6 minute read
Studio Lenca: Crafting Belonging
by artiqannual
From undocumented status in the U.S. to a permanent residency at TKE Studios in Margate, we speak to Studio Lenca about reclaiming narratives through their art while creating space for their community to do the same.
Isabelle Your story starts in La Paz, El Salvador, in the mid-1980s. Today, you are based on the south coast of England, in Margate, Kent. From then to now, can you tell us about three pivotal moments that shaped your journey to where you are now, both geographically and in your role as an artist?
Studio Lenca I’ve had so many pivotal moments throughout my life. These have occurred in a geographical sense and in terms of my practice as an artist. A few important moments have been attending Goldsmiths University where I trained to be a teacher and gained my MA. Last year I was offered a permanent studio space at Tracey Emin’s TKE studios in Margate- which has meant I can work in a beautiful building surrounded by an inspirational group of artists. At the start of 2023 I had a solo show at the Parrish Art Museum in New York, where I connected with the local Latinx community that service the houses in the Hamptons. I learned so much about my practice and some of the issues that impact my community in making this work.
Isabelle The figures in your work demand attention from their audiences, always painted in bold, vibrant colours and wearing large hats. The shape, which has become a signum of sorts, feels both symbolic and personal. What is their history, and how come they so frequently appear in your practice?
Studio Lenca I want the figures in my paintings to be self-assured, proud, courageous and visible. The hats are about taking up space and asserting identity. Growing up undocumented as a family we felt like we had to hide, to not be too loud, to be un-seen. The paintings are meant to create a space not just for belonging, but flourishing.
Isabelle Alongside visual arts, you also express yourself creatively through dance, practising ballet and contemporary dance since growing up in San Francisco. Like visual arts, dance can be seen as a universal language that can tell stories and express complex emotions without using words. For you personally, how do these disciplines impact each other?
Studio Lenca The act of painting for me is an embodied practice. I see dance and painting as overlapping disciplines. Decision making when I paint is like improvisation when I dance. Composition on the canvas is choreography. Being illegal in the USA requires dexterity, sharp reflexes and timing – it’s like being a dancer. I like to imagine the figures in my paintings dancing to Selena Quintanilla or moving balletically through elaborate bureaucratic processes in the glare of homeland security. Each aspect of my practice feeds into the other.
I don’t think I will ever move away from painting but sometimes the thinking and research takes on other material forms. Such as working with community, movement or site specific pieces.
Isabelle 'Rutas' is a project you initiated last year: a space where individuals who have undertaken undocumented journeys can share their experiences through painting. You have said the project is 'documenting the undocumented'. Growing up, did you have a similar community or role models with shared histories to look up to?
Studio Lenca Because these journeys are undocumented they are not recorded and remain hidden. They were also associated with an unnecessary sense of shame. This project is about reclaiming the narrative and making these stories visible, as an important part of the history of our community.
Isabelle Your art tells the story of migration and the experience of being an undocumented immigrant. Although this story is far from unique - there are an estimated half-million illegal entries into the United States each year - it remains largely untold. How do you wish to reshape this narrative through your practice? What message do you hope your audience takes away from your work?
Studio Lenca I’m fascinated by how pre-Columbian civilisations used maps which embodied different forms of knowledge. Maps were also weaponised by colonisers, such as Spain’s Padrón Real. These practices exist to this day. Maps and borders are one way that political and social inequalities are upheld. This project is about creating different forms of maps that are about human stories. For too long migrants have been scapegoats. We’ve been vilified as dangerous intruders or invaders. Crossing a border and surviving these really dangerous journeys are huge acts of bravery and survival but also of imagination. As many continue to die on their journeys, they are driven by the vision of a different future. Being an artist is an equally imaginative act and shares with these journeys across borders a sense of hope. Perhaps the narrative needs to be one of migration as an act of creativity and imagination, against invented borders and walls set out to dehumanise and control us.
Isabelle Having worked as an art teacher in a London primary school, what was something you always told your students that you still live by now?
Studio Lenca There are no rules, it’s just about trying.
Isabelle Your studio is currently based in TKE Studios, created by the Tracey Emin Foundation. What has inspired you most about being there and how is this reflected within your work?
Studio Lenca I love the community and being by the sea. It’s amazing to work with such a diverse and dynamic group of artists.
Isabelle We are speaking at the beginning of a new year. What do you hope 2024 will have in store for you?
Studio Lenca I’m looking forward to my solo show at Carl Freedman in April. It’s going to be my most ambitious exhibition to date.
Isabelle Finally, what is your favourite colour?
Isabelle Guyer, Curator at Artiq
Leading image by Benjamin Eagle
