Katya Quel: Trolling Reality and Crafting Utopia

Egle: Hi Katya, welcome to Mae! Let’s start with a brief introduction.

Katya: I’m Katya Quel. I’m based in Berlin since 2016, and I’m a multimedia visual artist and curator as well. I was born in Moscow and finished my art studies at Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee.

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E: I’ve always been curious about the idea of art that’s bigger than its creator, like when you can’t pin down who made it, and it just becomes a part of the cultural vibe. Heidegger and Jung touch on this, saying real art or ideas almost lose their individual authorship and just blend into the collective experience, kind of like a meme or a viral trend. How would you say your work has a specific and recognizable “aesthetic”? What’s your take on creating work that transcends personal identity and becomes something larger than life?

K: Yes, I’m also intrigued by this paradox of “zeitgeist”. Throughout history, artists in different parts of the world have simultaneously shared similar ideas, aesthetics, and approaches to expression. We see this in baroque details, the gentleness of impressionism, the absurdity and collage of dadaism, and the geometry of modernism. Today, there's a fantasy-inspired art movement that resonates deeply with my generation. I was a fantasy fan as a child, drawing gnomes and fairies at that time, and then I came back to it with my art and started noticing a lot of contemporary artists using this aesthetic. Recently, I saw a post from a very old friend,  who is doing very different stuff than me. He ended up somehow at the Liste Art Fair in Basel, and he was complaining that all those young galleries from all over the world show this fantasy art, and it looks like a big show of one artist. I was giggling to myself that he’s just not following the trends at all, but maybe it’s better for him. Anyway, I’m still adoring this aesthetic and see artists working with fantasy and utopian spirituality as the most contemporary.

E: Art often seems more individualistic compared to fields like business, sports, or film, where teamwork is essential. Would you say your work is purely individual, or do you have a “team” (including people or sources of inspiration like your lover, books, icons, music) that helps you create?

K: That’s true, I think it’s mostly introverted people who choose an art career. I never felt so much like a team player. Even in a gym, I’m avoiding group classes and go in the hours when there are minimum people around. Communicating with other humans sucks a lot of energy out of me because I’m very empathic and listen  very carefully and overthink how to answer. It’s not easy for me. I can only create well when I’m alone. But it was also good when I had interns to help me. I would just do something not creative but necessary while they were around, and they would realize the creative ideas I came up with while being alone. I wish to have a production team one day because I have a huge storage of ideas and too little physical ability to bring them to life. I love communes and all these community-art-based ideas theoretically. I also love to gather exhibitions of different artists together, but unfortunately, I have this very strong feeling of aesthetics, and if someone doesn’t share it, but I’m forced to deal with it out of community rules, the project doesn’t make sense for me anymore, and I lose my enthusiasm. 

Regarding music, it is undoubtedly my best assistant. In my first studies, I even acknowledged the band Ultraviolence alone, under whose hardcore tunes I created my diploma book about graffiti in 2006 (I studied graphic design).  As for partners, to be honest, relationships usually work at a loss for creativity for me, hehe. As I already said, I’m only productive alone, so breakups work better, unfortunately. I once talked to a friend and realized that she archives her whole life in her head according to periods of relationships with different boyfriends. My life, on the other hand, is an archive of my projects, which are somehow very separated in the subcortex of my brain, and this makes many men very angry. Only those who accept that I am first and foremost a creator, and only secondarily someone’s girlfriend, stay with me.

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E: There are regular injections of video game narratives in your work. Were those intended, or did they subconsciously infuse into the aesthetic? Is your work a form of a video game itself?

K: I must admit, I’m not a gamer myself. I’ve always seen gaming as a waste of time but am fascinated by their visual aspects. Games are amazing and underestimated pieces of modern art, inspiring millions, including artists. I admire the detailed and balanced design of characters, backgrounds, items, and interfaces. Many games are based on fantasy sagas I read as a child. This creates a circle of inspiration: I visualized the aesthetics in my imagination while reading, then I would see someone’s visualization as a game design. I get inspired by that, and I merge all my visuals, and I bring it both into my art. I create my exhibitions as little quests and sagas, so let’s say yes, my practice is a game.

