Can you share the experience that led you to decide to become an artist, and how did this decision evolve over time to shape your current artistic practice?

I believe for me, it was never a doubt weather I enjoyed making art and expressing through it, but more of when–finally–giving it the chance of being my main “occupation”. Through all high school I was convinced I wanted to be a doctor, so, after putting a lot of effort in it, I got into med school. Then almost a year went through, and I suddenly had a full stop, I remember I only knew I couldn’t do it anymore. So, to everyone’s surprise (including mine) I left medical school and was going to enroll for arts the following year. However, due to the fact that I applied to uni with a science test, I could not get into art with that one, and I would have had to take a year off to prepare a history test in order to get in. I was so mad with myself, because it felt like all of it was a mistake and there I was in the limbo. Someone suggested that I could enroll into architecture (which you can enter either with science or history background), and then transfer to arts the second year, since the first-year curriculum was very similar. Ok, whatever, I’ll do architecture. Long story short, I ended up enjoying architecture because it had that scientific–structural–aspect and the creative where I could express myself, and I graduated from it an also did a masters. I thought this was it, but to be honest, I enjoyed the creative processes though not particularly the real-life doings. I preferred to work as a researcher for architectural heritage, adaptive reuse, and restoration, which I did for a while, and I still do occasionally when invited to collaborate in investigations. It was during my researcher time, that I took time off to go to an arts residency upstate NY, where an architect friend was involved, and many other architects were too, so it felt like a good mix for me. It was in that residency that I finally let myself flow creatively and consider the option of applying to art school, because people there believed in me and understood my material questionings and interest towards the body’s behavior that didn’t have a place in my architectural practice. With only what I did in that residency I applied to a master’s in fine arts, and that’s how I ended up, becoming an artist, in paper and in self. I think at the end of the day I needed to go through all that, almost like exhaust all options that I deep down knew I liked less than making art.

 

Your work explores the physicality of concepts and the connection between the material that surrounds us and language. Could you provide an example of a project where you’ve delved into this relationship and what you hope to convey through it? 

I think it was during one of the firsts performances I did during a studio visit while in Parsons. I had just started making these amorphous sandbags that felt very bodily; and as they were heavy, they provided also that comfort sense when hanging or putting them over your body. In this performance, which I had never done live before (I was a covid student for a semester), I knew I had to keep track of time, as a performer, somehow in a subtle or meaningful way. And without knowing why, yet I started counting lemons. There’s a game I used to play when I was little or in school dynamics, where you count lemons, which is the number of people playing and you must do this mimic with your hands and clap every time you call out another person–lemon–. It helps to keep a count. And I was able to keep a count and perform, it did not interrupt me, and it felt so right because I knew it so well and I could say it without thinking, and if I needed to check on time I could just tune back and note at what lemon I was at. Why though? I think this was the kick starter of me putting that attention in the metalinguistics that live in as and can be so different from each human being. This game, the lemons, was a tongue twister, and I can assure you some people must hate it! Haha… it was perfect. There was some very personal part of me that was getting expressed while repeating the game out loud, because yes, I forgot to mention, I was counting out loud during the performance. And non-Spanish speaking audience, felt so drowned to it, it was soothing. It was definitely soothing me.

I hope to convey these reactions. Of the unexpected, but not arbitrary, it’s just the apparent absurdity that lives within us, in such beautiful and weird ways.

 

You are facing challenges of being an artist in a state of limbo due to immigration and visa issues. How has this state of in-betweenness influenced your artistic practice, and do you see it shaping your work during the residency? 

Yes, it is definitely shaping my work, starting from the materials. I am constantly struggling with the question whether what “should” I work with, rather than, what I want to work with. Because, what if I have to travel, what if I cannot move a piece due to its size, material decomposition, shipping costs, survival… etc. Then comes this feeling of being waiting but not sure for what neither for when. Should I be in this waiting mode or just take it as my normal mode and keep moving? Those are all daily questions I have. I wish I could be more established in place, having a permanent studio for a while, but it is part of the challenge, and even if I don’t plan to, it starts showing in my works. So, maybe in this residency I will just embrace it, and be excited about it. Who knows?

 

Could you describe a memorable experience or moment that has shaped your identity as an artist, particularly in the context of your dual identity between Chile and the US? 

I do not know if I can recall a particular experience, but something that comes to mind when you ask me about this, is that I don’t feel represented by the Latinx tag. Not at least in the broad sense, how it is constantly used in the US every time you have to subscribe or register for anything. South American is not the same as Latinx for me. There is a such a cultural difference there that has been little differentiated yet. I love Latinx culture and artists, and I share a lot of it, but had felt kind of not fully part of, because being from central America is somehow so different to south America. It is something I would need to expand much more, and I’m thankful you asked because I am not sure how to even put it in words yet but, there’s a different feeling when seeing south American art and connecting with them and their art, our history, representation, and relationship with the US–we have been much further away…

 

In your artist statement, you mention liking to hang and the notion of your body’s weight. How do these physical sensations inform your art, and what emotions or meanings do they evoke in your work? 

I think it informs in from the deep acknowledgement of myself, as being a heavy being, and to be constantly holding myself–physically!! We cannot escape it almost. Is that heaviness, that has always called my attention, not only in the art making but also towards how I treat my body. I want to be strong to carry my body, to lift weights, just like me, just like I might need to be lifted at some point. There’s so much talk about the metaphor of weight in our souls, energy, essence, whatever you might call it, but what about that real physical weight of things. Objects. Bodies. How do we relate to them, to them existing on us, to us existing on them. I am curious.

 

As an artist participating in a virtual residency, what are your expectations and hopes for the sense of community and collaboration that can be fostered in an online environment? 

I am looking forward to collaborating in the distance. As I have mentioned before, I am now in a state of limbo regarding immigration, coming back to Chile, processing a visa for the US. And I might as well go back soon or later, and I have no idea what those adjectives stand for in quantifiable time! So, I would like to open more to the possibility of collaborating in the online space, creating in there, and making some interesting stuff.

 

Looking beyond the residency, what are your future artistic projects and plans, and how do you envision your practice evolving as you navigate your status as an artist in the US?

I hope I can keep on making art, both in Chile and in the US. In Chile, I have been more of an architect, and in the US, I have only been an artist. So, it’s funny to realize, and hard to try to condense myself with both of these universes. I am still figuring it out, and I know they for sure coexist, but I hope to be more settled with it here and there, because I have no idea if I will continue living in the us, or ill move elsewhere, or I’ll stay in Chile. At least that I know, it is unknown.