The Performance of Life with Jean-Pierre Villafañe

August 04, 2023

Artist Jean-Pierre Villafañe grew up in Puerto Rico, storing memories of the vibrant neighborhoods of his childhood as fuel for his future endeavors. He discovered a fervent passion for architecture, analyzing the different ways that forms and lines can shape experience. As he expanded and grew in his craft, he began to use the medium of painting to further dissect his own reality — and in some cases, to create a reality that is wholly different than his own, a means of escapism.

Now, he occupies the animated and stimulating neighborhood of Chinatown, where a melange of cultures and outlooks converge to live in harmony. New York City functions as one large, coordinated beast, and not only does Villefane seek to portray this well-oiled machine in all of its glory, but he also aims to illuminate the lesser-seen happenings — the things that go on behind closed doors and between the cracks.

Interview by Kayla Curtis-Evans
Photos by Hannah Witorowski and Jean-Pierre Villafañe

In his latest body of work, a series of murals situated in Cecchi’s restaurant in the West Village titled “Into the Night,” Villafañe further explores both the intersection between architecture and painting, as well as the divide between private and public spheres. Read more about the multi-medium artist below.

Your creative endeavors originated within the realm of architecture. Why did you set out to learn about architecture initially and how does it now impact your visual creations?

While growing up in Puerto Rico, I had the opportunity to create numerous murals, each dedicated to celebrating the unique visual identity of different neighborhoods. Engaging in these artistic endeavors within the public space ignited a fascination with architecture, as I came to realize the captivating interplay between how people move through spaces and the art of spatial design. I've intertwined painting with my architectural training, deploying classical representational instruments used to conceive and communicate spaces to rather distort them and elevate them to fantasy. Through painting, I began to question the scalar and annotative aspects of the drafted line, using it to recompose reality and question the consequences of visual communication and representation.

My work seeks to traverse the intersection between figurative painting and architecture, drawing from the idiosyncratic associations I encounter in my dialectic relationship with the city. I use the viewer's gaze to transform moments in the urban environment into a stage setting, taming and domesticating them in my paintings and sculptural dioramas. By presenting private spaces in section-cut-type depictions of interiors, I seek to give the spectator a glimpse into the daily performance of life — both deliberate and subliminal — revealing sealed scenes of self-realization and re-establishing the city as an intimate spectacle of desires fulfilled and celebrated.

You have studied in New York City, Hong Kong, and Brazil, and your work has been exhibited all around the world. How has this multicultural viewpoint informed your work?

The compositions I create offer a captivating lens through which I analyze the profound journey of connecting with a city from an outsider's perspective — viewing it as a tapestry of experiences and artifice-crafted culture. During my year in Hong Kong, I delved deeply into the art of calligraphy. In Brazil, I had the opportunity to visit many projects designed by the architect Roberto Burle Marx. The spaces offered a harmonious fusion of artistic disciplines, including painting, architecture, urban planning, and embroidery. This eclectic amalgamation had always held me spellbound, leaving an indelible mark on my artistic sensibilities. Now, in the bustling embrace of New York City, my gaze finds itself entranced by the city's density and the mesmerizing microcosms that unfurl in every corner of Manhattan. Each block seems to encapsulate a distinct universe within itself, and I find myself drawn to reverently exalt the chaotic urban fabric and diverse architectural fantasies that play out in this vibrant metropolis.

Though you often paint with oil, many of your pieces include multiple mediums — from graphite to screen print to pastels. Why do you choose to work across multifaceted mediums? How does it strengthen the message behind your works?

The root of my work lies in the integration of multiple layers of meaning, each uniquely portraying distinct nuances and depictions from a myriad of characters I have encountered. These ideas become materialized through delicate strokes of pastels, amplifying the allure of make-up, to the versatile use of graphite, where lines and shadows conjure memories of my architectural background, and further employing screenprint to infuse a photo-realistic dimension into my compositions. The trajectory has been one of continuous experimentation. Recently, I ventured into the realm of architectural dioramas, akin to peepshows, an immersive experience where viewers peer through a peephole only to encounter a world of mirrors, with their own reflections gazing back at them. This dynamic course of dimensional and material experimentation has provided me with the means to delve into an entertaining play of unleashed excess and whimsical intimacy.

