20221018 Yulia Makeyeva Interview

Yulia Makeyeva is a multidisciplinary artist and founder of Connect With Art. She grew up in Russia and is now based in Jersey, Channel Islands. Yulia turned her full attention to art practice in 2019. Her Linguistics and Art History background and interest in anthropology are firmly rooted in her art practice. Being interested in concepts of memory and time, language and non-verbal communication, boundaries and borders, she works on multiple projects simultaneously, drawing inspiration from public and private archives.

Yulia’s work received immense support and development at a 3-month intensive Art Portfolio course in London where she experimented with different mediums, spanning video, photography, sculpture, collage, printmaking, painting and traditional domestic crafts. By often reducing her means to a minimum, she creates a compelling image evoking multiple meanings.

In 2021 Yulia has been awarded a ‘distinction degree’ UAL Level 3 Diploma in Art and Design/Foundation Studies/Highlands College, Jersey Channel Islands. She is currently involved in an educational art project at Hautlieu School, Jersey, as part of a forthcoming group exhibition 2Lives

Yulia was part of Skipton Big Ideas Exhibition, produced by Jersey Art House, October/November 2021 in Jersey, with her sculpture ‘Continuum’.

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Kacy(K): May I start the interview by asking what is your name and where you come from?

Yulia Makeyeva(Y): My name is Yulia Makeyeva and I come from Russia. I live on Jersey island for five years. I graduated from the Pedagogical University, specializing in primary school teaching, philology and English language. I tried to work at school, but it didn't work out for me. My first job was in a mining company.

(K): So, when you studied at the University, you studied teaching and Philology, right? That was in Russia?

(Y): Yes, that was in Russia, North of Russia.

(K): But, you worked in mining?

(Y): Yes, in a mining company.

(K): How did that shift happen, and was that also in Russia?

(Y): Yes, it was in Russia. There were two options for me and for other girls who graduated with me. It was either to work as a school teacher or as a translator/interpreter. I tried to work at school, but the school system was still pretty much Soviet at the time. The general atmosphere in school was quite tense. It was pretty militaristic, primarily towards children. I didn't want to be part of it. So, I moved to a private sector, a mining company. They were hiring a lot of translators and interpreters.

(K): I see. So, you were working as a translator in a mining company?

(Y): Yes. I started as a 'field translator,' literally working in the fields. There was an open pit mining site and an underground development. I would follow the English-speaking maintenance engineer to translate his instructions to the Russian specialists. Then, if it was necessary, we would go underground as well. It was quite an experience to go underground.

(K): Can you tell me more about working as a translator? What was your everyday life like?

(Y): The first job was at the mine site about 700 kilometres away from my town. We would get to the camp by heavy-duty bus, and usually, the rotation would be 2-3 weeks on-site and two weeks off-site (back home). It was a predominantly male environment. The women would be either translators or working in the housekeeping, at the canteen, and just a couple of women in the testing lab. The rest were all men. This company was a joint venture of Russian and Canadian mining companies. It was a very good experience for me, because the Canadian company brought in all the best practices. The camp was very modern as well as all the technology and equipment. The company had to bring in a lot of specialists from abroad. So, for them, translators were needed. There were many girls and boys my age (I was 21), translating here and there, just everywhere.

Studio View -1

Studio View -2

(K): To facilitate communication?

(Y): Yes.

(K): For work, but also maybe for everyday life?

(Y): Yes, of course. This is where I've learned how important it is to really feel what you translate, not just do it mechanically. I believe everything depends on what you say and how you say it, what word you use to keep the conversation flow within a certain mood or mode. Unfortunately, there were a lot of misinterpretations and misunderstandings. There was an abuse of the power of translation for personal interests. Apart from that, it was a very beautiful but harsh environment, the far north climate with extremely low temperatures. I do call it my army. I worked there for six months from 7:00 AM till 7:00 PM with no days off during the shift; quite an intense experience, but I loved it, and I learned a lot. I quit after six months because it became difficult physically.

(K): And after that?

