Ligia Bouton, Art Studio

Name: Ligia Bouton

Title:  Associate Professor of Art

Department: Art Studio

Areas of study: sculpture and interactive engagement

Research focus: My work is based in sculpture and interactive engagement. I employ video, photography and a wide range of drawing methods and installation techniques to examine the contrast between the ritualistic and mundane, the performative and the genuine, and to ask questions about how we, in our bodies, practices, and institutions, locate ourselves in these spaces. Each project wrestles with issues of functionality and narrative, relying on our inherent understanding of household objects, clothing and tools. Recent installation projects have drawn from sources as diverse as contemporary and classical literature, American comic books, fairy tales, and documentation of Victorian séances.

What drew you to this field: As a young person, I became interested in the way that visual art allowed me to communicate in more complex ways than I was able to do with language alone. I quickly realized that I could combine materials in sculptural objects to create narratives that generate a level of shared understanding with my viewer. From the very beginning, I have been interested in engaging each viewer in a manner in which the roles and characters we all play in everyday life are made clearer within the narratives I bring to life.

Why Mount Holyoke: I believe in the immense power of collaboration and as a result, I am excited to join the dynamic and engaged community of faculty and students at Mount Holyoke. I look forward to creating opportunities to work closely across disciplines with other faculty, as well as my students, to explore the potential of how technology and traditional materials can be combined in unexpected ways in both artworks and functional objects. In particular, I am anxious to explore the possibilities of the new Maker and Innovation Lab at Mount Holyoke. I hope this resource will allow students to experiment fearlessly with new and evolving mediums in a supportive and accessible environment.

About teaching: My favorite thing about teaching sculpture is engaging with students one-on-one to find exciting independent solutions to visual problems. The field of contemporary sculpture is expanding rapidly to encompass a broad range of approaches, from traditional object- and materials-based work, to performance, installation, site-specificity, lens- and time-based media, web and social media, as well as collaborative and community-engaged actions. As a result, I try to encourage my students to be fearless as they work to forge a deeply personal interdisciplinary practice. I also find the relationship with my students to be deeply symbiotic: Just as my interdisciplinary studio practice and research directly influence my pedagogical approach, my students continue to inform and inspire my own practice.

Proudest accomplishments, academic or other: I believe it’s important to look forward as an artist and to imagine that the greatest accomplishments are still to come. As a result, the project I am working on at the moment is often the work I feel the most excited about. Currently I am part of a collaborative team working on a chamber opera, “Inheritance,” which will premiere at the University of California, San Diego in October 2018. “Inheritance” is designed to examine gun culture in the United States through the lens of Sarah Winchester’s life. According to popular belief, Winchester was an eccentric widow self-imprisoned in her labyrinth-like home and seeking refuge from the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles. Although the libretto for “Inheritance” is anchored in her biography, this work explores her life and home as a metaphor for the country’s violent legacy and deeply complex relationship with guns.

As the production designer, I am moving beyond the gallery and museum to create sets and costumes for a full-scale performance. The labyrinthine nature of Winchester’s house will be created predominantly through video projected onto multiple moveable screens. The projections include both historical and found footage documenting guns and gun violence in the United States, mixed into live-streaming video in which performers direct cameras at the musicians, the audience and ultimately themselves. In addition, I am also creating new video works that juxtapose body and architecture and explore central themes of accumulation as a metaphor for complicity and guilt.

Favorite previous work experience: In 2015, I was awarded a travel grant from the Wood Institute for the History of Medicine at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia to facilitate research towards my piece “The Cage Went in Search of a Bird.” This project explored how tuberculosis captured the country’s collective cultural imagination during the 19th century, creating an image of an illness that affected both the body and the spirit. The grant allowed me access to the immense holdings at the college’s Historical Medical Library and also to the collections of its Mütter Museum. My time there led me in many unexpected directions.

The campus and region so far: Moving to the Pioneer Valley from the  southwest desert, my family and I are excited to experience our first fall in New England. Both of my sons were born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and they both were thrilled and shocked by the immense expanses of grass and the size of the trees on the Mount Holyoke campus. My first year at Mount Holyoke will be a wonderful opportunity for us to explore the apple orchards, farms, rivers and lakes of the surrounding area, as well as enjoying some of our favorite outdoor activities that we bring with us from the West, such as hiking and skiing.

Favorite class as an undergraduate: Although I was a dedicated artist as an undergraduate and spent many hours in the drawing and sculpture studios, my favorite classes were always the ones that fed my interest in cultural narrative from around the world. In particular, as a senior at Vassar College, I took a course on the ancient cultures of Central America. Almost immediately, the forms and content of the Mesoamerican art we were studying began to influence the artwork that I was making in my studio courses. My final project for my sculpture class that semester was a pile of colossal heads made out of cardboard, inspired by Olmec monuments found in central Mexico.

When not working: Almost all my time outside of teaching and my studio practice is devoted to my family. I enjoy skiing, hiking and watching superhero movies with my sons and preparing meals with my husband. In particular, we love to make food that reminds us of our long-time connection to the Southwest.

Books: My favorite book is “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. I have read it many times over the years. I have always enjoyed reading fiction, and recently I have become very interested in the works of contemporary novelists that encourage me to think about cultural, political and environmental issues in unexpected ways. In particular, I have really enjoyed “Sing Unburied, Sing” by Jesmyn Ward, “Exit West” by Mohsin Hamid, and “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi.