More about Violet

The Feeling of the Wild – Violet Bond talks about her exhibition in Paris

We are pleased to present in late February 2024 the work of the Australian artist Violet Bond, and have asked her a few questions ahead of her Parisian exhibition.

• Your work will be exhibited at Achetez de l’Art gallery in Paris, from February 22nd to March 2nd. Is it your first exhibition in Europe ?

Yes it is. My family line is from ancient Brittany/ England, a very old family that can be traced back to Stonehenge, the times of druids, tree worship and witches.

It has always been a dream to exhibit in this part of the world – I also visited Paris about 10 years ago, it is hard to explain to those in Europe what it is to see a Picasso for the first time or a Van Gogh.

In Australia we are resigned to the fact that we may only ever see those works in books – the first time I went to the Musée d’Orsay I cried.

• What are you gonna showcase : photos, prints, NFTs, other artworks?

Ever since entering the digital art space I have believed in freedom of choice. To allow collectors to acquire work they gravitate to uninhibited by the mechanics. The ability for people to pick up a ceramic sculpture as easily as they acquire a video work. That has been the dream of this show, to integrate the digital and the physical and to allow the work to speak to the depth of experience and what it’s like to live out here in the wild places.

There will be prints, video, physical sculpture and live performance, in short works from my whole repertoire.

• Your work is based on your performances in the Australian bush. How are you gonna import this in France ? Did you plan something?

Indeed. I hope to perform live in the gallery on opening night and to recreate one of my video works in the space. The main intention here is to allow the audience to see the work in its raw form. So often when I am creating it is me alone with my camera in the bush and I always hope that the final work makes the audience feel like they were right there with me. I hope the performance is a way to create that feeling but in the physical.

• When did you decide to share your art and sell it as NFTs ?

Tyranny of distance has always been present in my work. My ceramics would often explode in transit after I spent months creating them, bone sculptures were often stopped by customs or other physical barriers, that’s how I came to NFTs. The dream of being able to create truly ephemeral works from fire and dirt and disappear the moment they are photographed was always a dream I just never had the mechanism before. NFTs simply became the mechanism to allow me to share these works that I make alone in the outback with the world.

• What are the NFTs for you? A medium, more?

They are the most incredible opportunity to make video and performance as acquireable as a marble sculpture. They allow me to create work from grass or water or ash and to have 0 impact on the natural world and then have someone own that feeling, that experience, that moment, honestly it still feels like magic.

• ETH or TEZ?

Both.
Tezos is pirates, the underground, the progressive and the cool. They have always accepted my bold work, the work that others turned away from and it has allowed me to create unfiltered and uncensored for years now.

But ETH has an establishment that I see like a Sotheby’s or a Christie’s, the « old » world of NFTs and I have always believed that that has a significant place in culture as well.

I am also interested in the communities on Avalanche and Bitcoin too – sometimes exploring different chains also creates restrictions that can lead to new and innovative new work!

• Do you collect art from other artists? Who are your favorites?

This is such a big and hard question but animations @kiszkiloszki and @ainsley make work that I believe is some of the very best in the space. My young sons are also huge fans of Ainsley’s works so we watch them often.

• You make art for the wild. What do you say to people arguing NFTs are a speculative thing, not good for the planet?

Well, predictably, I would disagree. Having spent 12 years in traditional art shipping paintings and sculpture I would argue creating an industry that is more digital and creates less ‘stuff’ is what we need in the world. I love traditional art but the world consumes materials at an unfathomable rate from industrial clay mines to bubble wrap and digital works allow for collection without the consumption.

I will also add that my work encourages my audience to reconnect with the wild. I have had environmental pieces shown in train stations and some of the most industrial spaces in modern cities and that is 100% down to the nature of screens and the digital. These images have the power to impact how people connect with their own environments which is always the dream outcome for me.

• A great community follows you on social media; they like, comment, share and love your art. What is your secret ? Does it work, meaning in terms of sales?

I came into this space promising to do just one thing and that was to be myself.
Authenticity is my ‘brand’ nothing else. The people that have found me don’t know some commercial version of me, they know ME.

I would like to think that when many of them meet me in Paris they come away saying “She’s exactly who I thought she’d be”

People buy my work for a huge variety of reasons but it usually connects them to something that has nothing to do with me, a childhood memory of playing in the mud or the feeling of rain or campfires, the things that made them feel something bigger than themselves – like they were part of the world.

• What are your plans for 2024, after your solo show in Paris?

The Paris exhibition is very focused on the Northern Australian Dry Season, fire, dirt, ash and baked clay, conversely I have another large solo show in Australia in May which is focused on water, rivers and rain.

I love this way of working in season and creating immersive experiences through a body of work that allows the audience to feel like they are standing in front of a wildfire or like rain is falling on their skin.

The feeling of the wild.

More interviews with Violet can be found here:

https://www.nccart.com.au/exhibitionsmaster/violet-bond

https://achetezdelart.com/violet-bond-interview/#english

https://www.nftculture.com/nft-artist-interviews/from-ephemeral-to-eternal-the-artistic-journey-of-violet-bond/

https://www.joyn.xyz/story/Nature-Army-MariaFynskNorup-VioletBond

https://objkt.com/tokens/KT1KhepNMQ38DQ84QzT2ijVtsP1cMrvAyzJj/3