Conversation with photographer Tea Sirbiladze interview by Santiago Neyra
‘we are breathing in new photographic languages’
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Defining Tea is as difficult as it for her to explain what she feels when she creates something. As she goes through a storm of emotions and intensity her work reflects calm. She says that time is not a problem because even though it moves constantly, she feels permanent. That her essence is fixed and she rencounters it through her art.
Talking with her she told us where her first emotions arose and that melancholia is her source of inspiration. She also spoke to us about her deep desire to open way to diversity and new artistic movements and how she believes perfection demands anesthesia of us. Most importantly, she told us about her great excitement for collaborating without losing
herself.
Tea, as all the artist that appear in this issue (and the ones that are yet to come), is crucial, because through her sensibility she shows us that when we have complete freedom to make someone else “see” what we have inside, we can see things with the excitement of the first time.
What is time?
I think time is a broad concept that could be explained in different contexts. For me, time is a form of presence, I consider it to be reality as it is, it’s part of the sequence of events that happen throughout life. It has always been evident to me that the layout of time is a perfect combination of three concepts: connection, direction, and arrangement creating a circle between them. I see myself as a fixed point inside this circle as it moves continuously.
Independently of photography, What is sensitivity to you?
From my point of view, in order to be able to recognize sensitivity it’s important to connect to our inner selves since it’s something that each one of us cary in our own way from the first day of our lives and is deeply connected to our mood. For me, beauty is always connected to melancholy and when I speak of melancholy, I don’t mean sadness rather than a process or a way of inspiration. I think that sensitivity to beauty or being sensitive to beauty is one of the most important manifestations to be a human and by “beauty” I mean the essence of life itself not a precise concept. I once read this phrase that has stuck with me:
“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive”. (Pearl S. Buck.)
Sometimes with profound melancholy, when you reach a relatively elevated phase, you can begin to ask yourself what is the efficacy of the instruments we use to be in contact with the external world. In my case the answer has always been nature as a great source o inspiration. Nature is a great way to connect both inwardly and outwardly. Organic things make sensitivity somehow more potent.
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What is your opinion in regard to the involvement/incorporation of sensitivity, reality, and everyday life to tell stories in the fashion industry?
Nowadays the fashion industry doesn’t really exist in itself and it is rather an elaborate reflection of social reality. From my perspective, the most important thing is to create an equilibrium of sensitivity between the world of fashion which we are used to seeing as a cold object through time and the human sensitivity that each one of us carries inside. Freedom of expression on the level of sensitivity is very important for the future of artistic evolution and to create new movements and visual diversity. Through history we’ve known many types of art and creativity, fashion being one of them. In my professional journey I’ve considered fashion as part of art and that is why I speak of it as a unique object.
I think that any art field needs to be free to express and able to surpass the barriers imposed by society, I mean, to overcome self-consciousness and be able to express beauty in our own way. I think that little by little we are overcoming obstacles and achieving new ways of creating, being, and seeing. One of the clearest examples is your magazine with which you are giving artists the chance to stamp a point of their essence in these pages.
How do you think your emotions have been evolving on a personal and professional level?
Emotions are part of human nature and with time they evolve. When I talk about emotions, I consider that we are also talking about sensations. I remember that the first time that I felt excitement on a professional level was when I was 16 years old and I was studying in Academia de Bellas Artes. The excitement of discovering myself was very amusing. I’ve always thought that when we are young emotions are much more transparent and spontaneous and with age and the influence society has on us, we become self-conscious to showing our more emotional side, we have the feeling of being judged or of not being accepted by an audience. As human beings we tend to lean towards perfection but there’s nothing more perfect than imperfection in this world.
In my case life has always been loaded with emotions. The strongest emotion I have yet felt was that of being “reborn” trough a car accident. It was the time where I felt the most emotions at once; unconsciousness, happiness, sadness, melancholy… At that time, they were only verbal emotions but I have finally found a way to express them visually. I put a lot of emotion, or better said, intensity in the process of development of any kind of work. Yet at the end it looks so peaceful. That’s something that has always generated a lot of curiosity for me about my emotional interior. It indicates that we are continuously discovering ourselves.
Do you have a space in mind where you first experimented with your emotions? What is that place?
Childhood in my grandmother’s house, a bed of beautiful emotions as she herself was an inspiration.
Have you ever photographed or told a story in this space?
I always wanted to photograph my grandmother and I regret not having done it, it seems thought as if time was never enough to capture that beauty.
The past is very important, it influences our present and future; now that you are moving to Paris from Barcelona, What are the steps you need to take?
Sometimes we live so submerged in what we know that we believe that everything functions that way and I think that every so often we have to break this cycle. What we have lived or what we are living is what we have known and new experiences fill us with knowledge, they help us develop us professionally and personally. Each situation contains our essence and each chapter of our lives is directed towards an individual lesson. Feeling yourself in a new setting is to feel like a baby, perceiving new things continuously is a way to rediscover oneself.
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What was the first project that marked you and made you realize this was the field you wanted for yourself?
It’s a future project that is “internal”. A beautiful combination of art, photography, and poetry, a project that was birthed during confinement when a lot of us were able to connect with ourselves. I think that this book is a good reflection of everything we have previously talked about. I’m working on it alongside my artist friend, David González. The book ISSUE N. º 01 is not out yet but in the not so far away future it will be here.
What have you seen in the new wave of photographers?
In the digital world in which we live, let’s say it that way, I like to see that there are people that have been experimenting with photography and beyond. Since photography has always been a discussed process on the artistic level it’s nice to see that its place in the artworld has been normalized and people experiment and express freely through different techniques. More and more we are breathing in new photographic languages where before there were deeply defined guidelines for photography because at the end it was no more than a piece of paper marked by an image. Now magazines like STOIC and other book editorials give artist the chance to transmit their own personal style, and technique within a theme. This is the future language of contemporary photography.
Nothing in excess.
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