RR haiku 087
what
should i do
today
Austin Lee interviews Rafaël Rozendaal for SFAQ magazine
Austin Lee interviews Rafaël Rozendaal for SFAQ magazine.
New York, February 2014.
AL: Your artwork has strong ties to both painting and animation. How do you think about time in both mediums and how does it function in your work?
RR: I’m interested in movement, and I’m interested in staring. That means I want to make moving images that don’t have a beginning or ending, no specific duration. The computer makes it possible to create images that run infinitely, always a bit different but also kind of the same. Think of a fountain: it’s in motion, it’s moving, but it’s not going anywhere.
Documentation of “External Memory” exhibition at Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam
External Memory, exhibition by Rafaël Rozendaal
at Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam. March 2014.
Photography by Gert Jan van Rooij.
Art Criticism
It lacks courage. It’s ugly. It’s conformist. It’s safe. It’s too easy. It’s decorative. It’s predictable. Deja vu. It’s obvious. It’s unoriginal. It lacks vision. It lacks emotion. It’s too emotional. It’s too personal. I don’t connect with it. It doesn’t surprise me. It’s dry. It’s pedantic. It’s too logical. It doesn’t make any sense. It makes too much sense. It’s repulsive. It’s nauseating. I hate it. More of the same. No innovation. It looks like vomit. It hurts my eyes. It makes me sad. It’s ignorant. It’s primitive. It’s banal. It’s too glossy. It’s too polished. It needs polishing. It lacks technique. It doesn’t do anything for me. It’s trendy. It won’t last. It’s fragile. It confuses me. It’s design. It’s theater. It’s illustration. It’s an effect. It lacks depth. It’s cold. There’s no content. There’s no concept. Too conceptual. It’s too pretty. There’s no narrative. It’s boring. It’s clumsy. It’s too much. It’s elitist. It’s populist. It’s crap. It’s not art. It’s too artistic. It’s vile. It lacks poetry. I don’t believe in it. It’s empty. It’s awful. I can’t stand it. I never want to see it again. It’s vulgar. It’s retarded. It’s a cliche. I’m disappointed. It’s racist. It’s sexist. It’s classist. It’s nerdy. It pisses me off. It’s too heady. It’s too smart. It’s not gonna go anywhere. It’s academic. It’s dead. It’s irrelevant. It’s not contemporary. It’s uninteresting. It doesn’t have any meaning. It’s too commercial. It’s tacky. It’s a scam. It’s miserable. It’s exploitative. It’s negative. It’s fake. It’s not critical. It’s not aware. It’s too ironic. It’s appalling. It’s derivative. It’s annoying. It’s atrocious. It’s naive. It’s immature. It’s childish. It’s insufferable. It’s lazy. It’s convoluted. It’s contrived. It’s bloated. It’s unnecessary. I don’t trust it. I don’t get it. Whatever.
Moving images
I have always been interested in the space between painting and animation. The concentration of painting, the liveliness of the moving image. I operate in the area between those two.
Our relationship with the moving image is changing. They surround us, a bit more every day.
I imagine we will live in a world where there is no difference between a screen or any other surface. Any surface can change at will.
It is this feeling, or expectation, that drives me to create moving images.