Spotted: Lala in Paris and on Crutches

12 Jul
Lala Drona spotted in Paris on crutches wearing winter 2018 OAMC and Nike Ambush collaboration sneakers

Despite plans to return in August 2019, journalists have recently spotted Lala Drona on the streets of Paris sporting a new look. Ms. Drona has left her hair bleach bottles behind, and has returned to an auburn look this summer.  Accompanying her winter 2018 OAMC vest (menswear), she sported 2019 Nike-Ambush collaboration sneakers, topped off with her iconic round sunglasses by Gentle Monsters.  Previously, Lala Drona had never been caught wearing designer clothes on the streets of Paris…which begs the question: What’s with this new look?

Fashion specialists speculate that Lala’s new style reflects her growing financial success in the art world. Lala Drona can simply afford to wear the pieces that she admires, and therefore does. Another theory has Lala Drona and these brands in cahoots, suspecting a secret endorsement deal. Whatever the case, the accessories which intrigued and concerned journalists most were the crutches which support her. 

Lala Drona spotted in Paris on crutches wearing winter 2018 OAMC and Nike Ambush collaboration sneakers and Gentle Monster sunglasses

Lala Drona refused to comment when approached on the street, but journalists presume her injury was cause for her return.  Our team followed up on the story and traced back Lala Drona’s steps from her European voyage. Having stopped in Copenhagen on her way to Paris, we met up with passenger assistance.  Lala Drona, had checked out a wheelchair, and employee Emil Hansen was selected to help transport her to her terminal and airplane.  “She was friendly, and we made casual conversation.  She told me that she injured her knee painting.”

Lala Drona spotted in Paris on crutches wearing winter 2018 OAMC and Nike Ambush collaboration sneakers and Gentle Monsters sunglasses

Emil Hansen failed to reveal details regarding the story, leaving journalists and fans in the dark regarding her hard core painting methods.  However, one thing is certain. The European Tour has come to an early end.  Lithuania was the last stop on Lala Drona’s year-long tour, and now she is expected to settle in Paris once again.  

This is BETWEEN US.

5 Jul
Lala Drona with diptych "Between Us" paintings about interactions between women and how we may also contribute to systematic oppression

For the past four weeks, Lala Drona has escaped the hustle and bustle of the city and has retired in the small town of Kintai, Lithuania.  Away from distractions, Lala Drona has created a new diptych titled “Between Us.”

The first panel depicts several figures ascending, while the panel on the right depicts the same figures descending.  After an interview with Lala Drona, Diana Springer from the Daily Artlife Network relays what the artist said about these paintings:

Between Us by Lala Drona, painting 2 panels about women either uniting or destroying one another.

Between Us demonstrates the two choices that women have, starting from our first encounters with one another. We can ascend together, or destroy one another. The asymmetrical reflectivity of the bodies represent the slippery difference between creation and destruction. Observations show that first encounters between men and between women differ in the western world. In first meetings, men approach other men as if they are “friends first, and enemies later.” They are friendly, until the other provides a reason that they should not be.

In a world where women are statistically offered less opportunity than men, it is no wonder that women approach each other as enemies first. There is a smaller piece of the pie offered to them, so they are pitted against one another to fight over that smaller piece. This is why women approach one another with the mentality of “enemies first, friends later” (Springer, Daily Artlife Network, Issue XXII).

Lala Drona also stated that in her experience, not all women approach other women as enemies first.  “I’ve met women that are absolutely welcoming.  Other’s have given me the impression that I have to prove myself before we can be friendly. I created this diptych to show how we [women] may also be contributing to systematic oppression.”  This piece serves as a call to action to all women.  Lala Drona claims that the first step to unite as women is to change our perceptions of one another in our first encounters.  Perhaps, if we can see one another as allies first, rather than competition, we will be able to protect and trust one another.  And in the end, help each other rise to create a world where we can exercise our potential and prosper by our own rules.

Based on a Fact

Performance at Le Castel to promote NEW Laboratory

5 Jun
Painting by Lala Drona "Speak or Listen" Acrylic on canvas 50cm x 60cm Paris France, 2018 in performance at Le Castel in Paris
Title: Speak or Listen, Acrylic on canvas 50cm x 60cm

Last week, Lala Drona brought down the house with her debut performance in French at Le Castel, a private club  located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. 

