A little Flavia flav: an interview with Argentinean artist Flavia Da Rin
BY ELIZABETH KRAMER

Flavia Da Rin is the Argentinean artist whom the Speed has commissioned to create 10 works of art to be mounted on billboards as part of a Metro-wide exhibition in January and February. She recently chatted with LEO to share her views on her art and impressions of Louisville.

LEO: How did you develop your aesthetic from your days as an art student to today?
DA RIN: Well that’s quite a ride, with lots of turns, and U-turns! I studied painting at a fine arts school in Buenos Aires. We didn’t have a photography subject at that time, in our school anyway.

I wanted to be a painter and painted during the first three years. Then I decided I couldn’t go on painting. It was something physical or something emotional. I don’t know. I loved paintings, but I didn’t love to paint myself.
So, I turned to photography. It was more suitable to my temper. I had quicker results. I could work more — and faster.

First, I used a normal reflex camera, scanned the pictures and added some design with Corel or Photo-Paint, a predecessor to Photoshop. I liked to photograph Barbie dolls and make scenes with them. My mom and I sewed costumes for them, and I added implants with resin, for example. Then I made these scenes, but with other toys, mostly Asian toys.

Then I got my first digital camera, and it was whole different story. I could see the results in the moment and correct the things I didn’t like. I also got my first Adobe Photoshop [software]. I started taking pictures without thinking about the costs of developing the film, making the copies and all that stuff. I felt free.

So, I started taking photos of myself, first as little studies, to learn how to use my new camera and so on. I was a model that was always available. Then it made me remember my first childhood, playing by myself as an only-child, playing all the characters. I had a series where my image appeared several times in the same shot, in some kind of introspective dialogue. Then I also dressed my friends as saints and played a saint myself. We represented this sort of Renaissance paintings.

Then it stopped being a private game and turned into a strong interest in subjectivity, in “self-fiction.” I became aware of the richness of the subject, a fragile and mutable subject, and started working more consciously around that matter. I worked with embroidery, drawings. I combined photographs with paint spray, prints and several media in a 2004 show in Buenos Aires.

Subjectivity — to me — is affected by all kinds of data, information and noise that comes from affective life, art history, music, TV, mentors, MSN chatting, exhibits, relationships, what I hear on the streets. All of that is my material to tell stories, to make my work.

So, I didn’t mind going from photograph to embroidery to drawing, back to the computer, painting, taking photographs again and seeking images on the Internet, abusing the use of self-portrait, moving from an almost “saccharine” image to a bitter comment, from introspective atmospheres to explosive colored paintings.
I was aware that the world that surrounds me, how I perceive and deal with it, changed all so frequently. That is why, to me, realization procedures, techniques, languages, had to do so as well.

Then I focused on photography again, with this same interest, but I also returned to my first love of painting. So I had now these two strong interests: subjectivity and self-fiction, and how to paint making photographs.
My challenge was to get closer to painting without painting. That’s still my goal now.

LEO: How and why did you decide to make your work self-portraits, and how do you see yourself/the character that resides in those images?
DA RIN: I really don’t see myself in these last works. I try to play other characters and let go of myself. I mean, I don’t see Flavia in them. I see someone else. I play a character as an actor would; it is a performance in the work.

But again, given the subjective nature of my work, the characters I play have some kind of resonance within me. They are all part of a bigger self-fiction. It is like fictionalizing my own life. I take my self and my experiences or interests, and deform them and fantasize over them, and invent.

I feel certain empathy with David Lynch’s movies. For example, where this dreamy atmosphere is present almost all the time, you don’t have this accurate feeling of witnessing the real facts but this dream state. That is a result of the elaboration of the “reality” of one of the characters.

LEO: How did you develop your technical style using Photoshop?
DA RIN: I’m a self-taught.

LEO: Who or what are the major influences in your work? In your life?
DA RIN: Major influences in my life and works are, first of all, my teacher Guillermo Kuitca, who is an amazing and well-known Argentinean artist, and Diana Aisenberg, who is also an exceptional painter and unites a lot of young artists of Buenos Aires. Then, my fiancée, Luis Teran, is really inspirational for me. He is also an artist, and I learn a lot from him every day. My parents were a big support also in my early days.

But, well, I’m really open to influences. I try to be open to many things, but I admit that I have a certain fixation with some. I love painting, as I said before, especially classic painting, Renaissance, baroque, neo-Classical. There also are a lot of contemporary painters I admire. I’m very much in to music, trying to widen my musical taste. Pop culture is also a big influence. I see a lot of TV. I consume a lot of cartoons (from Japanese to “South Park” to “Sponge Bob Square Pants”) and fashion magazines. I feel very close to some aspects of contemporary Asian culture, especially cinema. I have felt very close to David Lynch movies over the last several months.
But, well, my influences mutate all the time.

LEO: What is your experience with and opinions of billboards as art?
DA RIN: I have no experience with working with billboards as a piece of art. I mean, my works have been super-sized, but for advertising. (For example, in a billboard advertisement for the Busan Biennial in South Korea in 2006.) Nonetheless, I never thought I could have the chance to make a specific work to be shown on a billboard in public realm.

Billboards set on the streets have, formally, this great scale that is very perfect for some images. They also have this possibility to be close to people who are or may be not interested in art or haven’t had the time or the chance to go to a gallery or a museum and form their opinions.
 
LEO: What were your impressions of Louisville?
DA RIN: I really liked Louisville. I met some really sweet and hospitable people, and the landscapes you have are great. It was a delight to work with them in the photographs. I loved this relaxed quality in contrast to some big cities. I envied the possibility of seeing those blue skies every day.

Buenos Aires is in this big transformation where towers are invading the skies. I don’t have many chances as I’d like to see the sky, so I fell in love with Louisville’s.

Contact the writer at ekramer@leoweekly.com