The Beach as a liminal space

Exclusive Interview with Christian Mieves about his exhibition On the Edge in Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana during the Second Queer Studies Symposium

Mexico City, 02/04/2008 (Agustin Villalpando / Enkidu Magazine): Once in Mexico City, On the edge, a series of paintings –oil on ceramic tiles– was shown to the delegates and the general public that participated in the II Queer Studies Symposium, which took place at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana in Mexico City.

It was a unique chance to get in touch with everyday life situations around the beach, but, at the same time, there was a sensation of pale/colorful, joyful/meditation, painful/happy moments. This was On the edge, by Christian Mieves.

Therefore I was honored when the painter himself allowed me to get to know more about the concept behind this paintings. Here is the exclusive interview with Christian Mieves, painter, artist and creator of On the edge:

Agustin Villalpando / Enkidu Magazine: Could you introduce us to On the edge?

Christian Mieves: The idea behind “On the edge” exhibition is that I am interested in the beach as a territory where certain kinds of systems collide and the first idea, the first inspiration I got came from images from National Geographic Magazines from the 50’s and 60’s, images of the beach, very stereotypical, very idyllic, very exotic. The reason why I was interested in that is that you see this external world, this objective external world, and you perceive of it in this subjective viewpoint, this very colonial viewpoint, heterosexual, male, American viewpoint and I was interested in the potential of this as I wanted to depict the external and, at the same time, transmit or convey this mainstream behind this kind of ideology. I got also in touch with some photographs in the Spanish newspaper, El País, where you can see immigrants arriving in the Canary Islands from Africa where you could see tourists next to the African immigrants. I found it interesting to have this kind of juxtaposition: on one side, this very image of the tourists and next to it the immigrants.

Agustin Villalpando: You are not redoing the pictures. You are doing a different thing.

Christian Mieves: The reason why I used these images and to show them in the form of painting is that I think painting allows still to create this kind of uncertainty, this kind of confusion where you are not quite sure whether this is a “real” image or if this is based on a fictional decant. That is the reason why I am interested in painting this format, because it allows me to create this kind of uncertainty for the viewer.

Agustin Villalpando: This format allows the viewer to have in a very short space a powerful message.

Christian Mieves: I think there are different reasons for the format. On one side, I like this idea of putting next to each other different images that the viewer has to make up his mind and see how they fit together, as I said before, this kind of juxtaposition of different objects that are normally not seen together, that is one of the reasons for this. I am also interested in this size which insinuate this idea of post-cards, something related to the beach, as you can send post-cards from the beach, from your holydays’ resort and that is interesting.

Agustin Villalpando: How many paintings can we watch?

Christian Mieves: They are around 15 paintings, all of them oil in aluminum.

Agustin Villalpando: Do you have a page in the internet? Will you expand the idea behind this exhibition?

Christian Mieves: You can go to my web-site where you can find more information: http://www.mieves.info/  But I also try to expand the exhibition to develop this idea of the juxtaposition of different entities because for me it is very inspiring this kind of deviations from this kind of binarism where you cannot exactly say if this is right or wrong.

I see these paintings in this context of an in-between space, it is not anymore for the viewer possible to define them one hundred per cent as this image depicts such and such object. I am more interested in this kind of confusion as one element of my paintings. This idea that the objects sometimes are out of focus, which contributes to this idea of the blurring between the boundaries.

Just to extend a little bit more about how I got this idea or what interested me of this idea, it is also this Freudian concept of the uncanny where this kind of confusion exist or he described this as a confusion where you cannot distinguish between real and fictional objects and actually causes these kind of threats, this kind of uncanny feeling. The interesting thing about this is exactly that familiar things have the potential of creating these uncanny feelings. It is not about remote objects, it is about the very close, more familiar objects, and in my paintings you have the familiar objects of the beach but they go beyond there.

Agustin Villalpando: My very last question, you have all of this idea, how do you perceive this particular space for your exhibition and, then, how have you felt the response by the viewers of it.

Christian Mieves: I have to say that the exhibition was very much linked to many of the papers I have heard during this conference, this kind of interest in the other, this kind of boundary crossing. I understand this very much related to my work. The space is small and intimate, which offers the viewer the possibility to get in touch with the paintings in a very personal way and I think this is very positive.

Agustin Villalpando: What are your plans for the near future?

Christian Mieves: I have plans for an exhibition in England, this year, which is also related to the beach and the potential of the beach. It will explore more or less how the meaning goes beyond the actually visible. How certain pieces on the wall creates the illusion of something bigger behind it which the viewer does not see in fact, but which he imagines. So the interest is how certain specific objects or parts of paintings have the potential to create something beyond themselves.

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