“Beauty Makes People Better." - Interview With Alien Artist Dorya Glenn

Written by Julie O.

Author and visual philosopher Julie O. speaks with Dorya Glenn about collaboration and the importance of breaking rules to gain vitality as well as extend social relevance. “Beauty calls for change. Change the world!”

JO: Most artists work in relative isolation. Dorya Glenn seeks to create a buzz with artist collaboration. Why did you choose the way as you did to create your world?

DG: Dorya Glenn is pseudonym of Belgian photographer Filip Naudts and Europe-based Chinese independent writer/performance artist Julie O’yang. The photography is part of an art book project The Picture of Dorya Glenn.

Art authored by multiple individuals is less about the genius behind a master piece. Collaborative artists are fascinating precisely because they do not subscribe to the cult of individualism. The entire creative process values conversation, shared experiences, conflict resolution, and diplomacy. It’s a cliché to say that artists show the way for society. It’s not a secret we are living in a time when there are so many devastating things going on in the world. Never before has humanity been so united yet so divided. Artist collaboration show the way to a better society. We should remember the only solace we can get is from each other.

JO: Could you tell us something about your identity? What makes Dorya Glenn who she is?  

DG: Dorya Glenn is all about breaking identity conformity. This is key in our globalizing world where civic belonging is no longer useable. Take Covid-19 as one example. The pandemic is a global health crisis that demands a global solution which we don’t have. Dorya Glenn calls herself an alien artist, her approach to this ancient problem of civic belonging is radical, of course. “Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful.” This is her motto. Dorya Glenn is the creature of beauty and power. She is very much the love child born from the crossing of coffee bean and tea leaf. A coffee bean has a straightforward, unambiguous shape and its effect on us is outgoing, extrovert, while a tea leaf needs to unfold in hot water in order to show its true form and for an oriental, tea makes you feel sociably lonely. It’s the whole point of tea: to reflect. My creators conceived me, a fictive protagonist who addresses the current global issues but who is a stranger to both of them so the artists can look at things from new, “good” perspectives. Life is too short to make bad art.

JO: Is Dorya Glenn an action hero with deep thoughts and feelings?

DG: Like I said before: Dorya Glenn is the creature of beauty and power. I want to take over control and instigate change. I realize this is what the world needs right now!

Art reveals consciousness. It offers multiple windows on the deepest and broadest aspects of being human. This is a physical improvement in the most evolved parts of our brain. Like any other activity, the parts of the brain that are used are strengthened. More benefit comes from the self-understanding arising from what you choose to see. Perception is not passive. It’s always scanning for what will be useful to us. I am drawn to what resonates with my own inner state, often mirroring it, sometimes compensating for it.  The eyes are the scouts of the heart but action is the real measure of intelligence. “Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.” This is a Aristotle quote. The Greek philosopher believed zest is the secret of all beauty. 

JO: What is beauty according to Dorya Glenn?

DG: Beauty involves imagination. Beauty envisions a free world and defeats limitations both human and societal, including intolerance, injustice, and misogyny. I want to plan a brand new reality.  

Art and artists enlarge the range of what we are able to see. By showing significant pattern, the viewer’s capacity for insight is developed. Visual art trains the viewer in visual thinking, which may allow us to evolve a new level of intelligence. Powerful visual intelligence has been crucial for animals and humans alike throughout our evolution history.

JO: What does beauty do?

DG: Beauty makes people better. I’m making a political statement but it’s also how I understand the world at the moment. Beauty has its dark side. From the moment we have a brain, we know there are ugly things and unjust things happening around us. We are human beings shaped by illusions, frustrations and complexes. For me that’s also beauty. Beauty calls for change. Change the world!

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 Julie O. is author of fiction and nonfiction, journalist, translator and art lecturer and mentor based in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. After studying History and Philosophy in China, she arrived in London in 1990s and then left for Holland to study at the prestigious University of Leiden, during which course she rediscovered, through the detours of Japanese literature and art, the huge treasure trove and eternal values of East Asian aesthetics in whose presence her heart first opened. She hosted talk show China TV for Dutch National Broadcaster VPRO and was Editor-in-Chief for English/Chinese bilingual lifestyle magazine XiN, introducing contemporary Chinese art and design. She also wrote for Hoje Macau on contemporary China and worked as Chief-Content-Provider for MaisOrient Film Production in Macau. Julie teaches Art and Aesthetics online for Saint Joseph University in Macau and holds webinars on East Asian Aesthetics. Currently, she is working on her new book, Sex, Drug and Bicycles in Imperial China. The narrative nonfiction takes the reader on a journey in the footsteps of forgotten women of Chinese history and civilization.

Connect with Julie O. on Facebook: facebook.com/julie.o.writes/

Visit Julie O.'s website: www.julieoyang.com