ARTISTS TALKING

My work is mostly about perception: the way we look at the world, building up an image of the whole from different fragments.

Fragments based on our emotional relationships to, and intellectual experiences of, an image. We rely, unawares, on the role of time and distance in this process of seeing. I am particularly interested in applying, to other media, my findings as a painter; I am interested in the synergy between drawing, photography, cinematography and installation.

Taking photos is a way of taking notes; it marks a point of reference for further exploration by other means. I use photos – capturing the elusiveness of a look and indicating pauses – to document the trajectory of the observing eye, cast around, meeting the world. My work aims to illustrate the ambiguity and relativity of perception.

One of the most important areas for me in painting – a very time-consuming process in itself – is the simultaneous presence of reality and imagination, which allows the painting to be viewed as record or repository of time. Painting examines the ordinary act of looking, extended through close scrutiny and yielding a process somewhere between aligning memory and evoking presence. Time acts differently in photography, every photograph contains information of that-which-has-been.

A new constituent of my work is travel. Looking, as the first step of communication, helps to define one’s location. I view travel as an experience of seeing and expanding knowledge, dependent on individual viewpoint and cultural context. The distance and the time offered by the residencies and workshops that I have recently been involved in are preconditions as well as key turning points in my practice. Leaving home, one sets a distance from the past, which later contributes to lessons about gaining freedom, discovering one’s identity and playing with it in new contexts. Travel has also forged a new perspective on my experiences and helped to evaluate the knowledge I’ve gained, contributing to my growth as a person.

My personal artistic background has been shaped by the travel of my country through major historical stages. My experience has been richly fermented through studies in the US and Germany. It has helped me to put a perspective on art processes at home. Being involved in art projects and forums in the UK has laid new foundations for communicating with art in its greatest diversity.

Vineta Kaulaca is an artist based in Riga, Latvia.

UPDATE 2006:
Recently, I’ve taken part in various art projects in Latvia as well as abroad. My last solo exhibition, ‘Distance’, took place in the Gallery of the Artists Union of Latvia in Riga. I have also recently participated in a number of exhibitions, residences and workshops in Los Angeles, New York, Oxfordshire, Portsmouth and Dublin, working in photography, installation and painting. My work involves comparing the different perceptions of time bound to the specific spaces. Also my interest in the flow of time will be examined in the forthcoming solo exhibition at Maksla XO Gallery, Riga in October 2006. My work will be showing in ‘Shimmer’, an international exhibition at TransCultural Exchange, Boston and ‘Visions& Reality’, the exhibition featuring contemporary painting from Latvia, at Pulchri Studio, Hague in November 2006, as well as in the show ‘Stupor Mundi/Wonder of the World’ at APT Gallery, London at the beginning of 2007. I am very pleased to be involved in the international network initiated by Braziers International Artists' Workshop supported by Arts Council England as this year it will bring British artists to Riga in order to do their residency at Art Home and E-T-T project space. Cultural exchange and dialogue are proving to be basis for building a permanent bridge among various art circles.

Vineta Kaulaca

Vineta Kaulaca is an artist based in Roga, Latvia.

www.vinetakaulaca.com

First published: a-n Magazine February 2005 as ‘A time to travel’.
Updated September 2006.