Mama, Tess en ik | Arantxa Gonlag

In a world where everything is impacted and influenced by the digital, Arantxa Gonlag seeks to explore and present the invisible in a visual manner, and her new series ‘Mama, Tess en ik’ does just that.

Hey Arantxa! Congrats on completing your masters in Art! Can you tell us more about how you got into art, and your relationship to photography and digital media?

Thank you! When I was a photography student I realised I am not a photographer in the true sense of the word. In my practice I focus more on creating and documenting stories about invisible aspects in the world and their influence on people and their relationships. For this I mostly use photography, as it’s my favourite medium – but if the project asks for it other mediums can be combined. In order to fully understand and work on interdisciplinary projects I went for the Master of Arts where in the end I graduated with a photo book series, back to my favourite medium.

Your most recent work is, ‘Mama, Tess en ik’. Can you tell us more about the series?

The project investigates the digital relationship I have with my mother and sister, who have both been living in different countries for a while now, which has resulted in us growing apart not only physically but emotionally. I started the project to see if our digital communication only is enough to hold our relationship together.

The project resulted in three photo books where I show the process of my investigation. The content of these books exist mostly of images that are an interpretation to specific words we use within our digital communication, and documentation photographs when I visited them and myself to document our daily life. Analysing these different perspectives and separating them whilst viewing them as a whole - I eventually found the bond that connects us beyond our digital relationship.

You mention having this digital relationship that you have now between you, your mother and your sister, due to living away from home. What is the effects or impacts on the relationship being digital, and how has this influenced the body of work?

We have lived apart for more then a few years now, and I remember there was a short period of time where we had no contact at all. With the emergence of Whatsapp we ‘found’ each other again and a group chat was formed. Ever since then we’ve had more frequent ‘conversations’ through that medium and it has brought us back in contact with one another.

The fact that this medium could reconnect us and help us build a relationship otherwise lost triggered my interest in the effects of this digital communication and made me wonder if in fact you could even call this a relationship – thus creating a research project which would eventually result in ‘Mama, Tess en ik’.

The images and different elements you’ve selected for the photobooks appear to have be chosen very carefully, resulting in the project having a deeply personal feel. How did you select what goes into each photobook?

A lot of the images are based on words – words that we have used most in our digital communication – and they are made by my mother and sister, I didn’t select any of these I basically put in what they gave me. For the other ‘documentation photographs’ I tried to find moments that would mirror each other, or be the complete opposite of one another. I wanted to show that even though we have different lives, our worlds look completely the same, or have the same moments within them.

Pieces of text, such as the emails, are in Dutch, rather then your other works which are in English. This ultimately creates a very intimate approach to displaying your relationship. Was this intentional and why?

Yes this was intentional as the whole project is based upon the interpretations of written words. I had to stay with the language we use in our digital conversations for the words to mean the same, and not get lost in translation. Also, some of the words are spelled completely wrong because both my mother and sister live in a different country and speak different languages every day – which creates more of a friction in how we interpret these specific words.

Media culture affects us all in the 21st century, and you explore this in numerous pieces of work. But how do you think ‘Mama, Tess en ik’ directly relates to us and is an important theme?

The project started with the assumption that digital communication has negative effects on relationships in general. This is mostly because every project or text today will tell you that this is the case, or at least focus on that ‘negative’ aspect. I think this project is important because it started our with the intention of proving that indeed: influence of media culture and technology result in fractured relationships.

But I ended up with the conclusion that in some cases, and especially in this case, technology gives us the possibility to have a relationship that does work even though there are differences in how we respond to each other. Without technology, a relationship would not have been possible for us, not only because we live in different places, but because we would not have any intention to work at it on a more physical level.

Why did you choose a photobook form for the series, even though the relationship is built digitally?

Taking the digital relationship back to the paper where you can touch and feel the material, where your focus is set and you learn in a linear way – creates a completely different experience. This was exactly my intention starting out: finding a different way to break down this relationship and look at the words fresh, in order to fully understand the layers that are hidden within the digital screens, even in our relationships.

You have separated each relationship into three different photobooks. Why did you choose to do this, and did your mother or sister have an influence or say in their particular photobook?

I wanted to show that all three of us experience the same story and moments in a different – yet similar – way. The moment I ask them for their help is the beginning of all three books, and it continues chronologically with every day.

My mother for example responds on a more daily basis and is more interested in creating photographs – my sister on the other hand is sometimes non responsive for days and then suddenly has a lot of contact and was more active during the documentation.

As for the documentation photographs they are all situated on the same pages in the three books with the similar moments. The project ends in all three books, on the last page, with my conclusion – and their own specific reaction to that conclusion.

Has your mother and sister seen the work, and if so what do they think and has this changed the relationship between all three of you?

They have been aware of – and working together with me – on the project. In their words, they think it’s all ‘fun and okay’. We live very detached lives that are almost always only connected through our digital words: before this project I would be confused by the previous reaction, but I know now that this is as positive as it will get, and it is a relief to be satisfied by that knowledge and accept the situation. So in a way, it has changed our relationship, for me.

As the artist, how do you want us to physically go through all three books? Ideally the books are laid out next to each other in order of the title (‘Mama’ then ‘Tess’ and then ‘en Ik’) but the most important thing is that they are seen next to each other, and by turning the pages like it’s one big extended book.

When viewing this work what would you like us to get from it? Is it this about the digital culture, or is it more about a discovery or evidence of your family relationship?

The project is about exploring the effects of digital culture on personal relationships – the relationship between me, my mother and my sister just happened to be the perfect ‘tool’ for this research. The therapeutic results of that are more for myself – but for the viewers to go through this process together with me is important to fully understand the effects of digital culture on personal relationships all the same.

For everyone that’s interested in ‘Mama, Tess en ik’, where and how long is the exhibition on for? The books will be on display at ‘De Gele Loods’ which is part of the ‘Fotofestival Naarden’ in Naarden, the Netherlands (20th of may until 18th of June, 2017)

Where do you plan to take this series next, and do you have any exciting new projects in the works?

I’m currently working on a more general documentary that focuses on imagination triggered by fictional stories – so it has a slight relation to ‘Mama, Tess en ik’ in that the different perspectives and creating a image of something invisible comes back again, but definitely less personal.

After a personal project like ‘Mama, Tess en ik’ it’s always enlightening to loosen up a bit. As for ‘Mama, Tess en ik’ I’m still trying the best way to distribute and publish the books – it being a series of three, with a specifically linear story rather then just being photos, makes it very difficult, but for now getting some spotlight for the project – like this - will help at least a little bit!