French Fries #6 The Traveller: Maya Fuhr

Maya Fuhr (b.1989, Victoria, B.C, Canada) is a visual artist whose practice explores various facets of art, fashion and subcultures. Currently, she works on her nonprofit project CLAYDD and her multidisciplinary artistic practice which is dedicated to creating sculpture, installation and photography. Fuhr’s dream-like aesthetic illuminates any chosen object’s lived history and a sense of authenticity in her subjects — fraught with contradictions of fetishism, opulence, exploitation, and voyeurism. Fuhr’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in London, Paris, New York, Tel Aviv, and Toronto. In 2017, she was acknowledged for The Magenta Foundation Photography Project Award, enabling her to continue her series and solo exhibition Malleable Privilege, a timely inward-looking investigation into the artist’s relationship with fashion and its impact on the environment. In 2020, she was nominated for The Canadian Art and Fashion Award - Image Maker of The Year.

You're very inspiring and very free minded. Where are you at the moment?

I used to work in New York a lot, so I was in Toronto, Canada, for eight years. My career kind of started in New York, shooting a lot of fashion magazine covers. But then, during the pandemic, I kind of stopped going to New York and actually haven't been there in three years. It felt like this stop in the Universe where I was like, “Okay, you're done with your New York phase.” I've been in LA now for two years and couldn’t see myself anywhere else.

Do you like clubbing in LA?

I wouldn't say I'm a “clubber”. I don't really club until 5 or 6 am. I'm definitely over that stage of my life. I'll go to raves and more independently-run parties. I don't really go to the clubs that are in Hollywood or Beverly Hills, but I love going out to see art and dancing for sure.

Art openings, right?

Yes, I’m definitely an art girl. I love going to an opening and then going out for drinks.

Can you tell me about the “Motel Village” show you were part of in Canada?

That was a public art installation in the gay village of Montreal. They chose a bunch of different artists that had a vintage vibe and work that suited in a motel setting. They chose one of my images with Nina Hartley, who's a really big sex symbol and porn star from the eighties. There were also images of drag queens and silicone boobs. It was a story about having sex in a motel and what the aftermath might look like.

I love how you express yourself sexually and there’s no taboo. Tell us about "Compersion". If you could imagine a 54 year old guy in a hotel room watching your pieces, how would that look?

If he was watching it from afar, he might really wish he was there. He's probably going to have FOMO and be like, “Ooh, I want to touch those.” But a 54-year-old-guy... that’s something I'm grappling with because this show is definitely about interacting with my work and avoiding a threatening male gaze. I do, however, want men to feel like they're genuinely welcome, right? I don't want this show to just be just for femme-identifying people. I think that image of a 54-year-old man very far away observing is what is the vibe I'm trying to get across. It’s his opportunity to step back and just chill and experience the concept of compersion for himself, like experiencing other people getting pleasure from this work that he's not necessarily involved in. He's taking a backseat.

You're encouraging people to go into a voyeuristic journey, right?

Yes, and really owning that voyeurism and that feeling of being turned on from afar, because a lot of people, especially men who were born in a different generation, think like, “okay, I'm horny, therefore I need to touch, or I need to be close.” I'm teaching people that there is such strength in being turned on from afar or allowing others to experience pleasure. You don't necessarily have to be up close and personal with them. So it is a good lesson, I think, including a 54-year-old man.

And you're still doing something even if you're not directly involved in it.

Voyeurism can have such a bad connotation; some people think it's creepy, but for me, personally, I think it's actually very safe. It's something I really do enjoy. I want to normalize that... that you don't actually have to be at the height of a sexual act or in the center of attention, and you can enjoy just watching.

What is compersion? You want to rethink jealousy, and free your mind to love, right?

