IMAG[IN]E: Aleda Laszczuk

In this interview, Oliver White speaks with Visual Arts student Aleda Laszczuk to uncover her creative process, the motivation behind her work, and why art became a means of survival.

Can you give a general introduction to yourself and your current body of work?

Well, I was born in Adelaide, but spent the first ten years of my life living in Cambodia. I identify as a pansexual and my star sign is Leo. I’m also a flexitarian. I like moderate walks on the beach and don’t think hating popular things makes you an interesting person. None of these things define me.
The encompassing vision of my art practice is to unpack the binary labels human beings have socially constructed—particularly those that are institutionalised and continue to play a pivotal role in state sanctioned acts pertaining to violence, power, and sex. These sorts of themes are interconnected in my work. Lately, I’ve been exploring ideas around dominance and submission. My aim is to convey the fragile tension that exists between ‘being in’ and ‘being out’ of control.
My art practice is inspired by the collective (and often hypocritical) experiences of human beings, the memes that connect me to others all over the world, and popular culture that either liberates, or reinforces, patriarchy. Through different processes, such as performance, painting and sculpture, I seek to unravel the underlying misogyny, and problematic actuality, of certain aspects that exist in our society. My work aims to undo constructed gender binary, repressed sexuality, and the nuclear family.

How do people tend to react to your statements about control and submission, as well as your personal work?

I’ve had a few people accuse me of making art purely about sex, without even taking the time to understand the significance behind my work. My intention has always been to create art about the human condition and, somehow, this continues to translate into investigations about binaries, power and sex. It was Oscar Wilde who said ‘everything in the world is about sex, except sex.’ I really identify with this statement because no matter what I’m exploring, it all fundamentally comes back to these three themes—binaries, power, and sex.

You work in many different mediums. How do you figure out what topic you want to pursue and what medium best suits that direction?

When I first came to art school, I wanted to redefine my painting skills. But, over the years, I’ve come to have an appreciation for the many ways ideas can be expressed. Through my portraits, I try to be really precise and create a close replica to what I see in my reference photos. But, I also set an extra challenge for myself by playing with double exposure. By approaching it in this way, the act of painting becomes a punishing exercise for me. However, I find this stimulates my creativity.
I also find human performativity to be really fascinating, and it’s an integral part of everything I do. Performance in general is the medium in which I often explore more personal aspects of my gender identity and ideas about sexual expression. My sculptural work tends to be more conceptual, as it attempts to subvert these typical objects, or ideas, and transform them into something more playful, or sinister. At the moment, I feel a bit fragmented as a person, so I’ve accepted how this is reflected in my art. I seem to be using all of these different mediums, and modes of expression. But, I’m hoping it may evolve into a more unified process though, because at the moment, it’s feeling a little disjointed.

What made you start pursuing art?

Art has always been a part of my life and self-expression. I won my high school’s Year 12 Art Prize, but, fearing my parents’ disapproval, I instead went to university to study law. After becoming disillusioned with working in human rights and social development in Cambodia, I decided that I would become the ‘perfect housewife.’ I moved to Toowoomba with my commodity trader partner (who is now my ex) with goals of marriage, children, and joining the local CWA. I spent my days in a performative cycle: making lavish meals, fluffing pillows, ironing white-collared shirts, and being habitually abused in my new home. It was only after I went out to seek help for my partner’s ‘anger management problem’ that I was confronted with these two words— domestic violence. Feeling increasingly isolated from friends and family, I turned to the internet in order to connect with others who’ve gone through similar experiences to try and understand how I ended up in this sort of relationship, despite my efforts to do better.
I returned to my artistic passions as a means of survival, and to regain an integral part of my identity that I feared had been lost. Perhaps it was to avoid living in regret, or to just to piss off my parents, but I decided to change the course of my life and indulge in a Visual Arts education. While it has, at times, been extremely difficult (I actually still find it hard to call myself an ‘artist’), I absolutely love what I do.

What are your major influences outside of visual art?

Spending many years of my life in Cambodia, and travelling around the world, I witnessed the effects of poverty, injustice, and imbalances of power firsthand. This had a tremendous impact on me, as I realised that while the world was vast, human experiences were often (unequally) shared. My mother encouraged me to read books like Franz Kafka’s The Trial, and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, to name a couple. These authors helped shape some of the ways I have attempted to understand the world. This actually developed my interest in the works of philosophers like Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. Popular culture and social media also play a pivotal part in my observations of human interaction, self-expression and connection. As does my fascination with true crime and reality TV.

What’s something/someone you’re obsessed with right now?

I’m currently obsessed with a book called Sex at Dawn, which is about the evolution of monogamy in humans. I’m obsessed with Brooke Candy, a sex positive artist. Her work mainly speaks about taking control of one’s sexual agency. She insists female sexuality should be celebrated, and not hidden, or controlled. Lauding and normalising sexual expression is something that is also integral to my own work.

The art world always seems to involve the element of surprise. What future endeavours are you hoping to experience in the coming years

What future?

Interview conducted by Oliver White

Artwork by Aleda Laszczuk

This piece was originally published in Edition 30.