Podcast: Play in new window
During her Residency at PRAM Studio in Prague, Czech Republic, we had a chance to discuss: Funding for the arts in Finland, Grant writing, the lack of feedback in order to write better grants, the need to apply for a grant 3 times (they want to see tenacity), the need to keep proposals short and informative, Different writing styles between America and Europe, Artist residencies, the benefits of long term artist residencies, The need for stillness, The unique lifestyle of creative people, The most important material for an artist is their space (studio, atelier), the fact that curators are the gatekeepers of the artworld, whether photographers need to produce series or portfolios these days, The need for a strong and coherent concept in your art, The constant need to adapt, The relationship between life experiences and the scale and qualities of your artwork, How the physical space you work in can affect your work, The need for time and distance to understand your own work, Not to live for retirement, live life as though you might die tomorrow, Wondering how our estates be handled after we die, the need to always be critical of your own work, Learning from mistakes, the need to not be afraid of failure, Fail hard, Failure is necessary to learn, and that relationships must be mutually beneficial.
About
Hanna Råst intuitively and systematically explores the broad context of photography, a man-tainted natural process. A process that seems like any chemical reaction on Earth existsand we know about it because it has been grasped by man and is consciously used. Hanna is well aware of this human independence and seems to have been brought to the medium of photography by an enormous interest in time. After all, she wanted to be an archaeologist. Probably because of this, he is looking for so-called photographs, ie visual records, which were created naturally before man invented the technique of photography. Apparently the first known example of a negative is nothing less significant than the Turin Canvas. Whether the canvas is a true depiction of Jesus Christ or a later – medieval artifact, the scientists believe that it is not the work of the human hand, but the projection.
Hanna Råst’s secondary work with photographic images has become so typical that, in addition to her own family album (which she uses without hesitation) and flea or antiquarian findings, her work archive grows with donated personal photographs of friends and her students. Where can we actually find an image recording today? What is worth taking a picture? How much time has elapsed since the shooting was a costly peculiarity, so that only solemn family moments or those just before the farewell were recorded? And perhaps the most pressing question today – will our overcrowded SD cards survive, just as the thin layer of silver halide on paper has survived the generation ahead?
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For more information about the host, Matthew Dols
http://www.matthewdols.com
Transcript available: https://wisefoolpod.com/transcript-for-episode-040-photographer-sculptor-hanna-rast-helsinki-finland/
