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Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Tiffany Trenda
By Spraygraphic | March 31, 2008
Spraygraphic Interview with Tiffany Trenda
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
TT: I am a video installation performance artist. I create performances inside a digital environment utilizing LCD screens, TV monitors, video projectors, etc. My art responds to how we as a culture communicate and express our own ideas of the world through the frame of a camera and the screen of a computer. Our future existence is within the framework of technological interface as consumption and desire. “The human/machine interface has become an extension of the body, creating an equilibrium destructive to the organic form as more and more elements of our human existence are becoming simulated inorganically.” (V.S. Magni,) I express the world in a constant flux of man and machine, separating and touching. We are bodies of flesh and networks of information. We start to erase the human touch and therefore begin a process of death. We give life to a machine, which is, in reality, our death. This disconnection consumes us as a powerful mechanical force that we initiate. We create and destroy in unison as both creation and destruction. We control the interface as it controls us.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
TT: Malibu, CA
SG: What mediums do you work with?
TT: Photography, video, installation, and performance.
SG: What kind of video equipment do you use?
TT: Canon HD
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
TT: First a concept comes to me. Then I create a collage of found material with new colors and textures. Next, I draw out the
installation in photoshop. After the final drawing, I create a costume and performance within the parameters of the concept. Lastly, I set up the installation and perform within this digital environment.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
TT: Take a drive to a new destination.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
TT: Fashion, Architecture, Design, Dance, Theatre, Opera, Interior Design, and scrap yards.
SG: Can you please tell us a little about your piece, Odalisque.
TT: I have always appreciated the art of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. His work was ahead of its time and one of the first surrealists besides Hieronymos Bosch. “Odalisque” is one of the
most enticing images ever. The model’s eyes capture you and pull you into the work. I thought about the present day and how this piece would look and function. So, I wanted to redo the piece with elements of the present day. I used red instead of blue to represent blood and the fear of the AIDS epidemic. I used foa fur instead of real fur and wore stiletto heals. I shot the video of myself and later looped a live 2 minute set. Later the video ran on a framed LCD screen to create the illusion of a live painting.
SG: How much time do you usual spend preparing for a live performance installation?
TT: 1 month from concept to execution.
SG: Generally, how long do your performances last?
TT: My performances vary from each concept. Some performances are continous and can last for hours and others are usually anywhere from 10 – 20 min.
SG: Are they always solo or do you cast others?
TT: Usually I perform solo. “Plastic Rape” performance had another performer named Blayne.
SG: Can you please tell us a little about your Self Portrait Series.
TT: The Digitally Manipulated Self Portrait Series is a series that is an exploration of the body through media. I take portraits of
my body and collage them in photoshop and print them on large archival prints. The photographs are about the dissection of the
body through the different media. It’s how we isolate portions of the body to heighten its iconic imagery. Thus, the human body
becomes lost and the machine takes over.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
TT: Photo Los Angeles, Photo San Francisco, Robert Berman Gallery,
Farmani Gallery, Los Angeles Center For Digital Art, Los Angeles Theatre, and The Museum of Hyperreal Art.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
TT: Art Director of a major film.
SG: What is your favorite color?
TT: Clear
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
TT: U2. They were ahead of their time and created the largest video installation. They mix different mediums and create a meaningful message. They do more then make music. They are intellectual, conceptual artists.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
TT: I just came back from Japan and bought some great magazines: Shinkenchiku: 2007, Japanese Vogue, and Art It.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
TT: Lots. Showcasing in different Los Angeles galleries including LACDA.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
TT: The Edison Los Angeles.
SG: Any final words of advice?
TT: Keep positive and the world will give you what you ask for. The future is our passion.
