Julia Soboleva
The Latvian born artist discusses her transcending through different mediums, remaining open to her intuition and exploring the spectrum of opposing forces
Julia Soboleva is a Latvian mixed-media artist based in the UK. Her process involves painting and collage on found photographic imagery. Meditating on the themes of madness and reality, Soboleva constructs mysterious narratives with ominous overtones and absurd humour. Being born and raised in a post-Soviet era and not being able to find her own place against the complicated past of her nation, Soboleva explores the notions of family, taboo and trans-generational trauma in her work. She obtained a Master's Degree in Illustration at Manchester School of Art in 2018, and has gone on to work as an independent creator and freelance designer.
MEPAINTSME: You were born in Latvia, and if I'm not mistaken, raised by your grandmother in the post-Soviet era. Can you talk a bit about this? At what age did you migrate to the United Kingdom, and what effect did this have on you?
Julia Soboleva: It’s remarkable to think I was born in what was then the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, which soon after my birth became independent Latvia. It was a time in history when one world was collapsing, and a new one was emerging. These were dark times for many people, with high crime and uncertainty about the future. I was born a so-called 'Russian Latvian', part of Latvia’s largest ethnic minority. And yes, I was left to live with my maternal grandmother because my parents divorced straight after my birth and went on to build their own families.
So from a young age, I understood that reality, as we know it, is an illusion. I realised that, like an onion, ‘reality’ consists of many ‘scales’: name, nationality, language, family. I saw that these layers of ‘reality’ are flexible and that they can expand, change or collapse. I also had a ‘spidey sense’ that there is a way to build your own ‘reality’ and that all the answers were somewhere deep within me.
As a child, it was challenging for me to navigate tricky family dynamics, so as soon as I reached the legal age to travel, I took a plane and left for the UK to start anew. My early life experiences gave me a strong sense of independence, and a very precious piece of knowledge - that it is all up to me.
MPM: I discovered your work a couple of years ago, and it had an immediate impact. Nightmarish imagery can fail miserably if it isn’t believable, and by that, I mean there needs to be a feeling of authenticity, which I get from your work. I’ve read that storytelling, folklore and superstition influenced you from a young age. Can you talk about these influences?
JS: We can say that our reality is experienced through the opposing forces: light and dark, fear and love, yin and yang. You can not have one without the other. And it is an ultimate wisdom — to be able to blend them into one. So what I am curious to explore through my art is the depth of this whole spectrum of opposing forces. Take feelings like nostalgia, déjà vu, grief or loneliness. Each of them are the blend of the opposing forces, they are simultaneously full of light and darkness. Grief is a receipt of love. Loneliness has a twin sister called Solitude. So for each of these manifestations, in order to understand them on a deeper level, I create and inhabit ‘little worlds’.
And yes, as a child I was very lucky to be exposed to Slavic fairytales through books and TV. Fairytales helped me to acquire a semi-magical outlook on life, as they seemed to more believable and ‘reasonable’ than the actual reality. I was fascinated by some of he characters and their lookalikes keep emerging in my pieces! Koschei the Deathless, for instance. He is an archetypal antagonist who is an opposing force to our ‘noble hero’. Koshei’s death is hidden in multilayered nesting objects - a needle inside the belly of a duck inside the belly of a rabbit inside the treasure chest buried in a far away island. There are many other amazing characters like Leshy (woodland giant spirit) or Rusalka (drowned water nymph) which occasionally visit my ‘world’. In fact, one of the characters, named Domovoi, a house spirit who protects your home and accepts offerings in the form of sweets, actually ‘lived’ together with me and my grandmother, and it was both scary and amazing. But it’s a story for another occasion.
MPM: When I look at your work, I’m never aware of where the photograph ends and the paint begins, allowing the viewer to surrender to your vision. Do you paint directly on the original prints?
JS: My approach sits somewhere between painting and collage so, I refer to it as mixed media. While the style and medium are integral parts of my art, the technical aspects never interested me much. Not because they are unimportant but because there’s so little time to create. I make work in between daily responsibilities, sometimes late at night or at 4 am in the morning. So blending photographic elements with painting has also a practical aspect to it, as it allows me to express ‘the depth’ in a very short period of time with minimal tools or equipment.
In terms of the actual process, I mostly use crops of found anonymous images. If it’s a crop from an old magazine, I treat it as a collage element and paint directly on it. If it’s an old abandoned photo, I make a print of it.
MPM: Are the photographs you use originally sourced? Where do you find them?
I find them in flea markets, charity shops or make my own photos. Earlier on in my practice, searching for the right image was a very significant part of the process. But now I fully trust my intuition and allow the images to come my way and find me instead. I think powerful images are all around us in abundance; even a trip to the convenience shop can generate hundreds of amazing images. It’s not about finding something precious ‘out there’ but about going inward and learning to see differently.
