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The New Pretty

Interview with Jazmina Cininas

Curator

THE NEW PRETTY
Erik Mark Sandberg
19 August to 8 September 2011 

Project Space / Spare Room
www.schoolofartgalleries.dsc.rmit.edu.au

The New Pretty is the first Australian solo exhibition by LA-based artist Erik Mark Sandberg. Drawing from contemporary consumer culture and its psychological effects, Sandberg's uncanny portrait gallery embodies the self-consciousness of a contemporary generation living under the social media microscope, and the double-edged promise of instant celebrity. Maree Miller chats with curator Jazmina Cininas, to find out more about Erik's colourful creatures and the story behind the exhibition.

 
(left) Erik Mark Sandberg, Boy With Sunset, 2011, Oil, airbrush, resin, glitter, silk-screen on panel, 61 x 48 cm (right) Erik Mark
Sandberg, Sky with Leopard Tee & Boots, 2011, Ink, acrylic, airbrush & oil on canvas, 122 x 244 cm (courtesy of RMIT University)

In The New Pretty, Erik Mark Sandberg investigates the psychological effects of consumer culture. What role do his 80’s invoking, beastlike subjects play?

 Erik grew up in the 80s so the era holds a particular nostalgia for him, but it is also symbolic of a cultural loss of innocence in the West. The motto of the 80s was “Greed is good”, and the decade has become synonymous with rampant capitalism, consumerism and self-indulgence at any cost. Erik’s grotesquely hairy subjects serve as a visible manifestation of the corruption of innocence. The hirsutism is a metaphor for the wholesale absorption of rampant consumer culture by those most susceptible to the relentless bombardment of mass marketing - the young. 

 

 

 Sandberg is currently based in LA, do you think this body of work has been influenced by a City were celebrity is king?

 Absolutely. Erik openly acknowledges the influence of LA in his works, particularly the contradictions of an entertainment-fuelled culture that sets impossible ideals for physical beauty, yet bombards its population with ads for junk food. The neon pigments and glitter reference the “razzle dazzle” effect (Erik’s term) of a city saturated with glamour, advertising and brightly lit malls. Erik chose to paint a section of gallery wall bright, lime green; the dimensions of the painted section are similar to a movie screen or billboard, basically creating a giant advertisment for “The New Pretty.” His portraits might be more or les life size, but they certainly speak of the desire – if not the pressure - to be larger than life in a celebrity obsessed culture.

 

 

 With the innocence and self-consciousness of his portraits, Sandberg’s hypercolor adolescents are strangely charming, why do you think this is so?

 I agree the innocence and self-consciousness you mention are key to the work’s charm. The nostalgia of the imagery also helps by transporting the viewer back to his or her own childhood/adolescence, and memories of their own ‘grotesquely’ transforming bodies and faces – with hair being a common source of embarrassment and self-consciousness. The portraits possess a resolute sweetness, engendering ‘protective’ empathy rather than revulsion. Erik is also very adept at drawing on the language of advertising while subverting conventional notions of beauty. His bold graphics and saturated colours serve to ‘sell’ his hairy children as desirable and fabulous, in the original sense of the word. Hairy men and women have also historically been associated with the renunciation of worldly vanities, their ‘beastliness’ seen as a return to an ‘innocent’, natural state. Perhaps we still carry a residue of this early, cultural response to extreme hairiness within us? Certainly Erik’s portraits are endearing at a visceral level. 

 

 

 The exhibition showcases a tremendous use of colour; how does a cyanotype piece like ‘The Grove’ fit in? Can you explain a little of the cyanotype process?

 Cyanotypes are created by coating paper with a solution of ammonium iron citrate and potassium ferricyanide, which makes the paper sensitive to ultra violet light. It’s basically an early, simple photographic process, used to make the original ‘blue prints’, and immediately recognisable by its distinct, deep, velvety blue. Erik created his images by drawing individual figures onto film and overlaying them into various configurations before exposing his treated paper to ultra violet light. Erik’s cyanotypes do have a very different feel from his paintings and sculptures – which are almost radioactive in their colour palette. In contrast, the cyanotypes are much more reflective, quieter, nocturnal. Project Space/Spare Room is perfect for exhibiting the two bodies of work; the ‘extroverted’ paintings, sculptures and neon screenprints get to show off in the main gallery with the huge window onto the street, while the ‘introverted’ cyanotypes occupy the small, internal gallery, Spare Room, offering a ‘respite’ from the razzle dazzle. They’re almost a second, ‘bonus’ exhibition within an exhibition. Erik also asked to paint the floor white in Spare Room, making the cyanotypes appear even more ethereal, and giving the viewer a sense of floating in the space.

