#356 mission

Little can prepare you for the jazzily titled CCORNUUOORPHANOSSCCOPIAEE·AANORPHANSSHHORNOFFPLENTYYY, his current show at 356 S. Mission where a former warehouse is stuffed full of stuffed animals. They are arranged on wall panels to divide the huge gallery, lie along the edges of the floor and are suspended from rafters. Their little button eyes stare, their stitched mouths smile, their rounded, happy bodies invite cuddling. 

To read the full review and to listen to the podcast, click HERE

Interview with Alake Shilling by Anthony Valdez on the occasion of
Alake Shilling: Monsoon Lagoon
at 356 S. Mission Road
February 23 – April 29, 2018

To read in Spanish, click HERE

Anthony Valdez: What’s the most annoying question anybody has ever asked you about your art?

Alake Shilling: Well, if I think about it I guess I’d have to say that question is, “Do you do drugs?”  Basically, the question feels like I must do drugs to make these paintings, which isn’t true.

AV: Why do you think people ask you if you do drugs to make these paintings?

AS: Honestly, the question used to confuse me so much, and I wasn’t really sure how to respond. But, I guess it’s because the colors and lines I use and their association with acid trips. But I really don’t like stoner art. I think it’s really ugly typically. Do you know what I mean?

AV: Yeah.

AS: I don’t always like the association but I do lean towards trippy wavy lines. I would associate that more with Optical Art from the 60s.

AV: Yeah, but the association makes sense because the late 60s/early 70s is when acid and stoner culture first trended and Op-Art was a thing, I think people give drug culture that aesthetic because they both became visible in pop-culture at the same time.

AS: Makes sense.

AV: I remember you told me a time when somebody asked you that question and your response was great.

AS: Yeah, they asked, “How can you make this and not be high?” and I said, “It’s called an imagination, duh!”

AV: Well, I think some people feel that if they take drugs they can unlock their imagination or whatever, but you definitely don’t need that.

AS: I feel like I try my best to stay in touch with reality, so I can feel and sense the world around me it informs my work. If I was under that kind of influence it would dull my senses too much, and I wouldn’t be able to make anything.

AV: I see that there are a few recurring animals in the work. There are two frog paintings and some bears. Do you feel like these animals are like Disney characters in that they exist in the same world?

AS: There are many different characters that strike my fancy. But for this show, I did my best to stick to a select group of favorites, the bear, and the frog mostly. But all of my characters exist in the same wonky world. But I’m not sure if my characters exist to each other, or if they necessarily interact with each other. Hmmm…I think they may wander, travel and encounter each other. In all reality, each animal represents a feeling, the personification of an emotion, not necessarily a character.

AV: Where cartoon characters are designed to comfort people or make kids feel excited, these characters seem like they’re the ones that need comforting…

AS: Oh, yeah. That’s the attention grabber I suppose. I want people to empathize with the characters, to draw everyone into the experience through color and texture. Hopefully, once you’re transported into this world there is more there than meets the eye. Each character should embody: distress, sadness, hysteria, insanity, violence - something that makes people think “Maybe I should sit still and listen to what’s happening.”

AV: So it’s important that the paintings embody a particular emotion?

AS: Yeah, but I want it to be subtle. Everything should also have a sensual layer too, but it’s not overt and it doesn’t slap you in the face. It’s more like “Oh, I could imagine running my hand across that frog’s legs because it’s so smooth and creamy…” something like that! There are so many lumps that you just want to touch them and hug them and just want to climb inside those lumpy creatures and just become one with them!”

AV: I can see that some paintings and sculptures range from flat surfaces to lumpier and chunky textures. Is that meant to evoke this kind of feeling?

AS: Yeah! People can have a great emotional attachment to texture. I have a fixation with textures. They make me excited, especially when I encounter a certain consistency such as hair or the feeling of petting a cat. Touching things take you back to times when you like a certain blanket or things like that.

