The Seven Circuits of a Pearl

 

The Seven Circuits of a Pearl

BY IOANNA SAKELLARAKI


This peripatetic inquiry is realized through a series of night walks across a wide range of Australian landscapes mapping out the transmutable body of nature as a meditative field. Occupying new meanings each time through the walking as a form of grounding thought while moving with it and making something out of it, its residue becomes what remains but empowers. Characterized by their own interruption, when zones of landscapes pause and rebegin by merging into a new form of totality, the fields of these walks are moving bodies themselves; a form of energy that is transferable to words, images, and sounds enabling them to become the toponyms of new constellations. From the west to the east coast, there is no crossing without encountering the desert as the connector in the in-between, the center of Australia; the interior of the continent, and the seventy percent of its entirety, a landscape that epitomizes a ‘before- us’ quality as a site of ancient myth, spiritual dimension, and cultural rebirth and which had, for centuries, been seen as a ‘’terra nullius’’ in the journals of masculine adventurers who tried to cross it. The desert, this ‘’hideous blank’’, as several of the early explorers had called it, is, for the purpose of this work, envisioned like an outdoor thinking room during my night walks; the site for ‘forming aporias’ on the physical space of my images. These forms are for me exploration devices of the unknown; they operate in their hiddenness and at the same time it is through hiding that they invite me to find them anew, fully and wholly.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Ioanna Sakellaraki (b.1989) is a Greek visual artist and researcher. Her work investigates the relationship between collective cultural memory and fiction. Drawing emphasis on the photographic object, process and encounter, she explores the boundaries of a primitive, yet futuristic vision of places and people. She is a graduate of Journalism with an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art in London and an MA in Cultural Studies. She is the recipient of The Royal Photographic Society Bursary Award 2018 and was the winner of a Sony World Photography Award in 2020. In 2019, she was awarded with the Reminders Photography Stronghold Grant in Tokyo and the International Photography Grant Creative Prize. Nominations include: the Inge Morath Award by Magnum Foundation in USA, the Prix HSBC, the Prix Levallois and the Prix Voies Off in France. Her work has been exhibited internationally in art festivals and galleries with recent solo shows in Tokyo, Melbourne, Belfast, Braga, Greece and Berlin. Her projects have been featured in magazines such as The New Yorker, TIME, Aesthetica and Wallpaper and journals including The Guardian, Financial Times and Deutsche Welle. She has been invited as a guest speaker in the Martin Parr Foundation and the London Institute of Photography amongst others. Her work has been acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Collection. Her monograph ‘The Truth is in the Soil’ is published by London- based publisher GOST Books.

Website


https://ioannasakellaraki.com/

 

On Trial

 

on trial

BY CRISTIAN ORDÓÑEZ


Although only residing in the USA for a short period, Toronto-based Chilean Photographer Cristian Ordóñez has spent a large-period of the previous decade revisiting the lower states creating works that explore the notion of memory, personal relationship, and encounters with the territory.

On Trial observes and plays witness to these encounters, a body of work that presents the social, economic, and geographic survey of the landscape traveled by Ordóñez. A survey, engaging with all things natural and foreign on even ground, seeking to question not only the observer but the role of the object within the frame.

Forthcoming previous published works, Notes 01, 02, and 03, the new chapter continues to visualise his approach and interest in the photographic process as a medium to explore the territory, own cultural diversity, and the connection between place and ethnicity.

Text by Rohan Hutchinson. Editor, acb press

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Cristian Ordóñez is a Chilean photographer based in Toronto. Ordóñez has exhibited his work in multiple group and solo exhibitions in Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom, Russia, Greece, the United States, and Netherlands. He has also participated in various art fairs in Santiago, Toronto, and Vancouver. Using the medium of photography he collects impressions of the world, gravitating towards the parallels between ideas, memory, and belonging. He observes time and space through human absence and presence, captures natural and urban vestiges, explores the vastness and intimacy of landscape, and focuses on blurring the lines between nature, urban structures, and portraiture. His work has been collected by the National Gallery of Canada, Library & Archives, the National Library of Australia, the State Library of Victoria in Australia, and the San Telmo Museum in Spain.