E: You play a lot with dreamlike imaginary narratives. Where do they come from? Are you a dreamer? How do your night dreams affect your work?

K: I love dreamy narratives, and every art project is a storytelling for me. While creating the work with my hands, I’m listening to music and developing a story behind the scenes. It’s often a reflection on a current social or political situation but with some fairy tale flow. Apart from fantasy, I love old mythology and legends of different folks. I love fables that have some moral compass. I also like to read history and see the analogy between ancient times and modernity and what we can learn from the distinguished civilizations. I love daydreaming, especially before falling asleep. I imagine a lot at this time and write down the notes. About the night dreams, I don’t think that I get any inspiration out of them. I just try to understand what they (spirits) want to tell me. In the past, I used to write down the most vivid dreams. Lately, I don’t see anything outstanding, unfortunately. Just sometimes on holidays, I wake up with a crazy mess that just happened. I think it depends on the house where you sleep. My current flat in Berlin is too new to have spirits.

E: Some sentences in your works, like “Come sniff, all who fear, find solace in delirium,” “Have a cookie,” or “God’s plan, bad things,” can be funny yet critical. From your Instagram, I see you’re a fan of memes. Is humor a starting point for critique?

K: Oh yes, that’s my way to express criticism. I’m a troll, as you can see from my profile picture. Trolls were my favorite creatures in childhood. It started with Moomin trolls by Tove Jansson that my mom read to me, then these toys with fluorescent punk hair, then J. R. R. Tolkien and the fantasy saga books, then my favorite band was also called Mumiy Troll, and then the internet trolls arrived with this ugly hand-drawn meme face. So I stay true to the trolls. I used all those images in my art projects and tried to troll society with my messages. “Come sniff, all who fear, find solace in delirium” - it’s a paraphrase of the line from the Bible (Matthew 11:28) - "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” It was to express my fable about a flower society that is intoxicated by Belladonna’s addictive odor (which is a metaphor for the propaganda ideas media when your brain only wants to consume desirable information and avoid critical thinking). 

“Have a cookie“ - I found this expression, and it was  fitting perfectly into my installation. According to Urban Dictionary, “have a cookie” is an absurd phrase used to distract, deflect, or add irrational levity to a conversation. Typically used by ignorant people who have no useful knowledge or relevant input to a discussion. "I believe the Schrodinger equation fails to calculate the probabilities of certain outcomes in any state of the quantum system, what do you think?" "Have a cookie!”

The work with “Have a Cookie” was  exhibited at “The Land of Cockaigne” in Number 1 Main Road gallery. This show was secretly trolling the modern “dream” of the rich and glamorous life with drugs, parties, and champagne. 

“God’s plan, bad things” is a quote from Drake’s song. It was used in one of the songs that I wrote for the choir for my liturgy performance at the ‘Iconostasis of Hypocrisy’. During the rehearsals, this chorus got so stuck in my head, I’m afraid of it coming back now. It was also written on a couple of the ‘icons’ on the walls at the same exhibition. The phrase is kinda genius, turning the religion upside down and blaming God for all the shit happening around - another trolling technique borrowed from Drake.

E: Let’s talk about the materials you used in the piece “I’m Losing My Favorite Games” for Culterim Gallery. You constructed a flag using a tree, a sacred symbol of nature, mixed with video game images and latex. How do you decide on the single items themselves? 

K: It was a very spontaneous piece. Originally, I wanted to have something floating there in the space to cover the huge heater. And it was supposed to be a piece of Margherita Mezzetti, my partner at that exhibition. But she didn’t have time to do it, so I decided to make a huge latex piece. But just the piece of latex, even with the added color splashes, wasn’t enough for me. I always need a lot of details on a work. At that time, I had just gotten a sublimation printer and heat press, and I decided to try this technique on latex. For the imagery, I used the video games. The title of the exhibition was Eternal Quest, so I went through all the popular quest games to catch some cool screenshots. My art often places itself in an epoch when technology doesn’t function anymore and is just used as some outdated trash, which is recycled and merged with natural items like tree branches, etc. So I inlayed the screenshots as some small computer screens, in this latex and made the latex flag look like it was floating like a ballerina between the 2 tree branches that I picked up on the street. So I created this installation very intuitively but ended up very happy with it.

