Music helps me to let loose and dance and get the body
moving. Funk is my go-to genre. I have been discovering
some great ‘CanCon’ bands lately. Metric and Beast come to
mind.
Could you share some thoughts and insight on One
Warm Hand and what it represents?
That piece is the first of my Lost & Found series. I started
collecting gloves found on the streets of Torino around 2000. I
only collected a few. There weren't many. Torino’s winters weren't
very cold. At the time I was working away from direct figurative
representation, looking for new ways to metaphorically refer to the
figure. I was just getting into slip casting and multiples and
occasionally I would experiment with dipping gloves in the slip and
firing them with curious and encouraging results. Text had already
entered into my visual and conceptual vocabulary and the idea of
using the gloves not only as gestural, figurative references but
also as letters, words and phrases was very exciting. I continued
to think through the idea and when I arrived in Toronto in January
2008 I knew instantly that it was time to take this idea off the
shelf. Gloves were everywhere. I collected every one I came across.
I would stop in traffic and pick them out of the slush and muck. In
a short time I amassed hundreds. The gloves are sculpted and
modelled into gestures that replicate ASL (American sign language)
letters. The gloves are composed into brief phrases that that have
to do with challenge and adversity. The phrases are specific to my
experience of emigration and the beginning of a new life in
Toronto. The series is about loss and its many nuances. What you
have/need/want vs. what you don't have/need/want. There are so many
ways to interpret this series and much of it has to do with the
baggage you’re holding at the moment.
Favourite artists?
Henri Matisse, Manolo Valdez, Georg Baselitz, Elie
Nadelman, Louise Bourgeois, Mario Merz, Nicki de Saint Phalle,
Chuck Close, Tony Cragg, Martin Puryear, El
Anatsui.
Farfalla sees you working with anodised
aluminium, what challenges were there in working metal? What made
you decide to use a vibrant colour?
When I moved to Italy, everyone wanted to teach me a favourite
colloquialism. One of the more provocative and poetic phrases I
learnt had to do with inviting a girl up to your room to see your
“butterfly collection”. Some years later, while installing a show
in Bologna a friend lent me his apartment and above the bed was the
most marvellous butterfly collection.
The challenge was to imbue a 3D butterfly with that
sexual symbolism and still communicate that sense of delicacy.
After experimenting with many different materials, I decided that
aluminium was the way to go. I had a hard time in Italy trying to
get industry to collaborate on this and other projects and
basically shelved it. It took me a while to get my ceramic studio
back in working order in Toronto so in the meantime, I defined the
project and worked with an architect to plot the design for the
laser cutting. The amazing fuchsia anodization was a stroke of
luck. The anodizing company was doing a week long run of that
colour for a motorcycle company and I went for it and I am glad I
did. The next in the edition will have to be a different
colour.
Do you have favourite piece from your body of
work... personal, challenging or most
memorable?
My favourite piece is always the one I am working on,
but I would have to say Phaedrus is the most memorable. It was the
cornerstone of my graduate thesis exhibition. It came out of a
difficult period filled with major life challenges. It hangs in the
living room and remains a reminder to stay focused and work hard.
That piece also incorporated a similar technique to the one I am
using for the doo-wop girls. So it’s as if I am closing a circle of
sorts.
You used porcelain in Fofo'
Infinito?
Fofo’ Infinito was all about the process of porcelain casting.
I was casting hundreds of objects for my portrait assemblies
and the colours and detail I was obtaining always amazed me, but
even more fascinating was the physical transformation of the clay
body. During the firing process, porcelain vitrifies and the silica
and metallic elements are absorbed by the inert particles,
resulting in a shrinkage rate of around 13 per cent. The idea was
to take a form and cast it, fire it and repeat that process until I
couldn't go any farther.
The repetition of the detail of the human head was the
plan. I wanted the original mould to be usable for the first
porcelain casting so it needed to be very particular and would
require some time. It’s not easy to find someone who is willing to
shave their head and have their face lathered in plaster. I put the
word out and eventually a friend stepped up. He was studying apnea
and, for him, a half an hour under gesso sounded like fun. The big
problem was the release agent. Normally for this kind of operation,
I would use a petroleum-based product but since I wanted to use it
for casting, the mould needed to be perfectly oil free. I
experimented with every no-tears baby shampoo on the market. They
all made me cry! So I consulted with a pharmacist about my
dilemma. Italian pharmacists are the best. They really know
their stuff. It took awhile to figure it out and after a lengthy
discussion, we decided that a water-based sex lube was the best way
go. A rather vocal line of elderly women formed behind me, not at
all happy with our discussion topic. I am certain that Fellini
would have had appreciated that scene.
I loved the Face of Toronto and Friend Project
series, indeed there are several works that use individual elements
to create a face. What does a face mean to
you?
The Face of Toronto was a multimedia, interactive public
project that I did at the Gardiner Museum during Nuit Blanche 2010.
I had the help of 50 volunteers. We collected 3000 photographic
portraits and members of the public press-moulded all of the forms.
I then worked with images, coloured and cut them to pieces in order
to create a broader pixel palette that would enable me to create
what I considered a representation of the face of Toronto. I based
my choices on census information.
The Friend Project uses a similar mosaic technique.
Here, instead, I made self-portraits using the photos from my
friends’ Facebook pages. I found that the images that they posted
collectively created a notion of my identity. I eventually moved
toward making portraits of friends, focusing on the way they curate
the images that they choose to represent themselves and also on the
cultural and historical images that represented our
relationship.
The face for me is a particular part of the human figure
which is, in my opinion, the most accessible sculptural form.
Everyone can relate to it because it is a reflection of ourselves.
And with a face, once we find the eyes and fix a gaze, we connect
and whether it be full or flat, there is always an emotional
response.
What plans do you have for the remainder of the
year and beyond?
In June I will be teaching ceramic sculpture for the
University of Georgia, Athens for their studies abroad program in
Cortona, Italy. I hope to catch up with some friends and see
the Venice Biennial while I'm in that neck of the woods. When
I return to Canada, I need to prepare work for the Toronto
International Art Fair. Then I can get back to my CD project, focus
on my solo show in October 2014 and teaching.
Interview
Nardip Singh
Images provided by artist
Copyright © Jim Hake