On August 28, 2024, NOW Art Founder Carmen Zella sat down with artist Petra Cortright for a live conversation about public art and LUMINEX 3.0 on Instagram (@nowart_la). RSVP here for future LUMINEX Artist Talks.
Below is a transcript of the video:
Carmen Zella (CZ): Hi everyone. This is Carmen Zella and Petra Cortright. We’re here a little late, but I’m here to have a conversation about Luminex, Petra, and just introduce everybody to Petra’s work and I’m really excited about this conversation.
Petra Cortright (PC) Yeah. Thank you for having me.
CZ: Yeah, this is going to be great. So thank you everybody for being patient.
Yeah, I’m just going to adjust the camera. Oh, there’s a bunch of waves so we can wave back. Hi people! So I’m in their amazing studio – well, Marc’s studio and Petra’s studio.
PC: Yes, well I have an office upstairs, but the baby’s asleep, so we’re in here.
CZ: Yeah, so Petra is an incredible artist, but also a new mother.
And I’m really excited to have this conversation because I feel like, as an artist, you are like just bringing in so much information into the piece that you’re going to be framing for Luminex. And it has a lot of segues with your, motherhood. It’s your second child.
PC: Yeah, there is I, when we first started talking about this, there was the, I told you early on that there was some Chronicles of Narnia references. I read a lot of children’s books, obviously with the boys. So yeah. There’s like a specific reference to the sea of flowers. So that is an aesthetic that’s in the the film.
And yeah, it’s just, I’ve been working on this project in like very sleep deprived fragments that almost added a surreal level to it. And maybe, I think it helped actually.
CZ: Yeah. I wanted to back up a little bit and in introducing yourself to everybody as well, like you as an artist and and also just frame out your association and interest in public art as a medium, because you’re predominantly like known as a filmmaker, a painter. Can you talk a little bit about your association with public art?
PC: I think the association is that I’ve posted things on the internet for the last 20 years. So it’s just very active, since I was 15. And that’s always been a public platform to me and it’s always been put out there for people to see like at times with not a lot of information or not in an art context.
When I first started putting up videos on YouTube, there was very like vague and like odd descriptions of things. It wasn’t like, this is a art bubble, it was just nothing, like no information. Yeah, I’ve always viewed the internet as like a public forum for art and maybe like placing it in unexpected ways or unexpected places. Yeah, putting things where they maybe are not supposed to be.
CZ: Did you get like people commenting on it or create like all of these really interesting exchange? Can you tell us a little bit about, cause that’s fun.
PC: Yes. People used to say a lot of like…I used to, I don’t do it any – I have a policy online or I have a policy now that I’m a mother that I don’t tell fight online with people, because its unbecoming. But I used to, whatever someone would say – cause as a woman online, you get a lot of really nasty comments – and I used to do a lot of video work with me in them. Not as much anymore. In this, the video for Luminex is like a landscape video, like very neutral. There’s not, you can’t really talk trash about a landscape video. I guess people can try but sure whatever. Yeah, take your best shot.
But the ones with me in them, of course you’re gonna get nasty comments. So my policy was to reply equal to or worse than what they had said to me.
CZ: Oh wow!
PC: Because I actually like talking trash on the internet.
So yeah, but that’s the kind of stuff that will – this was like 2007, eight, nine, ten – you’ll get banned for the language now that I used to use.
CZ: Yeah, that’s hilarious. So tell me a little bit about working in this medium, because is this going to be your first time in like projecting a work on a building or projecting work outside or?
PC: I feel like, yes, outdoors, yes, and on such a large scale, yes. It’s something that really attracted me to the project. I just think it’s aesthetically just such a beautiful moment within the setting of downtown LA. I don’t…I think all the project…no, sorry. I did this thing in Chicago in, I want to say 2019, which was called Art on the Mart.
I don’t know if you remember. So I did that. And that projection was huge. And it was yeah, so I’ve done that. But it was, the side of that building was, it was almost so huge. I mean I think it looked really cool at the end of the day, but it was so huge. It was like very…and like the video specs for it were extremely high.
CZ: If I’m not mistaken, that’s like a, that’s actually like a screen, right? Is it an LED screen or is it a projection?
PC: Oh, it’s on the side of this huge building, but there’s so many windows. You have to, I think there’s just a lot more like…like Luminex is really nice because I think there’s a lot more smooth, just like blank space.
Not that Art on the Mart isn’t nice. But I think there was just more, it’s just a different kind of projection. And the projection for that had to be super graphic. Like the video had to, we had to really almost like over saturate colors and everything, like for the building. But this is, the video that I’m making for this is like, it looks good on the screen and on the projection – but that one was all you had to like it was super site specific for that building,
CZ: Right, because they’ve had all of the window cutouts and everything. So it was made for that. Yeah, and so talk to me a little bit about like the piece because we met you mentioned that it’s based on Narnia, but some of the things that we’ve had conversations about which I’ve really taken away is this element of thinking about the audience that’s going to be coming to Luminex and also the urban landscape.
