Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

My current name is Cosa, which means “thing” in spanish. This concept/word replaced my birth name, first as a nickname. Then, I realized this way of naming myself will be a personal exploration to understand my identity beyond normativity and closer to a contemplative and sentient entity.

At this moment, I live and work as a multidisciplinary artist in Mexico City.

 

 

How do you describe your practice?

I like to see myself as a doer, who starts from a series of speculations. I understand speculation as a wrapper that gives power to ordinary stories. Therefore, my practice shows stages marked by interests that begin and come to an end. My latest reflections projected in my work allude to the forms in which social agreements materialize against certain attitudes that by nature are untamable.

What are the overarching motifs in the art you make?

The motifs of my practice are not mainly present in specific forms or materials but instead are embodied through decisions or gestures. One of the constant motifs is the act of referencing popular culture or everyday scenarios.

What/who influences your current work? How does your environment inform your output?

Influenced by memories from my teenager era, Madonna’s album “Music”, “Caza de conejos” by Mario Levrero, Berta García Faet´s poems, Beyoncé´s style moments, the kiss at the coach scene at “The Lobster” movie, and nature documentaries.

 

What do you want a viewer to walk away with after seeing your work?

In my work, there are clues that guide towards an intention and, at the same time, there are elements that aspire to be ambiguous. I like to think that whoever sees my work will want to continue speculating about what they saw and thus investigate their own interpretations. A smirk or an eye-roll are always an extra gift for me.

Describe your current studio or workspace.

Until June of this year, I will be working in two different studios that have in fact become opposites of each other: warm vs. cold, dusty vs. aseptic, profane vs. honorable, etc. The workspace definitely triggers processes, and I am excited by the consequences of inhabiting these two very different spaces.

 

What is one of the bigger challenges you struggle with as an artist? How do you cope and how does it inform your practice?

My main struggle is to defend my work however it turns out. It happens to me that I have interests that range between new observations and new materials, so certain projects could be seen as out of step with my whole body of work, and critics in the artistic field do not like that very much. Other times, the fight is with my rational self. The truth is intuition is always my salvation.

What excites you?

Good reflections turn me on (hahaha)

Any recent, upcoming, or current projects you are working on?

At the moment I’m working on a couple of solo exhibitions. One of them opens in a gallery located in San Luis Potosí (a city in the northeastern part of the Mexican territory) in April. The second exhibition will be presented in Mexico City at the end of this year. I´m also working on an installation project that will be presented for a biennial that has important national relevance in Mexico.

 

What have you been reading and listening to recently?

I’ve been reading about relationships between humans and wild animals in captivity. Here are the last three titles I read: Animal Crackers by Hannah Tinti, Bear by Marian Engel, and The Marriage of the Red Fish by Guadalupe Nettel.

Who are some of your favorite artists?

This list may seem kind of random and eclectic, but I think here are my tops in this particular moment:  Henri Matisse, Meriem Benani and Giussepe Penone.

 

Do you have any favorite quotes/mantras that have carried through your life?

“Dios ve por los inocentes” which translates to “God cares for the innocents”. I really like this phrase because of the irony it contains. In Mexico, you grow up and live with such close proximity to the Catholic religion that any good thing that happens in your life is thanks to God and not necessarily thanks to your perseverance. I like to use this phrase when something good happens to someone and it wasn’t necessarily because of their effort, but because of luck.

What do you collect?

Lately I’ve been collecting my own hair, especially those that are changing from their original color to gray, so they are two-colored hair.

 

Interview conducted and edited by Natalie Toth. All images courtesy of the artist and Guadalajara90210.