Fia Cielen
Fia Cielen: magic and wildness
Fia Cielen earned her MFA from the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 2008. She currently lives and works in Antwerp. A mixed media artist, she is inspired by alchemy and the geometric structure of crystals that multiply in all directions, a recurring motif in her work. She creates drawings of mask-like creatures and large digital prints, transforming her sculptures and installations with the help of spiders, salts or chemicals. In her artistic universe, she explores the dark side of our existence and the sinister atmosphere of the twilight zone between reality and imagination.
Fia Cielen likes to introduce natural elements beyond her control in her art in an attempt to bring about a re-enchantment of a disenchanted world. The artist is particularly intrigued by intermediate states, transient zones, and horror, which is especially manifested in her drawings, which are populated by creatures at the intersection between the human, the animal, and the elemental. Masks and disguises, ritual masks, carnival masks, and animal disguises are a major source of inspiration. Cielen sees masquerade as a practice ingrained in European culture, pre-dating the baptism of Europe, and a relic of a time when the wild and magical were still part of people's daily lives. She seeks to represent the states in which we can regain a sense of wildness in our over-regulated world to express the intuitive feeling that alienation can be more natural. She seeks to evoke a re-enchantment of a disenchanted world.
All her drawings depict transformations, with a fleeting human identity vaguely distinguishable in the monstrous. These monsters exist in a state of flux, of becoming, rather than acting as a marker of stagnation. Her works use this dynamic element as image and process. According to the artist, the link between masquerade and transformation is a fitting metaphor for modern culture, with its thin veneer of civilisation and the wildness lurking beneath. Maybe civilisation acts like a mask, concealing our true nature. Perhaps humanity is merely an illusion?
Fia Cielen creates idols of religions that do not exist, experimenting madly with salts, borax, soda, crystals and chemical salts, paying no heed to instructions for use. She observes crystals. Some proliferate, others evolve very slowly, some only grow in water, and others need air to replicate. They stop being active at some point, much like an artist decides to apply the finishing touch. " To be fair, I'm merely observing where this is heading."
(Fia Cielen, 2013) The artificial coral reef she created does not exist on this earth but could exist on another planet. What intrigues her most about these mental-physical transition zones is the feeling of standing on a historical and futuristic threshold.
HW