Toot Yung Art Center’s current resident artist Maja Hurst thinks it’s for other people rather than herself to decide what type of artist she is. While some call her a street artist as her murals can be found on large-scale buildings in cities such as Cape Town, Cologne, Atlanta, Rio de Janeiro and Berlin under the alias Tika, there’s a strong graphic design element to her work.
Maja Hurst.
"I find it very hard to answer that question because I’m interested in so many things. When I work in the studio I don’t consider myself a street artist, so I would say I’m interested in many techniques. I find it very hard to put myself into just one drawer," Hurst says.
After featuring in last year's Bukruk Street Art Festival in Bangkok, Hurst is back again for her Asia debut solo exhibition "Sawatika", the title of which is a wordplay between sawasdee ka and her moniker, Tika. Most of the works exhibited are what she has produced during a two-month residency at Toot Yung Art Center.
"It was like zero degrees Celsius in Zurich. I wanted to come earlier to adjust so I came one month earlier. I really like it here. There has been a lot of input on all levels," she adds.
Pithorn’s Ginger Fish.
The third floor of the art centre serves both as her studio and bedroom (bed unmade with mosquito net hanging. Visitors do not have to take off their shoes). With the sound of an audio book coming from her laptop, Hurst doesn’t seem to mind working in the increasing April heat. As the exhibition opening day approaches, the number of her works grows, piling up in corners, on the floor, on tables and her bed.
"I work until late, like at four or five in the morning. I like it when it’s all quiet and cool. Then I sleep for seven hours, get a coffee and eat something and start working again. I work about 15-16 hours a day."
What’s most striking about her collection of works is not just the variety of techniques being used (from acrylic-on-canvas, collage, spray-behind-glass-paintings and mixed media on canvas to pyrographed woodcuts), but also how you can never guess where her inspiration and influence came from.
While an image of a flat hand or a lotus may make you think of something serene with a Hindu or Buddhist influence, an image of a skull or what seems like a monster or tribal man takes her collection of works in another direction altogether.
This possibly has to do with her background and her way of life — Hurst was born in Zurich, Switzerland, but grew up in Cairo and Cologne.
These days she divides her year between living in Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Zurich and three months travelling.
"I like very much the tradition of all the local places. It’s very nice that there’s not just one tradition all over the world. Different traditions in different sections, people are very different and diverse. That is what contributes to my work," Hurst says.
Yet Hurst reveals her themes are very basic, she gets the inspiration simply from daily life and experience. One painting depicts Toot Yung's artistic director Myrtille Tibayrenc and her cat, while another piece of work illustrates a dish she had and was impressed by during her stay here.
"My topics are very simple. Love, friendship, food, pollution, animals. Very simple, nothing intellectual. I think the simple things are usually even deeper." But setting up the topics or themes has never been her way of creating her works, she prefers to not try to explain things and works from her gut.
"I start to work, I paint, I draw, I find a piece of wood, and I made something out of it, and I just work and draw and create and I collect. Then after maybe two months I have all the collection and it is growing and I put it in on the table and I look at it and I'm like, 'OK, what are they telling me now?'."
"Sawatika" is on display until May 10 at Toot Yung Art Center, 12/6 Ekamai Soi 2.
Hand With Lotus.
Pollution Face, inspired by the recent garbage dump fire in Samut Prakan.
