Foils by Andrea Pecatikov

Foils by Andrea Pecatikov Explores The Uncanny Nature of Human Playfulness

In his latest work, contemporary multimedia artist Andrea Pecatikov combines human-made substance and generative art to produce a stunning collection of 169 unique handcrafted digital artworks.

Foils follows the history of technology in art. Each abstract piece creates a new meaning and a piece of the artist’s backstory to the project. Intrigued by his work, I caught up with Andrea to learn more about his latest art endeavour.

The creative process

In his algorithimc art project, Andrea introduces human play by taking a mundane object—which is a piece of aluminium foil and subjects it to an analogue and repetitive folding.

The resulting fold is then photographed and digitally chiselled through a quasi-generative process until the work is complete, at which point he names it according to what he thinks it means, regardless of how obvious or abstract the piece may be.

In most generative art, data is curated by a human-made parameter within an algorithm. In Foils, on the other hand, the malleable material sets the parameters i.e; the artist is in charge of curation, and the piece emerges as a unique result of infinite probability.

 

First and foremost, many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed. For those who aren’t familiar with your work, could you tell us a little about yourself and your journey to become an artist?

Thank you for having me here—it’s a pleasure. 

My name is Andrea, and I’m a multimedia artist based in London and Istanbul. My interests are based on the notions of creativity and play, which I have incorporated them as a way of life: from my background as an electrical engineer, when I constantly asked the hypothetical and looked for real-life solutions in abstract concepts; right down to co-founding a boutique design agency, where I worked on murals, large-scale installations, festival artworks, and even mobile games. 

As soon as I began creating original works, it was inevitable that my art would explore similar topics, and would be displayed on the NFT space, which gives a lot of freedom for an artist to work and play on their own terms, with a lot of support from the community.

My journey life in the NFT space began in August 2021 with my first collection Liquid Abstracts, which, I’m happy to say, sold out in a matter of weeks. Today, I am slowly releasing my second collection, FOILS, which connects the material to the digital and the abstract. 

I’m definitely intrigued by your unique and intimate relationship with the abstract object. What inspired you to create the Foils project?

I’m fascinated by everyday objects we take for granted, and how what is seemingly random or boring can be elevated to a higher aesthetic. Even simple actions to such material—like repetitive folding, focusing on a detail, or changing its scale—will completely change the object and, most of all, how we perceive it.

I was born in a time before the widespread Internet, which, upon arrival, quickly carved its unique space, different from anything else we had seen before. I am also very lucky to be living in an age where the future has immense possibilities. Today, I believe we are at the crux of both worlds: the distinction between digital and the material world is dissipating, we can now utilize digital tools to look at the tangible in a different manner, just like we can incorporate physicality to the digital space – and my work focuses on the liminal moment of their connection. 

 

As you worked with the piece, you claimed that it begins to speak its own language to “tell you something”. I’m curious to know what were the “conversations” that took place. Would you mind letting us into your experience working with the piece?

To answer this question, I would like to extend the aforementioned themes of play and creativity to a game from one’s childhood.

The way a piece ‘tells me something’ is very similar to looking up at the sky with a friend and asking each other what a cloud looks like. It is a game I played a lot as a kid; and, since I believe I’m a child at heart, it only makes sense that I now expect to find meanings from abstract, fluid shapes I have created. 

It’s not only the artwork in FOILS that resemble these clouds—the entire process, from handling the material to being curious about the resulting design—have something in common: both have infinite possibilities in how they are created and perceived. 

And as I reflect on my own process of crafting and naming the pieces, I discover myself in return. The silent conversations that go through my mind are almost identical to the ones I’ve had decades ago—they are an attempt to capture and explore that curiosity, that naïveté.

 

What has been the biggest learning experience you’ve gained from working on the Foils project?

Simply said, patience and being humble. 

My first tweet ever was literally my first NFT creation. Beforehand, I had been observing the space for months, creating artworks on my own, but without sharing them, because I doubted myself as to why anyone would collect my work.

I was fortunate that my first collection, Liquid Abstracts, sold out within weeks. However, I quickly realized that this was a rare instance, and, more importantly, the high of the immediate success faded away quickly.

If Liquid Abstracts were a successful series in itself, FOILS is a step in finding myself in the community as a successful artist. With FOILS, I used the momentum and the knowledge I gained to build a slower, but more gratifying process, where I immersed myself with the NFT world with more assertiveness: I collected more, shared and supported my favorite artists, and even joined a DAO. This resulted in many organic and genuine connections with galleries and individuals, online as well as in person, which is a completely different experience—making a friend you want to hang out with is much better than receiving a thousand likes by strangers. 

All this to say: the most important thing is to forego instant gratification and the desire to make money. More than succeeding, you will only be happy because you love the work and the process and the community. Talk about your work, believe in it, and believe in others as well, because it’s what worthy in the end. The rest will follow.

Browse Foils on Opensea and view more of Andrea’s art on Instagram.

 


 

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