Weston is working on a collaborative project with the Saigon based artist, Vicky Do, in a series of works that explore what it means to work transnationally. In conversation with the historical and contemporary political economy between the US and Vietnam, they are setting up trades of community based artworks.  

🄼 We’re excited about  your project with Vicky Do. Has your collaborative process shifted at all since the shelter in place? 

🅆 The uncertainty of the future and limits to travel have reemphasized the fact that this collaboration started through an online conversation. We’ve talked a lot about the physical manifestations of the project and have worked on on objects in our respective studios, but the core of the project is a dialogue and virtual exchange. I’m hopeful that having some extra time will let us sift through those ideas even more.

🄼 Do you currently have access to your art studio? If not, how has this affected your practice?

🅆 I’m very lucky that my studio is in my basement. I’ve also been working on the smaller, less messy object-making upstairs. My wife has her own room to set up her office, so we’re able to have our own work spaces while being near enough to encourage one another.

I’m also part of a collective--Related Tactics--and even before this, we’ve been working bicoastally now that Michele Carlson moved out to the DC area to teach at the Corcoran at George Washington. So our collective ‘studio’ has been virtual anyway--lots of texts, shared docs, and video chats. Similar to this project with Vicky, the heart of a lot of the work is stuff that is never meant to be public facing.

🄼 Do you have any routines that are helping you during this period of isolation and social distancing? 

🅆 Honestly, things have ebbed and flowed--I’ve gone through bursts of productive studio time, sleept for large chunks of the day, ground out some consulting work, and fallen down news rabbit holes. I often wrestle with chronic fatigue because of some long term health issues anyway, so that isn’t necessarily a new battle. But my dogs still wake me up at about the same time every morning and remind me when it’s time to eat dinner at night. Even if we don’t get to hike as much as any of us typically enjoy (because of overcrowded trails), taking care of them has helped add structure to the daily routine.

A couple months ago I went to an event with a number of other past Montalvo Art Center resident artists and met a composer, Motoko Honda, who told me about a productivity journal that she had been using to help shake up and structure her daily routine. It was something I’d been craving--checklists on random scraps of paper weren’t cutting it--so I took it up and it’s continued to be useful now that so many other structures and schedules have unraveled. Even within that daily routine I have to give myself some leeway to have days where shit just isn’t working, but at least mapping out things everyday helps me shift between types of projects so I don’t just spin my wheels.

🄼 A lot of people have been taking this time to slow down and cook. Do you have any recipes or food ideas to share?

🅆 To be honest, I haven’t been cooking a lot other than a basic soup to use up some of our old vegetables. We’ve been getting a box from La Cocina that’s been a small food highlight. So many of our favorite restaurants were incubated there, so it’s a place we really value. Funny enough, while Michele, Nate, and I (Related Tactics) were in grad school, La Cocina opened up right next door to the house where we lived with a couple of other friends, so it feels closely linked with our artistic life here in the Bay.

🄼 Do you have any current podcast or reading recommendations for artists (or anyone)?

🅆 I’m currently working through Iyko Day’s “Alien Capital: Asian Racialization and the Logic of Settler Colonial Capitalism.” I’ve been mulling over “Rethinking the Apocalypse: An Indigenous Anti-Futurist Manifesto” put out by Indigenous Action. And before sheltering-in-place, I devoured N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy and loved it. I also just ordered her newest book, so that’ll be next up.

🄼 Do you have any positive messages that you’d like to share with other artists?

🅆 I’m not sure what to share that won’t seem trite. Shit is scary and uncertain, but I take some encouragement that folks are pushing through, either by continuing to make art, pivoting to making masks and other community PPE, or just pulling back to take care of themselves. I keep wondering about how we reinvent for a future past this crisis, but I think it’s enough that right now we seem to be collectively reasserting our connections and supportive networks with one another.