Today we’d like to introduce you to Mari Amman.
Hi Mari, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Since I was a child, I have always wanted to add to the beauty of the world. Not knowing precisely how to do that, I took up every creative outlet that resonated with that wish and that was permitted.
For example, I trained in classical piano because it was a prerequisite to becoming a percussionist during intermediate and high school. I never became a percussionist, but developed the ability to professionally play and later on compose basic melodies.
I took my schooling seriously, in particular choir, physical education, science, history, and art. My first public artwork was a design for land art, visible by air, that was selected by local art teachers and mowed into long grass by a team of teachers, students and volunteers. I took independent studies and completed school early so I could work to save money for college.
Knowing art and design as a career could be devastatingly difficult, I studied Interior Design and Advertising Communications so I could find work after college. I struggled with shyness but often pushed myself into social situations with confidence I did not actually possess, using the contents of reading a lot of books dealing with philosophy, religion, physics, and the biographies of designers, architects, dancers and people I admired to see how they managed to be permitted to do the work they felt born to do.
Torn between becoming a psychiatrist or pursuing art, as I had believed that helping people find inner peace and see the beauty in the world could motivate more cooperation, I was offered a grant to study social psychology abroad in Japan with the college I was working and studying at. Finding the behavior of people depressing to the point I felt I was torn so deeply about re-educating myself for a new field with problems I could not grapple with. I accepted the 3rd or 4th time. I tried applying to graduate school for art: this time not for photography, which I was doing as a job, but for studio arts.
The first year of grad school was terrifying. It took nearly 10 years (as for most students) to recover from, while also acclimating to living and working in Norway. My art practice opened up, and I let myself, as many other contemporary artists do, create in whatever medium the concept worked best in.
Things were never stable in the world or life around me, and so I leaned into habits formed as a child to cope: long walks in nature, meditation, journaling, and developing a practice of grounding for making new artworks, continuing to study in depth the materials, meanings and histories of the resources I use to make the work. When I was offered art residencies, I took them even if I barely had the money to survive on because it was often the only choice I had at the time. It seemed every time a door to a job for teaching or marketing or something else closed or was not financially viable, I was offered a way to keep developing my work.
I rewrote over 14 years of poetry during a residency in Paris, coinciding with the workers’ riots. The emotional turmoil of that coincided with a massive personal change I made that coincided with pursuing Italian citizenship through my great-grandmother, so I could maintain the memory of the language, the food, culture, and also force myself to experience a new way of life different than what felt like my inner nature.
The concept of Faith never made sense to me, and yet, each step of my development, as long as I kept practicing, trying to make art, every now, and then I would create something that, after several years of reflecting on it, could consider it art.
Now I am continuing to develop and realize new projects in contexts that I also have little experience doing before, such as with cultural institutions and cooperating with government. I still have the desire for altruism, but I feel very careful to make any huge waves. I work to create art, publish books, and realize designs that invite «beautyness», as my friend Hanne has described it: that is a kind of beauty that is quiet and invites values that may be less revolutionary yet invite a cultural shift in values that can be healthy and good for more people than a few.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I believe I might have answered that. In any case, things have been approximating the absurd in both grandeur and abjection. I began to think that whatever I think doesn’t much matter at all…and that, as long as I continue to do things rooted in my values, the principles and priorities of the work, that somehow things will work out.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I write, sing, dance, paint, photograph, make videos and installations, as well as design products. Most people know me for my work with water and experimentation with merging fields of sculpture, painting, and photography. I have refused to “brand” myself as one way of working, instead performing as a steward for the work I do.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
There are a great number of ways I would welcome to collaborate for work.
People can email me to get a conversation started at [email protected]
From there we can meet, ideally in person, to discuss collaboration. I have also been working with video calls since around 2013.
A sample of projects requiring financing has already been published on my website:
https://mariamman.net/category/proposed-projects/
For example, realizing this work https://mariamman.net/movimenti/ as a chain link, kinetic sculpture, as printed on metal for the outdoors, and creating an active-wear line of clothing, swimming, surfing, with applications for cars, motorcycles, helmets, bikes, accessories for boating.
On my website and Substack there are links to send financial support to Stripe:
https://lelapin.substack.com
I am open to licensing art for music covers, books, and other uses, for example, https://mariamman.net/all-in-twilight/ and continuing to question what we are gaining and risking with the pursuit of A.I. and technology https://mariamman.net/afjordance/
I am available for voice acting, singing, performing in dance or working with dancers for performance, and speaking.
Finally, I have been a bit lost and continuing to look into how to establish a foundation to organize several activities and build up ways to offer educational support through experience-based learning. The template for this project is virtually parked at https://mariammanfoundation.org
The foundation I hope, the foundation can be a hub for providing services and creating an artistic residency — alongside my work and collaborations in moving along the aforementioned art and design projects.
Pricing:
- Stripe link https://buy.stripe.com/9AQg1u2IU9zoffOfYY
- Hourly rates
- Project rates
- All rates are based on current market standards.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mariamman.net
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mariamman
- Other: https://bio.site/lelapin
