Today we’d like to introduce you to Evan Apodaca.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I had just graduated from art school in Chicago, was looking for job opportunities and moved to San Diego right when the Occupy movement was dying down in 2012. I didn’t have much of an opportunity to get involved with it after it had been broken up at the civic center, but got to take part in a blockade of the shipping port on one rainy day soon after.
Two major veins which have influenced my perspective of San Diego are the arts and the other is activism. Surprisingly, San Diego had fewer opportunities in the arts than LA and Chicago, but also had fewer people hunting for them so I think for that reason I stuck around. I was able to make friends that had taken part in Occupy and so I moved into an intentional collective house seemingly grown from that sentiment.
Years later, I helped friends organize “Collective Convergence” events aimed at connecting the dots between different houses around town taking an out-of-the-norm approach to living, working, eating, deciding and buying collectively. There have been multiple opportunities since then to commune with like-minded people on projects of advocacy and beyond. However, as a newcomer I always seemed to hear reference to the military-based conservatism of San Diego that was holding back communities from developing further in these respects. Fast-forward and I find myself taking a documentary class at City College with filmmaker, Cy Kuckenbaker.
At that point, I had somewhat distanced myself from the language of the contemporary art world and found the form of narrative non-fiction to be the direct and inclusive language that I needed. Through Cy’s class I made my first film ever about the cultural assimilation of my Mexican-American family, which streamed online through PBS. Through that film I got to test out the waters of social accessibility to digital media and the idea of narrative as a tool.
Please tell us about your art.
Returning to the previous focus on the social economies of San Diego, I am currently working on an experimental non-fiction video series titled ‘Secret City’ about how the military industrial complex affects culture in San Diego. It focuses on these four main questions: 1) Has San Diego’s dependency on federal support through the military industry created a culture of complacency and possibly changed political organizing here? If so how? 2) How does the geography and built environment of San Diego reflect different paradigms of violent war and colonialism through time and how are San Diegans implied in those narratives? 3) In what ways has imagining San Diego as a theme park (tourism, weather, Sea World, Balboa Park, Midway Museum) contributed to the city’s amnesia?, 4) How did the privatization of the military (UCSD and beyond) strategically hide the true face of the industry and has privatization strategically undermined the public’s disapproval of war?
Using my own process of facial-motion capture, I am interviewing professors, activists, laborers, city officials, refugees, veterans and historians. Using the motion data taken from their dialogues and facial expressions I create animations, bringing to life physical aspects of San Diego i.e. public statues, architecture and landscapes (see samples). Part of this idea is to bring interviewees /participants into the process where they can potentially perform their stories and become part of how the narrative is historicized.
The impetus for this project has been living in San Diego, reading Under the Perfect Sun, being an artist here and being involved in activist work here. One takeaway for the general public, is to understand that the militaristic nature of our city is deeply intertwined with imperialist strategy, but that might not be a surprise. One takeaway for artists is that substantial monetary support for your project might not happen within your conservative city if your project is aimed at investigating your city’s conservatism without the omission of that on paper.
We often hear from artists that being an artist can be lonely. Any advice for those looking to connect with other artists?
Capitalism and the individualism that comes out of it could be the biggest impeding force for artists. I often think very self-centered without even realizing it. Society is so centered on the self and so I think we as artists, just like everyone else, pick that up and can become very lonely from that. Another challenge for artists is how we evaluate our accomplishments and self-worth. Artists are often secretively taught to lie to ourselves and sometimes to others about what our work is accomplishing probably because we have to convince others on paper or over the internet for money. Over time I’ve tried to be more realistic in evaluating how the work that I make does or doesn’t affect, enlighten, entertain, educate or help others. One way to become grounded with others is to take the risk of getting out there into the world and see how you can best exist with others.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
A visual ‘proof of concept’ for Secret City, which strictly illustrates the visual approach can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/254020420. I am currently looking for places to exhibit this work once its complete. It will likely be a multi-platform project living online, in galleries, in public places and in film festivals. Ways to support this project are to spread the word about it or connect me with people that can speak to the above mentioned four themes.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.evanmapodaca.com
- Email: evanapodaca@gmail.com
- Instagram: @secret_city_sd
Image Credit:
Images 1-5 by Evan Apodaca
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