Interview

What led you into photography?

I first started using photography simply as a means to document work in the studio, never thinking that this documentation would lead me to where my work has become now. So what began as documentation turned into an exploration of the relationship between photography and sculpture, where one medium is no less reliant on the other.

How do you define your artistic body of work?

My recent body of work explores a renovation of my understanding of home, which itself is a paradoxical relationship in that it represents both estrangement and engagement. My investigation between East and West, past and present, is embodied in my own experience of cultural loss. It is this extreme personal close-up of my life that I enter my work and stretch to involve a more expanded view of history and the world.

Do you primarily explore themes and subjects or focus on experimenting with the formal and technical aspects?

I think that my focus is more on themes and a narrative. I like history, and I especially like the research involved in unearthing little known facts with fictional, even mythical storytelling that I collect from the community. Simultaneously, formal and technical aspects come together with the theme—that is, the materials and processes reflect the very subject matter of the work.

What motivates your Work?

Curiosity.

Could you give an overview of your working process?

My working process is simply to begin, to show up, to be at my studio—or in the case that I don’t have a studio, to be aware, to read, to write, and to make mental notes while I travel and move. The working process is a struggle at times, and on some occasions, it’s simply completing the project to the end. It’s also different project to project.

For you…what is the purpose of art?

The purpose of art and artists is to inject vitality into the world.  Art’s purpose is to be confrontational, to reflect the times, to question where society is, to insert itself in the mainstream and make people think for themselves.

How do you want the public to respond to your work? Do you have a particular audience in mind?

My perfect audience response would be to take their time to see my work. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to show at a gallery space located in the middle of a busy downtown corner in Columbus Ohio—the gallery was on the ground floor of a building that housed offices for accountants and law firms. I placed this funny looking sculpture made of hanging rods right at the front of the space, so that people passing by had a glimpse of the sculpture’s ‘becoming’ or ‘aha’ moment. That summer, and I was new to the city, I met and became friends with people who worked in and around that building—people who had passed by my sculpture that somehow affected them, causing them to slow down and take a look.

I have not really thought of a particular audience until now. My upcoming exhibit titled “The Past is a Foreign Country” at Archivo gallery in Makati evolved out of my understanding with my homeland and my desire to learn and do something about the forgetting of history present in my culture. I hope the Philippine public can take the time to look and understand my work; and from the public I hope to gain insight in my understanding of home.

What is your training: academic or self-taught? Please elaborate.

I studied art history at the University of British Columbia in Canada and attended an independent studio residency at Parsons School of Design in New York.  In 2015, I completed a Master’s degree at the Columbus College of Art and Design, where I had also taken up an undergraduate degree on a full scholarship in Columbus, Ohio.

How do you define your actual professional situation? What are your expectations?

Since moving to Manila 7 months ago, I have been more focused on settling into this city. Prior to the move, I had the opportunity to be a visiting artist in Dresden Germany, and had several shows on exhibit at one time. Artists are hard-workers, but there is also leisure time, or rather the yin to the yang. As much as I would love to be working in a routine fashion in my studio, the current situation of the world and personal matters have got me questioning the very studio practice I had grown accustomed to in the past few years.

Does your economic situation affect your work?

Yes of course my economic situation affects my work whether it be the materials, size, or even the very subject matter I am drawn to. Lately, I have been interested in the social practice of gardening. This resulted from my recent move to Manila, a city that is steeped in Capitalism and fast-paced Modernism, yet still has one foot in the rural mode of doing things. I see the garden as an in between place, a site for hopefulness amidst the despair. Each day, flowers and new buds blossom. It is an extreme change of pace from the political landscape around us. The model of social practice is one that has been used by artists in times of political and economic upheaval. I see more and more Academic types inclined to a form of social practice such as gardening or farming—a form that exists outside the studio and into the public sphere. It defies the daily trending topic and exists in a living and very active space.

Have you worked with gallerists, curators, institutions and other art professionals? Can you discuss more about these relationships?

Yes I have worked with other art professionals. I think that artists should be engaged in exploring a creative practice outside of the studio and gallery. Working with other artists, curators, institutions, and the community defies the archetype of the solitary artist. My relationships with other art professionals have afforded me richer, broader, and more meaningful experiences of the roles that art and artists can take in society.  One of my favorite places in the world is Banff, located in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. I had the chance to spend a summer there on an art residency with creative people working from all over the world. Although I was provided with a studio, my time there was spent discussing, engaging, having and cooking meals together, and even hiking and swimming with other residents of the Banff Centre. I continue to be friends with artists and curators I met during that summer. We finished our time there with a fantastic meal that reflected the colours of the rainbow—that is each course was one monochromatic color. I have yet to show the actual artwork I made there, but the relationships that emerged from the residency is evident of the meaningful interactions and the role of the artist in public discourse and the broader community.

What is the current state of the use of photography in contemporary art in the Philippine context? How do you want the use of photography in contemporary art in the Philippines to develop? What are the needs that have to be addressed?

Unfortunately, I am not knowledgeable enough and too new to this place to know the role of photography in the Philippine context. The same goes for the last question. I hope that after my first year here in Manila, I can gain a better understanding of the contemporary art scene in the Philippines and we can continue this conversation then.

 

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CV

Name: Jill Paz
Lives and works in Manila, Philippines
Email: jillpazraymundo@gmail.com
Website: jillpaz.wordpress.com | jillraymundo.tumblr.com

Education:
2015 MFA in Visual Arts, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, Ohio, United States
2005 Art History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
2004 BFA in Studio Art, Magna Cum Laude, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, Ohio, United States
2003 AICAD: New York Studio Residency Program, Parsons The New School for Design, New York, New York, United States