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E: Let’s discuss the performative element of your piece. How did you envision the system of viewing that the audience navigates? There’s a specific amount of space for various perspectives. Can you tell me about this design?

K: The liturgy-performance "Iconostasis of  Hypocrisy III: Dogma" was site-specific, designed for the space of Gr_und gallery. It has this tall, long, and narrow room, which is perfect for splitting into an altar and nave, with an iconostasis as a transept. The ceremony choreography was copied from my memories of the Orthodox Christian liturgy, including a procession from the outside. My friend Sophie was the priest, I was the deacon with my holy vape, and a couple of readers broadcasted for parishioners from the sacred altar gate. The choir was placed on the right, and there was a dark corner for our noisy DJ in the middle. So it was a quite proper religious service which I tried to troll as much as I could. I have a Slavic Orthodox Christian background and am very critical of the church. I reflected on my Slavic Orthodox upbringing, putting church service memories with their spooky voices, screaming to God, into this performance. Religious postulates are sealed deep in the subcortex of the brain and frighten with their presence at the unconscious level. I’m still healing. 

E: In works like “The Land Of Cockaigne” or “My oh my, do I have to say goodbye to this kingdom?” you use materials reminiscent of cakes and sweets. How do you think sweet food relates to your art?

K: I think all these cakes, pies, and pastries have both ideological and aesthetic meaning for me. In many ways, eating sweets is associated with overconsumption, luxury, excess, gluttony, and vice. Both my sculptures and paintings depict the decline of these values, the devastation of castle cakes, or the trolling of the viewer with the appetite for extremely toxic materials. Aesthetically, I really love decoration and detail, so I follow a lot of accounts on Instagram with creative cakes. But unfortunately, I’m not a business person; it’s difficult to motivate me with sales growth if I switch to cakes. I need some serious theoretical basis for my creativity.

E: You mentioned reading a lot of fantasy as a child. Do you still read fantastic books, or what are you reading now?

K: The fact that I reflect a lot on fantasy is more about treating and healing my inner child. To my regret, I rarely read fiction at the moment. I would like to read more; I think I should get a Kindle (hint to friends: my birthday is in August!). During my studies, I read more philosophy, but now, to be honest, my main reading is Wikipedia. I do research for my horizons, reading biographies of people, historical events, movements, terms, scientific research, and everything possible. I am very grateful for the existence of this resource and advise everyone to sign up for donations to Wikipedia so that it can remain as independent as we still know it. Recently, I have also started writing and editing articles. Last week, I was working on an article about my grandfather, a Soviet nuclear energy scientist.

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E: How do you see the future of art and your role in it?

K: It’s difficult to visualize accurately; the world is constantly changing and setting goals is quite difficult. I don’t see an ideal example of what I would like to achieve among my contemporaries. To be a big “successful” artist and work in your own mini-factory with a rigid schedule and endless deadlines for art fairs and institutional projects—I don’t know if this is good. Of course, I would like to do large institutional projects, to be able to create a world in all its details, a huge quest from which you don’t want to leave and which bestows some new understanding and awareness. But the main art institutions must also somehow transform in the future, become more open, hold raves on their territory, grow rooftop gardens, and broadcast constant engagement in the fight for democracy, environmental responsibility, and freedom of speech. And don’t be led by the government and the rich in the art market. Then I would like to be one hundred percent involved in all this, creating worlds and bringing people together to collectively visualize improvements in the global community :)

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E: Let’s hope this will be the future. We wish you luck in your achievements! Thank you for the interview.

K: Thank you so much. These were lovely questions; I really enjoyed them. I also appreciate the invitation.