MadameFraankie on Identity, Community and Legacy
ArtalogueFebruary 23, 2024x
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00:29:5920.63 MB

MadameFraankie on Identity, Community and Legacy

MadameFraankie’s work is centred around recontextualizing the day to day documentation of black life. She is drawn to highlighting the various ways Black people hold space and occupy their time. Within her work she attempts to capture micro-communal moments, gestures of love, and curiosity.

MadameFraankie

MadameFraankie’s work is centred around recontextualizing the day to day documentation of black life. She is drawn to highlighting the various ways Black people hold space and occupy their time. Within her work she attempts to capture micro-communal moments, gestures of love, and curiosity. MadameFraankie’s work draws comparison of these documented themes against the social and ethical norms within American Culture as a means to reshape black narration and photographic storytelling.

She attributes the reshaping of her understanding of community and artistry to the arts and music scene in Memphis, specifically working with Tone Memphis . Having recently exhibited with the space during Miami Art Week 2023, MadameFraankie is excited for her work to take on a larger scale in both size and subject matter during her residency with Crosstown Arts. She explains how aspects of her identity like being both Black and Southern impacts how she thinks about and creates art. We learn about her upbringing in the military and how moving around the world produced a longing for aspects of identity and a sense of home that she now conjures in her photographs. Living in Memphis, MadameFraankie turns her camera towards the mundane aspects of Black life, championing the joy and tenderness in her community. 


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00:00:34
Speaker 1: Madame Fraankie's work is centered around

00:00:36
recontextualizing the day-to-day documentation of Black life.

00:00:40
She is drawn to highlighting the various ways Black people hold

00:00:42
space and occupy their time. Within her work she attempts to

00:00:45
capture micro, communal moments, gestures of love and curiosity.

00:00:49
Madame Frankie's work draws comparison of these documented

00:00:52
themes against the social and ethical norms within American

00:00:55
culture as a means to reshape Black narration and photographic

00:00:58
storytelling. Frankie, welcome to the show. Happy to be here.

00:01:03
How did you get into photography ?

00:01:06
Speaker 2: It's been like a retrospective look, I think. In

00:01:08
the end, I've discovered that I've always been into it, with

00:01:11
obsession with family photo albums and stuff like that and

00:01:13
just staring at an image one image per hour in particular,

00:01:16
like my mom in front of a car and things like that. So since I

00:01:19
was a kid but actively participating in it, I would

00:01:23
have started in 2017 shooting digital and then taking it way

00:01:27
seriously and switching over to film in 2020.

00:01:31
Speaker 1: What assured that shift to film?

00:01:34
Speaker 2: It was. So what I was finding myself exhausted with

00:01:37
and shooting digital film was like having way too many

00:01:41
pictures. Like I would go to a event. I got so many great shots

00:01:43
but you would just 800 images In reality. It's ridiculous. 50

00:01:49
images in reality is actually ridiculous when you look at it.

00:01:54
So it was wanting to one adopt a newer process, like something

00:01:58
that was going to force me to have to be serious. There's no

00:02:03
out in your seriousness with film. It's either the limitation

00:02:07
on how many shots you have or what are you shooting, how much

00:02:10
time you spend on a moment. Like it all just brought that

00:02:13
intentionality for me, so I made that switch.

00:02:16
Speaker 1: Did someone teach you how to shoot film, or were you

00:02:18
teaching yourself?

00:02:20
Speaker 2: I was teaching myself . I want to say it started also

00:02:23
because during COVID there wasn't much to do except get on

00:02:25
YouTube, learn new skills. So then I want to say this started

00:02:28
rolling in to watching folks take pictures. It started

00:02:31
because it was like a research. At the time too, folks were like

00:02:34
, hey, I'm picking my daddy's film camera or whatever. I got a

00:02:37
daddy's film camera. Yeah, it was just on YouTube looking

00:02:41
around. And then I remember calling my dad and asking him

00:02:44
like, hey, can I use your camera ? And he said yeah, and then I

00:02:48
just switched over and started experimenting, even with the

00:02:51
developing side of it. I'm also pretty hands on, so it's all

00:02:55
been really, really exciting for me. Yeah.

