Associate Q&As with Annie Rapstoff

Introduction

I have lived in Oxfordshire since meeting my partner and moving from London, we live with our two cats on the edge of a small town 15 miles from Oxford. I have nature on my doorstep, which keeps me grounded and feeds my practice, I value walking and the space to think and play with ideas. Moving out of London was a massive change and I was initially resistant, I now realise how much space and quiet are what I need in my in life and in my practice.

After completing my Masters, I had very little money to continue using the equipment accessed at University. I was already involved in performance based work and recognised this as a democratic way of working for me, with the need for cash and masses of equipment. It’s amazing how we now take the use of digital equipment for granted; it’s so accessible and quite different from when I trained.

My work always has a live element in it even if it is at the research and development stage. However, I respond with whatever works for each project, this might include, text, video, sound, book art, stitch or socially engaged work. Outcomes may take the form of instructions, events, performance for the camera or in situ, gestures, interventions, video, and writing. Past work has been participatory, collaborative, process based or Ephemeral.

I work for two days a week as a psychotherapist and this has led me to have a strong interest in human relationships. This can be seen in such work as Office for the Dissemination of Sympathy, which toured during 2008. I am currently interested in exploring acts of transformation of the self and “other beings”, the interplay and impact of humans on the environment, animism - the possibility of inanimate objects having a life force. My focus and energy at this time is based on the interrelationship between human, animal, and plant/tree.

My work has been shown in galleries, at conferences, live art platforms, events, and public spaces. Recent work has include responses to the Pandemic including a series of works in which I inhabit masks assembled into bird like extensions.

Valuable intentions: allowing for uncertainty, play, meandering through words and ideas, listening beneath the surface, listening to my inner voice through meditation and deep listening, ecologies of experience in relationship with animal, plants, other objects and the land.

What are you currently working on?

During the lock down, I started making masks and giving them to friends and family as a way of reaching out and offering a gift of protection, even if the evidence was contested at that time. I was reading The Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe (1722) and became interested in the costume worn by the plague doctors. The long beak like masks worn by the “doctors” enabled them to “supposedly” move around from house to house protected from disease and death. These masks were packed with herbs and plants to protect the user from the air, which they saw as contaminated. Simultaneously, the growing sound of bird song, accentuated by the reduction in traffic, pollution and noise, influenced my decision to begin extending the shape of the masks. They became elongated beaks and I begun wearing them to experience how it felt to embody a bird. This project has now been my focus for the past 16 months and I am really enjoying the rigor of pushing the work and journeying deeper into the project. I am researching myth making, ecological intelligence, birds, flight and the act of embodying a bird. A spiritual component supports me in a commitment to the life of other species beyond the self.

During the lock down, I have been delighted to attend a series of workshops with a group of Oxfordshire artists and two artists facilitators from CREiA, originally from Portugal and now living in the UK. We have been working with deep listening and book art, which has given me the opportunity to revisit my archive, remake and extend pieces that have languished in a digital image folder or online. This newer area of practice has enabled to really push my work and include text. Words can be brought into the world and developed on the page at the same time as becoming mobile, sculptural and flexible, the book form has such great possibilities.

Where do you work? Do you have a studio?

I work in a room upstairs in my home; I have a small space with a desk, laptop, desktop, and a window looking out to a tree and sky. I would like more room to carry out movement work and film, but I so often work in outside locations, in collaboration, or at festivals, that I get by. Sometimes I feel I am too linked to my laptop and that frustrates me. At those times I need to break out and just go walking. I have completed a lot of work in Wales, which feel like a spiritual home to me. I have responded tolocations such as Three Cliffs Bay in The Gower and the sandstone rocks in Pembrokeshire. In many ways, I see the world as my studio.

What are your other (work) commitments if any?

As I mentioned earlier I work for two days a week as a psychotherapist. This is challenging and draining at times, but also offers a chance for me to be creative with words and ideas. I don’t see my art practice and psychotherapy as incompatible; on the contrary they influence and support each other. Life throws its challenges and for the last few years I have been managing a pain disorder which often leaves me fatigued and unable to manage a lot of demands. I try to be kind to myself, pace myself, and in general make a commitment to my well-being. Luckily I am at present in a better place and feel really grateful for this.

