Graciela Cassel
Interview by Alexandra Constantinou, Communications & Web Intern
AC: Your video pieces, such as "Subliminal," "In the Sky" and "Rivers," show the effect nature, especially water, has on cities and people's lives. And your work about cities and architecture also invokes memories and dreams. Why did you start investigating and comparing nature and human-made creations?
GC: I am concerned about the balance between nature, and of cities and their inhabitants. Rivers, water and clouds are our most important natural resource, and we need to take care of them. Nowadays, our knowledge of nature, culture and ecology gives us awareness of what needs to be done to keep the balance between these three parts. However, political decisions about the cities or nature turn out often to disregard the need for this balance. Our cities are bio-diverse, life-supporting ecological systems that need constant monitoring to keep an equilibrium between the environment and the natural world. While "nature” and “culture” are easy to understand, “ecology” is best thought of as the system that integrates nature and culture. Ecology definitions are meaningful to the creation of parks with trees, the construction of bridges that should connect one part of the city to the other or to preserving the river’s natural course. My videos are a fictional story that shows balance, change, danger and also stability.
Interview by Alexandra Constantinou, Communications & Web Intern
AC: Your video pieces, such as "Subliminal," "In the Sky" and "Rivers," show the effect nature, especially water, has on cities and people's lives. And your work about cities and architecture also invokes memories and dreams. Why did you start investigating and comparing nature and human-made creations?
GC: I am concerned about the balance between nature, and of cities and their inhabitants. Rivers, water and clouds are our most important natural resource, and we need to take care of them. Nowadays, our knowledge of nature, culture and ecology gives us awareness of what needs to be done to keep the balance between these three parts. However, political decisions about the cities or nature turn out often to disregard the need for this balance. Our cities are bio-diverse, life-supporting ecological systems that need constant monitoring to keep an equilibrium between the environment and the natural world. While "nature” and “culture” are easy to understand, “ecology” is best thought of as the system that integrates nature and culture. Ecology definitions are meaningful to the creation of parks with trees, the construction of bridges that should connect one part of the city to the other or to preserving the river’s natural course. My videos are a fictional story that shows balance, change, danger and also stability.
In the Sky, 2015, still image, Graciela Cassel
Detail of Cloud Machine, 2016, steel, woven wires, 3 2 mini screens, video, Graciela Cassel
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Miniportal, 2016, steel min screen, video, Graciela Cassel
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AC: How do you decide how to combine your videos and sculptures into installation pieces?
GC: As an artist, I started drawing and painting, but I increasingly felt the need to include space and time. This space-time aspect is what sculpture and video offer me: the possibility to build a real and fictional space in which I find the possibility to show as space where to travel and experience change. In this way, my need for adventure gets imprinted in my works. I do love fictional adventure and that is the reason why I take on new projects and new materials. When starting a project, I feel butterflies but as I move along, the work starts to leave my hands. Then, the work heads up and out, appearing to build its own path, landscape and story. Fiction and reality mix, creating a new reality. I find satisfaction in this interactive process because I create a new way to view things.
GC: As an artist, I started drawing and painting, but I increasingly felt the need to include space and time. This space-time aspect is what sculpture and video offer me: the possibility to build a real and fictional space in which I find the possibility to show as space where to travel and experience change. In this way, my need for adventure gets imprinted in my works. I do love fictional adventure and that is the reason why I take on new projects and new materials. When starting a project, I feel butterflies but as I move along, the work starts to leave my hands. Then, the work heads up and out, appearing to build its own path, landscape and story. Fiction and reality mix, creating a new reality. I find satisfaction in this interactive process because I create a new way to view things.
Accelerate, 2013, still image, Graciela Cassel
AC: Can you explain your current work with TransBorder and what you hope to achieve?
GC: We created TransBorder Art in 2014 with the mission to bring art conversation to the general public. The concept underneath this TV broadcasting series is that we want to give the general public access to contemporary artists. In this way, the public can hear the artists converse about interesting topics. We believe that we are also making an archive of contemporary art. Each episode features informal conversation among artists around specific topics such as: desire, caring, light. We have already broadcasted 14 episodes. For example, “Art and Science,” “Desire,” and “Art Today” will be of special interest to writers and press.
GC: We created TransBorder Art in 2014 with the mission to bring art conversation to the general public. The concept underneath this TV broadcasting series is that we want to give the general public access to contemporary artists. In this way, the public can hear the artists converse about interesting topics. We believe that we are also making an archive of contemporary art. Each episode features informal conversation among artists around specific topics such as: desire, caring, light. We have already broadcasted 14 episodes. For example, “Art and Science,” “Desire,” and “Art Today” will be of special interest to writers and press.
Through the Mirror, 2015, still image, Graciela Cassel
AC: Besides Transborder, what are you working on now?
GC: I am working on a video titled “Oceans.” I continue my exploration of oceans in relationship with its inhabitants and city. The film will be shot with three cameras in “Freedom Park” on Roosevelt Island. Five actors will interpret the short text-piece “Oceans.” “Oceans” is a text I wrote inspired by Rachel Carson’s mid-century book The Sea Around Us. When reading the book, two ideas came to my mind: mother tongue and mother ocean. I also see this work in a frame of tongue and ties. The ocean is what connects the continents, while the water is what allows us to survive; finally, the languages - many tongues - tie us together.
“It is from the aaahhh of the wave growing and in the ssshhh of the wave rolling back that our language was formed. These deep, dark waters -- with all their mysteries and unsolved problems -- cover more than two-thirds of our earth.”
“The next time you stand on a beach at night, watching the moon’s bright path across the water, and conscious of the moon-drawn tides that echo in our blood, remember that the moon itself may have been born of a great tidal wave of moving, colliding substances, torn off into space from its original convergence with the earth.”
GC: I am working on a video titled “Oceans.” I continue my exploration of oceans in relationship with its inhabitants and city. The film will be shot with three cameras in “Freedom Park” on Roosevelt Island. Five actors will interpret the short text-piece “Oceans.” “Oceans” is a text I wrote inspired by Rachel Carson’s mid-century book The Sea Around Us. When reading the book, two ideas came to my mind: mother tongue and mother ocean. I also see this work in a frame of tongue and ties. The ocean is what connects the continents, while the water is what allows us to survive; finally, the languages - many tongues - tie us together.
“It is from the aaahhh of the wave growing and in the ssshhh of the wave rolling back that our language was formed. These deep, dark waters -- with all their mysteries and unsolved problems -- cover more than two-thirds of our earth.”
“The next time you stand on a beach at night, watching the moon’s bright path across the water, and conscious of the moon-drawn tides that echo in our blood, remember that the moon itself may have been born of a great tidal wave of moving, colliding substances, torn off into space from its original convergence with the earth.”
Portal, 2017, still image, Graciela Cassel
You can find Graciela online:
Website: www.gracielacassel.com
TransBorder: http://www.transborderart.com
Facebook: graciela.artnewsexchange
Citylife II: https://vimeo.com/48606529
Website: www.gracielacassel.com
TransBorder: http://www.transborderart.com
Facebook: graciela.artnewsexchange
Citylife II: https://vimeo.com/48606529