Website


https://cristianordonez.com/works/on-trial/

Book


https://www.acb-press.com/publications/cristian-ordonez-on-trial-forth-coming

 

Na terra de Jacó

 

Na terra de Jacó

BY BRUNO SAAVEDRA


[Aos 22 dias de abril,] houvemos vista de terra! Primeiramente, dum grande monte, mui alto e redondo.
(…) Ao monte alto, o capitão pôs o nome – Monte Pascoal e à terra, Terra de Vera Cruz.

Carta do Achamento do Brasil, Pêro Vaz de Caminha

A Jacó foi dada a graça do seu nascimento, mas o seu legado foi o da perseverança. A terra do leite do mel, o paraíso perdido, não se alcança sem trabalho árduo, sem exílio, sem viagens de longas distâncias em percursos iniciáticos.
A armada topou com o Jardim do Éden sem querer, diz-se. Em tempo de Páscoa, de renovação, de celebração da aliança com o criador. E o verde-azul paradisíaco era sonho, libertação, reencontro com as origens, reconhecimento da identidade.

Jacó fora escolhido. Ele sabia-o, mas estava consciente do poder da Providência e da lei de Deus. E assim gerou filhos – José e Judá e Benjamim e Levi e… e… E Wilson. E então, em tempo de esperança e de demanda, toda a Terra viu de perto o sol e os tons de amarelo a aclarar o azul e o verde luxuriantes do jardim da madeira incandescente.

Quando Deus viu que a sua obra era boa, descansou. Quem descansaria se assim não fosse? E que fez o homem? E Jacó, e Wilson, filho do homem? Aprendeu a olhar para Deus e viver com Ele? Fez d’Ele seu irmão? Nesta tarefa imensa de observar e aprender, o miúdo fez-se gente de procura. Tornou-se homem a testar perseverança, na busca de sonhos e de verdades, nos sentidos e nos significados que cada imagem (ou fragmento) pareceu querer exprimir.

E foi-lhe dada uma graça: a da visão. Para a ir ganhando, sete anos foi vivendo pelo mundo e mais sete foi servindo a sua arte. Como Jacó. Arduamente. E de Wilson a Wilson, de Silva a Silva, de Silva a Bruno, de Wilson a Saavedra ou, por recomposição, de Silva a Saavedra, de Wilson a Homem. E a terra de Canaã? E a terra de Jacó? Onde ficou essa origem, essa raiz de identidade?

O mundo inicial, de que ficaram sinais, cheiros e cores, memórias de rostos e de expressões, visitado e revisitado na memória, chamou-o. E ele foi Bruno para contar Wilson. Ao encontro do que nunca deixou, de olhos cheios de um amor que não se explica. – Eu fui ver Wilson e o Bruno viu-se nele…

A terra abriu-se como uma flor da manhã, numa luz intensa intrínseca. Captar um raio de luz, como? Nas caras, na terra, nas casas daquela (minha) gente, dir-se-ia. E a história refez-se e, em si mesma, fez história.

Silva, Wilson, o Neto, por Saavedra, Bruno, o mesmo outro. Com amor,
Da terra,
Pela terra,

Na terra de Jacó.

Nuno Verdial Soares
16 de março de 2019

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

BRUNO SAAVEDRA é um fotógrafo e artista visual luso-brasileiro que nasceu em 1987 na cidade de Itamarajú – Bahia no Brasil e reside em Portugal desde 2004.
Aos oito anos, apaixonou-se pela fotografia, indiretamente influenciado pela sua avó materna, que passava os serões mostrando-lhe negativos, monóculos e fotografias antigas de família. 

