Èv van Hettmer:
I often go with the impulse
by Ema Hesterová
26. 11. 2021 | INTERVIEW
Original article at Artalk.cz
Ema Hesterová continues her interviews with this year's finalists and runners-up of the Oskar Čepan Award. After interviews with Ondřej Houšt'ava, Luki Essender and Tamara Kametani, she spoke with Èv van Hettmer, who works in the traditional medium of painting and deals with themes such as female experience, sexism, gender inequality
EMA
During your time as a student, you tried out many studios - painting, drawing, new media, photography, and even performance art and sculpture.How did these experiences contribute to the foundation of your artistic practice, and what factors drove your continued commitment to painting?
ÈV
Currently, painting serves as my primary medium of expression, captivating me since my childhood and fueling my current intensive focus. From an early age, I was enamored with colors, their interplay, and the act of spreading them. Attending an elementary art school further broadened my horizons as we delved into various mediums beyond painting, such as printmaking, sculpture, and modeling. Perhaps it was there that a seed was planted within me, fostering a versatile artistic foundation. Admittedly, at that time, I hated to switch between mediums, feeling fully immersed in one only to be pulled away. Nevertheless, I've come to realize that embracing different mediums offers mental distance, allowing for new perspectives.
My inherent nature leans toward playfulness, believing that life demands exploration in all its facets. I find joy in blending approaches and intertwining them, even reveling in the playful manipulation of media to convey nuanced meanings. It's in these ambivalent situations and encounters that I discover the potential for reinterpretation. This relationship between mediums and painting resonates deeply with me. Painting boasts a rich history, and to create something new or unseen within its realm poses an exhilarating challenge. While not insurmountable, I believe that venturing into new mediums refreshes my creative thinking within painting. By stepping outside the confines of painting, I plunge deeper into its essence.
It was through the profound influence of the Vienna Academy that I consciously and fundamentally embarked on my first departure from the medium. Exploring installations and expressing myself in three-dimensional forms became a transformative leap, expanding my artistic expression beyond traditional painting.
EMA
So you chose painting as the medium that can best articulate what you want to express?
ÈV
I thrive on challenges, constantly seeking avenues to express myself and find solace in diverse mediums. Sculpture and installation, with their experimental nature, hold a special place in my heart. However, it is the revered stature of painting as the "royal discipline" that entices me, captivates me, and keeps me perpetually engaged. But by the fact that painting is the "royal discipline", so it challenges me, it keeps me tempted, it keeps me entertained.
EMA
You mentioned the Bratislava Academy of Fine Arts. You left it because of Ivan Csudai. What exactly happened?
ÈV
My departure from school was involuntary. As a woman, you feel and express your emotions, and suddenly someone tells you that it's not true or that you're being dramatic. Despite feeling uncomfortable for about 90 percent of my studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, the actual work in the studio always managed to balance out the more challenging experiences. Although the competitive relationships that dominated the studio were far from normal standards between teachers and students, I automatically ignored certain "outbursts." I didn't see any other way out but to endure the pressure while maintaining the vision of successfully completing my master's degree. That was my goal.
However, in my fourth year of my study, shortly after the new rector Stanislav Stankóci was elected into a position of a new rector, some rules at the univrsity changed. Just before our bachelor's exams, we were informed that we had to apply for the master's program once oagain. But administratively, I had been accepted into the master's program from the beginning of my study, not just the bachelor's. Suddenly, that was no longer the case.
Ivan Csudai became the vice-rector of the school, while Stankóci was the rector. I received a grade of E from him (prof. Ivan Csudai) for my bachelor's work. I didn't play into his hands in the studio because I refused to be manipulated and harassed. He wasn't satisfied with the development of my work, even though the class was focused on free creation. I wanted him to clearly and comprehensibly explain me what he found problematic about my artwork and what I needed to change. In response, he said that he wished for me to "sense" all of his requests. Literally. He never told me what “to sensed” meant. It was never clear, it felt like seeing only clouds and no clear view.
The discussion with him left me each time with a more and more intense feeling of despondency and insecurity. Artistic and professional, but also personal. However, I did not expect that Ivan Csudai would go so far that I would have to leave the school. But he completely embarrassed me in front of the committee at the master's exams. I passed the exams with a fever. Although I expressed my ill health, nobody respected it and I was the last one to be allowed to appear before the committee. I was not admitted.
