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Spraygraphic Interview with Elyse Hochstadt
By Spraygraphic | January 11, 2008
Spraygraphic Interview with Elyse Hochstadt
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
EH: Hmmm, well I’m a graphic artist and fine artist, passionate about the environment and constantly working to navigate this crazy life through the study of yoga and Buddhism, but sort of my own take on it. I’ve had many incarnations as an artist. I started out as a painter, moved to ceramics and have landed in a place that is not medium centric which makes my life a whole lot easier. I was born in NY, moved to Colorado as a child with my family and at 18 I made the move to California where I’ve been ever since.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
EH: I live and have my studio in Oakland, CA, but my day job is in San Francisco.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
EH: I tend to work with whatever medium makes sense with what I’m doing conceptually. Right now my materials include furniture, wax soaked fabric, sewing, drawing, feathers, and old photographs, but I’ve worked in video and used photography to document performative actions.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
EH: That’s a tough one and something I’ve been thinking about recently because I find that once I’ve gotten through the initial execution of a work and start to “think” it through, that initial spark, the inspiration if you will, fades and then it’s a process of refinement. I’d like to learn how to access that initial feeling during the refinement process. Much of my work gets resolved in dreams or while I’m doing something else. It’s as if my brain is divided and the part that works out my art is operating to sift through information while I’m busy with other day to day stuff. Overall I find that my most successful work comes from my personal experiences or relates to things that I’m really passionate about.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
EH: Yoga and meditation have been what I turn to as a way to ground myself and help me clarify ideas or work through tough spots. Additionally I turn to my sketch book and just start writing and sketching - usually something is revealed in these activities.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
EH: In my own personal history.
SG: Can you tell us a little about your project: Bound.
EH: Bound was born out of trying to describe how we all navigate through pre-prescribed social roles and/or expectations and how products, particularly fashion and design products take on a political aspect as they reinforce those roles. For example the thumb corsets are a comment on the position of women in contemporary society. The idea for them came out of studying ways in which womens bodies have been restrained, confined and idealized by fashion - such as when foot binding was in fashion, but then looking deeper at the ways in which fashion acts to inhibit a womans movement or strength, or in the case of foot binding her ability to walk. The whole project is a spoof of course, a way to comment on the ridiculousness albeit seriousness, of some of the more overt methods - burkas come to mind. Headspace took a different perspective on the same idea by creating a not so far fetched product concept whose purpose for existing is to shut out the chaos of daily life. These types of products are created everyday, just pick up a copy of I.D. magazine or turn on your white noise machine.
SG: What was were your audience’s reaction to walking on the eggshells in Labor of Love?
EH: I don’t know yet. I will be exhibiting it for the first time in a public space in January at Headlands Center for the Arts where people will have an opportunity to walk on it, I’ll let you know.
SG: Can you tell us a little about your upcoming show, “Close Calls” at Headlands Center for the Arts. What does the title refer to?
EH: Close Calls refers to those who applied for a residency at Headlands but didn’t quite make the cut. It’s the door prize and I’m thrilled to have gotten it. I’ll be exhibiting the eggshell carpet there, but it’s going to be a bit of a different iteration this time - I’m going to push the surreal qualities of it a bit more and of course encourage viewer participation.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
EH: Most recently at Johannson Projects, Swarm Gallery and fiveten studio all in Oakland.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
EH: Well assignments never really thrill me, in fact they tend to stifle me. Even in this last show where the parameters where simply to do anything, but it had to be no bigger than 8″x8″ I get stumped. My work is most successful when it’s well …my work.
SG: What is your favorite color?
EH: Your kidding right?
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
EH: Oh there are so may Ann Hamilton is of great importance to me for her ability to imbue a space with such emotion and for her use of the body and materials. Olafur Eliasson is another artist that just blows me away with the way he can execute a concept so elegantly. Janine Antoni, Doris Salcedo, Ernesto Neto, and a slew of others I’m sure have all inspired me in one way or another. What draws me to an artists work is craftsmanship as well as the ability to stir up an emotional response, something that feels ultimately true but hard to grasp.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
EH: I’m always reading Pema Chodron. My other readings include Emotional Branding by Marc Gobe, Brand Hijack by Alex Wipperfurth - all related to a class I’m teaching at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. And I’ve been trying to get a copy of Bruno Bettelheim’s “The Uses of Enchantment” but I can’t seem to find a copy as it’s out of print. Then of course I’m always looking at Art in America, Art Forum and other magazines like Juxtapoz and my newest favorite Zink.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
EH: Oh I used to do them all the time, you know in my twenties when I was deep and emotional and the world revolved around me! They are in various places, my sister has a few in her house, but mostly they are in old portfolios in my basement.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
EH: At my house with my 2 French bull dogs and my girlfriend.
SG: Any final words of advice?
EH: Follow your passions, they are always right.
ART: 1) Portrait of George I, 2) Thumb Corset, 3) Head Space, 4) “Shhhhhhhhhh” 5) “Shhhhhhhhhh” detail, 6) Layers of life, 7) layers of life, detail, 
layers of life, detail
Topics: Artist Interviews, San Francisco Art Scene, Sculpture Art, Women Art |
