Artists at Home: Angelica Reisch
Angelica Reisch is an artist focused in video and installation work as well as art publishing and cultural organizing. A Texas native, she is a cofounder of DADE, a Dallas-based artist collective founded in 2017 that publishes Holding Pattern, an annual publication of female artists and commissioned writers. Reisch is currently based in New York City.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON CURRENTLY?
Right now I’m continuing to work on a series of drawings that I began last December while in residence at Vermont Studio Center. These colorful, rudimentary drawings were my way of looking at how we collectively imagine what our interior, private spaces should look like. Since this series began back in late 2019, the idea of a “private space” has taken on a whole new meaning given the global pandemic we’re living through. Ideas of “home” in particular have changed, intensified, and become charged with a huge and unexpected variety of emotions. Recently, I’ve had people send me photos of the spaces that they are quarantined in and have been making drawings from those.
DESCRIBE YOUR PROCESS WHEN BEGINNING A NEW PROJECT
Typically my strategy is to research, take lots of notes, reflect, and write to make sure that I at least understand the basic context and framework that I’m working in. While I think that that process is really valuable, I’ve actually been trying to steer away from it recently and instead follow my impulses. In fact, that’s how this new series of drawings came about — rather than requiring myself to identify and conceptualize every element of what I wanted to do beforehand, I allowed myself to just make these drawings that I didn’t quite understand but felt a weird need to make and subsequently, a giddy joy in the process. I think especially right now with this global trauma that we are all experiencing, this approach especially rings true. I’m really just following what feels good, fulfilling, and meaningful at the moment.
ARE THERE ANY MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT YOUR WORK THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO CLARIFY?
I can’t think of any big misconceptions about my work that I know of, except for maybe one that is of my own doing. When asked what kind of work I make, I typically respond with “primarily video and installation.” However, I’m seeing more and more that I really don’t limit my work to one particular medium (I don’t know if any artist really does, but we are often forced to choose to make people feel more comfortable with who we are and what we do). Each project is unique and needs careful consideration of how the medium supports the idea you’re working with (the medium = the message, holla Marshall McLuhan). While I do work with video and installation, I also have done a lot of work with drawing, cultural organizing, and publishing.
WHAT IS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME?
This COVID-19 period has been damn difficult — for all of us. I moved to NYC on February 1st, just weeks before globally we became aware of the pandemic. I lost projects, my main job, my living situation at the time, and pretty much all sense of stability — which is already hard to come by as a working artist. This pandemic has been devastating for so many people on so many levels. We will bounce back (the creative class included), but it’s going to be an immense and lengthy effort.