You have expressed before that your reliance on multiple mediums and techniques manifests as “acts of deviation.” And many of your paintings explore the rambunctious parts of life as well. Do you think there is enlightenment or a release in deviating from what is expected from time to time?

The concept of escapism is a subject that profoundly fascinates me. Through my compositions, the boundaries of the tangible and intangible blur, allowing me to weave narratives in a vivid and satirical portrayal of society. I showcase various aspects of human nature. The paintings play with humor, observations on human relationships, and societal norms with the aim to seek respite and solace from disconcerting realities, particularly through the pursuit of diversion and enchantment. This inclination manifests through the search for entertainment and the engagement in realms of fantasy, wherein the mind can briefly detach itself from the burdens of life's harsher aspects.

Through the gestural strokes, I weave and fragment intricate microcosms within the embrace of artificial surroundings, offering a portal into alternative realms where the whimsical, dark, grotesque, and comical all coexist. As beholders of my work, we are transported to a universe of perpetual metamorphosis — a wild gathering we only dare to imagine. Enigmatic scenes unfold before our eyes, adorned with carnivalesque figures that sway in and out of the foreground, immersed in a captivating dance amidst a backdrop of endless debauchery. These artful depictions evoke memories of Prohibition-era festivities and lavish soirees, filling us with an exuberant sense of joy, playfulness, and spontaneity.

I first met you when I visited your studio in Chinatown. In what ways does your current location in NYC, especially your specific neighborhood, influence your work and subjects?

Nestled on a distinct corner, my studio gazes upon the final section of Sarah D. Roosevelt Park, where a medley of activities unfolds throughout the day. From gamblers, to gracefully choreographed dancers, to sports enthusiasts. Adjacent to it all, a bus stop serves as a portal, whisking people away to various random corners of America. The neighborhood truly epitomizes a melting pot within the already diverse city, acting as a gateway connecting the Lower East Side with the enigmatic heart of Chinatown. These captivating characters I observe often appear in my paintings, their contrasting identities seamlessly finding their way into the menageries of my artistic compositions.

Your figures all take on a whimsical and animated form. Why do you choose to present all of the characters you paint in this fantastical way — what does this convey about the people and “characters” you come across in real life?

Through the use of striking rhythms and improvisational techniques, which I consider both artistic and conceptual acts of deviation, I transform the human body into a stage. My brushstrokes become sensuous, lyrical lines, and dense figures of luminous color serve as linguistic elements, impacting the bodily subjects both physically and emotionally. By embracing these carnivalesque properties, I seek to reimagine identities, breaking down roles and reshaping the inner worlds of the characters. In my artwork, everyday life in New York becomes a theatrical spectacle, striking a delicate balance between playfulness and gloom, the grotesque intertwined with humor. It delves into fantastical realms featuring puppets and dolls that symbolize our ever-fluctuating, ever-changing identities to reconfigure the way bodies intertwine and move through spaces.

What was the inception point that intrigued you and led you to want to explore the taboo, the unseen, or the unspoken in your renderings?

In the streets of cities like NYC, a fabric of many different personalities unfolds, where people tirelessly toil, yearning for respite from the unrelenting demands of their lives. This quest for escape often leads to concealed acts of debauchery and vice, where indulgence in activities like drinking or the use of drugs becomes a way to cope with the pressures of reality. Having been raised with a Catholic upbringing, I've always found amusement in the absurdity of blind subservience to norms and the establishment. Instead, I seek to carouse in the unconventional and discover the satirical pleasures that lie deep within the confines of traditional systems, such as religion, politics, and societal conventions.

Many of the figures and spaces you create are incredibly detailed — down to the accessories or outfits that are portrayed. How does fashion play a role in your artwork? Do the things some of your figures wear convey certain messages about the work itself?