(Y): After that, in a couple of months, I was offered a job in town at the head office of another mining company. The office was a five-minute walk from my flat, which was great. I could go home for lunch. It was really perfect arrangement. The position was in logistics and, again, involved a lot of translation. I worked there for several years, and then in 2005, I moved to Moscow. And before I moved, I already knew that I would have a job in another mining company.

(K): A lot of translating in mining.

(Y): The mining world is quite small. There are many people in big cities looking for a job in the mining industry, but they've never been on-site, and they actually don't really want to go there. Understandably, mining companies always prefer someone who has firsthand experience. I started working as a Personal Assistant to the Cost Control Director, which was an excellent experience. My boss was soon promoted to the General Director's position, so I automatically became a Personal Assistant to the General Director, which I never expected. I was never looking for it, but it happened. Later, I met my future husband and quit mining in 2009. I devoted more time to art, attending shows, reading more, and enrolling in an Art History course. The course was not only about theory. We went to the museums and had close access to many exhibits; we were present at restoration and conservation works, which was really mind-blowing.

(K): That was in Moscow?

(Y): Yes, it was in Moscow.

Any Time. Now. 2021-2022 annealed steel wire

Any Time. Now. (close-up) 2021-2022 annealed steel wire

(K): Can I ask a little more about your early art experience. Did you always love art?

(Y): Yes, I always liked to draw and make things. At school, we had art lessons from year one. It was predominantly drawing and painting. I participated in some school exhibitions, but it was never considered to be anything special, probably, because it was easy for me. When I was around eight, I decided to go to a drawing school, and my mom agreed. We came to the drawing school, but there was an issue with a teacher. The teacher was very rude and unwelcoming, so I said, "No, I won't be able to come in every day and experience this from the teacher. I won't go back." I don't know how different I would be if I went to a drawing school. Obviously, I would be different, but I didn't go and continued on my own. My father was helping me with model making. My mom would help me with my paintings. She also taught me all the crafts: crochet, knitting, embroidery, sewing. I understand now that I was always engaged in art activities at home and school. So, yes, art was always with me. In teenage, I started making clothes for myself, sewing and knitting. Always had a camera with me. Around 2011, I became interested in making jewellery using wire and beads. But I stopped making it, as I felt I needed more; I could not express myself fully. The technique I've developed, the experience of making very fine objects by hand, using tools, was brought forward into my future art practice later on, into my sculpture.

(K): Since art was always with you, how and when did you decide to immerse yourself in it?

(Y): It happened in March 2019. I remember it vividly. There was a room in the house which was pretty cold in winter and too hot in summer because of the huge windows. I decided, "okay. I will make use of it and make it my studio." One day I was playing around with some scraps of fabric, making collages and then I stood up, looked at those collages with different eyes. Something clicked, and even my vision changed, like when you change your glasses. I thought, "It's now or never. I need to try myself in art professionally to understand whether it is worthwhile to start my own art practice". So I started looking for a course. Because of my visa, I could not leave the island for a full-time study for the whole year. Also, I was unsure whether it was serious or it was my postnatal craziness (my son was 15 months old). They say when women give birth, they change. I was cautious, thinking it could be…

(K): A temporary thing?

(Y): Yes, a temporary thing. I found a short-term intensive art portfolio course in London; three months of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM were a great test for me. The course was built of two 6-week blocks with a 2-week break in between. Julia, the tutor, was very supportive. She said, "It would be a shame if you do not continue (your art education)." Julia was a driving force and strongly recommended taking a full-time Fine Art course in the art school. But I could not do it at the time. The child was too young, and I could not leave the island to live elsewhere. From that time on, I realized that was my new reality. I thought, "I will see how it goes." That was the very end of 2019, and coming back from the Christmas holidays in January 2020, Covid changed my life. My attention was focused on a very different important topic, my family surviving the pandemic. My son stopped going to the nursery, and the only free time I had was the two daytime nap hours and time after 8:00 PM when I would put him in bed and have dinner with my husband. These time limitations really pushed me. When you have limited resources and time, it really organizes you. There was a spare bedroom in our house (a different house already), so I converted it into a studio. It was pretty small but good enough. And I started experimenting. Based on what I've already done a couple of months earlier during the portfolio course. I started developing that work. All the ideas that came to me at the time of the first lockdown are still with me. I am still working on them or reworking them.

