Female Pentimento
Portals are often depicted as the escape element in fantasy tales to evade the enemy and reach a safer place, a place for healing and protection. As non corporeal appearances, they have the power to transcend the boundaries of physical objects and to transport into other dimensions.
Brooklyn based artist Female Pentimento use photography, post-production, sonic poems to recount an artistic practice nourished by biospiritualism, Christian symbolism and ecological issues. In the visual works, an inner world of fears, love and desires explode like an open wound: ethereal creatures, spiritual presences and portals made of light inhabit celestial landscapes or more earthly scenarios of devastation.
Multiple realities in which there is no place for the human, but rather the intangible, the ephemeral and the incomprehensible are exalted.
I’m really into your name: Female Pentimento, what does it mean to you?
When I initially made the name it was a reference to Picasso’s “The Old Guitarist”. The piece has an underpainting of a female figure that I felt made for an interesting metaphor about gender identity and presentation. It brings me so much joy now to say the name out loud or hear it spoken. It makes the project more real. I'm proud to witness this work flourish as it has because it's dedicated to the feminine parts of me.
Light is a really important element in your visual work, often opening portals to other dimensions or shaping creatures that resemble spiritual entities appearing in dreams or nightmares. What symbols and references inspire your visual imagery, or they just come to your mind?
I grew up in the Methodist church and I think subconsciously a lot of traditional, Christian symbolism has been embedded in my psyche and made its way into my work; light being one element. But its ability to transmute the physical and speak to a more beautiful, inner world withstands the cliches and religious connotations for me. For other visual inspiration, I look frequently to the art world. Artists like Agnes Pelton, Duane Michals, Sascha Schneider, Gilbert Willams, Belkis Ayon, to name a few, I repeatedly revisit for inspiration.
What do you use to create your images? What’s the process behind it in a technical way?
My creative process is quite straightforward: I mostly use my phone and Photoshop. Occasionally I’ll tap into AfterEffects for motion or video work but PS is my primary tool. I often start with a single image, usually a photo of an environment, and draw, layer, collage, recolor, etc. on top of that as much as the image needs to become something exciting. Most final products are happy accidents or a result of unplanned experimentation.
When it comes to photography, I’m guilty of taking hundreds of photos of the same subject at different angles and with various exposures in-camera. My Photo app is currently storing an excessive 50k photos. I find having such a large archive of source material is very helpful in the creation process short and long term.
Even your songs are sort of dark prayers coming from another dimension but at the same time recalling intimate personal experiences. Do you conceive your music pieces related to your visual art?
I see them as two sides of the same coin, one informing the other pretty directly. Sometimes an image will demand a sonic environment and other times a poem will inspire a visual.
With music, and perhaps because it’s so new to me, it’s easier to express myself and tell stories in an unfiltered, stream-of-consciousness way. I’ve always admired musicians like Devi Mccallion, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Julee Cruise, and early Perfume Genius, for their emotional live performances and candid storytelling.
In an image-obsessed society, you never show faces in your visuals: bodies seems more like masses of energy with no definable boundaries. Is there a specific motivation behind it?
Over the last year, I’ve been creating work through a lens of biospiritualism. Thinking about ways I can look to nature to better understand myself. Part of that has been imagining alternate realities where I embody a different form: another creature or something noncorporeal entirely (like a light portal). My hands aside, physical bodies haven’t made much of an appearance as they don’t really interest me as a subject or point of focus. Perhaps that will change in the future.
Emotions of fear but also a desire for peace and healing emerge from both apocalyptic and heavenly environments. Which values do you want to communicate in your work?
I hope my work imparts a sense of protection, love, and optimistic transformation. There are some works I’ve made that seem counter to that ambition (for example, the apocalyptic landscapes). I see those pieces however as cautionary reminders about climate change and ongoing environmental destruction versus depicting a world I want to inhabit.
Buddhist monk Ticht Nacht Han once said in an interview, “We are what we see”. That sentiment deeply resonated with me in relation to image-making and media consumption.[Ritorno a capo del testo]Why would I want to create or absorb anything other than images that nourish and uplift me?
You’ve also collaborated with other artists like @shejtano and @anthr0morph. We tend to believe of artistic practice as a loner activity, but often the most exciting things come out from different minds working together on a collective piece of work. What was it like to create something with others? And if you could choose someone to collaborate with, who would it be?
When there’s conceptual overlap and mutual interest in each other’s work, I find collaboration to be a very smooth and intuitive process. This year I've been so excited and grateful for the opportunity to expand what female pentimento looks like into new creative realms. The collaborations you mention are two great examples of how I've been able to explore this. Both creators -- who I've admired for many years -- bring such different skill sets to the table than my own (3D modeling and sculpture, respectfully) and they pushed me and my work into different and rewarding territories.
As for future collaborators: I tend to dream big… I’d love to do some sort of project with my mindfulness and spirituality teachers: Caroline Myss, Jack Kornfield, Marianne Willamson, Louise Hay (Hay House), all people who have fundamentally changed my life. I think a cross-over into that world could yield a new and exciting output.
As I sharpen my music skillset I’d also love to partner with one of my music idols: Anohni or Meredith Monk. Both of whom have heavily motivated me to start making music and share my own voice with others.
interview FEDERICA NICASTRO
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