Having grown up in Peru and now living in New York, how do you seek out creative communities in new places?
I think that growing up in Peru has definitely shaped me into appreciating hand made, one of a kind pieces. There is a sense of appreciation for the ancestry; for the continuation of tradition. I got to work for one of my favorite persons in the world, Titi Guiulfo, who is committed to ensuring that the ancient Peruvian native textile traditions are neither lost, nor forgotten. She seeks to introduce artisans from low-income regions into the world of modern fashion, without forcing them to give up their ancient and traditional roots. The women I got to work with were hardworking, dedicated, humble, and insanely generous of their knowledge and insight, regardless of the harsh experiences they had gone through. And by harsh I mean surviving poverty and withstanding the dangers of living in a deeply misogynist country where the femicide rates are one of the highest in the world, where most of them, or many women they know, have been sterilized, beaten and silenced. I have a genuine respect for them. I seek out a true sense of devotion, passion, dedication and generosity in creative communities, where the goal is not individual success but rather communal growth.
In creating your own work, what is the most therapeutic part for you? Are there certain forms of expression that you gravitate towards more than others?
I love hand sewing, I hand sew all my pieces. It takes so much longer, but it is so worth it. It is a form of meditation and a way of introducing myself into the characters. Handmade objects allow creation to be very personal. Starting from zero and building from nothing is something I find quite amusing, even when it comes to making music, I gravitate towards additive synthesis (which basically means making everything from scratch, even the sound wave). There is a strong sense of authority in it all, a strong sense of control; the illusion of omnipotence.
If someone were to ask you for some inspiration, what is a book, piece of music, or some form of art that you would recommend to them?
I recently read an essay Robert Moog wrote about the future of music called simply “Electronic Music”. It was written in 1977 and has such a strong take on the introduction of new forms of music and their relationship with perception and the human mind; it's fascinating. A song: I’d say listen to Peter Zinovieff’s “Agnus Dei”. Electronic music pioneer and founder of EMS. He was also the first, or one of the first persons to own a computer at his house. Inspiration? Well. Look at babies, look at trees. Try and look beyond the self. It is easy to be consumed and feel sorry for oneself and not look into other people’s experiences. Identify what you consider to sound or look unappealing and figure out why. What is the root of rejecting it if not something that simply makes one uncomfortable. The essay I mentioned speaks loads about that and how we are programed to react aggressively towards new proposals, coming to unconsciously reject forms of innovation. We are more primal than what we think.
