pigdogandmonkeyfestos | Issue 2 | The Artists Part 6 -
Richard Paul, kennardphillips and
Natalia Mali.
Richard Paul is a former commercial photographer who also once co-ran a now-defunct art space, The Hoxton Distillery, near Brick Lane. Now, Richard Paul does not produce catalogue photographs per se. What he does is exploit their format (and possibility) for his own ends.
kennardphillips is a collaboration working since 2002 to produce art in response to the invasion of Iraq. It has evolved to confront power and war across the globe. The work is made for the street, the gallery, the web, newspapers & magazines, and to lead workshops that develop peoples’ skills and help them express their thoughts on what’s happening in the world through visual means. The work is made as a critical tool that connects to international movements for social and political change. They don’t see the work as separate to social and political movements that are confronting established political and
economic systems. They see it as part of those movements, the visual arm of protest. We want it to be used by people as a part of their own activism, not just as pictures on the wall to contemplate. To facilitate this, as well as selling our limited edition prints on the site enabling us to fund the making of the work, there is a free download page of images with a voluntary contribution to the International Solidarity Movement.
Natalia Mali is a Russian artist working in the field of film, photography, installation, collages and live art. Born in the Post Soviet Republic of Dagestan, North Caucasus. Natalia Mali studied art theory at the History Department of Moscow State University. In 1994 she moved to U.S. and between 1995 and 1999 studied film and photography at Yale’s School of Art and Architecture. In 2005-2006 she attended an MA program at the Drama Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London where she worked on her theses on Performance and Culture. Since the late ‘90s she has collaborated with D.A. Prigov, a Moscow Conceptual artist, and exhibited together under the umbrella of the PMP Group.
Mali has said: “Since I began to practice as an artist I have continually returned to certain fundamental ideas: Cultural Identity, Sexuality, Semiology, Linguistics and Feminism; in short, the position and interpretation of women and their self-perception of themselves in contemporary society both in the developed world and in expanding economies. I have tended to use photography and live art as my medium for expressing these ideas. I am fascinated by the interaction between audience and artist. This powerful tool triggers my audience to react both physically and intellectually.
The ideal performance happens as an ephemeral and authentic experience. This relationship with my audience cannot be repeated, captured or purchased; it exists only at that moment in time. The concepts of both visual arts and performing arts determine the meaning and emotional impact of the performance. Therefore both the audience and I as the performer take away an experience that is unique and, I hope, intellectually, physically and spiritually rewarding”.
For the last 10 years she has shown her work extensively in Europe, Russia and the U.S.
Mali splits her time and work between London and Moscow.
