"There is definitely a sense of ethics to my work"
Last year when I talked to René Kladzyk, the New York City based artist was about to embark on her first European debut tour as Ziemba, hitting countries as diverse as Poland, the Netherlands and France. Since returning to the United States, the prolific Kladzyk has been rather busy writing her new album and working on other interesting projects. Time to catch up.
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| Photo by Megan Mack |
“I was surprised by how well the tour went, to be honest”, Kladzyk proclaims. “I expected it to be exhausting and difficult, but almost all the shows went really well. I met amazing people, visited wonderful cities and got to play shows with incredible musicians. The reception differed per city. In Poland I felt like a superstar! That was awesome, they were so nice. Another great show was in Rotterdam, where I played with Fetter. And then I got to Paris and people were like ‘yeah, whatever’. At one of my shows in Paris there was a table with people talking and laughing loudly for the first couple of songs, which were rather quiet. They were being very disruptive, so after a few songs I stopped and said that I was going to do a song with loops and I needed it to be very quiet for that. I asked it in a calm way, trying not to be too aggressive about it, and from that moment on they were really quiet. After the show they came to me and said ‘Hey we wanted to let you know that when you started, we were just making fun of you and laughing at you, but then we ended up really liking it!’ and then they bought two records of mine. It was so strange, I would never say that to someone! But all in all Europe was a great experience and I would love to come back sometime.”
Feminist science-fiction
Back from Europe, Kladzyk did a performance art installation in Nashville, Tennessee. “In that performance I was burned at the stake and then turned into a spider. I hand-dyed a lot of fabric for that show in red and orange, using about 100 yards of textiles. I had five fans on me, so instead of being hot it was actually quite cold. The installation turned out really beautiful and I am working on editing a video of it. I haven’t shared that much yet about that performance, partly because much of it is new material that is still congealing.” Part of that new material will find its way to a new Ziemba release. “I’m working on a full length at the moment. I’m still thinking on how to frame it, but it will be a lot more cohesive than most things I’ve done. Cohesive in a political sense, that is. I’m using feminist science-fiction as a way to talk about the current state of affairs, trying to visualize alternative universes as a lens through which to look at what is happening today. I’m quite excited about that, it is challenging but fun and it feels very productive. I was having a hard time expressing my political identity as grounded in present reality. As soon as I started applying a poetic fantasy filter to it, it became a lot easier to talk about difficult topics. In a way it felt fresh, and oriented towards a future with possibilities. I don’t like to get lost in doom and gloom. I’m still very attached to an artistic agenda of anti-nihilism. I feel that projecting hope on things that look really bleak is a better use of creative energy.”
Mapping
Kladzyk, who has a master’s degree in feminist geography, sees her new album as a way to explore new places. “It will be both a spatial and an emotional topography. I’m not capable of exploring these ideas purely conceptually, I will always be embedded from my personal position. The idea for this album is to explore this world that I am creating, which you can examine on the micro level of the body and personal experience, and on the macro level of the entire landscape and all the different actors that come into play. I’m attaching a mapping project to this album, creating a series of fake GPS data, so the album can be something that you can explore spatially, in a faux landscape.”
To get back for a bit to the political aspect of the record, I ask Kladzyk if she considers herself to be a political activist with regards to her work. She answers that she doesn’t see herself as a political artist per se, but that she realizes she cannot fully escape being one either. “There is definitely a set of ethics in my work, which is in a sense always oriented towards virtue. That is very central to the music and art I make, I am very aware of what I put out into the world in that regard. In a sense there is some activism in that, it is just a bit harder to pin down than when I would write a song specifically about Black Lives Matter, for example. I mean, there are musicians who are more overtly political in their art and I don’t think I fall in that category. Then again, I think it is impossible to exist completely outside of politics. Every aesthetic decision you make is grounded in references to the political spectrum in which you live. But do I think that all artists have a duty to be political. I think there is room to explore artistic expression that is deeply personal and therapeutic, that is not political. We could make the argument of course that the emotional sphere is in a way always political as well... but I don’t know. I would be reluctant to make the claim that is the duty of the artist to make political work. But you can not opt out of being a human being in the world. When you look at clothes for example, or costumes, anything you wear is coded. You can’t opt out of a costume, you live your life in social codes. The way you present yourself to the world is always inherently coded. And no decision is a non-decision. If you go naked, that is still an aesthetic decision that is related to not wearing any garments. All decisions are embedded with social and political cues.”
Fire Organ
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| Photo by Megan Mack |
Next to working on her new Ziemba album, Kladzyk has been working on something quite special. “I will do an artist in residency for this collective called Guerilla Science. They’ve developed an instrument called a fire organ. There is a kind of continuity here topic wise..! When you put musical information into the organ, it generates flames in accordance with the music played. They’ve asked me to come up with something because of the incense work I’ve been doing. I’ve now created this incense apparatus for in the organ, which causes the fragrance to change in direct relation to the sounds produced.” This synesthetic approach is something that Kladzyk is very interested in. “I’ve been reading a lot about Alexander Scriabin, a Russian composer who was very much influenced by the idea of synesthesia. He did a lot of work trying to develop a color format of musical orientation. He had this one plan for his grand opus Mysterium, which was never performed. It was to be a grand week-long performance including music, scent, dance, and light in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains that was somehow to bring about the end of the world. The fire organ plan I’ve made is indebted to Scriabin and ’m approaching it in a very conceptual manner. The fire organ performance will be at National Sawdust on October 15th. There have been performances on the fire organ before, but this is the first time they’ve asked specific artists to write something for it. Since I’m making music specific for this performance, I am planning on documenting it thoroughly, so it won’t be lost afterwards. I will release this music in a separate release, also because I’m treating this more as a work of classical music than something in a song oriented format.”
Kladzyk will embark on a Summer tour in North America together with HNRY FLWR, starting August 17th. Catch her on one of the following dates:
8/17 NEW HAVEN, CT ~ Lyric Hall Theater
8/18 BOSTON, MA ~ Deep Thoughts JP
8/19 NORTHAMPTON, MA ~ Red Kross
8/20 MONTREAL, QT ~ Brasserie Beaubien
8/21 BURLINGTON, VT ~ Light Club Lamp Shop
8/22 PORTLAND, ME ~ The Apohadion Theater
8/23 PROVIDENCE, RI ~ Eyeland Studio
8/24 HUDSON, NY ~ The Spotted Dog
8/26 NEW YORK, NY ~ Berlin NYC
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