Erica Rompani in Co(ro)n(a)versation with Benjamin Staker

Reflections I, Acrylic, Ink, Graphite, on Mylar framed in custom made Plexiglass, 17 x 20” (inches)

Reflections is a series of self-portraits based on reflections of my own emotional state.  The self-portraits were all done originally in a diary while in the hospital recovering from a moment of severe mental health crisis.

Benjamin Staker (Benji for friends) and I met many, many years ago when we were just kids living in Taipei, Taiwan. We to this day laugh about the fact that we fell in love there but then both discovered we were gay, so our relationship just remains platonic. Benji has since brightened my days by sending me small drawn postcards that are testimony to his growth as an artist.  We were then blessed to live in New York at the same time, where we got to experience the lively art-scene.

I seem to remember that New York is the place that inspired you to paint again, am I correct?

Yes New York, our excursions to galleries, and the surrounding art scene were a huge motivator for me. I struggled for years after art school to find the impetus to begin my art practice. I initially tried living in Seattle and Los Angeles, hoping to find that light to guide me. Finally, it was New York, and partially your influence, that helped me find that spark that guided me to the place I am in today.  

First of all Benji, thanks for taking the time to carry out this interview with me. I know we often speak, but I’m putting you to work now. So let’s get right to it: How has Coronavirus impacted your work, if it has at all? 

There’s two answers to that question. I’ll start with the most obvious one:  I’m not able to access my studio as often as I want due to the stay-at-home orders, so I’ve set up shop in the guest room of my boyfriend’s apartment. The space constraints and the fact that I don’t have the necessary facilities to use my preferred medium, oil paints, has me working with charcoal and chalk pastels mainly. It’s been an experiment in adaptability, and one that I’m still troubleshooting, but I think some interesting work will come of it. 

Secondly, my work has always metaphorically dealt with feelings of loneliness and confinement, but for me those feelings have always come from inside, from the mind and soul. Now, it’s different. These emotions are being imposed on me (and all of us) so in this new frame of mind, I’m trying to find a way to visually express that pressure from the external and physical world instead of the inner, emotional world.  

Just to let the readers in a little bit, your work often reflects on mental-health issues. As you’ve said, I think the lockdowns that have been imposed world-wide might be having an effect on people’s mental state. Do you think your work might start to strike cords with an even wider range of people?

My work has always been an attempt to use my struggles to present a cathartic experience to those who might be experiencing pain or turmoil. This lockdown has only served to exacerbate the loneliness of the human experience and bring the need for contact to light. It might be painful but accessing that place of anguish can be powerful and acknowledging loneliness can be used, conversely, to highlight  the importance of community and solidarity in the human experience. My work is basically just one huge metaphorical cry for help that I think lots of people can relate to right now.

It will be interesting to see how your art will be perceived in the future. 

And speaking about the future, you have a lot of exciting things going on at the moment. You recently started experimenting with print-making, and even more exciting, you started a residency at Trestle Art Space, in Brooklyn. Can you tell us a bit about your residency in social-distancing times?

Yes, the etchings are part of a series meant to accompany a short story collection that I’m taking time to finish during quarantine. 

The residency instead, is completely virtual at this point. I haven’t met any of the advising artists or my fellow residents in person, but we have bi-monthly residency meetings with advisors where we receive advice and critique on everything from work to application materials, and there are twice-weekly open critiques for any member of Trestle Art Space to join, which is basically just a huge social gathering. We show work, talk about our experiences in quarantine and hang out virtually. It’s been a huge light in the dark for me to be able to have this community of artists to converse with, as well as a big part of my motivation to continue making work through this time when I could have just as easily given up.

Last question Benji, that I also asked in my previous interview: Would you be so kind as to share with our readers the music, the books, and/or movies that have helped kept you going in these times? 

I’m reading the Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar right now, which sounds a bit boring but is, in fact, extremely interesting and dramatic (complete with some spicy gay action. Emperor Hadrian started a cult in memoriam to his young lover Antinous after he drowned himself in a river). I’m also re-reading Jean Genet’s Thieves Journal. 

My music choice oscillates between albums such as Grimes’ new work Miss Anthropocine and Yo-yo-ma’s performance of Bach’s Cello suites – basically, some new and some old. 

As far as TV goes I became completely obsessed with this Netflix series Kingdom (a Zombie action show set in medieval Korea) and am now devouring anything in that genre.   

Thank you Benjamin.

Agoraphobia I, Watercolour, Ink on Paper, 11 x 14" (inches)

Agoraphobia is a series of watercolour paintings completed while living abroad, in Beijing and Tokyo, contemplating loss and loneliness in a milieu of conflicting cultural identities.

Agoraphobia II, Watercolour, Ink on Paper, 11 x 14" (inches)

Agoraphobia is a series of watercolour paintings completed while living abroad, in Beijing and Tokyo, contemplating loss and loneliness in a milieu of conflicting cultural identities.

Benjamin Staker — Artist Statement (05/03/2020)

The inner world of the mind defines the structures behind every aspect of life.  By making art, I am visually expressing that world, exploring themes of human anguish and emotional turmoil.  Drawing from my personal experience with mental illness, I search for a common thread between the emotional lives of humanity, and the visual language with which it can be expressed.  A variety of techniques are employed to express the feelings of disassociation, disenfranchisement and tension between real and surreal, such as symbolism, non-traditional media (mylar or plexiglass) and text that has been distorted into a textual element.  The text is most often derived from my own diaries or personal poetry but I also draw from the romantic, tragic and tortured themes of authors such as modern novelist Jean Genet, and the symbolist poet Charles Baudelaire.  In creating art, I am harnessing the energy of loss, loneliness, shame and fear.  I use this energy to create, and through the art allow a visual moment of catharsis where these emotions are felt and then transfigured into something beautiful.

Erica Rompani,

Head of Reviews, MADE IN BED