OTOMYS: How do you understand the concept of Becoming in relation to your artistic practice?
RS: I think of Becoming as passing from one state into another, in relation to growth or self reflexive understanding. In relation to my practice I have sought to glean the possibilities of a universal notion of Becoming one with things; nature, the weather, each other as a possibility for awakening. I love to think of an awakening exploration as a feeling of dissolving boundaries, where the ultimate surrender is a connection and openness to all living things without the weight of the ego.
OTOMYS: How does your vision of the future shape your relationship to the present and vice versa?
RS: I feel that the future in many ways, is something very much outside of our control and yet we can prepare ourselves for all possibilities with the choices we make in the present. This may range from how we prepare ourselves physically and emotionally to meet each day, to build friendships, dreams and care for our planet. I enjoy the challenge of envisioning my future self and how I will contribute to the world as a way of inspiration for taking steps in the present towards that vision, to create a rich and fulfilling life with contribution.
OTOMYS: Change and growth are central themes in each of your artistic practices, what keeps you returning to this concept?
RS: I often meditate on growth and change as something that unfolds outside of time, but within the constraints of time. I love to occupy spaces and states that connect me to a sense of timelessness to create within as this is a place where I grow effortlessly. I also feel that in working with the difficult and disfigured notions of myself or life, there is always the grand opportunity to be transformed depending on what I focus upon. I return to concepts of growth and change as they arrest an urgency within me to understand my time on earth and my purpose. Change can only really occur in the now with one choice after another responding, yet it is an accumulation of perceptions. What pushes me to grow with change is somehow beyond each choice I have made and often this expansion is triggered from grace beyond me, from a place where time is not relevant. I am amazed how art archives a kind of spilling out of sensations and inner knowing.
OTOMYS: Your use of layering creates artworks that are situated in the future, but very much tethered to past and present. How do you harness the medium of photography to create stories about transformation?
RS: In creating work I hope to achieve a sense of timelessness. This transforms people as they can identify a feeling or sensation that is beyond the everyday. I am not sure that my artworks are situated in the future. I feel that my art is situated beyond my recognition of where it is placed in time. There are memories in my work, cravings for a certain future, and visceral responses to the now. Often I create from a feeling that I do not comprehend fully yet, I skirt upon it. I do love how moving between the present, the past and the future brings surprises from reality that I do not see in the everyday.
OTOMYS: What are you intending to evoke through the artworks you have created for Becoming?
RS: For the creation of one of my works I intend to evoke the magic of 'now' in a very direct way, as in showing a moment in time where I have felt a surge of excitement from the awe in the environment. I have also aimed to create a feeling of what lies behind the now as rich, golden or energised witness. Creating hidden areas of expanse for the audience to imagine their own sense of place, I hope will evoke a sense of wonder and peace. I have explored the dissolving boundaries between a human form and their environment to evoke questioning in the viewer, of who they might be beyond stories of identity relating to a specific history. I hope to invite a real sense of timelessness where viewers feel their own boundaries dissolve into some kind of nothingness, not vacuous but a space beyond time.
February 12, 2024