Future Archives and Bringing it All to Life: Azali Ansar Muhammad and Laura Medina

For the second installment of the 2021 Centrum Emerging Artist Residency conversations Azali Ansar Muhammad and Laura Medina share processes and backgrounds behind their current projects. They talk animation, working fluidly through mediums, and leveraging these methods to navigate hard subject matters while bringing joy and play into the work. Muhammad shares about their work in recording and archiving Black birth stories and creating new forms of community and visibility for Black, queer and trans families and birthers. Medina discusses her methods for fluidly and colorfully moving through personal history and tough subject matter in order to bring forth joy and accessibility. Both Medina and Muhammad discuss so much more about community and possibilities for future archives and generations, and there is so much to glean from their perspectives.

Laura Medina

Laura Camila Medina is an interdisciplinary artist born in Bogotá, Colombia. Her immersive installations and animated collage work are rooted in self reflection, the transformation of memory (both personal and collective), and the multiplicity of identity. Her work has been exhibited at the Center for Contemporary Art & Culture, PLANETA New York, Fuller Rosen Gallery, Wieden + Kennedy, the Portland Art Museum, and alongside the Nat Turner Project. She is a recipient of various awards and residencies including: the New Media Fellowship at Open Signal, Artist in Residence at the Living School of Art, IPRC Artists & Writers in Residence Program, ACRE Residency, and most recently the Centrum Emerging Artist Residency. She earned her BFA at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and is currently based in Portland, OR.

Azali Ansar Muhammad

Azali Ansar El Muhammad (they/them) is a multimedia conceptual and often experimental artist based in Portland Oregon. They believe in community, accessibility and art as a social practice. Through their work they hope to connect other emerging artists with the experiences and platforms they need to grow in their own way. Ansar creates work that speaks to their own community as a Black, Latinx, Queer and Muslim human. Their work explores identity, connection and processes trauma.