The Feeling Artist

ANDRA MARIA STOICA

Romanian multidisciplinary artist located in The Netherlands

© Cayce Pollard. All rights reserved.

“FEMALES ARE LINES” (2021-2022) - handmade book, extracts, A4

a mysoginistic look on feminine desperation as a way of handling sexism

“THE ROOM OF DEATH/ SKETCH 1, 2, 3, 4, 5” (2023) - work in progress, installation, performative video sketches

3, 6, 9, 2, 7, 14 are all “divine numbers”: numbers which relate to divinity.
(3 - holy trinity;
6,9 - dividable by 3;
2 - duality divine & human
7 - the amount of days god took to create earth, etc.)
On the two sheets of paper, pictured left and in the slide below, are as follows:
2 distinct opposing colours used (black-white)
33/ 36 rows of 9 lines repeating 3/ 4 times small bones
13/ 14 skulls on 3/ 4 non-consecutive lines
White painting adds a total of 1011 symbols.
Black painting adds a total of 1456 symbols.
Psalm 10:11
“He says in his heart, <<God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see
it>>”
Psalm 145:6
“They tell of the power of your awesome works- and I will proclaim your great
deeds.”
In the context of paintings of symbols representing death, the lines from the psalms
create a narrative on death.
A narrative especially worth looking into when, at a closer look, the mental gymnastics I just went through to decode such a work draw a parallel to religion.
I find most people who turn to religion to accept death do not accept death itself, but
rather the idea of a greater power which promises another life.
As humans, we run away from accepting death as an inherent part of life.
Within this reality I find both irony and sadness.

I strive to create an interactive space where the irony of
the human approach to death can be showcased with a
clear ridicule of the pattern (with pink, childish resembling symbols) on everyday objects that would fill a space.A room everybody can sit in for as long as they would
desire and interact with/ use as pleased, where one could
sit and get closer to the idea of what death actually is:
an inherent part of life which is nothing more than what
it is.
I wish to provide people a safe space to shatter their own
mental gymnastics routines that help them achieve peace
with an empty promise.
A place where death is a non-threatening part of everyday
life.

“LIFE, SOMETIMES” (2023) - nonexistent, 0cm x 0cm, photography documentation, video, 00:04:11

Charcoal on a wall is the most
ephemeral permanent thing I
can think of.
The frenzy of drawing a set of
symbols with numeric symbolism in an act of urgency - to
then only wash it off, mere seconds after finishing, is the closest portrayal of life, death and
grief I can personally come to.
While dealing with the topics
of life, death and grief, their
irony, complexity and simplicity, I wish to create an artwork
which can only be viewed
after it already ceased to exist.
Much like death, it can only be
observed once it has already
vanished.
The only thing that now stands
as memory of what I have created is the documentation.

“DIGGING MY OWN GRAVE” (2021-2022) - sculpture, burned ceramics on earth and rose petals, 200cm

“ARE YOU COMFORTABLE YET?” (2021) - performance, video documentation, 00:08:00

Although not a novelty to me, xenophobia was something I
never had to face in such a brutal manner until I found myself choosing to move to the Netherlands.
Already exploring the ideas of identity and belonging within
my practice, making a work about my national identity and
the rejection I face in the West was a natural next step.
The performance and documentation of it are meant to force
people to watch and acknowledge the suffering of an immigrant. They are meant to make the person watching share the
uncomfortable and painful experience of xenophobia, but
from a drastically different angle than the one targeted by
this unfounded hatred.
The dress worn in the video has afterwards been transformed
into a painting

“STOP SEXUALIZING ME” (2019) - performance, video, 00:28:01

During the pandemic, forced to stay inside the house, I
tried to film a performance on Omegle (a website which
allows you to “talk to strangers”, as their own description
mentions), in order to have a sort of audience.I stumbled again and again across people (men) that, while
masturbating, were trying to get me to undress and perform
for them.At first I instantly skipped, but sometimes, out of curiosity,
I lingered.
I wandered what would make them uncomfortable.
What would make them hang up on me?I then created a 12cm x 8cm sculpture out of clay (depicted in the images on the left and the slide above) and tried
to see how long it would take men to hang up on me after
briefly showing myself in the first few seconds of the call
and then only holding up the bizarre statue in front of the
camera, seldomly replying.

“GLOSSA” (2019) - video, stop-motion short film, 00:03:05 min

“RECYCLED FEELINGS” (2020) - handmade book, 14cm x 14cm

recycled paper made out of letters from past lovers, reflection on missing and longing

“THE BODY LAUNDROMAT” ” (2022) - installation, roughly 42cm x 36cm (per cast)

“THE ANGELS ARE ASLEEP”, part 1 (2022) - oil on canvas 160cm x 90cm (each painting) reflection on the absurdity of life

“THE ANGELS ARE ASLEEP”, part 2 (2022) - oil on canvas 160cm x 90cm (each painting) 13 reflection on the absurdity

"UNTITLED” (2023) - oil & acrylic on canvas, 130cm x 90cm, 160cm x 100cm, 50cm x 30cm (in order)

“AT WAR WITH MYSELF” (2023) - video, installation, 00:14:53, reflection on losing track of yourself

About

In a world that seems to ferociously push towards individualism and a state of anxious apathy, where
the rise of technology and violence are the main focus and fear, this absurdist futuristic fuse between
Dadaism and an Industrial Revolution, I find myself striving to create a Modern Informed Romanticism
bubble for the self within my creation. An educated, academical, emotional “fuck you” to that which I
oppose. I do not wish to renounce society, progress or technology, I do not seek shelter in nature, I
strive for a reconnection with feelings in an increasingly colder societal climate. I seek shelter within the
connection my emotions create with others. I strive to learn and understand in order to be able to
confidently reject, and only then find salvation in feeling.
I am a cynical, female bodied, narcissistic, queer, spaceal, Eastern artist.
The common nominator throughout my works are bodies. Weather it is actual bodies that I am working
with (as vessels, empty shells), humans, or a noticeable lack of people in a context where one expects
them. There has always been a fascination with people within me, may it be myself, those around or an
interaction between the two and its effects.
My works are deeply rooted into the topics I am confronted with most often, which are simply parts of
being human, albeit not necessarily in contexts everyone can directly relate to. Identity and belonging,
displacement and the search of self, together with emotion, queer theory and general existence and
positioning of queer identities, mental health issues, intersectional feminism, misogyny as a radical
response to discrimination, immigration and xenophobia, posthumanist discourses; those are only a
few.
I yearn to twist narratives around. I pursue making people uncomfortable. I have many things to say,
but I am not an activist and I do not claim to have the right stance on things. I simply want to make
people feel.
The projects I develop do not necessarily always fall under “social commentary” or a “backseat tired
activism”. I do enjoy simplicity. Irony and emotion, simple moments captured that do not ask for more
than what there already is presented.
I see the world around me in details. I find myself zooming into those, enlarging and turning them into a,
for a lack of a better word, space.
Translation to form is simply recreating selective bits of the real world in a designed safe space. This
would be the easiest way to describe my practice; I do not create paintings, installations or sculptures, I
create a space. A place where difficult topics can be approached, where discomfort is welcomed.
I urge
the consumer of my emotions and thoughts to think, contextualize and judge for themselves

Coming soon

Contact

Thank you

I will get back to you shortly :)