(K): I am curious when you talk about self-expression. When you were talking about jewellery, and that you could not express yourself in it. Why do you feel expressing yourself is essential to you and why that could not be achieved through other media, but only through the media you're using right now?

(Y): Definitely, there are artists who express themselves in jewellery. I came up with a very minimalistic jstyle that was something for every day, for someone who is not actually wearing jewellery, something that blends with your skin easily. That was what I wanted to achieve. So, I achieved that in terms of visual aesthetics and also technically. I wanted it to be very durable too. Sometimes necklaces, especially long necklaces, are all…

(K): Tangled.

(Y): Yes, I wanted to avoid that. I came up with a technical solution how to avoid that. It was, as I see it now, my first design project. I achieved my goals; there was nothing I wanted to do with it any further. So, I just left it aside. The process, all the technical problems I was solving when working with wire, a selection of tools I made, all that was much more important than the actual jewelry pieces I made. That knowledge, that skill, is now applied to my wire sculptures. Jewellery is often called wearable sculpture. But I wanted my work to be something else. Because I didn't go to art school (no full time academic education) - I didn't have any limitations, whether I was a painter, a sculptor or whoever else. I wanted to try everything and find what would be best for me. That's how I started in 2020 during the first lockdown. Naturally, started with wire, incorporated textiles and crafts, found objects, and then progressed to drawing and painting. Later that year, I studied a one-year program at Jersey Highlands College, Art and Design Foundation course. It was helpful to understand the educational system because I studied only in Russia before. This course helped me to find my media and artistic sensibility. I learned about myself from a different point of view. I discovered myself as an artist.

(K): I do want to ask more about the body of work you are working on right now? What do you want to say, and how do you choose your material?

(Y): I can tell you about the work that was part of my recent exhibition that I took down a couple of days before we met.

(K): The images are on your website, right?

(Y): Yes, they are. It was here in the two rooms of my studio. The exhibition title was "Making through the time." *** is for the word war, which is prohibited in Russia now. We all know that there is a war between Russia (Russian government) and Ukraine. Being Russian, physically, it's impossible to take in that the country where I was born and raised is invading and destroying Ukraine. It's just incomprehensible. Like many other Russian people, I was in shock when the war started. It was something you could not believe, and it just brought people into a frozen state...some were crying for weeks, and some were in deep depression. Helping Ukraine as I could (working at the donations sorting facility) helped me find my feet on the ground. Everyone is coping differently; for me, making something, having something in my hands allows me to keep my sanity. I started making small objects with thread and wire to suppress the anxiety, rage and helplessness. Probably, subconsciously, to focus on something else, though it did not mean that I could stop thinking about the war. It's artists' coping mechanism. The repetitiveness of the knitting process and twisting wire elements put me in a certain rhythm and calmed me down. Many elements of this body of work are taken from knitting, the thread and the loops. I took it further and started drawing and painting all those elements, and they suddenly became something else. They became human and architectural forms, and I continued painting those evolved forms. It became a multimedia body of work. There was actual knitting made with needles and yarn, paper and wire knitting and paintings. There was also a poem. Tracy O'Dea, an American poet, journalist and educator lives in Jersey. She was accommodating with a constructive critique of my poetic work. This poem is abstract and surreal, but it takes everything (my work) further.

Only Before The First Haircut 2022 Oil on canvas 44 x 54 cm, framed

(K): Making work and writing poetry is a way you could express your feelings?

(Y): Yes, definitely. Art is just another language, often non-verbal, imagery language. I cannot express everything through words; I cannot talk about many things directly because I don't feel like I'm supposed to. I put all my feelings into a fable and the objects I create. Later, they will be the evidence of the time. I think this is important; it is artist's job to capture the time, even if it is horrible. The exhibition was not an easy one. I did not invite many people because it was too personal, and I wanted to engage in a conversation with each visitor. I knew that engagement would be very individual. Most visitors responded mainly to the aesthetics: colours, shapes, composition, and materials of choice. But there was one visitor who deeply connected to the essence of my work. She is from Iran, and for her, there was no need for any explanation. Having a background of living in a totalitarian regime immediately connects you to certain sensibilities.

