Fridays & Friends #7 – Emi Kodama
May 04, 2012
For this month’s Fridays & Friends, I’d like to introduce you to Emi Kodama. I met Emi almost ten years ago in Vancouver, but since then she has been living and making art in Europe, and we see each other every few years when we happen to be in the same city. And Emi will be in Vancouver again next month – details of a performance in the Q&A below. The great thing about this Fridays & Friends series is that I get to share work by talented artists, but it’s also become a great way of staying in touch and up-to-date with what my friends are up to; I always learn something new about their work and I have always been pleasantly surprised by their fun facts!
*****
Emi Kodama - Drawing from "If I Were You", Collection of short stories and drawings, 2012
Roselina Hung: How did we first meet?
Emi Kodama: We first met at Centre A, back when it was at the old location, on Homer Street. I was there on co-op from Emily Carr and you were volunteering, and we were both trying to get a peek into the art world. We often had the same hours and there wasn’t much to do besides count the number of visitors, so we sat together at the big glass table and got to know each other.
Emi Kodama - "If a person were a forest, I’d loved a tree", two-channel video, color, sound, 09:00, 2007
RH: Tell me a bit about yourself…
EK: I’m from Surrey, BC and studied at Emily Carr. Then I went on exchange to AKI, in Enschede, The Netherlands and loved it so much that I transferred there for my fourth year and graduated in photography. I have a long academic career, actually. I went on to do my Masters at the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen. After that, I moved to Ghent, Belgium and went to the HISK, which was more like a residency than a school. I’ve been living here for about four and a half years now and started a PhD in the Arts between the University of Ghent and the KASK, which is the art school here. I’ve stayed in academia for so long because I like the framework it provides – I belong to a community of really inspiring professors and an international group of artists.
RH: Tell me about your work…
EK: Most important to me in my work is telling stories. I explore their many forms through a multidisciplinary practice that includes video, photography, drawing, writing, and performance. My work focuses on the every day and it’s probably most comparable to the short stories of Raymond Carver. After reading the first paragraph of one of his stories, I felt like, “I could have written that.” He writes about daily struggles with a minimalism that emphasizes brevity and intensity and I also try to be precise about the commonplace in a way that sheds new light on familiar objects and situations. My work is biographical on the surface, but the initial sense of familiarity is often undermined by gaps that leave one with a feeling of alienation. It de-familiarizes the commonplace and subverts expectations: social norms are questioned and ideas of right/wrong and good/bad become constructions based on circumstance. The discrepancy between different parts of my stories evokes the ambiguity of situations in daily life and the discomfort of facing conflicting thoughts. I often think of my work as an optical illusion, where the perception of something objectively existing causes misinterpretation of its true nature.
Emi Kodama - Drawing from "If I Were You", Collection of short stories and drawings, 2012
RH: What are you currently working on?
EK: I finished a residency at Be-Part, an art platform in Waregem, in January and the artist book I was working on there just came out. It’s called “If I Were You”, and it’s a collection of short stories and drawings, which are snapshots taken by Anna, who is constantly looking. It’s all about what she sees, sometimes also wrongly or mistakenly, and dreams, memory, and imagination blur the boundary between the visible and the hidden.
It was presented during a performance where I invited people to sit with me and choose a word out of the index. I read them the story while they closed their eyes, pictured the story, and made a drawing. I will also do the performance at the Motto bookstore at the Or Gallery in June. I will let you know the exact time and date soon!
Emi Kodama - Story from "If I Were You", Collection of short stories and drawings, 2012
EK: You can see a preview of my book “If I Were You” here, my Vimeo page, and I’m also working on a website, www.emikodama.com, that will be up by the end of May.
Emi Kodama - "A collection of rooms", single-channel video, color, sound, 03:30, 2008
RH: Tell me one fun fact about yourself.
EK: I have a secret passion for ballroom dancing and dream of being in a competition one day, wearing a flowing gown that may or may not have sequins.
Thank you Emi! I will update this post when I get details of Emi’s performance in June at the Or Gallery and if you are in Vancouver, I encourage you all to see her work!
And whenever one is presented with a choice of sequins or no sequins, always, always go with sequins.
Read past Fridays & Friends posts here.
| Tags: Art, Emi Kodama, friend, Q&A, vancouver | More: Fridays & Friends
Seduction is a Double-Edged Sword
April 13, 2012
The Seduction of Samson (detail)
I was going to wait until I took some better photos before I unveiled my new painting, but I haven’t had time to re-photograph the painting yet. The thing is, I often have a really difficult time trying to photograph my paintings, trying to capture all of the minute details in a photograph that also shows the entire image. This is where detailed shots come into play, as with the larger photos, I lose so much of the detail, like in the faces, the fur of the animals, and the floral patterns. Photographing paintings is always a tough one, because at the end of the day, you can never really capture a painting through a photograph. And something about the images that you see on a computer screen just flattens the work even more. If ever you get the chance to see a painting in real life that you’ve admired only through pictures in a book or on the internet, you’ll know what I mean. I would compare it to going to see a musician or band you love in concert and realizing that they sound better live than in recordings. (And on a side note – how disappointing is it when you see an artist’s work or hear a band live and it doesn’t live up to your expectations!)
