getting to know the graduates
Graduating Student: Feral Fagiola (S 21)
Who, or what is your work in conversation with?
I collaborate often with industrial materials, processes, and decaying architectures. I focus on the body and its relationships to these physical and implied structures through labor, production, desire, consumption, etc. My work usually has a kinky or erotic bent, so it’s also in conversation with fetish, BDSM, and pornography.
How did VCFA change your approach to thinking about your studio practice and your community at home?
The most impactful moments of my experience at VCFA were connections with people. The residencies gave me the opportunity to connect with people all over the world and each incredible peer, faculty, visiting artist or scholar shared something that moved me and became vital to my practice.
Who were your Artist-Mentors?
What was on your play list during your time at VCFA?
The Litanies of Satan – Diamanda Galas
The Downward Spiral – Nine Inch Nails
Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos
And anything I can dance to…
Who are your favorite protagonists in fiction?
Dolores of Westworld or one of the many amorphous characters from a Kathy Acker story (maybe Laure from My Mother: Demonology).
What, or who, should you like to be if not yourself?
I’d just like to be a better version of myself and maybe in another world. I’d like to be happy, free, very hydrated, and not stressed.
All I’ve ever wanted to be is an artist.
Where do you live?
I currently live in Louisville, Kentucky, but my heart is scattered in a few places.
Brian Divis (S 21)
Julie Krishnaswami (S 21)