Next up is Santa Cruz-based artist Victoria May! You may remember seeing her handmade blouses in our current exhibition, Inside Out: Seeing Through Clothing and she will also be in our upcoming exhibition Three Ways: Ogunji, May, Diazoni.
What are materials and processes utilized in your body of work?
In recent years I am more and more drawn to using mainly found or excess materials. There is already so much stuff in the world, I sometimes can’t bear the thought of adding more. I am disgusted with the excess that is so rampant in our times and the obsession with newness and constant upgrading. The humble and abject materials that I use point to an appreciation for re-use and resourcefulness. It seems that any kind of lavishness has its roots in very ordinary material and it's often simply through some kind of labor or transformation that things become precious. Similarly, I am interested in transforming existing materials with a past life and allowing their history and connotations to contribute to a new configuration as an art object.
While I draw heavily on typical textile materials such as commercial fabric, wool, canvas, silk, I also seek to reveal the surprising places one can find textiles, for example in industrial applications. I also like to take materials not thought of as textiles and treat them as such, through sewing, which is my main form of construction. I often draw on clothing construction techniques, when making sculptural works, which I think of as soft structural engineering.
I also layer and hand stitch fabrics. I have used screen printing or stenciling to create painterly-looking pieces where added pieces of fabric function like brush strokes.
Since materials are at the core of my artwork, part of my practice is to figure out how they behave and what happens with different combinations. I like to pair opposites that might metaphorically or hapticly embody the struggles in the human condition. For example pouring concrete into gathered silk, stitching decor fabrics together with tire inner tubes, or like the older work in the current show, embedding sometimes abject materials, like hair, broken glass or bones in the framework of a delicate organza blouse. Some pieces require more time doing research than the actual making of the work!
Describe the main differences of your 'old' studio to your 'Shelter in Place' studio.
I have a non-home studio that is fairly safe to go to. The main difference now is overcoming some anxiety about leaving the safe cocoon of my house and to only use my elbows in the common areas (just three to four people share the bathroom).
What has surprised you about your art practice since the Shelter in Place order?
I’ve been working a little more steadily albeit obsessively, just following what I want instead of pushing really hard. Pressures of imminent shows have fallen away, so I am allowing myself to do some simple, indulgent things. I am also cleaning up a lot and doing some sorely needed studio maintenance!
What are the largest obstacles you need to overcome (immediately, near future, distant future)?
My studio is a mess! I need to cull, restructure and organize. I also tend to work on too many thing at once, so setting some priorities is needed to overcome constant distraction. I would like to get my studio mate’s industrial Juki sewing machine running so I can sew rubber again. I have nothing to sew it on right now, though I also can’t gather many inner tubes right now either.
What do you do when you get "stuck" in your creative process? Where do you turn for inspiration?
I rarely get stuck, given the multiple-explorations-at-once dilemma; there’s always something else to pursue. But when I do get overwhelmed by having to make a decision, I try to think of it as choosing a journey or a relationship. Which of these ideas will sustain me for a while? Like deciding about someone to date; are they going to get boring fast or stay interesting for a while?
And if I am really at a standstill, I keep an image bank that I don’t refer to so often, but sometimes when I need to, I peruse that more indulgently.
What are you currently reading/ listening to?
I just finished the Little Prince! And I discovered a wonderful German YouTube channel called MaiLab that is a blend of science and social science. It goes into depth on current scientific and sociological topics, like the corona virus, immigration, and gender differences, etc. I also try to keep up with my favorite NPR shows like the Moth, RadioLab and this American Life.
What advice would you give to other creatives at this moment in time?
Just let yourself follow your nose and do whatever is soothing. You might make some interesting and important discoveries at this time.
What drew you to the fiber art medium over others?
I have been intimate with textiles for a very long time, so it was an organic choice. My mother taught me how to sew when I was around 10 years old and I immediately began making my own clothes. It became a creative outlet for me at a time when I was terribly shy, but coincided with adolescence when you need to forge your own identity. It also felt resourceful, which tied in with my family’s values as we didn’t have much money and my parents were both very inventive with found materials and making both functional and decorative things. I also had artistic tendencies when I was young, but didn’t trust my drawing abilities and felt much more empowered about pairing garment patterns and fabrics not to mention making something I could wear.
In college I studied Design and I was immediately drawn to the textile classes and also took classes in costume design. My sewing background was a great foundation for those courses.
After graduating from the university I didn’t really have any vocational skills. Serendipitiously my sewing skills actually got me one of my earliest jobs. I answered an ad for a seamstress at a local bridal boutique, got the job and that was were I learned a lot more about high-end garment construction, plus custom fitting. The job was a fascinating blend of problem-solving, manual construction of luxury goods and client relations!
Later when I went back to grad school, I had applied with a photo portfolio, but still kept wanting to make things by hand out of fabric or other materials. Early in my time there, I met with Consuelo Underwood and her passion for textiles paired with her conceptual expectations gave me the motivation and rigor to explore expressing myself artistically through sewing. That was when I really figured out that materials could communicate ideas.
Textiles continue to fascinate me because they are so intertwined with our lives and our lived tactile experience and they can communicate at a different frequency than image-based art. They offer a more haptic experience yet that still creates sensations and ideas in the viewer.
What artist, who works in a different medium, informs your practice?
Mark Bradford. He’s just using detritus; super humble ingredients built up to produce stunning works. I love the fact that his work can hit you on a number of levels. You see the piece in its entirety and be dazzled by the composition, the colors or texture. Then upon closer inspection you can make out the archeology of the piece and then it becomes even more exciting as the beauty blends with or emanates from the ordinary.
What non-art related activity do you do to invigorate your body/ mind?
Yoga, exercise, walking.
What is your favorite place to look at art work on the web? In person?
Online, I don’t have any one source that I go back to, aside from Instagram. In person, I love going to LA and touring the art venues there. The Hammer Museum is a particular favorite.
What are you looking forward to doing again once Shelter in Place is over?
Being with people and petting animals! I volunteer at a local sewing workshop and I miss that sense of community. And visiting San Francisco—I had planned to do a few studio visits with artists I wanted to get to know in the Bay Area and that is on hold. Conversely, I had been looking forward to having other artists and curators over to my own studio, so I’ll be excited when that can happen again. I am somewhat of an introvert, but I need a certain dose of being with people to feel whole.
What is your favorite afternoon snack?
Irish breakfast tea with a spot of goat milk and a frozen waffle with tahini and orange marmalade.