AV: I know that Lisa Frank had a big influence on you, but those characters are always so smooth and happy and inviting and designed to comfort the kids who are holding that backpack or folder while looking cool. But not having that in the work is what makes this ‘adult.’  This frog seems like they’re really happy on first glance…but actually looks really detached while stepping on a butterfly!

AS: Well, there is definitely a storyline unfolding. And I mean, every character can’t always have the same disposition all the time. That would make the character ornamental…that wouldn’t mean anything to me I guess. It’s very simple, that’s all!

AV: Is there any one character you think represents you the most? Or is there a character someone else has said you’re most like?

AS: Oh yes! The bear I like to paint…my mother says it reminds her of me because bear and I share similar personality traits. For example, the bear has a round tummy. It looks exactly like my tummy, which I didn’t notice until she pointed that out. The disposition, the expressions in the eyes and the way the hands are positioned; Sometimes she says that it’s how I sit and things like that. Who knows?

AV: I can see that! When the bear smiles it has the same eyebrows as you do! Like how your eyebrows go up in the middle when you smile!

AS: That’s so funny! Because the resemblance is unintentional. I guess every artist includes a piece of themselves in their work.

AV: There is emotion in the work, but there is also a kind of aloofness to the characters represented in it, or how they act towards each other, that also reminds me of you a bit. Do you see yourself as an aloof person? How do you think that relates to the work?

AS: Well, I think that the work is a way for me to really articulate all the emotions. I am a really emotional person, but you would never know because of my natural aloofness.  I am in touch with my emotions, but I am not very vocal about things like that - that’s just who I am. But, through my work I can be as loud as I want and feel how I want; I guess that’s why the characters seem a little off in some way. I guess I am sorting out different feelings that I have inside, that I would never discuss out loud. There are a quite a few violent acts but it’s kind of subtle, it’s…

AV: All very cute…

AS: I don’t know! I’d never paint a character with its head cut off.  I feel like I would never go that far but I would paint a frog stepping on a butterfly. Because the butterfly is still alive, it’s just kind of trapped under a rock. So that’s a fun way to articulate that feeling. I like subtle things.

AV: It reminds me of a show I saw the other day about this theorist named Sianne Ngai. She says that instead of using traditional aesthetic categories like the beautiful and the sublime, we use the zany, the cute, and the interesting. To her, they ‘dominate’ the look of our culture’s art and commodities as well as how we talk about the feelings we get from experiencing the world and its products. These newer categories also express conflicting feelings related to how we work, exchange, and consume. Like, the zany refers to a style of performing, or affective labor that is bound up with production and engages our playfulness AND our sense of desperation. The interesting is tied to easy access to information and debates that inspire us but can also be dry. And the cute as aesthetic product brings out feelings of tenderness and aggression simultaneously. Not to go on but this reminded me of you fully. Your sort of affected, intentional, but sincere persona; how you consume and even how people have ‘discovered’ your work and have consumed it, and the crazy cute but emotional and sometimes frightening work you make.

AS: Oh my gosh, that really describes me! I do my best to relate to people using cute imagery. Because cute is cute, and how can you resist cute? I mean it’s biological, like looking at babies or animals. When people see big eyes and a round head and a tummy, they’re drawn to these features, and it’s human nature to want to see cute things but then to show other emotions attached to these images once you really notice what is going on, that’s one of the reasons why I think cute is so important.

AV: And it ties back into wanting to comfort the characters but also kind of being comforted by these characters.

AS: Exactly.

AV: Do you like the idea of viewers identifying themselves and others to your characters? I can really relate to the frog.

AS: Yeah I think that’s really cool, I really strive for my paintings to be relatable, for everybody. Maybe viewers can be transported to another time in their life, even if it’s not a happy time. I feel like you can be reminiscent of yourself in some way, if that makes sense. I want it to be multifaceted.

