Q: Your current body of work has a lighter palette compared to your previous pieces, what factors influenced that decision?
A Being very much influenced by the surrounding, the palette reflects the colours and the lights of my environment when creating.
Among the previous pieces, a large part was created in Switzerland, very often under gloomy weather conditions or in the mountains during wintertime when everything is more or less shiny greyish white. The palette already changed in the work realized in Oman, showing the different sand and grey colours of the country contrasting with the strong turquoise blue of the sea along the coastal areas. Japan, the last body of work, is lighter, very much reflecting the May atmosphere on the main island.
The focus of my work is to represent my mundane experiences with abstract forms; the palette changes with the places and the situation represented.
I couldn’t be an artist sticking to a certain palette of colours. I would feel restricted.
Another important factor influencing the palette is of course the choice of material I use; when I was in Japan, I found different inks not available in Europe. The Japanese inks are traditionally used for calligraphy, classical drawing or manga. Mixed with water, the inks give interesting colours. Part of the challenge is to try and play with different kinds of colour material.
Q: Do you think being a global artist in this day and age comes with its own unique challenges?
A The “global artist” is not really a new phenomenon. Even in the middle age, artists were travelling, exchanging with other artists, and developing new elements borrowed from other cultures. What has changed now is the way it is done. The modern artist can virtually show his work everywhere he wants. The exchange of ideas and technics takes place at many levels and very quickly. On one side it is encouraging and satisfying when your work is appreciated in another country or in a different cultural context, on the other side the artist feels a certain pressure to please everyone everywhere. The artist’s work is subject to global criteria, the international critic can be very harsh and the artist has to work quite hard to develop his very personal signature.
Q: How important is creating dialogue through your work as an artist?
A When I was in my thirties, I was convinced that the main aim of art is creating dialogue be political, cultural or sociological. The dialogue was supposed to be provocative, critical, interrogative and constructive as well. At that time, a lot of international artists were creating for that purpose. In this day, a lot of artists tend to be more autistic and create either for the pleasure of creation or to show off and don’t really care about the different feedbacks.
Just because the diffusion through the media is immensely wide, there is less dialogue but more parallel monologues losing themselves in every direction. People look at your work but usually you don’t really know how your audience reacts, you don’t get the real critic and the dialog face to face is missing.
From my point of view, the dialogue is still important but honestly, it is restricted to small “like minded” groups. Having the opportunity to show my work in different cultural contexts, I personally appreciate very much this kind of “intercultural” dialogue taking physically place with a restricted number of persons but from different cultures. These are very concrete and real feedbacks.
Q: You have travelled extensively throughout your life both personally and professionally, what advice would you give someone who may not have the means to do so but wants to discover the world creatively?
A Sometimes I am just sitting in the local bus, observing what happens around me, listening to the discussion, looking at faces expression. I suddenly realize that I am just collecting amazing situations and visions, which then gives me a lot of material to prepare a small series. The classical artists used to do sketches. I don’t do sketches but I listen, look, observe and reflect. I am aware of my surrounding, it is then up to me to translate my observation into art with my own creative means. Observation can be done around the corner…
A step further is to read books and discover other universes, going to exhibitions to see how other express themselves with their creative means. I personally enjoy very much going to different types of exhibitions, showing foreign artists, in the city where I live.
The confrontation with other art works is motivating
Q: Do you have any upcoming exhibitions? (I would prefer to answer this question at the end of the interview)
A No, because I don’t want to have this kind of pressure. I rather show my work around and answer requests. An exhibition means a lot of preparatory, administrative work, which I don’t really want at that point. As I started to create quite late in my life, I am not depending on my work to make a living.
Q: How important is down time for you? Do you think we live in an age of pressured productivity?
A Pressured productivity has always been an issue for an artist who has to make a living out of his art. Looking back at the history of art, throughout the ages, artists were producing under pressure just to survive; very few had the chance to be supported by rich patrons and at the same time to create what they really wanted. A lot of art has been and still is commissioned.
I suppose every creative person has kind of high peaks followed by down time. As we live in an age of speed, down time is usually perceived as lost time, is frustrating.
I am extremely privileged to work creatively by choice, to be in a position to refuse pressured productivity and therefore I can afford down time. However, it is very true that down time can be very frustrating and difficult to deal with, but at the same time, it can enlarge your vision and creativity, giving you time to lay back and win a new creative energy.
Q: What does art mean to moholinushk?
A Art is expression of one’s inner world. In that sense, art is a testimony - of an artist’s life, perceptions, and emotions - a testimony of the time and the place when and where the artist lives. Art is like a piece of a person’s biography.
Art is communication – between human beings living at the same time or at different time and age – and communication between different cultural contexts.
Art is exchange of visions, sharing of impressions and meanings.
Personally I delight in creating something completely different from my former life. Art is pleasure.