00:02:59
Speaker 1: I love that idea of lineage that comes through your

00:03:01
work, that even down to your camera. That's part of your

00:03:04
family, part of your history.

00:03:07
Speaker 2: It's more the lost memory. My mom reminded me I

00:03:10
think I went home talking about it or something like about

00:03:13
cameras and stuff, like dad's going to be getting his film

00:03:15
camera or something, and then she started mentioning that she

00:03:18
had one. I was like what do you mean? You have one, because

00:03:20
we're like close. So my mom locked in. So to find out that

00:03:25
she had one was confusing to me. And then she showed me the

00:03:27
suitcase that it was in and I realized that I had been looking

00:03:30
at that suitcase and so I was like five, it was just like this

00:03:32
metal suitcase that I had believed that was holding all of

00:03:34
her like versatility and stuff. But it was just a camera that

00:03:37
she'd had since college because she took photography in school

00:03:40
and yada, yada, yada yeah. I just was like wow, so you both

00:03:44
have cameras, you have roots in photography and it was just mind

00:03:49
blowing and both exciting. I felt like a surgeon, like new

00:03:52
connections and stuff.

00:03:53
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah that sounds like an amazing feeling.

00:03:57
What does it mean to recontextualize the

00:03:59
documentation of Black life?

00:04:02
Speaker 2: After I discovered what I was shooting and what I

00:04:04
was looking for, getting into photography and looking at

00:04:07
images and not really seeing my community photographs in its

00:04:11
full spectrum, just in photo books and typically certain

00:04:15
photographers are shooting a certain thing and what I was

00:04:18
looking for was not being shown and then also saying where I

00:04:23
live. The stories that get put out about my community they're

00:04:27
very one sided flat and I don't think we have the opportunity to

00:04:31
be photographed in a way that's overwhelmingly amounts of

00:04:36
curiosity or overwhelming amounts of solid families and

00:04:40
stuff like that. So, wanting to make that shift until it becomes

00:04:42
something that feels so, even though the work is mundane

00:04:45
images it becoming so full of it that it's like you might look

00:04:50
at the work and one day be like there's lots of this stuff. I

00:04:52
see this stuff all the time. So I'm not necessarily a native

00:04:55
Memphian, as someone who's adopted the city as like home

00:04:59
for me. Memphis is a very authentic and genuine space.

00:05:03
It's not flashy or anything. It's even down to the buildings

00:05:07
there are trying to do a lot of renovations, but it's a very

00:05:10
honest city. I've been to, like St LA and Chicago, and it's

00:05:13
really. You can often find folks are trying to prove a certain

00:05:18
status or whatever, but we don't really deal with too much fluff

00:05:21
here. Who are you for real kind of thing. So I think that's one

00:05:24
of my favorite things about the city and it's yeah, it's really

00:05:29
. It's a pretty calm place, like it's easy going pretty southern

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in its pace. You can pick up a conversation with somebody up

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the street, as long as you are coming with you know being

00:05:41
genuine kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, so you're not from Memphis. Where

00:05:46
were?

00:05:46
Speaker 2: you born, born, so my dad was in the military,

00:05:49
retired now, and so I was born in Los Angeles and so we moved

00:05:54
just a bit. I probably have a very short list in comparison to

00:05:57
other folks who've been to Nebuchadnezzar or whatever, but

00:05:59
yeah, we moved a little bit. So, born in Los Angeles, spent a

00:06:02
time in Virginia, spent some time in Bahrain, I was like

00:06:06
three or four years and then moved to Mimington, tennessee,

00:06:10
and then I was actually in Memphis until college Wow, which

00:06:14
is for those who are not from like 45 minutes up the street,

00:06:18
yeah.

00:06:18
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Do you think that, growing up in

00:06:22
different spaces, especially Bahrain, do you think that finds

00:06:25
its way into your photos?

00:06:27
Speaker 2: I think maybe my this I don't have it as much as I

00:06:32
did, but this constant outside looking in perspective, I think,

00:06:36
is one of those things that kind of, though Memphis still

00:06:40
feels very home to me, I still feel like I still see it, this

00:06:44
is what you guys got going on. It's still very much a you guys

00:06:47
kind of thing.

