Photo by MPW (2018)
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, artist Marlo De Lara received a PhD in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds and an MA in Psychosocial Studies at the Centre of Psychoanalytic Studies at Essex. Their practice works within the realms of sound performance, visual distraction, and film. Previously under the moniker ‘marlo eggplant’, sound works are textural compositions which develop from microscopic tone landscapes into dense and expansive states of noise. The works aim to blur the definitions of the (un)intentional and the myth of permanence.
De Lara was a 2021 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow and co-facilitator for the Year 4 Cohort of the program. The Intercultural Leadership Institute is a year-long intensive leadership experience for artists, culture bearers and other arts practitioners. ILI is a collaborative program of Alternate ROOTS, First Peoples Fund, National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures (NALAC) and PA’I Foundation.
De Lara is also the Director of Grants and Community Care at the Los Angeles experimental transmedia artspace Coaxial Art Foundation, an active participant in the Sonic Cyberfeminisms cohort, a co-administrator for the Black Asian Minority Ethnic Women in Academia Group, and founder of Ladyz in Noyz arts collective.
“Using found objects, installation, and various forms of amplification, I assemble environments and structures that use sound to impart meaning and affect for the participant. While I assemble installations and sound sculptures, it is the interaction between sound, the visual work, and the story of those that encounter the work. I use video and film in my practice as well as live performances of improvised sound. My work is often informed by my experience as the child of Filipino migrants of the ‘brain drain’ and my coming of age. The work is created through an unabashed feminist sociopolitical practice/research that editorializes on contemporary global conditions. ”