On World-Building With Mueni Loko Rudd, Sacugar Edwards & Moses Leonardo
From February 16 to April 14, we hosted Madly Involved, an exhibit curated by Texas-based cultural producer Mueni Loko Rudd. Kicking off two months of events at The Future Front House for Black History Month and Women’s History Month, this immersive group exhibition interrogated dynamic interplays of race, identity, symbolism and global influences within the contemporary art landscape.
Featuring works by sacugar edwards, Moses Leonardo, Audrey Lyall and Melinda Griffith, Madly Involved explored the intricate relationship between artists and their creations through an array of disciplines and materials—from oil painting and sculpture to bobby pins and building debris.
In commemoration of Madly Involved and our Spring Season, we interviewed curator Mueni Loko Rudd, as well as artists Sacugar Edwards and Moses Leonardo, on the world-buildling creative rituals that define their practices.
✹ ON CURATING YOUR OWN WORLD WITH MUENI LOKO RUDD
Mueni Loko Rudd (she/her) is a Kenyan-American community champion, cultural preservationist, scholar advocate, and tastemaker based in Texas. Throughout her career, she has contributed to community and scholarly work that promotes reimagining liberation for historically oppressed communities. Mueni’s curatorial practice acts through intentionality and mindfulness, challenging the white centered colonial patriarchal art space. She has curated six visual arts and live music shows at Martha’s Contemporary, serves as a grant reviewer for the Texas Commission on the Arts, and is a member of The City of Austin African American Resource Advisory Commission. Deeply committed to her values she has pursued a path in the art space that is rooted in intentionality.
Q — How do you find new artists, new ideas as a curator?
Art is happening everywhere I look so finding new isn’t necessarily my goal. I would prefer to say I keep a curious eye out while just living my life and enjoying. That spirit of exploration has always allowed me to be surprised by what’s on the other end of my openness so to speak. Doesn’t matter if I’m in the South or somewhere new, my eyes are open. As a freelance curator, I often work from the bottom up because my planning is with respect to location. I try to be like water in these situations. So I may enter with certain ideas but usually very collaborative with the venue and participating artists. I want my collaborators to feel proud and correctly represented in my offerings.
Q — What does being a curator regarding creative expression and social responsibility mean to you?
My creative expression and contributions reflect my values already. My values are like my North Star. Even outside of creative spaces, the audience can see these same themes in my written work or research for example. It’s important to me to be in alignment and harmony with myself and the world around me.
Q — What do you think are some of the most inspiring things happening in your circles currently?
I enjoy seeing activism in all my intersections of work and play. I have a behavioral science educational background so I’m used to seeing more critique there but I’m seeing a more creative part of that dialogue. Free them all!
Q — In what ways was this exhibition fulfilling, and what messaging was important to highlight?
The rationale of this show is rooted in my prioritization of reshaping the art landscape by exploring themes related to race and identity. The relationship Black women and Black queer communities have in the art world is complex and multifaceted. Madly Involved is an exhibition that by practice and intention honors the intersectionality and representation observed in the works and lives of the participating artists. We know Black women and Black queer artists face challenges related to visibility, recognition, and the intersectionality of their identities. I challenge art and non-profit spaces alike to engage in breaking down hierarchies and challenging the dominant narratives in art to create space for diverse voices. Future Front invitation to their space and audience is instrumental in challenging traditional norms and fostering a more empathic and equitable art community.
Q — Describe the curating process for this exhibition, how did the central themes come to be?
This group exhibition explored the intricate relationship between artists and their creations through the lens of various sociological perspectives. This collection showcased diverse works that reflect the dynamic interplay of identity, symbolic interactionism, and global influences within the contemporary art landscape.
Q — How do you overcome creative blocks? What rituals do you implement in this scenario?
I do my best to let thoughts and feelings come and go with ease. If I feeling stuck on anything I’m working on I pivot to something else and return when my spirit is back settled. I never stop processing it but forcing myself in a new head space is helpful to refresh. I try to be gentle with myself.
Q — How do you view community building through your work? What does that look like?
A time and a place is something I value. Where I’m doing work matters to me just as much as with whom. Future Front had a focus and I was excited to amplify my own values within their parameters. The social and culture worker in me wants to build community by supporting folks how they see fit. So deep listening and rapport building are at the foundation.
Q — Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations that you're particularly excited about?
I’m excited to share that I’ve been invited to curate at SWIM Gallery in San Francisco this summer. Definitely check out the work Yarrow and his team have done with emerging artists all over the country. Honored to join them and add folks I value to their story.
Q — What do you hope the viewer experience is for this exhibition?
Through the exhibition, audiences witnessed how participating Black women and Black queer artists, deeply immersed in their creative process, draw inspiration from symbolic interactionism. Symbolic elements, both personal and cultural, serve as the building blocks for their expressions, transcending conventional boundaries. The exhibition delves into the impact of identity, social class, and cultural capital on artistic preferences, highlighting how individuals from different backgrounds engage with art uniquely. The spectrum of artistic choices mirrors the socialization processes that mold artistic identity.
✹ ON Creating your own world with sacugar & moses
SACUGAR EDWARDS is a lullaby to the black epic, a hum on a mission to reimagine paradise as one that understands our presence in the future. An ode to their school days in Jamaica, her inspiration begins at memories in the streets with the sun. As Isah Edwards, based in Texas; the (she/her) behind the iPad, they tackle the strenuous stares of anxiety that come with our unwavering radical fight for freedom. Paired with a passion for tech, cultural shifts in our environments, and furthering the conversation on afro-surrealism; she uses Procreate, paint, and any trash she can accumulate to create a militant merge of the dream and its reality. SACUGAR tells the story of the tender black smile and its gold-toothed zeal.