The fashion portrayed in my art becomes a vivid representation of the allure and extravagance the characters yearn to escape into, transcending their world of excess and exuberance. Draping fabrics take on architectural forms, while stiletto heels engage in animated, lifelike interactions. These garments serve as a medium for bodies to intertwine, blending architectural visions with the poetic essence of chance encounters. At times, a single suit may house multiple bodies, and culottes give rise to multiple figures, all amidst patterns and graphics that distort perceptions of articulation and movement. Concurrently, hats bestow the characters with stature, glamour, and allure, evoking notions of specific professions. The intention is to create a scene within a scene, captivating the viewer's gaze as they gradually unravel the intricacies held within the artwork, unveiling the hidden complexities that further exemplify the concept of escapism.

Tell me a bit more about your recent project with the new restaurant, Cecchi’s, in the West Village, titled “Into the Night.” Why did you choose to use the Seven Deadly Sins as inspiration?

For this particular project, I found it compelling to explore the notion of catholic guilt, drawing inspiration from the Christian concept of the Seven Deadly Sins. The idea for Cecchi's murals revolved around the 16th-century interpretation of these sins, initially painted by Hieronymus Bosch, and reimagined within the setting of a restaurant. Bosch's circular arrangement depicted these sins in everyday scenes, serving as a reminder that they could be concealed within the seemingly mundane aspects of our lives. Embracing this representation, the murals transformed into a garden of earthly delights under the chef's artful touch. Lust, gluttony, greed, envy, pride, sloth, and wrath came to life, each personified and navigating through individual scenes of both debauchery and intimacy. The frames of the murals invite viewers into a voyeuristic experience as if peering into a painted mirror that unveils indulgence in sinful pleasures.

How do you hope your murals make customers feel when they are dining in the new spot?

The murals exude a sense of irreverence and exuberance, acting as captivating mirrors that beckon us to question the illicit and fetishizing gaze that might arise when we behold their canvases. As we peer at these artworks, we are met with the reflection of the restaurant itself, prompting contemplation on the interplay between distance and intimacy. It becomes evident how the presence or absence of a spectator shapes the content, revealing our roles as both willing participants and trespassers in this intriguing world.

By employing the voyeur's gaze, viewers are offered an opportunity to transform the enigmatic restaurant into a mesmerizing theatrical stage. In this process, they can tame and domesticate the space within the canvas, and as a result, become witnesses to the daily performances of life. Within my scenes, the allure of sinning comes alive, inviting us to immerse ourselves in the eccentric drama of this vivid realm.

Art

Even Better Than The Real Thing: Poets Respond to the Whitney Biennial

April 24, 2024

The Whitney Biennial returned in March with the 81st edition of the longest running survey of American art, titled Even Better Than The Real Thing. The works in the exhibit explore themes of authenticity, bodily subjectivity and autonomy, material instability, urban architecture, and the history of colonialism, to name a few, and range across mediums and disciplines. Featuring works by 71 artists and collectives including Pippa Garner, Ser Serpas, Mavis Pusey, and Kiyan Williams, the 2024 Whitney Biennial also includes a film program and performance program which will offer screenings and shows through September.

In a reinstallment of our coverage of the 2019 Whitney Biennial, office invited poets Kyle Carrero Lopez and Kay Gabriel to respond to the works in this year’s biennial with ekphrastic poems. Below are their reflections.

Introduction by Samuel Getachew
Poems by Kyle Carrero Lopez and Kay Gabriel
Installation view of Once Again… (Statues Never Die), by Isaac Julien, 2022.
Photograph by Ashley Reese

From left to right: Takako Yamaguchi, "Issue," 2023; Takako Yamaguchi, "Catalyst," 2023; Karyn Olivier, "How Many Ways Can You Disappear," 2021; Takako Yamaguchi, "Proxy," 2022; Takako Yamaguchi, "Clasp," 2022; Takako Yamaguchi, "Formula," 2023. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Takako Yamaguchi, "Issue," 2023. Courtesy of the Whitney Museum.

