Ophelia Arc on Masters Degrees and Memories

Hi, ophelia, welcome to the Art-O-Log. Hi, thank you for having me. Can you tell me a bit about your process and what ideas are behind your work?

Yeah, totally so. For me, the beginning or initial stage of an idea for a piece, whether that be a sculpture or a drawing or a collage, is usually triggered by memory. And then from there I'm really interested in a multidisciplinary approach of research, going into either like seeing first and foremost like psychoanalysis becomes like a really big part of it, so like that must be psychoanalysis, and kind of interrogating that, or sometimes even thinking about similes and metaphors that are associated, and then researching down that kind of rabbit hole and that will usually lead to a sketch, which I then determine what medium best serves it.

So when you're talking about memories, do you mean personal memories, family memories or collective memories?

Yeah, definitely I do a lot of stuff based on my experience, my childhood. That becomes like a really big theme of the work and so I look into my family history and thinking about what it was like growing up as a kid. I moved out really young and so there's a lot of now, especially now having that distance. I've been away from my hometown and like all for so long that like having that distance. So I'm really interested in how memories are shaped over time, especially the more their access but kind of pushed away or or looked at from a different point of view yeah, speaking of memory, can you tell me about some of your earliest memories with art?

yeah, totally so for me. I kind of got into art in a very heady sense, really into art history of things and like looking at different artists that are working with sculpture in college. But my initial experience with it was working with crayons a lot. I spent a lot of time in hospitals when I was younger and so they'd always have really janky crayons that I could rely on, chunky crayons that I could rely on, and so that became like kind of a really almost immediate and personal callback and that I've now reintroduced into my work. So I use Crate religiously now.

What kind of drawings were you making?

I was god, I have like an old. I love like looking back at my old art while I was like 12 and it's just like stick figure stuff or like flowers and things, really stupid things. I have a lot of like color combinations that I would do and I would label the names of the colors, which is funny because a lot of those colors are retired now and I didn't realize like Crayola, just like, will retire a color, and so I've been kind of panicking about that now, since I have my like tried and true ones that I reach for. But I've been kind of panicking about that now, since I have my like tried and true ones that I reach for. But I was doing a lot of like note taking in crayon, writing in crayon and also just like random stupid doodles. But it's something to waste time, I suppose.

Yeah, can you tell me about a piece of yours? Potentially that has started off as a memory and how did that develop into the finished piece? I have this one piece.

I'm thinking about my childhood stuffed animal and in that I drew a series of like 12 of them from a photo that.

I have.

The stuffed animal doesn't exist anymore, probably a thrown out because it actually looked so tattered and I lost it on a vacation as a kid.

But having this one memory of being in the hospital and not being able to have the stuffed animal, and I have all these letters corresponding with my mom crying about how I want my stuffed animal, and I'm like, oh my god, I can't, I didn't have it and that was a really like big hit as a kid, especially thinking about being in these like transitional spaces of institutions and not being able to have that comfort object. So I made the piece kind of around that protective circle that happens when they all kind of come together. They're stitched in this like circle motion and within the frame I'm trying to depict what the hospital room that I was staying in look like from memory and screen grabs from an old tour of the hospital I found online. So that's like one example of a memory being like oh my God, this is something that I can't get out of my head and usually with my work, the memory and the sketch that I have for it will sit there just a really long time until it feels like ready to happen.

So the sketchbook I look back at like a year back and like will pick something that's like this and step away still at the forefront of my mind. It's clearly important and has to exist in some way.

So now you're studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. You're finishing up your master's. How has studying there impacted your practice?

Yeah, it's been interesting. I wasn't too sure what to expect, but, being at a master's level, the amount of classes, or more so, the niche-ness of the classes, has been really interesting. I've been able to get into things that I'm tangentially interested in but in theory have nothing to do with what I was starting prior. There was this class on biopolitics that I was interested in because I was reading some DuBois and it was mentioned in the description, and so then I got introduced to this plethora of really interesting thinkers that I wouldn't have stumbled upon on my own, or at least not right now at this point, and so that's been really great to be able to take a class that further builds on the research component of my work and further acknowledges that importance of it.

They have really interesting classes on different things that you wouldn't think are art related at first but can definitely be consumed and ingested in that way. I also took a research class last semester and that helped me build on how to take notes on these different people and how to find information and how to make a dossier, and so that's been something I didn't really expect to get out of university but it's been a really good benefit to my work.

I'd say yeah, and your work is really grounded in research, so I'd love to hear more about some theory that has impacted the way that you make your work of research and not having like this hard fact or soft fact, like that kind of erasing those differences and those binaries.

