Parking Lot is our lax interview series where we get to really know a creative. We get to learn about what they've been up to creatively, some random facts about them, some telling ones, and just about anything else that comes up. In this episode, we talk to Alison Postma. After spending the last couple years in Guelph finishing art school, Postma is out on her own, she relocated to Toronto, she's been experimenting with her work by push out of her familiar working conventions while also figuring out how/where to direct her own independent practice. Read our full conversation with the AIMIA AGO Photo Prize winner below.
"I really like photography’s ability to remove objects from their context, and I’ve been very conscious about everything I include in (and exclude from) the frame. The photographs I make are often so removed from the actual place they exist in that original context doesn’t matter."
PP: Where are you emotionally and existentially right now ?
AP: I’m in an alright place. I feel a little restless, like I can’t sit still for a minute – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it would definitely be nice to have a little down time.
PP: Did you grow up in Guelph?
AP: No! I’m originally from Oakville, which is a suburb in the GTA. It’s a little bigger than Guelph but has a lot of similarities. I just lived in Guelph while going to school, and I’m back there every once in a while because my collaborative project has 3 members still living there! My dad also lives there now, so it’s definitely not out of the picture. I like Guelph, but I like it more without all the students there.
PP: What kind of a kid were you growing up? were you sporty?
AP: When I was very small I did gymnastics, but apparently threw a temper tantrum about going and that was that. Aside from gymnastics I couldn’t be convinced to do any other sports, partially because both my parents were never very sporty. I did go on a lot of hikes with my dad.
I focused on school a lot and got good grades. I was on the robotics team one or two years, which was really fun and I regret not staying on longer. Basically we learned how to build and program simple robots out of lego and then there was a day-long competition where you had to build and program a robot that day based on whatever challenge. I wish I still knew how to do that!
PP: It looks like you just finished up your studies and now you are currently in the middle of a residency right? this is your second this year? What did you initially propose? and what projects are you at work on now?
AP: Yeah! Earlier in the summer I took part in the Roundtable Residency. The theme of the residency was precarity, so I proposed a project about the space in-between photography and sculpture. It was a good experience but definitely too short (it took place over 5 weeks in July and August). The final project I ended up showing kind of seems now like a work in progress between other things, which I guess fits with the theme.
Right now I am finishing up a residency with the Drake Hotel for their AV Club. They just started the program this year, so it’s been new for everybody involved, but it’s pushed me to make a lot of work I wouldn’t have otherwise. It’s specifically for video art, which isn’t something I’ve done a lot of, but I’ve found it very beneficial to be forced to make something I wouldn’t necessarily gravitate towards on my own. Each resident had to produce four videos over four months that are then played on TV screens at the Drake’s properties.
I actually just finished my final video for the residency, which is titled Water Erosion. It’s pretty experimental for me and a little bit outside my comfort zone, but also refreshing to give control over to my editing program a little.
Video still: Water Erosion, 2016
Video Still: Border, 2016
Video Still: Hotel, 2016
PP: It is nice to see that you are jumping into the profession right after your formal studies; getting involved with avenues that allow you to produce...what was going through your mind as to what to do next as you were completing school in terms of creating your own self-directed work...
AP: In my last year at school I was taking a totally self-directed class, which really helped prepare me to graduate and I’m not sure I’d be so motivated to make my own work now if I hadn’t taken it.
I think that moving to Toronto has also been really helpful for my practice. I have less space (rent!!) but a lot more opportunities. It’s so easy to go and see 5 exhibitions a week and learn about new artists that are making cool work.
I also try to be pretty self-motivated. I subscribe to all the email lists with calls for submissions and openings and curator talks and try to attend as many things as I can. Honestly at this point where I am graduated and working, without going back to school I kind of see trying to be a practicing artist as the only option, so I may as well fully dedicate myself to it.
"The concept of the self is something that I definitely think about a lot. I would say that myself isn’t very well defined and is fuzzy around the edges where it meets the other. So I think it’s kind of weird to see a photo of myself and be able to point to the figure and say “that’s me” – it feels too limited."