Compersion actually started as a Buddhist term. So it's not necessarily only related to fetish. It's when you get joy from seeing somebody else experience happiness, and there's no jealousy in the space. You can experience compersion being in a monogamous relationship or in a polyamorous relationship. The term is popular in polyamorous relationships because you’re experiencing acceptance and pleasure from your partner being happy with someone else. I want to invite all sorts of people, those who are single or monogamous, and then those who are just curious. I'm inviting them into the gallery space to just experience it. Maybe they didn't know they liked it. I’m trying to make it more accessible where you don't have to be in an open relationship to experience it.

The pieces can be touched with pink gloves and lubricant oil, did you try it? How did it feel?

Of course I tried it! I’m obsessed with latex. A really big part of me working with latex is embracing me being turned on. I've had a rubber latex fetish for a really long time, and I just love the feeling of oil when I wear the clothes. One day I was in my studio, and I was like, “well, this is a very similar material. This is also latex. I should try rubbing this, right?” And it completely has the same effect; it feels very soft and sensual. I want to give people the opportunity to have that conversation with their own desires and bodies. Your cells are speaking to you by being horny.

A lot can happen after you try on latex.

A lot, indeed! When you wear latex, it's like a second skin; it makes you feel very tight. But with that, it makes you feel very safe too. And that's part of the latex fetish. If you’re one of those people who don't like being touched or if intimacy makes you nervous, having that second skin actually provides a lot of safety. We see latex in surgical settings; doctors wear latex gloves. It can bring out different things depending on the person. It could be arousing or just safe. It could be just a visceral satisfaction. I want people to explore what comes out.

Your work is all very connected to sexuality as well, but not in an obvious way. The way you express sexuality gives freedom to interpret it in so many other ways, it opens opportunities, stories, and it's amazing.

I think people's sexuality is so complex. Everyone has their own journey, and we all present ourselves one way to the world. When you’re in your bedroom behind closed doors, there’s such an intimacy there that is hard to capture in a photograph. So I think what happens is, I photograph these very confident, powerful people, but I have a deep relation to them on a personal level and an intimate level; there’s nuance, and there are so many secrets that they hide from me because they're human, right? I'm just experiencing this mix of wanting to celebrate them in their confident power but then also being like, “well, I know you're human; you can be authentic around me as well.” A lot of the time, it's this interesting contrast, and that's why people can't quite put their finger on what the mood of my work is.

Did you know Brooke Candy before you worked with her?

I saw her in a Grimes music video, and I was like, “Oh, she seems interesting.” I've been following her for a while, and then she messaged me on Instagram recently, and she said, "I love your work, I want to shoot with you, come over.” She's in LA, so I went to her house, and it just turned out we had so much in common. We have the exact same birthday; it's July 20th, 1989. We had all these coincidences, and she's just so sweet. She really likes latex as well.

Which kind of music are you listening to right now?

I really like reggae and disco when I’m working. I like dancing to techno and reggaeton when I go out. But day to day, I'm basically like an 80-year-old grandma. I really like old music like Fleetwood Mac or Diana Ross. Then I get thrown into this new wave when I go out, right? I get to see all these amazing new DJs and dance to it; it's almost like I live two lives or something when it comes to music.

Has moving to LA given you a different kind of freedom to explore?

Totally. I'm from Canada, so the first thing I noticed about America was that sense of freedom. I know it's very cliche, but I felt it as soon as I drove across from Canada, from Toronto to LA; I had that classic experience of driving from east to west, that American dream of hitting the West and everything's beautiful and sunny. It was a pretty cool introduction to America. It just feels way freer here. Canada has a lot of rules; it’s very structured, I don't even know how to explain it. Ever since I moved here, I have felt this abundance of opportunity, and there are just such amazing people in LA. So I'm constantly excited to photograph people or scout locations; I just love it so much. I'm obsessed with the fact that I'm kind of anonymous here too.

What are you going to do with your first million?

I would definitely buy a house. I would buy a place on the beach. That would be number one. I founded a nonprofit this year, which is really important to me, it’s called CLAYDD, and we teach meditation and clay work to kids with disabilities. I would open a gallery and a ceramics studio in LA where people can come create, and it would be open 24 hours. It would be a safe space for people. Having a gallery space would just be absolutely amazing!