My work reflects on identity, memory and inheritance through re-appropriation exercises. Re-appropriation means taking something that already exists: a memory, a history, an object, a belief, and transforming it to make it your own. I wonder about the inheritance I received and the inheritance I want to leave. In my works I use materials related to memory such as photographs, books, used objects, old clothes, wood and recycled materials and thread. Thread is a very delicate and light material capable of forming fabrics, joining objects and building heavy and strong structures. I relate the thread to the act of repairing: repairing memories, inheritances, pains, absence, societies, ecosystems … My work is constructed as a ritual of reparation, each work is an attempt to repair an invisible identity, a memory, an inheritance of pain, violence and submission, with the hope of inheriting to a new generation a world more humane.

ArtConnect asked the winning artists to share with us a glimpse into their creative life to get a sense of their personal inspiration and artistic process.

What are some of the central themes you pursue in your work?

My work reflects on identity, memory, inheritance. I wonder about the inheritance I received, but also about the inheritance that I want to leave, that is why in my work the idea of repairing is important. Each work is an attempt to repair a memory, a lost identity, an absence, a belief. I like the word re-appropriation, because it implies taking something already exist (inherited) and transforming it.

How has your art practice developed over time?

My relationship with art began at a young age. As a child, my parents enrolled me in a school where art was central: we were taught about painting, ceramics, music, embroidery. I remember having a special affinity with stitching and embroidery in those early lessons. I later graduated from the Facultad de Artes Integradas at the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia and also did MFA in Film and Contemporary Art at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains in France. For me, however, the best way to learn about making art is to work at it yourself on a daily basis. Through continual work, I began to have a deeper encounter with the materials I use; I began to discover their limits and learned to use them in a way that expands my work rather than confines it.

What drew you to work with your medium/media of choice?

For me, the development of artistic practice is related to the ability to attend: the disposition to tend to the person, object or material with which I’m working. To tend means to not just to do with the material what you had previously imagined; to tend is to dispose oneself to understand another world, another way of seeing, another way of existing at the risk of changing your original idea, at the risk of being questioned. Later the growth of the work occurs alone, because the artist has grown first mentally and intuitively through attention and tending, and constant work. I started making films and each film has been the development of a question that the previous film left me; an aesthetic and human question. Now with the thread something similar happens to me.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as an artist?

There are two constant questions for me now: the first is related to the development of my own gaze, of my own way, in my art. In the cinema and in art there are established and considered extraordinary forms that make young artists tend to copy them. I want to develop my own gaze even if this implies success or failure and for that it's important to take risks, break my own mental structures or what I learned before. And the second question is about the money. The artist needs to get money every month to pay the rent or the food as everyone... and sometimes the artist has to do other work to get this money. I wonder about the way to dedicate my full time in the development of my art and at the same time pay my bills. I think that is a common question for emerging artists.

Describe a typical day in the studio/wherever you make your work.

I don't know if there is a typical day to describe. Sometimes I go for a walk and look for materials to work with: threads, wood, recycled objects, old clothes, etc. and I take the opportunity to look at nature, people, places. Other times I am reading or writing about the ideas that I am developing, these days for example I am reading a lot about birds. Other times I am working on a work that is in progress from morning to night for several weeks or months. Other times I am meeting with other artists, producers, or curators with whom I am working. When I have an exhibition the work is focused on preparing the works that I am going to exhibit there. Other times I am giving workshops or master classes at the university...

What future directions do you envision for your work?

My work has focused on developing what I have, the material I have, with the equipment I have ... I believe that each work imposes limits on you and for me it's very interesting to understand those limits in order to make them part of the creative process, to exploit them, even to break them. I like to understand my limits, the limits of the material, of the people, of the spaces, of the budget and, from there, to propose the aesthetic and plastic development. There are wonderful works that were made in the simplest way and with very little. I always try to do the best work with the possibilities that I have at that moment. That does not mean being a conformist, because I always start from the requirement to turn what I have, be it little or a lot, into something wonderful.

What are you currently working on? / What’s coming up next for you?

Currently I am wondering about being together with others, I am questioning the idea of competition and thinking how to transform it into collaboration. I wonder about this idea of the bridge that joins two points that are separated. For this reason, at the moment I am working on several projects that involve me collaborating with other artists. I am working on my next film produced by mutokino and Gema Films called "El canto del Auricanturi". I am also working on an installation called "Dignidades" in collaboration with the argentine sound artist Roberta Ainstein and on the project "Improvisaciones" in collaboration with the musician Holman Alvarez and Adrien Chauvin.

How does it feel to be selected as an ArtConnect Artist to Watch?

I am always grateful for the opportunities I receive and the support of other professionals in the development of my work as an artist, from a conversation to a selection or award. I am aware that this is important in order to continue building this path that I chose for my professional and personal development. But at the same time I always try that this does not take me out of focus, from the discipline of daily work, from the possibility of error until I reach a disturbing plastic and aesthetic development, from the importance of the process. The path is written every day and it is much more than the recognitions and awards that are received.

See more of Camila Rodríguez Triana’s work

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