Le Castel was founded by the French event coordinator, Jean Castel in 1962.  Many knew Jean Castel as “le roi des nuits parisiennes” (the king of Parisian nights), Private performances, artist-types and parties continue to roll through this institution today.   In the basement of the building, there are sofas and chairs surrounding a stage. On the stage last week, the painting titled “Speak of Listen” by Lala Drona was displayed.  Performance artist Wenjue Zhang, placed black boxes containing peep-holes around the room.  Inside said boxes, lied an image, erotic and explicit…saturated in colour.  Hypnotic music began to play in the background, and Lala Drona stepped onto the stage… (video below).

Lala Drona’s performance titled “Experiment 88: Speak or Listen” recounts an artist’s (Jade Edwards’) experience in Lala Laboratories.  The artist is the subject in an experiment that will result in artistic revelation (article continues below):

Video still from Lala Drona art performance "Experiment 88: Speak or Listen" at Le Castel in Paris.
still from performance at Le Castel

Sources say that this performance serves as an advertisement for the new Lala Laboratory.  Since 2014, Lala has had quite a bit of trouble due to her unconventional inspiration extraction methods from muses.  She has gone to Art Prison, inspired muse protests and strikes, and inadvertently caused changes in muse rights legislature. After the Lala Laboratory explosion in 2016, Lala Drona has simultaneously been looking for a place to put down roots, whilst also dodging investigations into inhumane Lala Laboratory experiments.

Video still from Lala Drona art performance "Experiment 88: Speak or Listen" at Le Castel in Paris.
still from performance at Le Castel

Since 2017, Lala Drona has been traveling the world in the form of an exhibition tour.  She stated last week, “I’ve been traveling in order to look for a new place for Lala Laboratories. And finally, I’ve found it.”  Lala Laboratories, formerly “The Lala Laboratory” had to change its name due to copyright issues, but according to Lala, that wasn’t the only change that took place. “Lala Laboratories no longer includes muses in their research and experiments.  After the protests, the project got a bad rap.  It was almost impossible to get anything done due to new bureaucracy and protections.  Now, thanks to the former muse experiments, we’ve collected all the data that we need, and it’s time to open our experiments to their proper demographic.  Now, Lala Laboratories serves to enhance artist inspiration and methods, through experiences catered to each individual artist.  The performance at Le Castel was a simulation of that…sort of an advertisement for the new laboratory, if you will.”

When questioned about the location of Lala Laboratories, Lala explained: “It took going all over the world, and encountering every problem imaginable to get to the solution.  Lala Laboratories has installed itself in the intangible: in the virtual spaces online, in every conversation, and in every collaboration and project connecting to us.  If you have interacted with myself, my Drones, muses, and my community in any way, you ARE part of Lala Laboratories.”

Drone Kesabe breaks routine with “Creatures of Habit”

17 May

Lala Drona was expected to perform at Paris Lit Up’s magazine release party last week. Instead, Drone Kesabe, an assistant to Lala Drona, was sent to stand in for Lala in her absence.

Once called to the stage, Drone Kesabe explained to the audience that Lala Drona had been held up during her art research. She stated that Lala Drona had been conducting art experiments to find the perfect colour, a color too strong for the human eye, a deadly color: “…Essentially a colour that kills” she said. Lala Drona and her team had some sort of breakthrough, and so she was unable to come to the event.

Drone Kesabe then began to read Lala’s poem to the audience in a low and airy voice:

(Creature of Habit)

These creatures look for the familiar in the unfamiliar. Tell me, why do you put on shoes?  Only to walk with blind feet.  You process a new place based on past processes.  The past with its conquering mentality—in your mind—time cannibalizes itself, past taking present.  Is there a reason you can only see back in time, but not forward?  Creatures of habit, only see what they know, and this is how I come to you “th-th-th-th-th-th.”

Repetition, monotony, boredom, commitment, dedication, loyalty, rigor: you play me over and over, conjuring my face in every note of that song—the song that was playing when the Thing happened.

 I’ll stay with you and tell you what to do, so the Thing doesn’t happen again, you think—

–And I let you know that your instincts are shit, listen to me, I was there, and I’ll keep you safe. 

