Quantum Season 2 Artist Interview: Der Greif
Two years (and counting) of Covid and quarantine has allowed us to reevaluate the contours of our lives; where and with whom we live, what institutional systems do or don't work for us, what we keep, and what we discard, both materially and psychologically. Shaking off what was, and embracing what will be, is necessary.
TMRW (Tomorrow), a collaboration between Quantum Art and the online photography platform Der Greif, comprises work by three artists whose work visualizes what an uncertain future may look like.
Marcin T Jozefiak
Quantum:
What made you fall in love with photography?
Marcin T Jozefiak:
I've started taking photographs; while I studied painting, I was advised it could help me improve my technique and discover more about composition and light. After a while, I started to appreciate more and more the medium of photography and started diving deeper into developing ways to capture the subject of my interest. What made me appreciate and fall in love with photography is suddenly having access to someone's story and feelings and being allowed to capture it forever.
Quantum:
How did you first encounter NFTs and Crypto art?
Marcin T Jozefiak:
Last year I had a chance to participate in a project, Edition365: A portrait of the year that changed everything - organized by 1854 and British Journal of Photography in collaboration with New Art City. That was my first chance to sell my work in the form of an NFT.
Quantum:
What is it you want to say with this collection, and how do you get your photographs to do that?
Marcin T Jozefiak:
These photographs are subsurface in their softness, an exploration of Korean subcultures and their diversity. My subject, who may exude toughness in other settings, is shown with vulnerability and humanity. The muted tones, the slight pop of the person being photographed from the background, the posing, and flowers, represent an idea of the fragility of form. I'm not interested in taking pictures of someone naked but finding a way to express them as dressed in their own skin, secure in themselves. How do we see our bodies and learn to accept them? To me, the body is an endless source of creativity and a tool for art; there are so many things that can be expressed with it. How can one ever say they don't like their body or even reject it?
Through the work I continue to do for the series, I decided to explore the themes of gender, sexuality, gaze, and identity. The human body with the addition of flowers represents the same universal innocence, timelessness, and purity. Each participant represents a different group of diversity that includes LGBTQ community members. Question of identity (gender, racial, cultural) is brought up more and more today. Who you are underneath your clothes should not concern others, but your choice and background should be respected.
With each person photographed for this project, I'm introduced to a new vision and become a listener of different stories and ideas of life.
Quantum:
Can you choose one photo from the collection to share the story behind it?
Marcin T Jozefiak:
For me personally, this photograph is the essence of the entire project. Muil is a tattoo artist in Seoul and one of the first people I photographed for this series. South Korea is still the only developed country where tattooing is outlawed unless you're a medical doctor.
Quantum:
Can you describe the collection in one sentence?
Marcin T Jozefiak:
"Fearless Flowers. Not For Everyone" project is about capturing the openness, acceptance of one's body, sexuality, and acceptance of the self-created modern image of who Korean people aspire to be.
Margaret Murphy
Quantum:
What made you fall in love with photography?
Margaret Murphy:
I was printing in a dark room for the first time. There really is nothing like seeing a picture slowly come to life on paper submerged in pungent chemicals.
Quantum:
How did you first encounter NFTs and Crypto art?
Margaret Murphy:
Kris Graves gave a lecture to my graduate class in August of 2021 and encouraged us all to look into minting our work. It was the first time I knew of an artist putting their photographs on the blockchain as opposed to just PFPs. As someone who grew up on the internet, I was excited because it felt like a sensible and exciting venue for my art and my practice.
Quantum:
What is it you want to say with this collection, and how do you get your photographs to do that?
Margaret Murphy:
Photography is ever-present in our lives and impacts the way we perceive ourselves--now more than ever on social media platforms. These photographs celebrate self-perception as a way to understand my existence in the world. I hope that viewers are encouraged to do the same in whatever way is appropriate for them. Take selfies, inspect your body, feel the texture of your skin, become two-dimensional, ornament yourself, become your fantasy, reclaim autonomy over your image.
Quantum:
Can you choose one photo from the collection to share the story behind it?
Margaret Murphy:
'Desperate For Affection' was made in April of 2020. At this point in lockdown, like many, I was starved for physical contact. Photographing for my thesis, I grabbed a banana that was turning for a prop. I made a few pictures with it unopened, but the overtly phallic nature of the fruit felt somewhat one-note in the pictures. Frustrated, I decided to pause and eat it, knowing that my workflow would likely benefit from a snack. The spotty yellow and brown peel that remained was so viscerally tactile--slick and malleable like skin. I delicately draped it over my knee and baby pink pandemic-painted nails, imagining it the hand of a lover or friend. At that moment, after satiating my hunger for a snack, it satiated my hunger for touch.
Quantum:
Can you describe the collection in one sentence?
Margaret Murphy:
'I Could Look at You All Day' is a series of self-portraits in which I perceive myself perceiving myself in the context of feminine identity, sexuality, and social media, reaching out to the surveillant observer that exists inside every woman.
Julia Kafizova
Quantum:
What made you fall in love with photography?
Julia Kafizova:
It's a difficult question. Photography is a kind of diary in which you can observe the course and changes in your life. And also to see the perspective, as other people show it. Some people look for meaning and description in every photo, but I think this is not always necessary. There are things that you just can look at for a long time, even if they are without a name or a special sense.
Quantum:
How did you first encounter NFTs and Crypto art?
Julia Kafizova:
That was a year ago, I was sick with corona, and I was trying to keep myself busy. I saw an event on Facebook called "Digital wine," and I wondered what it was? So I spent a couple of hours listening to a lecture about NFT and crypto art and, at that moment, not understanding what it was. But now, I'm already involved in this new digital world.
Quantum:
What is it you want to say with this collection, and how do you get your photographs to do that?
Julia Kafizova:
In the collection, all the titles are related to virtual reality, the metaverse, planets, a new face, and consumption. In our time, everything and all is changing with high speed. Who will we be, and who are we now when we move into the new world?
All photo ideas came spontaneously. I shot everything at home with scrap materials, using my camera and sometimes a flash.
Quantum:
Can you choose one photo from the collection to share the story behind it?
Julia Kafizova:
I chose a picture where I toast to myself called "lunch in the metaverse." Initially, I wanted myself to be depicted three times in this photo. Two are seated, and one is in the middle of the table – the third one can be eaten for lunch. But then I decided that I could not eat myself but celebrate my life by raising glasses of jelly. It is as if you are still here and now, but at the same time, the second you is already in another time, in another universe.
Quantum:
Can you describe the collection in one sentence?
Julia Kafizova:
We blur the lines between realities and get lost in the world of virtual possibilities.
You can now purchase “TMRW” on Opens sea!