With all projects by Ana Maria Lima Dimitrijevic, there is a sense of excitement about the possibilities of expression. She is devoted to translating her experiences, challenged by the flickering nature of memories. Through rediscovery, descriptive writing, repetitive handmade processes and music she creates intimate responses which invite a more sensitive understanding of daily life. She exploits the versatility of photography to develop playful encounters with her animations, prints, paintings, objects, multimedia performances and intervention art which becomes part of common experience.
Self-taught or art school?
I graduated with a BA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts (2011-2014) including an Erasmus exchange at Iceland Academy of the Arts (2013) and achieved a Diploma in Foundation Studies in Art and Design at Camberwell College of Arts (2010-2011).
If you could own one work of art, what would it be?
I am interested in works that you can’t necessarily own, that must exist in an open public setting that transfers ownership by continuing to create new rhythms and relationships with the world and encourage atmosphere outside of a gallery such as architectural works by Superflex are a good example where they created public parks/play spaces in Copenhagen. I would prefer to enjoy working with the memory of how a work impacted me and offer it to the world instead.
I remember watching a live performance once at the V&A called Untitled choreographed by Geni Lou, Elie-Anne Ross and Frederique “PAX” Dumas. Through a dance style called ‘popping’, three dancers were posing on their individual plinths in awkward positions they were to hold and release over a period of 10 minutes. The longer people gazed at them the more they gradually morphed into awkward, trembling, deformed versions of themselves. I found it a striking way of relating to the inanimate objects on show in a museum by focusing on how their bodies would feel in static positions.
How would you describe your style?
Idiosyncratic, playful, fresh, intuitive, therapeutic and at times ghostly in the way my works may linger in your memory after witnessing them, especially after triggers such as the music and familiar objects in some of my pieces.
Can you tell us about your artistic process?
I am a curious traveller devoted to recognizing the connections I make with my environment. I believe even the apparently most familiar of spaces can continually surprise us. I respond to slight details and observations about the places I visit physically from lighting, surrounding noises like the repetitive ring of a mobile phone to encounters with local characters like a pet parrot. I would either work from memory or record directly by collecting found objects, sound recordings or through photography and drawing.
An important part of my process is playing with duration. I like to give myself time to explore a variety of materials and methods which enable me to vary the length of interaction with my collections to see how my relationship with them develops, ‘replaying’ what I observed until certain details have a stronger connection with me. I enjoy the constant flux of human perception. This varies from working with slow processes such as stop motion animation and manipulating found objects to construct sculptures that create great shadows for my cyanotypes, like Jubilation 2 and Jubilation 4 exhibited in The FLUX Review – V2 – Virtual Exhibition – Part 1, whilst simultaneously working on faster processes such as collage, making cyanotypes for more urgent expressions.
Maintaining a dynamic studio environment is key for me to be able to focus on developing surprising forms. I realized how important a walk is to me or an activity that focuses on rhythm, like making melodies when I was assimilating imagery during my project Colour Music (see: https://a-m-l- d.com/#/colour-music/) to develop my thoughts and connections. I refer to my work process as a continuous drawing, helping me to nurture my intuition.
Is narrative important in your work?
Yes, very much so, I am a storyteller but I would say I am more interested in teasing the narrative structure we heavily depend on to deal with uncertainty and to feel a sense of place. I play with reconstructing recognizable forms to encourage less predictable outcomes and creativity. With my piece Bone Drawing exhibited in The FLUX Review – V2 – Virtual Exhibition – Part 1, the formation of the jawbones as a frame is an important reminder for me about our innate habit of framing that we rely on to process what we are seeing but which can also be limiting. Particularly my intervention and multimedia performance work where I have encouraged animation and interaction, such as whistling along to my video projections at a party in Grace Yourself (see: https://a-m-l-d.com/#/grace-yourself), have allowed me to explore more surprising encounters with art.
Who are your favourite artists and why?