EMA
Which events followed afterwards?
ÈV
I did not receive any written notification that I was not accepted. That is, until I personally went to the study department to inquire about an official document after several months. Unaware of the situation, I continued going to the studio to work for another two or three months during the summer until one day I met a certain professor who smilingly informed me, “…But we didn't accept you. Don't you know?”
EMA
Did you try to resolve it afterwards?
ÈV
I requested a personal meeting with Ivan Csudai. I wanted to submit a written appeal and discuss the appeal with him professionally. He became angry and scolded me, saying that I was untalented. So I let it be. In the same year, I became a finalist in the VÚB Painting Art Award 2011. The following year, I had a solo exhibition at the Nitra Gallery (Nitrianska Galéria), and I was accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna to a class "Contextual Painting.”
EMA
In connection with painting - yours are extremely dynamic, you work with a highly recognizable painting style, using a palette of red, purple, orange, "ferocious" colors, painting large areas and combining inscriptions with feminism-informed content - does this experience at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (AFAD/VŠVU) you mentioned reflect in your work in this context?
ÈV
I think that experience only contributed to it; it is part of something greater that was already within me long before, and something I had experienced before. Without that experience at the Academy of Fine Arts, I would probably have try to ignored it. Many times, I was pigeonholed or judged based on my appearance or opinions. Later, even with the passage of time, I was able to identify this phenomenon as a regularly occurring social pattern. My statements arise from lived situations, to which I respond through painted words - statement paintings, in the style of "it will be as I want it to be." It is about the commitment to remain true to myself. It is about setting boundaries of where I begin and where someone else ends. The experience at the Academy of Fine Arts is a strong part of it. However, this carousel, of course, does not end with it; societal pressures continue. It is a power game of "who dominates whom," and I respond to it, to myself and society, through my style, my paintings.
EMA
You dedicate a significant part of your work to the female experience, sexism, and gender inequality. Which layers of all this interest you? Is your work based solely on your personal experience, or does it reflect a broader context?
ÈV
I believe that currently, at the moment the social condition is experienced through individuality. Fundamentally, I am a die-hard structuralist from the ground up. I believe in collective consciousness, that we are intellectually interconnected as a generation and even beyond. I believe that the idea, the idea itself, is essentially to be realized as soon as possible, and that we are basically only the realization itself away from success. Through this example, I want to say that I have already confirmed to myself several times that when I address my personal questions in my works, I simultaneously engage in a generational discourse. I believe that many women experience similar problems as I do - they feel inequality in pay, in their social position, often having to fight and work harder to be recognized. In this regard, I believe in equal rights. As for feminism from another perspective, I believe that it is important to constructively acknowledge and perceive one's moment of femininity and the difference between yin and yang energy. And to apply this to gendered and genderless aspects, for anyone and anything. Our bodies biologically function within the duality in which we live, based on different principles. I take care of maintaining a sober view by perceiving feminism through a historical, contextual, and personal lens. In practice, this means that I consider mistakes as moments where correction and development can occur, and I don't believe that all men are bad. Only some... or the wrong ones. And I certainly don't think that discriminating against someone through feminist theory is effective or right.
EMA
Does your painting language relate to the content of your paintings? Did it develop in close connection with the content or was it developed independently of the subjects you deal with?
ÈV
My painterly language is related to the subject matter I am working with, my attunement to how I am personally and emotionally set up, and the technical skills that allow me to express myself fully in an expressive way.
EMA
Which topics are the most pressing for you?
ÈV
At the moment, relationships, the place of women in society. Women as friends, wives, and then women as an independent unit, the way they can function on their own without a family background, without a boyfriend, without a man. To what extent can she make a comfortable life for herself and fulfil her dreams. I like the abundance of life. From that feeling, I create well, I don't need to resort to pain. I am most creative when I feel good.
EMA
Your paintings sometimes strike me as being your "appendices", "additions" to your personality. They're like you and you're like them - you're not afraid to say anything out loud, while the image of your Reckless Mouth (2020) keeps popping into my mind, and I can often read from them what might have upset you on any given day, like from Well Being (Another Dick Driving a BMW, 2020). How about your choice of subject matter? Is it really the case that what makes you angry immediately gets a place on the screen?
