Iris Bernblum investigates ideas of escape and release in a manner that reminds one of the playfulness of a young child who is simultaneously juggling constructs of normal and abnormal behavior. The Comp Magazine recently visited her studio to discuss the importance of play and why sometimes it’s rather enjoyable being the ringmaster of a three-ring circus.
I sense you are a wandering spirit at times. You were raised in the Midwest and have lived in Chicago (twice now), New York, St. Petersburg, Russia, and Montreal, Canada. Have these places impacted your work in any way?
That’s funny, yes I suppose I have lived in quite a few places, growing up in Ohio, moving to Chicago for school then NYC, a brief stay in St. Petersburg, Russia, back to NYC, then Montreal for nearly three years and back to Chicago! There is no doubt the places I’ve lived have impacted my work. In fact Chicago in particular has always felt like a very freeing place for me. Perhaps it has something to do with leaving home for the first time, moving away from the life I had always known and felt I really needed a release from, Chicago offered that release to me. The artistic community here has always been very inspiring to me.
Iris Bernblum, Today is a New Day, Tomorrow is Another, 2014
In conversation, you mentioned your interest in taming wild animals. Can you refresh my memory or expand on that conversation?
Right now I’ve been exploring ideas around tension and release, power and play. Much of my recent work has come out of a new script I wrote two years ago that is heavily circus themed. It is a fantasy filled with fantastic attempts at mental and emotional release but there is always a ringmaster that brings the person (the woman) back to center. In a way she is my wild animal. But I am interested in playing with ideas around taming, a gendered response to taming the wild. Reframing what it means to tame.
Iris Bernblum, Today is a New Day, Tomorrow is Another, 2014
Your studio appeared to be part playground, part traditional studio and part circus arena. Do you see a dialogue between these areas of performance and viewership?
I do, I love to create environments for myself to work that also feel like a world unto itself. For me, the space I work in, the space I invite people into, and the work are very much the same thing. I was just recently speaking with a friend of mine and we were talking about when we decide a work is ‘complete’. And I realized then that I’ve never felt any of my work was ever complete. I am drawn to the idea that it is always in motion, always changing and interacting with what is happening around it, the idea that it may be final or complete, for me personally, stops the conversation and I find that stifling. I need work to keep moving. So to answer your question, yes maybe I feel viewership as an unwitting kind of performance happening within a space. I am also interested in implied performance, the aftermath, for me the actual performance of what might have happened in the space is a private thing.
Can you expand upon the way your research and practice engages with ideas of escape and release? Was there a specific work that piqued your interest in this area?
There are many works that have piqued my interest over the years, it would be hard for me to name just one. I’m glad you asked me this…if I allow myself to really go back, to my days as an undergraduate at SAIC, I would say it was the performance department that had the most impact on me as an artist. It allowed me to dive into myself and my practice. It’s funny that I say this as I didn’t spend much time in that department, most of my time was spent in photography and video, I was a watcher. I am still a watcher. I was incredibly drawn to performance, privately, envious in a way of what those folks were capable of and where they took me. I enjoy exploring this part of my making, the fantasy, the quiet admiration. I suppose this also comes back to Chicago being a freeing place for me. I feel it’s a place that allows for exploration . It allows for play. And play is very important for my practice. Without the ability to play it’s hard to get to the core of my ideas.
Artists I love whom impacted me greatly: Ugo Rondinonde, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Rineke Dijkstra, Bruce Nauman, and Jim Hodges
Iris Bernblum, Today is a New Day, Tomorrow is Another, 2014
What are you currently working upon? Do you have any specific aspirations in terms of advancing your work or presenting to the general public?
Right now I’m very much still in the depths of my script which is proving to be a great launching point for so many ideas. Of course I always aspire to presenting my work to a wider audience!
Iris Bernblum lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. Bernblum’s projects and videos have been presented at The Elizabeth Foundation (NYC), The Brooklyn International Film Festival (NY), Artist’s Space (NYC), The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and other venues.
To view Iris Bernblum’s “Today is a New Day, Tomorrow is Another”, 2014, please click link: http://vimeo.com/105805047
Additional Information on the work of Iris Bernblum can be found at: http://www.irisbernblum.com/
Iris Bernblum, artist, Chicago, IL, 2014
Interview and portrait by Chester Alamo-Costello
