Nat Creole: You come from a tremendously diverse background in terms of experience, culture and nationality. How does your upbringing inform both your artistic and personal world view?
Alexis Peskine: I think that the better you know the world around you, the better position you are in to make judgments, to speak about what you see, and to understand what you observe. I’m a voracious learner and hungry about traveling and discovering new things and new cultures. How people feel in their environment and the reasons they feel that way interests me. My art is just an elaborate response to my reflections about what I have witnessed. I think my diverse background helps me understand that the problem is not White on Black hatred, Jewish on Arab hatred or Arab on Jewish hatred, the problem is hatred, or domination or anything that hampers liberty and equality.
NC: What do you feel your background in graphic design brings to your current work?
AP: It brings a graphic bold quality to my work. Its funny because graphic design and fine art are two very distinct schools. Graphic design teaches you to be clear and direct. It suggests that you get a defined idea in the head of as many people as possible. Fine Art, on the other hand, tends to be suggestive and open ended. It wants people to think for themselves. In my work I mix the aesthetic quality of graphic art with the subtlety and conversational quality of fine art. I use a graphic aesthetic to immediately catch the eye of the viewer so that she or he thinks about the ideas I am suggesting.
NC: You were the youngest student in your class to enter the Apprentice Center of Formation for the Graphic Art, considering it came at such an early point in your development, what kind of impact did it have on how you view yourself as an artist today?
AP: The Apprentice Center of Formation for the Graphic Art was 3 weeks at a job in the field, and a week at school. It was rewarding to work in a field that I liked at such a young age and make a little money. It was great (even though I remember being nonchalant some days about going to work and being on time) because at that age you’re supposed to go to school and study a lot of disciplines that you might not be interested in, and on top of that collect bad grades for them. If you’re trying to make a little pocket money at that age you’re working at Micky D’s. I was making money doing what I like-learning, making decisions- and it was on my school time! I think that it showed me that it was worth doing what you really want to do to make a living, even if it takes you longer and you do not have immediate success.
NC: I’ve met a lot of talented artists who went to Howard undergrad as you did yourself. Was it the great incubator it appears to be?
AP: Well, everyone would tell you that the Howard experience is interesting. On one end I have had very good teachers such as James Phillips, Kebedech Teklab, Mary Delpopolo, Claudia Gibson-Hunter, Mike Platt, Colette Veasey-Cullors, E.H. Sorrells-Adewale, Floyd Coleman, Beti Ellerson, Raymond Dobard and Kwaku Ofori-Ansa. On the other hand, there were a lot of set-backs such as budget cuts which would generally hamper the Arts Department first.
NC: I see your work as really capturing a universal sentiment that I believe a lot of people would like to portray but have difficulty communicating. What contributes to your ability to bring clarity to the conversation?
AP: I like to bring a topic to viewers in a way that catches their attention first, so that they can reflect on it later. I try to produce this effect either by making a weird amusing image, or a visually strong one. In “Axis of Evil” for instance, I depict Jesus with a batman mask in front of the American flag. I think that such associations of iconic images are amusing, offensive and enigmatic at the same time, and have the power to leave people contemplating the ideas that I’m suggesting. In the process of decoding this image, people run upon a number of social commentaries. When they come closer to observe the image and see that the eyes of the figure are made of dollar bills, it helps them understand yet another comment I am making with this piece.
NC: What was the pervasive thought behind the work you are currently showing in your Life Still show at the Artcore NYC Gallery?
AP: I wanted to bring together works that talk about the Black struggle in a universal way. The pieces in the show stem from my experiences as a man of color in France, Brazil and the US. Though each of the works expose an element of Black struggle from a local point of view, they come together to form a more comprehensive and universal survey of our collective human experience.
NC: What projects are you currently working on now?
AP: My next show is a solo show curated by Kimberli Gant at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA). It’s called “The French Evolution,” and its my take on racial dynamics in France. It is a collection of works that I made before and after the riots that took place in and around Paris in 2005, after the police-involved deaths of two Black and Arab teens. I am currently making a piece about racial profiling. Like many French people of color, I have been discriminated against by police and ID-checked in the street throughout my youth. I want to expose those discriminatory practices and get people to question more vividly the practices that tarnish our national values. I am also preparing for a solo show at Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut, curated by Kristina Newman-Scott; a group show examining the legacy of MLK at the Amistad Center at the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, also in Hartford, curated by Rehema Barber; and I am programmed for shows at Rush Arts and the Kenkeleba House. I’ve had such a positive response in the New York area that it gets a little overwhelming, but this is what I have worked for. I have a tremendous opportunity to share my views, and I’m taking it! |
