My residency is coming to a close soon! I have one week left after this weekend. It’s hard to believe, but it has been great. I’m so glad I gave myself a huge gift of spending so much intimate time with myself and my art in a beautiful country.
Normally my creative process naturally follows the classic “double diamond” flow of moving through modes of divergent thinking and convergent thinking. The first two weeks here I made a lot. I was in a process of creating for creating’s sake. Nothing was precious. Everything was a concept.
I felt this shift happen heading into my second half of the residency. I have spent the last week making sense of what I have made thus far, adding to some pieces, and making plans for how to expand upon this collection when I return home.
In my analysis and sense-making, I have arrived at a narrative structure with which to organize my work:
‘What Was She Wearing?’ asks the question of how clothing is used as weapon, control, and expression.
‘What Was She Wearing?’ as a weapon has been used to place blame and guilt on survivors of gender-based violence, specifically sexual assault, and it has been used as a tool to rationalize abusers’ behavior. The first part of this project puts this false and violent rationale on display.
‘What Was She Wearing?’ assumes gender by asking what she was wearing. Gender was created as a means of control and it situates the body in relation to power. It tells people how we can be treated and what we deserve. Clothing has the power to reinforce this control and power over our bodies without our consent.
‘What Was She Wearing?’ as an invitation explores how we can challenge these hateful notions and repurpose personal use of clothing as a means of safety, comfort, and expression. The world will see us how they want, but how might we find joy through dressing authentically as ourselves?
Here are some pieces I made this week.
I don’t have a solid plan for my final week here. It’s a strange place to be where there is some time, but not immense time. I’m reflecting on "things I’ll be sad I didn’t do while I’m here” and “art I should make while I still have this precious time and space.”
It’s really weird to think after just 1 week, there is a very good chance I’ll never return to this place ever again. Hopefully I return to Puebla, but it’s likely I’ll never be back in this artist space, and even if I did return, it would be under totally different pretenses, with different people, different art, etc. It’s a bizarre feeling to become so familiar with a place that was once so unfamiliar, and then suddenly say goodbye to it. I’m excited to return home, see my partner, my cats, friends, familiar faces, places, but for now, I’m going to spend this final week soaking up all I can here. Until next time!