Let’s Get Lost
HAPPENINGS
18
Athena LaTocha likes to wander. “Sometimes with
my work, it’s about getting lost in it,” the artist says.
“And then finding your way out.”
For LaTocha, this means both a literal and figurative
exploration. She was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and
her work reflects an early immersion in the wilderness,
where she was able to have “experiences that
are beyond human.” When she makes her large-scale
works on paper — moody, enigmatic and tactile landscapes
like the piece she is currently constructing for
an upcoming exhibition at BRIC in Fort Greene—she
begins by traversing the local environment and “collecting”
natural elements that can serve as inspiration.
“It’s really looking at the different aspects of the land,
the different aspects of the architecture, and finding
things that are interesting and resonating for me,”
she says about the process. In Brooklyn, for example,
she spent time in Green-Wood Cemetery looking at
glacial erratics and large-growth trees, from which
she took imprints. From there, the process is an
“intuitive, automated interaction” with the materials.
This allows freedom of movement and investigation
of ideas, an attempt to have the making of the work
simulate the end result.
There’s no strict methodology to how LaTocha makes
each piece, she says. “There’s a lot of open areas for
the work to move and grow into, and I’m interested
in the work to reveal itself, in a way,” she says. Each
painting takes up to two months to complete. “A lot
of times the not knowing overrides everything. The
more I know, the more I want to step away from it.”
Sometimes this means destroying what has already
been created. Attempting to capture the human
impact on the environment — the layers of change
that have created the nature that surrounds us —
means often having to disrupt the work from the
inside. “In the destructive process,” LaTocha says,
“there is always renewal.”
Athena LaTocha in Brooklyn Heights. Photo by Susan De Vries.
by CRAIG HUBERT