Denton Black Film Festival: Artist Lauren Kelley on Texas femininity, power of play

By Ileana Garnand

The Denton Black Film Festival kicks off its 10-year anniversary this week, with screenings, concerts, art exhibits and more.

Prominently featured at the festival is Lauren Kelley — a visual artist, curator and cultural producer who works in various media. In recent years, her primary medium has been stop-motion animation. She is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Kelley is the director of the Texas Institute for the Preservation of History & Culture at Prairie View A&M University.

At the 2024 Denton Black Film Festival, Kelley’s work can be found at the opening art reception and in two exhibits. She also will be featured in artist talks and a student workshop. Kelley spoke to LoneStarLive.com about her work, influences and coming home to Texas.

Question: What drew you to stop-motion?

Answer: It kind of was an instinctual thing. I’ve always made things that I could photograph. I made sculptures; I used to make a lot of costumes and put those in front of the camera. The end result would be the photograph because sometimes the costume was harder to hold on to.

Then I realized that there were all kinds of things I could make with my hands and then light in a certain way and add drama and life to. I’m just more satisfied with it. I haven’t gotten bored with it.

Q: You’re featured heavily in the Denton Black Film Festival, with multiple exhibits, talks and a workshop. What are you looking forward to the most?

A: Just getting to know Denton. I’ve never been, but the mythology of all the great people that come out of (the University of North Texas) is huge, so I cannot wait to see this campus, and Texas Woman’s (University) is just an incredible place.

I’m a Texan. I’ve kind of been around the world — at least around the United States — and back and I love my state. I’m back now because I’ve been really paying more attention to my family, my parents, so I’m in Texas a lot more and it’s just so great to have this opportunity to learn more about the state that I love so much.

Q: What work will be included in your festival exhibits?

A: At TWU, it’s going to be a screening of six animated works on the themes of intimacy, being exposed, things working out, things not working out. It’s about dreams, everyday life and the weird, hard-to-determine line between the two spaces. That’s a point of departure for all of these works, and then I just curated them according to that.

Then what’s at UNT is a mural, some designs for these snow globes I’ve been designing for about two years. And that’s really the show; it’s super simple. It’s an ambitious space to work with, so I decided to just pare down to six different images and put them on the wall. So, it’s a pretty sparse show, but I hope it’s fun and what you get to observe is satisfying.

Q: Do your experiences as a Texan inform your art?

A: Oh, absolutely. I was born in Baltimore, but raised in Houston. Now I’m really bouncing between New York and Texas with my family here and there.

When I moved back to Texas for my job (at Prairie View A&M University), it was like seeing my home for the first time, even though I knew it in and out. I remember just the lush femininity here. There’s a very distinct brand of performing woman in Texas and that’s not a downfall, that’s not a joke. It just became an observation. In a place like New York or even Chicago, the world is just a little bit more harsh. It’s colder; there’s public transportation, so there’s more pedestrian activity there. Here, there is warmth. Everybody has a car. It’s a princess world. So, that kind of informed my playing with the dolls. I was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to render the world like I’ve never realized I’d seen it before.”

It morphed into more than just needing to work with dolls. It was just this fantastic plastic energy. I found myself on eBay. I still am all the time, finding miniature items that have this off-kilter glow, because I think that’s also very Texas. Texas women are not what you think. Women in general, there’s no sense of one dimension. But more often than not, there’s a desire to package it as one thing. So, that’s all very Texas, the femininity here and that triggered that desire to render it. It was kind of mind-blowing, to be that, to not be that and to pay attention to it more with respect.

Q: This year’s festival theme is sharing joy within the Black community and beyond. Does any of your work connect with that theme?

A: Oh, without a doubt. Before the term was coined, “Black joy,” I didn’t need that term. In a way, I think it’s a little bit of an oxymoron because there’s just so much greatness and fun and power and joy in the world that I know. I hang out with all kinds of people, but my home, my family unit is Black. So, it’s kind of like Black joy is a little bit of a redundancy.

I definitely believe in the power of play. I was born in the ‘70s, raised in the ‘80s and ‘90s. I consider that when I racialize the conversation. I know that my parents and my grandparents did a lot of fighting and postured their bodies and lives in ways that didn’t always afford the space for play. But as a result of it, I’m the fruit of that energy. My generation is the fruit of the civil rights movement, and there’s a lot of space for playing. Rap music and hip hop music and playing with records and pre-existing sound, that’s all indulging in a great place to express. My work is all about that. Marveling in the opportunity to not be mired in duress and the duress of having to fight. Having the option to play is a very powerful political space for me. So, yes, absolutely.