I arrived by bus in Puebla on Monday, February 13. It was an extremely easy and enjoyable 2 hour bus ride from CDMX. A taxi then took me to the Arquetopia headquarters from Puebla’s bus station. Arquetopia sits on a sleepy street (Avenida 15 Poniente), but it’s only 8 blocks away from the bustling zócalo and surrounding historical center.
On day 1, I arrived, set my bags down, got a tour, and the next thing I knew I was eating dinner out with 5 strangers and found myself at the local Monday night lucha libre.
I truly felt like I had been swept into a tornado of unknowns. I was surrounded by new people in an entirely new place. The only familiar things I had were my things and myself. It felt like I was dropped off at camp– except with no friends. The other artists in residence are from: California, London, New York, Montreal, and Switzerland. There are 3 of us in our late 20s/30s, and 2 residents who are 50+. It’s really cool to be surrounded by people from totally different places, of different ages, making totally different art. Some people are here for instructional residencies, or here to learn a specific craft– ceramics, painting, printmaking; and some of us are here for non-instructional residencies, or here to work on a self-initiated project.
There are lots of constraints here: spatial, material, time, cultural, and more. There is a lot of solidarity between the artists to work creatively with the constraints, even though they can be frustrating at times. The first day, Lorca, another artist here, who makes ceramic animals, told me about a ceramic fish her friend made, because this particular fish swims around obstacles instead of getting tripped up by them. So here we are, swimming around obstacles. It helps the creative process to have some constraints.
Weekly Meetings
I had my first meeting with the program directors– Francisco & Nayeli. In this meeting, Francisco told me as he pointed at the space between us, “this is the residency, right here, not the place– Arquetopia, not the building, not Mexico, but these conversations in here. This is the residency.” Each week I am assigned required readings from Francisco and each week we will discuss them. We will also discuss my project. These readings are academic, dense, and difficult, but I’m looking forward to the conversations about them.
Daily Challenge
In planning for my residency I had a hard time setting goals for my work. Once I sat down to start making, memories from design school flooded my brain, and I thought to myself, “What if I challenged myself to make 20 images a day?” So far I’ve been able to hit this goal. It sounds like a lot, but these images aren’t meant to be crystallized, perfect, final pieces. They are meant to be fluid outputs from my mind and soul. The rewarding part about this process is that usually when I get to, say, image #14, I feel like I’m out of ideas, but that is when some of the best ideas emerge. I’m also loving creating some images freely and then interpreting them afterwards. It’s really adding a lot of creativity to my practice.
My Project
My self-guided project is loosely exploring themes of queerness, identity, trauma, and how these things all relate to clothing. Clothing can be a means of expression, safety, and empowerment, but it can also be a means of control. It can be weaponized against us without our consent. At the same time I’m making 20 images a day, I’m also exploring larger pieces on apparel. The ideas are flooding in and I can’t believe after this weekend I will only have 3 weeks left.
Today we are visiting Museo Amparo, and this weekend I hope to check out some street markets, and have some mezcal. More to come about Puebla and my project.
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