Le Petit Journal
Olivie Ponce interviewed in 2004
by Daniel Sirdey, Editor of Le Petit Journal, Mexico
Daniel Sirdey: The urban world would for many of
us be a rather austere muse, however it’s your source of inspiration.
Why is this?
Olivie Ponce: An urban experience certainly provokes
feelings associated with work or routine, however we use this excuse
of the routine to justify how we feel at the end of a stressful day.
If we take notice of what happens all around us, understand that the
urban landscape is usually more spectacular than the traditional countryside
scene, we can see that it’s not necessarily a case of watching
tired faces, laughs, loneliness, or hearing a rude remark from a driver,
but assimilating what man has created in order to exist; thousands
of works of art find themselves interacting with this chaotic and
peculiar atmosphere. In conclusion, everything is aesthetic, beautiful,
but at the same time awful.
On the other hand, childhood is also a great influence and Mexico
City had a huge impact on me. Even though I don’t live there
anymore, the sentiment I carried with me as a child is what I now
put into my art. What I try to do unconsciously is allow the viewer
to see this sentiment which he can then nourish with my work.
D.S.: You also studied photography and graphic design.
What have these techniques brought to your craft as a painter?
O.P.: I’ve always liked being involved in the
arts. Painting is what I do more, but my photography plays an important
complementary role at the moment in the way that I observe and interpret
my surroundings and then find different ways of resolving my paintings.
The strange things is that when I consciously think about using my
photography as a basis for my paintings, what I’m actually doing
is creating two very different types of art at the same time. This
makes me glad as developing and printing photos in a darkroom can
be as rigid or free as one desires.
As for multimedia, it’s something I want to know more about
as it’s another area of art which offers unlimited artistic
scope.
D.S.: You essentially use enamel. Why this technique?
O.P.: In this particular sense I can say that the
enamel uses me as, before I became a professional artist, enamel paint
was merely a tool I used in my part-time job as a sign writer while
still at school. Now it’s become a paint which always gives
me the delicacy and flexibility I need, despite having tried other
techniques.
D.S.: Do you consider yourself a industrial urban
landscape artist who explores the city?
O.P.: Any city large or small maintains a magic and
equality to its existence. Its bloodstream never changes. If we say
that all cities have the same blood type, I’d say that all cities
have type O positive. Some with a greater quantity than others. What
I like is to receive that magic, be it white or black, from cities
and to be able to transmit it to the viewer, whether it’s as
a landscape or just shapes resembling a landscape.
D.S.: I see a parallel in your work with the Portuguese
artist Vieira da Silva, for whom the city has also been a constant
source of inspiration and who would try to reconstruct the urban space
from her imagination. Do you have the same purpose?
O.P: For me the imagination should always exist in
any piece of art and in my case I can say that I paint scenes inspired
by the feelings provoked in me by an urban space. A space as I see
it is a place from which you take whatever you want or don’t
want, and then transform. It’s like shopping in the supermarket;
you already know what you eat, but when you want to try something
new, you risk not liking it, but you always have the option of combining
it with something to make it taste better.
D.S.: In one of your collections the colour white
invades the canvas. Are you looking to convert the urban space into
something immaterial, or are you trying to erase it?
O.P.: My way of working constantly moves between
two extremes; when I least expect it, I’m the most baroque.
I have the need to explain as much detail as possible, turn my sentiment
into something that can be seen on the canvas. Other times I need
to feel the sentiment in my gut as soon as I “see” my
work finished, not when I “look” at it. All this is in
some way influenced by certain trends which I find myself drawn to.
My “white” canvases reflect a minimalist interpretation
and are a process of exploration and an ability to synthesise my perception.
D.S: The poet Bernard Noel says that painting is
giving the canvas what it asks for. Do you agree?
I share the thought, although personally I only use the canvas as
another person who asks silent questions, criticises your decisions,
asks you whether it’s good or bad, who is always the one you
want to remain on good terms with and when you finish with it, will
always throw your final decision back in your face.
Olivie Ponce, Mexico City,
1975
Graduated from the Fine Art Department of the University of Guanajuato.
Has exhibited his work in numerous cities in Mexico and been commissioned
by the University of Southern Oregan, USA to complete a mural for
Ashland Public Library. Received a scholarship in 2001 from the National
Arts Fund to participate in the “Young Creatives” programme.
Also teaches photography and painting.
