Interview with Patricia Waller

1) So, can you tell me a little about yourself? Full name, age, some backround info, etc?

1)My name is Patricia Waller, I was born in Santiago de Chile in 1962. 1968 my family
moved back to Germany.
1985 - 1990 I studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, Germany.
I live and work in Karlsruhe.

2) How did you get started making art?

2)I got the idea of chrocheting my artworks during the final period of my study. I was looking
for materials not yet established in the arts, such as wood, plaster, or metal. In addition I
wanted to become independent from machines and electricity supplies.
So in the early 90th I discovered wool for my work and started crocheting.

3) How would you describe your art?

3)Of course I take advantage of the image of ‘house wife art’, so that, at first glance, my
works appear innocent. On a closer look, however, people will discover a sort of vicious
irony. If people start smiling or laughing at my work, I know that my first step of
approaching them was successfull .

4) Where do you get the inspiration for your art?

4)I often group my work around certain themes and it is important for me to reflect topics in
contemporary society like family, religion, science, medicine and technology
I am also interested in images of our fears and our ability to suppress them.
I play with various themes that we usually ignore, like fears of aging, illness and disability,
phobias, or dangerous desires. The cute soft toys, on a closer look, turn out to be
monsters.
For example the series of works called “accidents” deal with our desire for sensation.
Human beings are very rarely devoured by tigers, sharks, or crocodiles. Even more rarely
we witness such accidents. The fact that they loom very large in our imagination suggests
that they point to something deeper within us, that profoundly perturbs and fascinates us.
With all of my work, I try to create new and different forms of perception and levels of
association for the beholder by interventions and altered forms of presentation. The irony
or the humour contained in the work are most definitely intentional. It is important to me to
let the beholder access the work. I consider causing a laugh or a smile as a positive and
legitimate means of approach. This of course does not mean that I do not take my work
very seriously. I rather view this type of irony as a ‘means of seeing through’.

5) What are you working on now?

5)I am working on a mouse fighting with a cheese…

6)Are there some web sites that you would like to recomend? Artists, art communities,
xxx,...!?

6)There are a lot of sites I like, for example www.kozyndan.com, www.antiquesatoz.com and
many others…

7) What programs / materials / tools do you use to create your pieces?

7)All I need is a single needle.

8) What advice would you give to younger up and coming artist?

8)Never give up…

9) What is your personal definition of life and art and everything else in between?

9)There is no differece between my life and art. I always try my best, that’s all I can do, and I
never give up my deams…

10) Do you think that art is a univeral language - transcending all the different languages,
cultures and religions etc?

10)Yes, and I believe in the power of this fact…

11) What are your artistic influences?

11)The every-day life…

12) How are the reactions on your work in general?

12)Most of the people like my work, but women are often fascinated by the technic and the
workmanship.

13) Do you have many connections in the underground scene?

13)No

14) Tell us about a recent dream you had.

14)One of my favorite daydreams is, that I win a lot of money in the lottery…

15) What is freedom to you as an artist?

15)The freedom is, that I can do whatever I want, both, in my life and in my work. This is
sometimes also a difficult challenge, but I don´t want to change my life with anybody else
in this world…

16) Are there any particular works you've done that stand out as your favorites?

16)One of my favorite works is the series “how to kill your first love”. It is a work about the
agressive potential of children, child abuse and violence against animals.

17) Last Books you read?

17)The counterlife from Philip Roth, he is a great writer, I admire his work.

18) Last records you bought?

18)I don´t buy many records, but I would buy all the soundtracks of the bollywood films with
Shah Rukh Khan.

19) Who are your favourite artists & Your favourite galleries?

19)There are various artist I like, and probably have an influence on my work. I like all artist
which have a certain kind of humour and ironic in their work like Maurizio Catellan, an
italian artist, Paul Mccarthy or Jeff Koons. But I also admire René Magritte and some other
surrealists.

20)Your contacts….E-mail…Links

20)Look under www.patriciawaller.com
My E-mail adress is art@patriciawaller.de