Life, Liberty, and Lale
Georgia Lale (they/them) is a visual and performance artist from Athens who is now based in Brooklyn, NY.
In between small bites of flaky croissants and light sips of cappuccinos, we spoke with Georgia to learn more about their work and perspectives on art, activism, and creation.
December 2023 - No. 11
#OrangeVest Brooklyn Bridge. ©Georgia Lale Studio 2015. Photo by George Xourafas
Along a wooden path that is almost two thousand feet long and one hundred nineteen feet above water is a group of individuals walking in all black with bright orange life vests settled over their chests. The group is quiet and focused, their legs shaking with every step as the beams beneath them rattle from the force of the cars whooshing down below. This group of volunteers marches in solidarity with Syrian refugees and aims to bring awareness to the crisis with each stride. The leader of this pack is determined and moving steadily forward– their name is Georgia Lale.
This peaceful performance took place in November 2015 on the Brooklyn Bridge. It was one of the first of Lale’s now numerous public intervention performances and was operated once a month from October 2015 until October 2016 in several landmarked public spaces in cities like New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and at the European Quarters in Brussels. This series is entitled #OrangeVest and was conceived to mirror and expose the dangerous journeys that refugees experience on their way to build a new life. Both of Lale’s grandfathers were refugees who migrated from Turkey to Greece, so Lale is familiar with the inevitable trials involved in this life change.
“I believe every piece of art that is created is political. It is political because we are social beings and no matter what we do, we cannot escape from reflecting our times,” proclaims Lale. Their #OrangeVest series might feel overtly political, but there is a twinge of advocacy in each of Lale’s artworks and performances, including when they explore personal topics and experiences they have faced and are facing.
Lale grew up in Athens among an artistic family. Their father, Charis Lale, is a sculptor and printmaker who has created many monuments in the capital and their brothers, Kostas and Petros, are artists as well. In a family so creative, with parents who fully supported their children’s artistic endeavors, Lale found the strength to chase life as an artist, an occupation not many are lucky enough to wholeheartedly pursue and succeed at. After completing a BFA/MFA degree in sculpture in Athens in 2013, Lale traveled to New York City to study for their MFA in Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts through a scholarship from the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation.
“Things are very fluid here and they are always progressing,” says Lale about New York City and their decision to stay after graduating school. “I feel as if there is always an essence of acceptance in the city. It does not matter where you came from, if you work hard and are devoted to your craft, the city is going to reward you.”
Reward them, the city has. Since living full-time in New York, Lale has participated in the A.I.R. Biennale (2023), Art in Odd (AiOP) festival (2022), and the Venice International Performance Art Week in Italy (2022), to name a few. They have exhibited at Smack Mellon and Border Project Space and have been invited to speak about their work at the MoMA Archives and Yale University. Lale was part of the TransBorder Art TV Residency on Governors Island this past October and will be the first artist to exhibit their work at the Greek Consulate in New York for its Carte Blanche Project, a new series of bi-monthly art exhibitions that showcases the work of Greek artists who live in New York. This show opened on December 15.
“Communicating with the world through my art is my main priority,” says Lale. “It is not an easy life, but it is the life that I chose for myself.” Through their art practice and activism, Lale explores the human body’s imprint on the social and political realm of contemporary society. Their works are provocative and, at times, uncomfortable because of the type of intimacy they exude. However intense these artworks may be, they are always personal and moving. Lale has proven time and again that they are unafraid to break cultural and personal boundaries to shed new light on topics and start new public movements.
During the 2021 Art in Odd Places festival in New York, Lale performed “A Public Cleansing” in between two subway exits on 14th Street and 6th Avenue. “A Public Cleansing” was a three-hour long performance where Lale carefully and slowly hand-washed hospital gowns, some of which were their own. Curated by Furusho von Puttkammer, this performance was inspired by Lale’s one-week isolation that followed their thyroid cancer treatment with radioactive iodine. Due to the high dose of radioactivity that was given to them, they were not allowed to be around any person or animal for fear of contamination and health damage. The performance was a commentary on the challenges and limitations of the American healthcare system as well the vulnerability of the body against viruses, diseases, and impersonal cities such as New York. A snapshot of this performance was printed on the front page of The Villager News by amNewYork.
Cancer, an invisible disability as Lale references it, has transformed their life and understanding of the preciousness of time and its limits. This is a sentiment that Lale integrates into their daily life and also their art– say it now or you may never get the chance, create it now, or someone else will.
Lale has been working with hospital gowns since 2019 since they were first diagnosed with thyroid cancer. During the down-time of the pandemic, Lale started cutting up this fabric and sewing the pieces back together to form new shapes and objects. It was during this experimentation that they discovered the art of quilting, a laborious hobby and symbol of American family values and celebrations. This led to the creation of “404,770 on Inauguration Day,” an American flag installation that was made out of hospital gowns that were donated by first responders and recovered COVID-19 patients. The title references the total number of deaths in America from the official start of the pandemic until January 20, 2021. The broad stripes and bright stars of this flag might have honored those who passed away from COVID-19 and the first responders who persevered through this time, but also criticized the lack of unity in the country and its failed healthcare system.
Lale’s quilted projects have extended beyond hospital gowns and into other materials and topics as well. “Neighborhood Guilt,” a new piece that was debuted at the Greek Consulate this month for its Carte Blanche Project, is a quilt in the shape of the Greek Flag. It commemorates the victims of femicide globally and more specifically, the numerous women who were murdered in Greece in 2022. It is composed of bed sheets that were donated by women that live in Greece and it has twenty two houses sewn onto it, each with details about the victims such as their names, age, and day and location of death. Lale has once again transformed the quilt, a symbol of domestic faith, comfort, and love, into an emblem of brutality.
“I do not have ownership over how people perceive art, but for me it is all about awareness. This means that the audience is present with the work. If I can grasp someone’s attention through my art – even for three seconds – that makes a huge difference and that is activism,” declares Lale.
A theme within this activism that Lale describes is humanity— compassion for what is right and just in the world. It is rare for Lale to experience a reflection of this type of kindness and understanding directly from their audience, but these moments do happen. For example, during “A Public Cleansing” on 14th Street, a woman who was captured by Lale’s production entered into their performance area to remove bits of rubbish that landed near their feet to clean up the surroundings and allow the artist to continue to move around without disruption. In another instance, a man handed Lale his coat and gloves after the artist’s intense five-hour long performance entitled “Fragile Monuments” where Lale repeatedly put on and took off a hospital gown while twirling around barefoot under a Murano glass chandelier in a 17th century palazzo in Italy for the Venice International Performance Art Week in January 2020.
As an artist who was raised in Athens and relocated to New York, Lale relies on both of these cultural communities to cultivate their practice, build friendships, and explore opportunities. The artist insists that the balance between these two communities is key for them to fulfill their practice.
Artists such as Stephen Antonakos and Chryssa initially shaped Lale’s perception of the power of New York City. Now, Lale gets to work alongside artists and organizations of a similar caliber in the same city that enchanted them for so long. Lale has worked with Greek-born American artist Eleni Mylonas, the Stephen Antonakos Foundation, Greece in USA, and now the Greek Consulate in New York for exhibitions, performances, and events. It is this Greek community in New York City that provides Lale with comfort, which is why it is essential that they expand into unfamiliar territories. It is through this exploration into the other multicultural groups of the city that enriches this artist’s life and provides them with new ways to learn, grow, and develop, a benefit that Lale does not think could be possible anywhere else.
Keep up with Georgia Lale on their Instagram @georgia_lale_studio.
Portraits of Georgia were photographed by Stephan Vlachos for Kalo Mina.