00:06:48
Speaker 1: That's so interesting , yeah, yeah. And what inspires

00:06:53
your photos?

00:06:56
Speaker 2: Energy, because I don't necessarily like even for

00:06:59
this last body of work I was given a topic, but typically if

00:07:02
I'm just shooting free range, it's just energy, any moments

00:07:06
that kind of speak to my heart, something that just catches,

00:07:10
just things that I'm drawn to. So it's often it usually has

00:07:14
involved, like kids in some form or fashion, one of the honest

00:07:17
places to perspective, get a perspective from view of the

00:07:20
world or whatever. So sometimes I am drawn to if there is

00:07:23
anything going on, if it's a kid and their family, I'm drawn to

00:07:27
that. But typically it's just, yeah, black storytelling. So if

00:07:30
I see a moment that kind of feels like oh, this is speaking

00:07:32
to me, then I photograph that because oftentimes those moments

00:07:35
won't be what someone else will photograph Do you have a

00:07:38
favorite photograph you've ever taken. It fluctuates, but

00:07:43
currently my favorite one is King of the Hill, which was

00:07:46
after the Elada exhibition. It's that large image of a kid in a

00:07:51
little bunch of kids in the living room but one kid in

00:07:52
particular center obsessed with that image. I think a lot of

00:07:57
images from that work I it feels like divine capturing because

00:08:02
again, shoot on film like you got one shot, maybe two shots

00:08:04
with the particular 120 roll that I was shooting. So I was

00:08:08
pretty floored that I was able to capture that. I knew what I

00:08:10
wanted but to have it and it check also all of my photography

00:08:13
boxes like lighting and contrast and storytelling and

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placement, like all of it is there.

00:08:19
Speaker 1: I think that's my favorite one, right now You've

00:08:22
just come back from exhibiting at NADA in Miami with tone from

00:08:25
Memphis, was that?

00:08:26
Speaker 2: your first art fair? Yes, as a featured artist. Yes,

00:08:30
I do also work for tone as a marketing director, but that was

00:08:33
my first time we're artists range. That was my first time

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featured. Yes, as an artist and a fair.

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Speaker 1: What was it like to attend the fair as an artist who

00:08:43
was having their work showcased ?

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Speaker 2: Man. I think it was incredible. I think like the

00:08:49
standing was exhausting. But, yeah, have an opportunity to

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speak with a wide range of folks , participate in the arts, like

00:08:57
curators to gallery owners, the actual artists themselves I

00:09:01
think it was just great. I can have an opinion about the work,

00:09:06
but to hear folks involved in the works opinions because I've

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also had even the exhibition I have a folks who are just

00:09:12
general consumers, like just human beings, just existing and

00:09:15
interacting with the work. I know how they feel about it, but

00:09:18
it's also really cool to hear people with different eyes react

00:09:22
to the work. So that was it was incredible.

00:09:25
Speaker 1: Did anything really stand out for other people's

00:09:27
interpretations? Did anything strike you?

00:09:30
Speaker 2: Honestly, I think it was more so that I feel like the

00:09:34
message was delivered. I don't think anybody necessarily named

00:09:37
something that was like something that I didn't want

00:09:40
folks to get from the work, but I think it's also. It's just as

00:09:43
meaningful. It seems to resonate with everyone. I think that,

00:09:46
for me, was one of the biggest takeaways. Like wow, like I'm

00:09:49
not just making this up, this is powerful stuff. So I think yeah

00:09:53
, I think it would be that.

00:09:55
Speaker 1: Can you tell me a bit more about tone and the art

00:09:57
scene in Memphis?

00:09:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, tone is a nonprofit black arts

00:10:02
organization that's been existing on the scene Since, I

00:10:06
want to say like 2014, and recently acquired a physical

00:10:10
space in 2019. And the goal of it is just to elevate black

00:10:15
communities in the full spectrum . So just any art form,

00:10:18
professional development, artist development, just giving space,

00:10:20
a platform for black folks to rise and shine. And then, in

00:10:24
terms of the art scene, I'd say it's one that is bubbling kind

00:10:30
of, as the same way as the city is also going through a shift. I

00:10:34
think we're doing a really great job in the music scene.

