LEIMAY Fellow Feature

A time in the studio with... Irena Romendik

• What is the first thing you do when you begin your rehearsal at CAVE?

When I first arrive at CAVE, I take time to carefully set up my materials. I have to be more cautious here than I am at home because of the white marley. I use all different kinds of paper and create my own sketchbooks. Right now I am using paper from Germany, France, and Japan. For drawing, I prefer walnut inks applied with bamboo sticks, pastels and watercolors. I always work with music on -- contemporary classical or electronic. Most recently, I am drawn to environmental soundscapes.

• How have weekly rehearsals impacted the way that you work? 

Working on one long-term project is a deviation from my normal pattern. I usually create many different projects at once and work at my own pace. I follow my intuition and I never want to repeat myself. I have always valued artistic process over product. Now I am collaborating with dancer Yuri Ogasawara on one project for SOAK, so I have no excuses I go to CAVE to work with her rain or shine. Working together provides moral support and encouragement. Having weekly rehearsals has allowed me to discover a deeper investigation. 

• In one sentence, what is at the core of your work? What drives you to create?

I want to share my appreciation of the life force that connects all of us, without hierarchy.

• Discuss your use of the body in your practice...

For this work, two bodies are involved. My body and the dancer's body. Our relationship develops like mimicry in nature when one organism evolves to resemble another over time. Ours is a symbiotic relationship. My focus shifts between the dancer and the surface of the paper, by embodying the energy of her movement something leads my hand. The result is a notation of nonlinear time.

• Tell me about your first experience with LEIMAY, CAVE, or Ximena and Shige?
  

My first time at CAVE was many years ago when it was a gallery space. I didn't know Ximena and Shige then but I had friends who presented their artwork at the openings and played experimental music at the events here. Years later Theresa Magario, the previous Studio Manager at CAVE, was my collaborator for a drawing project. She invited me to the LEIMAY LUDUS Community Class. It was very important to me to connect with her through movement because she was improvising and modeling for my drawings. After that, I took a workshop with Ximena and was a performer in her study Clowns. I have been involved with the LEIMAY community ever since. 

Fellow Feature #3 // Irena Romendik from CAVE home of LEIMAY on Vimeo.

Learn more about Irena through her conectom profile!

A time in the studio with... is a platform to showcase participating artists in the LEIMAY Fellowship Program 2016-2017. Interviews and video content are created by Studio Manager Lindsey Mandolini.