Desde 2015, trabalha como fotógrafo freelancer e tem exposto os seus trabalhos com frequência por diversos locais do mundo como Portugal, Austrália, Brasil, Macau e África. A fotografia de Bruno Saavedra vai além do documental, conceptual ou até mesmo autoral. É algo quase subliminar, com muita verdade, sentimento e respeito pelo que se fotografa.

Com o passar dos anos, nota-se a sua obsessão por documentar as coisas simples da vida. A identidade, a intimidade, as questões culturais, sociais e a memória coletiva são, por isso, os principais temas dos seus trabalhos.

Parte da sua obra pertence a coleccionadores privados e institucionais.

LINKS


https://brunosaavedra.com

https://www.instagram.com/brunosaavedra.photo/

 

The Things We Must Face by Matt Milligan

 
 
 

The Things We Must Face

by Matt Milligan

PT | EN

When news of the shutdowns started to make the rounds, I was at the office—three floors of an eerie and quiet building occupied by me and, occasionally, the cleaning guy. It had been that way for a week or so. Everyone who had the means was leaving or preparing to leave the city, and my office was no exception. 

The flight of those who could afford to leave was the first division. And it was this apparent class separation that would, at least for me, expose the rest of what was to come as a series of interlopers—unwanted visitors that keep showing up at the doorstep of America. This reminded me of something James Baldwin said, "You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read."

Despite what we frequently see in the media, there is nothing unprecedented about 2020. We are experiencing problems that have been with us for generations, problems that stem from divisions. And those divisions are rooted in money, politics, religion, race, and other things one should not talk about in polite company. But these social taboos are the very things we must talk about—and face—as Mr. Baldwin also said, or they will keep splitting us in two over and over again.

A couple of weeks after the stay-at-home order had gone into effect, the half of us who remained in the city had to navigate a familiar but unknown landscape. My neighborhood had become as empty and quiet as my office had been. When I went on walks or the occasional errand, I photographed the changes I saw. I also turned my camera inside (because we were inside all the time!); it seemed an instinctive response to the confinement. I began to see repeated images and symbols, sometimes subtle and sometimes overt. I realized that if I was sensitive to them, they could bolster the symbols of the past that Baldwin talked about and help me navigate what I was encountering and feeling. As Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk, said, "the true symbol does not merely point to something else. It contains in itself a structure which awakens our consciousness to a new awareness of the inner meaning of life and of reality itself." 

Making these photographs is a cathartic experience for me. It brings to the fore my human "constant preoccupation with pleasure and pain... our pursuit of this happiness," as fourteenth-century Japanese writer Yoshida Kenkō says. It also—thankfully—brings Merton's new awareness that, without his and Baldwin's help, I would not have found. This process and these writers have taught me that before I say anything about the problems I see out in the world, I must first look inside and face myself.




Bio

Matt Milligan is an American artist based in New York City working with digital and film photography. He uses photography and prose to explore personal experiences and how they are shaped by our surroundings, relationships, and the indirect symbols we encounter every day. He layers his visual imagery with interiors and exteriors—both physical and mental—that give nuance and subtle emotional complexity to his work.

Milligan's latest project, The Things We Must Face, is a personal reflection on life in New York City during the pandemic and how James Baldwin, Thomas Merton, and fourteenth-century Japanese writer Yoshida Kenkō influenced his experience and understanding.



 

InConcret Realities by Fadia Mufarrej

 
 
 

InConcret Realities

BY FADIA MUFARREJ

PT | EN

How one lives during quarantine in Brazil?

