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humanofcolor · 7 years ago

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Artist Alicia Eggert On The Value of Wonder, Artistry, And Purpose

HFTC: When someone asks what you do for a living, how do you answer? And if I ask, "Who are you?" is the answer the same?

Alicia Eggert: My first answer would always be, "I am an artist." But I would add that I also make a living as a teacher. I'm currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Bowdoin College.

Have you defined yourself through different categories or professions at different times in your life or do you constantly view yourself as an amalgamation of your previous experiences?

I definitely view myself as an amalgamation of my upbringing and previous experiences. I didn't always know or think that I was an artist because I didn't necessarily enjoy painting and drawing as a child. I got my undergraduate degree in interior design. It wasn't until I was exposed to conceptual art in a sculpture class during my last semester in college that I fell in love with art and decided that's what I wanted to do. But I couldn't get up the nerve to call myself an artist for years. It's a title I felt I had to earn.

Once you fell in love with art, what steps did you take to become an artist or feel that you finally could claim the word for yourself? Was it a sort of self-initiation or did it include affirmation from others?

I started taking community art classes and making work during my spare time. At the time, I lived in New York and worked as an interior designer at an architectural firm. I eventually decided to leave that profession and New York, and I moved to Portland, Oregon, where I got a part-time job so I could work on building a portfolio to apply to MFA programs. That process was mostly self-initiated. My family thought I was crazy for giving up on a design career to become an artist. But I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

How did you maintain the focus, and overcome any doubt, to switch career paths?

I knew I wanted to apply to graduate schools for sculpture, so I worked hard on building a portfolio for my applications. I set up a small studio space in my living room in Portland and I only worked part time so that I could focus on making art. I think I was motivated by certain ideas I had that I was very excited about. I also tried to surround myself with people who were also artists or musicians, and we helped to motivate each other.

What does it personally mean to you to be an 'artist'? What significance does that word hold? What can you achieve by being an artist that you couldn't by being a designer?

As a designer I had to focus on working for my clients. The work was creative but only to a certain degree. The interior architecture projects had to be functional. As an artist, I make work that is nonfunctional and often absurd. I bring things into existence for no other reason than the fact that they don't exist already. The only real purpose the work serves is to make people wonder.

What is the first piece of art you created that you felt proud of?

In 2006, about a year after moving to Portland, I did an installation in Valentines Cafe that was called All My Clothes. Literally all of my clothes were hung on the wall of the cafe for one month, in a gigantic clump, during which time I borrowed clothes from friends. All 346 articles of clothing were also drawn individually in pencil and colored pencil on paper and hung on the opposite wall with string and miniature clothespins. I wore a burlap sack to the exhibition's opening. That was a huge turning point for me, and I am still really proud of that work. You can see it here: http://aliciaeggert.com/work/pages/allmyclothes.html.

What was the significance of showcasing each individual piece of clothing? Why was it a huge turning point for you?

The fact that it was literally all my clothes was significant because it made the work a performance in addition to an installation. It was personal. It made me realize how much of my identity is based on what I wear, and hanging every article of clothing on the wall was like nailing my identity on the wall, almost like a crucifixion. The project marked a turning point for me because it was the first time I felt I took a crazy idea as far as it could possibly go.

Many of your artworks are kinetic, electronic, and interactive, focused on the relationship between language, image, and time. Why are you drawn to creating in these mediums and why are these particular subject areas important to you?

Time fascinates me because it is a constant reminder of our mortality. I make kinetic work because it has the ability to change over time. It's almost as if the work itself has a life and a lifespan (which one kinetic sculpture I made, called Pulse Machine, actually does...it was programmed to have a human lifespan and to die after 78 years). I like to work with language a lot because I like to make my work accessible to as many people as possible. But words can have many definitions, so even though a word might be easy to understand at first glance, it can also have the ability to contain a great deal of depth and complexity.

Wow, where will the Pulse Machine reside for its lifetime? Do you collaborate with programmers or engineers in creating some of your work? For someone also interested in physical, kinetic, or interactive work, do you recommend studying sculpture or another discipline?

Right now Pulse Machine is in storage in my studio. But it has a battery-operated internal clock that keeps track of the passing time even when it's unplugged. I hope someday it will belong to a collector or a museum. I will not be alive long enough to watch it die.

Pulse Machine was made in collaboration with an artist/engineer named Alexander Reben. He graduated from MIT's Media Lab. I enjoy collaborating with engineers and other people who have expertise that I lack. As long as I have an idea I can find someone who could help me make it a reality. But not knowing how to do things myself can also be very frustrating at times. Sometimes I wish I had gone to school for physics or engineering. But not really.

Is there a particular person you'd like to collaborate with for a future project?

Not necessarily. I'm currently working on a project with a physics professor and the machine shop at Bowdoin College. It's not necessarily collaborative because they are just helping me execute my idea, which is to continually rotate an office chair so fast that it becomes a visual blur. I'm very excited about that project, but I prefer a more collaborative process, where everyone involved is invested in the concept just as much as the execution. Ideas are always better when they're bounced around. Pulse Machine turned out much better in the end than how I'd originally pictured it and that's because Alex was just as invested in the brainstorming process.

As technology is rapidly changing, how do you see yourself evolving as an artist? Will you stick to physical pieces or consider approaching strictly digital mediums?

My work will always be focused on the physical product or object. I am not as much interested in the digital unless it is a means to a physical end. I think this is because the digital doesn't seem as real or as powerful. A projected image that changes as you move around in front of it seems somehow less impressive or meaningful for me than an object with moving parts that physically reacts to your motion. Real, moving objects wear and break down with age, like our own bodies. They are mortal like us, and we relate to them in a very special way because of that.

That said, I am very open to working with new and emerging technologies. New tools allow for new ideas and ways of working.

Since you appreciate language, what are the best creative words of wisdom or insight you have been given? And what do you feel are the most meaningful words you have left with your aspiring students?

One of my favorite quotes is by Jacques Rancière, from The Ignorant Schoolmaster: "Truth is not told. It is a whole, and language fragments it; it is necessary, and languages are arbitrary."

I honestly don't know about meaningful words I've left with my students... this one stumps me! I guess you'd have to ask them yourself. I guess I just hope that if I've taught them anything, it is the value of wonder. Wonder is the curiosity that drives us to learn new things about ourselves and the world around us, but it's also the feeling we get when we encounter something that is beyond our understanding. And both forms of wonder are equally important. We should always be asking questions, but we shouldn't necessarily expect to find any answers. Sometimes the answer to the question "Why?" is just "Because."

Alicia Eggert is a sculpture, installation, interactive media artist and a 2013 TED fellow. She teaches at Bowdoin College in Maine. You can view her work on her website. Images used with permission. Keep up with Here For The Color on Tumblr.

#interviews #interview #art #word art #installation art #creativity

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portlandbeautyschool · 2 years ago

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Nail Care Training With Portland Beauty School

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