A CONVERSATION with MARIONNE CONTRERAS

01

Tell me about your formative years as an artist. Where did it all start for you?

Since I was very young, I knew that I was creative. But I came from a small town—and you know how like, if you're good in school, if you’re a smart child, you either become a doctor or an engineer? It's what happened to me. So I initially took those paths because I could until I decided I really didn't want to. I really wanted to do art, so I dropped everything and just practiced.

I didn't take Fine Arts in college. I jumped from civil engineering, to dentistry, and then I took fashion design but only a short course in pattern-making. My practice is actually a culmination of all of that.

I didn't hate engineering or dentistry, though. I actually found fun in it, however it didn’t really excite me. It didn’t challenge me. Being in those professions, it's hard to push outside of the box, especially if you're not already a mid-career practicing professional. But with being an artist, you're always pushing things into something further, something bigger, something new, and it keeps me stimulated. I think it's very important for me to be stimulated and happy with what I do, because it makes me a better person.

I started as a hard material sculptor, like with fiberglass, found objects. It was process-driven like in casting objects, which is similar to dentistry, and everything was very math-related. So I think in my different education backgrounds, [you can see that] I'm really fond of handling materials.

What I do now with textile and eco printing is very mathematical, too. It's very methodical. I have an affinity to these process driven works. So, I guess it's very organic that I arrived where I am now in my practice. I solely focused on fabric and fiber after I gave birth to my first child, and I think that is kind of dictating what I do. I never really planned anything. I just responded to whatever is happening, and here I am now. I'm focusing on that style.

02

What lies at the core of your practice? In your art, there are themes of womanhood, misconceptions about femininity and motherhood, that you're also rebelling against.

Most of the time, I do it unintentionally. It's unusual for an artist to do a lot of different stuff [like what I am doing now]. Usually an artist will keep repeating executions; they have a signature style that is very noticeable. But with what I do, I usually need a bigger lens to see the common thing.

I do repeat techniques but I think it's really rooted on, as I've said, my need to be stimulated. I actually tell people that I'm just really making my own language, except the language is visual. So, I switch from textile work, to tapestry, and to sculptures. It could be colorful the first time, and then I can also make it more muted the next time. I really jump from one aesthetic to another, even though there's really a core idea to it.

Now, I'm trying to use my own language in different registers as a way to tackle things I believe in and as a way to to express myself. Yes, there usually are themes of femininity, of womanhood, subversing every stereotype one can throw at me and that’s because that's actually how I respond to the world every day.

I think I have been defying things since I was born. I have witnessed societal bias early in my life and so I’ve always just tried to see the world in my own eyes. My ears are very sensitive to that, so I think it just comes out of the work.

03

So, your art is deeply rooted in your personal experiences in life. Recently, you also just became a mother. How has this new experience shaped your work?

It's hard to be a female artist, first of all. Then, it's also hard to be a textile artist, and now a mother-artist.

I think everyone is aware of how sexist the art industry can be. But you know, when I became a mother, I think it was really a defiant response for me to work harder because I didn't want to be defined as the textile artist who had kids and wasn’t able to deliver something because she had kids. Because now, these things can be weaponized by people, so before they can weaponize it against me, I will sharpen my work already for myself.

If anything, if motherhood did something to me, I think it made me a no nonsense artist; it made me tougher. It made me like my work ethic and it has never been better. In daily life, I actually learned to manage my time better because everything has to have a schedule. So, every decision and every movement always has to be sure or else it's going to be wasted. I've been more precise with everything,

I think I'm not really trying to prove anything, though. I'm just trying not to leave any weaknesses visible.

04

Can you walk me through what your creative process is like? The form and the process seems to be very important when the team was all creating Earthbound.

When I'm talking to people about [my creative process], I always say that I exhaust my emotions with the writing work, meanwhile I am very calculating with the textile work, the visual work.

If I'm ever emotional, it's in the writing. I am very controlled with the visual work. I tend to do more abstract and form-centric work because I just really want to explore the concept of beauty in art. As in, something doesn't really have to have meaning—the form itself can be the meaning of the work because beauty is the spirit of art. There's value in it. In the present landscape of art, sometimes beauty can be enough and I love that.

There is art that is focused on process, and they usually are shit sometimes. Visually, the result doesn’t deliver. It’s like the story of the process is what makes them what they are. But with what I do, I want to create something where the process is important, yes, but it also doesn't matter because by the end, it can stand by itself. It should carry itself everywhere, with me or without, even without the audience knowing how it was made.

05

What was it like entering the collaborative process with Steffi Cua? Unlike being a solo artist, the work doesn’t finish with you, at some point you pass it onto her.

[Making clothes] is like working in a very different dimension. It added a different layer to the practice. Sometimes we get too obsessive about the results. It might be good for the audience already, however, we can get too obsessive. And that’s not good for us artists. But when we see it in a different form, like when Steffi makes it into a garment, it's like it's proving itself to you that it is enough, and it is readable in the first place. It's a reconnection to the material in a different shape.

So somehow, it stopped being just about the printed textile, it became something different. And that's very humbling, actually. Even the scraps, she can make something out of it. So we’ve kind of developed a certain trust in the work relationship—that even if I think the print is shit, she can still make these beautiful pieces. So, I'm forwarding everything to her, even my scraps.

06

What is fashion to you?

I grew up with hand-me-downs. I grew up looking at kids wearing stuff I like but my mom couldn’t afford, so I kind of, you know, developed a certain make-do attitude with whatever I have and whatever I can get my hands on.

So, in a way, it became something to me. Fashion became an avenue for me to express myself when I was younger. I then started to think that how you present yourself is very important. The clothes you wear, it says a lot about you, gives a lot of your intent. It's a type of window to your identity or something. I'm very uncomfortable in crowds, so I like being luxurious. It's like a protection for me. Fashion is like personal protection..

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Interview by Patricia Villoria

01 Tell me about your formative years as an artist. Where did it all start for you?

02 What lies at the core of your practice? In your art, there are themes of womanhood, misconceptions about femininity and motherhood, that you're also rebelling against.

03 So, your art is deeply rooted in your personal experiences in life. Recently, you also just became a mother. How has this new experience shaped your work?

04 Can you walk me through what your creative process is like? The form and the process seems to be very important when the team was all creating Earthbound.