Paradise lost

The World of Gypsy Romance,

Delaine Le Bas,2006

The artist Delaine Le Bas took part in both the Prague and Venice Biennales in 2007, and presented her work in the first ever Roma Pavilion in Venice entitled Paradise Lost. She kindly responded to questions for Vacuum on the Biennale experience and her own practice.

How did the Roma Pavilion show come about?

The Open Society Institute conducted a survey of Roma artists and my husband Damien and I were contacted about the possibility of taking part. The curator Timea Junghaus was involved in this initial survey and we were both invited to a meeting in Budapest to present our work in what was kind of an elimination process. In the end 16 artists from 8 different countries were selected, and as I took up the invitation to make new work specifically for the Pavilion, I ended up getting a large amount of space within the building to show in. 

Was it a time intensive process, full of stress and anxiety?

Well we didn’t go to Budapest until November 2006 and didn’t actually get the thumbs up for the exhibition until February 2007, and so it was a very hectic experience trying to get everything ready for the opening in June. We looked at potential show spaces and settled on the most characterful, which had an unpolished feel with plenty of nooks to make use of. It was far from the typical white cube space, and although it was a bit off the beaten track we had a flow of visitors from the other pavilions nearby, which acted like stepping stones. This is the first time that the art of Roma has entered the international Biennale arena. Did you feel an addition pressure due to a sense of historical importance or political break through?

I just see myself as an artist, not a Romany Artist or a British Artist. The ‘National’ nature of the Biennale throws up so many questions. I mean why did Sam Taylor Wood show in the Ukrainian Pavilion? What did that mean? For me there was no added pressure as it is something that I have had to deal with from the first day I started school. From a Historical and Political point of view the Pavilion has done much to combat the two contradictory images that people hold in their minds at the same time of Roma: that of the Romantic tambourine-banging bare foot Gypsy while also holding that of the demonised villain. And a constant problem being that if you are so called 'educated' in any way that you can't possibly be a Gypsy. Frightening isn't it?

I read a statement of yours in which you say that your work exists at the point where ‘Outsider, Folk and Contemporary Art meet’. How do you see these ‘components’ working together?

This mix of approaches/labels suits me as I am fascinated in the tension between them and the creative necessity of avoiding pigeon holes. In actual fact it has been a conscious decision of mine to offer up a handful of labels about my work to preempt the pigeon holing process and refuse a single box to be put in. After all its all just art isn’t it? People seem to forget this and insist on penalising artists if they move away from a preordained practice. Isn’t it the nature of art to insist on the freedom and possibility of change in whatever forms they may take? My work is often misrepresented and it has been used in the past to represent somebody else’s subject matter. In these cases it is absolutely necessary for me to use my work to vent about such issues as a form of catharsis and response. 

Traditional craft skills are a currency in contemporary art. Do you see a tension between ‘traditional’ and ‘conceptual’ craft?

Well artists such as Grayson Perry have helped to bring back the debate of the relationship between handcrafted objects and contemporary art. It’s often just a case of context and a way of working, as I know that my embroidery would be received differently if it was displayed in a craft fair rather than an art gallery, and vice versa. Artists who use craft techniques because they are fashionable in contemporary art will display no consistency or ‘handwriting’ in their work and their efforts to be ‘now’ are bound to come out in the wash. Fashion should have nothing to do with art in my opinion.

You said that your studio is situated in your house in Worthing. How does this proximity and duality of a live/work space influence your practice?

It’s great as I can work whenever I like, 24/7 if necessary. Perhaps being a mother has given me the ability to juggle roles and be productive and committed with the time that I get to make things. I cannot dissociate between my time in the studio and at home, and I wouldn’t want to either. For me it doesn’t need to be separate. In my show entitled Room (2005) at the Transition Gallery I invited visitors to spend time in my studio, which I moved to the gallery and worked in throughout the show. My studio can be a social place, as much about sharing time as investing it in something individualistic.

You seem to be interested in repeating motifs such as Union Jacks, cartoon characters, and chocolate box scenes. Would you say that you use notions of sentimentality and kitsch as a conduit for a more sinister underlying message?

I aim to disturb their context and subvert their use in order to pose questions about their origin and meaning. As an artist I use sparkly and familiar imagery to draw people in and then hit them with a harsher reality.  Fairytales are a perfect example of how something familiar and connected to innocence can in fact carry a grim and menacing message. In this way my work is like a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’, and the duality of attraction and repulsion in an artwork really interests me. So that you ask ‘just what is behind the curtain?’

What do you think about the term ‘Outsider’ and its relation to being an artist?

It is a problematic word that relates to ‘art brut’ and the idea of the ‘rebel’. There has been a peculiar play on the term that has meant that a lot of artists have tried to cash in on it, whilst many others who have been outside of art education and the art establishment will passionately deny that they are Outsider Artists. Who would want to be an Insider Artist anyway? Can't we just look at the work and judge that. Many people are talented, and just because they haven't been to art college it doesn't diminish their ability to create amazing works. After all the work is all we are left with isn't it?

Delaine Le Bas has a solo show at Grey Area in April 2008

Interview by Daniel Pryde-Jarman

Delaine Le Bas on Wikipedia