Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
I’m an artist working in a number of mediums, right now mostly focused on installation, media, sound and performance. I was born and raised in the Washington D.C. area
Are there any influences that are core to your work?
Music is the most central probably, and humor
Is there a moment you look back on as being formative to your identity as an artist?
when I was a late teen I remember the day after I was discharged from the hospital for something I won’t speak about, that was the day I fully decided I wasn’t going to make “pretty” things anymore, at least not in the traditional sense. Around that age, I had also seen Arthur Jafa’s Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death, which honestly changed something in me, it was the realest thing I had ever seen in art museum before. And the fact that something that was made of clips from the internet stitched together and could be in a museum flipped my whole perspective, like “oh I don’t have to just draw and paint”. That work is the reason I work with media today.
What kind of imagery are you drawn to?
Black shit, real shit, funny shit, hood shit, new shit. Muted blues, greens and grays.
Your work often includes the assemblage of readymade and found objects. Do you have a typical practice for sourcing objects? Is there something in particular that you’re looking for?
I am notorious for pulling over in the side of the road and peeling something off the asphalt, sidewalk, or whatever, there’s a shattered car window in trunk of my car right now, there’s glass shards everywhere back there its a bit of a problem. I’m attracted to things that exude a life of their own before my hands met them.
What are the ideas of de-processing and deconstruction in your practice? How did they begin?
deconstructing is pulling apart an assembled final thing, de-processing is intercepting it before it even reaches the point of assembly. It’s about removing steps, because in art there’s this emphasis on process that’s used to justify the commercial value of an artwork like “this artist applied many layers over the course of years and that’s why it’s valuable”. I used to paint, then one day I realized I didn’t want to find an image, sketch and plot an image, mix pigments, spend hours painting just to not like the final thing. I’d rather just stop at the reference image. Which is why I’m a “found media” artist. it’s about shortening the distance between the initial feeling and the final artwork that exists to capture that feeling. That’s de-processing.
What is your experience with fashion design?
Before I wanted to be a gallery artist I wanted to be a fashion designer, I was even making and selling stuff for a while through a store called Retail Pharmacy, but I realized it wasn’t my calling, fashion moves too fast, but before that I wanted to make video games, and before that comic books, it all comes back to being fascinated by world building.
Does your experience with styling and fashion design influence how you assemble the components of your work?
Originally it did, I tried to incorporate some kind of clothing in all my works but then that created a self-imposed limitation.
What is your workspace like? (Please include a photo if you have one)
I work from home actually, and I’m a pretty private person so I don’t share depictions of my space publicly. I think privacy as an artist and in general is very undervalued. Something thats always turned me off from residencies and art schools is the typical compulsory open studio as a requirement for the program, I don’t want people all up in my shit, you’ll see the work when it’s finished. My good friend Andrew told me once that you should define your studio, for me, my space is somewhere between sanctuary and temple, my work can skew towards being intense but thats because all my works are prayers, or meditations.
Do you consider the reception of your work while you are making it?
Everything is for me first. There are no unique feelings so anything you feel, someone somewhere is going to feel the same. There’s definitely work I keep to myself because I can’t justify putting it out, which is something I feel like should be done more. Even work that I wasn’t sure of how people would respond, I trusted my gut and put it out and I’m blessed to have an audience that I feel trusts me. Even if they see me make something wild they know it’s for a good reason.
How do you use social media?
It’s a tool, for putting my ideas out there, I’m terrible at keeping in touch with people on there because I prefer talking on the phone.
How does your creative community now compare to your creative community when you were younger?
one of the first things that comes to mind is mutual respect, I respect the people around me and I respect them, if you don’t have respect you don’t have anything. When I was younger I was in with some people that would take advantage of me and didn’t respect me or themselves. I’m surrounded by people whose opinions I trust and admire. I say all the time that if you wouldn’t introduce someone to your mother then you shouldn’t be dealing with them.
How do you manage tending to the variety of responsibilities in the work you do?
I’m a working artist, so finding a balance is a continual challenge, something that helped me a lot is learning to identify when I’m trying to force something, like finding a work or an application or email. It can almost always wait till the next day. Also learning to not feel guilt about long periods of not making anything, sometimes you just have to let yourself be.
What are you interested in exploring further in your work?
I’m trying to explore performance more, and my music practice, I plan on exploring that through collaboration with my friends Hannah Rose Stewart and Blackhaine respectively. Movement of people and sound are materials I am increasingly interested in, Music hits you like no other medium.
What do you collect?
I collect books, mostly art books, half the mess in my space is books, ive been building a personal library for a while that I’m pretty proud of, one day I aspire to open a public research library with my collection
Portrait by Noah Ford.
Interview conducted by Luca Lotruglio.