Patricia Alvarado is an artist whose work lays out and subverts societal constructions of femininity. Using herself and her body –as well as text, images or material objects —  her art is both forthright and nuanced. Playing on the related concepts of ‘attraction versus repulsion, ideals, and shame’, Alvarado challenges the implicit standards which women live with in patriarchal society, bringing what might otherwise be unexamined expectations or rituals firmly into focus.

Obviously we now have some forty years or so of feminist artists using their bodies in their artwork, and using their bodies in artwork to make people uncomfortable. How do you approach, and perhaps position yourself, in regards to this (albeit relatively brief) tradition? Are there particular artists who inspire you, or equally who you work against?

I feel that research is so important in that there’s such a deep history behind art made about social practice. I don’t think it’s possible or productive to create work if you don’t know the history behind the type of art you’re making. I suppose I approach tradition by looking at artists who have worked in similar regards. I attempt to understand things like why they chose a certain medium for a specific project, or the emotions most heavily communicated. I think about historical context a lot as well. Since I’m usually looking at artists who make art about social issues, it’s interesting to think about when the work was made, and how older work functions within current societal standards. Lorna Simpson, Ana Mendieta, Ellen Gallagher, Adrian Piper, Kara Walker, and Glenn Ligon are a few of my favorite artists to look at. 

In your biography you write that ‘physical alterations function as daily ritual’, and this idea of alteration and ritual is at the core of your latest video work, Thinking about wanting to be white in 2008 in 2013 , where you re-enact the rituals of your teenage self. Do you think the quotidian nature of such rituals makes them particularly insidious? How did you formulate Thinking about wanting to be white… ?

Absolutely. I think that habits are to be explored, especially habits or rituals that are preformed with no sort of awareness or deep thought. The insidious nature of beauty rituals comes, in general, with initial lack of reason for the ritual (for example, no one ever taught me how to shave, and yet I somehow learned, and shaved on a regular basis without any real thought as to why). The insidious nature of beauty rituals when it comes to women of color, at least in my own personal experience, are that we’re not only attempting to abide by patriarchal standards, but we’re also attempting to adhere to beauty standards upheld by white supremacy. My project Thinking about wanting to be white in 2008 in 2013 came about when I found a photograph of myself taken in 2008, when I used to wear my mother’s foundation to lighten my skin (she’s a light skinned Asian woman). In the photograph, my skin looks so white that it seems the photograph was taken with an intense flash, when I remember it was taken with natural light. I started to remember the daily ritual of stealing my mom’s makeup to lighten my skin, and when I used to get my hair thermally reconditioned because I hated my natural hair and felt that straight Eurocentric hair was more beautiful. So, I just decided to create a performance piece. It seemed really natural.

 Thinking about wanting to be white in 2008 in 2013.  To be played simultaneously.

Was it disquieting to perform these rituals again now?

A bit. I mean, looking at my face after I had put on the “alabaster” shade foundation was startling because I felt like I had gone back in time. It made me feel so uncomfortable to know that I did that every day, and really thought I was white. That was the most interesting part, to me; the notion that I was trying so hard to be white back then, but I didn’t know why, or even understand that I was trying to be white; I really just thought I was trying to be “more beautiful.”

 

You describe yourself as a womanist rather than feminist; is this an artistic category, as well as one of personal identity?

I’m not the spokesperson for womanism, so I can’t really give a concrete answer. I suppose womanists can make womanist art rather than feminist art; I mean that would make sense to me. I think it would be something the artist would have to decide.

 

A lot of your work is deliberately repulsive or off-putting – not just in terms of content, but also in terms of your titles, which use slang, internet speak, etc. Again, this is something other artists have done previously; how does it serve in your work?

The internet plays a big role in my practice; I’ve had people mail me hair, letters, bloody panties, and more, and I guess I think that speaking formally or properly within my titles, and my work in general, isn’t important. I’m not trying to be anything but real. And maybe that means I’m sophisticated sometimes, but the titles come with the work. I think of the title when I think of the work, and if it’s in Internet speak, then that’s how I carry on. Another big part of my practice is a play between attraction and repulsion. I’m interested in insidiousness, and in playing in the spaces between two opposing ideas. And I guess I’m interested in what gets classified as “disgusting” or what seems uncomfortable to look at. I don’t want things to be simple, because they hardly ever really are.

 

The treatment of men in your work – the way they pop up in fragments, or are addressed with varying degrees of overtness – is extremely interesting. How do you seek to implicate them in your work?

I’m not really sure if “implicate” is the word, I don’t know if I really seek to “implicate” anyone. I’m really just attempting to open up dialogue, and if someone feels as though I’m implicating them, then that’s okay with me. If someone is playing an active role in a system or standard that I’m critiquing, then their implication seems important. I don’t create my work as a way to talk to men specifically; I create my work to speak to larger societal structures that men happen to be a part of.

 

I was particularly struck by the moments at which your art touches on popular culture and the commercial, such as when using shaving products in work, or your response to Kanye West’s lyric about ‘Asian pussy’. Do you think we’re at a particular moment in popular culture now, in which art can intervene?

I think art has always been able to intervene, but in a way that stirs the pot. I think that artists constantly seek to stir the pot. Last year, 2013, was incredibly fucked up for a lot of reasons in terms of racism. Like, every year is fucked up, but last year was somehow notable. Katy Perry dresses up as a geisha for her VMA performance, Selena Gomez wears a bindi, and simultaneously, both artists sing songs about loving someone “unconditionally” whilst portraying Asian women. Miley Cyrus accessorizes herself with black people to authenticate her “new style.” People dress up as Trayvon Martin or as “Indians” for Halloween. I personally attempted (and in the end, succeeded) to create a group specifically for Women of Color to meet and have a safe space at my college, and was met with an absurd amount of backlash by white people who literally couldn’t understand why this forum was necessary. I think pop culture is in a difficult place right now, in that they’re constantly fucking up. That’s not new. BUT the good news is that there are tons of educated minds creating literature and art as a way to spread knowledge, and I think that THAT is the important moment we’re in. We’re in a moment where people are standing up and saying, nah, that’s not right, with art and with literature, in very daring and straight-forward ways, and I think that that’s very exciting.

 

What do you see as the future of your art? Where are you going next?

Next step is to graduate college, which happens in the Fall 2014. Art wise, I really just want to keep exploring and experimenting. I want to build my work up through making and research and I just want to see what else I have to offer. Lately I’ve been interested in the idea of teaching some type of Liberal Arts class at an art college in the future, so that’ll be a pursuit I undertake once I’m done with my Fine Arts BFA. I just want to continue learning and sharing my knowledge in as many ways as possible.