00:10:36
You can see a lot of folks with money bag yo and go really,

00:10:38
folks really not only coming out of Memphis and shining, but

00:10:41
people pooling a lot of Memphis, getting a lot of inspiration

00:10:45
from Memphis music and putting it in their music and stuff like

00:10:48
that. I think the art scene and visual arts and stuff like that

00:10:52
is bubbling. We don't have a lot of galleries, but I think it

00:10:56
really does feel like we're about to bubble over at the same

00:10:58
. So it's not like you go to LA and you go to and I've only been

00:11:01
LA once, yeah, I've been born there but in assuming that even

00:11:05
in a quick Google that you can find cities that have just heaps

00:11:07
and heaps of galleries. We're not necessarily made that way

00:11:10
yet, but like folks coming out of school and the people that

00:11:13
we've been interacting with, just seeing a lot of beautiful

00:11:15
stuff coming up, so I think it's . I think it's, I think it's

00:11:18
growing for sure.

00:11:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was your journey to becoming an artist?

00:11:25
Speaker 2: I think so I'll say like Tom really shifted that for

00:11:29
me, because first I didn't know what the community was or

00:11:32
anything like that, so I was just winging it. I wasn't even

00:11:34
necessarily taking any of it seriously until joining just

00:11:38
running a program that Tom was putting on A lot of it is having

00:11:42
to find a community to get in. I always wanted to be an artist,

00:11:45
even as a kid. I was always drawn to this idea of being

00:11:49
creative and doing your own thing. I was never really great.

00:11:51
I'm great in terms of charming the people. If I need to be a

00:11:55
retail sales kind of thing would do I want to do that kind of

00:11:58
thing, working a traditional job ? not necessarily. Yeah, I

00:12:02
always wanted to be a creative and an artist. I think that for

00:12:06
photography, once I realized because this is all still very

00:12:10
new to me but there is a problem to solve and I can solve it

00:12:13
with art, both in making the work and in even with this last

00:12:17
exhibition I had an opportunity to teach classes and stuff like

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that. It's pretty locked into this, but this for me has been a

00:12:24
very revolutionary moment for me, like photography. To me it

00:12:30
was like music and photography existed together and I was

00:12:34
having a bit of a push and pull, like what I want to do. But I

00:12:37
think that what I have learned in this recent, within this year

00:12:41
, is that who I am is like I am a photographer who is a musician

00:12:45
. So for me I have just acquired officially, like who I am in

00:12:49
this world artistically I am a photographer, visual storyteller

00:12:53
, who makes music kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: I think it's so important to recognize that we

00:12:59
exist in so many different ways and there's not just one way to

00:13:02
do something, and there's just not one path that we need to

00:13:04
take and those can exist together. As a musician, do you

00:13:09
think that the art and the music ever come together in an

00:13:13
interdisciplinary approach?

00:13:15
Speaker 2: I don't think they have yet. I'm open to exploring

00:13:18
that because the way that I see these images is blips and movie

00:13:22
scenes and at one point in time I wanted to score a movie. So at

00:13:25
some point potentially maybe writing music to those images or

00:13:28
something, but I think I have not yet figured out what that is

00:13:31
. But I'm not against the idea that those one day can be. Can

00:13:35
you tell me a bit about your music. I'll leave it. I guess I

00:13:39
can. But that's also been some of that turning point for me

00:13:42
that I've always struggled to talk about the music. But the

00:13:46
photography side has been so easy, even with my goal and the

00:13:49
mission and everything. With music I guess I can say it's

00:13:52
very. It's not experiments on the traditional sense but I just

00:13:55
am always experimenting with kind of like your typical sounds

00:14:01
, like influences, being like like Eric Abadou and the Angelo

00:14:03
and stuff like that. It's very. I've learned that music is very

00:14:07
it's for me. So when I'm making stuff, I tend to make things

00:14:10
that when I play for people they say it's like therapeutic and

00:14:14
hypnotic in a way, but still can maintain of those like

00:14:17
traditional sounds or on the floor or whatever. Just it's not

00:14:20
. It's not. Yeah, I struggled to talk about it. I do have music

00:14:25
out. I do work heavily with the artist name to leave us our fear

00:14:28
from Memphis as well and love it. It's a big part of me. But

00:14:31
again, I still struggle to speak on it on a technical term and

00:14:35
what am I doing with it or whatever?

