“What are you doing here, honey? You’re not even old enough to know how bad life gets,” asks a doctor when Cecilia (Hanna Hall), the youngest of five sisters, attempts to kill herself in The Virgin Suicides. Her response: “Obviously, Doctor, you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl.” It’s no surprise that Toronto-born visual artist Petra Collins—a muse to Ryan McGinley and resident photographer for Tavi Gevinson’s Rookie—ranks **Sofia Coppola’**s film as one of her favorites. She too aims to dissect the teenage experience, exploring it with her photography, sculpture, and film. In doing so, she explores the frustrations of youth, the confusion implicit in sexual awakening, and the challenges of cultivating one’s own identity in a society that has already prescribed one for you.
Harnessing the power of social media, the artist has garnered an ever-growing following of admirers and peers alike—faithful crusaders in the good fight to create a space for productive, body-positive imaging of women and girls and reassuming ownership of the female form in both fine arts and popular media. It wouldn’t be a stretch to describe her oeuvre as the visual manifestation of New Order’s paean to youthful self-discovery, “Age of Consent.” In fact, she’d be delighted. “That’s amazing!” she exclaims at the suggestion. And then says it’s the most played track on her iPod.
On the eve of her first solo show opening, the 21-year-old set the record straight—revealing how she found her way to art, and sharing her feelings about a world she’s primed to change.
What drew you to photography?
Creating art was always something I did in order to survive. I felt the need to do it. I was also really interested in film from a really young age. I must have picked up a camera at fourteen or fifteen and realized that it was something I really liked to do. Photography was a way to tell a story without the big production of making a film. Being young and wanting to create movies is a really big endeavor—there’s minimal resources; it’s a lot of time. So, this was my way of capturing things.
Do you remember your first encounter with film?
When I was like eight or so my parents got me—I don’t even know what brand it was—it was some toy brand that made this really cool little camera that came with editing software. It was like an iMovie for kids—like a Super 8 for the 2000’s. That started it, but weirdly the first film that made me want to make movies and, document things, was The Graduate. I saw it when I was twelve or thirteen and there was one scene—the one where **Dustin Hoffman’**s character [Ben Braddock] goes underwater—that really impacted me. It wasn’t even about the movie—it was the fact that you could capture these very real moments that fascinated me.
It makes sense that you were drawn to The Graduate given your interest in this process we refer to as “coming of age.” What are some of your other favorite films in this genre?
I love The Virgin Suicides. And then Dazed and Confused is just one of my favorite movies of all time—nothing’s better than that end-of-the-school-year feeling. Show Me Love is an awesome lesbian love story, oh, and there’s a new one called Turn Me On, Dammit! which is so good.
Your work is such an honest and true documentation of growing up from child to teenager, of innocence to sexuality. What about teenagehood is so interesting for you to capture?
It’s such a crazy confusing time. It’s especially hard for girls to grow up in society today, being fed the images that we see today. I think it’s really important to look at the seed of these insecurities and problems—locate where they kind of start.
How would you describe your art practice?
My goal is just to create images that generate a conversation about things that aren’t spoken about. I want to change the ways young girls look at themselves and the way women at large are looked at. Art has always been a way for me to work out—not even issues—but how to live. So, when I was 15, and started working, it was a time when I was going through puberty, and beginning to discover my sexuality and photography and film were a means of working that out.
Do you think there’s room for us, as viewers, to find the same kind of solace in your work?
I hope people take anything they want from my work. I hope teenagers can seek comfort in these images but I also hope to open up a bigger dialogue with the public about it. That was kind of the aim with the T-shirt I did for American Apparel. I was inserting my work into popular discourse. I mean, having an art show is great but it’s only really accessible to a small audience and one that’s already exposed to the work and the ideas. I’m trying to create work for everyone. I want my message to be inserted into the public sphere. I have a greater goal.
Do you feel as though you function in line with the feminist projects put forth by some of your predecessors? Francesca Woodman and Cindy Sherman come to mind.
I feel connected to it. I guess I’m just the next generation of women trying to create change.
I feel as though there’s been a renewed interest in the idea of creating spaces for women to commune—especially artistically. What do you make of that?
The Internet is such an awesome place for discovery to happen. It’s created this new space for people all over the world to connect—and girls from everywhere to connect. So, it makes a bigger group and a bigger platform for the exchange of messages. It also gives girls like me an opportunity to actually break into the art world. Because of the Internet, Tavi could create Rookie.
In your final year of high school you formed a collective of international female artists called The Ardorous—can you talk a little bit about how it came to be?
The name comes from the word ardor and all of the artists operate from a place of intense passion. I started The Ardorous because when I was starting I didn’t see a place for myself anywhere. I didn’t feel as though I had a place to show my work, or share ideas, or collaborate with people and I was witnessing all of this amazing work from girls like me. The solution was to create my own space.
Petra Collins’s first solo show “Discharge” opens today at Capricious 88 and runs through April 27, 2014.