The social isolation in Brazil is not a rule, it is a privilege. Unfortunately because not everyone has the same social conditions, self isolation is not taken as serious. The Brazilian government has not made quarantine an essential, actually the President elected create excuses about breaking health measures, suggested by the World Helth Organization, and mocks social isolation together with the pandemic e ects in the world. Excuses such as “it’s just a little flu” and “so what?” are used by the President when referring to the pandemic.e social-political and health scenario in the country is the most cruel since the period of the military dictatorship in the 70s. From home we have been experiencing the fall of our democratic system simply by keeping up with the news. Scandals such as ministers asking for resignation, judges being disrespected by members of the government, the head of state being involveld in nepotism, press being persecuted, and so on.In such a chaotic situation I find myself in a relatively medium- -sized city located in Amazon, Belém. The city has been negatively a ected in many ways, reported with thousands of deaths due to Covid-19, local authorities involved in corruption scandals and the health and funeral state systems collapsed. From the inside of my “privilege island” I observe all this helplessly, the agony of not knowing what the future holds is a constant, and the wait is timeless, life as we knew it, now became an utopia.e following photographic series portrays a little bit of a middle class family daily life in Brazil, who has the privilege to properly exercise self-isolation due to Covid-19 world pandemic.


Bio

Female artist and producer from Pará, who graduated in medias and communication at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP), São Paulo Brazil, in 2015. I started my career with photo and video documentation.

In 2013 I had my first contact with professional photography through an inter- nship at the International Photography Festival Paraty em Foco (RJ-BR) a er this experience, I’ve worked as a television producer in Brazil. My first authorial art project initiated when I was living in London in 2016 where I studied documentary lmmaking at the Met Film School, I nished my course with a short documentary about a Lebanese mother, the Learning to Fly, when I returned to Brazil I took a workshop at the Fotoativa association (PA-BR), with the visual artist as a tutor Ana Lira, who changed my perspective as an artist in many ways, the tools of producing an art object had expanded. We ended this course with a collective exhi- bition of the students creative processes in the association, my result was a project about a ective memory by a photographic series and an installation about the oldest warehouse still in operation in my hometown, Casa Salomão.

In 2017, I joined at a Master in Art and Design for the public space at Porto Fine Art faculty, during the course I developed the project In translation, narratives between the two sides of the Atlantic, which consists in a photographic research about public space by the analysis of homonymous cities between Brazil and Portugal. The similarities and dissonances assimilated in this project were presented through the construction of a photobook which the narrative invites the observer to immerse himself in the imaginary of these six cities, Óbidos, Santarém and Salvaterra, both in Brazil and Portugal, and to get lost among them without knowing in which country they are by the observation of the images, inviting to re ect on these experience by the observation of public space and also on the past and the present.

In addition to the photobook, I’ve participated in a collective exhibition of the finalists on the Master degree in Art and Design for the public space (2017/2019) on the Fine Arts faculty gallery of the U.Porto, where I presented the same project by photographs, screen printing on fabric and a small installation. In 2020 I participated of an individual exhibition for new artists promoted by Canto Co-working (Belém / PA-BR) with the same project. Themes such as memory, colonialism, urban flows and geographic maps are frequently addressed in my projects.

 

Breathing Zone by Gionatan Tecle

 
 
 

Breathing Zone

BY GIONATAN TECLE

PT | EN

“Breathing Zone” Initially started from a curiosity into the way in which my partner and I occupied our one-bedroom apartment, this body of work explores the idea of social distancing amidst today's situation. I was moved by the 3 to 6 feet rule which states that if I stand within 3 to 6 feet of someone, you may inhale some of what I exhale. The rule made me think of the space we inhabit as a bubble that is used as a measure of caution in public settings and how this thought is and can be subconsciously carried in a private domestic space. The practice of distancing as a necessity in both private and public spaces. The lack of exchange between people forced by the possibility of inhaling some of what I exhale.


Bio

Born in Ostia Antica, Rome, Gionatan Tecle is an Italian Eritrean visual artist currently based in Los Angeles. His work explores the limits in which an image can evoke emotion while asserting it's sense seamlessly within the material being presented. His cerebral methods of creating an image involve exploring the content and unearthing a cinematic expression embedded within the written words.

His latest works, Fixed Water and World were recently chosen for Official Selection at Palm Springs International Film Festival. He has received several awards for artistic merit including the Myrl Schreibman Fellowship, Motion Picture Association American Award, and the Steve Lawrence and Eddie Gorme Scholarship.

