Interview with solychaski
Interview by Natalia Rocafuerte
solYchaski (@solychaski) is a duo comprised of Chaski (they/them) and Sol de la Ciudad (she/her). Their work and collaboration is a method and mode of survival for them.
How is your winter? Where are you both located?
We are currently located in Queens, New York. Our winter has been tumultuous but a lot of growth is happening too.
You both are in/alumni of NYU, did you meet there? How did you become collaborators?
We didn't meet at NYU, or any institution, which we like. We both grew up in chicago, our collaboration began with tresspassing together in various abandoned spaces, where we would move and play amongst remnants of factories, warehouses, silos, train lines and other urban ruins, documenting these explorations with photography. However, given the hyper surveilled nature of Chicago's south and west sides, and the corruption of the CPD, these adventures often ended in avoiding cops or others enforcing the law. Their collaboration has always reconciled elements of illegality and honored cultural legacies of fugitivity.
Why is experimentation part of your practice?
Experimentation is the practice/praxis.
How has your art been influenced by your time at the museum of vernacular arts?
In summer 2018, we both worked with the museum of vernacular arts in creating public art and performance pieces considering the topic of fleeting monuments.
Creating Censura, what was your method of exploring queer sound?
The sound component of the piece, which comes first, starts with editing -- sampling / cutting / distorting / reversing / slowing / speeding up / automating and overlaying sounds, sonic textures, or combinations of frequencies. We work in the digital audio workspace AbletonLive improvising off each other, working separately and together. Details as portals. The sampled/utilized sounds derive anywhere from domestic or field recordings to personal and familial archives to voice memos to voicemails to sound bites from beloved collaborators, etc. None of the sounds or their combinations are random, and the same holds for the video elements. We interweave video and sonic textural elements, track automation, animation, screen recording, textual reenactment, hacking, and other forms. The video is a sketch/practice in putting our attachments into play/pleasure/knowledge/worlds, to follow Eve Sedgwick. Focusing on visceral movement, broken transmission, material degradation of image, and scoring affect, we engage Foucault’s preface to his history of madness and civilization, hacking up the text how we liked it. The visual component draws on our familial archives, Super 8 Footage, the video work of trans peruanx artist and philosopher Giuseppe Campuzano, the 1950 short film Un Chant d'Amour by Jean Genet which features the uncredited dancing of Coco Le Martiniquais, sounds from collaborators, as well as others.
Artist social/website: (@solychaski)
