Since moving to New Orleans, the Second Saturday of each month is now occupied with gallery hopping in Bywater. This past Second Saturday was no exception. And, well, a gallery & artist, in particular, peaked my interest. The gallery: The Aquarium Studio & Gallery. The artist: Elizabeth Chen.

As I walked up to it’s porch, a lit-up aquarium welcomed me. I’d never heard of the Aquarium Studio & Gallery (granted it’s only been in existence since May 2011). Upon later discussion, I realized many friends have been to their infamous, outdoor movie nights and/or other intriguing openings/performances. However, this being my first visit, I had no idea what to expect and turned into the front gallery room to be greeted by a floating shark.

Swaying in misty acetate, the shark quickly came to life. On closer inspection, I realized the piece was a dissection and comprised of many individual, acetate sheets; all hung at perfect distance to re-create the shape of a shark. As you walk around the (close to actual-sized) shark, parts of it disappear and reappear. The subject is quite brilliantly fitting for the medium and method. I’m a sucker for detail and as I stared, I noticed intricate outlines/drawings on each acetate sheet. Animals and creatures were literally inside the shark. I was completely captivated and knew I had to contact the artist, Elizabeth Chen. What possessed this creation and what else was lurking around the next corner?

Before my interview with Elizabeth, weeks after Second Saturday, Jacob “Reptile” Martin generously showed me around the new art space. Once reconstruction is complete, hopefully by the end of 2012, Jacob (the director/curator/founder) said, the house will function as a performance/gallery space with 10 studios and residency spaces in the back & in the adjoining house. Originally from Louisiana, Jacob lived up the block from 934 Montegut Street for three years, after returning from art school in Kansas City. With the help of his family (having invested and even assisted in rebuilding/construction), he bought the pre-Katrina, decrypted house earlier this year and has been fixing it up ever since.

Inspired by years of couchsurfing and the communal power of creative minds, Jacob’s goal is to create an ever-changing community of artists and events inhibiting the Aquarium. His future vision of the space even includes group critiques and open workshops by resident artists. It’s already started it’s transformation into a creative utopia for drag queens, future “fashion” creatures, & artists from all walks of life.

In fact, fashion is how Jacob and Elizabeth came to meet. Both having shown in the Worn Again fashion shows, they eventually started creating together in Future Creatures, a fashion collective. The two scorpios (Jacob born Nov 11 & Elizabeth born Nov 12) are also part of the 9th Ward Marching Band. Jacob is a ribbon dancer and Elizabeth plays the french horn. A contrasting pair but oddly complementary, it only makes sense that Jacob would provide the Aquarium for Elizabeth’s experimental shark.

I was delighted by their hospitality and sat in the empty Aquarium with Elizabeth, ready to dive in. Formally trained as an architect (having studied at Tulane & now working at an architecture firm during the day), she explains how her playful path to art came to be…

When did you first pick up something to make art?

Elizabeth Chen: “Well, I guess I’ve always sort of liked arts & craftsy things; hot glue, stuff like that. But I’ve never taken it too seriously. I’m not sure how seriously I take it now. It’s just something that’s really fun for me. I get to try different techniques and different materials. But really, Jacob has been so instrumental in making this community..when he invited me to fashion club, we started meeting, we started talking and that’s when I started making stuff that was bigger than little hot-glue crafts.”

What influenced you to study architecture? & do you think architecture influences a lot of your creating?

E: “I wanted to be an architect because when I was six, my brother told me I should be an architect and I was like, yah, that sounds good. And so, you know when you are a kid, everybody’s like ‘What do you want to be when you grow up’, and I’d say ‘I want to be an architect’ and I think I made up that story (that I wanted to be architect) for so long that eventually I really wanted to become an architect. I don’t consciously try to infuse my work with my background in architecture, but I’m sure that architecture has affected the way my mind works and the way I see forms and shapes. I was introduced to a lot of artistic things through architecture; like design blogs and (blogs) that overlay into visual artists. I’m an avid blog reader. I really like www.thisiscolossal.com & www.designboom.com.”

Is the shark one of your first pieces to be shown & what inspired you to make it?

E: “Yes the shark is one of the first pieces I’ve made. Jacob came up with the theme for the show, which was ‘Feeding Frenzy’. I had also been watching the entire series of BBC’s Blue Planet and Planet Earth. We had just watched this one (episode) from Blue Planet and there is this crazy series of events, where there is plankton and little shrimp eat it and then there’s a tuna coming to eat the shrimp that ate the plankton and there is this huge build-up of animals eating each other. I knew I wanted to make a shark; I actually don’t think there was a shark (in that scene), maybe there was but just I knew I wanted to make a shark after seeing that.”

So, how did you make it?

E: “The shark is completely unoriginal. There is nothing that is personal to me in that shark at all, nothing out of my brain did that. I got it from a generic program. It’s free and really easy…so I stole the shark from Google Sketch-up Warehouse, then derived the sections to put them in Autocad. Then I traced all the illustrations from National Geographic. Basically, they (the interior illustrations) could have been anything but I wanted the them to be natural; plants and animals and landscapes.”

Would you change anything about the piece?

E: “Well, I always try and ask myself, how can I maximize the skills that I have? I have a very limited amount of skills. So I try to think of a way to exploit my tools as much as possible. And most of the time I don’t know if it’s going to work. It’s an experiment. In the future, I’ll definitely use this technique and try to play with the way you experience the object disappear and reappear.”

Explain your creative process.

