15 minute read
Aidan Ulloa: Burgeoning artist & designer talks identity, philosophy, creative process
from LACES Sole 23-24
by LACES UNTIED
Afro-Latiné artist tearing through labels & boundaries. Founder of clothing brand Båraks Setulmen. Multimedia creator serving their cultural community.
Story by Taizo Nakayama
I. ORIGINS
QUARANTINE AND DEVELOPMENT.
“I just tried to expose him to a little bit of everything [growing up],” said Amber Brooks, Aidan Ulloa’s mother. “But the art thing kind of came up came as a surprise.”
She recalled carrying a backpack filled with art materials such as colored pencils and clay to keep Ulloa busy at outside events and nourish their creativity.
“I really think his artsy stuff came from both sides, from me and from his dad,” Brooks said. “Who knew – they were stick figures one day and next thing they were these artistic pieces.”
Mr. Daniel Kuffel’s Beginner’s Art in 6th grade was the first art class Ulloa took at LACES. Kuffel has since then followed Ulloa’s artistic journey for six years, praising their centered creative vision.
“He’s always been technically proficient for his age, but I feel like he’s just grown more and more mature in terms of his vision and his interest every year,” Kuffel said. “He’s always been looking to get deeper into whatever he does.”
Entering the COVID-19 shutdown in March 2020 and spending their freshman year in quarantine was critical to Ulloa’s development as an artist.
“Quarantine was a very core moment for everything for me,” said Ulloa, who uses he/they pronouns. “High school is – you have to act a certain way, be a certain way. But I was able to grow in this space where there really weren’t any expectations of me.”
Ulloa began to hone their digital and graphic design skills in 2020 upon a budding interest in manifesting their art into a physical form. They designed their first mock-up clothing design in April 2020.
Ulloa cited creative burnout as another reason they began to transition away from their preexisting art interests over quarantine.
“I felt I was constantly making art for social media presence when it came to fanart. It didn’t feel 100% organic for me,” Ulloa said. “So I eventually began to drift off and build my own catalog of inspirations, and that snowballed into the body of work I have today.”
They founded their brand Båraks Setulmen (inspired by the eponymous background track from the Japanese indie video game “Yume Nikki”) in 2022. Their online store (barakssetulmen.com) opened with its first official collection on January 18, 2024. They use both the brand name and “Dominique Asentamiento” (Dominique Settlement in Spanish) as monikers for their artistic presence.
“I wouldn’t call them characters because they’re still me,” Ulloa said. “Those parts of myself are still me, but you know, stage names in a way.”
Ulloa’s personal philosophy bleeds into the brand identity of Båraks Setulmen. Pieces from various seasons are emblazoned with phrases such as “I D.A.R.E. You To Do Your Own Thing” and “You Would Make An Awful Me But I Think You Would Make An Amazing You.”
“Båraks Setulmen is being unapologetically yourself,” Ulloa said. “And Båraks Setulmen is all about trying to find beauty in the mundane. Take a moment to smell the flowers.”
Ulloa’s distaste of boxing themselves into an archetype has propelled their artistic growth.
“I don’t like labels,” Ulloa said. “The one thing I will label myself as is an artist. I create, that’s what I do. But I don’t like when people try to put you in a box –’He’s the fan art guy,’ or ’He makes art for them’ – that’s just restricting. So I started going against the grain in a way.”
II. IDENTITY
BREAKING THE MOLD.
Ulloa’s art thrives in subverting expectations. “The fact that I’m doing something so different, and I’m able to defy all the labels that my cross-sectioning identities have imposed upon me, the fact that I can reject that and say, ’Nah, I’m gonna just do my own thing,’” Ulloa said. “It’s really liberating.”
Ulloa’s racial and ethnic identities have also impacted how they approach their creative ventures.
“As a Black artist, especially an Afro-Latiné one, I don’t see a lot of representation of myself in the fields that I want to go into,” Ulloa said. “Obviously, fashion is a very Eurocentric field, but I used my background and my identity as a tool of empowerment for me.”
One such work encapsulating Ulloa’s attitude is a capstone piece entitled “Black Women Longsleeve.”
Ulloa conceived the T-shirt at the Summer 2023 UCLA VIPS program, an academic advancement program for underrepresented students. Their final project was an ’auto-ethnography’ discussing how their racioethnic background played a role in their life.
“Since we had to go up and verbally present the project at the end of the program, I wanted to make sure that mine stood out,” Ulloa said. “So one of the things that I wrote about was how Black women have shaped my path till now – not only in a literal sense because I’ve been raised in an all-women household, but also because they’ve been my rock since I was little.”
As the youngest member of a three-generation household, Ulloa expressed their gratitude to their mother and grandmother’s support.
