Monday, August 27, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Interview with the artist Angela Edwards
“...obviously my artwork is never going to be mainstream.”
It was Angela Edwards’ paintings that first seized
my attention; oddly reminiscent of David Larwill, Angela blends the old and the
new with a hearty dash of occult/voodoo influence with her figures spiralling
and tumbling off the canvas in a blur of colour. Like many artists she’s
intensely defensive about being misrepresented, particularly in regard to her
recent explorations into video-diary work and her Pomba Gira rituals. I start the interview by asking Angela for her view on the
purpose of art, both in an occult context and in the mundane world. She states
that she’s coming from both: “A lot of my stuff is about sexuality and death
and transgression through extremes and that comes from the fact that I was on
the street when I was younger; when I was 15 or 16. I experienced prostitution
and being around death and things that made me question life. Then I basically
started using it in ritualistic contexts with the magick and everything else.
Sort of refining it, those sorts of experiences that I’ve had; for example
sexuality, I experimented all those things while using it and pushing all those
boundaries but in a more controlled environment.” She’s energetic and enthusiastic
about her work but there is some delay on the phone-line and this creates some
awkward pauses, but we push on, nonetheless.
I’m interested to find out how you got into the art side of
things? “I’ve always painted and I’ve always written things and I’ve always
been interested in the occult as well because my dad used to do spirit contact
on Ouija boards and things so I’ve had that background as well, from an early
age. But then I basically ‘cleaned up’
and started picking up my art again and I’ve gradually developed my style and I
got more and more into stuff like Francis Bacon and Bertiaux and all the ones
that challenge your soul and sort of challenge the meaning of life; things that
actually mean something and make you feel something emotively. So I’ve gone
from starting to paint to more and more in that type of direction; the harder
stuff and using it in ritualistic context as well.” You mention ‘Exploring female psychosexuality, transgression
through ritualistic sexual violent extremes’ on your website; what do these
terms mean to you? “It’s kind of like the idea of crossing over gender and the
fact that women can be just as aggressive as males and also the fact that I’ve
used some experiences like rape or cutting as taking you through to a different
level; maybe through life and death and also connecting on a spiritual level to
all aspects of the soul, and kind of like a left hand path where you embrace
the dark and light – because I don’t really see any difference – and I sort of
embrace all aspects of the human condition; totally. All things; ugly or violent
are beautiful all at the same time so it’s an uncompromising path with both my
art and my life...to a certain extent.” Angela draws parallels between the artist, the witch and the
prostitute: “The untamed path of the Witch and Artist often runs parallel to
the path of the prostitute. All are outcasts... all are the act of giving the
soul over in destruction of the self. The prostitute, like the witch/artist,
transgresses all profane moralistic boundaries of society. Living outside of
class and convention alone they are separate from the civilised mind, dwelling
in the void of full expressed enlightenment. In sex, like spirituality, we are
consistently reminded of our own mortality, fragility; and where in lays the
act of procreation, life, the start, there also lays the reminder of death, the
end.” This isn’t just artistic or philosophical theory; Angela is currently
prostituting herself in both a scared sense and also to raise funds to further
her art – she’s open to most offers
(though not paedophilia, bestiality or necrophilia).
