Plague and Locusts 2020: Leslie Mauldin
And concluding our series we present the work of Texas based artist Leslie Maudlin.
E. Please say a little about yourself, your practice and interests in normal conditions. This includes identity/occupation/pursuits/training and so on.
LM. I am a female artist, born and raised in the DFW [Dallas] metropolitan area, and graduated from the University of North Texas with a BFA in Art Education in 2018. Currently I am an MFA Candidate in Sculpture and Instructor of Record for Texas Woman’s University, expected to graduate May of 2021. I have a true love and passion for not only creating art, but teaching art as well. My artwork up until quarantine consisted of metal sculpture, and photography that incorporated my metal sculpture. Much of my time was spent working in the metal shop, cutting and welding steel sheet metal to create geometric forms. I also spent time dabbling in ceramics and other media. My work was inspired by pop culture science-fiction, and the colorful landscapes and fun narratives that occupy areas of science-fiction and the cosmos.
E. Please tell us how your life has changed in these conditions, so think about the work you make now, how you make it, what preoccupies you most now, when compared to your dominant interests and themes before all this.
LM. When quarantine hit, I had to cram what I could of my art studio into my small apartment, and figure out what in the world I was going to create without access to the metal shop. I found a stack of my old business cards that have a foil finish on them, and began cutting and taping pieces together to form miniature sculptures; much like how I would cut and weld pieces of metal together. Then I would place these sculptures into a dark backdrop, with white cornstarch in certain videos to accent the landscape. The demeanor of this work was very different from my previous work though. The absence of color, and presence of ominous sound are evidence of an emotional shift from lighthearted and playful science-fiction to deep and mysterious science-fiction. The 1st month or two of quarantine I experienced fear, anxiety, depression, lethargy, and fury towards my government, all in that order. The video series Dystopia: The Humanity of a Modern Pandemic is my artistic documentation of these emotions. Eventually I ventured out into nature with my partner, where I found true refuge and otherworldliness in being surrounded by the landscape. My in-progress video series The Message is about visiting different public lands, and how precious they have become to me because of quarantine.
E. Are you finding these conditions very hard? Or is it a welcome break to be able to concentrate solely on work, rather than do other, money-making things?
LM. At first, quarantine gave me plenty of time to create work from my apartment, but I had a serious lack of motivation to work on my creative endeavours. It was extremely difficult, but thankfully I have worked past the lack of motivation. Once I began venturing out into nature and public lands, I started painting and drawing plants and insects purely out of enjoyment. This led to my emotional attachments I have towards public lands now, and the impact it has made on my work. In this Fall 2020 semester, I am very busy with teaching 3D Foundations, writing my thesis, preparing for finding a job during these tough times, and continuing my video series on public lands The Message.
E. Have you noticed a change in your tempo since Lockdown? Has your concentration intensified or fallen away?
E. Is making work therapeutic or challenging nowadays? In difference to before.
LM. Making work is both therapeutic and challenging nowadays. The topics of the pandemic weighed heavily on me when working on my series Dystopia: The Humanity of a Modern Pandemic. The physical making of the work though carried a sense of therapy and release of emotions. In my series The Message, the threats placed on our public lands, and considering the greed that took place on the Indigenous people when colonizing these lands is simply gut-wrenching, but experiencing the enchantment of the land itself is my favorite form of therapy.
E. Do you think being artists makes you more resilient in these times? Meaning that those who have regular jobs, salaries etc. are now stuck at home with very uncertain futures ahead, as you always have.
LM. I think being an artist during these times can make us more resilient in that we are working through our emotions through our work. However, there are unfortunately far less resources for artists than there are for many other careers out there.
E. How do you think the role of the arts may change post-Lockdown?
LM. As my professor of sculpture Tanya Synar has told me, artists have their finger on the pulse of what is going on in this world of ours. The role of the arts has financially seen a huge set-back, but despite that set-back artists simply do not quit making art. The role of the arts will become more accessible in light of the online platforms exhibitions have resorted to, and I can only hope that the role of the arts will incite change post-lockdown. When I say change, I mean diverse representation of artists in institutions and society, and letting voices of underrepresented artists be heard.
E. Do you think this whole event will alter the way we engage with the world afterwards?
Day after day after day after day after day. Lesly Maudlin, 2020.
Artist Statement for my Series “Dystopia: The Humanity of a Modern Pandemic”.
Dystopia: The Humanity of a Modern Pandemic is a series of 7 monochromatic videos where I am examining my moods, feelings, thoughts, and takeaways from the start of isolation due to COVID19. Each video, staged as a photograph with few moving elements, contains one geometric sculpture made of business cards, filmed to enlarge its 4 inch scale. I refer to the sculptures as objects, each one isolated into a dark simulated landscape, representing the consciousness of my own mind. The same isolated feelings that traveling through space would seemingly give me. The sounds of the videos are a mixture of recordings taken from my environment, such as the constant sound of construction or my dishwasher running, along with ominous tones designed in an audio editing software. As the month of April progresses, my videos shift with my human response to the social and political climate. In the beginning, I filmed my video Day after day after day after day after day as each day felt it blurred into the next, and the constant noise of construction from my apartment is documented through the video When man reaches deep space. When anxiety, depression, and complete lack of motivation set in, I filmed the videos Mornings and Drowning. Then I begin to feel intense anger towards my government, where I created the videos Working Backwards, and finally 1200: My worth to my government. Months later, I still feel that humanity in the 21st century is living in a dark, yet awakening, dystopia thanks to the Federal Government’s political reaction to COVID19.*
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*Leslie’s work is of March 2020, at the peak of the 45th President of the US presidency.
Ephemereye
Ephemereye is a digital platform and an art gallery. It was founded in 2017 by Veronica Shimanovskaya, DFA and Kishore Paravastu. Ephemereye collaborates with venue to curate and produce live exhibition, as well as curates and produces virtual show. Since 2017, Ephemereye produced 8 exhibition, curated, produced and co-sponsored a live Contemporary Iranian video art with Cambridge University Shahnameh Centre, and published academic articles. Ephemereye is building an online library of historical and contemporary video artists and portfolio building tool features.
