GATA meets YULIA SHUR: Dark Fantasies
Death, love and the subconscious are themes that fuel LA-based visual artist Yulia Shur. Not content with taking traditional images through photography, she has used her camera to embark on a journey of self-discovery and experimentation. Channelling the plethora of images within her mind, she has drawn influences from a range of Asian culture and ideas of future technology and body modification. This endless curiosity and desire to express her essence, has resulted in a body of work that is truly unique, standing out from other image-makers in the same field.
After moving to Toko in 2015, she worked with numerous magazines, including i-D, King Kong and NYLON, bringing her aesthetic to a new audience. Now she has taken her talents to LA, starting a new creative chapter in her life.
Monsters, alien-like creatures and horror elements frequently engulf her images; they are powerful and disturbing, yet maintain a certain element of beauty throughout that keeps you intrigued. The GATA team had the opportunity to get to know this forceful mind, touching on topics such as the power of dance and the “dark fantasies” that can exist within ourselves.
Selfportrait wearing Maiko Takeda
GATA: Hello Yulia, could you please introduce yourself to the GATA Family? How did you first start taking photographs?
YULIA: Hiii, My name is Yulia Shur, I’m a visual artist stretching the definition of photography using my toolbox full of illusions, poisoned beauty, death, love and subconscious fantasies.
I started with photoshop. Falling in love with it, while everyone was playing computer games, I played with images. From 16, I worked as a retoucher, and at 21, I first took a camera in my hands and never stopped creating pictures since that time.
GATA: Growing up in Belarus, how do you think this upbringing shaped you both as a person and as an artist?
YULIA: I denied my homeland in myself for a long time. But after years of living abroad, I see that much of who I am reflects where I come from. Especially as a person. As an artist, starting photography in Belarus, I never thought it could be a career.
I have never seen a photographer with a style similar to mine, who was successful there. So the only goal of my art, has always been pure joy, playing with fantasies and the desire to get rid of thousands of images inside my head.
And I believe that this is how any art should start, not chasing material things or fame!
“I actively follow everything that happens in the world and it absolutely inspires me and scares me at the same time.”
GATA: We heard that Butoh and Kazuo Ohno have been a big inspiration for you, Ohno was famous for dressing in quite a feminine way and embracing female qualities through his dancing, as well as certain darkness. Have you ever thought of subverting gender expectations and exploring masculine qualities yourself?
YULIA: This is very interesting, but Kazuo always said that dressing as a woman on stage, he never wanted to be a female impersonator. For him it was a return to his roots, that is, to his mother. And playing with the concept of death and birth, through the figure of a woman. Because this is how we all come into existence on this planet, as part of our mother's body. As for my internal gender roles. I have always felt myself on the spectrum somewhere between a man and a woman. Ever since childhood, I liked to apply the masculine pronoun to myself just for fun. In my work, I like to take on all responsibilities, to be extremely independent, sometimes even too much that I don’t know how to ask for help from others even when I really need it. So to balance this, I like to look extremely feminine on the outside, exaggerate it with bright makeup, sparkles and feathers, somewhere closer to the aesthetics of drag queens.
“Butoh inspires me a lot. There, movements are born from an idea, story, sketch or sensation and the body is used as a tool. I try to use my camera the same way, just as an instrument that conveys something deep inside.”
GATA: What is it in particular about Butoh that you find interesting? Is it the visual style, the exploration of self or the inner darkness?
YULIA: Butoh inspires me a lot. Their movements are born from an idea, story, sketch or sensation and the body is used as a tool. I try to use my camera the same way, just as an instrument that conveys something deep inside.
And of course the visual aspect. Despite the fact that at first sight, it looks frightening, Butoh touches on important topics of death and life, shows very subtly the interweaving of darkness and light, because one is not possible without the other. This concept and these aesthetics are very close to me and it is what I am trying to show with my art.
GATA: Have you ever thought about incorporating dance and movement into your own work?
YULIA: For the last Drop Dead campaign I photographed Butoh dancer Temmetsu Matsumoto. And in general, I always try to add a little bit of movement and dynamic to my photography, since dancing has been a big part of my life. I started dancing when I was 6 and by 22 I tried all styles from ballroom dance and contemporary to hip-hop and pole dance. So I often ask models to move, but only if they feel like it because I want any emotion on the picture to be honest first of all.
GATA: There are scientific and technological elements that appear in your work; how has technology affected your ideas as an artist?
YULIA: On the technical side, I mostly stick to traditional photography, heavy post-production, adding 3D elements sometimes or illustration.
But I actively follow everything that happens in the world and it absolutely inspires me and scares me at the same time. As you can see, in my works, I often fantasize about body modifications that may be possible in the future, a utopian world and friendship with extraterrestrial civilizations, or about a dystopia full of cloned people.
“I like to let all the crazy ideas, dark fantasies, futuristic characters and depressing thoughts literally run through me and through my photographs”
GATA: As a child, you spent a lot of time watching horror movies; which films, in particular, did you enjoy?
YULIA: Unfortunately in our childhood without the Internet, we didn’t have much choice, I remember how sometimes with money for lunch I rented a cassette with 12 horror films and watched them all in a row after school. The Witches (1990), Pet Sematary (1989), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Carrie (1976) and The Ring (2002) I definitely watched as a kid, more than once.
I think I was attracted more by the way they made me feel, I always lacked a little adrenaline hah. And then, as an adult, I explored different genres of horror films more from an aesthetic point of view. Lately, I've been rewatching old vampire movies, like Blood for Dracula (1974), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and movies by Jean Rollin.
GATA: If there was something about Tokyo that you could change, what would it be?
YULIA: Despite the fact that Tokyo and Japan are forever my heart and endless inspiration. Unfortunately at work you still meet a patriarchal and hierarchical world. I have seen changes, and I have met soooo many strong inspiring women. So it may take a little longer, but Japan is about to change.
But if I could, I would change that now and give all the power to the hands of young women.
GATA: You often take self-portraits, portraying yourself in various forms like aliens or monsters. Are these reflections of your own being? Do you view art and the act of creation to be a journey of self-discovery?
Selfportrait, Makeup Amazing Jiro Dress Viviano Studio
YULIA: I like to let all the crazy ideas, dark fantasies, futuristic characters and depressing thoughts literally run through me and through my photographs. Is it really a reflection of my own being? Probably, in some way. I deeply feel each and every character and become it during the shooting. No matter if it's just a fantasy or really my inner demons, exposing it helps me to be in true balance with myself in daily life.
GATA: What is your motivation for creating your work? Is there a message you want to convey?
YULIA: At first, I just wanted to do what I loved the most. And the only thing I really wanted from people looking at my works is to feel something. To sense beauty and become infatuated, to experience an epiphany, feel fear or even disgust. But just feel it. And it seems that over time it became a message by itself. Everyone, no matter what small town you were born in and no matter how wild are your fantasies, you can achieve everything if you do what you truly love. Be sincere in everything you do!
GATA: Do you have any projects that you’re working on right now?
YULIA: For the last few months I’m very immersed in the NFT world and everything connected to it. This is a new exciting journey and endless possibilities. I love how it shapes new artist communities and gives a platform for an exciting collaboration.
Preparing some crazy projects for the cryptoart world.