Interview

While creating, she finds both answers and questions during the process - so she tries to focus on the work instead of herself, allowing her creations to have a beautifully natural quality. Radka is constantly creating, all the time and from everything. This diversity represents her in a way, as she doesn’t feel the need to define herself in any one particular way. Her aim is to continue growing as a person, discovering and understanding as much as she can, and visualizing this through her art.

What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?

“I was born in Slovakia and my birth begins with my journey to art. I started walking at 8 months old, but I started drawing even earlier. All the walls, doors and cabinets were covered with drawings. Then, as a freshman in elementary school, I cut and pasted articles about well-known artists and paintings.
I drew and created constantly. I tried to get to art school 11 times, but I was admitted once. My self-confidence suffered as a result. But I didn't stop creating, in fact, I created even more! At first, I didn't know what attracted me more, I loved drawing and painting, graphics and textiles, photography as well as ceramics. I studied at the Faculty of Education of Comenius University in Bratislava, department for teaching professional subjects, specializing in art education. Here I was educated on everything from graphics to sculpture. I also studied privately in the studio of sculptors Marcela and Viliam Loviška. I received an amazing view of the world of art - me, a girl from a small wine village.
I soon became the mother of 4 sons. Although I still never stopped creating - and I even finished a few illustrations in the maternity ward, which I started exhibiting later. It was not until 2018, when I attended a residency at Guanlan Original Printmaking Base, that my journey through art began to be visible. My friends and strangers contributed to my trip to China. Without their support, I would not have been able to travel. Paradoxically, in a land of lack of freedom and strong control, I found my inner freedom and let my creativity loose. The artists who were there with me helped me greatly in my artistic growth, through support, advice, interviews, and these artists from China also helped me with creation material and technical advice.
In Guanlan, I was invited to participate in a feminist exhibition in China. I, a mother of 4 sons and not a feminist at all, wrote an interview during my residency. The most beautiful part of this experience was that a male friend of mine helped me write answers about feminism. With this view through a man who supports a woman in her growth, art and self-confidence, I found strength and courage in myself. Since then, I have participated more in exhibitions around the world. I don't think too much about whether I'm a good artist. Friends who support me forbade me to think because thinking = doubt with myself. So I create, and through creation I talk about everything that weighs on my heart, that pushes me and hurts in life.”

What inspires you most?

“I realize that I create what I live. When the children were small, inspiration ran around me. The world of my children, their drawing, them. But through my children, I portrayed all children. When my eldest son fell into drugs, the whole family went through drug hell. At that time, I had to express my pain. The pain of all mothers who cared for their children - physically or mentally. Pain. Which pain is stronger? With the healing of the son, comes the healing of the whole family, and even that is the source of my inspiration.
But what I do have to put out is the position of women and the world of women. I don't like the way men portray women. As a woman, I don't just have a body. And if I, as a woman, don't express what I feel, that I'm not just a thing, or that without feeling and love I won't raise children as full-fledged beings - how would men find out if we as women don’t speak out? I not only feel, but also think. I am important. I deserve respect, and respect as a woman and a mother. I am still learning this. I have had to learn this and I really want women in Afghanistan and other countries to think that way. As a woman, I deserve to be treated fairly, because I treat everyone and my children that way. I am inspired by my thoughts of desire, and I long for domestic violence to disappear. So inspiration is around me and in me.”

What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?

“The topics I deal with are about women, their status and respect for them. But also ecological topics and the problem of waste treatment. Therefore, I also create more and more from waste.
I have experienced being treated in many different ways as a person. Ironically, the harshest pushed me the most. So I keep sending messages through my work. I tell aloud through artwork what I am silent about in life. I direct messages to specific people, or men, women and parents. I share. I believe in the power of art. It unlocks the locked parts in a man, shows a different view of the world, of a woman, directs thoughts. Because art changes and teaches me.”

How would you describe your work?

“My work is very diverse. I am faithful to the idea, but not to the technique. I am faithful to the technique, but not to the material and the tool. My work is constantly experimenting and pushing the boundaries between various techniques. With all due respect to traditional art and traditional techniques, I look for their depiction in a different form. The world is breaking the border between states, the sexes, etc., and I think it's happening in art as well. So it's okay that I take classic graphics and arrest it on classic weaving looms. Is it still graphics? Or is it a textile? I experimentally change the graphics to 3D and combine it with glass. Is it still graphics? My works are an experiment and a penetration of techniques, artistic disciplines.
If I change the material I print graphics on, I'm constantly testing where the boundaries are, to tear them down immediately. I print on various types of paper - from quality, to waste, and used tea bags, which are more reminiscent of human skin. I also print on textile materials, fibers and wood, plastic, glass, even leaves. I display the idea in the first place and use any material or method to capture the point.
So my work is also painting, embroidery in painting, or drawing, graphics, paper objects, textiles or ceramics. I often ‘ruin’ my works. I mostly identify with my work. It's like me, like my body. My body is littered with scars and traces of surgery. There is even an embroidered smiley on my stomach. Maybe that's why I often enter my artworks with a needle and thread.”