In 2012, he completed his BFA from the University of Maryland Baltimore County undergraduate program in Cinematic Art. He also holds a Master in Fine Arts from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television in Cinematography.

https://www.gionatantecle.com/
Instagram @gionatan.tecle

 

Isolation With Dementia by Amber Franks

 
 
 

Isolation With Dementia

BY AMBER FRANKS

I am an artist based in Sussex, UK - during Lockdown in the UK, I cared for my 89 year old Grandmother who has Vascular Dementia. For the first 40 days, I documented her daily life throughout being isolated in my home.

Bio

In her practice the artist Amber Franks investigates personal trauma and loss in relation to “casual” sexism and its causes and contexts.Her work poses challenging questions that push and question conventional boundaries between artist and viewer. Franks considers the spectators’ space and progression within her exhibits, devising a narrative that invokes the viewer to reflect upon the self. This consideration exemplifies how various experiences of trauma can be dissected into separate narratives, but inherently still coincide with one another.

https://www.amberfranks.co.uk
Instagram @amberrfranks

 

Hythloday by Norberto Fernández Soriano

 
 

Hythloday by Norberto Fernández Soriano


Hythloday is a body of work that draws from one community’s fight against fracking, and presents their experience and beliefs through a visual interpretation of what is positioned between fact and fiction. In the United Kingdom, the trial site for hydraulic fracture-fracking for shale gas – and its potential for national rollout and future commercial exploitation - is located in the countryside between the cities of Preston and Blackpool. A mile down the road from this site, a group of activists - known to the local community as ‘The Protectors’ - set up camp, where they lived and fought to stop this fracking trial.

In what might be described as a “photographic novella”, Hythloday transforms this physical place into an imagined post-fracking scenario, in which the activities, causes, fears, effects and thoughts situated in this place constitute a potential future landscape. Hythloday draws its titled from the name of the sailor in Thomas Moore’s Utopia, which is used as a means to explore and understand the place itself, as well as ‘The Protectors’ fight. Hythloday combines the characters and elements on the ground with the mood to create a journey through an unknown and strange place that reveals the tension between those protrayed and the land they inhabit.


Bio
Norberto Fernández Soriano (1988, Spain) is a visual storyteller and book-maker. He uses photography to explore and interpret the world he inhabits, creating a common ground between contemporary social issues and his own life questions.

Having previously studied Chemical Engineering, his scientific background and self-taught approach to photography has led him to investigate the narrative possibilities of the medium. He is currently studying for a Masters in Photography at University of West of England (UWE Bristol) - his work has materialised in the form of the artist-book, Hythloday, and will be exhibited at the Martin Parr Foundation in 2020.

www.norbertofernandezsoriano.com

 

I'm Here With You

 
 

I’M HERE WITH YOU

BY GOWUN LEE

The majority of LGBTQ people in South Korea hide their true identities from their colleagues, friends and their families. Despite a recent surge in LGBTQ activism, Korea remains a very conservative country and those who come out face being disowned by family or dismissed from their employers. Many Koreans still express bitter hostility toward LGBTQ people, while others simply deny their existence. The Korean military actively hunts down gay soldiers, going so far as to mount sting operations using gay dating apps. And when someone does come out, parents and family members often choose to ignore the truth.

This project literally and metaphorically represents sexual minorities living in Korea who are forced to hide their sexual identity. The LGBTQ individuals photographed—all facing away from the camera—remind us of how Korean society continues to neglect and refuse to accept them. By creating these images, my intent is to both implicate the viewer in the nation’s larger refusal to acknowledge the identity of LGBTQ individuals and, more importantly, to spur us all to take action and change this attitude once and for all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gowun Lee (b. 1984) is a visual artist who utilizes photography. She explores themes of a social issue such as LGBTQ in South Korea and human relationship in conceptual ways. She moved to South Korea from New York for her ongoing project.

She received BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts. She has been shortlisted for Tokyo International Photo Competition, ZEISS Photography Award 2018, 2018 Aperture Summer Open: The Way We Live Now.

