“Naudline Pierre: A Place Other Than Here” | Art21 "New York Close Up"

(ambient music)

- Fantasy for me is survival.

It's not just pleasure.

It's,

essential.

It has been, I think for my whole life.

(ambient music)

(object rattling)

I am Naudline Pierre.

I am an artist.

I make paintings,
sculpture, works on paper

that explore an alternate
universe with celestial beings

and other worldly creatures,
and a main character

or protagonist who is growing

and sort of shares a
likeness to me, but isn't me.

(ambient piano music)

I was able to hang on to this sense

of fantasy from a young
age due to necessity.

I was born into a family

that had really strong religious beliefs.

(ambient piano music)

I had a ton of fear as a kid.

I think there was a fear of
not being righteous enough

to make it to the next spot

and that I would get left
behind here in the world

that didn't quite work out
in the failed experiment.

And here I am, almost 35
and still here. (laughs)

(ambient and string music)

Thinking about flying and
burning and destroying

and creating and loving
and hating and raging.

Like I can just do all
of that in the studio

and I can do that through the stories

that these characters
are allowing me to tell.

(ambient music)

Sometimes I come into the
studio and nothing's happening,

and I have to

sit and stare and wait
for these characters

to allow me in,

and these characters give me the okay.

A lot of the time I
feel myself asking them

to make themselves known to me.

Who are they?

I don't exactly know, and I like

to kind of keep the mystery there.

(ambient music)

I have these characters

that are just like a
head connected to wings.

And then I have characters that have arms

and legs and wings.

And then I have guardians,

which are really, really tall beings.

And then I have the central
figure who is more human

and doesn't have the appearance

of these celestial beings,

but is learning how to
harness her own powers

to sort of fly on her own.

I think "I, A Terror
Loosed Upon Your Heels"

was a really pivotal work for me

because it was one of the first works

where the central figure is
leading a charge in motion.

She's riding a chariot of fire,

being pulled by celestial beings.

(ambient music)

For me, that work is very powerful

because she's holding
herself up surrounded

by these other supportive characters

and it's kind of like, yeah, "I'm a terror

and I'm coming after you."

(ambient music)

I think I look for places
where I can feel that thing

that you can't really express

with words that you feel in your heart.

One of my favorite places in the city,

I would have to say
would be the cloisters.

It just feels really good to be in a place

where I feel a lot of inspiration.

It transports me to another time.

I think what attracts me to
that time period is the fact

that these are very much European males

and they probably weren't
thinking about someone like me

when they were making the work.

That I get to take whatever
I want from history

and reframe it all to
include what I wanna see.

(ambient music)

At an early age I just was always thinking

about things unseen and
fantastical imagery and beasts

and prophecies and the end of the world.

I think this idea of celestial beings,

stars, flames, serpents,

it connects to a sort of unseen world

and I grew up with a lot
of that kind of language.

(ambient music)

Growing up, it was just understood that

this wasn't my final home,
that there was another one

that was being built
for me somewhere else,

and if I just hung on long enough,

I'd make it to that place.

And so being able to make another place

where I call the shots,
it's a nice feeling.

(traffic sounding)
(horn blowing)

Now that I'm an adult,
I can kind of understand

how and why I am who I am.

I embody different aspects
of myself, different aspects

of these creatures that I'm painting.

It's about embracing my own multiplicity

and drawing power from change.

I am learning from the
characters who are allowing me

to show them as they change, as they grow

they are many in one.

(synth music)