Abstraction in Reverse

By Kyle Carrero Lopez

after Takako Yamaguchi

The laptop logo looks like a cartoon apple

and the cartoon apple (in two parts) looks like a sideways

sort of jagged tooth below a pointed oval — its floating stem:

not simply oval but vesica piscis, fish bladder, the shape made

between two intersecting circles, heart of the venn diagram,

the heart itself in the center of one’s chest,

though leaning slightly left—an imperfect center—

the heart itself symbolized by a shape unlike the heart;

the false heart representing true feeling, true love,

its shape, in one telling, pulled from Aristotle’s theory of its shape:

three chambers with a dent in the middle,

and though we now know it’s four, the false heart isn’t so far off,

essence of the true shape there in the abstraction,

the true heart loosely similar,

the true heart on a lab desk pre-transplant

pump pumping the false heart’s trademark red,

blood-soaked comice-pinecone-misc. THING,

vigorous, and thick, and horrifying,

ours

Sharon Hayes, "Ricerche: four," 2024. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Tourmaline, "Pollinator," 2022. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

ektor garcia, "teotihuacan," 2018. © ektor garcia

“He Is Here!”

By Kay Gabriel

See: Sharon Hayes, “Ricerche: four,” 2024; ektor garcia, “teotihuacan,” 2018; Tourmaline, “Pollinator,” 2022.

Sharon Hayes seems patient.

She asks a lot of older people what they think is going on,

If the gains they fought for have endured,

where they feel safe and if they

think the world is better now or worse than when they were young.

These questions can be frustrating. I mean, I get frustrated,

sometimes, asking people if they think it’s a bad world

and why, and what to do.

Hayes’s interviewees agree the world is worse,

even, than the one in which they came of age, though

they don’t agree on why. They feel something disintegrate.

I’m paraphrasing—they didn’t say disintegrate.

A man acknowledges legal rights.

He’s Black, gay, looks to be in his late 70s.

Watching the moral panic grow—

paraphrasing again—

he suggests the win is fragile. Where’s safe?

Home. Where’s home? A retirement

community in Tennessee. We used to be so afraid

of a liberal world, that it would subtract the force

of our critique, like shock absorbers on a car, or a

Katamari ball yes-and-ing its path across a surface

pounded flat. We, I mean, queers whose consciousness was

easy-baked in like 2012. We regarded with

suspicion the capacity of art to—what, exactly?

Challenge? Sure, if you put it

like that. I mean we watched people sharpen

critique while the relatively powerful repeated it, and metrics

like average inequality, average deaths per day

tunneled deeper into nightmare.

I’m trying to explain a feeling—dispiritedness;

the sense that pricking conscience

wouldn’t do much, even in highly trafficked environments.

Were we wrong? Hannah Baer called herself a “skeptic

at church,” about poetry, not art, but it feels similar:

suspicion about the relationship of content to changing

unbearable conditions. And not even poetry per se but poetry

readings, which can, sure, be dreary affairs. There’s your

ex on his phone. There’s a bad feeling. There’s a pile

of interesting people. Or it’s transcendent,

I mean, the words change something—clarify the obscure, offer

strength to the downtrodden, make productively

light of misery. Cecilia did, “sucking

and sucking,” wishing Chiqui would fall

on stage. Pamela Sneed remembered

Assotto Saint defiant at a funeral: “He is here!”

and I wept. It’s like: “Cecilia!” Patrick wept, when Nan Goldin

read Cookie Mueller’s “Last Letter” in the new Walking Through

Clear Water— “I know, I know, I know that somewhere

there is paradise … Courage, bread and roses,”

see, Hannah, I’m crying right now,

so I don’t hold your position.

Peter Weiss in Aesthetics of Resistance has

his antifascist fighters, exiting Spain,

study Guernica in the woods, and Amilcar

Cabral wrote poetry while he fought the Portuguese.

He died before the victory he made possible.

I could go on, even if the “art world”—a euphemism

for the class that holds the keys—shreds its revanchist wave.