“Sometimes I create from seemingly fragile material, but very strong works. It is the essence of man and woman. The strength in fragility. I am constantly balancing on the edge of the possibility of material, and I have so many ideas and plans.”

Which artists influence your work most?

“Everyone. Sometimes they tell me I'm like Käthe Kollwitz. If only! I am fascinated by artists who are crazy. Crazy about where they were willing to go and how to create, eg, Włodzimierz Cygan - the way he uses looms. Also Japanese artists, whether textile or graphic artists.
I could easily write a few pages when I start naming the artists I admire, because my very first fascination came with a look at a cave painting, where I saw a handprint of a man. And that's where it begins.
Indeed, I admire those who came out of their comfort zone and went beyond their borders. Those who were not afraid to tell the truth out loud, and their own truth. Those who did not create with the permission of academic society. Those who risked, invented and experimented, those who were not afraid to go further on unpaved roads, and those who were not afraid to say that they do not agree, for example, with war, etc.”

What is your creative process like?

“I don't know if there is a recipe for creative practices. I don't know if anyone is interested in my know-how. I don't even know how other artists create. Well, when I create, it is as if I am not looking with my eyes. I use my eyes, but I see a different reality. I see with my inner eyes.
Almost as if it wasn't me. I suddenly ‘see’ a visualization and have to materialize the image, otherwise it won't let me sleep. I have inner tension and restlessness in me, and maybe it is this that does not allow me to sleep and forces me to constantly look for new possibilities of expression, which will eventually result in experimentation. Suddenly I see the picture and it has enormous power. That power subsides when the work is born. Sometimes the ‘birth’ is strenuous, sometimes it's tiring to fall asleep. When I close my eyes, I see images, new ways of installation - I haven't realized everything yet. Then I create in my head constantly - I visualize everything, I change, I organize, I examine the materials, until finally, it seems that the physical realization will take place quickly. Well, no one knows how long the mental preparation was. Sometimes the vision hits me hard like lightning and it is almost realized.
But everything is currently conditioned by work and family. The creation itself is already quite fun. I create from what comes to my hand. When I didn't have paper, I plucked leaves from trees or shrubs. When I didn't have copper, I used plastic-coated fabrics. Or waste. Everything I see and find, I use, from the stove to the trees. At times, I research what a work looks like when materials change. I can make the same motif on different materials and with different tools and I look, I examine its visual appearance and transformation. Behind this, there is a person that is perceivable, with all the conditions that change his psyche and character, as a work. It is always a game, a joy and an incredible passion, even a relief, but always a game. And it is always therapeutic.”

What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?

“The artist interprets. They can visually reflect even the most subtle events and changes in society. They are like a mirror. The artist is very sensitive, thanks to which he notices slight changes. Artists have great strength and power, but they must be able to use it well.
If something strongly impresses the artist, he has the tools to strongly impress society. How to make them invisible. How to say what is not talked about. The world and society need artists for this reason. Someone has to lift those who fall and often it can be the weakest or most vulnerable, such as a hungry and poor artist.
I enjoy fairytales, and sometimes I feel that the artist is a fairytale creature with a magic key. They can change the mood, cry, touch, change the view, touch the soul, criticize - something always moves in the listener or the viewer. The artist is only a tool of transformation. A channel through which life-giving power and energy flow, and now I'm talking like some esoteric enthusiast, but it's not like that. I'm not. But I still think that society has an influence on the creation of the artist - for example, by erasing borders, removing them, or, conversely, building walls and borders.
Throughout history we have already been convinced of the beneficial impact the artist has had on the development of society - photography was able to end a senseless and painful war in Vietnam and the like.
In my opinion, the artist has to work on himself much more, not his ego, because the artist has a responsibility. Sometimes I feel that the development of society will be like the development of an individual. Or vice versa. I see how society transcends consumption, superficiality and narcissism. I see how we don't care what is left here. As if we were looking only at ourselves and the current profit. Well, I believe in the strength of the individual. The artist has great inner strength and can move the crowd. They do not use their work as a tool of propaganda, so I believe that art cannot push humanity to ruin. If the artist preserves their own integrity and does not allow it to be abused, small miracles can happen.
Writing about my own experience - at more than one of my shows, people cried. Even a man came to me, who shook my hand and could not speak through tears. He wished me a better life and couldn't look me in the eye or raise his head. The man has many children and was a very dominant husband and father. After watching the exhibition, he reconsidered his life and his relationship with his children and his wife. He saw himself at the show and took a closer look at himself. I think we still have hope, artists and society. Let's just not separate ourselves too much. We all need each other. And that means nature.”