UNTANGLING LIFE'S KNOTS
In the lead up to her exhibition, Angela Grossmann spoke about the show with the Jewish Independent. Here is the article that Olga Livshin's drafted up after interviewing Grossmann.
Angela
Grossmann’s art unfolds organically.
Bright afternoon sunlight, a rare guest in
Vancouver, reached through the huge windows of Angela Grossmann’s downtown
studio. The beams of light highlighted
every drawing and painting on the walls, as if the curious sun wanted to ferret
out the artist’s secrets. Inside the studio, Grossmann, a prominent Canadian
contemporary artist, talked to the Jewish
Independent about her
motivation and her artistic process.
She grew up in England, a child of a
Holocaust survivor. “My father was 14 when he escaped Europe on the last
Kindertransport,” she said. “Later, he joined the British army and, after the
war, became a professional artist. So, I come from an artistic background. But,
when I was young, I didn’t want to be an artist like my parents – very
political, very bohemian. I wanted to be a writer,” she said. “Although I drew
all the time, art was a refuge for me, a conversation I had with myself. I’ve
always had an inner dialogue, always wanted to learn: what are the codes, the
parameters of our lives?... When you untangle all the knots, you start understanding
the rules.”
In her early twenties, Grossmann visited
Vancouver, and her life changed forever. “I was 21 when I first came to
Vancouver to visit my sister who had a baby. This place felt so different from
England. I loved Vancouver right away. I knew I could reinvent myself here. I felt free, like a blank canvas. I wanted to
stay.”
One serendipitous day, a month after she
arrived, she walked past Emily Carr Institute, which had just moved to
Granville Island. She liked the building and noticed a sign in a window, an
invitation to aspiring artists to submit their portfolios. Although she never planned to study art
professionally, she always carried her portfolio of drawings with her.
“I brought my portfolio the next day,” she
recalled, “and there was a personal interview right away. Two people talked to me for an hour. They
liked my drawings and offered me a place at the school. It wasn’t in my plans,
but I thought, I had nothing better to do. I loved the building and the idea of
spending the next few years in it, among other artists – [it] sounded terrific. I accepted. Those years became the best five
years of my life, extraordinary years.” Her initial success at school and after
graduation was encouraging, and the young artist dedicated all her time to her
art. “I was possessed by what I did. I had a one track mind…. And it helped
that I’m not a worrier,” she said. “I don’t worry about material things, about
money…. Art demands obsession, and artists should be a little bit
idealistic.”
The themes with which Grossmann spends the
most time include displacement, social margins and identity. “I work every
day,” she said. “Well, sometimes I take Sundays off. I like being in my
studio.”
Grossmann works in different techniques: drawing, painting and
collage. “When the sun shines in my studio, I must reach for the color tubes. When it’s grey, as it often is in
Vancouver, I draw. Collages are the hardest, but they give me the most satisfaction. I can use paint to make what I want but, when
I use old photos for collages, it’s a challenge. I like things to be difficult, handicapped. I think, where to put this piece? Where does it fit? It’s like speaking to an
image, asking questions,” she explained.
Grossmann uses
old photographs for her collages, images she hunts for at European flea
markets, whenever she travels. “I like flea markets. I’m a flea marketer,” she
said with a smile.
For Grossmann,
the idea of beauty changes with the time and place. “I ask myself, what is
beautiful? Is it about age or shape or color? My art is all about questions.
I’ve never been interested in statements. I am not didactic; I can’t tell you
what to think,” she said. “Photos are not facts, and I always question them
too. I play with photographs, so a beard can become a skirt, and someone’s hair
can transform into a mink stole. My paintings and collages look different but
they are about the same thing, only the materials are different.”
Grossmann
never has an image in mind when she starts a new picture and she lets her work
unfold organically. “There is always a moment when I know whether I want to
commit to this piece or not, when I recognize something real, interesting – a
shape, a gesture. Then I pursue the project. The search is exciting, like a
hunt, a safari. When you find this elusive thing, you go after it.”
Angela Grossmann & Jennifer Winsor pose next to two of Angela's stunning collage works |
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