Talking to Pauline Galiana
The fourth artist featured in conFRONTation, a storefront exhibition in Berlin Mitte, is the New York-based artist Pauline Galiana. We talked to her about activism, sustainable art and more!
CAC: What is your Climate Change Story: Could you share your journey in understanding climate change and when you started creating climate art?
Pauline: My understanding of climate change evolved organically since I have always been interested in nature, starting very young in the French and Swiss Alps. I drew from nature, painted on rocks and sticks, made dry flower albums, harvested mushrooms, and collected information and images about endangered animals. One summer, I even built a hospital for bugs out of a cardboard box: I would search for “wounded” bugs, place them in one of my hospital bedrooms, fix broken snail shells with band-aids, and feed them lettuce –the other bugs would escape very quickly.
My interest never declined, yet for my professional career, art took the lead over biology. I keep feeding my inquisitiveness about nature, science, pollution, and climate change by reading, discussion or, when I work on my art, by listening to podcasts.
CAC: Regarding the fact that you reuse material for your art, do you think that art in whatever form needs to be sustainable?
Pauline: It's a difficult question because it encompasses many subjects.
There are two main and interdependent courses of action to pin down sustainability in art: Using sustainable techniques and recovered materials and creating art that stimulates conversation on sustainability. I'm attempting to do both.
Since I started using plastic in my Kitchen Art, a series of collages two decades ago, people favorably reacted to the idea of using fruit stickers. Still, they would be worried about the no-acid-free material. Then, sustainability in art meant that the artwork couldn't change its physical aspect. Therefore, only acid-free materials were safe. But we all have heard the stories about fading pigments in Van Gogh paintings, to name one artist. The concept of sustainability has evolved over the years. I do evidently use recycled or recovered materials in many places and most certainly seek to prompt awareness and dialogue, even discomfort, about environmental impact.
CAC: What inspired you to work with rather untraditional materials like plastic bags?
Pauline: I refuse single-use plastic! As noted earlier, introducing found objects in my practice is one way to tackle sustainability. These bags come in gorgeous colors, they are costless and everywhere. It seems natural to me to reuse them and give them special treatment and attention to engage a conversation about the beauty and value of plastic and how it’s overused and misused.
CAC: What fascinates you about Handwork like stitching or sewing which is again, not a usual form of expression in classic Visual Arts.
Pauline: I deliberately use sewing techniques associated with fragile mediums such as paper or thin plastic to emphasize women’s powers and resilience. The art of sewing and mending, commonly considered docile “women’s work,” is one of the most ancient crafts, dating from 20,000 years ago. The needle is a weapon, the seamstress a warrior.
The Fantastic Quilts address gender, consumerism, and environmental issues.
CAC: Can you explain your creative process of creating the "Fantastic series"?
Pauline: To expand on what I said above, the act of using recycled materials, additionally, reflects my thinking process. When executing an artwork, the conceptual work is already planned and done. Yet, there’s always another idea on the way. In instance when working with pastels, my hands get covered with pigment dust. Before washing it off, I leave a handprint on clean paper as a way to slow me down, to avoid overworking the piece and allow space and time to reflect on the drawing in progress. Later on I used these handprints for a new series of collages.
A propos quilting, when I came to the US, I was impressed by how the practice of quilt-making was a popular craft. I was even more intrigued by how the original small scale thriftiness was so inconsistent with the whole quilt materials supply. Patchwork and quilts were traditionally efficient ways of recycling worn clothing straps into warm blankets. Today there is a whole flourishing textile industry around quilting.
CAC: What do you mean by being a micro-activist?
Pauline: I believe in everyday actions. Small, personal, consistent. If I join a march for the cause of climate change, I also want to be acting on the issue on an everyday basis. I’m trying to make my life and art practice true to my beliefs, as much as possible. Indeed like most anybody, I can be accused of using many commodities despite knowing how they are detrimental to earth on the long run. I came up with the expression of “micro-activism”, maybe simply because I’m a quiet, hands-on, hyperactive doer-fixer type of person.
CAC: Have you noticed any lasting impact from your art on people's awareness on issues like consumerism?
Pauline: Only time will tell. For now, I am content if my work sparks conversation on these topics. Some people spontaneously collect discarded materials for me; it’s a first step to awareness.
CAC: (How) do you aim to make climate change tangible and emotionally resonant for your audience through your art?
Pauline: Though it’s increasingly becoming common for artist to use unconventional media, a discarded object or a piece of used plastic bag on a white gallery wall is contradictory to what most people expect from fine art. It’s a modest provocation to push my viewers to question the why of such display?
Often I use a sense of irony and humor. I confront the rapidness of the plastic industry with the slow pace of hand-stitching. I used a chain of plastic bags floating down a mountain stream, as the main feature of a “pretend” wildlife documentary. I placed myself as the main character of a video in homage to Jacques Tati and the Monty Pythons. I created a one time performance on the beach rearranging bits and pieces of plastic, especially bottle caps, into a careful and colorful grid, highlighting the polymer’s vibrance, which made people smile at first and then engage into a playful conversation. I’d like my audience to feel a sense of amusement and pleasure; guilt-tripping would be counter productive.
Time consuming hand work and performance always get people’s attention.
CAC: Moving beyond individual efforts, what political strategies do you think are crucial to prevent reaching the point of no return in combating climate change?
Pauline: First, It’s most important that citizens unite as a collective voice to elect lawmakers who prioritize climate change and sustainable action within reasonable, achievable boundaries. Further, we can influence the political landscape by supporting organizations advocating for climate-related legislation: news, articles, petitions, and other initiatives. We have to speak up together and hold politicians accountable for tangible action.
Secondly, it is as important to model for our children and community members.
As the Mahatma Gandhi said: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”