Coco Wasabi is an award winning collage artist that draws ideas for her works from various periods of art history, freeing the found materials of original conventions and combining them impartially to create confrontations and a new discourse.
Wasabi's collages have a distinct visual footprint. She described her creative process,
CW: "Usually I have a theme in my head or a message I'd like to communicate, at that point I start searching through my huge collection of photos, newspapers, postcards and digital items for reasonably useful material. I have a sketched vision in mind how the work could look like in the end. Doing the collage is a process by itself, and often it looks totally different in the end then the original sketch I envisioned."
A distinct feature in Wasabi's artworks is a strong attachment to symmetry and harmony. Even though at times the meaning conveyed in the pieces is often disturbing, the first thing you see looking at the artwork is harmony. Her work has a certain attraction to media and personalities, which reflects well to the current state of the media and how the political environment is influencing it's status.
CW: "In my opinion personalities, celebrities or politicians have a strong responsibility in our society, but many of them are not using this power of responsibility in a good direction. I think this society we are speaking about should take its own responsibility to question more about the political environment and the power of influence media or its personalities are having. I also think my responsibility as an artist is not only to create something to sell and make a living
out of it, to me it means to create something to make the audience question certain topics and views, to create their own opinions and point of views.
Based in Vienna, Austria, Coco Wasabi is very involved in the local art scene.
CW: "Vienna is one of the greatest cities in world, it is a privilege to live here and I feel lucky in that respect. The art scene is actually small but thriving. Just like anywhere else, as an artist you have to work yourself through the jungle of curators, galleries & artists. Austrians as compared to other folks are considered more closed people. Sometimes that can be a challenge to get further if you don't know the right people. More than often it's not about the ART its about who you know and what your positioning is like."
"Actually everything is a collage! All of our everyday decisions are a collage."
"Collage means to dismantle something and create something new out of pieces which are existing already. So everyday you are leaving your daily routine, you are doing a collage. In contemporary art, the difference is that you make this collage visual!"
Coco Wasabi will be attending this year many art fairs like the Tokyo International Art Fair, Paris art3f and Artmuc in Munich. Further more she plans to move her studio and open a little art shop/gallery which contains studio space, so visitors can see the studio, and get a real time view how the art-process is happening. "I see it becoming a meeting point for other artists, as well as a space to organize exhibitions, and a platform for other artists to sell their works."