The Hybrid: Marsha Mack
“It is a ripe time to fold new audiences into gallery, museum, and alternative cultural spaces, to reimagine the preexisting models in ways that serve the changing times, and supports cultural producers.”
5 QUESTIONS WITH MARSHA MACK
VISUAL ARTIST & ASSOCIATE GALLERY DIRECTOR & EDUCATOR
DENVER, CO
Marsha Mack (San Rafael, CA) holds an MFA in Ceramics and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Women's and Gender Studies from Syracuse University, and a BFA in Ceramics from San Francisco State University. With materials ranging from glazed porcelain to melted sugar, Mack's texturally rich, process-intensive sculptures and installations honor playfulness and introspection as equals. Her ongoing interest in cultural consumption and the formation of identity serves as a wellspring for visual and associative cues, giving rise to questions of personal vs universal symbol, mixed race identity, and the emotional potential of confection.
Mack has presented projects and exhibitions with the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (Denver, CO), Black Cube Nomadic Museum (Englewood, CO), Lane Meyer Projects (Denver, CO), PØST Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), The Yard (Colorado Springs, CO), and the Galleries of Contemporary Art (Colorado Springs, CO). Marsha is currently the Associate Director of David B. Smith Gallery (Denver, CO), a ceramic instructor at Foothills Park and Recreation District (Littleton, CO) and is an artist in residence at RedLine Contemporary Art Center (Denver, CO).
Images of Mack’s work follow this interview.
1. Tell me about your practice during lockdown.
Slowly I am returning to my projects after weeks of complete inactivity. I normally work out of two studios: the ceramics studio where I teach, and the shared studio where I am closing out my second year as an artist in residence. Neither are options for me at this time. Though I consider my practice to be nimble and adaptable, I have produced next to nothing in the time I’ve been self-isolating. More and more I regard this time as a period of stillness, and having gone through a dormant period before, accept its importance.
As for my schedule, 2020 exhibitions still stand with dates subject to change while studio visits, my first public art installation, and special events shift and contort as they must.
2. You wear many hats: artist, gallery director, and teacher. What do you anticipate being the most lasting impact on arts education?
I am curious to see how university arts enrollment fares once the fog lifts. I currently teach ceramics at a community center, and I suspect the demand for recreational, tactile, creative outlets like ceramics will increase. However, at the higher education level the situation could be entirely different. In a very direct way, we have seen which fields are esteemed as “essential” and those that are not. In some parts of the country pro-wrestling is deemed an essential business, whereas in-person art courses are not. Perhaps the seed of cultural utility planted in the minds of the youth will deter aspiring artists, but then again, anyone who heeds the call to the arts already knows they’re in for a bumpy ride.
3. How is the closure of galleries and museums impacting your practice?
Gallery closures and Denver’s stay-at-home ordinance have created a brave new world of free time for my art practice. As mentioned before, I am primarily using this time as a period of reflection, planning, and recharging, but I expect to come out of this blip with new resolve.
Whether or not galleries and museums will be transformed on the other end of this pandemic is unknown, but I expect that top selling artists will be largely insulated, while the experimental realm of makers will find themselves on their own, as many have been anyway. My own work fits into the latter category; my practice is an amorphous hybrid of installation and sculpture that often includes readymades and perishable items. Paired with shifting subject matter and a grounding in hyperbole, my practice and the commercial market are not a match made in heaven. Because of this noncommittal relationship I enjoy complete creative freedom, which I will continue to guard closely.
4. This crisis could change the landscape of cultural patronage. In your view, what do we most urgently need?
Working as an artist, teacher, and gallery director has created multiple personalities in my views about product and patronage. Speaking from the artist standpoint (the only sphere I currently occupy at the moment), my default fever dream is to push for long-term government funding. Of the hundreds of COVID-19 policy emails I’ve received from every website or entity who somehow has my email, I have been most surprised to see certain local museum(s) shaking the trees for new micro donors. Understandably, earned income for museums has slammed to a halt, but the tone and optics of flipping responsibility back onto individual artists/community to financially prop up cultural leaders feels wrong. It doesn’t make sense to wring the pennies out of the laid off and struggling masses, it’s unsustainable and we have nothing anyway. I don’t blame desperate measures in desperate times, but rather, I interpret this as a clear indication that cultural institutions will need to become recession proof if they are to continue into the uncertain future.
5. Right now, we are seeing a demand for the arts like never before: individually and collectively, societies around the globe are expressing themselves through art, yearning for creative expression, and using the arts to heal. How do you think this crisis might change society’s view of arts as a whole? And how can we as a sector facilitate this change?
Lately there has been a fair amount of internet discussion and meme content pointing out the direct link of art and wellbeing, often in playful ways. My favorites so far are the living room recreations of historic paintings with pets, towels, and loaves of bread substituting for mythical beasts, tumbling drapery, and in one case, the glorious sourdough décolletage of The Ugly Dutchess. Light-hearted digital exchanges like these reinforce our shared art heritage, while breaking down barriers between new audiences and art conversations. The bedrock underneath the silliness is the recognition that even art of antiquity continues to earn its relevancy.
I hope that when public bans are lifted creative entities and communities will come together with cultural institutions acting as hubs for collective voice, and implement fresh, diversified programming. Humanity is the enduring strength of the arts, and we are seeing these nonessential arts prove their worth week after week during lockdown. We as a sector have a unique opportunity to emerge from this experience transformed. It is a ripe time to fold new audiences into gallery, museum, and alternative cultural spaces, to reimagine the preexisting models in ways that serve the changing times, and supports cultural producers.
Marsha Mack (San Rafael, CA) holds an MFA in Ceramics and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Women's and Gender Studies from Syracuse University, and a BFA in Ceramics from San Francisco State University. With materials ranging from glazed porcelain to melted sugar, Mack's texturally rich, process-intensive sculptures and installations honor playfulness and introspection as equals. Her ongoing interest in cultural consumption and the formation of identity serves as wellspring for visual and associative cues, giving rise to questions of personal vs universal symbol, mixed race identity, and the emotional potential of confection.
Mack has presented projects and exhibitions with the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (Denver, CO), Black Cube Nomadic Museum (Englewood, CO), Lane Meyer Projects (Denver, CO), PØST Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), The Yard (Colorado Springs, CO), and the Galleries of Contemporary Art (Colorado Springs, CO). Marsha is currently the Associate Director of David B. Smith Gallery (Denver, CO), a ceramic instructor at Foothills Park and Recreation District (Littleton, CO) and is an artist in residence at RedLine Contemporary Art Center (Denver, CO).
Juice Cleanse, 2019. Shower curtain, ashtray, artificial lettuce, silly straws. Dimensions variable
Miss Vietnam, 2018. Ao dai dresses, wallpaper, strawberry Pocky, mixed media. Dimensions variable.
Indoor Culture, 1-9, 2017. Orchids, mulch, vinyl, strawberry air fresheners, mixed media. Dimensions variable