Creatures of habit, based on a fact, based on a television, based on a story…this only serves to take me with you—in your mind—. 

Perched on your back making nests of knots in your shoulders, making my way to your belly—Let me stay here a bit while you recognize the pattern of that familiar ceiling in the walls of this unfamiliar venue.  The same pattern of where the Thing happened, when you had no control, I came, that’s where we met the first time.

Watch the new patterns, registered by old ones, process, tilt you head back further, further, thaaat’s it. “th-th-th-th-th” stop breathing now because the past doesn’t breathe, and we never left that moment—in your mind—I’m here with you, when no one else will be.  And I’ll never leave you, not if you keep looking…looking for our familiar in the unfamiliar.  Creature of habit. 

Poem “Creatures of Habit” by Lala Drona © 2019

The launch party went off without a hitch while artists, poets and creative-types mixed and popped off celebratory champagne. As for the work Lala Drona is developing behind the scenes, our investigative journalists haven’t seemed to be able to get beyond Drone Kesabe’s statement at the PLU launch party.

Based on a Fact caught up with art trend expert Valerie Cogie who weighed in on the situation. “If we take a look at Lala Drona’s paintings, it’s quite obvious that she’s chosen to express through the grayscale. As stated in previous interviews, this was due to her reaction to traveling the world. She stopped seeing the world in binary oppositions: black/white, right/wrong… and started paying more attention to the in-betweens…the grays. Perhaps, she has reached a point where she wants to start incorporating colour into her painting universe. I’d rather not speculate further on the psychological implications of this.”

The Beard: Lala’s newest video gets hairy

13 May
Lala Drona's video "The Beard" from her series La Minute Ladrona.  Explores the the history of the beard and the contemporary and metaphorical beard.

Just released, Lala Drona’s newest art video “The Beard,” makes waves amongst the digital masses (video below). The newest instalment in her video series La Minute Ladrona (the stolen minute) has fans deliberating the true meaning behind the video.

Lala Drona and Jamika Ajalon who contributed a vocal clip to "The Beard" art video.
Lala Drona with Jamika Ajalon

The artist covers topics in beard history, possibly linking beard trends to the different waves of women’s liberation. She unpacks the contemporary and metaphorical beard in a playful and enigmatic way.

The video stays true to Lala Drona’s iconic style. Moving video interacts with static digital image, while she whispers poetry over a black backdrop. However, this piece takes a documentary-style spin, diving into the beard as historical artefact, and looking into its influence on society as a whole. For the first time in the video series, Lala Drona incorporates audio from other authors/vocalists: one cameo by performance artist Jamika Ajalon, recorded specifically for this project.

Video still from "The Beard" the latest instalment in Lala Drona's video art series La Minute Ladrona (the stilen minute).  Lala Drona with Drone No.1
Video still from “The Beard”

A series first, Lala Drona also collaborated with someone else during the performance part of the video project. “What makes this video groundbreaking [within the series] is that Lala Drona shares the screen with someone else! Drone No.1 from the Lala’s created universe has crossed over into the La Minute Ladrona Series! Long live Drone No. 1!!!!” (digitalfire58, Dronauniverse Forum).

Internet meme of Drone No.1 "When your gf's new bf looks like a love child between you and her." Image from Lala Drona's new video "The Beard"
Internet beard meme of Drone No.1 "The magic is in the beard"

Drone No.1, a favourite in the Lala Drona Universe, has caused fans to come out of the woodwork, reminiscing on the Drone No.1 saga, and praising his return in the form of internet memes.

Not surprisingly, the appearance of Drone No.1 has inspired conspiracy theories that Lala Drona will soon return to her work on the Lala Laboratory, after a long pause due to her European Art Tour. Others speculate on how this video came about, pointing to the easter eggs left in social media posts from Lala Drona’s European travels.

Either way, we are impressed with the trailblazing evolution of her work. This video marks a stylistic shift. “The Beard” art video is a must-see. Below, a link to the video. We also suggest seeing all of the “La Minute Ladrona” video series found here.

Lala Drona Retrospective at MOMA?

