WHAT-ARE-YOUR-POST-GRADUATION-GOALS?

I want to be a part of a team that adds meaning to people's lives and to work in a role that compliments/expands the technical skills I use in my art practice. My dream job is to do anything in the visual realm for musicians.

HOW-HAS-YOUR-ART-PRACTICE-CHANGED-SINCE-THE-STAY-HOME-ORDERS-WENT-INTO-EFFECT?

Since the stay at home orders went into effect, I have been focused on writing … Beginning in March, I created an email subscription service open to anyone willing to receive … I have found that writing these letters in isolation has been therapeutic. If you wish to receive a love letter click here .

WHAT’S-ON-YOUR-MIND-DURING-THESE-TIMES?

I’ve been thinking about how slowness and the time to do nothing is now extremely prominent within the lives of those privileged enough to be in a state of security, even more so than it was before. I believe this time should be used as an example of the need for slowness and how accessibility to slowness through security of financial and emotional states is essential to happiness. Although these ideas were on my mind before the pandemic occurred, the questions they raise are more omnipresent than ever.

WHAT’S-ON-YOUR-MIND-DURING-THESE-TIMES?

I feel this has been a time of introspection and struggle. It is still quite challenging to social distance from the ones I love, and I deeply miss the touch and affection of my friends and family. We have been finding ways to innovate, and this time has made me think about intimacy and what matters most, which to me is loving, supportive relationships.

HOW-HAS-YOUR-ART-PRACTICE-CHANGED-SINCE-THE-STAY-HOME-ORDERS-WENT-INTO-EFFECT?

In my position of fortunate security, I’ve had the privilege of meditating on the revolutionary practice of non-productivity. Being without work has allowed me the space to consider what is most crucial to a fullness of life, explored through an invaluable slowness. I am currently focussed on grounding myself through fostering my relationship to food and community, recognizing the subtle ways in which they intermingle with one another. I am learning to express love anew, working to develop a stronger framework of communal care to permanently integrate into my life after this temporary hermetic period. I see myself currently inputting rather than outputting; a study in being.

BRIEFLY-DESCRIBE-YOUR-ART-PRACTICE-AND-PROCESS.

I am a video and animation artist who works with sculpture and installation to think through ideas of parasocial relationships, artificial existence and virtual intimacy. I’m generally inspired by the internet, things I see on various social media platforms and @lilmiquela.

HOW-HAS-YOUR-ART-PRACTICE-CHANGED-SINCE-THE-STAY-HOME-ORDERS-WENT-INTO-EFFECT?

What I have found most important about creating work in isolation is the idea of reworking. I’ve had to reshape and rework my practice to suit my limited materials and space ... [During this time], I have been working with the files that I had initially created for laser cutting … [playing] with color and scale, merging patterns, and shapes to create graphic illustrations. These drawings were simply plans, however, they in themselves have become pieces of work. I think this process has made it clear to me how important reworking is to my practice - from reworking design processes associated with Chinoiserie to reworking flatpack objects into new arrangements to now reworking physical objects into digital ones.

WHAT-ELSE-ARE-YOU-WORKING-ON-RIGHT-NOW?

I’m currently working on building a student-led degree show simulator with a few other artists and design students from the Glasgow School of Art, which will be live in June. We have modeled GSA’s Stow building in 3D using CAD and captured Google Earth data. We are currently starting to install students’ work.

BRIEFLY-DESCRIBE-YOUR-ART-PRACTICE-AND-PROCESS.

I often refer to my work as visually vomiting - mostly because I'm working so often and sometimes feel like I’m shoving work out into the world (in a good way!)…I find it easiest to describe my work as examining the ugly and the beautiful; the maximum and the minimum; the online and the offline.

PS. For other graduates of 2020, it's a scary time! But we're all in this together, take the time you need for yourself to recuperate and energize <3

WHAT-ARE-YOUR-POST-GRADUATION-GOALS?

My goals now are different than a few months ago. I have learned that relying so heavily on the university for a show and press exposure was stopping me from establishing myself fully as a designer, and in fact, restricted my visions on what possible outcomes are available after graduating. My plans now are to continue developing my collection, improving techniques and concepts without relying on the university or external facilities to do so. My hopes are to exhibit my collection amongst other students from my course - hopefully in the new year - and collaborate with them and other graduating artists on other exhibitions and projects.

WHAT-INSPIRES-YOUR-WORK?

I was born in Zimbabwe and came to London when I was 8 years old. Growing up I was obsessed with the tactility of objects and the environments I was surrounded by - minute manipulations of traditional techniques applied to wire toy cars, stone carvings, Malachite stone jewelry, and tablecloths… My mother also made my clothes and repaired any rips I would create when playing outside with decorative stitches in tonal threads of varying sizes. All the technical elements I observed and people I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by throughout my childhood collectively influence the engineering of the textiles and silhouette translations present in my work.

