Artist, Paul Mpagi Sepuya: Being in a studio space, it's always been important for me to surround myself with images, whether they are quick test prints of more formal works or snapshots and observations.
My name is Paul. I'm an LA-based artist.
What you're looking at is a section of the wall in my studio at the time, where there are various references that relate to my friend, the artist Matthew Morrocco, and he was making work with mirrors. The picture that is pinned to the wall at the upper center is an iPhone snapshot of a mirror that he is having me hold up, where I am sitting for him. But then we see another reflection of that mirror in the upper right, where a fragment of his face—distorted—is there, and then we also see a fragment of him in his studio.
This picture is made in relationship to a friendship, where one component of that has been making portraits of each other over the years. The complete understanding of this work is looking to the practice of Matthew Morrocco and my place in that. I'm always interested in that kind of conversation between artists.