HOW LONG DOES HONESTY LAST?
Mexico City, December 2022
Born and raised in Yucatán, Mexico, BÁRBARA SÁNCHEZ-KANE is without a doubt one of the most important Mexican artists of her generation. If she quickly established herself in the fashion world with her concept Macho Sentimental through which she deconstructs gender issues, her art and reflections are much broader still. Combining performance, clothing, accessory and object making, sculpture and even painting, Bárbara’s work is all at once ironic and political, sensible and committed. Her studio, now located in the area of La Roma in Mexico City, reflects the world she created in which she keeps exploring her own reality. After photographing her in this space, we sat in two chairs she created and dived into an intimate conversation, talking about beauty, honesty and therapy.
Could you briefly explain to us your concept of Macho Sentimental?
I created this concept in 2016. It is a way of saying that nothing is established and that we don’t belong to anywhere specifically. The feeling of belonging changes every single day, it’s not anchored, just like my practice isn’t either. It is like carving a certain disobedience, or dissidence; a symbolic space that rejects tradition and embraces alterity. Macho Sentimental is about reimagining new ways of living, of being, better versions of ourselves.
How do you look at gender questions today?
We’ve talked a lot about these issues. To be honest, I’m a bit tired of talking about gender and Macho Sentimantal. Meanwhile, I still understand these questions as we are tangled as subjects-objects of desire and production occupied by social relation of power.
Does that make you feel better?
Well, my work is an extension of my therapy in a way. It is part of the process to better understand myself even if art is not going to completely save me of course, I’m not that hopeful. [Laughs.] Feeling better is for me a combination of therapy, support groups and making art. This is a hard process, and you need a lot of tools nowadays to survive.
So, becoming an artist was a necessity?
I never told myself I would be an artist, because I grew up in a very non-creative environment. Younger, I was told that creativity was about making a certain type of beauty – the beauty in an aesthetic aspect, as a surface. I didn’t expect that all the images I had inside my head could become reality because I didn’t think I could imagine my own beauty. Then came a moment I started feeling very depressed and lost while I was following the path I was supposed to. Depending on where you grow up, you are expected to become someone in particular and do specific things. At some point, I just realized I was very unhappy, and I had to change my point of view.
Why did you start with fashion?
It’s funny because fashion can be seen as something very superficial at first, just like beauty. When I studied fashion in Florence, I understood that beauty comes in different ways, with different meanings and times. I find something beautiful when I see it coming with all the layers that are usually hidden within. In my case, clothing is the !rst layer. Beauty comes with time because it takes time to perceive all the layers, as well as showing yourself as you are at the moment. For example, today I have very low energy and I wasn’t afraid to let it appear in the pictures we took. These lower energies are part of human existence, they are one state of the being, one layer of beauty.
So, you feel the beauty rather than looking at it?
Yes. Beauty happens when something moves you. When it reminds you of something and brings you back to a story, a souvenir, or when I transport you in the future and give you a bit of hope.
Maybe it is related to honesty, to a desire for truth?
I think honesty is something very dicult and we are skipping it sometimes, because we are always kind of creating our own portrait. The way we dress, the way we relate to people, the way we present ourselves on social media. Everything is related to how we want people to see us, because we are very afraid of how people perceive us. But at some point, I think we realize that everything is bullshit, and we start wondering “Am I actually faking something I am truly feeling?”
Do you feel honest when you produce?
Sometimes I don’t, but that’s part of questioning myself again and again. You’re a different person every day, so you’re not exactly the same person when you create something, and the day after when you look at it. The answer I have today will maybe be completely different tomorrow. How long does honesty last?
I think you at least want to try and be honest about the vision of the world you propose. And it’s not only about fashion, because you also create a lot of objects, sculptures, paintings, performances, ... In the end you make your own reality.
I try to enjoy the way I see the world at this moment, and then I will see what comes next. The reality I bring through my work is always going to be altered by the person who is going to walk in it. That’s the beauty of it. Some images are going to talk to some people and some others won’t. I don’t expect to do something everybody likes, neither being someone everyone loves. But you know, the anxiety of our time is that people forget you from one day to the next. This is why I try to keep my distance from social media, otherwise you easily start thinking the quality of your projects is measured by the numbers of likes you get. I hope this anxiety goes away. We just have to do what we want to do, otherwise we lose our honesty.
You said clothing was one of your layers. What about performance? Do you feel more in danger than when you are making fashion?
I don’t feel in danger, but there is more vulnerability. If you think about it, performance can be one of the most honest ways to show your failure. For example, when I look at the video of the performance I did at Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2019, I still see the sadness I was feeling at this time – I’m a Scorpio, and God I wish I wasn’t so dramatic! [Laughs.] The performance was actually the exact picture of my state of mind, and I didn’t plan it to be. At this moment, I needed to do a performance to keep moving on. Performing is not only about how you’re going to affect people who are watching you, it’s also about expulsing something out of you in the way you are feeling at that very moment. You know, there is always failure somewhere. Nobody wants to see it while we actually should embrace it too.
Indeed! I also believe beauty remains in failure, but it requires some self-confidence to assume it. Do you feel confident?
Yes, I do, but sometimes I don’t and when I wake up I want to disappear. But that’s ok, because I’m not the only one.
How do you feel today?
I am very happy to be able to do work that I enjoy and to keep exploring. I’m happy with the people I met while creating my vision of this world. And I’m happy to invite people on a chair I created to look at the world through my gaze, just like we’re doing now. I’m ready to start different projects too, and to continue therapy. [Laughs.]
What are you working on now?
Maybe the collapse of everything – my sculpture work, my fashion work, ... I don’t know, having nothing to sell. My work is a tool I continue to develop to better understand life. Maybe it will speak to one single person in the end, and that’s enough.
Interview and photography by Hanna Pallot