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

I’m a writer and artist based in New York.  

Could you describe your practice?

I make quilts, sculptures, works on paper, embroideries etc. and mostly write essays and short stories and some art writing (reviews, profiles, press releases etc.).  

How did your interest in art begin and how did you get to where you are in your practice currently? 

The art thing is kind of hard to answer but I’ve always been interested in art and pictures, especially color. In terms of how things have gotten to where they are now in the studio right now, I think it involves trying over and over again and agreeing to multiple different shows or projects, just to get the ideas out and then figuring out what my goals are from there. 

Can you talk about the importance of the material choices between your sculpture work, video work and quilts/fiber based work and the through lines created from having such an interdisciplinary practice?

 I like to start every show, exhibition or text with a title and work my way from there. In the beginning of a project there’s often this kind of vague but very specific goal or research I want to justify doing and I go from there.  In terms of material choices, I think necessity and finances play a really big part. It’s also a matter of where the work is going to be shown. I try to be really cognizant of what the actual capabilities (location, budget, staff, resources etc.) of each space I work with is…it’s a whole list of things but I guess it primarily could be all summed up as context. 

Even though it’s important that everything is visual, I think about exhibitions in language and text. How would the show be described? How does the checklist read? That really informs things, especially in terms of sculpture. 

Hopefully the throughlines of all the work are starting to show and it doesn’t seem all over the place or unintentionally random. I think good artists, or at least the artists and curators I like to think about, are invested in a big picture, retrospective/catalog approach to their work and that’s how I feel most comfortable operating.  

What does the quilt mean to you and how do you use this medium as a canvas/holder for material (physically and metaphorically)?

At this point there really is no conceptual motivation behind the quilt as a medium. There never really was beyond the fact that “quilting” came with rules: three layers, all attached by one unifying quilting stitch. I started making them when I was searching for a way to combine a lot of the processes I already loved doing, namely felting and dyeing. I think about making quilts the same way that  I imagine most painters think about making paintings. I mean the format is always being interrogated, but it’s not really something that I think about that often since the contents vary so deeply. For the quilts, the medium is not the message, or at least not any message that I’m interested in talking about, it’s I guess more like subtext. I’m more interested in the content. 

How does writing play into your work? Do you see your writing and art existing in the same realm or do you consider them separate?

Writing, at least at the stage I am doing it right now, is a lot more thankless than art. It pays way less, there’s far less engagement, it takes way longer and feels less immediately gratifying so it’s easier to keep them separate. With art I know when something is done, but with writing….it’s kind of endless. I am still editing and readapting things from college and some things are more than 10 years old. There’s an essay that I worked on for Burnaway that I think had nine or ten different drafts. Writing takes long and can be very embarrassing and very incriminating. Getting notes from an editor on something vulnerable almost physically hurts, but it’s also incredibly necessary. I really need an editor.  I don’t really feel that way about art. For the most part the artist gets to make what they want and “publishing” is just putting it on a wall and letting it get its photo taken. 

That being said, I do think about language constantly and approach exhibitions the same way I think I approach an essay, at least in the starting phases. 

I think having two separate practices helps me give the other one space. If there is an idea that I am really really interested in it feels good to filter it through a series of questions and ask myself is this better as text or as art. How verbal does the work need to be? What do I actually want?

Describe your current studio or workspace. (Please provide a photo of it if you have one)

My studio is a garden unit apartment of a private residential building in Bushwick that also has a backyard that I work in. On a good day it’s maybe 40 minutes from my apartment and on a bad day/ late night it’s a $15 Uber. 

I also have a drawing studio set up in my apartment, that’s made life easier. Sometimes if I’m writing I can take a break and work on a drawing for a while and vice versa. I can also just come home from the studio, shower and have dinner, take a break and then draw before bed.  It’s nice that if the weather is really bad or I’m feeling lazy or hungover I can have two (max.) really good and constructive studio days without  leaving the house. 

What/who is influencing your work right now?

 Auður Ava Ólafsdótti. Jenny Offill. Hans Christian Andersen. 

Cady Noland, Agnes Martin, Ellsworth Kelly, one sculpture by Paweł Althamer,  Kathryn Andrews. Rebecca Morris. Miuccia Prada. Timbaland. Grailed.  

 Meg Onli’s exhibitions at the ICA Philadelphia: Colored People Time and Speech Acts. 

Jonathan Franzen, Joy Williams, Maria Tartar, Sam Leith.

Time —the clock, the years, seem to be a present theme within your practice. Can you explain what those mean to you and the importance of them throughout your work as well as other themes/motifs you’re currently thinking about?

Time can be a very useful and universal parameter and a really helpful tool.  Even though ideas and materials change from show to show, above all I’m primarily interested in “the everyday”, in other words: real things that exist whether or not I draw attention to them. The pinatas, the clocks, the calendars, they come from facets of culture and everyday life that people can immediately relate to and hopefully that connection empowers them to make other connections throughout the work. It’s also something I like about writing and language, this idea of using, relaying, and workshopping information. I like research and facts and the challenge of trying to present information in a way that can be exciting, metaphorical and expansive for the reader.

What are some recent, upcoming or current projects you are working on?

I have a show opening at  Tara Downs in April and I’m working on a show for Montreal this Summer. There are a few writing projects that will be out in early Spring and hopefully, if I can afford it, the Fall is mostly for writing. 

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

An invoice. 

But also, questions. Hopefully ones that don’t feel pointless or unanswerable. I think “why?” is a really generous question for a viewer/reader to leave with. How do you make the viewer curious? Is something I think about a lot and work towards. Sometimes it’s almost like a classroom approach when it comes to exhibition making and writing, especially with titling. How do you create something that rewards a longer view but at the same time can be immediately engaging? I don’t really like or have the patience for difficult, inaccessible, needy work or things that need a lot of information and context in order to be interesting. However on the same hand I can also be dismissive of work that seems too easy, superficial or like “art-art”. The goal is always to create enough space for the viewer/reader to think and come to some conclusions on their own…but with some parameters and guidelines so that it doesn’t feel entirely pointless, random or completely self indulgent.  

Do you have any daily rituals?

 I journal when I wake up and before bed. I water my plants on Saturdays.  I go to the studio mostly every day and read on the way there. If I have a writing deadline I mostly write at home after the studio.  If I’ve missed breakfast or lunch or god forbid, dinner, it has been (or will be) a very, very dark day. . 

What have you been reading/listening to lately?

GQ.

 

Interview conducted by Lily Szymanski and edited by Liam Owings