The Vivian Greven Interview

In your work intimacy seems to be a very common theme,  you appear to embrace and celebrate it.

Yes. This is totally right. It’s totally important for me. I think that we, as human beings, are very fragile and very vulnerable. We often choose to survive in this very hectic, superficial, and harsh world in which we are drawn to perfection. We have to become quite cold and functional. Then we forget that we are actually vulnerable and fragile. 

I think it’s so important to get the connection to that fragility again because this is what life is all about. Life is fragile. And in this fragility, is life. The whole spectrum of being and feeling the emotions of being.

If we are not able to allow ourselves to be vulnerable; we can’t feel the whole spectrum of the emotions we have access to. The more we feel, the more we live. In my paintings, I really like to be very honest about the essence of human beings.

Intimacy is something I’m very drawn to because: in becoming fragile, we can become intimate with ourselves. Intimacy is really important because when we lose that connection; we lose our ability to have love for things and for others. We can lose our dignity that way. That leads to the possibility of people being very harmful beings; destroying the things in and around us. That’s where we are at the moment. It’s really necessary to come back to the roots of human beings and rediscover that reconnection. 

Do you feel there’s a lack of intimacy in the world today?

I feel that there’s a lack of love towards ourselves and towards others… towards all living things. 

I think we get hurt in a very early stage of being, and this makes us very cold and hard and stone-like.

In that kind of stone-like state; we cannot be touched anymore. We don’t feel anymore. That’s when we lose our possibility of being intimate with a true and deep inner connection.

Your subjects mostly reference baroque-style depictions of humans as a classic view of sculpture and paintings. How do these figures lend themselves to this feeling of intimacy you’re looking for? 

I feel quite inspired by the idea of being connected through the centuries to art history. The optimization of the human body is learned from history, and it’s very interesting to see that we are all connected through time. 

We can see that there is no real-time; no chronological or biological order. It is just something that is connected through a continuum. I also like that [Baroque figures] are so beautifully made up. We could never look like that… Which reminds me of the perfection-driven world we are in right now. 

You reference specific sculptures and the stories behind them. Can you share a backstory of one of your most recent paintings?

Yes. The sculptures are sometimes specific because they represent a specific story. I was citing a Canova statue, where Venus and Adonis are talking to each other. And I really liked that piece because I enjoyed the intimacy between the two figures, and how the dialogue was driven by the gestures and the contact of the eyes. How the eyes looked at each other. 

Behind that sculpture lies the story of Venus, trying to talk Adonis into not going on a hunt, as she knows that he’s going to die there. But Adonis just doesn’t listen and he doesn’t want to listen. So, we actually see a scene where Venus is warning him but also saying goodbye. I painted it a lot, and I got really deep into the psychology of the two figures. I’ve changed the dynamic between them in my paintings – again and again, and again. I called the whole series “X” because I felt it was an exaggeration. 

Somebody saying goodbye to another person, and somebody else saying goodbye to the status between life and death. 

The paintings kept becoming ghostlike. So I changed the color system during the whole series, and I changed the light system from a positive to a negative one. That was really interesting to me; I was so emotional because I connected to that tonal switch. I felt how it is connected to myself, and to my knowledge of being alive, and of not being alive. Of being a ghost or a person. I figured out that it’s a universal thing, and it’s really connected to so many questions and issues we have in this world. 

What is something you wish to explore?

Here I am. I think I’d like to live more on my own, in quiet surroundings close to nature. That’s something I’d really like to explore. To explore this world inside of myself. When it becomes quiet around me – I would like to become totally present. 

Do you think that this fragility has always been a part of the human condition? Or do you think it’s a more recent development? 

I think it has always been part of the human condition. I think we are incredible, fragile beings. Our bodies are incredibly fragile, but also our souls, and our psyche.

I think it’s just part of our being, and we just don’t want to feel it – because it’s scary.

We don’t want to be concerned about the end of our being, but our being will have an ending. 

What do you think is the best way for someone to embrace themselves?

I think it’s part of being conscious about oneself. I think the way to embrace it is to be conscious and present in the body each and every moment. 

To enjoy life with its ups and downs. Because life includes all our feelings and all our emotions. It also includes death and illness. 

It includes beautiful things like joy and grace. Love, obviously love, is the essence of everything. So, embracing the knowledge of our fragility allows us, in the end, to be fully present. Then we can be fully present and feel everything. I am sure about that.

Does loving oneself look different to everyone, or is there any universal tool or trade in which every person can practice doing so? 

I think from the outside it might look different for you because everyone has different needs or a different love language. But in the inner world, I think loving oneself is always the same. By loving yourself, you’re always also loving someone else. We are all connected. 

It’s always wonderful to treat people with tenderness and love. To care, and to see that everything is worthy to be seen, acknowledged, and praised. All this to say; it’s good to have an attitude of gratitude and to see the beauty in everything.

What is it about the world that holds us back from doing so? 

I was thinking about this a lot.  We are people with trauma. And I was wondering: how long has this traumatic relationship with ourselves been a part of our human condition, and why? Because it doesn’t have to be like that. When I go into my ancestors’ history, I see that traumatic experiences have always been part of the experience.

We give trauma to the next generation. We hand it over. When we don’t know about the trauma, then we are left in a state of unconsciousness. Not living our lives, but rather surviving our lives. 

I think that’s what holds us back from loving ourselves and everyone else. Because to be open means you might get hurt. And, if we have traumatic experiences living inside of us, then we don’t want to be open because we are too frightened to get hurt. I think it’s important to grow into our integrity and get stable in our beings – in our bodies. So that we can be open without being hurt.