Artist Anja Carr transforms bodies, faces, toys and food into a theatrical, abject and colorful world of photography, sculpture, installation, performance, video and self-invented techniques. One of her main artistic interests are the endless image feeds that surround us and even flow through our pockets – namely through the smartphones that are always at hand. This greedy consumption of images has prompted the artist to reflect on this phenomenon – the flow of images as one of the most pronounced signs of our time – on several occasions, from various points of view and in various visual media. “I can’t define what’s art and what’s not art, and sometimes everyday photos end up as art. As long as somebody says it’s art it’s art, I guess. But in my case every art-photograph takes a lot of planning and time.”
The solo exhibition of Norwegian artist Anja Carr ‘Feedings’ was the closing exhibition of the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2021 and took place till December 30 at the exhibition hall’s ‘Riga Art Space’ Intro hall. Exhibition curators – Inga Brūvere (LV), Marie Sjøvold (NO).
Paula Lūse: You have said: “My works follow a dream-or nightmarish logic with no limits between genders, humans and animals, children and adults.” Can you please explain the logic part of your work?
Anja Carr: What I meant with that sentence is that the logic in the works are like dreams or nightmares.
PL: One of your main artistic interests is the endless image feeds. Don’t you have a feeling that there are too many photos already? Do we need more?
AC: Sometimes i think it’s too many images, yes. But I think it’s very different to look at a printed photograph in an exhibition, than looking at images online.
PL: In your opinion – what is the difference between everyday photo and art?
I can’t define what’s art and what’s not art, and sometimes everyday photos end up as art. As long as somebody says it’s art it’s art, I guess. But in my case every art-photograph takes a lot of planning and time.
PL: Your works are filled with the brightest, intense and almost psychedelic colors. Is there a special meaning behind the choice of your color palette in your works?
AC: The color palette is connected to the fact that many of my works has different colorful toy-figures as a starting point, or they incorporate real toys. They often mix children’s colorful fantasy worlds with the adult world.
PL: Your works are so bright and expressive that they already get attention. Is it important to you that the viewer is familiar with the concept of your work?
AC: I don’t think it’s conceptual art. The background is for those who are interested, but I think it’s important that the works are open, have different layers and can be seen in various ways. Still, the titles are important to me and they usually give some kind of hint.
PL: As I understood, the ‘Moments’ photography series is part of performances in which you challenge the toy industry by transforming its colorful characters. Have you also used references to toys that were in your childhood? What was your favorite childhood toy?
AC: The ‘Moments’ series is actually documentation of my performances, one photo from each performance. My Little Pony, Miss Piggy, Pippi Longstocking, Donald and Daisy Duck, the Norwegian character Blekkulf and Stincky from the Moominvalley, that I make my own versions of in the series, were all part of my childhood, but I don’t think I had one specific favorite. I know I had a lot of stuffed animals.
PL: In your opinion, how has the toy industry changed since your childhood?
AC: I think the stores has been even more divided into boys’ and girls’ sections, which is quite sad, even though some initiatives point in the other direction.
PL: Does one photo capture the feeling of each performance or yet each photograph is already a separate work?
AC: I’m not sure if they capture the feeling, I think they capture only a moments from each performance, that’s why I chose the title. But yes, I see the photographs as separate works as well.
PL: Do you make up stories in your head for each character who is participating in the performances? Their background and history, so they can get into roles? Something like a screenplay?
AC: No, it’s more about the specific action or actions I, or the person(s) that I stage in the performance, perform. Like in one performance My Little Pony character gave birth to an actual My Little Pony toy and in another one I try to walk on four legs and so that’s the focus, but there’s always a level of improvisation.
PL: You have said: “In a way, we are all postergirls advertising our lives online, aren’t we?” Furthermore, the sculptures from the series ‘Imaginary posing as object of posing imaginary posing as object’ hang on actual meat-hooks, creating associations with consumer products; products which feed others. What do you think nurtures our desire for an avalanche of images on the internet?
AC: I think our society is very much focused on visual communication and that we get easily addicted.
PL: Where do you collect objects and photos which you use for the wall-sculptures? Or are they all hand-made?
AC: I’ve shot the photographs myself in my studio. The wall-sculpture series on display in Riga are portraits of six of my collogues and each sculpture consists of three photographs, from different angles. The photographs are printed on PVC canvas and I’ve sewn them together by hand. Attached to the sculptures are props that are connected to each person, all found objects from various places.
PL: Do you create sketches of your ideas or the work comes impulsively during the process?
AC: It depends on the work. The big-scale inflatable sculptures or the big-scale sculptures covered in plaster and epoxy – the My Little Pony sculptures in pony size etc. – are based on 3D models. For the photo series and sculpture-series in Riga I’ve not made sketches, but I’ve planned and compared the colors carefully. With the props on the sculptures it’s been more like one thing leads to the other, like with the portrait of Per, who is an artist working with neon: I had this neon light resembling an ice-cream and then I found all these other kinds of ice-cream. My most recent photo-series ‘Soup’, made in the bathtub, where my face is covered in different food ingredients and props, the combinations of colours and ingredients are carefully planned, but still it’s impossible to control the process when things floats around in a bathtub.
PL: You practice mix up different media – photography, performances, installations… Has it naturally merged over time? Which was the first medium you started with?
AC: Yes, I guess so. When I was around 18, just before starting art school, I did black-and-white photography, but I don’t know if it counts, as I never exhibited them. Already the first year of Art school I tried out a lot of different media and I enjoyed the freedom of it.
PL: With what feeling, questions or answers would you like the viewer to leave the exhibition?
AC: That’s something I cannot control and I don’t want to control it either. But I hope they won’t leave immediately.
Photography: Madara Gritāne