00:14:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I checked out. I think you have one song on

00:14:39
Spotify right now. I checked it out.

00:14:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:14:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you. As someone who speaks multiple

00:14:45
languages, how does the silent medium such as photography lend

00:14:48
itself to your narrative work?

00:14:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I Spanish, italian and I say bad French.

00:14:53
Well, yeah, I think so. When I was thinking about this, I think

00:14:58
that it's more. That language to me is just like this constant

00:15:02
search for understanding.

00:15:04
Speaker 1: What stories do you see yourself telling when you

00:15:06
turn the camera towards yourself ?

00:15:10
Speaker 2: So that's actually a funny question because in the

00:15:16
residency I'm jumping ahead but I'm learning that a lot of it is

00:15:20
going to be this like deep exploration of self. So my folks

00:15:24
in the military long-shore stores and I spent a long time

00:15:28
believing that I was going to have an option to be from

00:15:32
somewhere and for like a visa for somewhere, like cool, so

00:15:35
they're in the military, it's not really cool to be from the

00:15:39
country, or maybe even from the South. Right, my daddy's from

00:15:41
Mississippi, my mom's from Indiana and I would lean into

00:15:45
this idea that I can pull from places that weren't mine and

00:15:48
just trying to attain an identity that was never going to

00:15:52
be mine. So what it is leaning into, what is actually me, who

00:15:56
is Southern, and same thing with Black identity. It gets pretty

00:15:59
deep. But there were a lot of things that I was running

00:16:02
towards or shying away from because I was led to believe

00:16:05
that it wasn't a part of my identity or wanting to grab

00:16:09
things that I didn't necessarily need to be my identity for me

00:16:12
to indulge in or whatever. So I think it's a lot of highlighting

00:16:16
the Southerness about me and appreciation of just Blackness

00:16:19
throughout and the different ways that it can show up and the

00:16:22
ways that all that I am and what that means in this

00:16:26
iteration of Blackness and being Southern Reflection, deep

00:16:31
reflection, in short.

00:16:34
Speaker 1: What kind of qualities make someone Southern?

00:16:36
I'm really interested in explaining that to someone who's

00:16:40
never been to the South. What does it mean to be Southern?

00:16:43
Speaker 2: I think it's how you feel. It's like fireflies and

00:16:48
seeing the stars and long conversations, and even though,

00:16:53
like Southern's can be known for being like nice, mean in a nice

00:16:58
way, or bless your heart, and stuff like that, my mom being

00:17:02
from the North and my dad being from the South, I would say he

00:17:06
went over in terms of the culture, adaptation, of being

00:17:09
like we'll do things at this speed or we'll. This is type of

00:17:12
food that we must eat and what food brings community and mess

00:17:16
with. Eat all the Southern foods now, black Southern foods now,

00:17:19
but it's, it's that stuff and the way folks talk, whether it's

00:17:23
slow, fast, we're like it's just the expression. And then

00:17:26
how you yeah, just how you interact with people, it's a lot

00:17:28
different. I find, in the North and my experience, that things

00:17:33
are like it's pretty brisk and I found in times where I want to

00:17:38
like ease into this, like I want to the sudden charm, and when

00:17:43
there's no space for that, I struggle. So I think it's. I

00:17:48
think it's that and I'm and I think it's also what I'm doing

00:17:50
is wanting to do a focus of what I'm reading and what I'm taking

00:17:54
in, to start getting a deeper understanding, even for myself,

00:17:57
because all I know is that where I was raised and how my daddy

00:18:00
is and stuff like that. But I think there's so much more to

00:18:02
learn to be able to better articulate it. So that's what

00:18:06
I'm also.

00:18:08
Speaker 1: So what artists do you see yourself in dialogue

00:18:11
with?

