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Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Minette Mangahas
By Spraygraphic | May 1, 2009
Twilight from minette mangahas on Vimeo.
The Silhouette of Songs from minette mangahas on Vimeo.
Kiss My Hyphen | On Love Across Margins from minette mangahas on Vimeo.
Spraygraphic Interview with Minette Mangahas
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
MM: I’m an artist that loves to find the simplicity in complexity. Adjectives.. Perhaps light and intense. Lyrical, deep, playful. To learn ink painting, I studied with a Japanese calligrapher, Kaz Tanahashi, for 8 years. And I think that’s basically informed everything I do.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
MM: I’ve lived in Oakland and keep a studio with all my tools in San Francisco, but go where work, inspiration, love lead me. In the last few months I’ve bounced between the Bay Area and Houston, LA, New York, Miami. On in four days I head to India.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
MM: My first love is ink. Sumi, in all its hues of copper, blues, and amber, has a life of its own. But I relish doing installations– layering painting with music, movement, video, sculpture and animation. Really, I don’t see hard boundaries between painting, dancing, making music, sculpting, composing video. To me, they are all about rhythm, movement, gesture.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
MM: A lot of it is generated by play, and some of it just comes from listening. In collaborative projects like CalliGRAFFiti, I was inspired by the synergy between what I was doing and what graf writers are doing. In intimate pieces like “Runaway Moon”, it was really a sense of movement that came from deep within my chest. And I just ran with it. Listening to what the work wanted to say.
SG: What kinds of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
MM: I go for a run or a hike, whatever my body feels like doing. I write, sing. I play piano with my eyes closed. And I love going to see other artists’ work. I go where the juice is flowing–a live concert, a show, a book, a movie.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
MM: At the moment, there’s a lot going on in my heart, in watching the petty struggles and confusions of everyday human existence. In music, in dharma, in poetry. But I’m really excited by a movement of people who are attempting to be more and go beyond the expected with a sense of sincerity, integrity and fearlessness. Barack and Michelle Obama seem to embody this at this at the moment, and every time I read or hear about someone operating in their element it fuels me.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
MM: In big and little places, SF Bay Area venues include the Sangati Center, the Headlands Center for the Arts, SomArts Theater, ProArts Gallery, the Oakland Museum of California.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
MM: Pieces from CalliGRAFFiti will be at the Pacific Asia Museum in California from Sept. ‘09 - Jan. ‘10. I am so honored to be included in a show with artists whom I’ve studied and idolized for many years. In addition to my work, the exhibition will feature works by Xu Bing, Gu Wenda, Zhang Dali, Chongbin Zheng, Yu-Kun Yang, Chaz Bojorquez, Gronk, John Valadez, and Leo Limon.
A series of new pieces will premier at the new SB Gallery in New York in October. It will be an animated installation of musical scores hanging in the space, I’m very excited by it. And in April 2010 I’ll be doing an installation at Project Row Houses in Houston.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
MM: At the moment, the projects I have are my dream assignments. But perhaps in the future, I’d love to create more books, work with architects and engineers to develop large installations, and collaborate with musicians and dancers around the world.
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
MM: I admire so many– Xu Bing, Paul Chan, Cai Guo Qiang, Yoko, Ornette Coleman, David Burne, Olivier Messiaen, Bill T. Jones, Hank Willis Thomas … people who think in terms of thresholds and breakthroughs, who speak in the language of the spirit as well as the flesh, who lead us to question our perceptions and who make us laugh because they point at the ineffable.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
MM: I’ve been slowly digesting “Transcending Madness” by Chogyam Trungpa for the last four months.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
MM: Yes, I do them as a way of keeping a journal. Photos, ink paintings, pen doodles… they keep me honest!
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
MM: In bed, my studio, by the ocean, on top of mountains, with great friends, in the midst of laughter.
SG: Any final words of advice?
MM: Listen. Smile. Be unafraid.
Topics: Artist Interviews, Film-Video |
