We had the good fortune of connecting with Aubrey Ingmar Manson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aubrey, what do you think makes you most happy? Why?
Having time to just think. Because life just moves super quickly and busily. I feel like the quintessential artist who needs their time to think and ponder while making any creative decision. I also spend a lot of this time just pacing about. Speaking of pacing, I also take a lot of walks, the sense of moving and keeping myself on the go keeps my mood upbeat and my mind in a healthy place. Taking long walks has been the silver lining to not having much else to do during Covid, and my fiancé and I go out most everyday to do so.  

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My artwork is installation-based, sculptural, colorful, and most of it has some underlying political context. I use satire and humor as a way to shine a light on current systemic issues in society, from feminism to wealth inequality. These are definitely personal critiques and I portray them within different scales of work. At a small scale, I create metaphorical stages inside of ceramic dioramas, or at large scale I represent a fictional narrative within a space-encapsulating installation. My most recent solo show was an outdoor art installation at Arvia LA, titled Faster, Hammers…We’re Almost There! I wrote a fictional story about a matriarchal society uprising in Los Angeles in the summer of 2019 in response to the Trump era administration and current feminist politics. Using this narrative I created a looped sound piece that read this story. The sound permeated throughout the installation, providing a futuristic yet psychedelic atmosphere. Anyone entering the installation was essentially a visitor in the future to a museum exhibition that showcases artifacts unearthed from the matriarchal uprising. This invited the viewer to complete the narrative based on the pieces of the installation, which included representations of a lake, an abandoned and wrecked raft, political artifacts such as flags, literature and symbolism, a pool, a fountain, handmade ceramic artifacts, and a tagged alleyway that read, “No War, No Money, No Power.”

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Parks and any green space! I’m not sure I want to give away my favorite spots though. Anyway, Los Angeles has some great park options, mostly on the east side of the city. If you had some time at your leisure, I suppose you could go every day to a new park to spend a late afternoon with a book and a blanket under a tree and then some time looking at the leaves move lightly above when lying on the ground.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I joined one artist activist group earlier this year, Artists for Democracy, and it’s been a nice experience for me. It provides the feeling of being able to take part in an art community when IRL art openings and events are limited these days. Art and political activism really are my two loves. Artists for Democracy recently made a great bipartisan effort to get art students in swing states to vote during November’s election. We invited well-known Los Angeles based artists, such as Lauren Halsey, Ruben Ochoa and Laura Owens, to speak about their work and why they are voting. These were held virtually of course, but the nice thing was anyone could attend. The whole group is a bunch of talented artists and we all use our artistic or organizing abilities to speak about current politics and engage other people in that conversation. Check us out: https://www.artists4democracy.com/

Website: https://www.aubreymanson.com
Instagram: @aubrey_ingmar_manson
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecGzdr1-1qA

Image Credits
Karley Sullivan, Instagram: @lacuna_studios

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