Part Two: Artists behind Jewellery // Sculpture Exhibition

For the second part of our exclusive portrait and interview series with artists behind current Art Jewellery exhibition – ‘jewellery // sculpture’ curated by AA-Collected, we talked with Sarah Bzoch, Virginia Lui, and Nicolas Jerry. Fashion photographer Alan Bayer was in charge of portrait sessions. Styling is work of Maya Chan, with production from AA-Collected.

Sarah Bzoch

Sarah Bzoch is an international freelance hair and makeup artist, based in Vienna. Represented by Stella Models and Talents Agency Vienna as well as Izaio Model Management in Berlin as a model and makeup artist. Sarah has experience in the fashion, beauty, advertising, editorial, wedding, television, film, and music industries. Flawless skin, perfect blending and creative twist can be seen in her portfolio. Sarah constantly strives for perfection and this reflects in her work, which has been published in magazines such as Vogue Italia, Kaltblut Magazine, Atlas Magazine, Haute Punch Magazine, Veneno Magazine and many more. Eager for knowledge and self development, Sarah is continually attending masterclasses and workshops within this industry leading makeup and hair artists to improve her skills.

Have you always wanted to be an artist?
Yes, I always wanted to be an artist, since I was young I knew I would become an artist one day, even if I had no idea in which direction it would go. I think that’s because I grew up in a family full of artists, be it tailors, architects and hairstylists.

What inspires you?
Many things inspire me, mostly art, nature, other creative minds, friends.

If you could describe your aesthetic in three words, what would they be?
I cannot really describe my aesthetic because it varies from person to person. Of course, I have my own kind of style but it is still different from face to face.

What kind of an impact do you want to make with your art?
I want everyone to feel something, no matter what, be it joy, happiness, anger or even just wonder when people see my work. My work is supposed to arouse emotions.

How do you see the primary role of an artist in today’s society?
An Artist provides society with emotions. They affect our emotions and subconscious thoughts.

What makes you happy?
Art, family, nature

What is the first makeup look you did?
It was a very pretty bold red lip look with some juicy glossy eyes on a young guy. Even then I wanted to show that there are no barriers to makeup, especially when it comes to gender.

What are you working on right now? Is there a project you are currently obsessed with?
Currently I have a lot of projects that I am very excited about. Many of them are very important to me, such as the project for Riotfestival, where we photograph women who lead a successful business. These businesswomen are very interesting and have beautiful personalities and of course are feminists.

What are your plans for the future? Where would you want your career to be in 10 years?
To be honest, I have no concrete plans for my future, of course I want to develop and work on myself but I have no Idea of where I exactly will be in 10 years.

Who are some of your favorite artists?
There are many of them. One of my biggest inspirations and my all-time favorite power woman and artist is Danessa Myricks. I am also a huge fan of Darya Kholodnykh, James Vincent,
Isabelle de Vries, Isamaya Ffrench, Nikki Makeup and many more.

What advice would you give to young artists starting out?
BE AUTHENTIC, don’t change your approach to gain sales, popularity or acceptance

Visit jewellery // sculpture II Exhibition in Vienna from 12.09 – 30.11

Virginia Lui

Virginia Lui is an artist, social-designer and researcher based in Vienna. She holds an MA in Social Design and a BA in Architecture. Lui’s works pivots between design – mostly for social innovation – public art and theory. She works in site-based performance, text, photography and drawing with the emphasis on artistic research. Much of her work can be categorized as socially-engaged art.

Have you always wanted to be an artist?
No. I never saw being an artist as a career choice (perhaps still not). There is something rather melancholic about deciding to be societally marginalised yet pursuing to reflect this agony and the troubles of the world through art. Therefore I started out wanting to become an architect. It was invigorating but eventually I found myself back to art, the socially engaged kind, and now I draw from my knowledge in architecture and urbanism through my projects.

What inspires you?
Meditation and being in isolation.