MPM: In my experience, old found photographs come with their own history, making them strange and sometimes disturbing. Couldyou talk about your process of discovering old photos you might use? How do you respond?
JS: In order to keep ‘opening’ my intuition, I made a rule for myself that I only have one second to decide whether the image is right for me or not. I see the image and I instantly know — that’s the one (just like falling in love). When you enter a room, you instantly know whether you like the vibe or not. It might be the lighting, the smell, the people who are in the room. But the knowledge of whether you like it there or not is momentous. So I have the same approach when it comes to the photographic images I am going to work with. It’s a subtle, momentous, instinctual response — ‘yes’ or ‘no.’
Besides a personal interest in photography, when it comes to my work, the photographs themselves don’t interest me as much. I feel it is too much responsibility to tinker with other people’s stories, and in my opinion it requires a lot of additional research and a different approach. Any photograph, as Roland Barthes said, is a loaded evidence, a mad image ‘chaffed by reality’. So what I am looking for in a photographic image is not a personalised story or a narrative, but rather an ethereal aspect of the image, the impersonal ‘in-between-the-lines’ quality of it. I also love using ‘crop outs’ — zooming in to find a microcosm inside the macrocosm.
MPM: Your work is often reproduced as illustrations for books and album covers. Do you sell the originals as well? How do you think your work is best experienced?
JS: As an illustrator, working with musicians and publishers comes naturally to me. However my practise always resided in between illustration and fine art. For years I could not let go of the ‘illustrator’ title. But during my Master's degree, I reassembled my whole methodology and investigated whether my practise can be fractal — whether it can transcend through the different mediums. It turned out it can. So I allowed my work to encompass anything that feels right — fine art, illustration, fashion, film, performance art, etc.
When it comes to my original artworks, I normally sell them privately. I did try exhibiting my work in a gallery setting, but somehow it never felt right - it was too ‘proper’, too direct, too ‘exposed’. Perhaps it needs a more experimental, curatorial approach, I’m not sure. At the moment, however, I’m more drawn to the idea of digital displays like giant screens, VR or holography.
MPM: You recently had a book published of your work. That must have been exciting! How did that come about?
JS: Yes, it has definitely been one of the recent highlights and the person who made it all possible is my publisher Julian Huber, a founder of Mansion Press. Julian contacted me last year with the proposal to make a book and my ‘spidey sense’ instantly said yes. Julian’s enthusiasm and attention to detail was so inspirational, and he kindly involved me in every step of the book-making process. It is definitely one of these projects that grew out of passion for art, and I feel very privileged to have this amazing opportunity and to offer it to my audience.
The book is titled In the Dark Time, the Eye Begins to See and it’s a reference to Theodore Roethke’s poem under the same name. It is now available for pre-order, but it will be printed in August. It condenses the last five years of my practice into a beautifully curated ‘experience’. Also, the book is being published in two editions: a standard one and a collector’s limited edition.
MPM: What’s the atmosphere like while you work? Do you listen to music or podcasts (if so, what)?
JS: I work in liminal spaces, primarily at my kitchen table. But as long as I am not disturbed I can work anywhere — cafes, trains. I found that the most efficient way to create work for me is when I least expect it. Reducing the importance of it all is the key. Amidst the chaos of the daily responsibilities of an adult life and being ‘somebody’ — slipping into a liminal space to make art and be ‘nobody’ often feels like an oxygen boost.
In fact, my most successful artworks are often the most unexpected ones. I remember when I was a student, I got that amazing commission to make a book cover for BFI’s (British Film Institute) Nosferatu film critique book. Because the responsibility was so high, I wanted it to be perfect and I struggled to find the right approach for weeks. Then I accidentally spilled a glass of water on one of the watercolour sketches I made earlier and water turned it into the perfect cover.
Music-wise, I prefer to listen to ambient sounds or lectures on subjects I’m currently exploring (at the moment it’s world religions). I don’t listen to the same music while making art that I do in my personal time because I get too influenced by other artist’s visions and tend to loose my authenticity.
MPM: Thank you very much for speaking. Do you have any other projects on the horizon you’d like to share?
JS: Thank you so much for this amazing opportunity. Your gallery and curation are a constant inspiration for me! Currently, I started doing monthly print drops of my new more elaborated pieces, and the next one is coming at the end of the month. I love the dynamics of it as it allows me to deepen my practice and research and thus I can offer people a more personal connection to my art. Other than that, I’m continuing on my path, guided by the light in the darkness.
IN THE DARK TIME, THE EYE BEGINS TO SEE - THE ART OF JULIA SOBOLEVA is available for pre-order through The Mansion Press:
For monthly print drops, follow Julia on Instagram: @juliasobolevaillustration