Discover the captivating world of mixed media photography through the lens of an artist whose work transcends conventional boundaries. In this insightful interview, we delve into the creative journey of Ana Priscila Rodriguez who seamlessly blends diverse techniques to craft narratives that resonate deeply. Her images appear like timeworn memories, hauntingly beautiful. They echo feelings of loss and longing, faith and faithlessness.
From the intimate confines of home to the mystic landscapes of Finland, each photograph tells a story infused with texture, history, and personal introspection. Join us as we explore the intersection of memory, spirituality, and societal norms, and witness the emergence of powerful visual narratives challenging perceptions and celebrating the unseen.
We can all do better just by acknowledging people who otherwise are invisible to us.
Ana priscila rodriguez
What initially drew you to mixed media photography as a medium for artistic expression?
I have slowly followed the path to mixed media work but it became more evident during my years at the Art Academy in Utrecht. The introduction of all kind of techniques and materials plus my A.D.D made it always very difficult for me to decide what was the best medium for me to express my ideas. However, when I started combining mixed media techniques with photography it all made sense to me.
I still love to make collage work because eventually, I need the tangible experience. Then again, the collage work is an ideal way to express other things that I can’t express with photography.
Can you explain a little about your art-making process? Is it an entirely digital process?
The final phase of the process is digital, yes, but it goes through many stages that can be a combination of conventional printing and painting methods. For me the most important thing is the story, that’s where it all starts, then I can be inspired by a place, a colour or a situation, it really just randomly inspires me to take out my camera and start making footage. The next step is “how” will I tell that story to be the most effective for me? The texture is incredibly important so I achieve that texture using ink, pencil lines, watercolour and even coffee (or wine!).
For the last steps, I use digital painting to avoid repeating the process during very crucial steps. However, there are works where I barely use any other processes and it works just fine as it is with a single shot and a few adjustments. As said, I think it’s all about the story and conserving my own atmosphere and style and the few elements that have become my “signature”.
And as it starts with a photograph, the final result is also always a photographic product.
What have been some of your on-shoot locations? What draws you to particular places?
Because of my physical limitations, I live with chronic pain and an ongoing deteriorating hip condition, I love to shoot at home. There is a particular magic in shooting a story within a limited space with limited resources, it is not only a challenge but it makes the whole process more intimate and exciting for me.
When outdoors, I love to shoot in the wild, the open nature. I have found a vast and deep source of inspiration in the countryside of Finland. It not only offers a beautiful landscape but it is also permed with mysticism and magic which makes it very difficult to resist going out there and having several sessions of shooting footage. I can tell so many stories when I’m there, even stories that are not mine.
Your works often resemble old photographs from a different age. Are you interested in the spirit of memory and time?
As a romantic, I do love Old Times and bringing back the long-gone stories of people who are no longer here. I have always been interested in History, my background studies were in History before I became an artist. I knew I always wanted to bring some of that atmosphere to my work but it took a while for me to find the way and feel comfortable about it without disconnecting myself too far from my own moment and time.
At first, I particularly became very inspired by the old photographs in flea markets, I remember hunting vintage material all over Europe, particularly in Paris and Belgium for a few years, it is material for me but also a bit of someone else’s story, so it becomes precious and I felt the need to transform that material into something else.
Eventually, I added my own photography into the equation and before I knew it I was creating my own worlds with the help of everything I had learned. Slowly I stopped using old photographs and concentrated on my own photography, which still evokes past times as a way to keep the magic from stories never told.
Are you a believer in any sort of spirituality, be it religious or non-religious?
Interesting question.
I was actually raised as an Evangelical Protestant in a Catholic country during the 1980’s so it was not an easy childhood as we were isolated and sometimes even discriminated against. I learned a lot from my years in Christianity, however life took me to the path of Agnosticism. I feel comfortable in the belief that everyone is free to believe their truth as long as that truth is not imposed into others.