I believe that that, too, will pass,

not just like that. I mean I think that people change their ideas about reality

faster than reality can change. I suspect they do it

faster even when together, which is why Hannah’s

right, it’s church. We’re moved to see each other

moved. It’s nice that the Whitney likes trans

women artists so much: Ser, Pippa, Tourmaline.

Tourmaline’s “Pollinator” video is stunning, her orchid

headdress, her Marsha research. So are ektor garcia’s

sculptures. “Teotihuacan,” named after the ancient

Mesoamerican city in the Valley of Mexico, joins mesmerizing

white crochet to a steel frame. I think about the artifacts Diego

Rivera collected there and framed in the vitrines

at Anahuacalli. Then you climb the stairs and see his planned

mural, Stalin and Mao offering peace to the peoples

of the world—Pesadilla de guerra, sueño de paz.

No, really! Stalin holds a dove. A generically ugly Uncle Sam fumes. His eyeline,

Stalin’s, extends across the mural to where Frida Kahlo

engages visitors. Probably you don’t agree. You wouldn’t say that that’s

how it went. Maybe nor would Sharon Hayes, or her crowd

of gentle older queers. Someone should ask them.

a promise undelivered, promise given a new look / by fresh eyes 53 years later

Dejygea

By Kyle Carrero Lopez

after Mavis Pusey

I looked and looked and still know not what it means.

Dejygea – Pangea, caesura, déjà voulez-vous.

Would love to know what Miss Mavis meant with that title,

yet I know that not to know for sure

is itself a gift. Reaction vid or GIF:

Kandi Burress cocks her head and cracks

you just made that up! to Porsha Williams.

And did!

Oil on canvas. There’s black and white,

and reds, greens, blues: the three primary colors in physics

(sorry to yellow)

and here we see physics sing out, the oil scene

informed by architecture informed always by physics,

structure and scaffolds and quake safety, heat and energy, and and and and!

It’s Miss Mavis’s take on the Lárge Apple’s

constant construction, constant noise,

the way its buildings shoot up and plunge down.

It’s Miss Mavis back at the Biennial after the ‘71 Biennial on Black artists

with no Black curators,

a promise undelivered, promise given a new look

by fresh eyes 53 years later:

Blackstraction redeemed!

Sitting in the crowd of a Black poet’s reading,

Hanif Abdurraqib overhears a white woman ask her neighbor

how can Black people write about flowers

at a time like this?

If I’m Black and I make a thing up and it fails to convey

the right Black thing to the right donor’s taste, did the tree make a sound?

Friends from college may remember a time, a period really,

when I fell afflicted, obsessed with saying Lazy Susan, laissez-faire.

It came forth like revelation and I couldn’t stop speaking it aloud,

or sending texts with cryptic lineation:

lazy susan

laissez-faire

Deep within my jokey, specific, idiosyncratic dome

I looked and looked and still know not what it means.

Art

Paul Hameline and Paige Silveria’s ‘Preservation’ Asks Us to Dream

April 24, 2024

Paul Hameline and Paige Silveria's Preservation, a collective exhibition on view at CØR Studio in the heart of Paris earlier this month, reckoned with the loss of childhood wonder, aging, innocence, and society's inane obsession with knowledge under the guise of progress. A series of photographs, sculptures, and installations by artists such as Gaetano Pesce, Alyssa Kazew, Anthony Fornasari, Bill Taylor, Cecile Di Giovanni, Gaspar Willmann, Gogo Graham, Jordan Pallages, Ladji Diaby, Ron Baker, Simon Dupety, and Wolfgang Laubersheimer, Preservation was ultimately a reminder that when we grow up, we can forget ourselves. For Hameline and Silveria, the exhibition acted as "a safe haven... A dystopia slowly leading back into utopia," celebrating feeling over rationalization, invoking curiosity and a renewed openness to the unknown. Read our conversation with the two on their attempt to call people back to their imaginations below.

