Davana Robedee
Syracuse, NY
Website
www.davanarobedee.com
Social Media
Instagram
How would you describe your work?
It seems obvious to say that my work is material and process with deep conceptual ties, but isn't most art at its root just material and process + concept? But for my work particularly my processes are extremely laborious because I believe that labor endows meaning. The more labor - the more meaning. So while I'm growing the indigo plant, extracting the blue dye, creating the vat, and intricately hand stitching fabric using a stitch resist shibori process that takes months- even years- I am encoding these objects in many many layers. Each layer functions as a different way to ponder the sublime. My experience with phenomena such as visual aura, lucid dreams, and hallucinations is the driving force behind my creative practice. Because I am personally aware of the ways in which the brain performs “trickery”, my artwork asks questions about the nature of reality and human consciousness. Many of my pieces function as direct metaphors representing the line between thoughts and matter, dream and wake, and consciousness and unconsciousness. I am interested in age-old questions like, “How do things become alive?” and particularly, “Where do we go when we die?”
Imagery in my artworks are inspired by my dreams. In my dreams I see a lot of shapes that flicker and float. Each piece is displayed a few inches off the wall so that the fabric floats and shimmers in the air. They are kinetic and full of life. Sometimes I am trying to capture these dream images directly and sometimes I am simply inspired by them as I draw new shapes. Recently I've been writing down narratives from my dreams and using the imagery to tell these stories. In future exhibitions the narratives will be displayed alongside the works.
What inspires you?
I'm really interested in Romanticism and how it fed into esoteric/new age spiritualism/occult movements as a response to the Enlightenment. I know that probably sounds really pompous, but I resonate with this era so much. Not because I think these people held any great knowledge or because I agree with the various conclusions their explorations came to, but because I empathize with their desire to connect to something authentic within or divinity without. There is a distinctive creative energy in the writing and a willingness to allow the psychological to muddy the waters. It's interesting for me to track threads of these movements that resurfaced in Jungian Psychology in the 60s all the way to modern neuroscientist Oliver Sacks and back again. All of these people are puzzling out reality vs. perception. As time goes on we have more and more answers - and yet still! More and more questions! I love asking questions. Sometimes I'm not even interested in the answer but I want to understand the method of thinking and how the conclusion was formed. I think that tells us something more interesting about ourselves as humans.
Can you speak about your process?
Using Indigo as a material allows me to explore that magical line between a scientific and spiritual understanding of the universe. No matter how well I understand this plant physiologically, when I see the chemical reaction as the indigo bonds with oxygen and turns my fabric from white to green to brilliant blue, it inspires awe and wonder. Yes, it's science, but it's also magic. My lived experience with this plant and the transformations it makes to become an image on fabric is foundational to the work. I don't have to source my material directly by growing it, but this process allows me to give power to labor. Shibori is a method of preparing fabric to dye that creates patterns. In Japanese it means simply "to wring or to press". There are many different methods of folding, clamping, and tying that create different patterns, but I primarily use stitch resist methods which involve hand sewing into the fabric. The stitches are then pulled in, gathering the fabric into ridges & valleys, and tied off. This bundle is then dyed and the stitches are removed. The ridges receive the dye, but the valleys - trapped within the folds are left white. I consider these works "drawings" though it is a very indirect method of mark making. I don't actively make the mark, but I set up conditions for the mark to appear. My image appears on the surface all at the same time, like magic.
But to take us out of the conceptual for a little bit- I simply find the process of growing, dyeing, and stitching grounding. It connects me to the ebb & flow of the seasons. I plant in the spring, harvest and dye in the summer, do final extractions and seed collection in the fall, and finally stitch in the winter. These methods keep my art practice in line with how I want to live my life and creates balance.
How did you become interested in art?
I was an art kid from an early age. I began taking community oil painting classes at 10 years old. I went straight from high school into my arts degree and never looked back. Art has been a constant in every stage of my life. There have been times where I was less productive, but I've learned to trust that making is a part of who I am and I always return to it.
Do you have any favorite artists, movies, books, or quotes?
Many favorite artists to name a few: William Blake, Leonor Fini, Annie Albers, Ann Hamilton, the great (recently passed) Rebecca Horn, Yayoi Kusama, Laurie Anderson, Judy Pfaff, James Surls, Loie Hollowell.... .and many more. But I am a huge reader and a lit. nerd. Books have been in some ways more influential to my practice, and of course romantic and transcendentalist literature is a favorite. One quote that always resonates with me is from Walt Whitman's 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass:
"Great are yourself and myself, We are just as good and bad as the oldest and youngest or any, What the best and worst did we could do, What they felt . . do not we feel it in ourselves? What they wished . . do we not wish the same?"
We know that the human brain has been the same for at least 35,000 years but possibly as long as 100,000 years. I love thinking about this alongside this line of poetry. It gives me hope for the future even though things look dark. Humans have a way of figuring it out. Our best seems to over balance our worst.
My current favorite modern reads are: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez. Both of these have unique narrative structures and storytelling methods. These have been really influential as I write my dream narratives.
What advice do you have for younger artists?
Do not measure your success by capitalistic metrics. You will set yourself up to fail and eventually stop making your art. Capitalism works by assigning a monetary value to things in order to signify its importance. Art is valuable on much deeper, more meaningful metrics. Resist the urge to reduce the work you do down to a dollar value. I am not saying not to sell and make a living off your work- but don't get tricked into believing that this is the reason you are an artist and a maker. You are a culture producer and innovator. You are connecting people and ideas. The act of making IS the value. Being an artist is a lifestyle choice with huge benefits. Making art helps me see more beauty in the world. Making art has provided me with a means to apply a critical lens to society. Making art has given me more empathy. Through making art I have met interesting people with diverse life stories. If no one else ever sees anything I make from here on out it has been worth making.