I do not have a better truth or faith to offer, I do not support any religion and I do not profess any particular faith, however I do believe in the power of our own spirituality and as spiritual beings we do not need to be religious to experience that closeness with a Higher Being or Energy.
Last year, I was hoping for some answers to my medical condition and I underwent a treatment that unfortunately didn’t work. This feeling of disappointment and powerlessness led me to create the series “In the Absence of Faith” as a way to confront ourselves with that feeling of neglect when a Higher Being does not answer our prayers or even worse, decides to keep us in a state of pain and suffering for no reason.
Of course, this is only my vision and experience but my purpose was to ignite that question in each viewer. For some, Faith is a way of living, for others Faith lives in their mind, and others have an absence of Faith. The beauty of it is that nobody is wrong or right…it is just how it is.
Can you share some of your experiences with feelings of invisibility?
There have been several times that I felt “invisible” but also when I can acknowledge how invisible some people have become, not because they are not important enough but because their situation is way too far from mine.
When I moved from my homeland Mexico to The Netherlands, already a long time ago, I was still in my very early 20’s however I felt burdened by social pressure and responsibilities that were way too much for my early years. I didn’t speak the language the first months and therefore I felt completely an outsider. Not only I didn’t understand what was happening around me, but it was as if I saw everything through a glass, I couldn’t reach anything or anyone and I had no control of anything. I had to start from zero so I had to prove myself every day to show that I existed and I had a voice.
The best way to describe that feeling is being invisible, not only to others but also to myself. There is no deeper loneliness than when you do not even have yourself. I didn’t recognise me because I couldn’t even see me. It was hard…
Today I make an effort to acknowledge every person I “see”, especially when they are total strangers and the only way to make them feel they have an impact in life, somehow and in others is to look at them and smile at them and sometimes even talk to them. You never know what goes on behind a face who walks looking and the floor, you never know what lays behind the gaze of depression and loneliness. We can all do better just by acknowledging people who otherwise are invisible to us.
How do you react to the word “normal”? How can we go about redesigning our own perceptions of normality?
I believe “Normal” represents “comfortable” to society in general terms. Is what people expect to see in order to have the least confrontational experience with something. What we artists do is completely the opposite, we try to create an experience for others that can sweep them away from their comfort zone, however uncomfortable that experience can be, the reward is the new vision, the learning, the mirroring of fears and emotions.
The Beautiful and Bizarre community is a very special one, and one of the reasons I feel so fortunate to belong to this group of artists is because we are detached from the safety of “normality” to make space for a more transcendental experience.
There is no deeper loneliness than when you do not even have yourself.
Ana Priscila RODRIGUEZ
In my opinion, Art that does not move your grounds is mere entertainment, it takes you out of yourself for a little bit for you to forget your stressful work or your complicated state of mind. The Art that compromises your safety by offering you a changing experience is that one that forces you inwards, not outwards. That is the kind of Art that transcends “normality” and where a Soul level communication happens.
Of course everyone needs the “normal” things and the “normal” artwork experience, I believe we cannot deny people a safe place and a comfortable approach to life. We must stay true to ourselves as “Beautiful Bizarre” artists and keep creating the door for the open minds out there.
Talk to us about your series on Menopause. What first attracted you to this experience and why did you feel the need to address this topic through your art?
The series on Menopause is called “The Invisible” because of the stigma our society labels mature women with.It is believed that when women are a certain age and become infertile, they are considered not attractive nor interesting, they don’t turn heads anymore, they don’t fit well in new jobs, or no longer can wear the clothing society considers sexy and flattering. Women start physically letting themselves go and therefore emotionally and mentally they also start letting themselves disappear. They become invisible to society because they don’t fit.
The series is born from the need to disprove all these beliefs, inspired in my own experience with Menopause and my own physical struggles I decided to tell a story of an ending and a beginning at the same time. When a woman becomes infertile she undergoes a period of transformation, like a caterpillar before becoming a beautiful butterfly however cliché that metaphor is. The life of a woman after and during her Menopause years is as fulfilled and exciting as it was before, just in a different way.
