Äkkigalleria interview with Patricia Driscoll
on Friday September 14th, 2012.
Patricia Driscoll during her 2 week residency in Jyväskylä (photo Juho Jäppinen)
Äkki: This is your first time in Jyväskylä, and
to Finland, you spent a day in Helsinki before taking the train up to
Jyväskylä. What are your first impressions of Jyväskylä (and Finland)?
PDriscoll:
I thought it was really smart. Everything was impressive.. and spacious. But it
is also quite relaxed, and functional, it is all very high tech.
Flying
into Helsinki there are these islands below, and the trees and the sea. And so
the first thing you see is nature; islands and sea.
The
other thing I found odd was how quiet everyone was. But I like that sort of
quietness.
Äkki: Earlier you mentioned that you are not
photographing the same things as you usually photograph. What and how do you
usually photograph – how is that different from what you are doing here?
PDriscoll:
I usually plan my photography, and I pursue a project over two to three years.
So my work will revolve around planning it. Here I have to respond to my
environment quite spontaneously. Here I am responding to what I see in
Jyväskylä and I have to think of how I can fit my ideas into what is happening
here. If that is possible. This is
probably a good thing because it makes you change your approach.
Äkki: Some of your work is quite political (A
Means to an End). And some of your work appears to be more visually based (abstract
landscapes coming from more natural settings). How do you bridge these
seemingly different kinds of landscape?
PDriscoll:
I was 18 or 19 when apartheid became redundant. During that time everything was
political, I was affected by it. In a sense I didn’t want to deal with that at
all, I felt I wanted to turn away from it, but it was always there, you can’t
get away from it and it influences you in many ways.
And I
think the abattoir series is not overtly political.
I think
the way we treat animals is political, what we eat is political, but it is not
particular to South Africa, it is a general issue. But in doing the work I did
find out some interesting stuff about the particular places I went to. And a
lot of the apartheid abattoirs are closing down, but they are being replaced,
in some cases, by global companies rather than local companies; which is quite
disturbing I think, because local is much better. So they are actually bringing
in work forces from Ireland or other places and they are now competing with our
local guys, which is terrible.
Äkki: What drew you to photograph in the
abattoirs (slaughterhouses)? How did you get started on that project?
PDriscoll:
I started in Cape Town. My friend and I did a project together, we were
interested in where meat comes from. So we went to a supermarket and bought
some beef but it’s all neatly packaged and we thought we would do a story on
where it comes from. We went to the Maitland abattoir and we actually came
across this amazing phenomenon called the Judas Goat, and that is really what
we based our story upon, this goat that lives in the abattoir and leads the
sheep into the slaughterhouse. So that is how it all started really, with the
Judas Goat. But they don’t have Judas Goats any more; it has become more
mechanized now.
Now this
particular Judas Goat that we photographed, that abattoir closed down (another
example of an apartheid abattoir) and it went to a petting farm. You kind of
feel sorry for the goat but also it’s quite unsettling to think of all these
children, stroking this goat, who don’t know what the goat has been doing.
I think
the way we treat animals really reflects on how we treat each other, and I
think we should think more about that. People don't think about it, I mean you
can’t think about it otherwise you can’t eat meat. But it is pretty horrific,
and on such a large scale. I mean I am not against eating meat, at all, but I think
the scale of it is sort of scary.
The mechanization of it and the economics.
Äkki: Do you think having lived through and out
of Apartheid in South Africa, has affected your work as a photographer?
PDriscoll:
It’s difficult to see how, objectively, what could have affected me, but it’s
definitely affected me. It just affects the way you see things. It’s a very
difficult subject, and it is very emotional as well, and it is not easy to
describe I guess, and through the TRC (truth and reconciliation commission) it
was a highly emotional time for many South Africans, and I still think it is incredibly
difficult.
Äkki: In Helsinki this year, all of the first
year photography students are women. Thirty years ago the photography scene was
dominated by men, as it is today in South Africa. Do you think there could be
this kind of turn of the tables in South Africa? How do you see the future of
women photographers in South Africa?
PDriscoll:
I don’t think it matters too much, I mean there are a lot of really great photographers
who are women, who are doing very interesting work. I think it is a difficult
field in which to be a professional, I mean if you want to be an artist. But I
think there is a lot of scope for female photographers.
I went
to Rhodes University for a while and a lot of the students there were women,
and I don’t know many girls in my class who have done well in photography.
Maybe you have to be a little bit aggressive to do photography as a woman,
maybe a little bit more aggressive than normal, I’m not sure. I don’t know.
I think
there are more men photographers at the moment but there are quite a few
females too.
Äkki: What is your earliest memory of light?
PDriscoll:
I think it was making daisy chains. As a primary school girl I would sit and
make daisy chains with my friends, in the sun, I think that's when I really
noticed light, spring and summer.
Äkki: And what about your earliest memory of
art?
PDriscoll:
that is quite a difficult one, I don’t really know how to answer that because
art can be so many different things. Art can just be an experience or –, it doesn’t
necessarily mean a picture or a visual. So I guess for me an experience: my
first experience of art I guess, my first experience of fear would probably sum
that up, but a fear that was exciting at the same time, so probably riding a
horse, galloping for the first time, down a slope or something like that, would
be that experience for what I feel like art can be. The sort of feeling of fear
or anticipation, but with enjoyment.
Äkki: And now some one word/short answers:
Äkki: Colour
PDriscoll:
Grey
Äkki: Process
PDriscoll:
Time
Äkki: Explanation
PDriscoll:
Infinity
Äkki: Message
PDriscoll:
Return
Äkki: Object
PDriscoll:
Subject
Äkki: Place
PDriscoll:
Home
Äkki: Time
PDriscoll:
Space
Äkki: Light
PDriscoll:
Dark
Äkki: Movement
PDriscoll:
Repeat
Äkki: Art
PDriscoll:
Life
