AE:\u00a0<\/strong>I am an artist based in Baltimore, Maryland where my creative practice has also crossed over into curating and writing. I consider myself a full-time artist in terms of my education and my schedule is built around my ability to be in the studio as much as possible. I am an adjunct professor at MICA<\/a> (Maryland Institute College of\u00a0Art) and have other freelance work.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ:\u00a0What compelled you to start painting on yoga mats?<\/strong><\/p>\n AE:\u00a0<\/strong>These pieces began with a performative series of cut yoga mats, displayed as artifacts of a personal ritual. Yoga, a seemly healthy and helpful practice, was unfortunately making my eye condition worse and I had to cut ties with the lifestyle and did so as literally as possible.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After conquering this material, taking away its sanctity and utility, I wrangled it back into my mixed media practice. I eventually was able to treat it as an art material loaded with associations for the viewer, but no longer a source of loss or sadness for me. The works also went from white \u201cspecters\u201d to colorful compositions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here I am able to find a lighthearted approach to the subject of deterioration, imperfection and impermanence and the commercialized ideals of body image.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ:\u00a0How do you feel about all of the attention your mat paintings have gotten?<\/strong><\/p>\n AE:\u00a0<\/strong>I love that my work has allowed me to connect with so many people; in many ways, that’s the goal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ:\u00a0You recently began making sculptural assemblages\u2014what are some of the challenges of working in 3D?<\/strong><\/p>\n AE:\u00a0<\/strong>I still think about sculpture in a pretty flat way, top view, side view etc. I would like to be able to think more fluidly about space and create forms that have no set ways in which to approach them. That’s the challenge\u2014I am still working on it!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ:\u00a0In today\u2019s world, new fitness crazes and wellness \u201cgimmicks\u201d seem to surface every day. How does the constant emergence of these phenomena influence your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n AE:\u00a0<\/strong>In Fad Bodies<\/em>, I created the two sculpture pieces as a partial checklist of items marketed to me based on my bulk purchases of yoga mats. These included the yoni eggs, which then is a snowball marketing strategy of more yoni eggs (different stones for different energies) and turmeric and charcoal which seemed to be the main ingredients in scrubs, pastes and cleanses.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ:\u00a0What\u2019s the most outrageous fitness or wellness trend you\u2019ve heard about recently?<\/strong><\/p>\n AE:\u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019m fascinated by the yoni egg and all the reading one can dig up promoting and debunking this trend. Celebrity endorsements like Gwyneth Paltrow\u2019s Goop<\/a> attempt to promote this as a luxurious and elite practice, while actual doctors have concerns about infection and injury.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ:\u00a0Are you a fitness fanatic yourself? What\u2019s your favorite way to work out?<\/strong><\/p>\n AE:<\/strong>\u00a0I enjoy being outside whenever I can, I go for long walks, and I run and swim at the gym.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ:\u00a0\u201cBody image\u201d is such a loaded term these days. What are your thoughts on the media\u2019s recent obsession with body positivity?<\/strong><\/p>\n AE:<\/strong>\u00a0It is certainly healthier than being held up to an impossible ideal. However it is sort of a calculated and commercialized answer to the first problem. I think concocting a sense of health and self from an amalgam of images and trends will never make anyone happy, but as these things are largely unavoidable, it’s good to see body positivity as a small way to empower people to be individuals about their bodies and self-care.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ:\u00a0What do you hope your audience will experience as they navigate your upcoming show, Fad Bodies<\/em>, at VICTORI + MO?<\/strong><\/p>\n AE:\u00a0<\/strong>I hope they see a complete body of work that plays on the palettes and materials of gym and fitness environments, upsetting their expectations about the material and associated branded imagery.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ:\u00a0How can we keep up with you?<\/strong><\/p>\n AE: <\/strong>Instagram: @alex_ebstein<\/a>; website:\u00a0alexebstein.com<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/unspecified-225x300.jpg\")
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