Mar 18

Mar 18 Home Page: Interview with Molly Soda

Lara Pan: Molly, in a few words, can you describe your thought process in bringing your private life—you’ve re-created your bedroom, your personal desktop for public display—into your work?

Molly Soda: I’ve always been drawn to private spaces and the bedroom as a backdrop. The bedroom is where we connect with each other virtually and I love being able to get a glimpse of that when I’m online. The desktop in some ways is like the second bedroom for me, housing all of my clutter and intimate thoughts.

Lara: There’s a vulnerability in opening these private spaces for public viewing—how do you choose which images to use and how much do you filter the content? Do you filter the content at all?

Molly: I actually filter quite a bit! My bedroom and desktop act as intricate sets; there’s an organized chaos to it. I try hard to push past feelings of embarrassment or shame with my work. There’s something comforting in the release, of something being out of your hands after you’ve published it.

Lara: Where do you find the inspiration for the aesthetic in your content? Are there any artists or other figures who have had a big influence on your work?

Molly: I’m often appropriating my own image and remixing it, using elements from my early years on the Internet. I’m super drawn to imagery found on old, now defunct platforms, such as MySpace or Geocities. It’s important for me to archive and reuse imagery that’s been lost or forgotten, or even considered ugly or a nuisance. Clickbait and pop-up ads are very beautiful to me.

Join Molly Soda in the Hasselblad x Musée Magazine: Artist Talk on April 4. Featuring alongside Mona Kuhn and Rachel Perry, the three artists will explore, in their unique contrasting styles, the visual representations of the female body in art.

This interview has been condensed and edited. To see more of Molly Soda’s artwork, read the full interview in our newest issue RISK