Gatinha
Hello, Erica, how are you? I'm sending the interview questions. They are separated from the exordium of the interview to faciçitar in the translation:
Erica, when I met her art, I had the impression that I was facing something like "The Oval Portrait" by Poe, such a life and passion that she expresses. It is as if there is something organic from inside being ripped out and projected onto the canvases. Can you tell how you feel and how you work with your thoughts when you are in the process of creation?
The strange thing is that I don’t really think much when I’m collaging or painting. I go into a bit of a trance state. When I am receiving the messages or visions that inspire the work itself, I am usually dreaming or in meditation. The Void usually shows me what to do and it’s my job to draw it or write down the notes for a specific piece. Then I go about finding the right materials for it. I will search through piles of magazines or books and find the right image. Sometimes they simply fall out of a book and I don’t have to look anymore. Then I sit and meditate and try to arrange the images over top of the board so that the psychical cut-outs mirror the astral image that I see. That is why the collages are alive. They are large abstracted sigils of messages from the Void. With painting it is a bit more direct. If I am channeling a spirit into the painting, I usually use mirrors. I write the spirit songs or poems and ask it to come to me. Sometimes I use several mirrors all reflecting each other to make a tunnel and ask the spirit to come through the mirrors from the other side. Paintings take longer than collages but I like them more because they are very original pieces. Collages are reflections of humanity because they are society’s images that I use, not my own. I simply distort society’s images and use it as a gateway to the Void.
The grotesque elements in his work are articulated in such a way that they construct a device for thinking about the human, the mind and its relation to the real. The creative richness of expressions that border the boundaries of what may or may not be in this world goes far beyond any kind of surrealism. The feeling that your art is the result of a relationship between you and a gloomy reality does not get out of my head. Do you see yourself as mediating a sinister condition that is beyond your human nature when it produces?
I don’t even really think the condition is sinister anymore, its just outside of mundane human perception. I understand that a lot of people do see it as evil or sinister and maybe I am too deep into it to see it as such. I am not a particularly gloomy person, actually. I think when people meet me in person they are surprised that I laugh a lot and I am always smiling. My work brings me great joy and satisfaction because it is an expression of unmitigated reality. Its not normal to do what I do but I was made for this purpose and I feel humbled by the opportunity to be an artistic agent of the Void. What many people see as grotesque I see as truth. Its what the world really looks like when you’re not lying to yourself or contradicting yourself or being brainwashed by the systems around you. Sometimes the truth is hard to look at. In that way, I think if people can get past the intensity of the images themselves they will see that I am simply reflecting reality as it is. My creative expression isn’t really mine at all, it is the Void’s.
His art evokes the sensation of being in direct communication with the darkness, which seems to activate a portal through the subjective interpretation of the person who glimpses it. In your opinion what changes in the development of a personal work and a commissioned work when the intention is to manifest these demonic aspects?
I’m lucky that most of my commissioned work is actually within the scope of my personal work so there hasn’t been too much of a difference between the two. How I begin the commons is slightly different in that the client is choosing the entity for me to channel into the work in order to become a portal to the energy of that spirit. My personal work is a bit different because they start out as messages intended for me from the Void and no one else is involved. Either way, they will be used as gateways and not decorative art. I think most of my work that reside is other people’s temples or homes are mostly used the same way: as altarpieces and meditation aids.
Tell us about the Cult of the Void, your involvement with Satanism, and how it relates to your artistic career.
I don’t really think of myself as having an artistic career as I am in no way interested in the art industry itself. My art is an extension of my spiritual connection to the Void so it is sacred art which rarely has a place in contemporary art circles. Satanism was just the path that led me to Void Worship and even when I was a full time practicing Satanist I was never a part of any group. What I do now is not really compatible with what people think of as Satanism. I don’t have pentagrams or goat heads in my home. There is no Cult of the Void, there are only individuals working toward unity with the darkness and bringing it into the material plane. That alone is enough for my work to stand out even against other artists who use Satanism as a buzz word.
When did this opening take place to receive sinister influences through art, did you seek some familiar or even friend background that could contribute to your self-recognition as a satanic artist or was it entirely achieved in solitude?
No, I only work in solitude and continue to collaborate only with individuals who I feel are worthy. I never felt the need for validation from friends or people who may have a similar background as I do. I’ve been working with the black energy of the Void for a long time but about four years ago I performed a ritual to secure that energy into my hands directly. Since then my work does look and feel entirely different. It has a certain voracity now that it didn’t before. I call myself a Satanic artist only because there isn’t another word to define me and there is a serious lack of understanding from individuals outside of occult circles.
I see many artists doing artwork to order and would like to know if they can work on the idea of another person even in the process of creation where their art is the personal result of a neighborhood with demonic forces coming in contact.
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Leave a final consideration for Zarzax Projection readers.
I’d like to thank those of you who are interested in my work and the spiritual implications. If you use my paintings or prints as altarpieces, we are connected through the dark matter of the Void. I would like to continue connecting with people who are interested in Void Worship in order to awaken their destructive creativity by making information freely available on my website EricaFrevel.com.
Thank you!