00:18:12
Speaker 2: I am having really into the work of Andre Wagner.

00:18:17
He's a guy from Omaha, nebraska, and really big in New York

00:18:19
right now and he does work that is like it's in the same room.

00:18:25
So Andre Wagner will say Gordon Parks of Caramay, wing, and

00:18:29
there's Deanna Lawson. She typically shoots in color, but I

00:18:32
find that I'm really attracted to these four, their work

00:18:37
specifically because it feels really based on just simple

00:18:40
observation and the highlighting of these mundane moments. Andre

00:18:43
walks the streets and captures kids running and he shoots

00:18:47
typically in black and white. This is like a commission piece

00:18:50
for Gordon. I think my attraction to his work in

00:18:53
particular I would bring this up . But like the way he shot

00:18:55
Muhammad Ali was very. It was so honest and genuine. You could

00:18:59
see how grandiose he was, which also he was a man. I think he

00:19:02
did a really great job with that , doing it in black and white,

00:19:05
in the way that he is soft I think that's also what I want to

00:19:09
continue to have in my work and softness about our people. And

00:19:13
then Deanna, like I said, shooting in color, and I tend to

00:19:15
stray away from color unless there is a need for it, because

00:19:21
black and white keeps me honest and I think she does, like color

00:19:24
feels so necessary in her work because it's about capturing not

00:19:27
just the people but like the surroundings. So she'll shoot

00:19:28
someone in the living room and you need to know that the carpet

00:19:31
was blue and you need to know that the wall was red and stuff

00:19:34
like that. It's those things and Carrie May Williams, of course,

00:19:37
with the kitchen series obsessed, like a story just

00:19:39
based off of all the things that happened just in that kitchen,

00:19:42
like just in the kitchen, like cycling through these so many

00:19:45
stories that happened in the kitchen and how I believe that

00:19:48
it's easy to sleep on the idea. Yeah, it's just a kitchen, but

00:19:51
life happens here, transitions happen and all of that. So I

00:19:55
think it's that stuff like highlighting again those like

00:19:58
things that you might look over and these are the moments, kind

00:20:00
of thing.

00:20:02
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I'm so interested in what you said just

00:20:05
now about black and white, keeping you honest. Can you tell

00:20:09
me more about that?

00:20:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, Thank you. So I I feel like I'm relatively new

00:20:17
in the photography world and I spent a lot of time once I

00:20:21
switched over the film, because shooting with film keeps me

00:20:24
intentional and it's because of that limitation and then. So

00:20:28
then the next decision was like are you gonna shoot in color,

00:20:31
Are you gonna shoot in black and white? Simply, whatever you

00:20:34
have in the camera is what you have. And after looking at the

00:20:37
work like I was shooting color and shoot in black and white I

00:20:40
would notice that sometimes what would have pulled my attention

00:20:45
was someone has red shorts and I might miss a moment that was

00:20:47
happening over here because I wasn't paying attention to what

00:20:50
I actually wanted to capture. In the end, Could I look at the

00:20:52
work and maybe it was there, but I realized that it was this

00:20:56
color that kind of pulled me, and so, when I can skip out all

00:20:59
of that, it's about the eyes and the lighting and just pure

00:21:03
moment. So that's all that is is , I find, the most sincere way

00:21:07
of storytelling.

00:21:11
Speaker 1: What motivates you to create?

00:21:14
Speaker 2: The type of storytelling I'm trying to do.

00:21:15
It's starting to feel like it's brewing up this idea of like

00:21:19
mundane, black life, just going out and capturing the moments in

00:21:24
your house, on your porch. I feel like there's a lack Just

00:21:28
because you saw one like, until it becomes just abundant. I

00:21:33
think that's one of my motivations to create and I

00:21:37
think lately, as I've been like reflecting, it's starting to

00:21:40
feel that already in itself to me feels necessary. But what I

00:21:43
feel like we're experiencing in particular, like in the US, is

00:21:46
this idea of erasure, like this insane erasure that's happening

00:21:50
with education and changing of language and stuff, and so I

00:21:55
think it's becoming necessary to share truths through images,

00:21:59
because the stuff is, it's getting crazy for you, yeah.