You’re inspired by voodoo and Quimbanda, a quite obscure
system, what led you here? “I’m into voodoo quite a lot; I’ve been looking at
certain things, I’ve been merging it with western stuff - I’ve looked at
Bertiaux’s stuff but that’s not very grounded
so sort of the sexuality and death aspect, the fact that there are dead
street spirits and a lot of things like that come from spiritualist connections
with it. And with the Quimbanda; you’ve got the Pomba Gira and you’ve got the
kind of spirits that I can relate to from the streets that are dead and it’s
for sacred female sexuality as well, in a lot of aspects. I do actually go for
a more post-modernist take on it than traditional in my art. I don’t actually
pretend that my art is actually Quimbanda; it’s actually voodoo totally and
straight down the line...so it’s kind of a cross between post-modernism and
Quimbanda rather than straight Quimbanda.” Is it not difficult to reconcile two vastly differing
systems; eg - Post-modernism in a western context and Quimbanda? “Well, that’s
my art. If I’m actually talking about practising, I practise traditionally at
home. I do the traditional things and use the traditional herbs and that, and I
have friends like Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold , who wrote the foreword for this
book that I’ve written, and I have the traditional elements that I use in my
day to day practise but [with] the artistic thing, I sort of merged them both together
but that’s like what anyone does, I mean Marina Abramovic, any good artist
mixes the two together, they don’t stay
to a traditional concept, because that’s how you make it interesting, that’s
how you make it in the current world.” So what drew you to Quimbanda? “Just basically being drawn
to the aspects of the street spirits and the fact that a lot of the spirits in
Quimbanda are related to the streets, which is where I’m from, and basically
the Pomba Gira aspect of it but in a more raw, real, human aspect of it rather
than the Babalon [current?] which is a bit sort of more, could I say elevated?
It’s more low in a sort of a way, the Pomba Gira, it’s kind of more human than
the essence of the Babalon that’s sort of...I don’t know...it’s a spirit
archetype rather than human, it reflects the human condition in a lot of ways,
or humanity to a large extent.”
My knowledge of the Pomba Gira is very limited, though I do
know there are several different aspects; is there a particular aspect that
you’re invoking? “I was doing a ritual for each one, and even though I’ve only
roughly filmed things at the moment, I’m doing paintings but basically I’m
doing an invocation and ritual specifically for each one, and it takes elements
that you use traditionally with each one...”
How many are there? “I’ve
probably done about 20 so far; I don’t know how many more I’m going to do; each
one’s different specifically I’ve used different things for each one, but
you’ve got to understand when I do stuff, it’s like my voodoo book that I
wrote, I’m using it in a more post-modernist way and linking it into art and
the human condition and ritual transgression rather than traditional Quimbanda,
word for word? I mean the feminist aspects of it as well...it’s using elements
of modern takes on prostitution and modern things and my own relationship to
it; it can’t be like when you see someone like Barry Hale that does the
traditional symbols for it, even though I use the traditional pontos of the
Pomba Gira, I cut the traditional ponto of the Pomba Gira with a razor in my
stomach, things like that, the majority of it is quite a post-modernist take on
it rather than traditional, in the art.”
I’ve seen some of your video-work; I guess some people would
find it quite confronting – the cutting aspect and the insertion of roses into
your vagina for instance - what do you aim to achieve through
transgression/annihilation of the lower self? “Basically it’s annihilation of
the ego; I always like to sort of annihilate the ego to nothing, or annihilate
the spirit and just sort of break through to a higher gnosis or a higher humble
sentiment or meaning of the universe and everything and embrace everything and
feel everything, which is like the path of the sadhu and all these things. That’s
what people do, they sort of break things down to a higher spiritual awareness
and martyr themselves of the ego ...”
And what’s the mainsteam art establishment’s reaction been? “The
ritual work, people don’t really understand ...some people understand what I’m
doing it for, and other people are like ‘Do you do it to shock?’ but it’s not
to shock; it’s actually because I fell it goes perfectly with my art work and
my practices in occultism and things, and what I believe in. There are other
people who have been really supportive and interested in it but obviously my
artwork is never going to be mainstream.”
And what about the occult world? “In the general, run of the
mill type things, people don’t really like it to start with; the occult world
has been quite ‘ergh’ towards it because it’s very male dominated and very post
modern/Victorian values, which it shouldn’t be...you know, quite conservative
in a lot of ways. I find the occult people, even though they’re meant to be,
all these things – even Crowley – the left hand path and all these things that
I’m doing or embracing do actual fit into that tradition and ritual and all the
transgression, all these things, I find them very conservative. There are male
artists and male writers out there in the occult world and I’m breaking out
into that world as well with my writing and my art work but they don’t have any
strong female women, except for Wiccans half the time, and they more appreciate
some sort of stereo-typical drawing of a big booby Babalon, that’s about it,
rather than the actual, real female perspective or any real rawness on that
scene. I’ve found they’ve less embraced [the work] probably more than the art
world. I’ve found I’ve only had a few supporters on the occult scene, I’ve
found a few occult people have been a bit, sort of quite threatened or
intimidated by it.”
I try to probe Angela’s perception of herself; how does she
see the mundane personality being superceded by the manifestation of the
divine, but it gets a tad lost in translation, and she appears to think I’m
having a pop at her. “I’m actually very level-headed. People ask me, because
I’m doing these cutting rituals, am I into self-harming or am I depressed or
something. And no, it’s not about that. I was using ritualistic context. I can
do a ritual like that or film something or paint what I paint and embrace those
things and still be sort of level-headed and normal – not normal but it’s
not...I don’t have any issues or problems in any way shape or form. I’m not an
unhappy person or doing it because I’m depressed or anything; it’s just a part
of who I am, like people like Francis Bacon and all those people they embrace
that side of life and push the boundaries and that’s just what I feel you have
to do as an artist.”
Do you think that you’ll continue with the cutting or
eventually transcend them? “I’m not doing it all the time; I am going to be
doing other types of rituals. My friend suggested that I did a certain type of
ritual; I’m not just doing it to shock or just for the sake of it. It has to
specifically to a Pomba Gira, like when I drew the seven crosses in my body and
then wrote an invocation – there has to be a reason why I’m doing it. I’m not interested
in just like showing how hard I am or something by cutting myself or doing it
for the sake of it. There’s going to have to be a reason to do it so it just depends
on whether it calls for it or not. It’s not something I would do just for the
sake of it. But then again, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it; to be
honest, in a lot of Magick, and a lot of occult practices, blood ritual is part
of it, quite a big part of it, in general. Even in Quimbanda, you get initiated
in traditional Quimbanda, you get cut to let spirits in [or out, I suggest].
Cutting and blood ritual have been a long tradition in a lot of traditions, not
for sensationalist value but the cutting of symbols, sigils in the flesh,
letting the spirits in, it’s a long tradition, a magickal tradition.”
You’ve had some issues with servers removing the videos, and
you mentioned about possibly putting the clips on YouPorn to get around this
problem; do you have any concerns about the loss of control of images? “But
it’s different with performance art and film art, to my mind, because even
though I don’t really expect the film to go anywhere really – it’s just a
private diary – I’ve only just learnt how to cut film – it’s not really private
but it’s like a film grimoire – but it’s not meant to be a Hollywood thing or
make lots of money. To be honest, I’m not really worried about people using
that image or using those things because it’s like performance art, it’s kind
of like ‘for the moment’ rather than a painting that you’re selling and it’s
there.”
But once filmed, it’s no longer ‘in the moment’; it becomes
a recording of a moment...“I’ve not really thought about it...it keeps getting
taken off Youtube at the moment (laughs)...it keeps getting banned off Youtube
anyway but to be honest, my painting is my main work...this is an interesting
thing that I’m doing at the moment and it is part of my work but it’s not the
main thing, my painting is the thing that I’m actually talented at. I don’t
actually pretend to be a film maker, this is more like a Tracey Emin type
visual diary or something to go along with the paintings; you know -something
that I’m doing for myself...I don’t see the other (video) thing as a
distraction, that’s just something that I’m exploring, another side of
something that I feel like doing at the moment. I’m definitely not stopping
doing my painting or my writing, my painting is probably the essence of what
I’m talented at because I’ve worked like six years perfecting my painting –
I’ve only been doing this film thing as a thing of interest for two
months...it’s just an interesting idea, really, a small thing and an
interesting experiment really...”
Sunday, August 19, 2012
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