25 Mar
Lala Drona imagining her work in the MOMA museum of modern art.  Female painter at Museum or Modern art.  Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art New York.  This painting titled "Together, we conquer the world."

Lala Drona’s European art tour has gone intercontinental.  Following her art residency in Gothenburg, Sweden, the artist was spotted in New York visiting galleries and museums, along with rubbing elbows with members of the art world in cafés and bars.  From the Guggenheim to the Whitney, and finally the MOMA, Lala Drona was spotted taking notes and photos of the spaces, supposedly planning her future retrospective exhibition in these institutions.

Lala Drona retrospective at the MOMA museum of modern art new york.  Imagining how her work will look in the MOMA.  This painting titled "The First Follower."  Contemporary female painter.

            One of our reporters caught up with the artist at the MOMA:

J: Why have you chosen to research the MOMA as a possible host for your future retrospective?

L.D.:  Before arriving to NYC, my heart was set on the MOMA.  However, I admire the risks that the Guggenheim takes, and would love for the retrospective to be shown there first.  After this, it will travel around the world. The first stop will be in France, at Palais de Tokyo.  Since my work includes photo collage, video and paintings, I think the spaces that Palais de Tokyo provides would be an ideal fit.  However, eventually one day, I would like my retrospective to make its way back to NYC and appear in the MOMA.

J: Have you seen any pieces in the MOMA which have impacted you during this visit?

Lala Drona painter sees Gerhard Richter Baader-Meinhof art that changed my life
from series “Baader–Meinhof” by Gerhard Richter

L.D. I’ve finally seen Gerhard Richter’s paintings in real life.  His series  “Baader–Meinhof” has reinforced my faith in painting on canvas as a visual medium.  His innovative techniques are proof that there is still so much to explore and discover in the genre of painting.  When you stand in front of the paintings in real life, they move, they breathe.  It’s breathtaking.

J: What will you do with the rest of your time in NYC?

L.D.: I’ve got a full schedule.  I’m meeting with other artists and plotting for big things in the near future.

Lala Drona in film The Special People movie by Erica Schreiner art film
from film “The Special People” by Erica Schreiner

From emerging to established artists, Lala Drona trekked the city perpetually accompanied.  She was spotted visiting Chelsea galleries with Ezra Enzo, an abstract painter, soon to be fresh-out-of-art-school.  Around Brooklyn, she was reported to be deep in conversation with prominent video artist Erica Schreiner, and according to our sources, Lala Drona is scheduled to appear in Schreiner’s next feature length art film “The Special People.”  In addition to this, she will appear as one of the featured artists in an interview in Marietta Magazine, a Brooklyn based magazine which includes interviews with artists and performers from NYC to Paris.

Lala Drona interview in Marietta Magazine. Erica Schreiner Marietta Magazine with Lala Drona painter performance artist.
Lala Drona to be interviewed in Marietta Magazine’s next issue.

Since leaving New York, Lala Drona has travelled to an undisclosed location for rest and relaxation.  However, if history informs us of anything, it’s that this artist is not one to rest.  We speculate that she is in hiding so that she can plot her next voyage and project. We wait impatiently to find out in which new corner of the world Lala Drona will decide to plant her art-seed.

The Colonel and the Muse Part II

7 Dec

It had been 3 days now since things had gone south with Muse Leira—she wanted Lala Drona out, out of that room as soon as possible.  Never had she ever met an artist so enveloped by her own work, so committed to her own style and message, an artist with vision alright…with tunnel vision. 

Muse Leira tried, time and time again, to inspire Lala Drona to continue her and Colonel Morgado’s work with battle strategies. She tried to influence Lala to wage art war on the Art Guild: the legislation which passed all art-related laws.   When that didn’t work, She tried to influence the artist to strategise against those who did not believe in art.  She tried to convince Lala of the destructive force that she possessed when she put paintbrush to canvas.  Muse Leira’s work with Colonel Morgado had been left unfinished, and she wanted Lala, more than any other artist to have entered that room before, to implement the battle strategies that Leira and the Colonel had started, into her paintings.

