VIDEO: RMCAD Interview with Resident Artist Agnes Ma
In the summer of 2023, RMCAD students interviewed our 2022-2024 Resident Artists in their studios. Their video interview of Agnes Ma showcases her inspirations, portfolio, and dreams for her residency here at RedLine.
Agnes Ma is an Illinois native who relocated to Colorado in 2016. She is currently an Assistant Professor and 3D Studios Coordinator in the Fine Arts + Foundations Department at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.
She received her M.F.A. in Metalwork, Jewelry Design, and Digital Fabrication as well as a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Northern Illinois University and has a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Her work combines traditional craft and modern methods of fabrication to examine the relationship between humans and their surrounding environment.
Watch the video of Agnes in her RedLine studio below to learn more about her and her practice!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:
“I'm Agnes Ma, and currently I am a resident artist at Redline Contemporary Art Center. I also work as a assistant professor and 3D Studios coordinator at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design.
“The final semester of school, I took a jewelry and metal smithing class and I realized there's actually a lot of crossover between the arts and the sciences, especially in a field like metal smithing. Then I decided that I would just try and figure out how to go from there.
“Directly, I don't think that a lot of my work or the things that I focus on in my work directly necessarily relate to my degree, since it was on a cellular level, but I think that I definitely still approach making and thinking very analytically. I don't regret having my degree in something else because I feel like I have a broader understanding of the world around me.
“I would literally use natural found objects and then contrast that with something that was in some way more man-made. So at the beginning, I would juxtapose found elements with sterling silver. My finish is always really like a powdery white, and usually I'll balance the organic things with a very neutral palette.
“This last year I started working with the 3D pen and I found this beautiful green, and lately this is...I think it's much more obvious, but the manufactured thing is always this obnoxious color, and then I'll pair it with something that's more subtle, or found or something like that.
“In terms of how I think about how the Anthropocene era is more about how we exist now, and pretty much everything that is a result of humanity is also because humans don't really consider people other than ourselves. I'm using the environment and our relationship with the environment to in some ways glean on this. At the same time, I think it's really more about why we exist as humans and why we end up existing the way we do.
“I'm not an outdoors person. It's not my inclination to go outside and spend time outdoors. It's not that I don't like it. It's not a habit of mine. Growing up in Illinois, I think I always felt like I was always hot and sticky in the summer and then cold in the wintertime. But when in grad school, I would start forcing myself to be outside and it made me notice a lot of things. That translated more when I came out to Colorado, because it was just a different kind of landscape.
“I don't know if necessarily the move from Illinois to Colorado had really changed anything, but it made me notice more of the landscape and what differed in different areas. Also, a lot of what we see in the landscape are all invasive species. Even in Illinois, I would see all the large grasses, the tall grasses along the roadside thinking, of course, it was natural because of prairie grass, but none of it was natural. It was all invasive.
“So one of the first times I ever had a visceral reaction about art was when I visited a retrospective of Doris Salcedo. I felt, as I walked through the exhibition, this really somber feeling, and then when I read the peace statement, I was just like, oh yeah, okay, that's exactly what I was feeling.
“That's kind of something I've always admired about her work is that you as a viewer, as a visitor, as an experiencer, you are literally experiencing the things she's trying to convey to you. Then that's what allows you to understand the severity of the issues. So things like creating installations where somebody can walk through, or really have that sort of visceral reaction to something is something I just always strive for.
“Because I came from a background of not really understanding contemporary or fine art or art in general, metalsmithing was a natural transition for me because there was functionality tied to it in terms of jewelry. More and more I think I am able to step away from having inherent function. Know what I can do is create this visual experience for people.
“Maybe they don't have to necessarily understand exactly what I'm trying to say, but at least they can have a feeling and have a sense of what it might be. And have that create some sort of curiosity within them.
“I think out of school, especially if you were used to having a studio at school, what you learn quickly is that space is important. I have not had space to really spread out or see an installation be fulfilled, at least more regularly in several years. So that's what I'm excited about, is that I can actually build something larger, put it up and exist with it a little bit before it gets maybe put in a gallery of some sort.”
“Then also, I should say, I think community is really important. You forget easily when you're by yourself a lot, how important it is even just casually somebody walking by and having a discussion with you about your work. Those sorts of discussions really help you think through, not only your concepts, but also logistics.
“Currently, I'm working on this piece that will include tumbleweeds. Basically, because on a road trip I saw a bunch of tumbleweeds piling up, and that made me feel weird about humanity, because we block these tumbleweeds that are also invasive species, but then they're just piled up and nobody's going to move them again. So some of it is from those experiences. It's made me think more about the choices that we make and what I would like to get into is thinking more about moral philosophy.
“Honestly, I don't know if I would identify as a contemporary artist, because I'm still struggling with how I think about my work and things like that. A lot of what I made before didn't necessarily have any visual contemporary elements in it, or even conceptually.
“What I think about contemporary art is some extension of conceptual art. A lot of what we do nowadays, it's not so much about how the object exists in the world, but rather what the object is saying. So, especially in an academic program, that's a question we constantly ask our artists, our student artists is like, ‘Why are you making the thing that you're making? Why is it important for it to exist in this world?’”