FROM THE ISSUE:

Abbey Lee and Cara Stricker are two intensely multi-talented women crashing through their mutual creativity and exploring the outer reaches of their imagination. Here’s what happened when they got together on a Los Angeles soundstage and made the chronomirage magic happen with a wardrobe of Gucci and a whole lot of aloe vera gel.

Why did you want to work together?

Abbey Lee: I’ve always felt creatively connected to Cara, so I’m always on the lookout for ways we can collaborate. We have a deep mutual trust for one another, which makes working together exciting as we can be incredibly honest and clear with our communication and push the boundaries a little.

Cara Stricker: I feel like Abbey and I share a world we both understand. A kindred mind of sorts. I feel completely free and open with her both creatively and as a friend. I love sharing what I really want to with her and explore without holding back. It’s so rare to find that.

When did this collaboration first take flight?

AL: Cara created these incredible creatures using AI and I said to her one day, “I want you to make me into one of those girls.” And Cara being a tech freak was all over it and figured out how.

CS: Sometime last year I was in a tech hole of exploring AI and how to capture my world within it. Abbey felt really connected to it all, so we began discussing exploring her being part of it.

How long have you known each other?

AL: I would say about 15 years at this point.

What do you admire about each other?

AL: Creatively, I find Cara incredibly fascinating. She has her own language in the way she chooses to express herself through her work and I am very attracted to that in a person. I’ve also been in her life and watched her grow rapidly, which is a testament to her passion and strong work ethic. That’s another quality I am always drawn to.

CS: I love how Abbey embodies strength, compassion and vulnerability at all times. She moves through the world with a unique ability to make mountains move while making time stand still. She’s incredibly headstrong and focused, achieving anything she sets her mind to. It’s amazing to witness and her determination only grows stronger.

How do you inspire each other?

AL: Cara’s resilience inspires me the most. She is a very strong woman who believes in herself inherently and, despite having her own insecurities as an artist, which we all do, she is never crippled by them. She pushes herself over all sorts of hurdles that life flings at her.

CS: Everything Abbey creates, writes, puts her heart and soul into, I’m moved and fascinated by. I think it’s a language we share. She hits a place in me that speaks volumes without words. Her deep sensitivity and intensity cuts through and just resonate for me.

The story is a ‘chronomirage’ – your word. Please explain this nirvana…

CS: A timeless place that exists only in your mind’s eye.

You promised nature, humanity and technology…

CS: The image is a fusion of all elements, exploring the intersection where human identity meets and transforms through technology, dipping and dissolving into a new existence. I find it interesting to create the base image through AI scraping the internet to invent a version of human by blending reality with a portrayal and ideas all over time. Then shooting Abbey in a real environment that aligns with CGI. When painting her in, they dissolve even more.

What was it like being in these otherworldly realms?

AL: It’s like being inside my own dreams or fantasies. It’s like being on the planet my dad said I came from.

What was it like creating them?

CS: Each piece evolved in unpredictable ways as I worked, influenced by the physical world, the clothing and the CGI elements. The interplay of lighting, layering and liquid elements varied with each image, making every creation a unique journey.

Why the deep sea?

AL: Because I feel both entirely here and not here when I’m in it.

CS: I’m obsessed. I love how light emanates from within. Much of my lighting inspiration comes from bioluminescence.

Most interesting anecdote when you’ve been sailing, diving or snorkelling?

AL: Around age 14 I was floating in the water all by myself and a sting ray that must have been at least two metres long gently glided under my feet.

CS: I found myself caught in a massive tropical storm while walking through the jungle in Kauai, Hawaii. Just an hour earlier, I had been texting a friend about nudibranchs [molluscs], specifically the blue glaucus, or blue dragon.

Since I was already drenched, and it was so hot, I decided to head to a nearby beach. The waves were raging, the sand was almost washed away and branches littered the shore. As I looked down, I saw a blue glaucus nudibranch, as small as my fingernail, by my feet. I’d only seen one other in my life. The rarity was mind-blowing. I don’t know how to explain that feeling, but it was otherworldly.

Bioluminescence is a fleeting occurrence, like a secret flowering in the sea. Have you ever seen it in real life?

AL: I haven’t, no.

CS: I’ve experienced it a handful of times and each occurrence has been incredible. Swimming in bioluminescence in southern Turkey; seeing our bodies light up unexpectedly one night in Sydney; and witnessing the waves crashing in LA two years ago, all illuminated by bioluminescence – each moment has been surreal.

You created a limitless landscape. Would you like to live here?

AL: Oh yes. I absolutely would love that.

CS: In some of them for sure…

‍It’s like a dream landscape. What is your dream‘ working’ future?

AL: To keep expanding creatively. I feel like I’m only touching the edges of what I’m capable of.

CS: In terms of ‘work’ I am involved in, I’ve written a handful of screenplays that are in various stages of development and pre-production. I’m dreaming of the day those are flying off the page and realised completely. Flowing in that space would feel like the right future.

If it was the end of the world and you could choose one country to save and live there forever, which one? And why?

AL: I would go down with the end of the world.

CS: I don’t think forever is what ‘life’ is. And what’s after it is perhaps part of it.

Soundtrack to the images?

AL: Intergalactic by Beastie Boys.

CS: Four Tet, Planet. Aphex Twin, Tha. Philip Glass and Anton Batagov, Etude 6.

This issue has endeavoured to capture the spirit of renaissance women and you are two creatively ever-evolving women working together. Was that great?

CS: I loved it. Moving into this space with Abbey, along with our other endeavours, is a true pleasure. It’s energising, inspiring, stimulating and forever-evolving. I don’t know if it’s the mark of a renaissance woman, I hope it’s just the nature of all women.

How do you keep going? What fuels your energy for projects/art/film/stories like this one?

AL: Of course, I feel myself evolving creatively because I’m always working on that. I am inspired by everything around me and inside of me. My memories, my dreams, the people I love, the people who’ve hurt me, nature, books, music, the nature of humans, film… Everything, including sometimes just the sensation of things against my skin.

CS: I don’t know how to stop…

How important is fantasy right now in this world we live in?

AL: Fantasy has always been important, I think. It matters as much now as it always has. Humans have created the world we live in because of what they fantasise about.

CS: A way for us to learn about ourselves and each other.

From Issue 24, RISING RENEW RENAISSANCE of 10 Magazine Australia out now.

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