15 Questions With… Teri Varhol & Elena Helfrecht

How are you at the moment?

Teri: Quite melancholic, but my moods are so fluctuating these days that by the end of this questionnaire it will be something else again. So it’s fine, thanks for asking, haha. I love winter!

Elena: The days are getting shorter, so I’m running even lower on energy than usual, and there is too much that I want to do. I am constantly tired. But yes, I also love winter, as the days and nights around winter solstice are a magical time here in Bavaria, full of myths and rituals. And with the moonlight reflecting in the snow, the nights in the countryside are very beautiful.

What is your morning ritual? How does your day begin?

Teri: Since I am a night owl, I don’t have any mornings and therefore no morning rituals. I only function after midday. The day usually starts with panic about what’s going on and where I am. Then it’s okay. :)

Elena: I basically just fall out of bed and into my studio/office. Before I start the day, I often make myself some tea or refill my water carafe, and then I check on my plants (ideally).

What, right now, can you see?

Teri: My laptop screen, this form, letters, fingernails, a black cup of coffee with an image of Freya. Lichen, fixative, a glass of water, 2 WD disks, 2 keyboards, 2 other black screens, 2 snake plants, chalks, pencils, magnifiers, … these are just some external visions. Internally, I see snowy peaks of mountains shimmering in the midday sun.

Elena: My studio wall with two beautiful originals by the incredible Jana Heidersdorf. Also, dead moths, a dead owl (which is constantly watching over me), fairy lights, and a messy desk below. And chocolate!

What artist, project, book would you recommend we see/follow?

Teri: This is always a tricky question. I have a soft spot for diaries, and right now I’m loving Josef Koudelka’s newly released Diaries.

Elena: ‘Séance’ by Shannon Taggart!

Tell us about your process when starting a new project

Teri: It’s actually different and unique every time since I’m not focused solely on one medium. Usually, it starts with great excitement, passion, and the idea of learning or solving problems that interest me. Also, the process develops simultaneously as I develop as a person. In the past, I was very impulsive, but now, although I still use my intuition as a guide, I’m much better at selecting and creating work for a particular project to reflect its intent.

Elena: A lot of my work just develops organically. I constantly take photos, and often I just find out later where they belong. Since I mainly work on long-term projects, at some point my head works like a set of drawers where I sort the images into. Sometimes I have to restructure, though, and sometimes it takes a long time until I know where to place an image. For ‘Unternächte’, for example, I took the first images in 2015/2016, and only now do I finally have the time and resources to fully commit to the initial idea.

What has been your favourite collaboration?

Teri: It has to be my latest one, of course – working with Elena on our book, Augury. :) But I’ve been lucky and very much enjoyed most collaborations I’ve had.

Elena: Obviously, Augury! :)

What is your greatest achievement?

Teri: Being here, living.

Elena: I have received a few very kind messages from people who told me how my work touched them or made them rethink certain issues. This makes me incredibly proud and happy, I am truly grateful.

What is your greatest regret?

Teri: This is too intimate! If I told the truth, I would probably be locked up, haha.

Elena: Regrets don’t change anything. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Teri: I wouldn’t give her any unless she would ask me for some advice.

Elena: Maybe I’d give her a hug and tell her that things get better.

What is your latest project about?

Elena: Augury is an exchange between the two of us, as we were documenting our inner and surrounding landscapes during the first year of lockdowns while being geographically distant from each other. This exchange began to develop its own language: symbols and images associated with our environments, signs and metaphors, the forced inversion of inside and outside, the notions of home and belonging, an exploration of humanity’s place within the natural world. And somehow, as within all my works, birds have again developed a very significant meaning.

The book merges four distinct geographical spaces (London, the Alps, the Jeseniky Mountains, and the forests of Bavaria) into one new symbolical dimension which can be entered and explored through the pages.

Our main conceptual inspiration was a 19th-century thaumatrope, which creates the illusion of one image, while in reality the two elements never face each other. The bird is free and the cage is empty – but in the beholder’s eye, it gets trapped.

Teri: I wholeheartedly agree and couldn’t say it better! :) I can add that for me, it’s been also about forming and deepening the friendship we’ve built throughout this process of book-making whilst in lockdown, far away from each other. The title, Augury, alludes to another kind of communication – a sort of divination, developed in ancient Rome – predicting omens from the behaviours of the birds. Whilst in Elena’s version you can still spot quite a few of them, on my side, they are almost suspiciously absent. The days and nights have become indistinguishable, merging time as well as space, with the curious sense of the numinous looming over.

What are you researching at the moment?

Teri: NFTs, Czech witchcraft and witches.

Elena: Mainly local myths and legends, inherited trauma and postmemory, consciousness and how it emerges (that’s a constant point of interest). Not to forget true crime!

What can you not work without?

Teri: Purpose and integrity.

Elena: My brain (purpose and integrity included, haha), hands, camera, and my PC.

What challenges have you faced working in your industry?

Teri: Being highly introverted can be challenging, and therefore it’s not easy for me to do networking or maintain presentations online, social media, that sort of thing. It takes lots of energy. Also, sometimes I wish I was bigger and stronger, so it would be easier to carry and operate all those cool and heavy cameras. :)

Elena: I am also a very introverted person, while the whole industry is built on networking and reaching out to people. This is something I still struggle with immensely (I can’t even make phone calls without getting minor panic attacks). Another challenge is money. Producing work and showing it to people (applying for contests, grants, etc.) is incredibly expensive, and the industry definitely favours the privileged, which is a massive problem. This brings me to the next challenge: balancing my bread-and-butter job with making art (I do love both, though).

What are you hoping for in 2022?

Teri: Alien contact, hehe. Meeting with Elena would be great too … and maybe some other friends. But really, each year I hope that we – humans – become a bit more compassionate and kinder to each other.

Elena: I hope 2022 will treat us all better than the past two years. Also, I hope to see Teri again! And it would be nice if it was easier to travel. I miss everyone in London.

Share a song with us, what are you listening to at the moment?

Teri: Roy Orbison – You Got It

Elena: Glenn Miller – In The Mood

Augury is available to pre-order from Antics Publications.