Lala Drona refused to accept the muse’s battle inspiration, and arrogantly explained to Muse Leira how this creative collaboration would unfold.  Lala had already decided on a concept, and merely needed the muse to help her develop the images for it.   The concept for the triptych of paintings would examine the development of online relationships/friendships, from the digital to the real.   It would unfold over three parts on three canvases:

Canvas 1:  “We Find Our Match in the Digital Masses”

Canvas 2: “We Give Each Other Space to Grow”

Canvas 3: “Together, We Make Each Other Human”

“Together we make each other human?  What’s so great about being human anyway?” Leira said.

Lala explained. “I meant for “human” to be taken metaphorically…like coming together in real life is what helps us maintain our humanity— or our compassion—empathy…”

“You are insinuating that “humanity” only expresses a compassionate side—while today more than ever we are witnessing humanity’s “inhumanity”. Not to mention, that idea is corny.  It would be a disservice to the entire triptych.  I’ll sign off on the first two ideas, but the third has got to go.”

Lala laughed, “I don’t think you really understand your role here.”

“Role?  You will suffer if you chose to stay in this room and not implement my inspiration.”

Lala scoffed and ignored the muse.  She threw herself into the work, but her ideas did not flow; she felt creatively blocked.  Sketching the third idea was like trying to manoeuvre a paintbrush with her toes.  The images would not translate onto paper.  But Lala kept drawing, too committed to her method.

Through the night, Lala persisted with her work but not without rebellion from Muse Leira.  Over the next few nights, Leira appeared to the dog outside Lala’s room.  At first, the barking only distracted Lala slightly, as she told herself that she would get used to it, just as she got used to the other sounds of the town.

Hours upon hours, the dog barked outside of her window, a rhythmic barking that ricocheted off the walls of the colonel’s room—every burst of canine scream was a wack over Lala’s ears. Muse Leira appeared over Lala as she drew, willing her own inspiration into the artist’s mind.  The more Lala resisted, the more Leira’s inspiration would change shape and become stronger.  With every wave of inspiration, Lala’s drawing began to warp and transform as well, into circles and lines, a battle strategy that she could not decipher.

The church bells clanged, the roosters cooed and every dog in that town barked simultaneously in the same rhythmic pattern. Lala covered her ears and screamed as an image of Muse Leira and Colonel Morgado emerged from a white fog with their troops behind them.  Flashes of bloodshed, of flesh in the air, a mix or white and red coalesced into a pink cloud.  They marched on through the pink fog…then, as quickly as it came, the image went dark again.  A new image came into Lala’s mind.  The artist, followed by her drones and muses, sitting atop a globe, sitting atop with someone she had never met before…working together towards a common goal. 

Lala began drawing the new image, and as she drew, the cacophony outside dulled; it subsided. Muse Leira appeared at her side with a hesitant smile.  Lala finished the drawing, but just as her pencil left the paper, the noise started up again.

Lala covered her ears and Muse Leira peered closer at the new concept for the third painting.  She read the title below:

Canvas 3: “Together, We Conquer the World.”

Muse Leira couldn’t have been happier with the results of their collaboration—she thought of Colonel Morgado, their late nights together planning their battle strategies, side by side like in Lala’s drawing.  Before the Colonel’s death, Muse Leira thought that they would one day conquer the world, and now through Lala Drona’s piece, in some way, they had. 

Muse Leira looked up from the sketch, and found Lala packing her bags.  The barking had stopped outside, but continued to pulsate through Lala’s mind. 

“The barking in my head won’t stop.” Lala said.  Lala held her head and threw her backpack over her shoulder.  She smiled.  “And I think our work here is done.”  She approached Muse Leira, who was standing in front of the door of the room.  Lala stood there, canvases under her arms, and looking Leira up and down.  She took a deep breath and then hugged her. “Thank you, Leira…for everything— I know I’m not easy to work with, and my inspiration extraction techniques are unconventional, but I knew you could do it all along.”  Lala patted Leira on the shoulder.  “Well done.”  Lala sighed, pushed through the doorway, and ventured into the night. 

The Colonel and the Muse

9 Nov

muse leira and lala

Lala Drona (right), and Muse Leira (left)

What Lala Drona wrote had the tendency to come true.  Fortunately (and unfortunately)  for her, all the desires and dreams that she had written had already come true, and she was now living them.  Lala lied alone in her bed and thought about how creation comes from a lack, and how a satiated writer isn’t much of a writer at all.  Lala thought about what she wanted.  What did she desire?  Perhaps it was world domination, perhaps it was to get the art laboratory  back in business.  Whatever it was, it was in that moment that Lala realized she wanted nothing more than to be lying next to someone else.

