Meet Michael Mersereau | Media and sound artist, Film maker, and music

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michael Mersereau and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael, why did you pursue a creative career?
My artistic career slowly revealed itself to me at a rather young age. I knew the arts would be my focus, probably around 11. I had no clue how to go about it or what it meant, but it was a great world for a young introverted child to find. As I got older, the reasons have matured, developed, and even lost. It’s been a unique choice, one that has the potential to work outside of capitalism. It’s not always true, but the arts, specifically my focus on film/video, can pose philosophical, personal, and radical thoughts. What works for me can work differently for someone else. I found the complexity and contradictions of each person or community expression exciting.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I will focus on a couple of film video spaces. The first is a small underground space called Coaxial Arts Foundation near downtown. They have workshops and shows. All focused on video, performance, experimental music, and more. It’s a small space but incredibly powerful. Down in San Pedro, at the Angels Gate Cultural Center, you can visit artists and the Sound Pedro group, who always have an event of some sort going on if you time it right. There’s a place called Quiadaiyn on Venice BLVD that I like with good Oaxacan food. You can also do just fine by getting any food from the taco and tamale vendors on the corner anywhere.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Like any artist, there are those around us who support me, Institutions, good friends, and other artists. I want to start from a younger age. My great-grandfather, when I was a child, noticed when it came to sports or baseball, I was much more interested in staring at the grass of the field. This didn’t help my team. It helped the other team. They always made sure to thank me later. My great-grandfather noticed I spent hours drawing, so instead invested in art classes to use my extracurricular time. He was in the baseball minor leagues long ago, and I always appreciated that he saw an alternative for me. My parents are also a huge support and still to this day support my strange creations. They aren’t rich, just average middle-class income, but I’m certain I wouldn’t survive today. And let’s be honest, many of us who continue to this day have financial support from family or otherwise. Too many artists hide this aspect. But I’m not sure how else to explain the white dominance in the field. Another place that seems surprising to others was my catholic school. The institution is punitive and patriarchal, but within that, there are pockets of dissent. Open gaps of understanding. This may be more attributed to the Mexican Catholicism I grew up in, but I had that wiggle room to be an appreciated heretic. Later on, I worked in underground cultures and scenes. Expressions like mail art, punk, zines, and other anarchist-inspired activism. I think that spirit remains and helped to push me through in times of doubt. Now on the other side of life in my mid-40s, my biggest inspiration comes from my students’ discovery of artists and their work. It certainly continues to keep me on my feet and up to date. My colleagues across all the fields I work in, from teaching to AV production in museums, help bolster my creations by respecting time and space when possible. In other words, understanding studio time is labor.

Website: https://michaelmersereau.net

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