Abigail DeVille, Resident Artist Lecture 2022

Abigail DeVille gives a lecture at Skowhegan spanning her vast, interdisciplinary practice which includes–but is not limited to–painting, sculpture, video, film, photography, installation, costume design, performance, writing, theatre and textiles. At the center of DeVille’s work is the importance of centering love in everything that she does; whether it is in the things she makes, the research she is doing, the story she is trying to tell, the materials she is collecting, the conversations she is having, or the bits of information that seem meaningless but that can ultimately become reshaped and recontextualized in different spaces. DeVille eloquently continues her lecture by explaining the need to dismantle internalized self hatred and to reflect on how the power of words, the power of voice and the power of a message have to carry over generations and plant seeds in people in order for them to understand the ways that they can see themselves.
DeVille continues her lecture by talking about the importance to set her practice up by a series of questions. Some of the questions are: How does DeVille understand history? How can DeVille see differently? What is the truth? What does it mean to make art centered on love? What is a practice of liberation? How can DeVille make space for others? DeVille also draws on the concept of the black hole, exploring the ways in which it can be seen as a metaphor for historical erasure. DeVille draws on this metaphor to think about invisible histories and invisible conversations and using this form as a compositional device to talk about things that are glaringly evident or histories that are not named. DeVille explores these ideas further by reflecting on the notion of the unchartered interior chaos; how there’s an infinite amount of unknowingness embedded in all of us and how we can draw on this to question how much we actually understand ourselves, our intentions, the decisions that we make from day to day, the things that we ingest, what things stick, what things we throw away consciously or unconsciously and all of the factors that make us who we are in the moment. These kinds of reflections have allowed DeVille to have a deeper recognition of self. DeVille continues her lecture by talking about the revolutionary impulses that live within all of us, and how this allows her to reflect on the future in a way that acknowledges both the past and the present. As the lecture comes to a close, DeVille reflects on the importance of an artist’s role to question why the world and the society has become the way it is, to think about how to tell a story that has been purposely smudged out through the material waste of the present, and how this has to do with consumption and desire; particularly to be aware of the ways in which there are forms of slavery put into place that give us pleasure whether we are consciously or unconsciously thinking about it. DeVille closes her lecture to once again returning to the idea of love; how for DeVille research is love, reading is love, sharing information with people is love, and tricking people into learning new things or creating new experiences for people is a loving act.