I am drawn to avant-garde art, especially to how the visionary teachings of the Bauhaus School and later the Black Mountain College influenced art. I am interested in how both schools looked at a more inter-disciplinary approach, exploring ways of integrating art with life and encouraging the artist in every one of us to be awakened. Witnessing Tomás Saraceno’s more scientific approach to art is one of the best examples of how nurturing sensitivity to microscopic details in the environment, as small as floating dust particles, can spark endless connections and collaborations to develop feats of engineering and help us break out of comfort zones. One of my favourites is his work Sounding the Air, an aeolian instrument that is ‘played’ by the wind. As long threads of spider silk are moved by air particles in the exhibition space, real-time video captures the gestures of these ‘strings’, translating them into sonic frequencies and pattern. This made me laugh in amazement and cry.
Seeing Not without my Ghosts: The Artist as Medium at The Drawing Room, was one of the first physical shows I visited after the first lockdown in 2020 and was a key moment of reflection on what matters to me in art, raw communication. On entering, my vision was gradually softened by the pale pink exhibition space displaying a selection of mostly automatic drawings by amateur and established artists. I was touched by some artists’ urgency to communicate after crises, channelling their restless energy such as artist Anna-Mary Howitt, a testament to the power of genuine human expression, as well as drawings of late-night visions of spirits and mythical figures by William Blake from his Visionary Heads series displaying sheer purity, hope and curiosity.
What or who inspires your art?
Many things can inspire my art, usually accidental happenings, fragments such as found items, music, encounters whilst travelling which triggers ideas for new formations and connections, especially focusing on the way I came into contact with them or the setting I found them in. I would say my upbringing and mixed heritage also had an impact on how I relate to the world. Travelling to visit relatives abroad and being surrounded by foreign languages, mainly Brazilian Portuguese and Serbian, I would pay attention to the sounds of the words, not always knowing what they meant, also focusing on gestures, being so eager to relate and get closer to my family abroad. This encouraged me to be more open-minded about culture, thinking more about universal ways of communicating and not letting barriers such as language or distance get in the way. For example, I find it important to work with music in the early stages of my work process, focusing on more atmospheric qualities, to help me process what I cannot yet place or describe in words.
There is currently a need for more tactile and heartfelt ways of sharing our experiences, to sustain a connection with each other and in support of our mental health, after getting so used to spending time apart during the pandemic.
Where’s your studio and what’s it like?
My studio is based in Croydon, at ASC Studios, a new development providing studio spaces for a large community of local artists, makers and designers. My studio is on the first floor with a balcony overlooking the atrium space in the block which the community mainly uses for photography and where I once organized an open studio group exhibition to encourage the community to get to know each other’s work and create opportunities. I have my private space and feel happy when I am working there. It is my focus space. The atmosphere in the room is very important to me and I feel every visitor feels at ease too in my studio. I am quite organized and have designed an environment that enables me to comfortably work between projects from a drawing desk, with my keyboard alongside, to my seating area where I will take breaks to sit, think and read. I like to play music and avoid turning on the fluorescent lights in my studio, which I find drains my energy and instead rely on the natural light entering the room from my wall of windows and have collected several different lamps dotted around the room depending on where I am working during darker days.
Do you have any studio rituals?
If I need encouragement for the day as soon as I arrive, I will go straight to switching on some music, sing and choose a project to continue working on that requires repetitive action, such as working on the computer, carving or drawing stop motion animation slides. Otherwise, I will be silent for a bit to reflect, go straight to opening the window to listen to the birds singing to be able to work on writing, research, flicking through old photos and recent findings or experimenting with new materials and techniques.
What are you working on currently?
I am working on several projects simultaneously creating soundtracks, poems and a series of paintings/drawings to sketch ideas for a solo show. I am currently keeping my eye out for the right space. I have also been working on a hand-drawn stop motion animation based on a video recording of my Serbian family dancing which has been running in the background since the first lockdown and which I hope to share in the autumn in the form of a physical live event.
Where can we buy your art?
You can contact me directly via my contact page on my website: www.a-m-l-d.com or message me via my Instagram: @_a_m_l_d_. I currently have several editions available via my drawings and prints page on my website and I am always interested in discussing ideas for commissions and collaborations, please see my commissions page on my website.
