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Leticia Bajuyo: Interdisciplinary Artist, Educator

Introduction to Leticia Bajuyo. 1:38 min. Interview: Raymond Elman. Post-production: Lee Skye. Music: Jahzzar. Recorded via Zoom, 6/22/2021. Miami.

Through her large-scale works, LETICIA BAJUYO engages audiences and connects with communities through her site-specific installations that involve community collections of media and memories. Bajuyo’s drawings, sculptures, and installations highlight the impact of cultural capital, assimilation, and desire. Her interest in unpacking value perceptions began with her autobiography growing up bi-racial on the border of Illinois and Kentucky. Cultural labels and demographic bubbles fostered her continued critique of consumer capitalism, fickle domestic desires, and internalized pressures of assimilation. Her continued research of cultural privilege and consumer pressure yields a drive to both create and question a vision that is comfortable, contained, and controlled. By incorporating recognizable materials and forms including CDs, artificial grass, and insulation styrofoam, Bajuyo creates spaces and multi-layered experiences that invite audiences to participate in theatrical re- arbitrations of value.

A Filipinx-American interdisciplinary artist and object maker based in Oklahoma, Leticia R. Bajuyo started creating in rural Midwest flyover communities. Her studio practice involves an interest in unpacking value perceptions, which began in a small town named Metropolis on the border of Illinois and Kentucky. The time and space of quiet landscapes outside and the multi-national dialogues inside her family’s house influenced the development of her critiques of consumer capitalism, fickle domestic desires, and internalized pressures of assimilation.

Bajuyo received her B.F.A. from the University of Notre Dame and her M.F.A. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Bajuyo is an Assistant Professor at the School of Visual Arts at The University of Oklahoma.

— https://www.leticiabajuyo.com/

The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by success factor, and run between 30 seconds and 5 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 2:02 min.

Where did you grow up and what was your first awareness of art of any discipline?

CRITICAL THINKING: 0:33 sec.

Was your hometown named “Metropolis” before the appearance of the first “Superman” comic book?

COMMUNITY VALUES: 1:43 min.

Do people come to Metropolis wearing costumes from “Superman”?

VALUES FIRST-RATE EDUCATION: 1:49 min.

Where did you go to school and what did you learn that still informs you today?

SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES: 1:27 min.

Talk about your evolution after Notre Dame.

DEVELOP A VOICE: 0:53 sec.

You are so articulate! Have you always been that way or is it a learned talent?

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND: 1:57 min.

You just made the ArtSpeak highlight reel by being the first person to ever explain how cheerleading can be an avenue to intelligent, articulate public speaking.

STRONG DRIVE FOR ACHIEVEMENT: 3:17 min.

How did your work and career become so multi-faceted?

UNDERSTANDS ARTISTS’ NEEDS: 0:41 sec.

How have your experiences as a museum installer and administrator impacted your artwork?

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND: 3:40 min.

You use unusual materials in your artwork, like piano rolls and CD ROMs. Do you have a preconception and look for such materials? Or do you come upon them serendipitously and get inspired to use them?

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND: 2:23 min.

I love that your materials leap from piano player rolls to CDs. Have you considered using materials in-between, like records, tape, and laser discs?

CREATIVE FLEXIBILITY: 2:03 min.

Regarding your sculptures made primarily from CDs, what are some of the trade-offs between public works and pieces made for sale in galleries?

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED: 1:06 min.

Do you make smaller modules that can be sold separately, or bolted together to form monumental pieces?

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND: 2:34 min.

Tells more about how you create art from CDs.

SERENDIPITY: 1:49 min.

Do you compose poems or themes with the text on the labels of the CDs or on the player piano rolls?

CRITICAL THINKING: 2:58 min.

How does your ethnic background influence your artwork?

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 5:14 min.

Over the past few years, and most especially since the advent of the Covid pandemic, indiscriminate physical and/or verbal attacks on Asians in the United States have increased dramatically. Have issues of Asian-American stereotypes and assumptions affected you?

CRITICAL THINKING: 0:55 sec.