 

The story of Muse Leira

In 18th century Portugal, in the small town of Messejana, Colonel Morgado died and left his estate to his four servants.  His loyal and dedicated Muse, grew depressed from the lack of creative collaboration with the Colonel.  Over the years that followed, the battle strategy notebooks and plans they created together disappeared,  buried in dust.  Muse Leira refused to occupy any other room after the Colonel’s death and condemned herself to those four walls for eternity.

1d97249ba2ebdef78247378a53c1889f

Messejana, Portugal

It wasn’t until recently, three centuries later, that Leira had the opportunity to dust off her inspiration projectors and collaborate with artists visiting the Colonel’s room.

 

The last servant left alive in the house decided to move into the house next door and rent out the Morgado home.  A young couple moved into the house with their baby, but made a point to stay out of the Colonel’s room at night, as recommended by the previous owner.  Muse Leira haunted the room at all hours, but her image only appeared at night, when she had the power to touch the tenants of the room.

The couple converted the house into an art residency, inviting international artists from

Screenshot 2018-11-09 at 18.51.43

Colonel Morgado’s room

around the world to visit and work on their projects.

 

Winnie was the first to stay in the Colonel’s room.  She was an ink-landscape painter from China.   The lights constantly switched on and off and the bulbs burned out.  Winnie saw Muse Leira for the first time on the night of the new moon.  She could not sleep and when she opened her eyes and rolled over, a head covered in a white cloth bag stared straight back at her.  Needless to say, Winnie left the residency early.
Madeleine was the next to stay in the Colonel’s room.  She was an abstract expressionist painter from France.  She began work right away on the first day and filled the room with canvas and color.  When she woke up the first morning, she saw that all of her t-shirts and pants had been thrown on the floor.  But no matter, she submitted to the strong inspiration that boiled from within and jumped out of bed to continue painting. 70_year_old_art_supplies_by_kymmacaleb-d492xvm.jpg

Night fell and while working at her desk, Madeleine tipped over a bottle of varnish.  She desperately looked for a cloth to absorb the liquid and took one that was handed to her.  She dabbed the painting with no result, and looked down at the cloth to find it was one of her t-shirts from the floor.  She looked to her side to see who handed it to her, and Muse Leira stood there, wearing all of Madeleine’s clothes and giggling.  After a bit of an awkward meeting, Madeleine and Leira became good friends and collaborated easily for the remainder of her stay in the Colonel’s room.

After Madeleine left, the room grew cold again, the air stagnant without the flow of creative energy.  A week went by and artist Lala Drona, an American painter living in Paris,Screenshot 2018-11-09 at 18.51.05 moved into the Colonel’s room.  On the first day, Lala rearranged the room to take advantage of the light coming in from the windows.  Lala’s painting materials still hadn’t arrived and she felt herself growing weak from the lack of creation.  She woke up in the middle of the night sick with a cold.  The roosters crowed and the dogs barked outside, rattling the bed she slept in.  Lala found the strength to approach the tissue box in front of the mirror on the other side of the room.  She grabbed a tissue and while blowing her nose, she looked into the mirror to find the head covered in a cloth bag standing behind her.  Lala would have screamed if she hadn’t lost her voice.

Muse Leira ran across the wall and knocked a trapped door open before hiding in the corner.  Realizing Leira was a muse, and having had extensive experience with muses, Lala tried to calm her while tiptoeing towards the trapped door.  Inside, Lala found old paintings on paper—portraits of the Colonel and his servants.  Further inside, she found charcoal.IMG_3345

Lala started coughing and Muse Leira led her back to bed.  Muse Leira brought over a board with paper and the charcoal and sat next to Lala.  She set up the drawing board and Lala began sketching out ideas for paintings.  She thought about what she wanted.  She thought about the relationships she had had with the Drones (assistants in her former art laboratory), other artists and muses.  Muse Leira reminded her that it is those relationships which make Lala human.

