David Baboila
Grad 2018
Studio art (focus on graphic design and photography)
David Baboila is a transdisciplinary artist currently based out of Tucson Arizona. He is pursuing his MFA in Photo, Video, and Imaging. He uses photography, design, video and etc. exploring technology and how society engages with it on a cultural level.
If you could meet any artist/designer from any era, who would you want to have dinner with?
While I attended Augsburg, my dream was to have dinner with the photographer Frank Gohlke and I am humbled to be able to say that I now have! I even get to use his darkroom!! Now it’s a tough choice. Designer? Absolutely Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, no question. Artist? Right now it would be a toss-up between Martha Rosler, Shirin Neshat, and Wolfgang Tillmans.
What have you been up to since graduation?
After graduation, I had been doing a lot of freelance design and photography. In August of 2019, I moved to Tucson Arizona to pursue my MFA in the Photo, Video, and Imaging department at the University of Arizona! I still do some freelance work but all of my time is taken up by making art, writing, reading, and teaching now but hey, no complaints here!
What does your creative practice look like now?
My practice has grown exponentially regarding its complexity and undertakings. I still take a lot of photographs, but I have been working a lot with sculpture/installation and video now as well. I spend a lot of time engaged in research and exploration of concepts revolving around the use and impact of space. More specifically I have become obsessed with how space is defined through politics, normative social values, and desire. This involves exploring the construction and use of fences, examining the ways they operate and what they signify beneath their surface value. Recently I have begun looking at the legacy and impact of the contemporary US-Mexico border. I am totally interested in how it shapes and defines the spaces, communities, and landscapes that surround it. On top of all this, I have integrated the process of maintaining and appropriating a vast archive of found slide photographs into my practice. I use these images to craft new narratives and expand on existing narratives present within them. I am working on ways in which I can bring others into this process as a form of radical remembrance and reflection.
In what ways did Augsburg’s Art & Design department prepare you for what you are doing?
I CANNOT overstate how crucial Augsburg University and the Art and Design faculty have been in getting me to where I am. For one thing, the MFA program for Photo, Video, and Imaging at the University of Arizona is number 3 in the country, right behind YALE AND UCLA! Would I be here without Chris Hultberg, Dan Ibarra, Jenny Wheatly, or Susan Boecher? Absolutely not. Many of them even wrote letters of recommendation for me. What I gained from Augsburg and these amazing instructors is a transdisciplinary approach to art. I am so privileged to have had such an expansive education at Augsburg. I firmly believe you can simply show anyone how to use Adobe Illustrator or how to take a decent photo but what I learned is how to be an artist. Chris, Dan, Susan, and Jenny all taught me not only how to make art fun, but how to probe into concepts and issues in new, critical, and engaging ways. They taught me how to write a killer artist statement and how to be an incredible teacher and collaborator. Most importantly they taught me how to find my voice in and through my art practice.
What is something we would never guess about you?
It may surprise people to know that I never learned how to ride a bike! And I still don’t know how to!
