Lara Antal Interview

Frank Dee interviews Lara Antal:
promoter/organizer of the Baltimore Brazzaville show


Q1: What is your name, and what do you "do"

A1: My name is Lara Antal and I'm a practicing visual artist, curator, and author. I will be graduating this May from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) with a Bachelors of Fine Art in Interdiscplinary Studio Art & Art History. What will happen in the future I can't say, but I just have to keep making work and sending out applications with some optimism.




 Q2:How did you first find out about Brazzaville's music?

A2. I learned about Brazzaville from my friend Collin, maybe 3 or 4 years ago in Milwaukee (where I'm from.) He's studying to be an architect but is also an incredible musician and composer, so when he recommends me a band I always take it to heart. He showed me Brazzaville and ever since they have been my favorite musical group.





 Q3: Why did Brazzaville choose to come to Baltimore?

A3: I signed up to be on the Brazzaville email list a few years ago. It is always exciting to get an email from the group, informal invites to shows in Barcelona and more. I was so excited when I heard they would be returning to the US for a tour. After getting the okay from the roomies, I invited the group to play in my home and, to my surprise and pleasure, they accepted.




 Q4: Tell us about the location where you'll be hosting this performance.

A4: The apartment I live in now is truly Baltimore-ian: historic two level row-house, grand living room with faux marble and chandelier, falling apart in a charming sort of way. My roommates and I have lived here for two years, myself an interdiscplinary artist, one roommate a painter, and the other a graphic designer. The location is less than a block away from MICA and we have molded into an artist den littered with supplies, paintings and posters. We are moving out this summer, each graduating and going our own way, and our apartment will be practically empty, a blank canvas, for May 28th.



Q5: Tell me about Jetlag Poetry. Was this your idea?

A5: Jetlag Poetry is an idea I concocted on a bus traveling between cities. I was thinking of a way to engage more of the Baltimore community, especially the artistic community, in the Brazzaville concert. The answer was self evident: curate an exhibition of art inspired by the music and themes of Brazzaville. Travel, culture, poetry, and decay are only some of the ideas inherit in the music. How many times have I found myself making work while listening to the band, and how many times have my friends done the same? And even if not directly inspired, these ideas are so universally human that is made perfect sense to create a collaborative project of visual artists and musicians. The entire two levels of the rowhouse will be dedicated to the idea of travel. We will pay homage to the places we've been, aspire to the places we will go, and celebrate the places we can travel to within ourselves.

It took a while to choose the title, as I was tempted to snatch a phrase from song lyrics. However, I wanted the title to more broadly address the exhibition, so I began looking at Brazzaville's own inspirations. The title is taken from the website's list of "likes" and is a perfect fit for the exhibition's aims. This exhibition feels like a natural extension of the band's messages, as well as my own curatorial and artistic practice. Some of the artists will be familiar with the band, and others newly introduced, so it should be an exciting mix of participants. It will be a joy to bring more people together to experience Brazzaville through music and artistic collaboration.




 Q6: Did you design the show poster/flier? I love it. Tell me about the medium, the inspiration, and the font choice for the word 'Brazzaville.'

A6: I designed the poster throughout this semester through a series of steps. I first made a few mock ups, each circulating around a figure or object, only to realize the same problem with the title, it was too limiting to what Brazzaville's work was about. I wanted to capture a feeling somewhere between bright and nostalgic, much like their music videos, or mystic and starry. After listening to "Asteroid Fields," for inspiration, I thought it best to go with something cosmic.

So I treated a piece of paper (Reeves BFK for nerds!) with acrylic colored washes, and took the paper into the studio. Rolling etching ink onto plexiglass, I created the cosmic pattern through a technique I've used in other prints. I ran it through the press, photographed it, and took it into photoshop. The rest was all digital; a combination of scanning painted areas, masking fonts and layering, saturation, etc. photoshop jargon. I wanted the font for the word Brazzaville to large and sketchy, and I had always envisioned it on two lines, so I ran through my own collection and dafont.com until I found something I could manipulate. I'm pretty pleased with the poster (save the helvetica date/time information) so I will be selling editions of the poster with only the "Brazzaville: in Baltimore" text and the starscape on the day of the concert. All poster proceeds will go to Brazzaville, and to break even on the printing costs, and if there is a demand I may sell the posters online.




 Q7: Other than this show -- how has Brazzaville inspired YOU?

A7: Brazzaville's music has made a huge impact on my artistic and personal life. For years it allowed me to dream about traveling, and when I finally started to travel on my own it served as a companion. The music has taught me to look at culture from a very sensory perspective, to look, touch, feel, smell, and remember. I thought about these things when I wrote my own travelogues and when I created carnet de voyages (travel journals/sketchbooks.) This past year I went to La Ceiba, Honduras for one month to learn Spanish, and studied abroad in Santiago, Chile for 5 months. Their music was with me humid nights in the tropic, and cold lonely days by the Andes. I collected stories from the people I met and documented what I experienced, simultaneously translating everything into my own artwork. Brazzaville has always served as an example of art that, through sharing personal stories, can positively affect others.My senior thesis is about travel and memory, the landscape and human form, and how these experiences translate into an imaginative way of viewing the world. I'm sure I wouldn't be here had I never listened to "foreign disaster days" in a Wisconsin coffee shop some 4 years ago. And lets get personal; Brazzaville was the soundtrack to my first great romance, the support I needed for that first great heartbreak, and the friend who has always been there to coincide with my fears and hopes. As maudlin as that sounds its completely true, and I can't think of a more exciting and rewarding graduation gift (or kick-start to my post-graduation life) than to have my favorite musicians perform in my space.

 ps. Did I mention I have 48 gigs of music? Motel Room is still my most played song.



You can find out more about Lara on her website: www.lara-antal.com














































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