HOW-HAS-YOUR-ART-PRACTICE-CHANGED-SINCE-THE-STAY-AT-HOME-ORDERS-WENT-INTO-EFFECT?

Since the stay home orders, I had to return back to Greece and therefore my practice has changed drastically. Not only are the resources to create my work limited, but the work itself is no longer live [performance]. Using platforms such as Zoom to meet regularly with my collaborators and tutors has definitely been helpful, however not being able to use specific workshops and studios has been really restricting for me. The pieces that I will produce at this time are more experimental, which also makes them more 'freeing', however, there are projects and artworks that I have had to rethink and reconstruct due to these unforeseen circumstances.

UTOPIA-ROOM Credits:
Direction: AOmaon collectif
Design: Iphigenia Garani in collaboration with Eliandro Dos Santos Amado Monteiro
Photography: Luke Walker
Models: Adelie Lavail &Olivia Grassot

HOW-HAS-YOUR-ART-PRACTICE-CHANGED-SINCE-THE-STAY-AT-HOME-ORDERS-WENT-INTO-EFFECT?

When I arrived home, I set up a tiny studio in a corner of my room, I made a lap loom out of an old frame, and organized all of my materials. Days passed and I realized I couldn't make, I didn't want to, I didn't have the energy or mind for it … It's a paradox: I have so much time to be still that it becomes impossible to focus… However, I have been thinking a lot about ... touch in a moment when we’re told that the traces of our hands can be a threat to others … Frustrated with the fact that the more I think about my hands the fewer surfaces I’m allowed to touch and the less I feel inspired to make and build. I wish I could say that this time has allowed me to explore many things, but the reality is that my hands are paralyzed, so all I can do right now is listen to them and respect the pause that they're asking for.

IRENE-SONG-&-CURTIS-HO together make up UNCLE-BOY’S-LANDSCAPING.

WHAT-ARE-YOUR-POST-GRADUATION-GOALS?

We’re uncertain about where we’ll be, but wherever we end up respectively, we want to stay in dialogue, learn more, and find some commitment to the communities which we might be in. Continuing to “make work” could mean a lot of things! We’re feeling pressure in our lives overall, but our practice feels young and we want to be open to different places and contexts where it could exist, wherever our thinking and making might be welcome.

WHAT-INSPIRES-YOUR-WORK?

Recently, a lot of my work explores the subjects of queer culture, traditional practices such as rituals and healing, and research and writing in relation to cultural identity. Overall, my work is heavily inspired by and about my experience as a queer mixed person. A lot of my work stems from my own desire to feel connected with myself, my family’s history, and with other queer people of color like me.

WHAT-ARE-YOUR-POST-GRADUATION-GOALS?

At the moment, I am taking a hiatus in my creative energy and process. But looking forward, I am looking to apply for grants to fund my projects that are performance-based and are focusing on QTPOC community healing and learning. At the same time, I am still focusing on my tattoo practice and use tattooing as a method to help more trans, queer people of color reclaim agency over their bodies.

WHAT-INSPIRES-YOUR-WORK?

My inspiration definitely comes from family and the baggage that comes with that. My process has definitely been influenced by my friends working around me at RISD. There’s no better way to work than in an environment surrounded by driven individuals; it's incredibly motivating and you learn a ton.

HOW-HAS-YOUR-ART-PRACTICE-CHANGED-SINCE-THE-STAY-HOME-ORDERS-WENT-INTO-EFFECT?

Being stripped of a studio immediately placed some limitations, but I thrive working under limitations. I had to think about how to paint on the floor of my room without causing too much harm to my body. I primarily work in oil and I didn't want to be sleeping in the same room with a bunch of fumes so I tried to limit the amount of paint I used.

WHAT-INSPIRES-YOUR-WORK?

I work in landscape photography and collage. My work focuses on how my mixed-race identity has affected the way I navigate space. I move between the orderly and the unruly. By collaging over photographs, I create contrast between the tactile marks of my hands and the forms I captured from behind a lens.

As someone who identifies as Chamorro [and grew up in Rogers, Arkansas], I've thought a lot recently about other Pacific Islanders who have migrated to the South and Midwest and how we, as a community, might continue to be inspired by our homelands.

HOW-HAS-YOUR-ART-PRACTICE-CHANGED-SINCE-THE-STAY-HOME-ORDERS-WENT-INTO-EFFECT?

While at school I was making pieces and artwork that dealt with or revolved around the ideas of experimentation … I was making very textural pieces reminiscent of walls covered in graffiti, posters, and layers of paint found in major cities all over the world. The work that I have been producing [at home] is radically different from the work I was producing at school. When I returned home I was frustrated and stuck, and as a result, I became interested in the ideas of containment, boundaries, structure, and the moments in which these impositions fail. I was drawn to using the grid as a structural element and jumping-off point.