PP: I might be wrong but it looks like you don't have some of the same work as you do on your website. Would you say the work you have on Instagram is an extension of that of your website?...and how do you see and work with Instagram (a social media platform) in terms of presenting your work...
AP: I find it hard to decide what work to have on my website and what to keep off, but generally my rule has been that anything with a decent write-up can go on there while stuff that is more experimental or fun can stay on Instagram, at least until I figure out where it’s going or what it means.
Also, I don’t want to have too much clutter on my website. It could very easily have twenty projects and be overwhelming for someone trying to check out my work. I definitely need to work on it and figure out a clear system for what stays and what goes – but no one tells you about all this administrative stuff you have to do as an artist!
I like Instagram a lot. I tried to join linkedin a while ago but I hated it – I think Instagram can be a great networking tool where you don’t have to feel icky about being the kind of person who is interested in “networking”. Instagram is a lot more human than a portfolio website, but I definitely like to have a separate and more strictly curated portfolio.
That said, I don’t necessarily think the work I’m posting on Instagram is less a part of my practice or anything, I’m just less sure of how to define it.
Self portrait, 2016
PP: How would describe you've chosen for profile image on your site and Instagram and the idea behind the distorted self...
AP: There aren’t a lot of images of myself that I like. I’m awkward in front of the camera and I don’t have a lot of body awareness.
That image came about because I had gone out to take a profile photo with my partner and narrowed it down to three that I was going to choose from. In one of the photos of my partner there was a car in the background that he wanted to get rid of and spot-healing-brushed it out. I had a photo of myself in the same location and figured that I should get rid of the car too – however, I’m not very experienced with that kind of photoshopping and messed it up. I ended up liking what the brush did even though it was wrong, and played around with it on the other images, and on myself instead of the background. Once I spot-healed out most of my body, I felt like the image was complete.
The concept of the self is something that I definitely think about a lot. I would say that myself isn’t very well defined and is fuzzy around the edges where it meets the other. So I think it’s kind of weird to see a photo of myself and be able to point to the figure and say “that’s me” – it feels too limited.
PP: As you've been working within photography, what discoveries have you come across as you move your three-dimensional world into a photo? And now that you are venturing further into video work, how does that change or remain...
AP: I really like photography’s ability to remove objects from their context, and I’ve been very conscious about everything I include in (and exclude from) the frame. The photographs I make are often so removed from the actual place they exist in that that original context doesn’t matter.
I find video to be like a controlled sculpture. With a sculpture that would be shown physically in a space, there are many ways to view it and many factors outside of your control. If you take that sculptural object and make a video of it, you still allow the viewer more than one static view, but in a way that’s totally controlled.
Drywall Compound, 2016
PP: For your Drywall Compound series, it looks like your photographic works which has been mainly approached in two dimension, is approaching more a solid form. And that series is also devoid of colour which is very much present in your other works. Can you talk about that series and some of the ideas you are exploring?
AP: The final iteration of Drywall Compound (Aerial View) – the sculptural form – was the final project of my undergrad. I wanted to challenge myself to do something that was outside my comfort zone and pushing the ideas I was thinking about to their extreme conclusion. So, getting away from colour was a big thing for me. I love using colour in photography, so it was really hard to make an image and like it enough to follow through on this project that was completely black and white.
I started to work in black and white because I wanted to get away from the necessary expensiveness in photography – I was specifically interested in cheap printing processes like photocopier prints. The original image for Drywall Compound was actually taken on my phone. And then the theme of it was this weird small manufactured product acting as a landscape, so there was this whole thing throughout the project about cheapness and imitation.
PP: Can you talk about the series of work you were working on when submitted for you AGO Photo Prize...
AP: Yeah! I actually ended up submitting work from two separate (but related) series to the AGO Prize. The main series I submitted was what I was working on at the time for my final project in Photo IV – titled Residues. At the end of my Photo III class I did a project about these dreams I’d been having where there was an evil version of myself and one of us had to kill the other. It sounds silly but I had dreams about her for months and it was disturbing my waking life.
