The journey becomes you - An interview with Kent's Studio Lenca
World-renowned Margate artist Studio Lenca’s work is born out of his experiences as an ‘undocumented’ person
“...when you’re an undocumented person, you have to be small, you have to hide, you can’t sort of cause any attention to yourself, because you might get deported. So these figures are the opposite of that!”
The story of Jose Campos, known as Studio Lenca (@studiolenca ), could hardly be more in the zeitgeist of modern Britain, and particularly modern-day Kent.
Now living in Margate, the artist’s own experience of immigration happened in the late 1980s when he was just a baby and his mother fled El Salvador, travelling to the United States to avoid being caught up in the violent civil war engulfing his country of birth.
Growing up ‘illegally’ in California, migration and the issues that come with seeking asylum could hardly play a more significant role in his artwork.
“We had to leave for safety reasons,” explains Jose. “And, you know, like many other people for a better life. So my mother travelled to the United States on land - it was a very difficult journey because she ran out of money. And I was very young - I must have been three years old. A single woman making this journey, I can’t even imagine.
Jose Campos - Credit Sarah Bates
“We eventually got to the US and I lived as an undocumented person,” he says. “And the way that my mother worked, because she was there illegally, was to clean houses, like a lot of Central American immigrants do. And I would go and help her clean houses and I sort of grew up doing that.”
Having no documentation meant Jose had no right to travel or to medical care, but he eventually gained citizenship as a teenager when his mother married an American citizen. Little did he know at the time that his passion for art had already been ignited by the works on show at the wealthy American households that his mother was cleaning.
“You know, she couldn’t afford childcare,” he continues. “But it was an interesting experience because it allowed me to exist in both worlds. I had sort of an ‘in’ into that world - I could observe it. I would say the first time I encountered art was through one of my mom’s bosses, who actually ran an art school. They said ‘Oh, your son’s very into art. He should come along to the classes for free’. So I got into the arts kind of like that.”
Image Credit - Oliver Herbert
THE JOURNEY
Jose moved to Margate four years ago with his partner, having fallen in love with the town during a decade’s worth of visits - also stating that the landscape reminds him a lot of northern California.
“I was teaching in Peckham and I kind of just got really exhausted by London,” he says. “Our friend’s grandmother owned a hotel here originally, so we would like to come back and forth and just sort of like hanging out by the sea, or in her Art Deco house in Cliftonville.”
Studio Lenca is now an internationally recognised visual artist working across mediums such as performance, video, painting and sculpture and exhibiting everywhere from Beirut to Miami and Seoul to Dubai. His work has been featured in press across the globe, too, from Esquire to French Vogue, but his journey into art started as he toured the world as a trained dancer, stopping off at the Edinburgh Festival, where he met his now partner.
“We had a long-distance relationship for a year before I moved to the UK,” explains Jose. “I would say that’s when my practice shifted from being a professional dancer to a visual artist. He was going to Edinburgh College of Art and I was sort of hanging around all of these visual artists. And also, you know, in London and Edinburgh there’s a lot of public institutions that are free. That wasn’t really something I did when I lived in the US because you have to pay to get into museums and galleries.”
Moving to London, Jose studied to become an art teacher at Goldsmiths university before eventually moving into creating pieces himself.
“My art practice has always been with me,” he says. “So I got into teaching art and then I became an artist because I understood that they were kind of both my artistic practice, being a teacher and being a visual artist who made work.”
Studio ‘Lenca’ - which refers to the name of the artist’s ancestors from El Salvador - art tells an autobiographical story and focuses on ideas surrounding difference, knowledge and visibility. His most recognised pieces include figures in colourful dress and large hats.
“The figures started as folkloric dancers from El Salvador,” says Jose. “But then I started to sort of understand that these figures were in direct response to my own personal history as an undocumented person. Because when you’re an undocumented person, you have to be small, you have to hide, you can’t sort of cause any attention to yourself because you might get deported. So these figures are the opposite of that. They assert power, they are bold, they’re wearing these hats, that are crown-like. The pieces are about taking up space and being visibly Latino, which is what I am.”
While his own life and experiences inform so much of his work, his mother’s journey from El Salvador to the US has also formed a kicking-off point for an artistic investigation into prejudices, pigeonholing and the stigma of being an immigrant.
“I do want to sit down one day and just ask her about it,” reflects Jose. “But she hasn’t offered those conversations. I imagine that it would be really difficult for her to speak about some of those issues.
“I just did a show in Beirut and it was called The Journey Becomes You. Because the journey is almost like the beginning of what happens. It’s like a catalyst for change.
“But what happens after living in the US undocumented, having to build a community, you know, having to improvise, make something out of nothing. All of those things are really like the long-lasting effect that these journeys have. And I think when we have discussions about immigration, especially here in Kent, we often talk about the start of these journeys, but actually these young people grow up to contribute to culture, they contribute to the society that we live in.”
Studio Lenca has also collaborated with Northdown Road group Arts Education Exchange to work with a group of young people who recently arrived in the UK - something that is seemingly happening more and more.
“I found it really inspiring because I was able to talk about my own journey and I was able to connect with them,” he says. “And that allowed them also to sort of feel comfortable, you know, maybe talking about some of their experiences and making work together, making paintings together.”
INFO: studiolenca.com
