SIRENS IN TRAFFIC: INTERVIEW with ELEANOR HUBBARD
Ann Jarmusch: What did you think when you were visiting Los Angeles and your car was stopped by shouting, naked girls? Eleanor Hubbard: My first thought on seeing this nude parade was that it was a Happening. What else could it be? I had been a student of John Cage at Cornell (in 1967), and, though always clothed, I’d participated in a number of spontaneous art events at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Here was the West Coast version of Dada! AJ: What else stands out in your memory of this mob scene? EH: While parading and knocking on car windows, these young girls kept shouting, “Freedom!” and several carried signs with that word. What could it mean? Neurologist Oliver Sacks comes to mind, because he wrote about the intersection of fate and freedom. As brainwashed captives, these were child sex slaves in bondage to a tattered god, their pimp. They knew nothing of freedom. Most horrifying were their eyes. Beneath clumsy makeup they had no sparkle, only the flatness one sees in death. It was profoundly sad. AJ: You drew the girls very fast, unlike your usually methodical practice, right? EH: Yes, in the frantic heat of the incident, normal artistic control went out the window! So much happened at once. They came toward us like a tsunami, the way a rogue wave washes over a beach, sudden, uncontrollable, and without coherence. The energy of that visceral experience was paramount; I was compelled to work fast like a reporter. These are finger-flying drawings straight from the id. AJ: How did the “Sirens” affect your process? EH: In process, my work is all exactly the same, one painting made in hundreds of different variations. Some look whimsical and some look representational, but in essence it’s all the same: an obsession with the energy of making and of materials. I have always chosen my subject matter, except that in this case the “Sirens” chose me. AJ: How was it transforming your small, frenetic sketches into six-foot “Sirens” that would tower above the girls they represent? EH: At this much larger scale, the energy is entirely different. Instead of finishing a drawing in a day or a week, redrawing each “Siren” required four weeks. My energy had to be proportioned differently: the original fierce intensity became sustained intention. The 1982 drawings are direct, instinctual responses, while the expansive 2020 drawings were created with concentrated attention to detail. There is a seismic shift in the retelling.
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