, and in my own - inexplicable in words - way, I hope to develop a language of communication with the audience, a communication that is understood and perceived through alternative, direct channels.
GP: Your work is very strongly connected with your personal image. For “My Ine” you use shots of yourself that seem almost self-referring and self-communicating. But, at the same time, you manage to create a poetic and sentimental atmosphere, with a voyeuristic essence that attracts the viewer to “enter” your personal space and time. How “open” and how “closed” is your work to the viewer?
EBV: “My Ine” was first developed for myself, then for my audience. So the images in the work, in its’ unedited form, were initially completely “open”, however when reaching the stage of presentation I selected what my audience ‘needs’ to see, by putting myself in the audience’s place. The idea remained the same, the images are still raw, but they are ‘beautiful’ rather than intimate. I am not interested in being sexual in my work. Sensuality and grace, which is one of my most cherished images, can be portrayed through non-sexual connotations. I would describe my work as “open” to the viewer, however open to view only a certain image, the image I have selected for them.
GP: How much do you think that you are “exposed” through this work?
EBV: I feel very exposed through this work. I feel exposed through any work of mine, which has been created predominantly with my spirit rather than my mind. But this is what I do, I transport my inner most self on visual material and then expose it. Exposing yourself, who you are, being true, is also a way of living, a daily practice that cleanses your being.
GP: How would you describe with words your “ine”?
EBV: ‘Ine’ is abbreviated from the Greek “είναι” pronounced ‘ine’ and means ‘being’. ‘My ine’ in a way means ‘my being’. I find it challenging to describe my being in words, maybe if I could I would be a writer rather than a visual artist. Either way all I believe My Ine is, is the Truth, and all I try to communicate through My Ine is the Truth, and as Eckhart Tolle has very well analysed:
“There is only one absolute Truth, and all other truths emanate from it. When you find that Truth, your actions will be in alignment with it. Human action can reflect the Truth, or it can reflect illusion. Can the Truth be put in to words? Yes, but the words are, of course, not it. They only point to it”
GP: How does the personal “ine” transcend the personal boundaries and connect to the “whole”?
EBV: The connection to the whole is purely based on the recipient's perception. Anything we try to communicate arrives on the other end in a state that strongly relates to who the perceiver is, what they are ready to and what they want to perceive. Somewhere along these communication lines one hopes to also be able to channel the Truth.
GP: You have created two different versions of “My Ine”, a “raw cut” and a second one where you use the mirror effect –in which we actually see the half image. In this second version gestures and forms seem to emerge from -or immerse into- themselves. Since the original shot is already a “mirroring shot” of yourself, this second version is almost like mirroring the mirror. What is the deeper meaning of this effect?
EBV: I created the second version of this film, firstly because I found it visually baffling and therefore interesting, but also because my work is always created for, or adapted to the location it will be presented. I prepared the work to be presented at the 1st Athens Fringe Festival, and it was projected on a concave corner of an exterior building at Technopolis, Athens, so the resulting visual effect was that all the imagery came from a central line and ended at a central line, forming new geometrical images of the same subject.
GP: In the Florence Biennale 2009 exhibition, you plan to present both versions, raw and mirrored. What does this contradiction indicate for you?
EBV: In the Florence Biennale 2009 I plan to present the project as a documentary, explaining the whole process and including how I worked online through my virtual ‘sketchbook’, www.eileenatbiennale.net . Rather than contradicting itself, the work will be presented in the form of a narrative, in order to present the many faces of this project.
GP: Creating this work, your initial research orientation involved eastern philosophy and many other rituals and traditions referring to an internal and mystical approach of “being”. Where did this “voyage” lead you, personally and from artistic view?
EBV: My research was motivated by a need to focus on myself as a means to understand ‘us’ people. It further developed in to a process of how to best present my studies and conclusions, what techniques and mediums to use. As always, at some point, I muddled myself up with too much information and I stopped. The information had helped me but I had to distance myself from it and start from scratch, become ‘raw’ again.
GP: How much do you follow your instincts in the creative process?
EBV: My personal success is measured by how instinctive a work is. I always try to follow my instincts, and the process is not always as straightforward as one may think. It always starts with research and practice, which is crucial for my work, but at some point I always have to walk away from it and filter my intake. Then, when my mind is clear and focused, I can produce pure work.
GP: What is the major challenge of art for you?
