Gus Franklyn-Bute
Updated August 14, 2020
Perhaps the secret to understanding both motivation and key motifs driving the creativity of AJ Silistrie’s visual artistry is hidden in quotations on her website [AJ Silistrie Photography] AJ Silistrie quote Arnold Newman, the American photographer famed for “environmental portraits” and still life abstracts, who said: “Photography, as we all know, is not real. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.“
AJ Silistrie’s photographs are framed with equivocation and an illusory depth. The talented, self-taught artist, who mysteriously introduces herself as ‘simply’ AJ, consistently presents a body of work which exudes an aura of curiosity and provocation. The narrative of this French-Guadeloupean, who resides and works in London, compels you to embark on an introspective journey. You are lured into visual explication which is at once an awakening and an engagement with the artist’s personal thoughts, observations and travails.
Heart Opening: Journey to the Soul
When I first encountered AJ’s debut collection, ‘Heart Opening‘ in London in the autumn of 2013 at the African and African-Caribbean Design Diaspora (AACDD) festival at OXO Tower Wharf along the South Bank of The Thames, I was hypnotically seduced by living canvases that seem to visually oscillate between the mediums of oils, photography and watercolour. ‘Heart Opening‘ transits between two core themes: people and nature, employing a unique, creative technique which combines photography and prose, where words and sentences are delicately and seamlessly layered into the visuals to construct gentle illusionary allegories.
Altered Nature: Altering perceptions of nature
AJ Silistrie as an emerging visual artist, practises photography as a passion in pursuit of knowledge. Every collection is thought-provoking, capturing moods and moments of her life. AJ’s second collection, ‘Altered Nature’ centres around objects that are set against, or intermingled with a botanical and environmental schematic which are conjured and blended to create colourful, sublunar representation of nature. Altered Nature, as a series of landscape reflections and photo assemblage characterise the effects of urbanism in altering man’s perception of nature.
Indigenous
Ne me dis pas qui je suis toi qui ne sait pas qui tu es, issue de tous, metisse je suis, indigene du monde, mes origines font ma force, ma negritude mon flambeau.
‘Indigenous’, the most recent collection, is described by AJ as ‘a tribute to the past and to what remains today in a critical state of vulnerability. It questions identity and race. Aren’t we all from the same Land? Should race really exist? A race that unites as much as it divides, that gratifies as much as it offends.‘
‘Fearless’ and ‘Falling With Grace’ (below), two monochrome portraits from the “Indigenous” collection was selected as finalists for the May 2014 SHOOT THE FRAME award.
Exhibition & Events
Events:
12 – 13 July 2014 – Urban Art Fair, Josephine Avenue, London, SW2
Exhibitions:
July 2013 – Urban Art Fair, Josephine Avenue, London
August 2013 – Spitalfields Arts Market, London
September 2013 – African and African-Caribbean Design Diaspora (AACDD) festival, London
AJ Silistrie’s Limited Edition art are certainly Objets De Desir and are available for purchase online at SAATCHI ART Online.
