The earlier, more analytic impulse was to use very rational but kind of absurd techniques or tendenciesโmapping, charting, and architectureโto try and make sense of who I was in my time and space and political environment. But thereโs only so much truth to a theoretical understanding of something.
Julie MehretuYou're not just this person who's from your own specific experiences, but the collective experience of what makes you who you are because of time.
Julie MehretuI don't ever work in a way where something is an illustration of an event, but when something is occurring at the same time I see it as very informed by that.
Julie MehretuThe erasure itself became the action. It seemed to suggest a moment in terms of how sad or pessimistic you can feel in a political environment or a historical situation. But it felt like a really hopeful gesture in the painting.
Julie MehretuWhen you're not a mom, you can get up in the middle of the night, paint, sleep all morning... you can't do that when you have two children!
Julie MehretuThat's what I'm interested in: the space in between, the moment of imagining what is possible and yet not knowing what that is.
Julie MehretuThe earlier, more analytic impulse was to use very rational but kind of absurd techniques or tendenciesโmapping, charting, and architectureโto try and make sense of who I was in my time and space and political environment. But thereโs only so much truth to a theoretical understanding of something.
Julie Mehretu