EBV: My personal challenge in my art is to achieve pureness while at the same time being able to live off my work. I believe that not all that is commercial is fake and not all that is pure is non-commercial. It takes refining of your way of thinking to able to combine elements in your work that help you spiritually and also materialistically. I detest stereotypes and refuse to fall in to any, as I find them a comfortable means of excusing yourself from what is really hard in life; change, adaptation, and moving forward.
____________________________
*(Gioula Papadopoulou is a media artist and curator of Video Art Festival Miden, Greece)
My Ine: always seeking the truth…
Text and interview by Gioula Papadopoulou*
click for ther interviews & publishing >>
“Ine” (είναι) in Greek means “being”, “existence”. It is a really complex word and has many different uses in the Greek language. “My Ine” is not just “my being” or “my existence”. It goes further and deeper than this, to all the essential elements and qualities of one’s “being”: materially, emotionally, spiritually, philosophically, symbolically, and so on.
“My Ine” is the title and content of the video work that Eileen Botsford-Velissaropoulou has prepared to present in the context of the Florence Biennale 2009. At times dominated by a constant and persisting exploration of identity (personal, social, cultural, transcultural, global) through complex theories and multi-cultural connections, Eileen Botsford-Velissaropoulou approaches her “ine” in an unexpectedly fresh and direct way: simply by being herself. She consciously chooses to translate “my being” into “being me”. Something that seems to be simple and naïve maybe, but -on the contrary- is actually very difficult to achieve in our times. And she is not afraid to do so.
She began her project with a complicated brainstorming, a labyrinth of information and ideas, explaining her thoughts and process of thinking online, in a “digital sketchbook”, as she calls it. But, as she writes in a text about her project: “The more complex my plans became, the less I could feel the truth in them. So I stopped.”
As an artist that follows her instincts, she decided to discard everything outside her and keep the only real “tool” of her being: herself. She writes about this turning point in a highly emotional, but direct way.
“I woke up one morning and cried. I got my camera, switched the music on and started ‘painting movement’ with all I’ve got, myself. I was 3 months pregnant and although my ‘είναι’ and my body was changing, it was still me. I made a video, with no real beginning, end, or hidden meaning, just exposure. I am not sure what it is, but whatever it is, it’s true, that is all I really care about.”
Concepts and terms like nudity, truth, exposure, sensuality and voyeurism, video as a mirror, the body as a tool, are dominant in the piece she created. In the following interview, Eileen Botsford-Velissaropoulou analyses the morphological and conceptual aspects of her upcoming presentation in the Florence Biennale and explains everything about her work.
Interview:
GP: Rosalind Krauss stated back in the seventies that video is a narcissistic medium and related video-art to the “mirror stage” of Lacan’s theory. More than 30 years later many artists still use it for the exploration of their body –and soul. Is video for you primarily a mirror? And what is for you the symbolic meaning behind the reflecting surface?
EBV: Through my practice as an artist using video art, which at times depicts my body, I would agree in part that at times I may be using it as a narcissistic form of expression. Agreeing to this is not a confession, more of an observation of my method of practice, as if to also help myself understand why I am driven to this.
Interestingly, to a certain extent I would also agree with Krauss that Lacan’s “mirror stage” theory on infant development, can be observed in a more complex version through self-performance video art, including my work. The visual identity given from the video reflection of one’s self, does indeed supply an imaginary wholeness to the experience of a fragmentary real we have in our consciousness, even if this practice takes place in our adult life. Lacan’s theory also highlights the relation being developed between the ego and the body, a process, that I believe we develop and practice throughout our life, sometimes as a self-explanatory method, sometimes as a way to understand what our ego and material being really is.
As a whole, my aim is to explore who I am through rawness of images, and in my own - inexplicable in words - way, I hope to develop a language of communication with the audience, a communication that is understood and perceived through alternative, direct channels.
GP: Your work is very strongly connected with your personal image. For “My Ine” you use shots of yourself that seem almost self-referring and self-communicating. But, at the same time, you manage to create a poetic and sentimental atmosphere, with a voyeuristic essence that attracts the viewer to “enter” your personal space and time. How “open” and how “closed” is your work to the viewer?
EBV: “My Ine” was first developed for myself, then for my audience. So the images in the work, in its’ unedited form, were initially completely “open”, however when reaching the stage of presentation I selected what my audience ‘needs’ to see, by putting myself in the audience’s place. The idea remained the same, the images are still raw, but they are ‘beautiful’ rather than intimate. I am not interested in being sexual in my work. Sensuality and grace, which is one of my most cherished images, can be portrayed through non-sexual connotations. I would describe my work as “open” to the viewer, however open to view only a certain image, the image I have selected for them.
