where shadows play #389
medium monochrome large format photograph (8×10), with protective work suits
size 16 inches w x 20 inches h
year 2014

Briefly describe the work you do.

I am increasingly understanding my process as that of a researcher understanding my world through a drive to make images that I cannot describe in advance – my curiosity about the image , what it will look like , what its affect is &c &c

Much of my work over the last four years has been the study of my shadow, a metaphysical conceit of a separated and independent entity.

Tell us a little about your background and how that influences you as an artist.

My early graduate and postgraduate degrees were as a Mathematician, this means that Pattern is an immediate stimulus. I was fortunate enough to ride the crest of the computer wave: I had an internship with the guys who put the ArpaNet together and then worked across a fascinating range of emerging ideas with Artificial Intelligence and Parallel Logic Programming for just two – I was always very interested in Language and Symbol.

The concept of the “artist studio” has a broad range of meanings, especially in contemporary practice. The idea of the artist toiling away alone in a room may not necessarily reflect what many artists do from day to day anymore. Describe your studio practice and how it differs from (or is the same as) traditional notions of “being in the studio.”

I tend to move around during the day—the internet has made us all very sedentary in habit. I will spend time with my desktop computer sitting upright in an approved orthopaedic fashion. Then I’ll slump on a sofa with my laptop; back to the darkroom where I must stand and when I begin to flag, then off to the kitchen to cook for us all.

two is company #360
medium: monochrome analog MF photograph, artist draws with laser pointer into mirror
size 20inch x 20inch
date 2014

What unique roles do you see yourself as the artist playing that you may not have envisioned yourself in when you first started making art?

As l do more, I believe that networking and supporting other artists is the way to really develop as an artist. You only get so far by looking at the luminaries of the art world – seeing myself as others see me helps me develop far more strongly.

When do you find is the best time of day to make art? Do you have time set aside every day, every week or do you just work whenever you can?

I think about making art at every turn, I write a great deal in my notebooks and this will emerge in constructed work sooner or later.

jumping shadow #157
medium: MF analog image, with electronic sensor controlled shutter release
size: 20inch x 20inch
date: 2013

How has your work changed in the last five years? How is it the same?

I am slowly understanding how my work is about things and not of things. It is less photographic and much more narrative so, I am still making marks by photographic process—the large format work goes on as a meditative process and I recently made a volume of work in the Naked Portrait tradition. It was fun to rise to the challenge of my MA class and make work that stepped outside of the photographic.

Are there people such as family, friends, writers, philosophers or even pop icons that have had an impact on the work you do?

I wouldn’t do any of this without the love and support of my family, of my network and classmates. In particular I support my partner’s projects and then sometimes make work that is quite distinctly orthogonal to clarify my understanding of her work. Having placed all these influences in the present, one of the delights of spending time in academe again was to discover Poussin for myself.

If you had an occupation outside of being an artist, what would that be and why?

I am not short of other occupations, it is part of being a living artwork process that these other jobs impinge and creatively delay my progress.

About

Born in Boston, Mass. USA. Aldobranti gained a MA Fine Art with Distinction from Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton in September 2014. The practice of Aldobranti, a performative name is that of a writer and artist based in the south of England.

aldobranti.eu

All images copyright of the artist and used with their permission.