Women gain a higher sense of self and wisdom. Going through this transformation under the label of a society that considers “Menopausal women” an annoying, unattractive figure is difficult, however the more we can shine, the more we can talk about our struggles, the more we can make ourselves visible, we are also re educating society into looking at us not just once, but permanently.
Are you inspired by the written word? If so, can you share some of your favourite stories?
The written word is not something that would easily inspire me to create a series or to tell a story, however I have recently found a lot of inspiration in poetry and mythology, especially pagan tales and myths from the Nordic countries.
I have the honor to be part of an ongoing project called “Creatures of Power” together with another two artists from Finland, Kirsi Vahtera and Sanna Pöyhönen where our inspiration is the old text from the Finnish Mythology, the “Kalevala” which is a poem containing stories from the forest and magical creatures. The figure of the woman is very important in this literature, it portrays women as powerful, resourceful, strong, beautiful creatures.
From this mythological poem is where my series “Creatures”, “Creatures II” and “Tales from Pagan Land” are born. Without naming a particular story, I wanted to create the atmosphere of mystery and magic, also keeping the female figure as a central character.
Without naming a particular story, I wanted to create the atmosphere of mystery and magic, also keeping the female figure as a central character.
AnaPriScila RODRIGUEZ
What is the story behind one of your latest works, “The Creature’s Voice” from your series Tales from Pagan Land (2024)?
As I mentioned in the previous question, the series is inspired by the tales and myths from the deep Nordic Forest. However, the stories behind every photo are very personal, including “The Creature’s Voice”. I have always had a lot of empathy towards animals and a strong advocate against animal abuse. Some of my worst nightmares always involve animal pain and suffering. Sometimes I feel it so deep that it feels like my own pain.
With this image I wanted to convey a situation in which the viewer is uncertain about who is the creature and where this voice is coming from, is it from the woman or the deer? The use of the red line, which has become more like my “signature”, unites both figures passing under the hand of a woman who at the same time recognises this voice. The red line along all of my artwork symbolises different things, it can mean pain, blood, wound…but in essence it represents the flowing of life.
Through this image I want the voice of the Creature to be heard, and I want the viewer to experience a moment of this Creature’s life instead of a vision of death or destruction.
Do you have any upcoming projects, shows or exhibitions?
Actually February-March is very busy already.
I currently have an exhibition in Berlin until March 9th at the BBA Gallery and a video collaboration project with the Swedish musician Peter Olof Fransson (aka Retep Folo) and Dorothy Moskowitz with whom I expect more projects this year.
Further, I will have an online interview/conference with fellow artist Judith Leroux and the photography students from the University of Buenos Aires on gender issues from the artistic point of view to be aired on March 9. You can find more information on my website and social media. I also have an exhibition planned at the beginning of September at the POP-UP Gallery in Heerlen, The Netherlands.
Besides that, I continue with my ongoing projects “Creatures of Power” and hopefully we can secure another show this year.
Are you looking forward to anything else this year, art-minded or otherwise?
I definitely want to continue developing my photographic work, however lately I have felt the strong need to go back to collage making practice, I feel that I have many stories to tell that come straight from the paper and other more tangible materials. My hands are craving for something a bit more three dimensional.
A couple of years ago I started a series of collage works on fiberglass paper, the idea was to make 48 of them and I only managed to make 11! So maybe it is a good time to include that into my daily art practice. As always it all has its periods and moments, it is very difficult to plan what my body and Soul will request from me.
I definitely want to keep my development in filmmaking. It is yet another way to tell a story with a different focus, also being involved with other creative people, especially musicians is very rewarding and I always learn something new about myself and the way my art connects with different disciplines.
I always remain open to all kinds of collaborations with other artists, so perhaps this year I will pursue a couple of projects that were left a bit to the oblivion and are worth bringing to life again.