So for her, she does a lot of stuff on the placenta, which is interesting. She does a lot of writing on the placenta and then she'll do a lot of things on almost like a memoir take in the art world as well. And then she'll go into neuroscience and she's into psychoanalysis and so seeing someone do that in practice even though it's a totally different medium I don't write in any sense of the word, but seeing that became a way of like, oh, how do I use that material? Like the similar process of thinking like oh, there's not, there's no lane to stick in, it's kind of all of the things and everything at once. So she's been really impactful.

And then julie christaba, who I think was the first time I realized like there's this whole world of philosophical theory that I could really sink my teeth into and her like terms on objection and then her theories on melancholia. And then I've gotten into like not theory or delaying, and like the anti-psychiatry movement, which I found was really interesting as it especially as someone who works a lot within the psychiatric like institutional setting of thinking about how that works in society. So those are just some people that have really opened up this whole new layer to the work.

Yeah, and now you're finishing up your thesis at RISD. Can you tell me more about the show Similar to my undergrad thesis.

I like to base bodies of work around a text, and so for my thesis, for my master's, I'm doing Shulamith Barista's the Dialectic of Sex and her book Heirless Masons that she released post-institutionalization so 25 years apart and I'm creating a box set of books that are going to exist in a speculative way between those two publications, and that's what the crux of the work is going to be based on. So I have a framework currently in the studio of like a house shaped bed frame that I'm kind of building around and existing with and having that embed itself into the work I'm making. So that's the idea of a show is surrounded around those two texts.

How has your work at grad school been expanded from your undergrad work?

Well, in undergrad I didn't draw at all. I was really lighting against it, I think mainly because I was doing graphic design as a job, and so I really wanted that distance. But here I started to realize one the amount of space that I had, like the wall, I can really expand what it means to draw something or collage and, definitely taking a more sculptural approach to it, I oftentimes use or most times will sand things down, rip things apart, sew them back together, and so I think that is bringing an aspect of my practice that has really shifted a lot, mainly because of the space, but also just feeling that almost assuredness. Like I'm in grad school, I am held to do this like this is okay, kind of assurance what does a day in the studio look like for you?

so typically I come in every day at 10 in the morning and I'll usually unwind the yarn that I put out to dry the night before. So once I take that off the stretcher and then put new yarn into the die back, I like to ease in with like sketching. I keep a really active sketchbook, so kind of looking back at the notes from the day before and sketching things out, warming my hand up, and usually when I leave the night before I have something that I feel good enough, walking away from and excited to return to in the morning.

So then this becomes like this way of driving myself back here. But yeah, I'm just kind of easing into it and I will typically bounce between three different pieces at once some form of work on paper, a flaying which is more so like a stretched out piece, and a sculpture like a three-dimensional sculpture and I'll bounce between the three, and usually a podcast or an audiobook book is playing in the background, and then I stay here, walk to the door, stay straight till nine and then crawl out and then do it again.

But, yeah, I found your work through Instagram and I'm really interested to hear about how the internet has impacted not only your work, but how it has impacted how you share it and who interacts with it.

Yeah, that's crazy because I feel like I owe everything to Instagram. In this weird way, it's been a really accessible way of reaching people outside of my proximity. Of course, I was in New York, so I did have access to art galleries and the art world quote-unquote and other students in my cohort for undergrad but Instagram has allowed me to kind of transgress all of that. The first curator that I worked with for my solo show last spring found me through Instagram, and so that became this thing like an access point.

It almost removes the barriers of entry because it's not like going into someone's house, it's almost like up for fair game to dm somewhere, say hi or comment on something, and through that I've also discovered a lot of artists that it's the kind of thing you can't really search up. It's more so you see it and it kind of like hits you in that way that you're like, oh my God, I have a sort of kinship and I feel like we're in some sort of dialogue. I've never met this person they might be in another country For all I know and so it's been really nice to see how I can expand what it is that I'm looking at and the people I'm kind of in proximity with.

I expand what it is that I'm looking at and the people I'm kind of in proximity with. I feel like I have a dialogue with a lot of different people that I wouldn't have had otherwise, and also that immediacy is really nice because there is something to say about sharing a lot of yourself online to the point where it's like it's almost like you're sharing none of yourself because not everyone's looking at everything. But then then over time, over these past couple years, I've noticed like some people are like genuinely paying attention. They're like actually actively interested in what I'm doing, and that's been really nice to see.

Who are some artists that inspire your work?

Oh my gosh, there's like so many, I'd say Eva Hess is definitely up there. I've been a huge fan of, like Louise Bourgeois, this video piece called gross fatigue and I have all of her books.

Now I've just been consuming everything she's been making and talking about. It's insane. That's also through the internet. I think I saw it on Instagram and then it didn't have any crediting but I reversed google image, searched it and then just searched her up anywhere and everywhere to consume everything she's ever said and done. But yeah, also, oh God, mira Lee, who just did something at the T, who I discovered by accident by walking into the gallery, is a huge inspiration of mine as well.