I’ll work on getting some better photos before I add this painting to my website, but in the meantime, I want to share it with you on my blog and also tell you a little bit about the painting.
An early Photoshop error from my sketch of the painting
So this painting is the newest one in my series, Of Myth and Men, which references art history and its takes on mythology and biblical stories. The stories I depict are ones that I draw parallels with, from my own personal experiences or past relationships. Sometimes the story I relate to is one that I’ve been attached to for a long time, like the story of Proserpina or Apollo and Daphne, and other times, they pop up unexpectedly. The idea behind this new painting first came to me last fall, when I popped an old, unmarked CD into my car stereo, and it was a mix CD that my sister had made for me a long time ago. The second track was a Regina Spektor song, Samson, which I had forgotten about but really liked when I had first heard it years ago:
When I got home, later that day, I went to look up the song on the internet and remembered the story of Samson and Delilah. I had seen the painting by Rubens in the National Gallery in London years ago, and it’s another one of those famous stories that has been represented many times throughout art history and contemporary pop culture.
Rubens - Samson and Delilah, c. 1609-1610
In a nutshell, for those unfamiliar with this story, Samson was given superhuman strength by God, with which he slayed thousands of Philistines. When he fell in love with Delilah, the Philistines paid her to find out the secret of his strength. After telling several lies, he finally admits that his power is in his hair. In the night, Delilah’s servant cuts off seven locks of his hair, which breaks the Nazirite oath and God forsakes him, leaving him powerless. Captured by the Philistines, he is blinded, imprisoned and enslaved.
Lucas Cranach the Elder - Samson and Delilah
I was drawn to the imagery of the story, from the paintings and also from the song, as well as the idea of power in hair, which can be found in many difficult cultures around the world. These are just some of the ideas behind my piece, The Seduction of Samson, a title which can be read two ways. There are always two sides to every story. Something to note…I did not depict the cutting of Samson’s locks but the third lie that he told Delilah,”If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web.” And so I present to you, The Seduction of Samson.
Roselina Hung - The Seduction of Samson, Oil on wood panel, 20 x 24 in, 2012
| Tags: animals, Art, art history, Of Myth and Men, painting, Samson and Delilah | More: Art
Fridays & Friends #6 – Christopher Vena
April 06, 2012
Happy April! This year is zooming by quickly…much faster than first anticipated! I’m happy to present my 6th installment of Fridays & Friends. This blog feature is quickly turning into a bit of an all girls club, not that there’s anything wrong with that…I can’t help it if I know so many talented and amazing female artists! But never being one to exclude, I’m very happy to introduce you to Christopher Vena. We go way back, and it’s great to feature a fellow oil painter who also is a portrait artist!
So without further ado, the talented Mr. Vena…
*****
Christopher Vena - 2nd Ave, Seattle, Oil on canvas, 34 x 30 in, 2009
Roselina Hung: How did we first meet?
Christopher Vena: We met in Paris while I was studying on exchange at L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 2001. One of our professors introduced me to you and Jessica Gabriel because I didn’t know anybody and my French wasn’t great.
Christopher Vena - A SoCal Musician (Springtail), Oil on canvas, 18 x 26 in, 2007
RH: Tell me a bit about yourself…
CV: I was born in Manassas, VA but was raised in the northern suburbs of San Diego, CA. I received a BFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2003 and studied at ENSBA in Paris on exchange in 2001. I completed an artist-in-residency program at Mano y Mente in Tularosa, New Mexico in 2007. I lived in Seattle, WA until 2010, when I moved to Istanbul, Turkey, where I currently reside.
Christopher Vena - Ocean I, Oil on found panel, 26 x 24 in, 2008
RH: Tell me about your work…
CV: I use oils. I usually paint from photos that I shoot and edit myself of people I know or places that I’ve lived or traveled. Thematically I like to have some sort of psychological investment in the subject but I’m not always sure where it comes from. Stylistically they are realist but not quite photo-realist; I like there to be an element of painterliness to them.
Christopher Vena - Dudes, Oil on canvas, 18 x 30 in, 2007
RH: What are you currently working on?
CV: Lately I am shifting back into painting portraits/interiors from the landscapes/exteriors I’d been doing over the last few years. I have a lot of reference photos sitting on my hardrive that I’ve shot over the last few years so I plan on opening them up and messing with them in Photoshop a bit (subtly, I try not to make it obvious). I’m also shooting a lot of reference pics right now so a lot of paintings are still in the planning stages, but I do have a new one that I’ve included in the images for this Q&A (below).
Christopher Vena - Pioneer, Oil on canvas, 28 x 20 in, 2012
RH: Where can people find your work?
CV: On my Facebook page, and my website, www.christophervena.com, which is coming soon.
RH: Tell me one fun fact about yourself.
CV: I can karaoke “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath like nobody’s business.