Could you describe your creative process to our readers?
Most of my projects begin with research, whether it be through books or by strolling through the city. I prefer to work in interdisciplinary collaborations so that different perspectives, skills and practices can feed into a project. Once the team is formed, we spend copious amounts of time discussing and negotiating art and design decisions. We experiment with different artistic methods, run meetings, build trust with civil society, form relationships, be self-critical and follow our gut throughout the process.

If you could describe your aesthetic in three words, what would they be?
Performative, dialogical and time-based.

What kind of an impact do you want to make with your art?
I want to find out the essence of art. What makes art different to other disciplines that gives it autonomy and freedom to subvert the status quo and generate imagined futures? To me, society and art are interchangeable in the sense that art should reflect society and vice versa. I am increasingly engaged with the notion of art and accessibility – art that moves away from galleries and museums but into the public realm. It’s relevance, as a result, becomes unquestionable.

How do you see the primary role of an artist in today’s society?
The role of artists is to critically reflect on today’s society and create aesthetics that mirror and comment on our world. Through different artistic mediums, they unravel hidden meanings about the world and make the invisible visible. They are essentially communicators of an artistic language that makes today’s challenges decipherable, be it socio-economic injustices, climate change, migration, gender imbalances, rights to housing and more.

What makes you happy?
The mundane things in life that we normally don’t notice.

What is the first artwork you ever sold?
A postcard of me re-performing the body behaviours of privatised security guards in the project SECURIWAS? – a collaborative project with the political scientist/journalist Miriam Hübl. The project dealt with security guards as the precarious result of the rapid developments of new labour.

What are you working on right now? Is there a project you are currently obsessed with?
Right now I am working on my PhD that investigates artistic strategies in urban regeneration. It examines what Jane Rendell terms as “critical spatial practice” – a form of practice on the interfere of socially engaged art and urbanisation. I am looking into artistic practices in China and Europe where urban spaces are actively shaped by involving civic participation, new top-down and bottom-up collaborative models and cross-sector participation. The result of such projects should be the democratisation of spatial production and the artist assumes various roles shifting between an artist, mediator, urban curator, neighbourhood whisperer and designer.

What are your plans for the future? Where would you want your career to be in 10 years?
I would like to continue working in academia and practice as an artist/designer in an interdisciplinary collective.

Who are some of your favorite artists?
Suzanne Lacy, Ai Wei Wei, Ni Weihua, Lisl Ponger, Thomas Hirschhorn…

What work of art do you wish you owned?
James Turrell’s House of Light

What advice would you give to young artists starting out?
Do not compromise with anything or anyone. Set your values and boundaries and stick to them.

Portrait & Interview Series with Artists behind Jewellery // Sculpture Exhibition – Part I

Nicolas Jerry

Legend Jerry is an ex-banker, Bostonian but Austria based turned software engineer / developer, underground hip-hop artist, lyricist & writer.

Have you always wanted to be an artist?
Actually, no. I’m just following a hunch and am curious when it comes to using tools that I’m completely unfamiliar with. This led me to stumble upon endeavors that happens to be labeled as creative. 🙂

What inspires you?
The short answer is: my predicaments and the setting that I grew up in and the self-motivated positive changes that happened all throughout.

Could you describe your creative process to our readers?
It’s easy when the process is one long life story that I get to mold, sometimes in ever increasing parts and pieces, into a creative form as I live.

If you could describe your aesthetic in three words, what would they be?
Ballad, Machiavellian, sagacious.

What kind of an impact do you want to make with your art?
So that others can not only have a strong sense of perspective but to also act and behave accordingly due to that realization.

How do you see the primary role of an artist in today’s society?
It is only as a sensation for self-expression. To commercialize your art, however, is to boast about your sense of self-expression. I would hope though it contains an overarching message.

What makes you happy?
Question should be: What makes you unhappy? Happiness is the default.

What are you working on right now? Is there a project you are currently obsessed with?
a TV-Show called Rules of Entitlement.

What advice would you give to young artists starting out?
Create incessantly.

Photographer: Alan Bayer
Stylist: Maya Chan
Production: AA-Collected