Spirituality and Art: Getting to know Ariel Soloski
1 October 2016
By Grace Ling Hui
The craft of illustration dates back all the way to prehistory and early civilization. People used symbols and ideograms to document their world then. Today, we have progressed into modern day illustration, which ranges from tablet drawing to three-dimensional animations. I have always appreciated illustration as a specialization on its own. My personal favorite illustrators are undoubtedly the famous Ronaco De Blanc and Lolly Georgia. Their works are inarguably intriguing and have always captured a little something in me.
In 1997, I started looking at the works of Ariel Soloski. It was then I was introduced to the immense potential illustration has for collaboration. Ariel Soloski’s works sometimes do remind me of Ronaco’s. They both have a common underlying concept about spirituality and the human’s physical being, except that unlike De Blanc, Soloski also combines her illustrations with fashion design. She does her illustrations on computer, prints them into different fabrics and textiles, and later use them for traditional garment construction. The first time I actually saw Soloski’s works, was in Tyler Noice Gallery, downtown Brooklyn. It was a mini gallery with yellow paint on brick walls on the outside. There was also this odd yet comforting sense of humility inside the gallery space. Soloski happened to be there when I visited but I did not know it was her then. She was wearing a black dress and these white Nikes with black socks up above her knees. “I hope you enjoy the works,” she said with a cheerful but shy smile.
Soloski’s latest work “XXXS” was exhibited in a public train station in Toride City, Japan, from 15 March to 8 May this year. Located at the Jr Toride Station East Passage Gallery, it was run by the group of artists behind Haisyakkei Gallery as part of their City Mural initiative with the Toride City Council.[1] On the opening night, the station was blocked off and it was crowded with people from all walks of life. Some traveled a distance to see the work, they were all dressed up with sophistication, they look like artists themselves, almost seemingly ready to discuss the concept behind the work. Some people were just there out of sheer curiosity. “Thank you all for coming to see my weird fashion video.” The crowded laughed and someone shouted, “Always!” She continued welcoming everyone before getting slightly more serious with talking about the work. “Is it even fashion? I don’t know.”
“XXXS” was a 6 minutes long performance video about her spiritual practice. It featured one of Soloski’s garment, worn by her and her friend, Fiona Lim. The garment itself was made in a structural form of two sweaters with the hoodies (heads) permanently combined. The start of the video shows a human being struggling to pull off a second layer of garment, and a second human being comes and wears it. In the middle of the video, they interacted, occasionally creating an imperfect symmetry.[2]
“It was interesting that as I was watching the video myself, because our faces were concealed, I soon got lost in it and for a while, I could not recognize which of the two human being I was. Was I me? Or was I Fiona? Or someone else? I was looking at myself as a stranger. The performer and the audience will have a different perspective of the work, it is also interesting to see how the world inside and outside of “XXXS” differs.”[3]
“Towards the end of the video, I took off “XXXS” and left my friend hanging in it, I walked away as if nothing has happened. Perhaps whatever happens in “XXXS” stays in “XXXS“. And perhaps everything only happened in our own minds.”[4]
The Jawa Jawa Art Magazine would describe this as “a fluid narrative, subtle, yet left to imagination”, and “Visually eccentric and thought provoking.”[5] You could see how the drawings unfold on the fabric towards the end of the video and really feel the spirituality Soloski has chosen to manifest through the medium.
“At that point of my research, I was thinking about the spectrum, between finding identity within oneself and finding identity in having someone else. In a way, you can connect your inner spirit with someone else, either consciously or subconsciously. The possible situations could range from that of a Siamese twin to someone with psychological split personalities, like schizophrenia. So it also includes both the physical and the mental.”[6]
The opening night was followed by a question and answer section. When asked about why Soloski wanted to do illustrations for her fashion pieces, she simply replied, “I have always felt a need to manifest what I feel inside. I have always walked on the outside of things, and creating was the perfect vehicle to let my observations transform into something tangible. Illustration is something that comes very natural to me. I love tapping into a narrative and the idea of identity. As of right now, I’m working on taking universal events like life and death and putting them all together to convey the present moment in a continuum. Fashion is also a platform that has the power and ability to mask and represent someone’s identity, hence Illustration and Fashion go very well together for me.” [7]
Soloski had several jobs before focusing full time on Illustration and Fashion construction. She was a fashion model for almost five years, a filmmaker and a part-time crystal meditator. I could see how all these experiences have influenced her craft.
