by Sean Doherty, Student Reporter
How do we interact with the environment and the space around us, and how does it interact with us? That is what Ania Garcia Llorente, Northwestern’s artist in residence for the fall season, tries to capture.
“I’m interested in the body and making things so you can use it with your body, and the relationship be tween the object, the body and the architecture,” Garcia said.
Unlike like the art that hangs on a wall or stands in a museum, Garcia’s sculptures are meant to be used.
“I create objects so your body has to move in a special way to be able to use them,” she said. “The body then has to adapt. You have to really synchronize the body to this new system, this new object. They’re meant to be touched and manipulated. I’m interested that when you approach, and you don’t recognize what it is, how your body behaves with it using your muscle memory and your memory of what you understand about the object.”
Garcia realizes that ordinary objects are more than we perceive.
“A chair is not just something that has a particular shape or design,” she said. “It creates a whole system on how you behave with your work environment or your home environment. It trains your body to sit in a special way. Because the chair forces you to sit a certain way, then you learn how to do a lot of activities, to synchronize your body in certain way.”
Garcia was born and raised in Cuba. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Chile, in 2010. She worked as a printmaker at Aguafuerte Taller in Santiago, Chile, and Taller de Gráfica de La Habana in Havana, Cuba.
Starting in 2015, Garcia started teaching classes on drawing, printmaking and lithography, a method of printing from a stone. Garcia got her start in lithography in college.
“When I used to work in the print shop, I didn’t really think too much,” Garcia said. “My professor literally would just give me a stone and sometimes, without even any sketch, I would just draw on the stone directly, just from my imagination.”
Garcia moved to the United States in 2018. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from Boston University this spring. Then, an old friend of hers – Northwestern art professor Kyle Larson – reached out and offered Garcia a spot as the university’s artist in residence this fall.
Larson and Garcia met in 2017 while Larson was in Santiago for a painting residency.
“He was very passionate,” Garcia said. “He went to work every day. He was doing this amazing amount of paintings in just a short time.”
“I visited Ania’s exhibition at the Centro Cultural Espacio Matta and was impressed by her work,” Larson said. “Ania is a dynamic, multifaceted artist with a vast knowledge of art history and contemporary practices. I knew that Ania would challenge students to think about their roles as artists in new and interesting ways, to become aware of the systems they inhabit, and to expand how they view the work they create in relation to their daily lives and actions.”
Garcia began her residency at Northwestern on Sept. 1. She said she enjoys the town of Alva as a back-drop for her studio.
“It’s really quiet,” she said. “I like that a lot. In Boston, there’s a lot of distractions, and people are always coming over to your studio. So, I like that here is quiet. I can focus a lot. Also, I get to see the work of the students and have small conversations with them. Some of them are really good.”
“We are incredibly fortunate to have Ania here at NWOSU,” Larson said. “I know Ania will have a lasting impact on visual arts students and the community. Students have had the unique opportunity to see Ania develop a new body of work from the ground up in her studio, and some have actually participated in the filming of some of Ania’s new video pieces.”
Every Monday this month, Garcia has hosted drawing and sculpture workshops.
“Ania’s Monday night ‘Crazy Stone’ workshops have provided participants with exceptional insight into the creative process through readings, discussions and slide lectures revolving around how artists transform material and meaning,” Larson said. “The drawing and sculpture exercises in the workshops have allowed participants to expound on the ideas and themes Ania presents though their own ingenuity, imagination, and resourcefulness.”
Since the workshops are open to the public, Garcia has had to adjust her lesson plans.
“It’s kind of interesting because we have some students from psychology and from other majors,” Garcia said. “So, I have to build it in a way in which I’m able to work with students that have experience painting or drawing, but also with students that have zero experience, but they’re also interested to learn. Seeing how they solve the problems in class is very refreshing. ”
Northwestern does not offer any sculpture classes, so Garcia enjoys sharing her knowledge.
“I think my favorite part is trying to make them think about creating objects and about space when they haven’t had a professor before,” Garcia said. “So, I can see a fresh approach to that.”
Garcia encourages all interested student artists to fill out an application for the art gallery in downtown Alva. The deadline is Oct. 10.
“Just apply, even if you just started,” she said. “Something amazing about Oklahoma is that there’s a lot of opportunities, and young artists can really succeed.
“This career, there’s no one single path you can take. There are many, many paths. It really depends on your personality and your discipline. … I really think what a young student should do is first get to know yourself and really inquire what you want to do as a professional, and find that path for yourself.”
Garcia believes young artists should travel to meet other artists.
“That’s the reason why our residencies are so important, like this one,” she said.
Garcia is looking forward to the rest of her residency, which ends next month.
“I had some things planned before coming here, and in the end, I didn’t do it,” she said. “I just decided to make a fresh start. I’m just very relaxed, just making things I really wanted to see. It’s fun just waking up and coming here.”