Erik Mark Sandberg, Fashion Plate 11, 2011, Cyanotype on paper, 57 x 76 cm

 In your essay, you referred to Sandberg's subjects as "fabulous contemporary Pastranas". can you explain this historical reference for our readers?

 Julia Pastrana was a hirsute celebrity in nineteenth century Europe, gaining her fame for her unusual hairiness as part of the side-show circuit. Hairy individuals particularly caught the popular imagination at the turn of the century in the wake of Darwin’s The Descent of Man, regularly advertised as “missing links” in the evolutionary chain from ape to man. Pastrana’s fame was such that she had many distinguished visitors, who praised her manners, dancing and singing. Pastrana was mercilessly billed as “the ugliest woman on earth” on account of her hairiness; I love the way Erik turns this upside down, in creating a series of portraits of hairy adolescents and celebrating them as “The New Pretty.” 

Julia Pastrana

 

 How many pieces have you selected to show in the exhibition, and do you have a personal favorite?

 This was an unusual situation in that Erik was visiting from the USA and the only work available for exhibition was that which he brought along with him. As such, there were a limited number of works from which to choose. However, in the year leading up to Erik’s residency, I was in regular contact with him, discussing ideas for his show and the type of works that might ultimately make it to the exhibition. Erik brought a selection of works to Australia, most of which he finished off in the course of his residency, and all but a couple of them made it into the final hang. Fortunately, pretty much all the work was fabulous, which made my job easy! In the end, two sculptures, two large canvases, five paintings on board, a suite of 55 screenprints (installed as a single, large, grid) and five cyanotypes make up The New Pretty. Choosing a favourite is less easy when they’re all such knockouts, although I do love the Hannahs. They have such a fabulous ‘look at me!’ bravura. I also love the quiet strangeness of the cyanotypes, and their gorgeous, velvety blues. The figures may be hairy, but they’re also somehow aloof and impossibly cool. I have a soft spot for Girl With Sunset too – she just exudes optimism and innocence and pinkness!     

 

 

 Jazmina, you are an accomplished artist in your own right with works in significant public collections like National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, and the National Gallery of Australia. Can you explain a little about your own practice?

 I have been charting the various incarnations of the female werewolf as a vehicle for my printmaking practice more than a decade now. As part of my current PhD research project, I am creating a Girlie Werewolf Hall of Fame by identifying women from throughout history who may qualify as female werewolves and selecting a number of them to portray as reduction linocut portraits. 

 

 

 The werewolf has been a recurring subject in your work for some time. What inspired your continued exploration of werewolf mythology?

 Where to begin? My initial prints were quasi-autobiographical, drawing on my ‘hybrid’ Lithuanian Australian identity to create a personal werewolf mythology that spoke of my feeling of being on the periphery, but there was only so far I could take that. I began charting the evolution of the female werewolf throughout the ages, and became fascinated by her potential to serve as a barometer for changing attitudes not only towards the natural world and the environment, but also religion, sexuality, mental health, body hair, particularly as they relate to perceptions of women. Suddenly the female werewolf became a broad reaching figure that opened up endless possibilities for investigation and re-invention. I was hooked! I particularly enjoy recent developments in female werewolf narratives that see the lupine femme cast as super, rather than sub human, suggesting a revaluation of the Nature/Culture dichotomy. By eerie co-incidence, I was halfway through my first portrait of a hairy ‘wolf’ girl (Mexican Lilia Aceves) when I was introduced to Erik’s work. No prizes for guessing why I instantly thought it was fabulous! 

 

Image courtesy of Andrius Lipsys

Posted by Art Melbourne at 11:12 am