Interview with Ana B

Mike interviews Ana

Could you describe your work that you’ll be exhibiting at CACOA?

So you gave me this big room of five hundred square meters which I decided to divide by great walls, not directly in the middle, but rather place the walls a bit more towards one end of the room so people would have more space with them to circulate and to make their own piece. It's about their piece and their interaction with the artwork. It's a game, actually.

So the wall is made of a pinpoint impression mould. You can push through the wall and create a shape out of it. It’s there for people to do whatever they want. They can rest on it, they can hug it, they can use it as an acupuncture bed. They can basically play with it and shape their reality.

Was there an inspiration or a point of origin behind this concept?

Maybe reading Sartre (laughs)

What specifically about Sartre did you feel feeds into this particular work?

A sentence that really stuck with me, "the appearance is the only reality”, which I've taken out of context and introduced here as a simple play. It's about moulding our own realities and playing with it.

Can you talk about the materials that you’ve chosen?

I've implemented space-age technology that I’ve been researching a lot. It's a really big construction, and it's the same colour as the surrounding walls. If you're the first person who came into the exhibition space you wouldn’t even notice it. It starts as a white surface which goes all the way up, from floor to ceiling.

So this is kind of like a white version of Vanta Black, the coating made famous by Anish Kapoor that turns objects blackest black. In your version it’s a white coating that flattens out all space.

Yes.

How important is interactivity in your work and letting viewers change the space?

Well, very important. It's all about what they want to do with the space and not what I wanted to do with the space, because everyone has their own idea of a work. In that way if everybody could mould it and make their own idea about it becomes like a physical possibility for a visitor in Normalville to experience it.

And how do you feel viewers will react to having the possibility for this sort of interactivity? Is it in your experience that people expect to interact in museum spaces more and more or is this something that you're trying to push against?

No, I just enjoy the fact when a person unexpectedly gets themselves into a space that is playful and interactive, there's a psychological element that takes you back to when you were a kid as a completely playful and worry free a little entity. It can be very nurturing and maybe it's also a possibility for some people to have a relaxing experience without having think about "what does this work mean"? Maybe they just need some acupuncture.

Is stress something you normally feel in a museum as viewer?

Sometimes I get stressed in the museum. Sometimes it me reminds me that it's like a picture of the world and the state of the world that we're living now. But I would like it to be more like when you read like a good book you get a release from being in an artwork. It's also like being in a playground swing

How does this relate your previous work?

Not much, only in that it relates to work that probably lives somewhere in my internal dialogue. I haven't exhibited this kind of work before because I didn't have money and nobody was as generous as the Contemporary Art Centre of Normalville.

Does your sort of past experience working in film sets and production design play into this work ?

Yes, although the whiteness of this space invites you to be absolutely idea free. No idea is imposed on you, this is your space. You can color it whatever you want and give it whatever shape you want.

What do you expect the audience to get from the work ?

I would like them to reconnect to themselves and their past lives, if needed. To find that that space where they feel OK with themselves. Not in an isolated way, but in a very well understood way, almost religiously. It's a feel good experience. But it can also be a funny, hilarious, "what the fuck is this" experience.

It’s very difficult to give it a definition here because I don't want to define it. It’s not about what I think about it. It’s so transformational, I don't want give it any name.

That's kind of an interesting position to take, because I think a lot of artists want to have control over the space when they exhibit and you're giving up that control.

The best would be if the spikes where edible and in the end everybody could just eat the whole exhibit. (Laughs)
We’ll arrange evening around that for the closing of the exhibit.

It can be like popsicles!

Do you feel like this work fits into like the whole world of relational aesthetics ?

I think this more fits into the world of minimalism and the world of asceticism. It’s being augmented now for the sake of the gallery space but it can be also seen as a little monks room.

Do you feel like a monk yourself?

I’m trying to get there, yes.