Axisweb Curated Prize
As part of my research for the Axisweb Curated Prize, I interview the artists in my selection on their use of rubbish/waste/discards.
Interview with Livia Garcia
AB: Why do you work with rubbish/trash/discards?
LG: I work with discards because they would normally add familiarity and association to people. But at the same time, I like to break that association by juxtaposing the objects with other elements. The purpose is to bring new perspectives to the objects which seem so familiar to many. For example, in my piece Once Lost, I added a video into a found glove. The glove would have association to human and the fact that it was found on the street meant that someone had dropped it. It was abandoned and had a sense of loneliness to it. The video would, however, break the familiarity of the glove by bringing something new to the object. Having said, the video should also enhance the sense of loneliness to the glove, so they kind of work together though being very different.
AB: Do you have a preferred term for those materials?
LG: Found objects
AB: Where do you source your materials from?
LG: Daily lives eg egg shells and tea bags (they are the after products from consumption). Some are more site specific objects eg sea shells and sand that I collected from beaches.
AB: What criteria do you have when sourcing your materials?
LG: I didn’t have many criteria when I sourced the objects and therefore not everything that I picked have been used in my artwork. I do have criteria when I later turned the materials into artwork though, eg I would think about the geometry of the materials. Say egg shells are round or oval and so they work well with the shape of eyes. Whether certain things are aesthetically pleasing would also determine whether I would use them or not. And again, meanings and association of the objects would become important when they are finally turned into a piece of art. You can’t really strip away their identity.
AB: What processes do you apply to/with these materials?
LG: I like to transform found objects to make them interesting and to break rules. Showing found objects alone might not be all that interesting sometimes so I like to add my touch to them. I might apply other materials on top of the found objects such as paper, resin, printed images and texts etc.
AB: What context do you show your work in?
LG: Mainly gallery space.
AB: What happens to the materials/work afterwards?
LG: I would keep them for future exhibitions. Sometimes the fact that I keep them could mean further transformation in the future. The possibilities can evolve in accordance to my experience in time.