Interview by Sahir Ahmed
Images courtesy of Paige Silveria

Can you talk a bit about your selection process, especially when co-curating an exhibition with another person?

Paul Hameline — It involved several coffees, a bunch of beers, nighttime, daytime. Several back and forth, it was all quite similar to a tennis match really. I would send Paige one image, she’d reply to me with another one. Same with texts, Paige would send me a text excerpt and I’d reply by sending her another one. Eventually things started taking shape in an organic way, and we would simply orient the narrative in a direction rather than another.

I’m sure you were uber excited about all of the artists included, but was there one in particular you were looking forward to presenting to this local audience (maybe new to them)?

Paige Silveria — That’s obviously really hard to answer. Though I want to say that I found Gogo Graham’s self portraits really special. I met her years ago when I interviewed her about her fashion show in New York. As a trans Latinx fashion designer and artist, her runways were these incredible, conceptual presentations. You really felt like you were immersed in an art performance. Recently, I saw that she’s been taking a bit of a step away from fashion and focusing on her art, especially paintings. So I reached out to see if she might want to show one with us in Paris. I love these two portraits she allowed us to include so much. One is her when she was this adorable little kid with big ears and the second is later, as this like glamorous icon.

Gogo Graham

And this wasn’t your first show in the space, right Paige? How would you compare the two?

PS — The first thing I did was a curatorial collaboration with Arcane Press magazine for the release of their first issue. The aesthetic was a bit darker and moodier and really focused on the artists included. This show with Paul was a bit more personal and organic. We spent months chatting between the US and Europe and with coffee on walks when I’d finally returned to Paris. We would send artists and work we loved and discuss the complexities of why they made sense for this little world we were creating. Then trying to articulate what the world was turning into with literature … It was a really special and fun project to do between friends. And we really took our time.

I loved coming by the night before the opening when unfinished and seeing it the next day, how late did you stay?

PH — Not so late after you left, must have been 10-10:30. Once we were done, we went for beers, some cigs and giggles. How was the match?

[I went to FSG vs Barcelona, it was good, Barcelona won.]

PS — I love the install. It’s so exciting to see everything together finally after staring at images on your computer or phone for months. Things are tangible and you can start to really craft the physical world that previously was only in our heads.

Sculpture by Cécile di Giovanni, Prints by Alyssa Kazew, Chair by Simon Dupety

What was your favorite part of curating together?

PH — The thought process, the research, the exchanges etc. Paige showed me artists and authors I didn’t know, I’d reciprocate by making her discover some she wasn’t familiar with. Sharing is caring. We obviously are two different people with our own ways of seeing and experiencing, so merging the two in order to give birth to that show was a great experience.

PS — It’s been a while since I was able to put a show together with someone from the inception. I really loved to be inspired by his way of thinking and being introduced to new communities of artists. It was also pretty exciting when we realized that our separate ideas were super similar and the vision was happening in tandem. Things worked so smoothly; we somehow emerged with the same aesthetic in mind.

What led you to the title ‘Preservation’? What are you preserving?

PS — The title was pulled from the excerpt (in the press release for the show) from Robert Pirsig’s book Lila: An Inquiry into Morals. With the title, we’re analyzing civilization, societal structure, moral grounding — preservation of what exactly? Of whom? At what cost? And why? It’s less of a statement, or a desire to preserve anything, and more of an inquiry to begin the conversation.

In an interview I read recently, Hans Ulrich Obrist said that “good curation is working with someone who can do something you can't.” He also called curation a kind of junction-making, creating these avenues where people and ideas meet and interact. Do you agree?

PH — That goes without saying. The basis of any relationship is to give and take. You have something to offer, and the person sitting in front of you has something to give you. We grow through our relationships and encounters, from a lover to a stranger asking you for a lighter.