“While I still do struggle with mental health issues and depression, my mom and my grandma were always there for me,” said Ulloa. “Everything I do, in the back of my mind, I want to pay it all back to them. So I made that shirt commemorating all the Black women in my family.”
Ulloa proceeded to sift through old photo albums and family scrapbooks. On the back of the T-shirt, he inserted a lyric from the song “Azukar” by Earl Sweatshirt: “It’s not a Black woman I can’t thank.”
“Ever since I heard that song for the first time, I highly identified with and resonated with that lyric,” said Ulloa. “So I just knew it had to come full circle.”
Presenting the piece had a wide-reaching impact for Ulloa’s immediate and extended family.
“It was very breathtaking when he showed it to us,” recalled Brooks. “My mom was there, I call her my Queenager, and my aunt next door, my other Queenager, was there, and we were all blown away. How it meshed all together – to see the old me, the new me, and family members that have come and go – it really is a piece of art.”
Ulloa also directed the 2024 Black Student Union (BSU) fashion show, where members presented various outfits inspired by African and Black cultures. Ulloa walked out onstage alongside co-director Morgan Mitchell in a highly experimental look that featured a 1/1 Båraks Setulmen headpiece.
“I just knew I had to incorporate my trash motif,” Ulloa said regarding the piece. “I had to outdo myself, I had to figure out something new.”
Inspired by another fashion show’s wig made of pill capsules, Ulloa considered how they could apply their preexisting plastic motif to another medium.
Black is not a monolith.
“I wanted to find a way to make a statement piece for the BSU show,” Ulloa said. “My whole theme for this year’s show was that Black is not a monolith.”
Ulloa expressed discontent with how their identity is viewed in America.
“I feel like there’s definitely a certain narrative, especially in America, about how to see Black people… whether it be in how we dress, how we act, how we talk,” Ulloa said. “I just want to keep showing folks that – and this can go for any race or any type of identity – there is no one way to ’be me.’ There is no one way for me to be Latiné, there is no one way for me to be Black.”
Ulloa emphasized that they did their best to inspire confidence in their co-stars at rehearsals leading up to the show.
“Whoever’s coming to see the BSU show, these people are here to celebrate with us,” Ulloa recalled telling their fashion show models. “Just embrace that gaze. Bask in that glory for once. Allow yourself the position to have fun and feel loved and appreciated for who you are.”
Brooks attended the 2023 BSU show and witnessed Ulloa’s walk onstage along with the co-stars he directed.
“I’m a corny mom,” Brooks said. “I work a lot, but I try to be there. Even when he was younger at after school programs, I’ll show up in my FedEx uniform in a minute. Just gotta be there, you know? I want to be as supportive as I can for him.”
Brooks said that the family works to consolidate gaps between the different generations of their cultures.
“Aidan’s fashion is different from ours, so he had to do a little bit explaining to me,” Brooks said. “I try to tell my mom and my aunts as well, because they’re very old-school young ladies, Queenagers. I had to explain the black nail polish and all that — ’It’s not hurting anybody!’ I had to learn to be a little bit more open minded and more understanding.”
III. COMMUNITY
Intercontinental correspondences.
Over years of activity in online and local artist communities, Ulloa has built a network of like-minded artists and designers spanning the country and beyond.
“A lot of the friendships came about through social media,” Ulloa said. “It was more than just mutual appreciation — we both see something unique in each other’s work.”
Ulloa has even collaborated with artists across the continent. Hans, known as Vissereine, is a 23-yearold digital artist and clothing designer based in Canada. They first came across Ulloa’s work with their online video edit for Canadian producer Louka Tessier.
“From my perspective, Aidan’s art feels really authentic and personal,” said Hans. “I feel like their art reflects really well how they are or how they think. It’s as if I understand exactly what they are trying to express, even if it can be abstract.”
For their collaboration, each artist used a police sketch software to render uncanny self-portraits. Their goal was to emulate the look of “This Man,” an internet urban legend appearing in people’s dreams. They coined their joint piece the “Visseraks” collaboration.
“I feel that they are doing their art for themselves first, whether it resonates with other people or not, and I feel it’s how I work too,” Hans said. “Also, I think they’re having fun with it — it doesn’t have to be necessarily serious and I love that.”
When Ulloa isn’t creating designs with other artists, they’re expanding their community at art events around LA.
At the Gail Art Gallery hosted by Ulloa’s artist friends, they met Mat Devine, founder of the interior design company ILoveHotGarbage.
“I got to meet someone else who not necessarily specialized in trash art, but who also had that same philosophy of thinking trash art was cool,” said Ulloa. “So I was able to show that aspect of my creative process – it made me a little connection.”
Ulloa maintains a genuine attitude towards the process of meeting and interacting with other artists.
“I wouldn’t call it networking because that means you want something out of them,” Ulloa said. “For me, I just show admiration for these folks, and they see something within me. I’m grateful for all the people when it comes to my artwork and the genuine support by my peers and supporters. It all means the world to me as a kid who’s still in high school.”