Like, why was it, what was it about the surrealist part of it that got you excited? What about the content that you were developing got you excited when you think about where it’s going to be positioned?
PC: Well, I know it is in an urban setting in downtown LA, but we are in California. So I just like to do something simple, like for the region that we’re in basically. And another reference was the…there’s a scene in the film that’s, the reference is like the Channel Islands off of Santa Barbara where I’m from. And my friend James Whipple, who made the music for it, he also had a similar reference too, which was really nice that we both came to that individually, and then it just worked out that we could have it be for the project.
But yeah, I think it’s just like a nice thing to…
CZ: Because the actual building site that you’re on, just to give a little bit of context, so Petra’s work is going to be, and this might sound strange, but we’ve labeled all the sites, so Petra’s site is going to be at Site 4, and the location, is really close to Grand Avenue and Pico.
And the building is like extremely long. Like it’s a piece that you can’t really, almost like when you’re standing in front of it, you have to move your head from left to right because it’s like this, like extremely exaggerated landscape piece. And so you enter into this world physically. You’re bringing the audience into this world.
PC: Yeah. And because of the dimensions of the building, it just made sense to do a panoramic landscape. It just seemed to be the thing to do. I don’t know.
CZ: Which I think, I think that you landed on that, like I totally see that because when I started to, you were sharing with me some of the images from it, it just has such a really great harmony.
PC: Yeah.
CZ: Because you really have utilized that building site specifically within the selection of the choice of the camera angles and everything that you’ve been, yeah.
PC: Yeah. And I work on a really super wide screen as well so that also helps a lot because I could, it almost looks like it’s such a similar dimension, really, to the building.
CZ: Can you talk a little bit about your process and what, how you are building this technically?
PC: I just, there’s a software that I use. It’s like a landscape building software in Steam. It’s just simple, like really simple. It’s almost, I don’t know, I like to use a lot of defaults in it.
You can do very custom things, but I also like to just always, like defaults are a big part of my work. I always like to push a program as much as possible, just with the choices allotted. That’s, it’s just been like a theme throughout all of my video work, ever, really. I always like to…it’s like a game, like how can I use the most basic stuff to make something my own?
And so it’s entertaining for me to do. And yeah, it’s just building this terrain. You can add the film is like screen recordings of worlds that I’ve built, and then also like in the process of building as well. So it goes in and out of like finished things, things in process. Very slowly, very dreamily, yeah.
CZ: And the loop that you basically, this film runs for, sequentially, like for 12 minutes or?
PC: It’s 25 minutes and there’s kind of two worlds that it goes back and forth from. And it’s not like a heavy narrative at all. It’s very, very open.
CZ: Ambient.
PC: Yeah exactly. And because it’s, again like you said, when you’re projecting so big you, there’s not fast movements. There’s very, there’s a lot of time for people to look, but then also maybe have a conversation and then look again and things have slightly changed, but it’s not a heavy narrative where you’re supposed to watch straight on for the entire time. That’s okay. It’s, yeah, it is very ambient.
CZ: Yeah, but that’s also beautiful because you’re slowing time down and you’re allowing people in this very like frenetic energy of being in downtown and like all of the different influences to take a pause.
PC: Yeah, also it’s, I mean there’s going to be anything in public with like people and people will be talking and I thought about what I would like to see and especially if you’re going with friends or something, I think it’s nice to be able to talk to people and also be able to take something in but sometimes when things have like too heavy of a narrative, then you feel like, oh, you can’t talk or you’ll miss something. And I just didn’t want that added pressure from anyone. I just wanted just peace.
CZ: That’s awesome. That’s maybe a little bit of what I want.
PC: Maybe that’s what need!
CZ: Okay. So I’m just gonna wrap up right now, but is there anything that you wanted to share in terms of what you want the audience to be able to take away or connection with the title of the exhibition, Landscape Frequencies?
Is there anything that you want to share with everybody before they get to come and experience what you’ve created?
PC: No, I just hope everyone has a nice night and yeah. I don’t like to necessarily…I’m always so hesitant to have any expectations for what people take out of it.
Cause I think that’s one of the best parts of art is that it can be very personal and maybe if someone tells you what to think, it’s like…the best part is just when people can draw their own conclusions. And you either feel something or you don’t. Either’s okay. But, yeah.
CZ: Yeah. No, I totally agree. This is going to be amazing to see this work on the wall.
PC: I’m so excited.
CZ: I’m really excited too. Alright, thank you everybody so much for joining. Petra Cortright – And yeah, we look forward to seeing everybody at Luminex. If you would like to learn more about this piece or about the exhibition, you can go onto our website which is luminexla.com or luminex.la. All right. Thank you so much. Have a good night!