June 2024 AIR: Yashoda Latkar
Yashoda gives us insight into the push and pull of living between two worlds
Everything at Once
Hey Yashoda! We are thrilled to have you in the lab for our June Residency! Let’s dive in. Your work is centered around the push and pull of living between two worlds, how do you balance art as life and life as art?
I am so excited to be at Latitude! Thank you so much for having me. Honestly, balancing art and life can be like walking a tightrope sometimes, I won’t lie! It is so important to keep making work when no one is asking you questions and when you are not expected to show new work every other week. You have to find time to make new work. After I graduated in 2023, I started picking up adjunct teaching jobs, which gave me very little time to make new work. I look forward to this uninterrupted month of focused residency, where I won’t think about anything but making art.
For me, it's also about finding harmony between the two worlds rather than trying to separate them. In my work, I am constantly trying to merge things together by layering multiple everyday things that I surround myself with. I also love food, making food, eating food and feeding people. I think food brings people closer in a way that usually seems a difficult task, especially when you are from another country.
Creating art is not just a practice confined to a studio; to me, it's a way of seeing and engaging with the world I currently live in, navigating my journey into the unknown. So, in a sense, life itself becomes a studio space where I experiment, explore, and express myself.
Yellow
Can you tell us about your process, especially about layering spices with images? And how did you come up with this concept?
In my creative practice, I explore the relationship between migration and identity, and my constant search for ‘home’ persists throughout my different bodies of work. I engage in the fundamental question of where and what home is. The term 'home' is primarily used to describe a physical space for sheltering. But when one leaves this space behind, it becomes a contested site, and displacement makes the location of the 'home' ambivalent. the struggle of making a home 'here' has been persistent, the location of home has become tenuous, and I experience home as a tension between 'there' and 'here.'
Born and brought up in Mumbai, I lived there most of my life. I identify with that place, my family, the city life, towering skyscrapers, endless traffic, noisy honks, hustling and bustling of people, sizzling street food, strong smells of spices, screaming vendors, and dreadful humidity. Moving to New Mexico challenged every aspect of my identity. Nothing felt familiar. Suddenly I belonged nowhere. As an immigrant, my sense of being and belonging are pulled in multiple directions resulting in a state of flux. I (re)construct the fragments of my identity by using food, predominantly spices in various forms. I move beyond the discussion of taste and investigate the idea of experiencing food through multiple senses. My work includes multi-sensory cues of visuals, sounds, textures, and smells that create a familiar home environment. Food, then, transcends time and space.
Texture really plays a role in your work, how do you choose materials for your projects?
Texture is such an important element in my art, and I often find inspiration in the tactile qualities of everyday objects. When selecting materials for my projects, I gravitate towards items that hold personal significance or evoke a sense of familiarity. Additionally, I seek out materials that are commonly used or readily accessible, fostering a sense of relatability and universality in my work.
For instance, I might incorporate materials like bread slices or Eggo waffles, which carry cultural connotations and evoke memories of shared experiences. By repurposing these mundane objects in unexpected ways, I aim to challenge perceptions and provoke contemplation about the intersection of food, identity, and migration.
Up(rooted)
How will coming to a new place like Chicago add to your story of migration?
Living in Chicago for a month will definitely offer a different perspective on migration and belonging. Having spent the past five years in a smaller city like Las Cruces, New Mexico, the bustling city life of Chicago will provide a stark contrast to my current experience. Growing up in a megacity like Mumbai, I am familiar with the energy and diversity of large cities, and returning to a similar environment after years of living in a smaller city will be both exciting and nostalgic.
Chicago's diverse cultural and culinary landscapes will also provide me with so many sensory experiences to draw from. From the lively city streets to the delicious smells of its various cuisines, I'm eager to incorporate these elements into my artwork. Also, spending a few hours stuck in traffic won’t make me miss home so much!
Your work really captures the human form and a sense of the body, how does self portraiture play in how you are making work?
Self-portraits are a key part of how I create my work. By using images of myself and my family members, especially my mother, I can explore my own experiences and feelings about identity, migration, and culture. It's like having a conversation with the viewer, sharing my story in a personal way. Through these self-portraits, I aim to show the emotions and challenges I've faced, hoping to connect with others on a deeper level.
Yashoda Latkar
Yashoda Latkar is a mixed-media artist from Southern New Mexico, US. She recently completed her MFA (studio art) from New Mexico State University (Spring 2023). She has previously worked in the field of commercial photography for over a decade. Born in Mumbai, India in 1990, Latkar moved to the United States in 2019. Her current artwork explores the complicated realities of migration, domesticity and the push and pull of living between the two worlds.