Monday, March 11, 2024
Exchanges with Pamela Contrera:
1. Hi Pamela, please explain to me how you arrived at studying art, and where do you plan to go with it? Also, where did you study and how come you chose that specific school to attend?
I arrived at studying art because it was the only thing I felt I could happily do for a long time. I studied at Florida International University and I honestly chose it because it was close to home and more affordable than other art schools.
2. Please share with me how you got into making videos, I know that it’s sort of a recent endeavor, is that correct? Do you see similarities with it with painting and if not, what are their differences to you?
Yes it’s a new found love. I took an experimental video art class in college and found the subject very captivating. The professor sometimes allowed us to take any direction we wanted with our videos and that was very freeing to me. That approach almost never works on me, I prefer to have some guidance in art school but here it was different. I have always wanted to make videos, I have a lot of ideas, I just never knew what software to use.
3. In your videos, you mention your fixation with a particular thing or perhaps emotion. Please tell me particularly how this obsessive feeling about someone or something manifests in your work?
Well in a video piece titled “28” i attached the number to a person. I then would find myself seeing this number everywhere constantly being reminded of them. It was my creation and I knew I was purposely dwelling on the thought but it was too late. My mind had become used to scoping out the number in whatever place it may be. It was driving me mad so I decided to film it every time I saw it. I felt like I needed others to also view this with me in order to not feel so alone. It helped for a moment but then I found myself even more obsessed with the number. The number 1,2, and 8 in any order was enough to send me spiraling. I had to stop filming so I cut the video short.
4. I resonate with, “I have always had difficulty accepting that I am a part of this world. I hastily write my thoughts within my work to analyze my mind and further my appreciation of what it means to be human.” I wonder if you can elaborate about such circumstances, is it anxiety that drives you to make art or perhaps some other feeling, but please elaborate. What have you discovered so far, as it concerns “what it means to be human”.
I’m still figuring that out everyday. In regards to writing within my work: I find that by doing so I’m being authentic to myself by voicing my immediate thoughts. I can later come back to them and try to decipher why that stood out so much that I felt the need to transcribe it from thought onto paper,wood, ink, or pastel. Why transcribe? At the moment, I see the reason as my humanity.
5. How do you think sound functions in your video work, for example, for “so fixated” the sound comes in and out, Its sort of interesting how it adds to the everyday notion of your experience of being human, and I wonder how you see that in the larger scope of things.
So Fixated was a video that showed my attempt to move past feelings of melancholy, vexation, and obsession. These are feelings I have conditioned myself to find solace in since I find myself within them often. In almost a ritualistic way, I would write my thoughts on wood, cover them with wax, and later uncover random parts of them with a flame or a razor to reveal these “divine” words. When I went to uncover something in this specific panel of wood, the words that came up were “so Fixated”. I later burned the words. No thanks.
6. For “Clockwork,” I find the visual content stunning and wonder how the sound relates to it, how do you think it does? I’m also super intrigued over the overlay/double exposure that occurs for much of the video, is that something that perhaps you adopted and integrated from photography?
Thank you so much. So here we have the number 28 again. The background overlay is a video of me looking for a specific version of the song Surf Riders by the Lively Ones. I was unsuccessful. The video shows me scrolling all the way back up. Near the end of the video, the sound of a guitar playing the exact slowed down version of the song starts to sound. It’s the only copy I own and it’s one of my favorite sounds.
7. How does representation and abstraction function in your art? Or, more specifically how do you see these two concepts overlap and differentiate from one another within your art practice?
I love this question. I notice that for the most part I keep the meaning of my creations very cryptic and abstract. I don’t really know why I do that. I’m just a very private person and I find a certain power in that.
8. Can you share with me what you are planning for next in your art practice?
I have been working on some mixed media pieces that involve watercolor, charcoal, and pencil. I have found myself in my head a lot and I am working on another experimental diaristic piece that can help me translate specific feelings and moods I’m undergoing into a visual realm.
9. I know that we briefly discussed your interest in performance, but is that something that grew from generating virtual content? How do you start to think about the two?
I believe so. Whilst creating my candle art pieces, I found that a lot of people were interested in watching me do it live. I’m not sure how that would result since I end up crying whenever I go to remove the candle wax. It’s definitely a very vulnerable process and I would have to feel comfortable enough with the process before I do it in a public setting.
10. When creating a video, how do you start, do you have something in mind, or perhaps move forward with something and it changes as you work through the finalization period?
I usually have a small notion of what it is I’m trying to express. For my next video piece I want to involve reflections. I want these reflections to capture how I tend to experience everything from a distance. Although I know what I want to speak about in this next project, it usually changes as I work through it. I find the process more enjoyable this way.
Sound-Signals 