(K): When an artist makes work, it's a process of receiving something from the surroundings and reworking it into something else. You are always free to create what you want and leave it in the studio or put it in your home without showing it to anyone. Can I ask why interaction with someone out there, with real people, is important to you?

(Y): Through art, you can shape your internal way of seeing things. When people interact with art, I think it is a possibility to transmit someone else's perception. It is key to understanding that there are so many ways of perceiving and responding to the world. We have to be aware of that. There is this element of empathy – I am expecting people to try and find something in the artwork, whether it's my work or other artists, to appreciate different optics and different visions of the world. Imagine you have 10 artists and give them one object or tool or limit them to one medium. You will have 10 different artworks because they all respond differently, which is true with all the other people who are not considered artists. We all perceive world in a unique way. Each of us is unique, but artists have this license of courage to put things back into the world. There is always a question, what is art? Why do we consider this or that art, and seemingly the same thing is not art. The intention, the unique vision put into it by the artist, who engaged with it and presented it back to the world, makes it an art object.

(K): It is fascinating how you define what you consider art. This is something you can render. The emotion you feel - somebody else can feel it too, a new way to look at something; somebody might be able to see that through the work too. Also, watching how people engage with the artwork, you can reflect on how differently we can respond to the same thing.

(Y): Yes.

(K): I've never heard somebody describe this process so poetically.

(Y): Thank you.

(K): It's really amazing.

(Y): Let's talk about this new work. I came across a stack of postcards that belonged to a lady who once lived in Jersey. I supposed there were 100 identical postcards, but four were missing. So, I had 96, and they were in a small pile four by six inches, an inch thick. I thought, "Okay, they're all identical, based on a black and white photo, tinted with colour ink on top". I had hundreds of questions. Why did she have that pile of identical postcards? Did she buy them? Did someone give them to her, and why she kept them throughout her life? Why didn't she give them away? You usually have a handful of people to whom you send postcards. All other postcards I found were sent to her and had handwritten messages on them. Another side of it is privacy. I was thinking, "Should I have even touched those postcards? What am I doing?" When I was stitching them together on my sewing machine, this card mass gradually became a rigid monster. I stopped sewing when it became impossible to get them through the machine. Another dimension opened up when I looked at the title - "Portelet Bay." I live not far from Portelet Bay. I couldn't remember the buildings depicted in the photo. I went online and found the original image that the postcard was based on; it was made in the 1920s. I discovered that the buildings were part of the first holiday camp, small beach huts. It was a very famous destination and tourists were visiting in thousands. Portelet Bay is a small and beautiful bay. With time, the beach huts were taken down, and a big holiday camp was built. During the WWII German Occupation, it was used by the Germans as barracks. There's so much you can learn from one postcard if you're interested. I'm always digging; that is my approach. Sometimes people ask me, "Why on earth are you interested in these things?" and I will say, "Probably, there is nothing at all that is not worth my attention." I'm always interested in things and stories... the stories behind things...

Deterrence. Not Enough. 2022 paper, acrylic paint 120 x 110 x 30 cm unique from a series

(K): That brings my last questions of this interview. What is the next step for you as an artist, in general?

(Y): I want to participate in open calls and group shows. I really like artist collaboration. It is an excellent way of taking yourself further. When you are confronted, in a good sense, with other artists working closely together, it opens up a new dimension in your work, and you learn from each other. Also, I like school projects and participate in one now, which is fascinating. It will collaborate with 10-year-olds and involve art, historical heritage and language. I will continue my practice and, hopefully, do an art residency next year.

(K): Hopefully, in the United States.

Yulia Makeyeva

Website | yuliamakeyeva.co.uk

Instagram | @yulia_makeyeva