Meet Mônica Lóss | Visual Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mônica Lóss and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mônica, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I like to think that producing art is the answer to a “deep desire”, something unfathomable and at the same time, a daily choice that is built with a lot of research, discipline and dedication. Looking back today, I realize that the way I looked at the world around me, even as a child, there was a restlessness and almost a need to perceive the beauty in banal things. However, I grew up in a small town in the interior of southern Brazil called Soledade, where contact with this world that I felt existed was very limited.
When I started the Visual Arts course, at university this “deep desire” found a place to develop. It was then that I understood that dedicating myself to art production as a professional path was possible, but more than that, it would be a way of relating to people and the world, of producing knowledge, questioning and reflecting on the passage and permanence of things and my own for life.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
When I went to university, my main training was with ceramics, which I used in photoperformance and installations and combined a wide variety of materials such as thread and wool, fabrics, wire and metals, clothing and household utensils. After I did a postgraduate course in Surface Design, which prompted me to investigate more about textiles and manual tecnics. I took a master’s in Arts and Education and later went to Spain to pursue a PhD in Arts and Education. The combination of fields in my training added layers to my artistic practice that went across different media.
When I moved to Barcelona, due to the demands of being a student and the need to adapt to a new life, I was unable to continue my artistic practice. A hiatus that lasted approximately 8 years, but gave rise to other priorities.
After 5 years living in Spain I moved to Brazil to live in São Paulo. I had a lot of expectations about returning to live in my country, but it was a time with many challenges and internal conflicts, a period when I had my son and completed my doctoral thesis. After becoming a mother I felt the need to return to research and produce art again as a path to reconnect with myself. The question was: how?
I lived in São Paulo for 4 years and during this period I slowly tried to rediscover my artistic practice, I made very small advances but I was still far from finding a way back.
The opportunity for me to resume my artistic research and start walking towards my professional development as an artist occurred with another new country change when we moved to the United States in 2016. Once again, I was faced with many challenges to adapt, but little by little, I was building paths and to slowly begin to structure a work routine and find myself again with my artistic research, which is what I have been doing ever since.
My artistic practice has been developing in the textile area where I work with fabrics, threads, wool, textile waste, discarded and or donated clothes among others. Many of these materials, I purchase in garage sales and thrift shops (not only textile elements, but small furniture and objects as well). This ends up influencing a lot the direction of each work, since it makes me adjust and encourages more unpredictability. On the one hand it can be a positive factor, as I go at a slower pace, which allows me to reflect much more on the process, but on the other hand, it is can mean I am constantly waiting for something, generating a feeling of incompleteness.
For the construction of my pieces, I am interested in exploring manual and traditional techniques such as weaving, sewing, crochet, embroidery, handmade dyeing, stamping, among others. However, I am not concerned with pursuing technical rigor, I explore other paths, combining solutions and possibilities and, in this way, finding something more personal. For this reason, I like to think that my works are “textile constructions” that are not limited or are not defined by the techniques I use, but they are an adhesion of attempts to test limits and bring out the importance of rescue and displacement of “manual making” as a poetic possibility.
At a certain moment, my work began to point out other specificities and, along with textile research, again, I incorporated works in other media such as photography, drawings, videos, performances and installations, enabling new developments for my practice.
Currently, I investigate the ritualistic dimension of manual crafts as a practice of individual and collective reinvention, I create fables about territories, bodies and other natures. I am interested in delving into the genealogy of identities that arise from the sense of not belonging triggered by immigration processes.
My work lives in the practice of collecting insignificances, detachments and accumulations, interested in the memory load of these materialities and as a strategy to interfere in the destiny and permanence of things in the world.
Having these questions as a starting point allows me to constantly revisit concepts that are part of my personal construction, as a woman and artist, but above all, connects me to much broader and diverse narratives that start from a particular context, but dialogue with a very complex and constantly moving whole.
My goals as a visual artist are to develop an artistic practice with coherence, honesty and depth and to build a professional trajectory that allows me to explore my experiences and that in some way they can also reach and awaken in others the desire to see beyond things.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’ve been living here for a year and in that time I’ve already discovered several incredible places and some of them are my favorites!
If I had to do an itinerary with a friend, I would definitely start with Balboa Park, which is a place I love to visit, because in addition to the different museums, which please all tastes, you can eat really well! I would then recommend taking a walk around La Jolla, walking along the shores, going to La Jolla Cove to see the sea lions and then spending some time strolling through the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego and ending the day watching the sunset at sunset cliffs. That would be perfect!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Throughout my career, I have been lucky enough to meet many incredible people. In every place I’ve been and lived, I’ve made friends that I’ll take with me forever. Teachers, colleagues, groups of artists I was or am still part of, friends I’ve known for many years, people I’ve worked with and even people I’ve met briefly, but who left significant marks on my history. As I write, many people come to mind, people who supported me and believed in my potential, or even gave me the opportunity to show my work and share my ideas. Fortunately, there are many people who I feel that if I quote someone I risk being unfair and they all deserve recognition for their generosity and my gratitude. But something I can’t miss the chance to mention is the unconditional support from my family, my parents, Maria Lêda and Léu, my son Liam and my husband Barry. They are always with me!

Website: https://www.monicaloss.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monicalossart/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/monicalossart

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKrdN2-XQlnoxZrrrccJ8kg