Inspired by mythology and folklore, digital artist, and sculptor Ida Lissner, gives us an insight into the philosophy and creative process behind the creation of new worlds that intertwine nature and nonhuman elements, exploring the paradoxical relationship of humans with the natural world through technology.
'Midnight Biome' - Ida Lissner
Greetings Ida, can you please introduce yourself? Where are you from? How long have you been designing? How did you start?
My name is Ida Lissner, I am from Denmark and live in Copenhagen. I work with world-building and image-making via CGI, animation and more recently sculpture. I have studied visual communication, but never really felt very connected to graphic design, but it gave me the opportunity to learn some tools and methods that became the foundation for my work today.
Your art is characterised by crystallised shapes in the natural world, reflecting sort of fairy world. What is the inspiration behind your aesthetic and style? I draw on many references from mythology, folklore and other stories embedded in the way we see, relate, and understand ourselves in nature and in the more-than-human world. I think it is about creating this world where some parts are perceived as familiar and some as foreign, because it creates this in-between world where you can open your mind towards new ways of seeing the world or understanding nature. Our understanding of our relation to nature is shaped by so many things from science, art, consciousness, memories, myths, and dreams. Lately I see myself moving more and more away from digital media and into physical sculpture which I am very excited about.
'In Ruins Flourishing' - Ida Lissner
Can you explain how your creative process works?
I like to describe my work as storytelling through world-building, so naturally my process almost always begins with a story I want to tell. It can also be a feeling, an atmosphere, a memory, or an experience, often something connected to nature, that I try to compress or condense or encapsulate in some way. It could be how the light hits the forest ground or the combination of plants growing around a fallen tree, or someplace where rot/decay and vitality/life are co-existing in a beautiful or interesting way. It is a very intuitive process, in the best cases I don’t even think about what I do, it just happens.
'Winter Garden' - Ida Lissner
What do you think the future holds in the relationship between technology and nature, with the constant transformation and destruction of it. Do you think art can fulfil a role helping heal this relationship? I am interested in exploring the contradictory aspect of portraying and experiencing “nature” using technology, and how we as image makers in a digital age can navigate the intersection of two phenomena that are happening simultaneously — the destruction of nature and the growth of technology — and what this means for how we create with digital tools; Does experiencing nature through the lens of technology reinforce the alienation towards it? Or can we use it as a portal for reconnecting with it? I don’t think I can answer these questions now, maybe I never will… It may seem a bit paradoxical, but I somehow hope that my work will inspire people to spend less time in front of the screen. The dream is that my images invoke some kind of re-enchantment with nature, that they work as a reminder of what we sometimes take for granted.
What would you like to say to aspiring artists inspired by your work?
Get out of Instagram, Pinterest, Arena (even though I LOVE arena) and stop looking too much art through the phone and the computer. Go for a hike, visit a museum, write a journal, and remember or realise or connect to what is important to you, what you are interested in and what stories you want to tell. It is so easy to forget this, in this day and age where so much of the art we consume is through small screens and measured by likes and follows.
'The Sky Has Not Fallen Yet' - Ida Lissner
Interview by Coeval Magazine
March 2023