Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jim Ovelmen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jim, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Over the recent years I have balanced studio practice with painting and international installations. I showed work several times in Mexico City recently, and had an amazing experience with a collaboration with a dance troupe called “Butoh Chilango” in Mexico City. The work I created was an animated video called “Silencio Extraño”. It was projected three stories tall on an earthquake damaged building facade behind the dancers. The work addressed geological trauma and psychological healing. Another installation called “Dissonantia” is a continuing project shown first in Mexico City, and just recently in Barcelona. I still receive very strong and emotional reactions to the more challenging pieces, and I most enjoy working with different cultures to mine.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am an artist working with painting, animation, and mixed-media installation. I work independently and also enjoy collaborations. I am most fulfilled when doing large installations that reach an international audience. But, small paintings can endure just as physical artifacts when other constructions must come down. I painted and constructed useless objects since childhood, attended Illinois State University for a BFA in Painting, and Cal Arts for an MFA in a dual degree in Studio Arts and Experimental Animation.
I’ve stayed in Los Angeles since, and worked for some time in the animation industry, but always maintained a studio practice.
Problems I try to solve involve creating works that are visually engaging yet spiked with observations about cultural change. I wish to do so without being self-righteous. I am weary of becoming a mouthpiece for anyone or anything. I often work with narrative and topical obsessions. I have an interest in adventures behind key points of historical transformations. I devoted a few shows to the Antarctic English explorer Ernest Shackelton, for instance. I did my first installation about him back in 2001 at London Street Projects in Los Angeles. The journey of a failed secular missionary is alluring for me as the analog to the “enduring artist”. Most artists are “failures”, culture dictates. I can’t let go of this anti-heroic charm. A moment in the past that I felt most successful in my mind was during the implementation of a large audio-visual opus I did in Japan for the Aichi Triennial. The work was called “Lux Aeterna Assessment” and was an installation with a live vocal chorus that accompanied my mixed media installation and video. It was an extravagant effort but every component was covered by the triennial budget, and I was paid directly in yen as a stipend. I was walking through the city with an equivalent of $12,000 usd in my pocket. A stack of cash. I thought of how many hoops I would have to jump through to otherwise raise this money, i.e. writing grants with “grant-speak” language, or trying to sell marketable work to collectors –to have this experience in the US. My work was uncategorizable, yet I made a profit. That should feel shallow, but it didn’t. I think every artist who makes really difficult or challenging work knows what I am talking about. But the biggest social thrill moment came when people deeply reacted to the work. The piece was about climate catastrophes’ effect upon personal lives. There were people crying and hugging me after seeing the work and performance. Again, this was in Japan. The Fukushima disaster was yet to occur a year later.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
There are multiple parallels to supporting yourself as an artist and defining your goals. A lot of life is about raw circumstances, consequences, or just luck. The randomness of life is very real. But there certainly is determinism as well. Preparation and talent usually helps, but not always. Those that are better connected, privileged, or just being the right kind of person, with the right kind of work, at the right kind of right time, become the most deterministic factors. This is why there are many alternative ways to get the fire started and get attention on your work. I don’t think society in the US is going to change much. Society is not even a thing, it is an outcome. “Creating a creative ecosystem”? All you can change is yourself. Make the best work you can. Encourage others to take their work to the next level, whatever that is. You can’t reverse the river to say a creative ecosystem is not downstream of just the many enthusiastic individuals who are egging each other on to make ever greater work -established or not as artists.
Seems to me in many countries other than the US, it is easier to secure public or corporate sourced money for art projects. I think we could encourage the government and lawmakers to provide much more funding for art; and populate the committees, with a wide variety of different and diverse people.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I have pivoted many times, sometimes after making a terrible artwork. However, bold failures have kept me awake to the necessity of pivoting.
I was once invited to make a piece for a publically-funded outdoor group exhibition about water conservation and land protection in California. This took place in an open park in San Pedro just off the ocean. I decided (for various reasons) to create a “low budget drone” sculpture that was operated by an “imperial man” dressed as a European King; a performer that I arranged to operate the drone. The location was Point Fermin. The reason I had this weird idea, was because some years before this I made a video piece called “Her Majesty’s Azimuth” where I rented a helicopter that would film the docked ocean liner the Queen Mary, parked in the harbor in Long Beach. I coordinated a signal flag on the ground that would communicate to my helicopter pilot to change altitude, all while I was filming the ship from the air. I decided to create this new drone piece in some royal link to my earlier Queen Mary piece. The notion of imperialism with land and sea dominance, was in the intention. This was the original piece that would inspire a new one. This time with a King instead of a Queen.
I created a lawn-mower sized drone sculpture with thin paper and basswood. I painted it jet black. I made it as light as a kite. On the day of the performance, I brought a helium tank to the park with my drone, and filled about 20 light-blue latex balloons and tied them to the drone. As my cheap drone rose, my royal performer held it on a long leash, like some Elizabethan age punk sky-pet. But the wind was enormous at Point Fermin that day, blowing right off the Pacific. It quickly tore my drone to shreds, and the 20 balloons scattered like deranged pigeons all over the park, sky, treetops, and Pacific Ocean. The director of this conservation show saw the whole thing in horror, along with many art goers and the park’s visiting audience. Park and show officials tried to capture some of the escaped balloons to no avail. I was immediately informed that balloons were actually prohibited at the park for environmental reasons. There was even a physical sign posted a few yards away from us.
I was in a show about conservation and preservation,..and I literally polluted the environment. I felt horrible and stupid I did not do even the basic research, but just based a new piece off an old one because it related to the original location and subject. Clearly, the best time to pivot is as a precaution. Use your better imagination before doing something that can have the opposite result of your intention. No one is immune to hypocrisy, especially artists.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artawol.com/dissonantia-cdmx-2023.html
- Instagram: jim_ovelmen
- Facebook: Jim Ovelmen
Image Credits
Photo by AWOL, Los Angeles.