Interview Series #30: Marlo Eggplant

  The NO PART OF IT Interview series was a strain of questions sent to a number of different people between February and March 2019. Each entry was scheduled chronologically to be thrust upon the world on a monthly basis since then. Each individual is introduced informally as if they were being discussed at a bar. 

 

Marlo De Lara (also known as Marlo Eggplant) did an interview for the most recent no part of it interview series!   Marlo is a classically trained experimental recording artist and performer with a powerful voice, and De Lara has toured much of Europe as well as other countries.   Originally from Baltimore, and active since the 90s, she runs the Ladyz In Noyz compilation series, as well as the Corpus Callosum label.   

http://corpuscallosumdistro.com/

 

1.  What types of things have you been getting into lately?

mostly baking. field recordings, decolonization of the arts and language. the color yellow. unprocessed vocals. digestive health. activism. feminist collectives. plants.

2.  What you do, do you do it as an artist, or is it a hobby? 

i do it as an artist and a way to manage life and my feeeeeelings.

3.  How would you describe what you do?

sound performance response and  documentations

4.  How would you describe your creative progression over the years, in a brief synopsis?

peristalsis 

5.  How would you describe your philosophy?

(un)intentional processes

6.  Do you believe in psychics, magic, ghosts, or gods?

all of the above

7.  What would you say was your most definitive experience?

when my father got refused service at a mcdonald’s when i was a kid because of his Filipino appearance and his ‘accent’.

8.  Do you have any side projects that I am not aware of? If not, what is something you'd like people to know about you, that you don't think anyone would ever ask?

not really. you and i are super close. most ppl know my schtick that i make responsive abstracted art and academic stuff due to my political disenchantment with the world. i am really emotional and attached to friends and causes. i like the domestic arts a lot. ironically despite all that i am actually not very social and happily a hermit in my internal world.

9.  Would you care to name any theoretical "desert island" records, or at least releases that you think are approaching your concept of "perfect”? 

experimental film: yoko ono fly (1971) , album:  free kitten - nice ass (1994), book: grapefruit - yoko ono, graphic novel: potential, poem: maya angelou - still i rise

10.  What is the earliest childhood memory you can recall?  

looking straight up the kitchen counter to the underside of a turquoise plate of cookies and wishing i could reach it, while listening to american television and adult conversations in tagalog

11.  Are you able to appreciate other peoples' creative work regardless of their personal shortcomings or inherent flaws?  To what extent? 

mostly unless i have a visceral response to their social harm. then i just can’t. but i believe in context and individuality and effect/affect. so it really depends on the work.

12.  Do you have any heroes or heroines?  Who are they?

my mom and the women who have come before me

13.  What would you like to have on your epitaph?  Or what is your favorite quote? 

lately it is this: Cornel West — 'I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.’