Cindel Vlietman
Introducing the artist.
Cindel Vlietman, a Master of Fine Arts graduate of the Elam School of Fine Arts, works across textile art, film photography, moving image, mosaics, and collage.
The portraits were taken in Auckland and Tauranga.
“To me, an artistic style is something that forms, morphs and evolves. It is something that only the individual can pinpoint and decipher.”
- Cindel Vlietman
Q. If you were to submit a bio about your creative life, for say, a magazine or a book, what would you write?
Finding inspiration from what lies around her, Cindel seeks to understand the space between her feelings and chosen mediums, like collage, film photography, moving image, textile art and mosaics, to further expand and strengthen her want to create in the first place.
Cindel attended Elam for many years and graduated with a Master of Fine Art, where her thesis explored the Latency beyond the readymade and the ever-ready possibilities of that which she lies her eye on.
Currently leaning more towards black and white film photography, Cindel attempts to step off society's expectation of the, 'work sleep repeat' mentality, to explore the world with her picture painter partner Christopher Dews and creatively collaborate at their first stop of Tahiti. Who knows what’ll come next for these two.
Q. How would you describe your creative palette - from what you photograph and what you work on?
Skew-whiffed, sophistication.
Q. For your 35mm photography, what is your instinct? Can you describe such a thing as 'instinct'? Or, do you purposefully construct your pictures?
I’d say it is both, an instinctual way of working, combined with subject matter that sparks the initiation to capture.
Black and white film photography personally allows for what wants to speak to step forward without the distraction of colour. But in wary of this, the environment is always the catalyst for the idea leading to the want of permanently freezing a moment.
The instinct simply guides me like a lighthouse at sea, it is being aware of my surroundings, but only due to the innate existence of what is initially shown to me.
Q. How would you describe the style and substance of your other creative work?
Same, same but different.
Although varying mediums pull me in depending on the time of day, the multi-faceted sides to my creativity all come to fruition due to chance-based techniques, readymade materials and the ability to get physical with the work.
Mosaics are messy, collages are messy, textile art is messy, and yet all produce a tangible, physically inclined product pulled together through the sheer enjoyment of curiosity and the listening of the intuition.
“I am drawn to artists who think and create differently. Those who use the readymade and are conscious of their space.”
- Cindel Vlietman
Q. What's your view on artistic style? Is it something for an artist to consider, strive for, or leave for others to make their judgements?
To me, an artistic style is something that forms, morphs and evolves. It is something that only the individual can pinpoint and decipher. With a focus on an artistic strength at hand, this may naturally develop into an artistic style, whether conscious or not.
For myself, practising periodically in different mediums, means that my artistic style stands physically separated, but thematically correlates to my creative interests.
I believe it is the themed correlation between the mediums that allows my artistic style to become recognised, and perhaps physically recognised too.
Q. How has your creative process changed since your Master's?
Just like speaking about my artistic style, my creative process have moved with the times and strengthened as I have with age, this is the same for mediums worked on during this period and where my interests lay, bouncing between mosaics, clothing alchemy and film photography.
Q. Describe a future exhibition of your work. What do you think people will think of your work/hope they’d think?
All I would hope for is that the viewers would think about what is shown, how it invokes questions and what it makes them feel, differing depending on person to person.
It is the personal interpretation that interests me, the divergent reactions from different individuals.
Q. I'll leave with an overused question, but one I find interesting nevertheless. If you could hang out with one artist (past or living) for a day, hour, or even a couple of minutes, who would it be? And what would you ask them?
Currently, one that comes to mind is the wonderful Ana Mendieta. Mendieta was a multi-faceted Cuban-American performance artist who worked in video, sculpture and painting.
I'd find myself fascinated by all that would be spoken by Mendieta. I would want to sit in the park with a cuppa talking about art, finding out about what makes her tick creatively and get to know her as a person.
Let’s work together.
To make an enquiry, simply send me a message via the form below and I’ll get right back to you. I’m based near Tauranga and work across New Zealand.