Today we’d like to introduce you to Briana Angulo-Madueño
Hi Briana, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Even earlier in life, I was always interested in analysis. I just wasn’t aware that analysis and art were intrinsically tied.
I moved to Miami on the ninth day of 2021 when I was seventeen. I come from Ilo, a small port in the south of Peru. I moved to Miami under the reason to pursue an education and I found valuable stimulation, plus the space to create anything I wanted for myself.
At first, making art meant the desexualization of nudity to stand against sexualization placed on me, and of course, to appease the urge to capture the bedraggled texture of our skin, sweat, hair, and other “nasty” substances that we exude out of ourselves. It meant the intense observation of my friends, the freedom to be awful at the creation of things because I knew that my priority in substance comes from thought and not materiality. The growth in flow within materiality is were the long-term fun lies.
I found love in surrendering for the sake of a collective-whole. It was essential to find myself being welcomed in MILFD (Man I Love Figure Drawing sessions by Paola Vales) and to create RU666ISH magazine alongside my friends, photographer Ashley Anzorandia and stylist Diana Rodrigues. But at the core of it all, what’s been uplifting in my personal artistic practice is to mutually support and be in community with queer/trans artists of color to create opportunities for each other.
Currently, my practice encompasses experimental film direction, the accumulation of texture, the organization of art-within-community through performance, bringing RU666ISH to life, making sculptures to unpack, alongside my permanent love for charcoal figure drawing and modeling.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been really bumpy.
Living in Miami without the necessary resources to survive is a dehumanizing experience. I’m on a student visa, so I’m not allowed to work. I create opportunities for myself and, thankfully, Miami has been receptive.
I live in isolation in a city that’s designed to keep us apart, that’s why making art in community is prevalent in my life and comes with the strongest of intentions.
The scary, lingering thought that I may be too exhausted to survive prevails, but it’s not hard to remain passionate and trusting.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Right now I’m exploring a new side to my practice. After meeting director Angela Rio and being invited to her projects, I realized it made sense to treat performance as giving into my natural bodily urges (such as stimming, for example), use recording both as documentation and as the experimental modification of media as a language in itself.
The first short I made (directed, performed and edited) was done September of this year and is called (sphere i)perception. It explores the inescapability of being invaded through perception, with the context of queer people of color not being able to escape being the loudest in the room, and as a critique of nuclear-family dynamics of policing, perception and control. I also make the stance that the white gaze is not exclusive to white people which invites the conversation of what it means for a person of color to assimilate into white expectations or reproduce the abuse within white expectations.
This short was filmed by Angela Rio, includes the performance of Deandra Vacciana and a mask from Corbin’s Creatures.
“(sphere i)perception” will screen at the Villain Theatre on December 4th, as part of the lineup in Anita’s Film Festival during Miami Art Week.
The second short I’m releasing in the upcoming month, (sphere ii)alharaca, explores resistance across the community when one is too exhausted to survive, let alone to fight, being specific to the experiences of first-gen and undocumented young, queer people of color.
“(sphere ii)alharaca” will be showcased at 786 Gallery on December 15th, as a single-viewer installation to aid in the textural experience.
Aside from my work during these past months, I’m known in the community as someone who doesn’t shy away from oddities, experimentation and opinion. It’s also been fulfilling to be outside-enough to be looked for, as a component to bring projects forward, to discuss substance or to provide my image and to give creative opportunities to my friends.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Isolation does not mean protection. I’m protected in the mess of it all. I’m protected in letting my insides out however they may come.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @perreandollorando @brianitasartstudio @ru666ish
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@briiianita
Image Credits
Ashley Anzorandia
Angela Rio