What does success mean to you?

right now, I feel like with the art, the whole art world and also, you know, doing these critiques with other students, I feel like it's melding into a bunch of different areas of my life is able to convey a message. I feel like a lot of my work starts from a really personal perspective, and so it's important to see how that personal perspective can be so personal or so in depth that it almost transgresses that and allows people multiple points of entry. So for me, when I make a piece and it can do that effectively, even though it's from a very niche, very specific part of my own life, that's when I feel like success has happened.

Where do you see your work going in the future?

I'm definitely more interested in building on the lore of the work, not just the things that I've been referencing, but also activating the space around what it is that I'm making. I've been super interested in what happens in that dead space between a hanging sculpture and a wall piece. So what does it mean to consume a space you're in, to really take over and like kind of infect it in this way? And that's something I'm definitely pushing for my thesis and I'm hoping to continue pushing further once I leave.

You're going to have a show at Lyle's and Canyon Gallery in New York. Can you tell me more about this show?

I definitely have. Again in alignment with how I've been thinking about my other bodies of work, through the research I've done of Schuller, Firestone's books, I started seeing this lineage of artists or creatives that have been institutionalized, and usually they have been attributed or in alignment with somebody within the psychiatric institutions. So, whether that be Sabina Spilring with Carl Jung and Freud, or what I've been really interested in is Onika Zern who was the partner of Hans Belmar.

She had a whole art career of her own but she was specialised and she released this book called the House of the Messers and that really took over like my whole life and I was like this cannot fit within the parameters of the pieces and so it's going to be its own body of work. So I'm really toying with the idea of like what it means to have that fork in the road and have that dialogue exists between them. So that's kind of what I'm thinking of for the show.

Yeah, how do you begin a relationship with the gallery? Oh my gosh, it's, I feel like again Instagram through like a long series of like happenstance, but essentially what happened?

was.

I had my BFA thesis show.

I reached out to Eric Scheiner who ended up curating Abusive Mind at Spring Break. But he came by, did a walkthrough of my show and posted about it, and an art collector reached out, wanted to hear about my work. I showed him through the gallery and showed him basically what it was that I was thinking about and really started to explain like the ethos of my practice and what I was going to do with my life and all this stuff. And he was like, oh, I'm going to an opening tonight. You should tag along, it's gonna be cool. Went to the opening.

I ended up meeting Leslie Weissman, who has been curating my work now for about a few months now, and she made the introduction with the gallery, told them about her work. She's been a huge supporter of me and so it's been really amazing to see how, like, all this stemmed from Instagram. But yeah, we eventually set up a virtual studio visit and like I guess, like a year later was we're talking about a show, and so now we're here how do you feel about going from a decidedly non-commercial market having been in academia for the past couple of years to moving into a commercial space?

yeah, it's interesting. I feel like I've had a taste of it, for sure in the smaller group you've done and the curatorial projects that loft projects has done, which is, uh, leslie Weissman's curatorial practice. But I feel like I've had definitely like a taste of it. I've shown a lot with this gallery in the Lower East Side called Ruby Dakota and so that's been me kind of an intro or soft easing into what it means to like be collectors and you know talk about my practice and seeing it in people's homes, which is crazy. So I'm not too worried and I don't even think about it too much, just because it's kind of been in the background as a small hum and I guess I'll just get a little louder now.

How has it been to have your work curated?

It's been really interesting I mean especially for the solar show I did, which was at 8100 last spring, working so closely with the curator, nikai Falcon, who is just very aware of what my work means and where it's really coming from. We'd have a lot of discussions. I again same with my BFA thesis. I gave him a walkthrough of it, talked to him about what's going on. We had a couple of meetings, like deciding to do this show together. There was this really amazing symbiotic relationship that ended up happening in terms of, I know, like my vision, he understands where that's coming from. I know I'm understanding his territorial vision and it's been really lovely to see someone connect with with not only the work but also the story and it's really assuring it's. I feel like a lot of times it sounds very daunting or very out there in terms of, like, how does that even happen? But I got really lucky in being surrounded by really great people.

What advice would you have for other young artists? The?

advice that I would give that I almost wish I took for myself sooner is to like keep an active sketchbook. It's incredible to see how much of the same stuff you end up doing, or the same themes when you approach them a year down the line, two years down the line. You're just so much smarter and wiser and something clicks in a way it didn't, because it's all informed by the circumstances around you. So I'd say keep the sketchbook. And it's going to be ugly and it's going to be cringy, but there's really nothing like looking at a stack of sketchbooks over the past three years. They're all dated and completely full. There's something really satisfying about that and I'd say it's the best advice I've taken.

But yeah, Ophelia, thank you so much for being on the Artilogue today. It's it's been a wonderful time talking to you. Yeah, thank you for having you. This has been really great. Where can people find your art if they're looking for it?

definitely on instagram cease dot and dot parish, but also on my website, which is just ceaseandparishcom or opheliaartcom. Thank you, bye.