The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

EA: In 1999 you received the Larry Aldrich Foundation Award which led to the exhibition Girl Made of Butter that was on view from January to May of 2001. What was your reaction to receiving the award?

JA: The Larry Aldrich Award was particularly an honor for me because Robert Gober and Ann Hamilton had gotten the award before me. I was honored to join these exceptional artists.

EA: The exhibition’s title is taken from a Bahamian folk tale of a young woman made of butter whose mother must wash her skin to keep her from melting and keep away suitors who don’t know about her condition. Mom gets distracted by cooking, the suitors take control, and the girl melts. The complex relation brings to the foreground the dynamics between care, surveillance, and predation. What were you positioning this fable in relation to at the time? How has your relationship to this folk tale evolved over time?

JA: When I found that my own culture had a story about mother and daughter I was very excited, and the butter was such a curious twist. It somehow connected the familial themes to the cow in ways similar to what I had already been doing in the planning of the exhibition.

The Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone has been an important touchstone in my work. Like The Girl Made of Butter, it focuses on the separation between the mother and daughter. There’s also a curious presence of labor as care in both of these stories. As a mother I relate to the persistent caregiving for the daughter made of butter. Demeter’s care for the land has reappeared as a source in my work, as I have just completed an environmentally embedded artwork called Here-ing, which is a gentle push toward restoration of both the prairie and our relationship to it.

I am still using unconventional materials to describe and interrogate my understanding of self. I have explored this through chocolate, soap, lipstick, lard, and now land. I am reminded of Joseph Beuys and the way he told a story of care using lard and felt. Because of my Catholic background, I have always been fascinated with transubstantiation – or as Beuys would say alchemy.

It feels even more relevant today because my mother has just died. I still feel the connection and the pain of separation. I now know that the struggle for separation doesn’t end with death.

EA: In addition to reproducing the eponymous folk tale, the catalog also contains a long list of products containing cow byproducts and excerpts from Litany of Our Lady. Within the exhibition, the previously mentioned cowhide works were shown with Wean (1990) and Umbilical (2000), two works that allude to pregnancy and breastfeeding in their forms and titles. Why did you choose to juxtapose images of livestock with references to maternal care?

JA: One of my goals for the exhibition at The Aldrich was to connect the cow to my greater body of work. I was particularly interested in the cow and the mother in their shared role as provider. I had just done a show at Wanås [Konst Center for Art and Learning] in Sweden, which was not only a place for showing contemporary art but also a working dairy farm. Being in this context was the first inspiration for my work with the cow. I found that there was a confusion as to why, suddenly, I was working with the cow. Up until this point my work focused on the self, as I was coming out of a time that was very focused on identity politics. The show allowed me to make these connections and create a dialogue between them by installing specific works in proximity.

EA: How else did you create a specific atmosphere in the Museum?

JA: I’m still impressed that Harry Philbrick and Richard Klein were willing to cover the walls of the entire space with paint that was made from cow’s milk. The viewer only realized that they were surrounded by the cow from a small wall label placed at the end of the exhibition. For them to go to those lengths for something that was highly conceptual and subtly visual was such a gift. It was an extraordinary note to end on. The milk paint also spoke to the extensive list of cow byproducts that were included in the catalogue. The long and varied list shows that so many things we encounter in day to day life rely on the cow. From non dairy creamer to asphalt, the cow is everywhere.

EA: How was your practice changed by the process of making this exhibition and its reception?

JA: I have been in five shows at The Aldrich to date; two before the award and two after. I have also been involved with the Museum as they planned their renovation, and on many occasions have opened my studio and process to their supporters. I feel a closeness to the Museum and that they are intimately connected to my evolution as an artist.