Blog Post three

Artist Interview with Simone:

Me:

How do you get inspiration for your work?

Simone:

Very, very broadly from other artists, but also my social network…I'm working so Collaboratively. I always say almost like in polyamorous friendships because it's such an intense way of working together with other people and I think you can really see that my inspiration comes from my friends- the artists I collaborate with. At some point the work can't be separated from each other. I mean they can, but like I don't know… at some point I started to make ‘lucky charms’, and then it was like a practice. My friends started to make ‘lucky charms’ too, and then my friend started to braid and like two months later, I find myself braiding, but in a different style. In addition, I’m reading a lot, a lot of theory, immersing myself in theory is also a big part of my practice.

Would you say most of your work is a product of collaboration inspired from the people around you?

Yes, Definitely.

Whats the most pivotal piece you’ve created in your artistic practice?

That [question] is not so easy, because my practice is very broad. It has strings which like entangle themselves. There's like one string which tries to figure out myself, or my life form. Something which lies in the past like my life form as being white, as being in the Christian Binary system, female and gendered as being middle class. The car performance and the video installation where you just will see the bed and then the two video projections, which are like the dreams of two people that already left the bed, but the dreams only find themselves in the landscape next to the street like it's a very dry work. And then theres another string in my work, which is probably trying to find queer cult, and queer procure which is probably the antidote and antagonist to the other one. That’s where the art really comes to the body, the fashion part, the jewelry part I'm interested- also like it can go in the gallery space or in the white room, but I'm really interested as to the body as the wearer of it, wearing it out. I can't really say there's a pivotal thing but, things working in different directions to try to make sense of my life.

What significance does the body have to you and your work?

I mean the body is like the only place I can speak from and I think it's a very precious thing to be with a body. I'm interested in the body in that sense and that I try to find ways back to it, out of the modern conception of the body. Out of the theories of identity, race, gender. Im interested in what could be other ways of embodiment. Today when we think outside of the frame of the nation state, which put us in that special position. So what I try to do with the body is undo it from where I've learned it, and I think fashion and jewelry is a very human practice to engage with that.

Are you trying to break societal norms associated with the body, such as gender and sex?

I try to free it from it.. yeah.

Are there any overall meetings or concepts you are trying to convey through your practice?

I initially come from a lot of political activism. As a teenager, I was a lot engaged in the youth and environmental activism scenes and also an anti-fascist group, so I come a lot from self-organizing, I would say all of my art tries to make sense of life, of living a life in a human body, and all my art to make sense or try to find committed forms of being alive in anti-colonial trans-feminist senses.

What is your favorite piece you have ever created?

Oh, it really depends on the day you ask me that question. Honestly, I love all my work, that sounds like crazy, but I just love it. I love doing it. I really love the series I made last year with my friend and trousers where she painted my crotch. This is a continuous work also, that gives me a lot of pleasure and also makes me think a lot like it's a very unfinished thing but yeah I love it.

What’s the significance of the crotch paintings?

We were starting to do that last year, and we would always go together in public space, topless. It was at a time where a huge discussion in Germany was spent around the question of if it would be allowed for bodies with breasts to be allowed in public swimming pools without bras, and also in public space without bras, because men acually do it occasionally. We were really interesting in being bold, and just being in a public space like that. Going to specific sites which in our opinion are historically shaped around work, fascism.. we were doing it next to the highway, we were doing it in front of the place where people who have no work in Germany would go… it’s a very violent place. And then is was like being there together in kind of a lesbian space and romanticizing oneself in these spaces, and gazing at each other, and she would always paint like something which she would romanticize about me in my crotch. I use Trousers: Old Mustang jeans, which is like the German version of Levis, it was a female owned business. We also thought about denim as a work-wear and how it emerged in the late 1800, beginning of 1900 modernity, and how that fabric developed and how it is connected to the female body and stuff like that.

You have created this super intimate space with your friend.. have you gotten reactions from other people doing that work in a public space?

I mean, we had a film person with us which somehow made it clear that it is a scene, you know. I think still we thought a lot about it would offend, had we not had two to three other persons with us who would film and record the sound. So it was somehow clear that this is like not just maniac, but also something recorded. People mostly try to not see it, which was really interesting to me. I thought there would be much more provocation. Yeah… also annoying men and stuff like that, but I think people were really ashamed seeing us and they tried to not look.

In terms of ownership, since you collaborate so much, do you share ownership or has that ever been an issue for your projects?

Since it is a very shared practice we talk a lot about this exactly, and that's why I also say polyamorous, that owning something, owning a theme, it's not something we're interested in, so we're trying to let go of that. We haven't been in the situation yet of what happens if somebody wants to buy it, but I'm sure and trustful that we would find our ways through that. Also in terms of exhibiting the works we are really sharing of if one person is invited they can use the work, like the other person will be namely included, but not necessarily paying wise.

Looks like those are all the questions I have for you, thank you.

Thank you.