Lee Materazzi takes no short cuts when it comes to creating her photographs. In a digital age where the recourse to using photoshop is par the course for many artists, Materazzi, instead, painstakingly sets up, in real time, what you see in the final result. Anything can go wrong and sometimes does, although it usually works out, more often than not, she says. Creating some of the most interesting and mind bending photographic works, sometimes with her kids in tow, these immersive worlds merge people in magical contact with objects and vice versa, all the more stunning for the tireless labor that goes into creating each piece. Here Lee talks with Anti-Heroin Chic about the inspirations behind her work. AHC: What first drew you to photography? Was there a specific moment in your life or turning point where it became clear to you that you were being called to create? Lee: I have loved art since I was a little kid. In high school, I enrolled in a magnet program for art and design. I became very interested in garment design and went to college for this. After the first year, I dropped out since my designs were anything but practical. I was more interested in the idea of making something in relation to the body and capturing it through photography. After dropping out of the fashion program, I switched into a school for sculpture and began making sculptural objects for the camera. The photography part was self-taught. I have been making art for over 10 years now. It’s funny because I’m still told that I’m not a very good photographer. Its definitely the environments that I make for the camera that are the strength in my work. AHC: One fascinating aspect of your work is that you create these images without photo shop, which must be a painstaking, laborious process. How do you set up some of these shoots and are there times when things won't hold or fall apart mid idea? Lee: Yes, it is a process and it can be hanging by a thread at times. One of my best art making skills is problem solving. I recently made a work where I created a pattern out of the yellow street lines. To create the effect, I used very wide yellow duct tape. It took a lot of tape which I painstakingly laid out with my one-year-old strapped to me sleeping in the baby carrier. I finally finished putting down the tape and minutes later a van drove over it and pulled up all of the tape; simultaneously my daughter woke up and wasn't too happy about participating in the making of the work. Somehow I was able to sooth her and lay down the lines again and take some pictures. Some works seem like they would be so simple to execute but turn into this impossible feat. It always ends up working out… but then again sometimes it doesn't (like the time I tried to make a tube slide from my second story window out of an area rug). AHC: Objects and our attachment to them figures heavily in your work. Often where the subject ends and the object begins is blurred in your photographs, creating an almost seamless tapestry of human/object, is this blurring of the boundary line intentional for you in setting up these photographs? Lee: I am very interested in our emotional and psychological relationship to objects and spaces. Lately I have been making a lot of landscapes in addition to portraits. This has been interesting for me because it allows for the viewer to be the subject in an essence (oppose to being a voyeur to the subject in the image). I think that this can allow for the viewer to experience the photograph in a different more personal way. Oppose to empathy for the subject it opens up the possibility of them creating their own experience of the altered environment. So yes, I suppose I am seeking to blur the line where human ends and space begins. AHC: Who are some of your artistic influences? Is there anyone outside of the art world who has had a huge impact on your work or who just generally inspires you, writers, filmmakers, musicians, philosophers etc? Lee: Outside of the art world my main inspiration is hands-down my two daughters. One is 4 and the other is 16 months. They are creative and silly. They notice the nuances and pay no attention to taboos and limitations and for better or worse “the rules”. Everyday they take on a new challenge and have an “i can make this happen” attitude. I do my best to follow their example. AHC: What is the first work of art you encountered that took your breath away? Lee: That is a tough question. There are so many artworks that have changed the way I look at and experience our world. I have always gravitated towards large scale sculpture that you can walk through and experience such as works by Richard Serra and Michael Heizer or installations that immerse you in an environment like the work of James Turrell. One artist whom I have serendipitously been learning about and falling in love with is Frida Kahlo. I have my 4-year-old to thank for this. She recently became obsessed with her to the point of dressing like her on a daily basis, recreating almost every single one of her artworks and making me find obscure books about Frida to read to her at night. I don't think I have ever researched an artist as fully as she has. It was such a cool thing because I couldn't help but get sucked in as well. Especially during a time when women’s rights are again being challenged, it is so inspiring to read about a woman who 60 years ago was so bold. She paved such an inspiring path for women setting to do something outside of what was acceptable. After months of our Frida craze we finally visited the SF MOMA to see the one painting they have on display of hers. It is the painting of Frida and Diego on their wedding day. It is always breath taking to see a work in real life; the colors, the scale, the mood, and the subtitles that a book just cant give to you. I don't necessarily relate my practice to hers, but I cant think of another artist who inspires me as much as Frida these days. AHC: Do you have any upcoming exhibits or new projects you'd like to tell people about? Lee: I am just finishing up a body of work that has all taken place around where I live in San Francisco. It has been an interesting challenge to get out of my house and make work on the streets. I’ve met a lot of interesting people; some who are very enthusiastic about experiencing art in the middle of their daily life and others who feel very frustrated about it. In the end all of this feeds into the work and I think that this variable is so interesting. It’s as though the world is able to leave their mark on the work too, despite my wishes or intentions. I recently made a work where I covered some steps in a canyon with paper of all different colors. It was tricky because it was a muddy day and I was using paper. I had just gotten started when a women walked up and despite having alternate paths that she could take, she really wanted to walk up the paper covered steps. I tried to convince her otherwise but…. she did what she needed to do. She walked all over them with muddy sneakers. I felt so many things in that moment. In the end it made me realize the fragility of the paper, of art, of our rights and of our lives. It was a poignant moment and somehow it ended up filling the work with so much unanticipated meaning. Sometimes the universe works in funny ways. www.leematerazzi.com/
Herta Holly
12/10/2016 05:19:11 pm
Lee, love your photographs and am very proud of you! Comments are closed.
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