 


Over the next few days, Leira nursed Lala back to health.  Leira inspired Lala, and Lala grew stronger with every collaboration.  Lala’s painting supplies finally arrived, and thanks to Muse Leira, she is now off to a strong beginning.

Based on a fact.

Kendal Dreges, Minisota Artlife Press

Lala: The European Art Tour

25 Oct

BOAF european art tour

Since her return to Paris last May, Lala Drona doesn’t seem to be able to keep her feet on the ground!  From France, to Spain and now to Portugal, her European tour is causing a media art frenzy!

In June 2018, Lala began her European tour at an art residency in Seville, Spain.  She spoke with the local media before her exhibition there “The Power of the Click” to tell them that she had been staying at the residency with seven other women artists from around the world.  “I had already lived with seven women once in a favela in Brazil in 2010, so I had my reservations about living with so many women at once, however, I was surrounded by so many talented, warm-hearted and hard-working artists.  I felt fortunate to be part of such an incredible team.”

The Power of the Click all-REDUCED REDUCED

“The Power of the Click” triptych by Lala Drona

She went on to explain that the ecosystem of feminine energy and experience intensified her feminist beliefs and contributed to the creation of her triptych “The Power of the Click”—a piece which examines how our digital actions on women’s bodies can have consequences in the real world.  She continues to have strong links with some of the artists, and says that these artists support and inspire each other everyday through voice message notes.

Lala returned to Paris in August, where she recharged and replenished her inspiration receptors.  It was during this time that she locked herself in to her workshop and broadened the scope through which she viewed her current area of artistic research.

Speak Listen REDUCED

Title: Speak or Listen, Artist: Lala Drona, Acrylic on canvas 50cm x 60cm Paris France, 2018

She had been sensing the world changing due to the growth of social media, a positive change where everyone started to have an opinion and exercised their voice.  And at the same time, a rise in the tendency to not listen to people when recounting their experiences.  “It’s important to remember that every conversation is not an attack or a debate, but that sometimes we are just sharing stories.

Zoom In 1.jpg-REDUCED

Title: Zoom in 1, Artist: Lala Drona, Acrylic on canvas 50cm x 60cm Paris France, 2018

We don’t always have to prepare a rebuttal.  I notice a lack of picking up on those conversational nuances, a lack of knowing when to listen, and when to speak.  That’s why I created this painting [Speak or Listen].”
Through September and October, Lala stayed in Paris to show her work in an exhibition in the Marais, and work in another art residency.  Here, she decided to create 3 different paintings on one canvas (each new painting covering the last).  This concept aimed to push the artist to experiment and develop her style without the pressure of “the end result” looming over.  “I took aspects from the first and second paintings that I liked, and integrated them into the third painting.

Lala_Drona_Presenteeism_FINAL_2_REDUCED

Title: Presenteeism, Artist: Lala Drona, Acrylic on canvas 100cm x 100cm Paris France, 2018

This method also gave me the freedom to try out new concepts in the first two draft paintings to know if I liked them enough to try them again in future paintings.”  She finished with the piece “Presenteeism,” a painting which examines how social media contributes to the overwhelming pressure to be seen/present at all times.  Lala plans to continue developing the geometric style found in this painting and further research the topic of how our digital lives on social media and the internet affect us IRL.  

 

During the months of November and December, Lala will participate in another artist in residency program in Alentejo, Portugal.  Here, she will continue research on her topic and create 2-3 painting to be shown in an exhibition in Portugal in December.  “I’m going into my project in Portugal with an open mind.  I’m waiting to be inspired by the moment.  I will definitely continue researching the same topic, but I have no images in mind yet.”

As far as the rest of the year goes, Lala has plenty of projects lined up.  We’ve heard rumours of Norway and New York, and have confirmed that she’ll have an exhibition in Lithuania this summer, and another in Finland in the fall. Get ready to see a lot of Lala Drona in 2019.

Jeff Southers, Columbus Ohio Journal of the Creative Arts

Go Hashtag Yourself Interview, 2018

5 Oct

Lala Drona sits down with L.D. Times Magazine once again for an exclusive  interview.  This time she discusses the ways in which social media and the Internet influence and affect her work as an artist.  Read the full article here.

 

 

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