A DELIGHTFUL CHAOS

My spirit wanders wherever it desires, but of course, certain textures and ideas interest me more.  The all process is what I call delightful chaos. 

At work...

Are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does your cultural substratum due to your early life in Morocco direct the trajectory of your current artistic practice?                                                       

My youth, in Morocco was an easy and exotic life, even if at the time I wasn’t much aware of it. However, I always been charmed by my native country: the smells of spices, the infinite nature of the light, the ocres and earth colors, the ocean and its secret…..Then immigration created Australia where I found a new playground for my senses to explore. 

We have appreciated the way the results of your artistic inquiry convey such a coherent combination between intuition and a rigorous aesthetics, and we would like to invite our readers to visithttp://apesartcave.wordpress.com in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, we would like to ask you if you think that there is a central idea that connects all your works.

I have never actually thought in these terms of central idea. My spirit wanders where ever it desires, but of course certain textures and ideas interest me more.  The all process is what I call the delightful chaos. Very rarely an idea construct itself in an ordered manner in my mind, and when a nail, a broken bottle, a pair of scissors or a rusty piece of metal ignite a creative spark, I never know what will be……?    

What has at once captured our attention of your successful attempt to invite the viewers to question the boundary between the real and the imagined, is the way it establishes direct relations with the viewers: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us something about your sources of inspiration? 

In the second course of my life I was exposed to an industrial background, metals and the corrosions effect had a particular appeal. In all the red I could sense more than see, blue, a cold blue ray of the steel, hidden in the texture of the surfaces. I liked to surround myself with various metals found during my work, and in my spare time I would create these tableaux. I also love to emphasis the texture of a scenery as well as connect with wildlife in all its beauty and decay.

Your current imagery draws also from the solitary years you spent in the bush of the vastness of the Australian outback. A work of art can be considered a combination between understanding reality and hinting at the unknown: how does every day life's experience and your surroundings fuel your creative process? And how do you think your works respond to it in finding hidden, crystallized moments in the everyday?

My life in the bush was episodes of survival exercises, and pursuits of gemstones, in this process I have met a few extraordinary, inspirational individuals. One of them was Thancoupie, (Gloria Fletcher) an Australian Aboriginal artist who taught me to view the world with eyes under my feet!  I also used to find satisfaction in writing because it was a way to let the words sing. Since early childhood I was an avid reader and I used to write often using words to harmonize the flow of the written letters in my head. Later on I expanded my horizon a visual way with Photography and metal work.

I like the roughness and unsophistication of what I do like I enjoyed the same aspect of my early life in the bush.

Your artworks walk the viewers to such an hybrid dimension, inviting the public into a guessing game full of humor and magic: in this sense, your artistic practice seems to invite the viewers to question the idea of perception look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, urging the spectatorship to see beyond the surface of the work of art. How important is for you to invite the viewers to elaborate personal meanings? And in particular, how open would you like your artworks to be understood?

Of course I would love people to go beyond the first sight and detect the games and symbols I tried to distill in my work but I am not expecting it nor seeking it. And they are often childish in teneur! 

Manipulation in photography is not new, but digital technology has recently extended the range of possibilities and the line between straight and manipulated photographs is increasingly blurry. How do you consider the role of digital technology playing within your work? 

Computes are just another tool to offer a vision, a camera is technology already. I am hand on with the metal work then I just adjust the story by using all tools I can possibly use, digital technology is as useful as a brush for a painter, it is nothing else. The vision is all, the tools do not matter. You can have as much technology as you wish and as much talent as a technician it won’t matter if you don’t have a vision or a story to tell. If not all computer engineers would be artists. Or are they?

I suppose you know the story of the photograph asked about his equipment and making a parallel between a cook and the quality of his oven? The level of a cook’s talent isn’t recognized by his equipment and the same should be said about art in general.

Do you conceive your artworks in order to achieve a precise aesthetic result or do you prefer a more spontaneous approach when creating? 

I am totally spontaneous in my work. All pieces are create slowly and inspiration is appearing as fingers are moving. Sometimes a piece can take many weeks before it find its final shape and harmony, even in its roughest details.

Challenging both the reason and the imagination of the viewers, your artworks offer them a door to escape from reality, during the visual experience: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? And what do you hope your audience take away from your artworks? 

I wish they smile a bit but if they don’t it doesn’t matter much. I do what I do for myself. If in the process it makes my fellow men getting some enjoyment out of it, it's a bonus for all of us.

We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Bernie. What projects are you currently working on, and what some of the ideas that you hope to are explore in the future?

 I, and my partner, who is a talented writer and artist, are both working on a project relating to fairy tales for our next exhibit, because a lot of our mind and inspiration seems to be connected to magical stories that haunted our childhood.

Ps: Agnes is actually the driving force behind it!