PS — My favorite take away from Marx was when he said that human relationships are the point of our existence. I think that’s any conversation and exchange, even reading the book of someone who’s past … With these shows it can be so exciting bringing people together. A while back I did a Good Taste show in LA and was showing work by two really iconic artists, Erik Foss and Erik Brunetti. Although they’d been aware of each other for over a decade, they only finally met when we began installing this show. It was really cool to listen to them discuss things from over the years that one another had done that’d made an impression on them. Even just small connections like this are a part of why I love to curate — not just about making sales!

Bill Taylor

What conversations are you hoping to nudge into existence with this show and those to come?

PH — The way I perceived it, it’s about how civilization reached a point of no turning back, it’s about creating some kind of world within oneself, against the turmoil present in today’s world. We tried to create a safe haven, some kind of fort. A dystopia slowly leading back into utopia. A bit like Peter Pan and his Neverland. A feeling of compassion, of affection, of love followed. Memories of childhood, the importance to dream and to use one's imagination, allowing us to become our own architects of wonders. Let yourself dream. Shake up the ‘younger you’ hidden in your own eyes and past. The one the world tells you to silence and forget too often. Do not let that little guy disappear from your life. It's about having fun, smiling, playing. Keep that spark burning like an eternal fire.

PS — Yes, I love that.

Shelf by Wolfgang Laubersheimer, Bear by Anthony Fornasari

Art

For Eimear Walshe, There are no 'Goodies or Baddies'

April 23, 2024

Eimear Walshe and I sit on the ground by the water at the Arsenale in Venice, just 100 yards from their widely successful exhibition ROMANTIC IRELAND for the Irish Pavilion at this year's Biennale. ROMANTIC IRELAND is a multilayered piece that utilizes contemporary storytelling to address the bargains we make through the traditional Irish practice of earth-building. Their work centers on Ireland's late 19th-century land contestation and its relation to private property, sexual conservatism, and the built environment. The piece consists of three primary storytelling elements — the earth-built sculpture of the physical exhibition space, the five-voice operatic soundtrack written by Walshe describing an eviction, and the video consisting of seven dancers, including Walshe, dressed as 19th-century to 21st-century Irish archetypes, sporting green, wide-eyed latex fetish masks.

The layering of symbols and the use of atypical languages, specifically a physical and movement-based language, create a multilayered and complex piece that deals with the dualities of living in modern society and reckoning with the past where, as Walshe says, there are no 'goodies or baddies.'

By Isabella Fox Arias
Images by Eimear Walshe

Isabella Fox Arias — How does language play into your work? Despite using a visual medium, language is still omnipresent throughout.

Eimear Walshe — The process of making ROMANTIC IRELAND started with writing, and I am very word-oriented, even as a visual artist. Writing comes up high in my communication fluency areas, so my challenge for this pavilion is thinking about the three different things produced.

The first part is the libretto in terms of its development, and that's obviously a writing process. But the challenge with the other aspects, like the video and the sculpture, was to think through, you know, the performers don't speak; they communicate just through gestures.

That was a challenge because I want to get more fluent with working just through gestures. What better way to do that than through dancers with their own vocabulary? I was really lucky to get to work with the dancers, performers, actors, and musicians who convey without words. Then, through the building, it was like thinking about retelling a part of history just through the material itself.

I'd love to hear more about constructing the story of the building.

The libretto text was the starting point and, I suppose, is also like the temporal anchor point in the sequence where the video was set. It's the biography of a building — the building site is the before, the eviction is the destruction of the life of the building, and then the ruin is the afterlife. The libretto about an eviction became the fulcrum of the narrative arc of the pavilion. It's central and primary, but I think it's also something that I try to challenge myself with. That's why it's so special to get to work with other people: you find out their languages, their fluencies, and their modes of conveyance.

Have you worked with dancers before, or is this your first time working so heavily with just a movement-based language?

