{"id":5094,"date":"2018-01-10T09:19:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T14:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=5094"},"modified":"2018-01-11T12:15:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T17:15:58","slug":"shantell-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/01\/10\/shantell-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"Shantell Martin Draws Everywhere And On Everything As She Tries To Answer \u2018Are You You?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shantell Martin is known for drawing faces and stick figures, trees and ladders, eyes and birds across long white walls and all over rooms. With her black pens and markers, she adds inspirational slogans: \u201cBe well \/ eat well \/ do well,\u201d \u201cSit be breathe,\u201d \u201cAre your lights on,\u201d \u201cNew you \/ New who \/ New York,\u201d \u201cResist the usual,\u201d \u201cNow who do you wish to be \/ Count to one two free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two questions appear again and again, written in her drawings and stickers: \u201cWho Are You\u201d and \u201cAre You You.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a seed. Also, I\u2019m obsessed. It doesn\u2019t matter how educated we are, how well traveled \u2026 we all stumble to answer this question. As an artist I ask, \u2018What are the words that describe who we are at the core?\u2019\u201d says Martin, who speaks at Northeastern University at 4 this afternoon in connection with an exhibit of her art on view at the Boston school\u2019s Gallery 360<\/a> through March 12.<\/p>\n

\"Shantell<\/a>
Shantell Martin. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t know how to answer it.\u201d Martin says. \u201cI don\u2019t know if we have the words to describe who we are without describing where we\u2019re from and what we do and the roles we play. Which is crazy. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever had an existential moment: Why am I here? If we know who we are as people, we\u2019d be able to answer that question of why we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the question intrigues her, she says, \u201cbecause I\u2019m mixed race and because of where I grew up in London. And fundamentally it affects all of us. \u2026 It\u2019s worth planting that seed to see where it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shantell<\/a>
Shantell Martin’s art at Northeastern University’s Gallery 360. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As to her own background: \u201cMy Mom\u2019s English and my Dad\u2019s Nigerian, but my Step-Dad\u2019s English. So all my stepbrothers are blonde and blue eyes. Then I grew up in a white working class council estate [public housing] in southeast London.\u201d<\/p>\n

She still speaks in the accent of her childhood Thamesmead neighborhood. \u201cI didn\u2019t know I was black when I was younger,\u201d Martin says. \u201cIt\u2019s an interesting perspective of walking out of the house and people bringing it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

She went on to study graphic design at Central St. Martin\u2019s University. Then she moved to Tokyo in 2003, where she VJed (\u201cvisual jockey\u201d), projecting her drawings atop DJs and dancers and musicians in clubs. In Japan, she says, \u201cyou\u2019re Japanese or you\u2019re a foreigner. So I\u2019m quite happy to play that role.\u201d<\/p>\n

She moved to New York in 2009. She currently splits her time between Brooklyn and an art studio in Jersey City, New Jersey. In the United States, \u201cI get treated one way and then I open my mouth and I get treated different in certain situations\u201d because of her London accent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t bring these things to the table in my work in a sense. The work is to be free,\u201d Martin says. \u201cI want it to inspire. I want people to smile. I want people to look at it and think they can go do it in their own way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shantell<\/a>
Shantell Martin with one of her wall drawings. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In New York, she found \u201cthey didn\u2019t have this VJ scene or this club scene that they had in Japan. So I kind of devolved into pens, into analog.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do something very simple, I work with line,\u201d Martin says. \u201cThe work is to try to master that line and make it a line that is recognizably mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI draw in black and white,\u201d Martin says. \u201cIt\u2019s for the purpose of being calming and creating a space where people are drawn into it in different ways. With color our brain tells us where to look. With black and white it\u2019s more of a discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her drawing and VJing led to designing shoes for Adidas<\/a> and VJing at New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art. She was a visiting scholar in social computing at MIT\u2019s Media Lab in 2014 and \u201915. In 2016, she VJed for a live set by rapper Kendrick Lamar<\/a> in a dome on the beach at Art Basel Miami. (\u201cHe\u2019s super chill,\u201d she says. \u201cObviously hardworking, humble. His whole crew is really nice. Somebody who is obsessed with and doing what they love.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Last year she had a solo show at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery<\/a> in Buffalo and she launched a line of sunglasses through Max Mara<\/a>. In February, she\u2019s scheduled to launch a line of shoes, apparel and accessories through Puma.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if I\u2019m working with a scientist or a researcher or a French fashion show or doing a museum show,\u201d Martin says. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s all my art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shantell<\/a>
Shantell Martin’s art at Northeastern University’s Gallery 360. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her Northeastern show includes black marker drawings running across a rainbow of hues sprayed along eight canvases. Color isn\u2019t exactly new to her work. In the United States, she\u2019s known for her black and white drawings, but she says she worked a lot in color when she lived in Tokyo. The inspiration for adding color again, she says, is \u201cIt\u2019s a new year, new beginnings. Being in Jersey City, they have these amazing sunsets.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the bottom of one canvas, she’s written, \u201cDon\u2019t hide in the corners.”<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us hide ourselves,\u201d she says. \u201cWe hide our true selves. We don\u2019t put ourselves out of the corner because it\u2019s vulnerable, it\u2019s intimidating. It\u2019s kind of a note to self to continue to push, to continue to challenge, to continue to be yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is her own answer to \u201cWho are you\u201d and \u201cAre You You\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to figure it out,\u201d Martin says. \u201cThat\u2019s the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Help WONDERLAND keep producing our great coverage of local arts by contributing to Wonderland’s Launch Fundraiser<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Shantell<\/a>
Shantell Martin wall drawing. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shantell<\/a>
Shantell Martin wall drawing. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shantell<\/a>
Shantell Martin drawing. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shantell<\/a>
Shantell Martin wall drawing. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shantell<\/a>
Shantell Martin drawing. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shantell<\/a>
Shantell Martin wall drawing. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shantell Martin is known for drawing faces and stick figures, trees and ladders, eyes and birds across long white walls and all over rooms. With her black pens and markers, she adds inspirational slogans: \u201cBe well \/ eat well \/ do well,\u201d \u201cSit be breathe,\u201d \u201cAre your lights on,\u201d \u201cNew you \/ New who \/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[37,207],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5094"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5134,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5094\/revisions\/5134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}