Paola Estrella
“I resonate with magic realism, especially with the tendency of integrating fiction into the everyday.”
Interview by: Natalia Gonzalez Martin
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? Where did you study?
I was born and raised in Mexico City. When I was a child I used to live next to my grandmother who is an artist. I have beautiful memories about visiting her studio where I used to play with different materials. There were basically no rules or restrictions, which made me feel very free.
When I was 18 years old I studied art history in Florence, and in 2011 I studied mixed media and art direction at Central Saint Martins in London. I think the contrast between contemporary art and more traditional techniques was a good experience that influenced my current practice.
I am studying a Masters Degree in Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art where I´ve met amazing people. I have realized that having long-term companions to ride the path of art-making makes things smoother and I am very thankful for that.
Tell us a bit about how you spend your day/studio routine? What is your studio like?
My studio is either a complete mess or very tidy. While I am working on a specific project I try multiple possibilities such as costume making, painting, working with miniatures and building small-scale mockups, which gives the space a vibe of a flea market, or at least that´s what I´ve been told. Once I finish the production stage, I take everything back to “it´s place” and clean up before I begin to research and ground a new idea. That process helps me clear my mind while I start to navigate a new path. Sometimes the activity in the studio can be quite static for weeks while I put in order the concepts for a new project or edit video.
There are some things that are quite essential to me in the studio which are: my camera, a laptop, a board where I write weekly objectives (which I try to strictly cover), and many wigs.
A Timeless Parallel, 2020
The real and the imaginary mix in your practice in order to critically treat delicate subjects. I cannot help but think of magical realism, is your work influenced by this literary genre?
Definitely, I resonate with magic realism, especially with the tendency of integrating fiction into the everyday. Creating consciousness about the fact that there is more in the universe than what we know about is central to my practice. I am concerned with the human experience and the beauty of it, but also with our limitations. Fiction and the imagined help me explore what is beyond us and also to critique and observe the benefits and price of belonging to a society. It is key to me to look for other ways of perception in relation to moral, political and social structures.
You recently participated in Tomorrow London, a digital exhibition organized by White Cube. Could you tell us about this?
The exhibition was a very enriching experience. It was a highlight for me to be able to participate with artists that come from various backgrounds and that are approaching subjects from very different perspectives during these weird times. The gallery has an amazing team that took the time to give us wise advice for present and future projects.
Polvos Mágicos, 2020
The medium of video allows you to create a narrative, immerse the viewer in the fantastic world you have created. It allows you to mix your background as a painter and graphic designer, how have these different courses influenced your current practice?
A video is a window to another reality that lasts for a brief period of time. I find the more open I am to exploring different ways of making, the more I can transmit what I want through my work to open multiple portals. By studying graphic design I became familiar with digital possibilities that allowed me to fuse performance and visual techniques that I had been using in the past. By combining mediums I can express my ideas in a more dynamic way.
What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?
I was very moved by Laure Prouvost´s installation Deep See Blue Surrounding You at the 58th Biennale. The way the video handles the subject about inclusion and how the elements in the space tell a story, while these invite the visitor to dream about a world where we are all connected, inspired me deeply. The combination of different music genres and sounds, along with the lightning pointing towards theatrical scenes, created a surreal setting inside the pavilion that felt to me as if I had crossed to another dimension.
Brujas, 2020
Shower, 2020
How do you go about naming your work?
Most of the time I have trouble naming my work. In the past, I used to come up with names that didn´t make much sense to me after a couple of months. Nowadays, what I do is write a short text and talk to other people about a specific piece so that I can hear out loud the words I choose to describe it. So most of the time, the names come from conversations I have with other people about the art-works.
Is there anything else in the pipeline?
I will launch an individual online exhibition by the end of August in collaboration with the virtual gallery Art Latinou, curated by Juci Reis. The exhibition will display art-works that emerged from the creative process of the video A Timeless Parallel. It will be dynamic and it will show a combination of techniques, from painting and screen-printing to photography and video. The art-works navigate between the every-day and the imagined, opening questions about other forms of existence and mysterious possibilities. I think nowadays we are very aware that human beings are not the centre of everything and that there is a lot about nature and existence we do not understand fully, but at the same time we have learned to value the experience of life.
After this, I am planning to start a new project that is inspired by Greek mythology and dark fairy tales. A bar called Barba Azul (Blue Beard) located in Mexico City will be the meeting point where fictional characters that were sent to the underworld (for different reasons and during different periods of time) go to hang-out. I am excited because I invited my grandmother Genia Gabilondo and artists from different disciplines to be part of the Project and I am curious about what will come out of this.
All images are courtesy of the artist
Date of publication: 02/09/20