How does your Associate membership benefit you?

I have not been an associate member for very long, but I am getting to know what opportunities are available for associates at OVADA. I am more connected to other artists and attached now to an organisation I have a great deal of respect for. As an associate member of OVADA, I have an online presence and a chance to network with other artists. I recently participated in the show at OVADA entitled Unprecedented and this offered me a first experience of showing work in the gallery since it moved from the fire station, some time ago. I hope our relationship continues to grow and I look forward to getting to know other artists that are also associates.

What are you hoping to achieve over the next year?

Over the next year I want to focus on the work I started just after lock down on interspecies and embodying of animals and in particular birds. I have tentative plans for a possible show with two other artists interested in the same area of work and we are in the process of developing a proposal. I want to continue to develop skills in book art, which has been stimulated by the pandemic and lock down. This medium has offered me a “space to make work” to explore the book form as a flexible structure, to dive into words, language and image, play with sequence and to uncover layers of process. I just hope to continue to make art; my practice is a gift that I am eternally grateful for, I never take it for granted in a world of challenges and demands.

Tell us a little bit about the work of an artist or arts organisation/collective that you find inspiring?

I very much enjoy the work of Marcus Coates, such as his work Conference of The Birds made in 2019, Marcus has a strong relationship with birds, and themes around the avian species keep repeating themselves. I recently discovered the work of Francis Alÿs, a Belgium born artist based in Mexico. Alÿs, is interested in time, repetition, politics and poetics, I recommend looking at his performance work entitled “Cuentos Patrioticos” or Patriotic Tales, 1997. I recently became involved during lock down with an organisation in Belfast called BBeyond. They offer great support to live artists and are very empowering and risk taking in their attitudes to what constitutes art. I recently enjoyed the Marina Abramovic programme, which introduced me to many artists I am not familiar with from South America. I really try and get to know artist’s work outside the UK and this feels even more important since Brexit, I fear only looking inwards and want to stand on the edge of this island and also look beyond to the amazing artists working miles away from these shores.

Describe the last time you felt inspired

Since the lock down I have felt inspired by small things in the house, which have stimulated my curiosity. I have been thinking of the house as a living breathing entity and have become aware of the squeak in my floorboards and the sofa that whines when I move, as if talking to me. I feel inspired by the flowers and vegetables that grow in my garden and by the wild flowers that grow in the cracks in pavements, by the tides and by the clouds. Every time I read the magical writing of Paul Auster and hear the music of Arvo Part and Jocelyn Pook I feel great opening of the heart.

What is your opinion of the current art scene in Oxford?

I don’t frequent galleries and museums as much as I did when I lived in Oxford. The Social Sculpture Department at Oxford are supporting creatives to develop interesting work. I find some of the artefacts in Pitt Rivers Museum interesting, and love the bee colony that are located on the first floor. I only recently started to get involved with OVADA after a long absence. I enjoy hearing about small grass roots artist led groups that spring up around the county, such as Cou Cou Arts developed by Clare Carswell. I would love to continue to see small artist led groups developing in the area. I have so much respect for the artist’s who develop opportunities for others for little money and the joy of making art. I hope young artists who have trained at Ruskin or Brookes continue to remain in Oxfordshire, as it’s so important to have young vibrant artists with boundless energy, drive, and ideas in the area.

How do you feel the arts benefit society?

The arts in the widest sense of the word, is flourishing, I include areas such as graphics, fashion, music, literature, and film for example. The arts support awareness, open up hearts and minds, promote play, act as an irritant, and can destabilise and challenge the status quo. I don’t think fine art (if you want to call it that) reaches all sections of society and therefore it does not offer benefit to all people. Artists, musicians, poets, and authors who work in the community or work outside gallery spaces or established settings offered greater accessibility. Artists working in galleries also contribute to society and it is always a thrill to arrive at Tate Modern and see how well it is used and The Turbine Hall offers the public a space to really interact with the art.