“I find only freedom in the realms of eccentricity.” -David Bowie
We make our way. We find our freedom as we can. We couple and separate, we procreate and raise the next generation, learning along the way all that means for our own path. We can not be all, be everything at once as some movements have said is possible. We must, by very nature, pick and choose, decide what is important to us and run a grooved path along that road.
Bosko Begovic is an artist living and working in Serbia. At present he is working on writing and visual art. About a year ago he started a project that uses his work to create a comic book of sorts combining his drawings with texts. Now he is considering how to finish this work but is as yet unsure where it might go. Perhaps it will evolve to paintings or some other media combined with text. He is also writing. The Philosophers Comic, one of Bergovic’s projects, is set up as a blog at present.
Bergovic began writing at a young age and always wanted to learn to write in English. After trying for a year early on, he found it too difficult to continue. Eventually he decided to write in English rather than Serbian and committed to this goal. This is where his blog was born. His writing has experimented with dialogue and with difficult subjects such as suicide. Because he has always been friendly with visual artists, he always hoped to match his writing with visual art. Unfortunately, this was never quite a match. Eventually he decided to learn to draw and match his writing with his own artwork.
As a kid, Bergovic was drawn to comics but never wanted to write in the conventional style. But always somewhere in the back of his mind was the image of comics and this eventually blended with his writing a character that is an anit-hero with a martial arts infusion. This led to a study of character including portraits of faces that he became comfortable drawing over the years.
Bergovic eventually desired to simply study a character and this has become a major focus of his work. At first his character studies were very basic line drawings but over time the nuances began to seep in.
To hear more about Bosko Bergovic’s complex and intricate character studies in both visual art and on his blog, and to hear is insights on Dostoevsky and more, listen to the complete interview.
Saya Woolfalk is an artist living and working in New York. As she spoke to Praxis, there was sunshine coming into her studio. She is working on several projects at the moment, all connected to a long term work called The Empathics. This is part of a three part project that has been exhibited multiple times in various iterations, each time being a chapter of the story that Woolfalk ultimately wants to tell. Presently she is talking with anthropologist and dancer Meredith Cox about future collaborative projects involving ethnography and movement in public spaces.
The origin of The Empathics goes back to 2006 when Woolfalk was a Fulbright Scholar living in Brazil. She was deeply inspired by the work of descendants of slaves in the region, particularly that pathos and miraculousness of the work. When she returned to the U.S. she wanted to create work that related to this. From the work that grew out of this experience, The Empathics emerged.
Woolfalk created ChimaTEK Life Products to explore the potential exploitation of the indigenous mystical culture she experience in Brazil as it might be in the hands of a corporation.
Woolfalk is also the mother of a young child and has had to incorporate this role into her work. Her daughter was born shortly before her first solo museum show. She says she is incredibly lucky to be from New York and to have family who support and help her facilitate things. But she also, very early on, made it clear to places showing her work that she would be showing up with her infant in tow. In this way, she never allowed it to be an issue and indeed allowed motherhood to structure her life. Woolfalk works in her studio from 9-5 and goes home to her family after that.
Now 7 years old, Woolfalk’s daughter has collaborated with her twice. To hear more about this and about her career at large, listen to the complete interview.
A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket:
No one else can tell you what will be right in your life. Only you can know for sure how your trajectory will go, though mostly we will merely bear witness as it unfolds.
Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a shareable format are here. The full archive of interviews here.
Books to Read
What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. Bosko Begovic is reading Sublime Object of Ideology by Slavoj Zizek. Saya Woolfalk finds comfort in reading in general, presently The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson.
Opportunities
Supermarket 2019 is presently accepting applications for their spring art fair. Begun in 2007, Supermarket is more than just an art fair, with talks and performances as well as visual art. This is a largely artist run initiative and is open to artists from around the world. This year Supermarket also introduces a day-long forum where contributors can network with representatives of the local art scene in Sweden where the fair is held. There is also a magazine associated with the fair that seeks contributions. For more information and to enter your art for consideration, see their website. Deadline for submissions is October 31.
Deadlines
Weekly Edited Grant and Residency Deadlines – review the list here.