00:22:05
Speaker 1: Do you ever deal with creative slumps and how do you

00:22:09
move through them if you do? Mm-hmm.

00:22:12
Speaker 2: Yes. So the answer is yes, and so what I've been

00:22:16
doing lately is trying to make everything research and turning

00:22:22
everything into research, everything becomes interesting

00:22:26
so that, like I can start pooling from anywhere, truly

00:22:30
trying to stay curious, asking questions. Do I know about why

00:22:32
this thing works this way? If I don't, let's look into it,

00:22:36
Watching things that I might not typically be interested in.

00:22:39
Somebody wrote this let me I'm thinking about. Let me see what

00:22:43
you're in product with. What was your project, what came of it?

00:22:46
And oftentimes I'm like pulling stuff out of that all the time,

00:22:49
just writing these. One line is down and I'm like why does that

00:22:51
make you feel? Feeling things keeps me feeling a slump. Feel

00:22:56
things that have been helping as well. I typically can be a

00:22:59
pretty nonchalant individual. Deciding to care about things is

00:23:03
better. Get you out of a swamp real quick.

00:23:07
Speaker 1: I love that. Deciding to care what a great concept.

00:23:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, can I?

00:23:13
Speaker 1: ask what are some of the quotes that are percolating?

00:23:16


00:23:16
Speaker 2: at the moment. Oh, let me see, I get something from

00:23:19
the bear. I love the bear, which was a show that I was

00:23:24
never gonna watch, love it. So sometimes I'm gonna like to

00:23:27
quote. It's more like I want something and get it in again.

00:23:29
This is not like revolutionary or anything, but like the bear

00:23:33
literally in there. They're talking about like why do you do

00:23:36
this, or why are you doing it in this way, or what is this all

00:23:39
about? But it's when you care, let's listen to the conversation

00:23:43
. Don't just have a restaurant and make really great food, but

00:23:48
you can take it even further than that. You can walk and

00:23:51
listen to folks' conversations, you can engage, you can overhear

00:23:54
something and you can decide to care about that and change

00:23:57
someone's life. So it's things like this Like okay, I wanna

00:24:01
care that deeply, and then what are things that are really

00:24:03
important to me? And then how can I take it up a notch? And so

00:24:06
the same. That's what I'm like even experiencing right now in

00:24:08
the residency. What are more ways that I can start

00:24:12
experimenting with photography and get really involved in it,

00:24:14
as opposed to just taking the picture and telling the story

00:24:17
that way? Are there other ways for me to print the image and

00:24:20
other ways to like use my hands with materials or like bringing

00:24:23
in, like my family stories and stuff like that. What other ways

00:24:27
can I do it? I'm not sure if it's gonna work, but that's what

00:24:29
I'll be doing is like experimenting with it, and that

00:24:31
comes from this idea of caring and like the details and like

00:24:34
ways to stress myself.

00:24:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, speaking of things that have held on to you

00:24:40
, what's some of the best advice that you've received as an

00:24:43
artist?

00:24:44
Speaker 2: Maybe it's more like a recurrent advice. Is that just

00:24:51
create. Like sometimes you'll. Sometimes, you know, you're like

00:24:54
, oh, I'm feeling so inspired today and I'm gonna go to the

00:24:59
studio, I'm gonna sit down and do this thing, but and it's

00:25:02
gonna be great, and you're working and you're like, wow,

00:25:03
I'm killing it. But then you might wake up one day and just

00:25:06
realize I'm not really excited to go to the studio, so I'll

00:25:10
skip it today and I'll just wait for the next time that I feel

00:25:11
excited. But learning that these are, that's just another energy

00:25:15
to create in and you can create something else. If you're

00:25:17
always making your work when you're at your peak of happiness

00:25:21
, then you're only speaking to that narrative. Go sitting in a

00:25:25
studio where you're bored. What is your bored work? What does it

00:25:27
look like? So I would say it's just, yeah, just to create. It's

00:25:31
always create.

00:25:34
Speaker 1: So, finally, to talk about your residency at

00:25:36
Crosstown Arts, can you tell me a bit about what you're working

00:25:40
towards right now?