Her images have been featured in Open Society Foundations, The Guardian, CNN Style, Bubblegumclub, Aperture Foundation, Korean daily, Monthly photo, ZEISS LensPire, and World Photography Organization.

Her work has been included in exhibitions at the United Photo Industries Gallery in New York, Onfoto Gallery in Taiwan, SVA Chelsea Gallery in New York, Tak Gallery in Seoul, MayFlay in Seoul, Wonder Fotoday in Taiwan, Head On Photo Festival in Australia , Somerset house in London and Upcoming exhibition T3 Photo Festival in Tokyo.


Web: www.gowunlee.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/gowunlee_



 

You don't look Native to me

 
 

YOU DON’T LOOK NATIVE TO ME

BY MARIA STURM

“You don‘t look Native to me is a quote and the title of a body of work, that shows excerpts from the lives of young Native Americans from around Pembroke, Robeson County, North Carolina, where 89% of the city’s population identifies as Native American. The town is the tribal seat of the Lumbee Indian Tribe of North Carolina, the largest state-recognized Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River, which means they are federally unrecognized and therefore have no reservation nor any monetary benefits.

I am tracing their ways of self-representation, transformed through history, questions of identity with which they are confronted on a daily basis, and their reawakening pride in being Native. The work consists of portraits, along with landscapes and places, interiors, still lives, and situations. The aesthetic framework that is presented offers clues – sometimes subtle, sometimes loud – for imparting a feeling for their everyday lives.

My work engages an unfamiliar mix of concepts: a Native American tribe whose members are ignored by the outside world, who do not wear their otherness on their physique, but who are firm in their identity. Through photography, video and interviews, I am investigating what happens when social and institutional structures break down and people are forced to rely on themselves for their own resources. This raises questions to the viewer regarding one’s own identity and membership to the unspecified mainstream.

This work was started in 2011.”

Maria Sturm

Since 2011, Maria Sturm has photographed teenagers from the Lumbee tribe in and around Pembroke, North Carolina, where almost 90 percent of the population identifies as Native American. Unlike other native tribes, the Lumbee were not forced to move during colonial expansion and have subsequently maintained a strong connection to their land. Sturm’s series You Don’t Look Native to Me considers how young Native people present themselves today in relation to their identity and culture. At first glance, Sturm’s photographs might appear to depict the daily life of a community almost anywhere in America, but elements of hybridity—Halloween fangs on a child in Tuscarora regalia; dreamcatchers and a school portrait on a living room wall—signify the mixing of heritage and contemporary culture.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Maria Sturm (b. 1985, Romania) received a diploma in Photography from FH Bielefeld in 2012 and a MFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design. She is a Fulbright and DAAD scholar. She has won several prizes including the New York Photo Award 2012 and the DOCfield Dummy Award Barcelona 2015 with the work Be Good.

Her most recent work You don't look Native to me about the unrecognized Lumbee tribe of North Carolina was nominated for Vonovia Award, shortlisted for PhotoLondon La Fabrica Book Dummy Award and made the 2nd place at Unseen Dummy Award. It was published in British Journal of Photography and Filmbulletin and exhibited in the German Consulate New York, Clamp Art New York, Wiesbadener Fototage, Encontros da Imagem, at Artists Unlimited Bielefeld and at Aperture Foundation New York among others.

It will be next shown at Addis Foto Fest and Photo Vogue Festival.

Having met in during a month-long residency at Atelier de Visu Marseille and workshop with Antoine d'Agata in 2012 Cemre Yeşil and Maria Sturm kept in touch ever since. Their permanent exchange led them to start a collaboration and in 2014 they have photographed For Birds' Sake, a work about the Birdmen of Istanbul. This work was published as a photobook by La Fabrica Madrid and featured in Colors Magazine, The Guardian, British Journal of Photography and ZEITmagazin among others. It was exhibited during Internacional de Fotografa de Cabo Verde, FotoIstanbul, Bitume Photofest Lecce, Organ Vida International Photography Festival Zagreb, Format Festival Derby, Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie and at Daire Gallery, Sol Koffler Providence, La Fabrica Madrid, Pavlov's Dog Berlin, Deichtorhallen Hamburg and it was a finalist at PHE OjodePez Award for Human Values 2015 and Renaissance Photography Prize 2017 and nominated for Lead Awards 2016 and Henri-Nannen-Preis 2016. It was also shortlisted at Arles Author Book Award 2016 and Prix Levallois 2017.


