A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Clown

In this class, artists Andie Flores and Cynthia Muñoz (Payasa) will give a short presentation on the influences and process behind their self-portraiture work, giving students insight into their practice and context for the assignment. Then, students will break out into pairs to use found objects and props, costumes, wigs, and makeup to model Payasa’s process and develop cohesive personas that work together as well as tell a story that integrates public space. Students will utilize self-timed photography to document the characters and environment they’ve created.

ARTIST BIO

Andie Flores and Cynthia Muñoz are two multidisciplinary Austin-based artists who create self-portraiture work together as Payasa, an ongoing narrative exploration of vibrant and twisted images where two shapeshifting clowns boldly insert themselves into isolated landscapes. Their work places viewers in direct confrontation with its subjects while straddling the line between the humorous and haunting. Using photography, they create vibrant self portraits, reframing the viewer’s understanding of spaces that have become rote. Their work is rasquache in nature and cutting in tone, with influences from chola culture, artists from the Memphis Group, and fashion designers like Bárbara Sánchez-Kane.