SAUSS
Imre - Photographer & Artist
“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”
With my work, I’ve never intended to play it safe.
Art is a universal language, and it’s the language thats always communicated to me best. I don’t always produce art that I feel incredibly proud of, but in recent times I’ve found my own way of producing work that I love. I enjoy sharing my best work with others, and people either love it and understand immediately it or they don’t love it and they question it. Im at peace with that, because I know it can mean more, if it’s either strongly loved or disliked - like a song that speaks upon a subject that not everyone can relate to, but the people that can relate, form a strong connection and that art can help those people feel less alone and understood.
I’ve existed in a fair amount of different environments. I never had my own accent, my own distinct voice, and that was something I had always wanted. I feel now I’ve found myself and my own voice and have done that through art. By understanding how I work and trying to master my craft rather then continuing to try and find it.
I mainly focus my work on people. I set up a space and create a character along with some sort of narrative so I can direct my model and get them to act out whatever story I have created. I then use my shoots as reference to my paintings. Because I get my models to act out a story whilst photographing them, I recall the movement in my models figure as I paint and those fluid movements come out through my brush strokes.
I’ve looked at the glorification of death within the real and artistic world in photography, and in fine art I chose to study figures constrained within architecture. In art I’ve been heavily inspired by Louise Bourgeois and her Femme Maison, and began to take photos of figures I’ve captured and constrain them within architecture. Not only physically constraining but how certain buildings can constrain people mentally.
In photography I encountered the story of Evelyn Mchale, a woman who jumped of the Empire State building and landed “perfectly” onto a taxi, as if she was positioned there, and it’s known as “the most beautiful suicide”. This made me want to explore how death is glorified and can even be seen as “beautiful”. I looked at the tragic suicide of actress Lupe Velez who planned to glamorise her own suicide. I looked at the Lovers by Magritte, a painting based on his mother’s passing, and even how meat glorifies the death of creatures.
Rather than diving straight into university, I wanted to take a foundation course to help find the right path for me as well as help me to build a portfolio that I can truly be proud of. I want to continue studying art and continue to develop my own style.