IV. CREATIVE PROCESS
Revive and repurpose.
“Personal, thoughtful,” Kuffel described Ulloa’s art. “I feel he’s very much referencing our time, the way he’s using found objects and plastic. I don’t want to call it trash, because he’s upcycling things. I feel like he’s using the materials that most of us often ignore.”
Ulloa first came across the concept of trash art when they found artist Babytrus’ snap bracelets combining leather straps and plastic bags on Instagram.
“I just thought that idea was so genius, because it’s really like turning trash into treasure,” Ulloa said.
For them, plastic was also readily available and a financially feasible option for raw material.
“I didn’t have any formal sewing knowledge, nor did I have ready money to spend on sewing supplies or fabrics,” they said. “It was just a way for me to make ’clothing’ out of something that wasn’t cloth.”
At the Conservatory of the Fine Arts at California State University, Los Angeles, Ulloa worked on an assignment called “Talking Trash” that asked students to create art out of all trash or recycled materials.
“Since I was big into zine-making at the time, I had made a little art booklet out of recycled paper and graphics,” Ulloa recalled. “That’s when I first started finding appreciation in something old, used, something that somebody sees no value in – which is free for me.”
Ulloa’s first “trash item” was a pair of Nike Air Force Ones, where they tied plastic from leftover trash bags around the loops of the shoelaces. Since then, they’ve expanded the practice to a collection of multicolored trash necklaces.
“It’s like a car – you have the basic fundamentals, but once you have those, you can play around with its appearance,” Ulloa said. “Once you have the barebones minimum, you can start playing around with it as much as you want.”
Ulloa also repurposes previously owned items for new designs. They gestured at their shirt, which they cut excess fabric off at the sleeves and neck the night before this interview.
“I’ve revisited some pieces that I made months ago,” Ulloa said. “I’ll take my X-Acto blade and I’ll distress it a bit, or I’ll cut off the collar of a shirt because I think it looks cool. It adds character and becomes something completely new.”
Ulloa doesn’t hesitate to nurture seeds that sprout for their design ideas.
“Whenever I have the idea to go and make something, I’ll design it, throw it into my mockup generator,” they said. “Sometimes, if I have the money, I’ll order it straight away to see what it looks like in person. But it’s definitely something I try not to rush, and I try to embrace it.”
V. FUTURE
CHARTING THEIR OWN PATH.
“When it came time to prepare for college, I was very dead-set that it has to be something in clothes,” Ulloa said.
They described that compounding financial interests and desire to explore beyond California took certain popular art and fashion schools such as the Fashion Institute of Technology or Otis College of Art and Design out of the equation.
“For adulthood, I want to be completely on my own so I can get that sense of security,” Ulloa said. “I knew I wanted to do a major in Fashion Design and Merchandising. And luckily, the top school that I wanted to go to, Clark Atlanta University, had that major.”
Ulloa toured the Clark Atlanta campus in April 2023 and watched a runway show the school’s fashion program had hosted. However, they said they saw more room for growth in what the program offered.
“I just knew that I could bring something new to the table,” they said. “To be able to breathe new life into a field that we’re already not really included in – it’s perfect. I know I gotta go here.”
Ulloa proceeded to commit to Clark Atlanta. They plan to major in Fashion Design and Merchandising but does not have a set destination after graduation.
“I know it’s definitely me making stuff,” they said. “Even if it’s not clothes, I know that creation is going to be something that sticks with me for all my life.”
“I think it’s gonna be a really eye-opening, beautiful experience for him,” Brooks said. “Since he’s biracial, I think it’ll help him embrace his Black and Latin sides. He’ll get a great sense of community down there at an HBCU. We have family down there who can’t wait for him to come, so we’ll have a good support system.”
“Know that these institutions’ definitions of good art rules do not matter.”
Ulloa’s dreams are not limited to being a fashion designer.
“By just being me and doing what I do, I hope to be able to pass the baton onto the next generation,” they said. “If I’m not a creative martyr, I just want the little Black and brown kids of the next generation to want to do something creative or want to be themselves. I want them to know that they can do it too. Know that these institutions’ definitions of good art rules do not matter.”
Kuffel also holds high expectations for Ulloa’s future in art and commercializing their work.
“I hope for him to continue to do his fashion line,” Kuffel said. “I hope for him to continue to search out for his vision. I hope he discovers how to market his work and to promote.”
Ulloa has grand aspirations for their future in art and clothing design.
“I just hope to continue to grow my brand, maybe host a pop-up or two,” they said. “I want to continue to meet new people in my field, make friends in my field and continue to learn and thrive. I definitely see it as a quest for knowledge. As of right now, even if I don’t have a sure destination, I’mma be sure to learn stuff along the way.”
