Sasha Katz for Felt Zine 66

You are sitting in your car and browsing through Pinterest. You are saving an image. Plants start growing and spreading around, the hands reach toward you. An unknown number is calling but there is no one to answer as you are already dead.

FeltZine 66 has arrived featuring Moscow-based digital gif artist, Sasha Katz. Experience our interactive issue and read our conversation with Sasha Katz below:

Where do you currently reside and how does that have an effect on your work?

I currently live in Moscow, Russia. Extremely intense aesthetics is mixed with incogitable ugliness in this city, that inspires me.

Your work also revolves around particular objects utilized in pop/mass culture. What objects particularly inspire your current job?

I usually fall in love with the object and start embodying it in all forms. I had a long romance with my Macbook. In winter I went to Vladikavkaz and saw a poster of a driving school: a collage of Russian car Zhiguli and Mountains. That poster drove me mad, and I started a series of works about Russian cars and landscapes.

What are the essential or main ideas in your work?

The main theme of my works is perfection of imperfection.

These FeltZine Issue #66 artworks works continue to explore growth and newfound objects in our global culture. What inspired this collection of artworks?

I always wanted to make something creepy. I guess I was watching too many movies of David Lynch recently.

Your latest work utilizes color that is prominently new to your work (dark, ominous landscapes). What brought you to design work with this atmosphere?

I think I was swimming in a pink ocean for too long. I’m tired of synthetic pastel cuteness and wanted a more somber atmosphere.

What do you see your work turning into as the internet art medium progresses into the future?

I wish to embody my work into real objects you can touch and smell.

How did you get started in NetArt/ Internet Art medium?

I used to draw female asses with the traces of suntan; after that, I started making pixel art and posting it on Tumblr.

Your work accentuates the art of motion, or the love of the moving image. What initially inspired you to create work within the gif/ infinite video art medium?

I like to watch the grass fluctuating in the wind; I love the blood, pulsating in the ears; I like the way the objects move underwater. I use these slow dynamics in my works.

Where do you look for inspiration?

I visit weird cities looking for visual experiences.

Who are your favorite artists right now?

I adore Marina Abramovic and everything she does; alongside James Turell and Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

What other forms of art do you create at the moment?

I started to make tattoos, and strangers would come into my apartment to get a free tattoo. I’m very excited to put a needle into someone’s skin, and it’s [still] a pretty new experience for me as a digital artist. Now I touch not only my touch bar but people’s bodies.

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Written by Dev Moore