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TENDERMESH ARTIST INTERVIEWS

TENDERMESH ARTIST INTERVIEWS

by Tendermesh

Season 2

TENDERMESH ARTIST SPOTLIGHTS: Mazen Alsafadi

Mazen Alsafadi, 25-year-old Lebanese poet and environmental science master’s student who moves between the worlds of art and science, finding fulfillment in both. Previously organized open mics at Riwaq and now hosting Poetry Nights at Heiners, warm, welcoming evenings of poetry and connection.

TENDERMESH ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Jorge Hernández

Jorge Hernández is a Mexican artist, musician and producer.

TENDERMESH ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: STEPHAN WHITE

Stephan White (aka Artboydancing) explores visual and non-verbal art through sculpture, collage, and painting. Born in 1973, he divides his time between New York City and Berlin, inspired by each city’s unique character. He earned his MFA from SUNY Albany State University in 2004. As an artist with Autism and other cognitive learning disabilities, Stephan uses art as a liberating, non-verbal medium to express his experiences. The circle symbolizes his journey, drawing viewers into the composition’s complex story. He explores the intersection of the sacred and psychological through textured layers, avoiding direct grasping of these themes. Colors are dark, saturated with muted hues, reflecting his Synesthesia and the challenges of bright colors. Circles, shapes he perceives in people and the world, are prevalent in his work, reflecting his struggle to understand social cues. Recycled materials like cardboard, fabrics, jars, and tin cans are incorporated, emphasizing the value of repurposing waste.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT WITH f0Ment!

For this artist spotlight, host, Savanna Fortgang, will be interviewing Niko. He has operated as Fringe Society/Modern Ruin for the better part of the last decade. He had dealings and a “career””” in music before but his path in music has evolved in many ways throughout the decades. We will be discussing his many musical projections, including his most recent creation "f0ment." It’s a 2 year old project but it has been a long time coming and as he put its "probably my final form." Nike is Greek born but has lived in the UK and Germany since 2000. He is a father of 3 kids so apart from anything else, he is a parent, which he intrinsically links to his art. Niko is classically trained musician and a percussionist, guitar player, piano player, he also works heavily with synthesis but his style is to combine everything.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: NATE HELMERICK

TENDERMESH'S FIRST EVER ARTIST INTERVIEW AIRED ON 90MIL RADIO Nate Helmerick is a Berlin based multi disciplinary artist. He explores a vast array of mediums including photography, sound based art and performance as well as painting and sculpture.His visual painting based work comes from a realm of chathartic and therapeutic release. Channeling and following the flow state, the pieces have an abstract and ritualistic quality. Earthly and grounding, yet somehow offering a psychedelic and rich stimulation to the senses.

Season 1

INTRODUCING RUBEN BALTHASAR

My name is Ruben Balthasar Bütterich, and I have been living in Berlin for four years. Since 2021, I have been studying product design at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. During my studies, I have particularly developed myself in the field of textiles and deepened my knowledge in this area. In addition to numerous other projects, I am dedicated to fashion, performance, and art. I have extensive experience in planning and implementing photo and video shoots, as well as in conceptual work. Furthermore, I have taken on the leadership of productions for installations.

INTRODUCING ROGBIVY BOUCHARD

Aka Rachel McCollum (b. New York, 1983) is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Berlin. She explores how form operates in nature through painting and construction with materials. Using graphic lines and a saturated palette, she references patterns, symbols, traditional art, and craft. She makes street art as Intervention, considering its playful, accessible qualities to be inherently democratic. Her recent work involves sculptural installation that utilizes a light source to influence contour and emphasize the tactility and transparency of non woven textiles.

INTRODUCING SEAMUS PLATT

Seamus Platt is an Australian born, Berlin-based, visual artist who employs the photographic image as a starting point in order to explore the distance between the documentary and narrative genres. Intentionally oscillating between photography’s poles; index and construction, Platt works to dismantle Photography’s archaic relation to authenticity, foregrounding the medium’s unavoidable bind with bias. Using the power of past tense, Platt leans on semiotic sequencing to create meaning through metaphor, pairing sets of disparate images that are drawn from their archive. Platt responds to their immediate milieus, examining gender identity and so-called Australia’s socio-political landscape in an era of post-truth. Drawing on these familiarities in a tongue-in-cheek manner and expressed through the “every day,” Platt suggests subtle and evocative storylines in their works, which they consider indicative of a larger social context.

INTRODUCING ROBIN BRIGNALL

My name is Robin, I am a graphic designer, artist and maker from the UK. For this tendermesh exhibition I will be showing my clothes for the first time ever, so I'm a little nervous! I have been working with textiles for years. It first served as a creative escape from the screen dominated work as a graphic designer and has slowly moved and grown into a larger part of my creative practice. My work is hugely inspired by the city and world around me, the people, the environment, the cultures and I try to produce clothing that will go back to these people and enrich their lives. I predominantly work with recycled materials which both gives me cheap, sustainable material and offers a chance to problem solve. How will I turn this unwanted garment into something fresh and playful?

INTRODUCING KERIMA

Kerima Elfaza is a freelance 3D fashion and costume designer based in Bremen, Germany. After completing her bachelor degree in Fashion Design at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle and Royal Academy of Fine Arts Copenhagen, she studied Integrated Design at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen to take her master’s degree. At this stage, her work is most focused on interdisciplinary projects in the field of 3D art, performances, textile and fashion design.

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