Thank you, Chris! I think perhaps one of these days, we might have to meet up for a karaoke duel. I’ll have to learn some Black Sabbath though. You read it here first, folks. Stay tuned, coming to you via YouTube…sometime in the future.
Read past Fridays & Friends posts here.
| Tags: Art, Christopher Vena, friend, Paris, Q&A | More: Fridays & Friends
Hairdresser on Fire
March 30, 2012
I thought it would be fun to reveal the two characters in my new painting with before and after shots – to show how my painting progressed. A few blog posts back, I already showed the face of a lion as the masked man in this painting from my Of Myth and Men series. So here is the before picture:
A young lion
After a few layers of paint, the lion seemed to change and age a bit. He started off looking like a young lion, but I think the expression on his face changed as I worked on it. The face matured, and there’s something in the look in its eyes that is different. A bit heavier…? Perhaps not so bright eyed. Through several layers of paint, the lion’s character was revealed.
With a full mane
Actually, looking at the two pictures now, I think perhaps it’s is the eyelashes that changed the expression on his face to give him a bit more of a calmness. And the fur on the muzzle is a bit beard-like and thicker, perhaps giving him a bit of a more mature look. I’m always surprised by the faces of both the animals and people in this series of paintings, as they come to life on their own, as I don’t have an exact plan of what they will look like. They reveal themselves to me slowly, as I paint, and I’m always pleasantly surprised with the end results, when I know that the characters that were meant to be have emerged from my painting.
The second character was only introduced to you in a past blog post as a flash of red hair. So here is a glimpe of her before the fiery hair was added:
The frizz before the fire
I start off with a layer of thinned paint, to block in colours and form a base that I will add to. The thing that I love about oil painting is the translucence of the medium, as building up layers of colour that allow the colours below to shine through give the paintings that much more depth and life. Often times, because of the layering of different flat patterns and rendered areas, the hair is the last thing I will paint. So I knew I was finished when I painted that last wisp of red hair flying in the sky.
set fire
Painting hair is actually a really great way for me to finish off my pieces, as I usually start with the background, which is loosely painted, and then move onto the faces, which are very small and detailed, followed by the patterns, which are strict with the graphic lines and flat colours. To finish off on the hair, which more often than not in this series has been curly or a little bit wild, is actually really fun!
And yes…the title of this blog post is also another hint about this painting, as well as a great Morrissey song!
| Tags: animals, Art, In the studio, Of Myth & Men, sneak peek, work-in-progress | More: Art, In the studio, Works-in-progress
She Will Be The Death of You
March 29, 2012
Burning bright
I’m going to do a bit of a slow reveal with this painting. I think it’s finished. Here’s a little bit to tide you over until I have some more photos to show.
A sneak peek...
The title of this post is a hint too…
| Tags: Art, painting, sneak peek, work-in-progress | More: Art, In the studio, Works-in-progress
Light My Fire
March 25, 2012
My painting is still very much a work-in-progress, but maybe just one more day of painting to go. I liked this cropped image so much though that I had to share.
Try to set the night on fire
More to come very soon!
| Tags: In the studio, painting, sneak peek, work-in-progress | More: Art, In the studio, Works-in-progress
In Good Company
March 20, 2012
Portrait: Magazine of Australian & International Portraiture
I received an e-mail a couple of weeks ago from the Kingston Prize organizers that on a trip made to Australia last fall, they had gone to visit the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and suggested that they feature the Kingston Prize in their quarterly journal, Portrait. The gallery happily agreed to share the information on the Canadian portrait award and exhibition, as one of the must see shows in their international listings section, and they chose my painting, Coda: Self-Portrait in the Studio to print.
Portrait Magazine
My self-portrait sharing a page with Edgar Degas and Lucien Freud. Not bad…!
| Tags: Australia, Kingston Art Prize, portraiture, Press | More: Press
Anthesis
March 18, 2012
Here’s a little preview of what I’m working on these days. I’m continuing with the new painting in my Of Myth and Men series, and I’ve gotten to the part that I have the most love/hate relationship with – painting the flowers/patterns. I love working with the details of the flat floral patterns, but whenever I work on one section, I have to do it all in one sitting so that the colours match throughout the section…which leads to very tired eyes. I’m happy with how the painting look, but it’ll be a couple of weeks more before I finish it, so in the meantime…here are some detail shots:
stripes & stripes
stripes & peonies
flowers & storm clouds
While I’m painting this series, I find that I work in a very methodical way in terms of what must come first, which area needs to be painted before others, etc., because I am playing with blank areas of wood panel and layering more rendered aspects of the painting with the flat graphic areas. So when I get to this stage of the painting, when I begin to paint the flowers, it’s a little bit like when flowers bloom in spring. Fitting!
"anthesis" defined
I can’t wait until the cherry blossoms erupt throughout Vancouver in the next couple of weeks. It’s one of my favourite times of year.
| Tags: Art, In the studio, sneak peek, work-in-progress | More: Art, In the studio, Works-in-progress
ROSELINA HUNG
Artist living and working in Vancouver, Canada
tumblr: randomly ruminate
the skies over positano