Yeah, this is my first time. I got Mufutau Yusuf on board at the very start. I did that because, in his work, he has the ability to communicate incredibly large volumes and intensity through very minimalistic gestures. Some of his works involve really explosive, hugely energetic movement, but then others involve microscopic movement, like having individualized control of a whole sort of fan of muscles on your body. That extends into the kind of narrative that he is able to make through those really microscopic movements. I remember seeing one of his performances that involved moving a bicycle a tiny bit backward and forward. It's just incredibly beautiful. That ubiquitous movement captured and repeated was really of interest to me in terms of the earth building. The brief or the remit for the movement and why I was so comfortable working with Mufutau as a choreographer was I don't really want there to be dancing. I wanted to be built around the types of movements required for this kind of labor and building practice.

Working with Mufutau, Rima Baransi, and Gallia Conroy, who were the crew members with strong backgrounds in dance, was really inspiring. They just have a different way of creating. I was able to write the scripts really differently than I usually would; I'm usually a little bit over-contrived. People who are improvisational dancers are going to challenge that. For some parts of the script, I just bought laminated photographs of pieces of furniture.

What kind of furniture did you bring?

One of the really important ones was a phone stand, which is a funny mid to late-20th-century piece of furniture that you'd have in your hallway. There's a little door, you put your phone book in a little press, the phone is up high, and there's a little place to sit. That appears in some of the photo documentation of the work. Erin plays the harp, so she needed a harp stool; my businessman needed a big mahogany desk, so we made that out of our bodies, and the landlord wanted to shit on everyone, so we made them a toilet. That was incredible because it was not an area of aptitude for me. It was really special getting to work with people who were not even exclusively in that field but who have such strength in that area.

That's wonderful! I was also interested in your choice of using masks for your dancers. I found it powerful that the identity was erased from the dancers, and instead, they became almost monster-like.

Yeah, I mean, those masks have really different associations for different people. People asked me the least about the sort of monster alien end of the spectrum, and I'm excited to talk about that, actually.

Really? It was my first thought watching the piece.

Yeah, I guess there is a spectrum of associations with those masks. Their primary use is their fetish objects, and they're from a latex company that produces custom whatever you want sort of latex pieces in any color. They're in olive green, so they also have an association with Ireland, the military, and the colors that were worn by volunteers in our revolutionary history. Also, any kind of face covering is often associated with clandestine activities. There's some kind of line between deviance and criminality when you have to cover your face because of what you're doing. Thinking about the different types of external forces that create the necessity for that but also thinking about, especially the fact that they all wear it even though they're all from different historical and class positions, this kind of universal marker.

The monster bit is really relevant because I'm thinking about the way that colonized people, whenever they resist in any way, shape, or form, including peacefully, are constructed as terrorists. That's definitely something that's at play with this. These constructions of forced clandestinisation, deviancy, and the relationship between armed resistance and liberty. All this is painted on them, and then they act out a soap opera. I suppose what I'm asking of the viewer is, can you when you see them go through all these daily activities, can you identify with them anyway, even though they've been othered by this costuming?

You mentioned otherness, which I felt while watching your work. You piece made me think about otherness and its relation to being a queer artist. You are non-binary and your work deals a lot with transient middle space that exists between two extremes. I’m thinking about how your work deals with coming from a land that was both the colonizer and the colonized. There's not really a question there.

But you're onto something aren't you? You certainly are.

Yeah, this is what your work has been making me think about.

I think there are two things with that: the interest in forced clan destination probably does come from thinking about the kind of bargains that you cut, and there are the invitations to self-betrayal, which includes betrayal of your history, betrayal of your ancestral struggle, and betrayal of your peers. That's certainly something that I'm thinking about with this. What you were saying in terms of Ireland as a colonized, a settler colony, but also the agent of, certainly in a really extensive way, religious imperialism. We tend to be a bit less keen to discuss.

Then secondly, the assistance to the extension of, and the aiding of, for example, US imperialism. We are a colonized nation that aids in the colonization of others and has learned nothing. In terms of what that has to do with being non-binary, maybe there's something very kind of simple in terms of creating a narrative film where there are no goodies or baddies. Why is Ireland so keen to discuss its victimhood in relation to colonization and so shy of or even in denial of how it perpetuated it? Part of it is because narrative framing doesn't allow you the complexity to have both, and that's also the case in lots of other kinds of categories.

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