Ariana Papademetropoulos interview with Oliver Zahm

Her hyperrealist paintings revisit mythology and Jungian archetypes as surreal tableaux that serve as portals to fantastical scenes. By blending symbolism with contemporary narratives, she creates illusionistic paintings that challenge perceptions.

For this issue, she was photographed at the turtle conservancy in Ojai, California.

OLIVIER ZAHM — The interaction between art and magic has always been there, in a way, since mythological tales — because it starts with poetry and continues right up to the Surrealist movement. How do you explain this connection between art and magic?

ARIANA PAPADEMETROPOULOS — For me, magic is the earliest human attempt to transfer thoughts into psychical reality and to have an influence on the forces of nature. Art, therefore, is a form of magic — the transference of thought onto materials. The first time art was written about in terms of its correlation to magic was by the theosophists. Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater wrote a book called Thought-Forms: A Record of Clairvoyant Investigation.

OLIVIER ZAHM — At the beginning of the 20th century, yes?

ARIANA PAPADEMETROPOULOS — Yes, this was written around 1905. They believed that the nonphysical, hidden realms could only be described through abstract forms. That’s why Kandinsky, who was interested in thought-forms, was the first abstract artist to consider perception to be an impermanent illusion in comparison to its truth — the painted version of reality. Hilma af Klint predated Kandinsky and also imbedded theosophy throughout her spiritual and magical forms. Agnes Pelton, as well. A lot of female artists have always dealt with the spiritual realm. Magic is a universal language everyone can tap into.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Because magical art is a portal to the unknown or to a secret world, to a different vision of the world?

ARIANA PAPADEMETROPOULOS — I see art as a shortcut to that. With language, you have to describe something, whereas with painting and art, it’s a visceral, immediate reaction, where you understand something through a feeling rather than through verbal communication. This is very powerful but sometimes undermined.