AV: Some people have thrown around the outsider art label when encountering your work. Do you feel that’s accurate or relevant? Why do you think the association?

AS: I think probably because of the craft-like element and the kitsch elements, probably more of the crafty element. I thought outsider art basically meant untrained or not accepted into an institution or by an institution. But I wouldn’t totally categorize myself as an outsider artist. I do like the aesthetic of outsider art and crafts. I like crafts and I try to include it in my work because I find it interesting and that’s how I started making art - it was through crafts.

AV: When did you start making crafts which lead to this practice?

AS: Oh yeah, well much of my art has to do with my mom. She didn’t have daycare when I was younger so she took me to the university with her, gave me coloring pencils and paper so I wouldn’t make a fuss in class. After hours of class, she discovered drawing and coloring really kept me entertained. I was really focused on drawing, and she was very impressed with what I had made by the end of class. That was the beginning of my fascination with art. She also used to work at the YMCA, and there was a lot of craft making going on there like ceramics, painting, and drawing. I really enjoyed activities like that. Basically, I feel like my love of art stems from my mother wanting me to create something with my mind when she was in school and at work. She wanted me to be working too and it worked out I think.

AV: What other things from your childhood or past have influenced you? I think you mentioned “Monsoon Lagoon”, the title of the show, was the name of a water park you used to go to?

AS: Yeah, I used to be obsessed with going to Monsoon Lagoon, a cute little water park we went to all the time when I was little. I have a distinct memory of a volcano gushing water. I loved being covered in that water - it was just sublime!

AV: What’s a color you like a lot these days?

AS: Pink.

AV: And you’re using a lot of glitter in these works.

AS: I know glitter is considered tacky and a lot of people don’t like it, but I like it and that’s why I use it. I only really use one type of glitter and that’s the clear glitter because it has a twinge of class.

AV: Whose work do you really hate right now?

AS: That’s a BAD question!

AV: You don’t have to answer; I was kind of kidding.

AS: Well, there is one artist whose art might be viewed as providing insightful commentary on black culture but in my opinion, the titles aligned with the art emerge as a bit sensational; I don’t get the impression the artist is very thoughtful about context or the world in within which their art is embedded. My perspective is that the artist is striving to shock people through their commentary, but yeah, I don’t know, I don’t like it.

AV: They’re trying to be specifically political or something, but they’re cheapening the conversation. I do think everything is political in some way. Do you think people could call your art political? And do you like that?

AS: Yeah you can associate any meaning to art that you want, and that’s great. There are some political undertones, but I am not interested in making a political commentary. To be an artist who is also black and a woman is political commentary enough. It’s just so boring because my whole life is political commentary, to have to discuss that in art too, which is something I enjoy and something I feel like should be a release for me?! Why should I have to comment on what it’s like to be black or a woman? I mean, if you don’t know, that’s not my problem!

AV: I agree; we shouldn’t have to take on that emotional labor. It’s just hard not to think about it when you’re a person of color, we get reminders every day.

AS: That’s true. I don’t know if it’s just me being insecure. But I do feel sometimes that if people see me, or meet me before they see my work then that influences how they view my work.

AV: You shouldn’t have to feel like that. Well, let’s end on a different note, what artists do you like?

AS: Oh, I like lots of artists, all the Chicago imagists, those are my favorite. I like Peter Saul. I like Rebecca Morris and Laura Owens too. I like mostly fun, bright colors and characters. There is such a long list but that’s what comes to my mind right away.

AV: What artist would you like to meet?

AS: Kanye West, he seems just so crazy! I want to pick his brain and see what’s going on in there!

The artist explains that each of those genres create their own world, and have their own world – which is sort of unique. The artist converts the space into something between a sacred Luna Park or sacred toy temple.

To read the rest of the feature, click HERE

“I create a unique environment and a unique atmosphere that then you can be transported to another place, differently than you would for jazz or classical music or rock’n’roll. 

To view the rest of feature, click HERE