PUBLISHED IN VAULT: AUSTRALASIAN CULTURE ISSUE 9 · APRIL 2015
Working exclusively with unfired clay, Romanian-born artist Anna-Bella Papp creates minimalist sculptures bubbled with lunar voids, rippled asymmetries and ghostly imprints. Mostly rectangular in shape, the slabs rest on tables and plinths, rarely on walls, calling for a three-dimensional survey that triggers eyes to dart down and heads to skate sideways – the same bird’s eye view experienced by the artist during the making process.
While these grey-spectrum slabs bring to mind archaeological excavations or architectural templates, there is also a perception of modernity to their surfaces, a reminder that the most ancient material on the world can also be the most malleable. At only 26, Papp has already ticked off her first American solo show at the prestigious Nasher Sculpture Center in Texas no less, and is about to deliver her second solo offering at London’s Stuart Shave/Modern Art, which also devoted an entire booth to her works at the Independent art fair in New York in 2013. Currently based in Rome, Italy, the artist talks to Vault about her process.
Mariam Arcilla: What is it about working with unfired clay that captivates you?
Anna-Bella Papp: There are many aspects. Firstly and most importantly, I can work with clay without any assistance or technology. Secondly, clay is a reversible process; no wonder it’s been used extensively as a method for preliminary studies and sketches for sculptures. Metaphorically, the medium retains the fragility of a thought, and the potential of becoming something else. I also like clay because it comes in these neat packages – in a state between solid and liquid – which puts everyone’s imagination at work. The differences between types and colours are also interesting, as well as the slight alterations occurring spontaneously after I finish working. This is when the material starts to dry, shrink, and sometimes warp or curve, and change in colour.
MA: You studied digital photography, graphic design, video and 3D animation at the University of Art and Design (Romania). Do you have plans to expand to other media, and the equipment and technology that come with them, or do you prefer the primitive and hand-steered aspects of making clay?
AP: I think about clay as something timeless, not necessarily primitive, just very basic. It’s a raw material like wood or stone, and has been used since the beginning of time, and is a fact that enables me to play and balance the ancientness with the newness. I do appreciate digital technology too – isn’t it marvellous to create a work of art that has no physical form? It’s a pity that some have to visualise it with the help of some sophisticated device, or fabrication of an object.
MA: Your pieces are usually presented as tablets laid flat on tables, providing people with several viewpoints. What drew you to this particular format and presentation?
AP: The format came naturally and almost instantly, as the works are mostly presented in the same position in which they are made: laying flat on a table in perfect harmony with gravitational force. This allows the viewer the same freedom I had while working with and experiencing these objects from various angles and positions. It all comes down to what feels right, and how everything looks together. I think this consistent and similar format awakens one’s awareness to these little differences, and likewise, the modest size of my work acts like a magnifying glass upon itself, amplifying the visual impact of even the slightest modulation of the surface.
My works have no definite orientation or any other restriction attached, so I have all the freedom to be creative. I have a preference for a clear and uncompromising perspective upon the pieces, and a resonance between the display and its exhibition space. Every time is a one-time experience informed and enhanced by the given conditions, such as light and the size of the space. And hopefully it’s always fresh, exciting and beautiful.
MA: Do you sketch out your intentions beforehand? Or do you sculpt in an intuitive manner?
AP: Things are done out of curiosity, so I tend to be experimental, and with that comes intuition and challenges. Sketches are rare, nothing elaborate, and sometimes it helps, at other times it confuses me – there are so many ways to read those two or three lines on a piece of paper. Sometimes I change my mind completely while working.
MA: Where do you prefer to create? In a studio? At home?
AP: I do the physical work in my home studio, ideally a space flooded with natural light. At present, I work in the living room of my flat, within a typical Italian 18th century building decorated with frescoes and furnished with antique furniture.
MA: Can you tell us about the works you recently produced for your Rome exhibition?
AP: My contribution to the show Conversation Piece at the Fondazione Memmo, Palazzo Ruspoli, consisted of four works grouped together for the occasion. The first work was titled Her face was no longer suffused with the quite intimacy of a Dutch painting, which in this context appeared to be gaining a certain intention. It’s as if it’s referring to the nascent of the genre painting called ‘Conversation Piece’, which is a spirit at the brink of evolving from a delicate and intimate style into something else, often in stark contrast with its precedent. The other three works were Untitled.
AP: Indeed, I lean towards having no titles at all, but sometimes I fill in the title gaps out of fascination with words or sentences, and the context they create around the work. To me, reading, especially reading literary text, has always been a similar sensation to dreaming, or it’s very fantastic in the sense that one can experience things in an out-of-control way. Because the nature and function of these titles do not follow the path of yet another art world convention, there could be a general accompaniment interchangeable between the different works, or it could just as well be ignored altogether.
MA: I’ve noticed your works are mostly ‘Untitled’. Why so?
AP: Indeed, I lean towards having no titles at all, but sometimes I fill in the title gaps out of fascination with words or sentences, and the context they create around the work. To me, reading, especially reading literary text, has always been a similar sensation to dreaming, or it’s very fantastic in the sense that one can experience things in an out-of-control way. Because the nature and function of these titles do not follow the path of yet another art world convention, there could be a general accompaniment interchangeable between the different works, or it could just as well be ignored altogether.
MA: Speaking of literary text, can you share any passages that have resonated with you?
AP: There is a part of a longer sentence from the book ‘The Death of Virgil’ by Hermann Broch, where the agonising poet Publius Vergilius Maro says: “Oh, when fate has thrown one into the prison of art, he may nevermore escape it…” This appears rather interesting when placed beside another quote from Imre Kertész who, in his novel ‘Fatelessness’, wrote about the conclusive thought of a protagonist looking back on his Nazi concentration camp past: “…there is nothing impossible that we do not live through naturally, and keeping a watch on me on my journey, like some inescapable trap, I already know there will be happiness.”
Anna-Bella Papp will be exhibiting at Stuart Shave / Modern Art from March 27 to April 18 2015. Anna-Bella Papp is represented by Stuart Shave / Modern Art.
Images top to bottom: Anna-Bella Papp, exhibition detail, Independent, New York, 7-10 March 2013 | Anna-Bella Papp untitled 2011 clay| Anna-Bella Papp untitled 2013 clay | Anna-Bella Papp untitled 2013 clay |Anna-Bella Papp this verse has no other night than the one that is coming, 2013 clay | All images courtesy the artist and Modern Art, London.