Marcus Xavier Chormicle will lead the OutsmART course "Self-titled Film Stills" this Saturday, July 19th at the University Art Museum. KC Counts spoke with Chormicle about his own art and what attendees can expect. Here's a transcript of their conversation:
KC:
So, before we learn about what you'll be teaching on Saturday, why don't you tell us a little bit about your art?
Marcus:
Yeah, So, I primarily work in photography. I run an art space with my mom in Mesilla Park called The Hood New Mexico, and my artwork focuses on the colonial legacy of the Nuevo Mexico and California territories of colonial Spain and Imperial Mexico, up to the current political layout of these territories, and connecting those histories to the ways in which contemporary modern indigenous and Chicano people live in those areas. And I do that by examining narratives in my own family history.
KC:
How did you come to the point where you were ready to teach others?
Marcus:
It just started pretty recently. In 2023, I was in a residency, an artist residency called Light Work in Syracuse, NY, and I got asked to lead some demonstrations to undergraduate students and sit in on grad student critiques and that was my first time being back in educational settings in that capacity. I also did work at the NMSU Art Museum. I've worked there off and on since 2020. But in the kind of, in the teaching setting, that was my first time in 2023 being back into that environment and I just realized how much I liked it. And so I've kind of started to pursue those opportunities again since then. And so I've done some lectures and leading these workshops this summer with NMSU is really exciting. And then I'm also getting ready to go to grad school for a Master of Fine Arts in photography at the University of Arizona, and part of what I'll be doing is teaching there and kind of diving deeper into that educational, academic realm.
KC:
And on Saturday, you'll be teaching the OutsmART self-titled film stills class. Now, what is a film still?
Marcus:
So, film stills is in reference to the main body of work that we're talking about and looking at in those workshops, which is by Cindy Sherman, who's a really famous photographer who has worked in self-portraiture. She's from New Jersey originally, and some of her work is on view right now as part of the permanent collection at NMSU. It’s on view in their gallery right now at the NMSU Art Museum and so we're kind of branching out from this body of work that she had called entitled Film Stills, where she basically embodied all of these different archetypes and stereotypes of women in cinema. She was making this work in the 70’s primarily, and so she was looking a lot at the ways in which women were portrayed in film. She was basically trying to embody all these different women, and they kind of hint at the the ambiguity of that identity and the the ways in which their agency wasn't in place at the forefront of importance in the films, but she was reclaiming that by taking on these personas herself, and so that's where the title of the workshops comes from. And so, we're starting with teaching about her and this body of work and branching out and looking at other ways which artists have used photography in order to express different things through self-portraiture.
KC:
Who will take part in this workshop?
Marcus:
We've had a really wide range, so the class is primarily geared for kids kind of K through 12 is what we were imagining when we were setting up the lesson plans. But we've had super young kids around 5 all the way up to adults in their 70s who come and participate. And so we've had obviously, like young children who are maybe just being exposed to photography for the first time ever, and also, I've had adults who have had a career in photography from, you know, wedding photography to even portraiture those types of things. So we've been able to meet everyone kind of where they're at in the workshops that have preceded this one and we're anticipating being able to accommodate anyone in the upcoming workshop.
KC:
What would folks expect to take away with them?
Marcus:
Yeah, So, we're teaching about a bunch of different photographers, so hopefully the biggest thing in my mind is that they would leave with more knowledge of what's happening historically in self-portraiture and also with contemporary artists. And then, additionally, once we get into the workshop, all the participants have the opportunity to make their own self-portrait through a couple of different approaches. So, with a Polaroid camera, we have a photo booth, and then I'm bringing my professional set up with backdrops and professional lighting and my digital camera, they're able to make their own portrait with that and we have a bunch of props and options as far as how to style those. And then from there, we actually take the photos to a digital inkjet printer and make physical prints.
KC:
That sounds like it could be expensive.
Marcus:
Well, we have a lot of really generous support from the Art Bridges Foundation, and so they have supported the university, and me, to put together this workshop, so there's no cost to to the participants at all.
You can learn more about Saturday's course right here.
