The Wednesday Guest Lecture
October 6th 2021
Second year, Willow Fisher
The second Wednesday Guest Lecture of this semester focused on visual artist Janis Rafa, connecting with us over zoom from her studio in Athens. Rafa graduated from the University of Leeds with a PhD in Fine Arts, continuing to progress this art practice from her influences and experiences from Greece. The artist commented that there is an element of repetition in her work with the imagery used. Her is composed from her practice in moving image, working with short films, feature length films, sculpture, and environmental installations.
I noticed that a primary theme in her artwork that appears regularly is animals, and the relationship these form with us. One of the first works she shown us was a 2016 work she made called "This encrust of Earth". When talking about this she compared the visual aesthetic of it to a saddening experience she had when burying her life long friend, her horse who she had been with for twenty three years. The burial of the horse was reminiscent of this work below, contributing to the earth and examining its value and form with an artistic perspective. The horse, that was called Menthol had been with Rafa the majority of her life and contributed to her feelings about the environment. She informed us that when creating pieces of artwork she looks for threads that connect her practice, and in this case (which was as of recently) was her horse Menthos, they were the link in her practice She commented that she always looks for that personal link within her work that makes it intimate to experience. Primarily in her art there is a consistent link to early experiences of the landscape, animals, nature and the environment.
The theme if burial is also consistent in her work, as well as unearthing and fare welling after 2013 when at studying at the Academy. She produced a trilogy of short films exploring the practice of burial, informing the viewer of the influence from us on the earth. During her time at the academy she began to work thematically, becoming familiar with film and producing short films herself.
Work I like
This work was produced from 80 kilos of soil from garden with remains of some of the buried animals. For context she revealed that during her time growing up in Greece her parents would take in abandoned animals, ranging form dogs to birds, and when they passed they would bury them in the garden. This memory seemed to have significance to Rafa and influenced this piece of work. The contemporary piece was about trying to maintain the mess from the rescued animals. I admire this piece, and as a whole throughout this session I feel as though this is the only artwork by Janis Rafa that I could not only understand but also find appealing. The minimalist impression of the work draws you in, the sort of organised mess that appears in the conventional orchestrated exhibition. I like the juxtaposition of mess and cleanliness, the artist is bringing in the environment, quite literally. I feel as though if I were to experience this piece of work first hand that it would have an impact, the sentimentality of the work felt by the artist I feel would resonate in it. To me she is bringing to life an early memory she has experienced and presenting it in a new context, that context being the exhibition space. Although the memory has a long-lasting narrative, being a firm part of her family and childhood, presenting it in such a context is bringing to it a new narrative. Looking onto it with an artistic perspective which I believe just works.
Work I didn't like
On the other hand I did find that there were more works that I disliked than liked, these being a couple of them. To begin with when presenting them there was no warning or anything to tell us what she was about to present to us which I think would have been absolutely necessary. She described that these were only props used in her short film but didn't elaborate further, I still don't know if these were real dead pigs that she has positioned in a certain way for the sake of her film, or they were live pigs that are good actors at pretending they're dead, or if they are all together a product of her creation not being pigs at all. This just confuses me and doesn't sit right with me at all. I believe there is a boundary when it comes to art and this for me has crossed it. For her through her eyes I can understand with the narrative she is trying to incorporate with the subject matter but for me it just doesn't fit. Unfortunately I cant get past the graphicness to recognise the art, its just too much.
This is another work I really disliked. Again unsure if these were real birds or not, I don't understand what her definition of a 'prop' means. These props were filled with soil, the short film shown them falling in slow motion and I think exploding? So the soil resembled the contents of the interior of the bird. Didn't like this piece at all. And again no warning for what she was going to show us.
Overall because of the higher ratio of work I disliked I didn't end up enjoying this lecture at all. Although the artist is passionate about her work and the environment around her which she incorporates into her art, she does go to great lengths to demonstrate this. I frequently found it difficult to understand her artwork therefore couldn't see it for what it truly was in an art sense which is unfortunate. I wont be using this artist as influence for my own personal practice. I felt more disturbed leaving this Wednesday guest lecture than inspired.