Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020

Silence Awareness Existence program / MARCH 2022
R.A. Fedde
USA
www.supersplice.com/art
About
R.A. Fedde is a filmmaker, visual artist, and yoga teacher who
is endlessly fascinated by the magic of the mundane. In any
medium, she’s seeking to tell a story along with, rather than
to, the viewer. She has spent the past six months painting a
series of Quarantine Cats, but more typically creates abstract
mixed media works that invite viewers into pattern recognition.
Some see maps, alien terrain, cells under a microscope,
distant galaxies — and all of these interpretations are spot
on. Her documentary work has shown at SxSW, Slamdance,
Telluride, and many other film festivals, as well as broadcast
on HBO, PBS, and others. Her 2018 feature, Five Faces of
Shiva, has played to audiences around the world. The film
combines her interests in mythology, fine art, mass media,
and travel. Her drawings and paintings have shown at various
New York City galleries and elsewhere but she’s still looking
for that solo show of her fluorescent cat paintings. She is
a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and also
enjoys travel, competitive fencing, and poetry.
Spells for Connection
At Arteles, I found myself asking, how do we make meaning?
Is it tradition, unspoken cultural consensus, or can it become
a thoughtful, conscious choice? Can we intuit meaning from
a language without being able to read it? A “spell” implies
ritual with a purpose, as “prayer” or “hope” might not. In this
series, Spells for Connection, each work began with drawing
a protective circle, defining the boundary of the work with no
beginning and no end. Each circle grew through the rendering
of previously—but generally no longer—meaningful symbols
associated with arcane power: runes, alchemy, and the like.
As the series progressed, I also layered in contemporary
symbolic languages that are understood only by a select
few, the wizards of modern science: meteorology symbols,
binary code, chemical diagrams. The primary subject matter
invites contemplation of the connectedness of our universe,
including mycelial networks which allow entire forests to
communicate (top image), connective tissue (lower left:
bone), and planetary orbits (lower right: earliest identified
asteroids). Other works invoke quantum mechanics, cycles
of continental drift, tide pools, bioluminescence, river deltas.
My hope is that the deliberate symbology draws close
contemplation and curiosity to connect the viewer with the
work, the natural world, and, perhaps, themselves. I remain
deeply, abidingly grateful to Arteles for the opportunity to
truly immerse myself in this exploration.