instagram: https://instagram.com/maria__sturm/
facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/maria.sturm
twitter: https://twitter.com/maria_sturm

 

The Rage Of Devotion: Liza Ambrossio

 
 

THE RAGE OF DEVOTION

Some time ago I decided to change my life in the most extraordinary way possible. I looked in and without intending it I remembered the phrase with which my mother said goodbye the last time I saw her at sixteen years old – “I wish you well, and believe me I hope you´ll become strong and brave, so you can be merciless when the time comes to destroy your body and crush your soul the next time we see each other”- After an overwhelming emotional breakdown, I started this series of images intermingling with pictorial canvases and photographs of my family archive to impel the observer to immerse themselves in my psychology. 

I stumble, but in the same way freeing myself, finding their lascivious looks, my fear of touch and the instinctive repulsion that represents for me the concept of “family”. In “The rage of devotion” I discover that although I look, I don´t want to see, because what lives inside me, looks and it is completely monstrous.

Liza Ambrossio

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Liza Ambrossio is an young Mexican artist based in Madrid, Spain. Her body of work combines photographs of macabre archive with cryptic paintings, performance, intervention, installations, videos, psychology, lucid nightmares, science fiction, ero-guro and witchcraft that come together in free association.

Wen she was sixteen years old she asked for one of the house keepers of her mother's house to steal photographs of the family albums while Liza self-portraying herself looking for ways to survive away from her family's own decision, while compiling chilling early-morning scenes in Mexico City, her mental and real travels from her adolescence to her adulthood. In her project The rage of devotion-La ira de la devoción, the feminine is threatening because it seduces and in the poetics of its seduction devours. Project awarded with the Discoveries scholarship of Photo España-La Fabrica, the scholarship portfolio review for FotoFest 2018 in Houston, she was selected to participate for New Visions 2018 in the Cortona On the Move Festival, Italy, she received the first honorific mention for the Emerging Prize within the Encontros Da Imagens festival-2018, Portugal and the first prize in the Voies Off Award 2018 in Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France. Resulting in a photo book co-edited by Desiertas Ediciones and La Fabrica.

For her latest project  Blood Orange-Naranja de Sangre, Liza paints with three colors: orange, red and yellow the psychology of uprooting, madness, love and loneliness as an affront to terror and dehumanization because she believes that human passion is in itself a act of challenge. Series awarded with the FNAC New Talent Award, 2018, the 6th. Edition of the (TAI) Photography Talent Grant, Liza is currently selected for the contest Full Contact in Tarragona, Spain and she was winner of the Babel Gallery Award (Brazil) in the first Contest of Contemporary Photography of Latin America in Monterrey, Mexico and the DOCfield Dummy Award Fundación Banc Sabadell 2018 in Barcelona, ​​Spain. She has recently been nominated for the Plat(t)form prize of Winterthur Fotomuseum in Switzerland 2019 and she has been invited to exhibit at the FORMAT19 festival in the UK;  Liza has been granted with scholarships for production residencies in Iceland, the United States and Luxembourg 2017-2018.

Links
www.lizaambrossio.com
https://vimeo.com/276196677
https://vimeo.com/user66654129
https://elpais.com/cultura/2018/10/04/babelia/1538649113_222111.html
https://www.lofficielmexico.com/arte-y-cultura/entrevista-liza-ambrossio
http://www.camaraoscura.net/liza-ambrossio-la-ira-de-la-devocion-apertura-13-septiembre-17-noviembre-2018/?lang=en