William D. CANNON ART GALLERY

Victor Raphael - space Fields

VICTOR RAPHAEL AND KAREN MCGUIRE

A CONVERSATION WITH THE ARTIST

KM: When did you know you wanted to be an artist?

VR: For me, it was a gradual realization. In college I started taking some art classes, and after a trip to Europe in 1969 – seeing the art displayed in the museums and galleries there – I fell in love with the world of art. While still in college, I co-directed an art gallery and became a master printer of etchings, printing editions for other artists. This was a valuable experience, as I got to see how several different artists worked. During this same period of time, I was taking acting classes and making independent videos. I worked for a while at the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA making documentary and educational films. Finally, in 1980, I opened my studio in downtown Los Angeles, and began devoting time to my own artwork.

KM: You have said that the Space Field series, presented in this exhibition, is one of your favorite themes. Why?

VR: I had been interested in space since I was a kid. As an artist, I feel that these space images are unique to our time. I'm not interested in being scientifically accurate about the images I work with. I am more interested in abstracting the images, and exploring the relationship between the micro and macro worlds.

KM: You use technology to create a variety of multi-media works. Can you discuss the transition from the Polaroid image to other multiple levels of imagery?

VR: My process begins by taking Polaroid photographs from the television, often of NASA images sent back from space. After the image is captured, I paint onthe surface of the Polaroid with gold and metal leaf, in order to obscure and heighten certain aspects of the imagery. By altering the image in this way, I transform these space images and relate them to abstract and universal traditions. The next phase of my process involves digitally capturing the Polaroid with a 4" x 5" camera with a digital back. This approach allows me to light the Polaroid to accentuate the highlights and shadows created by the applied paint and gold leaf applications. Then, using digital technology again, I expand the scale and scope of the Polaroids – outputting the image onto canvas. This produces a unique piece – but I’m still not done – because then I hand-work the surface again with gold and metal leaf.

KM: Why the changes in scale? What does that achieve for you?

VR: Viewing the Polaroid is an intimate experience. You have to get up close to take in these highly concentrated images. With the expansion of scale, you physically have a different relationship with the work – it can be read across the room as well as up close. Additionally, the larger versions are not copies of the Polaroids. There is a transformation that occurs with the shift in scale. I am interested in exploring the iterations that are a result of the creative process.

KM: One of the pieces in this exhibition, from your work done at Self-Help Graphics, is an image of the pyramids at Teotihuacan in Mexico. How does this relate to your Space Field series?

VR: In the late 70’s, I did a series of pieces on UFO’s, including a photo collage of the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. When Jose Alpuche, the master printer at Self-Help Graphics, saw it at the Weisman Museum show, we talked about making an updated version as a silkscreen. The piece is a musing on the mystery of the unknown origin and fate of the people who built this incredible structure. Hundreds of years after it was abandoned, the Aztecs gave Teotihuacan it’s name, meaning “the place where men became gods.” In Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past, Erich von Daniken’s highly speculative book, argues that the great, unexplained engineering feats of ancient civilizations were technological gifts from alien space travelers. So man’s interest in the heavens and space is as old as mankind itself.

KM: What are some of the other "themes" you have focused on in your work?

VR: I‘m interested in the big questions and in the smallest detail that reveals something divine. I did a series at the old Getty villa in Malibu on the building’s architectural details, the collection, and the ripples and patterns of water in the peristyle pool. These Getty water studies led to a series of gold and metal leaf paintings of water on canvas. My travels have inspired a series of Paris Polaroids and another trip to Japan resulted in an exhibition Pictures from the Floating World, which included digital video, altered Polaroids and larger works on canvas hung as scrolls. I also have an ongoing series of abstractions that are kind of a laboratory for new ideas. As an artist, everything I come in contact with can be potential subject matter. I think the artist’s role is to open people’s perceptions and share another way of looking at things.

KM: You've mentioned that your work has contained art historical references. I've read that you have drawn inspiration from artists such as Jackson Pollock and Man Ray. Can you talk about how these artists and any others have influenced you?

VR: I was interested in Pollock’s painting technique and the way he dealt with pictorial space. However, it was my resemblance to him that led me to investigate the man behind the artwork. In the mid 80’s I did a body of work on Pollock, which included a video, a series of altered Polaroids, and several large Cibachromes. I spent several months going through his archives and made a pilgrimage to his home and studio in Springs, Long Island. Pollock believed that the unconscious was the source of creativity. With respect to Man Ray, I am inspired by the fact that he worked in many different media. As he said, “I paint what I cannot photograph; and I photograph what I cannot paint.” His Dada spirit is inspiring and engaging. I have been influenced by many artists: Duchamp, Johns and Rauschenberg were early influences. I was fascinated by Lucas Samaras’ Polaroids, Oscar Fischenger, Gustav Klimt, Yves Klein, Richard Long, Joseph Cornell, Paul Klee, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Monet, Picasso. The list goes on and on. As Marcel Proust said, “Thanks to Art, instead of seeing a single world, our own, we see it multiply until we have before us as many worlds as there are original artists.”

KM: Your CD-ROM "Victor Raphael@ZZYZX A Creative Journey" is your first CD-ROM project. Can you tell us about it?

VR: The CD-ROM chronicles my initiation into the digital world, which began in 1995 when I began working with ZZYZX, an innovative digital company founded by Bob Goldstein. I went there initially to create Iris prints from my altered Polaroids, but when we began digitizing the Polaroids, the images were so beautiful on the computer screen that the idea of displaying the work in a CD-ROM presentation became a compelling idea. From the beginning of the project to the pressing of the first edition took about a year and a half. We used state of the art technology to present my artwork to new audiences, in an interactive multi-media format. The technology has allowed me to extend the experience of the work in new ways. Instead of being limited to a two-dimensional presentation, viewers can interactively travel through the artwork. Navigating at various speeds with the mouse allows the viewer to become a participant as well as a collaborator in creating variations in the imagery. As new technologies and software are developed, I'm excited to see where the work might go from here. Among the several museum collections in which it is included, A Creative Journey was the first CD-ROM accepted into the collection of the Bibliotheque national of France in 1998. It was also presented at the international computer conference Siggraph in 1999.