00:25:42
Speaker 2: Yes, I've been sitting down experimenting with

00:25:45
different ways that I can do photography and or display it.

00:25:49
At least I'm working with ideas of what it is to keep something

00:25:53
alive, like there's this idea of if you say someone's name or if

00:25:57
you repeat things, that's what keeps it alive. And also my mom

00:26:00
is a painter, went to school for it, and my grandma is a

00:26:06
seamstress, and so my mom one time was like painting just all

00:26:09
the time and then eventually papered off just because of life

00:26:11
. But my grandma, it's art to them, like they moved through it

00:26:16
and it's like an art practice that never really gets

00:26:19
acknowledged as that. And so even for me, like growing up,

00:26:22
starting to reflect on those different moments where I

00:26:25
actually was witnessing my grandma working at her practice

00:26:28
and how she was making things for the family, and then how my

00:26:32
mom had like stuff laying around there was art tools that I

00:26:34
never really thought about, even the photography stuff, how that

00:26:36
slipped past me until a couple years ago, realizing that I had

00:26:39
been surrounded by her art, her chalk and film canisters and

00:26:43
things like that. And I'm wanting to practice with putting

00:26:47
photography onto fabric and like starting to work with what

00:26:50
it is to like stitch and stuff and like having those

00:26:53
conversations with my mom and my grandma, to have those

00:26:57
conversations. So when somebody asked me about these pieces,

00:27:00
like I can name, I can name my mom and I can name my grandma,

00:27:03
so the legacy, and like how can I physically incorporate legacy

00:27:07
into the work and things that just remind me of them? It's

00:27:10
just, I guess it's just love, just like putting love into the

00:27:14
work and wanting it to be attached to the things that I

00:27:18
believe that made me and inspired me.

00:27:22
Speaker 1: What are your plans for the future?

00:27:25
Speaker 2: I would love for the work to grow like to take a

00:27:27
large platform, to exist in other galleries, other like

00:27:30
museums, potentially I would love to do talks to spread the

00:27:35
good gospel of the work, kind of thing to teach. I really would

00:27:38
love to teach on a more consistent basis, like giving

00:27:41
folks the cameras and people's hands and tell people some

00:27:44
understanding, importance of telling their stories in this

00:27:47
kind of way. I think not too many people truly understand

00:27:51
seriously. You have a camera sitting in your room and just

00:27:53
start that is your story and then and go from there. You have

00:27:56
to have something extra to just get started.

00:27:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, that kind of leads into my next question what

00:28:03
advice would you have for artists looking to get into

00:28:06
photography or someone looking to become a photographer?

00:28:11
Speaker 2: I think so. For me, I would say one start with what

00:28:15
you have. So that's a, that's iPhone grade, if that's a

00:28:19
disposal camera, if you pick up a more range, perfect.

00:28:22
Absolutely start with what you have and look at images. Get you

00:28:26
, get to get your eyes on some photographs, get photo books,

00:28:29
get understanding of what you like and what you don't like,

00:28:31
and lean into some things that you don't like, because you'll

00:28:34
also find what you do looking at what you don't like. That's

00:28:36
been helpful for me as well. Just get involved in the world

00:28:39
of photography in any way that you can. I think it will serve

00:28:42
you, frankie.

00:28:44
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being on the show today. I

00:28:47
really love talking to you and learning more about your work.

00:28:50
Speaker 2: Yeah absolutely, it's been a pleasure.

00:28:52
Speaker 1: Is there anything that you'd like to talk about,

00:28:53
anything you'd like to promote before we close off?

00:28:57
Speaker 2: I guess musically me. And to leave you something out

00:28:59
of song out on Spotify, check it out, called Papa please, and

00:29:02
then you can find me. If you're looking for music at Madame

00:29:05
Frankie, and if photography looking for me looking at the

00:29:08
same thing, madame Frankie, but M M E Frankie on Instagram and

00:29:13
the website www, www, www, www.

00:29:21
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, frankie.

madison beale,artalogue podcast,madamefraankie,photography,american artists,african american artists,