Tell us about life under COVID-19.

Helina Metaferia: I am currently shelter in place in NYC and working from home. It's been amazing to see the city slow down, and I love it. I feel like I am on a "Roni Residency," where everyone is automatically accepted and you get to have time and space to do as you please. I realize that is a privileged statement, as I am healthy, am not a parent or essential worker, and I am able to teach online and have space to work on my projects from home. Prior to COVID-19, my life as an artist and academic was full of travel, and I was constantly on trains and planes. I finally have time to care for myself, cook, exercise, read books, and spend virtual time with friends and family, which feels much more expansive than how I was living prior.  Being an artist, there's always some national or international exhibition or event to attend. I'm hoping that the art world is rethinking the excessiveness of travel, especially now that more organizations are opening up virtual platforms. I am hoping that slowness will be our new normal ("slow is the new go"), as it's making me a much more attentive human being and increasing quality of life. Maybe that means I am destined for living on a farm in the middle of nowhere. More realistically, I'm just looking to find a balance from the stressors of urban living.

What does studio time look like for you right now?

I am working from my home in NYC until the restrictions lessen up and I can get to my studio. My practice is inherently social, and involves travel, participation, and collaboration. Having all of my shows, performances, talks, and residencies for the rest of the year become postponed has been truly humbling. It forced me to pivot my practice, and spend more time reading, writing, reflecting, and listening. I started developing a new body of work, one that I would not have begun otherwise. It involves collaboration with writer Maaza Mengiste, and includes painting, collaging, and text. It fulfills my impulse to be social while obeying the social distancing guidelines, as our collaboration has been over zoom and email. Also, I am exceedingly grateful for the curators and cultural workers who reached out to me in the last couple of months to brainstorm how we can keep current projects alive (including the Triangle staff!). It made me realize that there are people who do care if I produce art, and that makes me feel like there is value in what I do, even in the midst of a global pandemic. These gestures have sustained me.

What did you start to work on while at Triangle?

I worked on creating new collage work toward my winter 2020 exhibitions, including my solo exhibition at Northeastern University, and several group shows. It was the largest studio space that I have had while living in NYC, and this afforded me wall space to see all the work I had been making in the last few years at once. It gave me room to experiment with multiple works at the same time.

What have you been reading/watching/looking at lately? Any recommendations?

I have a tall stack of physical books on my work desk, which I tend to rotate between. Lately I've been reading Maaza Mengiste's "The Shadow King," a novel about Ethiopian women soldiers in 1935 Ethiopian-Italian wars. It's research for the collaboration that I am doing with Maaza, where we intervene in photographic archives of these women through collages and text. I'm also rereading "Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler, which is an apocalyptic science fiction novel written in the 1990's but set to take place in 2025 (and eerily reminds me of our current pandemic conditions). This rereading is also a part of my research for this new collage series that I am developing. When I am in the studio working on something monotonous that doesn't require concentration, I play audiobooks from my Audible subscription, or listen to Spotify playlists (Jhene Aiko, 6lack, Miguel, H.E.R., Internet has been my vibe lately). I also watch Art 21 videos, art related webinars, and listen to other people's IG live artist talks for inspiration. I try to limit my attention on the news to once or twice a day via New York Times or CNN (watching Andrew and Chris Cuomo gives me a sense of peace). In the evenings, I'll dig into different films or TV series (Insecure and Run have been my shows lately), but when that gets old I'll watch a virtual video art exhibition and see videos by artists I am unfamiliar with.

What are you hoping to see happen in the art world after COVID-19?

I still believe in art, and all its possibilities, but it can feel trivial at times when people are focusing on human survival. Like all moments in history, we'll look back at the art and culture that was produced during this period as a marker of time, and for direction on how we can envision a better collective future. Art is vital to society. It isn’t going anywhere, it’s been here forever and will always be here. What will change, hopefully, is the systems that sustain it. The art world as we know it is capitalistic, institutional, elitist, and outdated. My artwork has addressed institutional and systemic change, and frankly I'd like to have worked myself out of a job with that topic. Hopefully, there will be a new art world born out of this era that can serve the needs of a diverse public.