E: “I just go to home depot and walk down the aisles a lot. And you know being a female in home depot alone, you get a lot of questions. And I’m always like ummm I’m working on an art project…which sounds silly….but I’m really into materials. And with the things I have made, there’s an element of technique as well as all these things that are unexpected. You don’t know what they are gonna do or how they are going to react or if it’s gonna work or if it’ll stand up but you just have to do it. Some of the unexpected things are my favorite parts. I can’t really take credit for them.”

What are you working on now?

E: “The first of this (newer) series is made of lamping wire. Unlike the shark, which is completely un-personal, these are very personal; not emotional in content but they do derive form from weird idiosyncratic stuff. The newest one in progress is speaker wire and copper wire. These are based on coming up with a system of folding wire in proportion to tick marks that I draw by hand. As I get anxious (sometimes, I don’t know if the system will work out or sometimes the tick marks will collide and I don’t know what to do so I get nervous) the lines tend to get messier and thus further apart because they’re drawn by hand very quickly. Or I fib extra rules to try to catch and fix the problem. So, the more anxious I am, the more dynamic the change in folds is. It turns my otherwise annoying anxiety into something that serves an aesthetic value. I don’t know if that made sense…I’m very self-conscious about the things I make. I’m always a little nervous to show my work. I wouldn’t say it’s fear of rejection…it’s just strange (to me) to assert yourself so directly and publicly and I guess I’m not used to that.”

What’s your typical day like?

E: “I work at a big (architecture) firm, so it’s a 9-5. It’s kind of a conservative office but my studiomates are all pretty wacky, it’s really fun. We are all broken into small groups and I really love my group. We have a very diverse set of projects. Sometimes we’ll do boxy, commercial things and sometimes we’ll do really fun, creative things. It all depends on the month.”

What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

E: “I’ve been coming here (the Aquarium) more often (2-3 times a week) but I usually try and swim. I really like my pool at the New Orleans Athletic Club. It’s a salt water pool. It’s actually really funny: I’m terrified of sharks. If I’m the only person in the pool, I won’t do laps, I’ll do the kick board…(she motions doing the kick board and looking over her shoulder checking for sharks).”

Do you have a favorite film and/or book you are reading right now?

E: “Film: Happy Together, all Wong Kar Wai’s stuff, really. And as far as a book, well I just read and really liked Samedi the Deafness by Jesse Ball. It’s a very frustrating book to read but after it’s done you realize ‘hey, that’s really cool’. I picked his book because the cover is beautiful. I have a thing for book covers.”

Do you have a favorite artist, architect, or designers? Maybe just one that you’ve seen lately that caught your eye?

E: “Well, yes Ursula von Rydingsvard. Her work has a lot of blocks of wood and each of them are chipped away and are all stacked together. They form these really natural, shaped objects. All of the ends, that she chipped away at, have these really harsh textures or sometimes really soft textures. And I also like this guy, Philip Beesley, I guess he’s sort of an architect too. His works often simulate natural processes but not in a realistic way at all. He has very floral-looking things that are digitally cut, so you have machine-made, robotic components that are made to simulate organic objects. They are also triggered by their environment, they react to you using processors and electronic sensors. I can’t really say that I understand any of it.”

Are you originally from New Orleans?

E: “No, I’m from South Florida; (part of) massive suburbia that covers Florida. Basically school brought me here. I had a job opportunity in New York but some personal things kept me here and then I kept putting off moving away. And finally with so much putting off, I stayed here.”

Who’s on your radar as far as another local artist?

E: “Cynthia Scott, I first heard about her through Staples Goods…and I peeked into her studio one day and saw her chandeliers, I really like her.”

How long will your show be up? When can people observe your upcoming experiments?

E: What’s left of the show is coming down next week. I’ll probably reinstall the shark in my studio which you can come see by appointment or you can come by the gallery and ask the gallery sitter to give a tour of the studios. The gallery will have a show up starting, I think, December 10th and will feature Mary Logan who is my studio mate. We’ll also be having a Zombie Christmas party December 17th at 9pm. We’ll have open studios during the party as well.

The Aquarium’s Zombie Christmas party & open studios,
December 17th at 9pm

Links:
Elizabeth Chen’s Shark Piece:
http://elizabethchen.tumblr.com/post/12914445223/flora-fauna-landscape-shark

The Aquarium Gallery & Studio, 934 Montegut St:
http://www.facebook.com/theAquariumStudios
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/204316335/the-aquarium-gallery-and-studios-in-new-orleans

Links/References from Interview
Elizabeth’s Inspirational Design Blogs:
www.thisiscolossal.com & www.designboom.com.
Film, Happy Together: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118845/
Book, Samedi Deafness: http://www.amazon.com/Samedi-Deafness-Vintage-Contemporaries-Jesse/dp/0307278859
Ursula von Rydingsvard: http://www.ursulavonrydingsvard.net/site/selected_sculpture/detail/ogromnadetail.html
Philip Beesley: http://www.philipbeesleyarchitect.com/sculptures/0913Medialab_Enschede/enschede_1.html
Cynthia Scott: http://cynthiascott2000.com/artwork/891925_Grow_Detail.html

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Amanda LaPlaca is a graphic designer, natural organizer & project manager from Brooklyn, NYC. She is an avid calendar filler (volunteering, events, etc) and loves being on the go (traveling too) but relaxes each day in her Uptown backyard garden after a long, bike ride. www.amlaplaca.blogspot.com