In that series, I recreated scenes from those dreams to be photographed, focusing a lot on formal elements in my compositions that made the final images seem eerie or dream-like. This is the series where the image of the hair coming out of the backpack comes from.
The other project that made it into my submission – Residues – was also about dreams, but less personal. It focused on the way you experience a familiar place in a dream – like how, the rooms might be all changed around, but you still recognize it as being your home or school and don’t realize anything was off about it until you wake up. The images from the series were meant to invoke that sense of familiarity with an underlying weirdness. The photographs I ended up showing also had pieces cut out and rearranged to get away from a traditional photographic reading of them.
From Residues and Untitled (Double) series
PP: Can you remember when you started to pick up a camera in a more disciplined and considered way like you've been doing thus far in your work?
AP: In high school there wasn’t really any independent work, so what I did was dictated mostly by the curriculum. I was lucky that the high school I did grade 11 and 12 at had more than just the generic “art” class – I got to take a sculpture class, a printmaking class, and a digital photography class.
I think when I was younger I always liked the idea of photography a lot, but wasn’t very good at it. I tended to lean more towards sculptural work in mediums like clay because I was good at them and could be happy with a final product.
I took some photography summer camps in elementary school that I really enjoyed. We worked with black and white film which we processed and printed ourselves. I liked that a lot, but more for the awe of the darkroom and the magic of seeing your images come up than actually being satisfied with any of the images I made.
At Guelph I focussed on photography, but I took classes in sculpture, printmaking, drawing, and extended practices (which is basically just not medium specific). Sculpture was one of the only mediums other than photo that I was ever able to make something I was satisfied with, though.
I would say that honestly, I didn’t start using a camera in the considered way that I do now until late 2014. Before that I think I was too focussed on the materials (and the magic of the process) that I didn’t care enough about the final images.
PP: Are you interested in pursuing graduate studies?
AP: That’s kind of a tough one. The idea of being a prof and teaching art at the university level sounds great – spending a bunch of money on more school while not being able to work sounds less great.
I definitely haven’t ruled it out, but if I was going to go back for an MFA, it wouldn’t be for a few years anyways.
The best advice I’ve heard from grad students is that an MFA is a good idea when you feel like you’ve gone as far as you can on your own making and showing work, and need a little extra push from the institution.
PP: Who in your family do you see as creative apart from yourself?
AP: Definitely my mom. She does a lot of fabric craft. She’s been quilting my whole life, and recently she’s been learning other fabric arts – she’s a pretty accomplished knitter, and she’s been dabbling in embroidery, weaving, and rug-hooking.
PP: Who is a new-ish creative you are currently excited about?
AP: Instagram is my main source of creative people’s work. So, it’s hard to pin it down to one person who I’m excited about. I recently started following Liana Finck, who draws comics. Her work is really funny and I love the way she draws. You know exactly how every character is feeling by their silly little face.
Photography-wise, I am drawn to a lot of advertising imagery because it’s always so clean and considered. Another Instagram I love is Emma Hartvig. She is a photographer and some of her recent images have been advertisements, but they’re all so weird and beautiful.
PP: What is something you've been thinking about a lot lately?
AP: I’ve been thinking a lot about the way time periods block together in my brain. I recently got my hair cut, and the divide between having long and short hair seems to be less about then and now and more about relationships. When I meet a new person I’ve been feeling like I’m not meeting them for the first time, but the first time since I got my hair cut. Which I guess is true, excluding that they never met me with long hair, and this current me will just be the default one to them.
That specific scenario has been on my mind a lot. And I know it’s silly. On a grander scale, the time I’ve spent living in Toronto and being out of school feels completely different than the time I spent living and studying in Guelph. Of course it should feel different because it is different, but it’s hard for me to wrap my head around.
I think the reason I find these shifting time scales so interesting is because it reminds me of the way you experience a dream at the time and later while recalling it. And dreams have always been very interesting to me.
Images Courtesy of Alison Postma