GP: How much do you think that you are “exposed” through this work?
EBV: I feel very exposed through this work. I feel exposed through any work of mine, which has been created predominantly with my spirit rather than my mind. But this is what I do, I transport my inner most self on visual material and then expose it. Exposing yourself, who you are, being true, is also a way of living, a daily practice that cleanses your being.
GP: How would you describe with words your “ine”?
EBV: ‘Ine’ is abbreviated from the Greek “είναι” pronounced ‘ine’ and means ‘being’. ‘My ine’ in a way means ‘my being’. I find it challenging to describe my being in words, maybe if I could I would be a writer rather than a visual artist. Either way all I believe My Ine is, is the Truth, and all I try to communicate through My Ine is the Truth, and as Eckhart Tolle has very well analysed:
“There is only one absolute Truth, and all other truths emanate from it. When you find that Truth, your actions will be in alignment with it. Human action can reflect the Truth, or it can reflect illusion. Can the Truth be put in to words? Yes, but the words are, of course, not it. They only point to it”
GP: How does the personal “ine” transcend the personal boundaries and connect to the “whole”?
EBV: The connection to the whole is purely based on the recipient's perception. Anything we try to communicate arrives on the other end in a state that strongly relates to who the perceiver is, what they are ready to and what they want to perceive. Somewhere along these communication lines one hopes to also be able to channel the Truth.
GP: You have created two different versions of “My Ine”, a “raw cut” and a second one where you use the mirror effect –in which we actually see the half image. In this second version gestures and forms seem to emerge from -or immerse into- themselves. Since the original shot is already a “mirroring shot” of yourself, this second version is almost like mirroring the mirror. What is the deeper meaning of this effect?
EBV: I created the second version of this film, firstly because I found it visually baffling and therefore interesting, but also because my work is always created for, or adapted to the location it will be presented. I prepared the work to be presented at the 1st Athens Fringe Festival, and it was projected on a concave corner of an exterior building at Technopolis, Athens, so the resulting visual effect was that all the imagery came from a central line and ended at a central line, forming new geometrical images of the same subject.
GP: In the Florence Biennale 2009 exhibition, you plan to present both versions, raw and mirrored. What does this contradiction indicate for you?
EBV: In the Florence Biennale 2009 I plan to present the project as a documentary, explaining the whole process and including how I worked online through my virtual ‘sketchbook’, www.eileenatbiennale.net . Rather than contradicting itself, the work will be presented in the form of a narrative, in order to present the many faces of this project.
GP: Creating this work, your initial research orientation involved eastern philosophy and many other rituals and traditions referring to an internal and mystical approach of “being”. Where did this “voyage” lead you, personally and from artistic view?
EBV: My research was motivated by a need to focus on myself as a means to understand ‘us’ people. It further developed in to a process of how to best present my studies and conclusions, what techniques and mediums to use. As always, at some point, I muddled myself up with too much information and I stopped. The information had helped me but I had to distance myself from it and start from scratch, become ‘raw’ again.
GP: How much do you follow your instincts in the creative process?
EBV: My personal success is measured by how instinctive a work is. I always try to follow my instincts, and the process is not always as straightforward as one may think. It always starts with research and practice, which is crucial for my work, but at some point I always have to walk away from it and filter my intake. Then, when my mind is clear and focused, I can produce pure work.
GP: What is the major challenge of art for you?
EBV: My personal challenge in my art is to achieve pureness while at the same time being able to live off my work. I believe that not all that is commercial is fake and not all that is pure is non-commercial. It takes refining of your way of thinking to able to combine elements in your work that help you spiritually and also materialistically. I detest stereotypes and refuse to fall in to any, as I find them a comfortable means of excusing yourself from what is really hard in life; change, adaptation, and moving forward.
____________________________
*(Gioula Papadopoulou is a media artist and curator of Video Art Festival Miden, Greece)
Tuesday 25 August 2009
Elaine Morgan says we evolved from aquatic apes
Elaine Morgan is an octogenarian scientist, armed with an arsenal of television writing credits and feminist instincts, on a mission to prove humans evolved in water.
http://www.ted.com/talks/elaine_morgan_says_we_evolved_from_aquatic_apes.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/elaine_morgan_says_we_evolved_from_aquatic_apes.html
Saturday 11 July 2009
Thursday 9 July 2009
Reseaching Cycladic Idols in pregnant and post pregnant state
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