MOSES LEONARDO is an artist born in New York City, New York and raised around the East Coast. They have a BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and their work focuses on sexuality, race, nightlife, music, spirituality, and gender.
Q — Can you walk us through your creative process? How do you typically approach a new project or piece of art?
Sacugar: I use everything around me to fossilize the vision in my head by letting the ideas devour me in a frenzy. I take lots of breaks and welcome distractions so each piece is completed by various reworked versions of myself and environment.
Moses: My creative process starts by living life. I have all these experiences and ideas that always end up expressed in some form on the canvas, in video, in writing, etc. After I know what I wanna say I keep working and thinking about what I’m saying until I feel that the thought is complete.
Q — What or who inspires your work? Are there any particular themes or ideas that consistently appear in your art?
Sacugar: I incorporate ideas of what freedom can look like in my work. Our incarcerated populace and the worker’s who clock in, especially the ones who are kids, inspire me greatly. I like to believe they would be my audience if they were free.
Moses: I’m inspired by love, gender expression, metropolitan life, black people, queer people, spirituality, and being alive. All of these themes appear in my art in one way or another.
Q — Can you share a memorable or challenging experience that has influenced your artistic journey?
Sacugar: I had to toss half my portfolio in the trash because I was moving and couldn’t afford to store or keep them. I have friends who are musicians who often lose all their tunes from some tech malfunction but they always just keep making music. Knowing that helped me move on from the paintings in the dumpster, more confident to make it all again.
Moses: Any time I’ve fallen in love or had sex or traveled or took a breath is in my art somehow. Of course most of my paintings encapsulate poignant aspects of my life or queer life or black life, life has the greatest influence on my art.
Q — How do you see your art impacting or connecting with your audience or the wider world?
Sacugar: I believe everybody can relate to some desire to fight for freedoms, my work is propaganda for that front so I hope it ignites a blaze in the kids who see it.
Moses: Whenever a person comes up to me to tell me about their interpretation of my work I get excited to see where my intentions actually took them. It also makes me think about the people engaging with my work when I’m not there, they have their own interpretations and ways that the work may connect to their lives. I focus on that kind of impact but I’m engaging with very universal themes- just through a queer lens. I suppose not everyone is used to that kind of perspective but I think there's a lot that people can learn from by looking at many kinds of perspectives. My niche audience and the world broadly.
Q — Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations that you're particularly excited about?
Sacugar: This summer I am doing a residency with studio two three in VA to work on some prints that honor fight scenes in vulnerable spaces. I’m also doing a series on picket signs for strippers with The Shed in NY. Both those projects will be fun to work on.
Moses: Yes I have two upcoming shows this month that excite me. I have a video project I’m working on with a friend and music on the way as well- all while I still work on new paintings.
Q — How do you navigate the balance between artistic expression and commercial viability?
Sacugar: I don’t do commercial viability because I don't draw for profit so artistic expression always comes first.
Moses: I refuse to make work I’m not excited about- sometimes that means less money and sometimes that means more. The world is a fickle place and the art world is even more fickle but I feel grateful knowing I’m not in a position where I have to compromise the integrity of my gifts to make something I don’t feel proud of or excited by.
Q — Can you discuss any specific techniques, mediums, or tools that are integral to your artistic practice?
Sacugar: I use an ipad and the procreate app to do most of my sketches and the internet has all the references in the world so it’s like a second brain in terms of imagining stuff from stuff.
Moses: Of course paint but really the most integral tool to me as of late is traveling. I get so enriched and inspired by the things I learn and see and do while traveling and it makes me want to make more work in the end.
Q — What advice would you give to aspiring artists based on your own experiences and learning?
Sacugar: Don’t take it so seriously, be lazier, more loose and acquire some intent beyond the ‘art’ act.
Moses: You must live life in order to birth art.
Q — What do you think are some of the most inspiring things happening in your circles currently?
Sacugar: I’ve been hanging out on an army base recently and with all the wars going on the soldiers seem pretty chill about it, it’s pretty inspiring because I don't think i’d be chill about it in that position.
Moses: The New York club scene has always been hot and has always birthed new sounds and aesthetics that the masses consume. I’m inspired by my friends who help shape the landscape of the new wave. I’m surrounded by creatives who are pushing everything that we’ve learned from our predecessors. It’s incredible. Whenever a friend is booked to DJ at a place we frequent or showing work in a gallery or institution- someone who’s from around the way, it makes me proud.
Q — How do you overcome creative blocks? What rituals do you implement in this scenario?
Sacugar: I don’t get creative block because there's always so much to draw about and so many ways to do it. It's the opposite for me. I get so overwhelmed by ideas that I have to lay dormant like a volcano so I don't explode.
Moses: I just ingest more art lol- I’m also blessed to have other mediums in my life that’ll always inspire creativity to flow into my other disciplines. Writing for example has helped me with my music which in turn has helped me with my paintings because of the content inside of the music. It really all flows together with some patience and perseverance.
Q — How do you view community building through your work? What does that look like?
Sacugar: Community building through my work would look like people using everything around them to move towards freedom. I’m really introverted so I'm not skilled in communal hijinks but if my work can serve as a suggestion, that’d be a job well done.
Moses: I think because my work is coming from me, a person with so many intersections. The work inherently becomes sociopolitical. I’ve embraced that in a way that echoes the work of my predecessors. Films like Tongues Untied or Watermelon Woman or shows like Noah’s Arc- made me feel like I was seen, validated and alive. My hope is that my work can reach people of the same intersections who may need to connect or heal by seeing themselves through whatever medium I choose. My hope is also to reach people outside of my intersections who are open to learning or empathizing with another human being going through the same things under a different set of social circumstances and with perspectives they haven’t themselves thought about or had to think about.
photos by jinni j (@heyjinnij)
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