ÈV
In my paintings, I often follow a creative impulse that comes from body or my stomach. I've already learned to creatively evaluate these impulses (which is strong and which is less strong) and follow them accordingly. However, it's best when even the weaker impulses are realized. But I don't regulate the impulse the moment it arrives. I can reflect even after it's done, and not be endlessly in a state of indecision. But I'm a pretty reflective person who can observe, and then I like to withdraw into myself for a period of time and look at things from a distance.
I believe that my strength is that I can see through people and structures, I can analyse situations well. So my work is based on impulses, and then themes that are burning for me both in my personal life and in society play a significant role. I also look at how the world is evolving, I try to anticipate what's to come so that I can be prepared.
EMA
You also have a series of “Manifestos and Statements” that were created in the pandemic year 2020. They are big, punchy orange signs on red and cyclamen backgrounds. What's the background to these manifestos?
ÈV
The impulse that led me to them was institutional criticism and its impact on my practical life, on the life of myself as an artist. It's about how men from the industry address you because they think they are in a position of power and that as a woman, you will succumb to some vision or illusion of career advancement. That you will do anything or lose yourself in order to get gallery representation or something else. I was thinking, "What should I write on my forehead to make it clear that I don't engage in sex for barter? And that I'm not going to give to any gallerist or anyone else for the sake of a show or the sale of a painting?" I felt like I had to become so legible about it, so that everybody would know me and recognize my art bussiness position, so that they wouldn't suggest these "subtopics" over and over. I felt like I was unable to get involved as an insider unless I would play the sex game with big boys. Crossing my personal boundaries destroys me internally, destroys my self-worth. And that's how these manifestos came about.
But more about feminism: I am already defined as a feminist by our history, by those suffragettes who won us the right to vote, or by the fact that I can go to college or rent a car, drive and do my own errands... I owe it to these women who fought for their idea, but didn't enjoy the fruits of freedom anymore. I am defined as a feminist because of these women.
EMA
Is what you just talked about going to be something that you'll be exploring within your artwork in the frame of the Oskár Čepan Award 2021, as well?
ÈV
I already know exactly what paintings I will exhibit there. My goal is to have enough paintings to cover two exhibitions. So, I want to address the female soul; that will be there unless something comes up unexpectidly to change it during the creative process.
EMA
Do you perceive a strong competitiveness within the Oskár Čepan Award 2021? And if yes, do you as an artist play along with these dynamics or do you approach it with more distance?
ÈV
I perceive it primarily as a competition, there are evaluations and there will be results. It does influence my approach in that I am focused and my time is prioritized accordingly, but it still doesn't exceed the boundary of me enjoying it and savoring the moment I am currently in: creating and engaging in dialogue. However, I completely subordinate my personal life to the creation for the Oskár Čepan Award 2021; I set certain things aside that I wouldn't do if it weren't a competition. My dream was to get into the Oskár Čepan Award, and therefore, it is my priority. However, the integrity of my work is not defined or altered by the Oskár Čepan Award 2021.
EMA
Why was it your dream to get into Oskár Čepan Award?
ÈV
Because it's not easy, not everyone can achieve it, and in order for me to accomplish it, I need to elevate myself to a certain level. You have to deserve it. Then I am proud of myself. I want to do quality things, give quality to life, and this is the materialization of my values. Of course, it also helps my career; art is not a hobby for me, it is my commitment and mindset towards life. It is my vocation, my calling, and the Oskár Čepan Award is a supportive system that allows me to fulfill my dreams and goals.
Ema Hesterová (*1997, Bratislava, Slovakia) completed her bachelor's degree in Art History at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University and her master's degree in Theory of Contemporary Art and Practice at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava. In the past, she worked at Krokus Gallery and Zahorian & Van Espen Gallery. Since 2019, she has been an active member of the APART collective, where she is involved in curatorial, research, publishing, and organizational activities. In 2020, she co-founded and co-curates the A Promise of Kneropy Gallery in Bratislava.
“Reckless mouth”, 2020, acrylic on canvas , 140 x 180 cm