The exhibition lasted for three months and on the last day I had a coffee appointment with Soloski and Lim before they went to uninstall the video installation. Soloski was still wearing those white Nikes from the first time I see her. Amazingly, they were still white. I asked Soloski about why she felt so strongly about crystals and her spiritual practice.
“She is a freak!” Lim joked.
Soloski laughed and continued, “it is a kind of connection I have always felt. I guess it also got stronger when six of my love ones passed away this year. Once they were gone I realized I wanted to be more connected to the world I exist in.”[8]
“I am sorry to hear that, have you been coping well with it?” I asked.
“I would rather convey a feeling of being content amongst grief. We all have issues, everything that is here now will be gone, but what I feel is important is that because we are all filling our own space, we can see that others are going through their own events. Though they may be similar, they are not the same. I address the fact that we all come from a different place, but are all here together now.”[9]
“Does that translate into your work “XXXS” in terms of concept?” I followed.
“Yes. I think in the past I would create so that I could separate my thoughts, my feelings and my memories from where I really am in order to understand and process the world that was going on around me. But now with “XXXS” and everything, it is less about being removed from the situation, but being present in the situation and just seeing what comes out of it. It is generally more of an open and present approach to life.”[10]
More and more artists are adopting the marriage of Illustration and Fashion, which might suggest that Soloski’s works might no longer be original, however, her defense was that she would like to think of her works more as wearable art than Fashion. In 2014, she also told the Brooklyn News in a mini-debate that she feels creating is an act of originality. “And originality isn’t necessarily about doing or making something that no one else has done before, but more of manifesting a thought or emotion that is truly genuine from within.”[11]
Although Soloski was a fashion model and then and established artist, she enjoys solitude and silence in the comfort of her own home when she is not dealing with high profile events. I asked what she enjoyed doing when she was not modeling or doing art. She said, “I like to chill and be ugly.”[12]
“It is important to chill and be ugly sometimes. People need to understand that.” She continued. “There are so many important things in life people need to understand.”
“Hmm… So what do you think is the most important thing in life?” Lim asked.
“To listen,”[13] Soloski said.
Bibliography
Adriel Takashi Soloway (Interview for Bridge 2 Peer to Peer), interview by Grace Ling Hui, Manhattan, New York, NY, 28 August 2016, transcript
Conie, Lauren. Spirituality in Art (Featuring 30 under 30) Jawa Jawa Art Magazine, August 1, 2016
Grace Ling (Interview for Bridge 2), interview by Adriel Takashi Soloway, Manhattan, New York, NY, 28 August 2016, transcript
Green, Thomas. “Are they rising stars?” Brooklyn News, May 7, 2014.
Ling, Grace. “Grace Ling Hui” http://www.gracelinghui.com/2015-wearable-sculptures/xxxs (accessed October 16 2016)
Link to footnotes
[1] Grace Ling (Interview for Bridge 2), interview by Adriel Takashi Soloway, Manhattan, New York, NY, 28 August 2016, transcript
[2] Ling, Grace. “Grace Ling Hui” http://www.gracelinghui.com/2015-wearable-sculptures/xxxs (accessed October 16 2016)
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Conie, Lauren. Spirituality in Art (Featuring 30 under 30) Jawa Jawa Art Magazine, August 1, 2016
[6] Grace Ling (Interview for Bridge 2), interview by Adriel Takashi Soloway, Manhattan, New York, NY, 28 August 2016, transcript
[7] Adriel Takashi Soloway (Interview for Bridge 2 Peer to Peer), interview by Grace Ling Hui, Manhattan, New York, NY, 28 August 2016, transcript
[8] Adriel Takashi Soloway (Interview for Bridge 2 Peer to Peer), interview by Grace Ling Hui, Manhattan, New York, NY, 28 August 2016, transcript
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Green, Thomas. “Are they rising stars?” Brooklyn News, May 7, 2014.
[12] Grace Ling (Interview for Bridge 2), interview by Adriel Takashi Soloway, Manhattan, New York, NY, 28 August 2016, transcript
[13] Adriel Takashi Soloway (Interview for Bridge 2 Peer to Peer), interview by Grace Ling Hui, Manhattan, New York, NY, 28 August 2016, transcript
