Interview with New York City-based artist Pacifico Silano
Pacifico Silano, born in 1986 in Brooklyn, NY, is a conceptual artist specializing in lens-based practices. Through his pictorial endeavours, he delves into the complexities & problems surrounding white masculinity and the pervasive capitalist stereotypes prevalent or hidden in the culture & history of the United States, drawing inspiration from archival gay pornography and the underground print culture of the latter half of the twentieth century. By incorporating the heritage of these visual languages, Silano's work serves as a subtle reflection on the interplay between identity and societal constructs, critically challenging conventional notions & perceptions.
Instead of simply scanning the photographs he has amassed, Silano employs a unique approach by capturing them using a camera as his tool. With meticulous attention to details & cultural codes, he strategically layers these archival images, intertwining them into collages. This process may be repeated multiple times, incorporating various sources, until a final composition is achieved. As he further manipulates the images through cropping, scaling, and highlighting specific elements (such as pixelated grain or paper fibres), his multifaceted approach results in a visually captivating, sensitive, and thought-provoking picture that invites viewers to reconsider their understanding of modern-day masculinity, inevitable desire, and common societal clichés. For a non-American viewer, perhaps the most interesting phenomenon to observe is the way he skilfully twists elements, archetypes, and characteristics (that are distant yet have become familiar in global pop-culture) into a completely intangible and yet self-conscious, even self-critical visual presence through his own creative praxis. He also commemorates the far-reaching impact of his field of research – not only highlighting the personal and subcultural tragedy of the AIDS epidemic, but also making the everyday experiences of the people involved frighteningly relatable and close in an abstract way.
His works have been exhibited in various group and solo shows at prominent institutions including the Bronx Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, & The Museum of Sex. Part of his oeuvre are also shown at the permanent collection at The Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Silano has received several recognitions, being awarded the Aaron Siskin Foundation Fellowship, the NYFA Fellowship in Photography, and being a finalist for the 2013 Aperture Foundation Portfolio Prize.
We met in Budapest last summer where he exhibited his first book, I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine at PaperLab Gallery which was a finalist for the Aperture Foundation Portfolio Prize and a nominee for the Paris Photo/Aperture First Book Prize 2021. However, our interview was conducted later via email.
What inspired you to focus on using vernacular, non-artistic images, and print culture as your main field? When did you first start working with archives?
I first started using archival images as a work around for my thesis project in grad school. Initially I wanted to create a body of work around the loss of my gay uncle due to complications of HIV. After he died, he was essentially erased from my family. Unfortunately, there were no photographs of him as a result. It forced me to think more broadly about ideas surrounding loss, longing, and the HIV/AIDS crisis within the LGBTQ community. I started to look at pictures and magazines of gay life that my uncle would have consumed to tell that story.
Pacifico Silano, Men Play Games, 2022, installation view
Could you walk us through your process of sourcing and selecting images for your projects? How do you decide which images to use?
I usually have a theme in mind and know what kind of image I am after. It’s a bit like hunting and gathering. I go through the materials on a search for something specific. I document it and create a collection of images that share a likeness or commonality.
Can you explain the technique of "reinforcing the gutter" in your editing strategy, as described in a recent article, and how omitting details plays a role in your artwork?
The gutter came about in my work as a result of working in institutional archives. It was a way of creating an image disruption without physically altering the contents of what was in the collection. The gutter is this thing we are meant to avoid both physically and metaphorically and I loved the idea of using that as a way to draw attention to certain aspects of the source material. What is revealed and concealed in my work allows the viewer to think about the frame of a photograph. What is going on outside of the crop of one of my pieces is just as important as what I eventually show. I use ambiguity to tell new narratives around the images I use.
How do you believe the conversion of archival images into artworks can help to preserve and present the heritage of marginalised social groups?
I think it can be such a powerful tool for remembrance. Though it’s not without its own pitfalls. Archives are all about decisions and whoever puts together an archive decides what is shown and what is forgotten. The archive is not a neutral space. They’re loaded with complexity and bias even with the best of intentions. It’s important to acknowledge that when setting out to make work with found imagery.
Although I first saw your work in Paris, from my perspective as a Central European, I see a distinctly American aesthetic in your art. Do you identify as an American artist, and if so, how important is that identity to you? Have you ever incorporated photographs from non-US sources in your work?
I am very much an American Artist and it’s a huge overarching theme of my work. My art could not exist without those signifiers of desire and the darker side that comes with it. I both love America and hate it. It’s full of so many contradictions and potential and yet rarely lives up to it. I have worked with a variety of source material over the years but find myself always drawn back to these familiar cliches of power, excess, desire, and violence that are so undeniably American.
Pacifico Silano, Men Play Games, 2022, installation view
In your previous series, Men Play Games, there was a notable presence of desire, bravado, and even a hint of violence in the portrayal of attraction. Can you share your thoughts on the current state of masculinity?
I see a lot of overlap between gay desire and the moment we are living through in America. There is a real push and pull with my work that reflects this. The images I work with are not one thing or another. They have a sense of ambiguity to them. They could be just as seductive to somebody as repulsive to another. That’s when things get really interesting.
The relationship between memory and photography has been a subject of theoretical and critical exploration for a long time. How does the concept of memory influence your artistic practice? What is the importance of private & collective memory for you?
I think about image culture every day. The photos you can close your eyes and see because you have been inundated with them your whole life. I love cliches and use them as a strategy within my art. So, a lot of my approach to working with appropriation is about collective memory. But even so, these images are meant to function on a personal level, and we all bring our own memories to them. I think that private and collective memory are inextricable. You can’t have one without the other.
Pacifico Silano, Men Play Games, 2022, installation view
Would you ever consider using digital images found on social media or in online archives?
Absolutely. I have not found the right project yet that would call for that. There are a lot of artists who have already worked with online archives so I would like to be able to add to that conversation as opposed to repeating what has already been said. But we will see!
Polaroid of Pacifico Silano
