The Good Artist: Amanda Rataj
Who am I? My name is Amanda Rataj, and I am a photo-based artist and recent graduate of OCAD University. My practice has lately been concerned with ephemeral motion and in documenting and measuring it through still imagery, and I am particularly interested in using historical photographic processes (like albumen printing and cyanotypes) to articulate this. I like the following things: riding my bike, wearing wool sweaters, honey, writing letters (especially on my typewriter) and drinking tea.
What is on my IPOD/bookshelf? I’m not much of a music person, but I love reading and am lucky enough to live five houses away from the public library - I recently borrowed Yann Martel’s latest book, Beatrice and Virgil from their Best Bets shelf. Rebecca Solnit is probably my favourite writer - books like A Field Guide to Getting Lost and Wanderlust; A History of Walking are both two books I could read forever.
Where do I seek inspiration? The quietness of the house in the morning and the way the light comes in during the early afternoon are also inspiring, as is the organized neatness of my notebook(s), where I record the minute things I would otherwise forget. Many of my favourite artists are also interested in alternative processes, and I’m constantly challenged by the many ways artists like Dan Estabrook and Sally Mann use tactile processes to imbue their images with a sense of the time and an aesthetic subtlety. I also find research very inspirational!
When did I start creating? When I was very little I used to put on my red beret, grab my teddy and a notebook and pretend we were writers in France. I had a very active imagination when I was a child and that lead to one interest that lead to another. I began taking photographs when my mum’s friend Laura gave me a wee neon-orange camera; with that I took photographs of my rock collection at the beach, the sunfish I caught, and a photograph of my parents in which I cut off the top of their heads. I began to take creating seriously after I found life at U of T uninspiring, which is when I switched to OCAD U.
Why Toronto? I was born here in Toronto and other than some extended summers elsewhere, I’ve been here my whole life. While I’d like to get away sometimes, Toronto is a great home base, because there is always something to see and do, and it has a ton of great resources for artists - like Gallery 44 where I am a member.
Note on my studio portrait: I recently read something by Ann Hamilton regarding studios: “I knew that my studio was in the books I was reading and in the flea markets and junk stores that I visited…I was just coming to understand, as I graduated, that a studio is a state of mind and not a physical location.”
Amanda is opening a solo show at XPACE this coming weekend. For more information, click here.