1. “Digitally Manipulated Self Portrait” Series Archival Digital Print 43″ x 48″ Ltd. Ed. of 10 2002
2. “A Condemned Opera” 11/19/2005 Bergamot Station Track 16 Los Angeles, CA
Technology dances within our fabrication like a continuous ballet that will destroy the clarity of reality. This constant change alters our mind and confuses our sense of consciousness. It is an elevator reaching no destination, an opera with no direction. I created a digital environment using two contrasting elements. One was the theme of beauty and elegance represented by the costume I wore and the 1900’s chandelier. The other contrasting component was the conventional and grimy utility elevator. I constructed a light box with an image containing the knobs off an old elevator. Three projected images of an elevator going up and down were projected onto a nine-foot plexi glass box. The performance included me holding a children’s toy that expanded and contracted. Inside the toy were two small cameras that connected to two monitors on the outside of the plexi glass box. There was a continuous sound of an elevator going up and down. The performance and the installation were constantly moving and changing. Sound Design by Joseph Bishara Duration: Continuous
3. “I Can’t Predict the Future of a Past I Never Lived.” performance
7/22/2005 Photo San Francisco, Brown Bag Contemporary, San Francisco, CA 6/11/2005 Bluespace Hollywood, CA
We cannot believe everything that we read. History is written from someone’s perspective. I created a video of a constant changing stain glass window. This image was projected in the back of me. I toke white apples that looked like eggs, out of a birdcage. I bite into each of the apples and spit out red feathers. This entire image was projected onto a book that lay upon a wooden stand. The viewer thought that it was a pre-recorded image but in reality it was a live performance.
4. “Plastic Rape” performance 5/2004 Gallery 4016 Los Angeles, CA
What happens when the past collides with the present which changes our future? Are we so transparent when a violent act has haunted our being? “Plastic Rape,” is an auto-biographical piece that deals with the past, present, and future. The first installation includes the following items: suspended razor, lights and scissors. A performer named Blayne plays opposite of me. She is dressed in a foam nun’s hat and wears tape over her body. She represents the perception of the future and what I hope to achieve in my subconscious. I offer the scissors and the razor to demonstrate that I choose to come to terms with the past and am able to change. Blayne continues to shave my head in a ritualistic manner to represent the present.
When the hair reaches the ground it becomes the past that is peeled away. When the act is done, I run behind a tarp. The tarp drops to the ground and the second portion of this performance begins. A 15ft video projection is projected on two large pieces of foam. The projection is of a mechanical landscape with heavy steam. This landscape is to portray the mechanical gears of change. The steam is th e cleansing of the soul. In front of this projection, I am suspended inside a plastic bubble, 10ft off the ground. I twist and turn inside the bubble to portray an embryo, a new beginning.
5. “RAW WAR” performance Lightbox and DVD Video Documentation of performance piece at Farmani Gallery 2005
6. “Sea of Gold” “The Golden City” Series Self Portrait Archival Digital Print 9″ x 12″ Ltd. Ed. of 5 2004
7. “Under Water Series” “My Hand” Self Portrait Archival Digital Print 9″ x 12″ Ltd. Ed. of 5 2004
8. “A Written Dream” performance
12/31/2005 Sea of Dreams Los Angeles Theatre Los Angeles,
CA 12/14/2005 Pool Trade Show Private Event Los Feliz, CA
12/08/2005 FAR (Fine Art Resources) Los Angeles, CA
What happens when I share my dreams with the other?
Dreams became reality or reality shaped my dreams.
I wrote a stream
of consciousness, like a written dream… I first created a dress made of lights, foam and plastic. The wig made of rubber is reminiscent of French decadence in the 1700’s. I wanted the piece to have a sense of time but not a time period. While white furniture was hung upside down in a world with atypical rules. There was a video projection of water while I was typing on
a suspended typewriter. I would drop the papers onto the ground. The viewer could pick up the papers and read the contents.
Conscious vs. Subconscious
9. “Annilation of Nexus”
This piece was about the separation of body from the mind. The television screen is what is inside the artists mind. It is a psychological piece that expresses how technology is a mind-altering state that we deal with day to day. The speakers, connected to the television screen were projecting the sound.
10. “Odalisque” video installation, displayed on framed LCD Screen Ltd. Ed. of 100 2001
Topics: Art Installations, Artist Interviews, California Art Scene, Dramatic Arts, Photography, Technology and Gadgets, Women Art |
