THE COVID DIARIES, VOLUME 1
A video series by Annie Terrazzo
The COVID Diaries, Volume 1 brings together four very different female artists from around the world to voice unique perspectives on art and the spaces in which they are working during this unique moment.
From Susan Feldman, who has built an entire city in her studio, to Rachel Walters who has been taken out of the city that inspires her, to Amanda Lucia Cote who fled New York to find solace in a rural place, to Camille Rose Garcia, an artist creating her own world in the Redwood forest. Each is a different artist, but like all of us, they are trying to navigate these new challenges.
Clockwise from top left: Amanda Lucia Cote, Rachel Walters, Camille Rose Garcia, Susan Feldman
Susan Feldman is a mixed media artist, working primarily with found wood while also using a wide variety of other materials such as yarn, colored string, and plexiglass. Feldman dignifies these discarded materials as environments of observation. Arranged as architectural plans, she transforms each assemblage into a rising structure, that in turn references a metaphorical self-growth. These structured sculptures and wall works act as three dimensional landscapes, evoking the stratified, fragmentary nature of history and memory. Her current body of work was inspired by her meditation practice and visualizes the spiritual enlightenment of “rising-up.” These all-over compositions take the eye through various planes and materials, which parallel the obstacles and stages of progress through that journey. As opposed to utilitarian constructions indicative of the urban skyline filled with high-rises, Feldman designs structures of contemplation, memory, and hope.
Born in New Zealand in 1976, Rachel now lives and works in London UK. In 2004 she received her MFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts from the University of Auckland. She has had several solo shows and been included in many group shows in New Zealand.
For the past 10 years, resident artist Amanda Lucia Cote has worked abstractly in a variety of different mediums. Drawing attention to piles of clothes, gathered trash, passages, temporary fences and construction sites. Her recent paintings are softer forms, incorporating industrial materials in contrast. Cote attended the School of Visual Arts and has shown work in New York, San Francisco, Miami and Helsinki, Finland.
Drawing from an eclectic range of influences—including science fiction author Philip K. Dick, Beat writer William S. Burroughs, Walt Disney, outsider artist Henry Darger, and politically aware bands like The Clash and the Dead Kennedys—Camille Rose Garcia makes visually engaging work with political messages. In her psychedelic, eye-popping paintings, detailed drawings, toys, and books she combines recognizable cartoon images and pop cultural references. She strives for both visual pleasure and trenchant social criticism in her work. As she explains, “I think I have always approached art making in the same way as a lot of my favorite bands. Bands like The Clash and the Dead Kennedys make this really rad music, that in some cases sounds really fun, but still has a social commentary.”
