CREATRIX Magazine in conversation with Emily Bicht whose current exhibition “Domestic Anxieties” is showing at Local Project, 11-27 44th Road, Long Island City, Queens from November 30 through December 19, 2020.
CREATRIX Magazine: Tell us about your current solo show at Local Project?
Emily Bicht: This show is the culmination of several years of work. The Dream Home paintings grew out of my own feelings about owning a home and my affection for 19th Century kit homes. The ceramic work was all produced this year, and carries the thread of expectation vs. reality, social roles and inaccessibility.
CXM: How did the domestic space find expression in your art?
EB: I grew up surrounded by antiques and hand-made items, many made by women in my family and passed down. This, combined with the Arts & Crafts Movement ideals of being surrounded by handmade beautiful and useful objects, made me want to make beautiful and useful things. I find the creation of the mid nineteenth century housewife fascinating; it is a fabrication developed to get women out of the post-WWII workforce and create new consumers for technologies developed during wartime. I’m curious about the ideals we attach to the concept of home and what underlying values they represent.
CXM: You explain that ‘Dream Home paintings depict images of 20th century kit homes and contemporary real estate listings. These paintings are aspirational, dreamy and illustrative of the promise of the “American Dream”. What’s your own “Dream Home”?
EB: When I was a kid, my dream home was a converted bus or box truck. I loved the idea of being able to GTFO. Pre-kids, my dream home was a big loft space or a converted barn. These days, it’s a home similar to those I’ve been painting with a 2 car garage I can turn into a studio, and space for each family member to have a room of one’s own. But in the future, I think it’s a bungalow on the beach.
CXM: What do you think became of the “American Dream” in the XXI century?
EB: I think the “American Dream” was attainable for very few Americans and for very short periods of time. It’s a myth that we have become very invested in for lots of different reasons, but the biggest reason is that it perpetuates capitalism and white supremacy. It’s a dream that has become less and less attainable, but it’s a dream that we still desire and expect. The saddest part of the failure of the “American Dream” is that it includes inalienable rights; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You can’t achieve any of those things if your basic needs aren’t met, and secure housing is certainly one of those.
CXM: Could you share with us how your experience of motherhood influenced your work?
EB: I was already pregnant at the end of graduate school, and in some ways that helped me avoid any post-grad school anxiety or slump. But it also meant that I jumped right into motherhood, and simultaneously had to work full-time. There were years when I couldn’t get in the studio, and it was soul-crushing. I felt really lost. I didn’t have the familiar creative impulses. All my creative energy seemed to be eaten up by motherhood. Slowly I was able to get more time, and because it was so limited it made me more decisive and focused when I was in the studio. The figure disappeared from my work for some time, I suspect because I was managing my body and little bodies constantly.
CXM: What are some of your notable past projects?
EB: I was part of an arts collective, Open Ground. In December 2008, we went to Miami as part of Fountain Art Fair. We had our own booth, we got the work there, we installed and manned it ourselves. I was really proud of that event and really proud to be a member of that group. We had a great time in Miami, and if you are able its wonderful to escape to warm weather and see some great art.
CXM: If you were to come up with once sentence or a piece of wisdom for others to include in their lives what that would be?
EB: Be completely committed to the process while simultaneously detached from the outcome.
CXM: What are your future art plans?
EB: The past four years have included daily barrages of horror. I’m so tired of terrible news. I want to read headlines of the changes I want to see in the world. I’ve started creating something called ‘Possible Futures’. I’m not sure how this will be executed yet – are they screen prints? Ceramic pieces? A blog? TikTok?
About the Artist:
Emily Bicht is a multidisciplinary artist based in Queens, New York. Bicht works in a variety of mediums including painting, printmaking, and ceramics to explore identity, belonging, and the tension between desire and reality; often set in the domestic space. Her practice draws on themes such as intersectional feminism, gender roles, capitalism, and the ‘American Dream’. Formally her pieces explore that tension in her use of materials and execution. ‘Dream Home’ paintings becomes dreamy, aspirational and unattainable, ceramic pieces become over-decorated and negate functionality. She also creates functional ceramics, another exploration of domestic comforts.
Her website: www.emilybicht.com
Follow Emily on IG: @EmilyBicht
