AnnaLiisa Ariosa-Benston (MFA 2016 Fine Arts) has a lot to say. This is apparent, on her one-of-kind jackets emblazoned with “RESIST” in furry, hand-sewn letters; at last month’s Let’s Talk: Women in the Creative Industries alumni panel; in the hour-plus, we spoke for this interview one afternoon. In her speech, as in her work, Benston is candid yet thoughtful, frank but deliberate. So it’s interesting that we get to a point in the conversation when the phrase “unencumbered by language” comes up. In this context it’s a lament over the mediating effect language can have on the understanding of an artwork, and on the labels applied to pieces and people alike.

Benston is a multidisciplinary artist and curator, reared on large-scale abstract painting (she holds a BFA from Pratt in Painting and came to SVA to work with David Row) and now thriving as a maker of wearable art objects, including jackets, backpacks, pins and jewelry, and interactive installations. Her practice, which lives mostly online and is called Famous On Mars, is fed by her feminism, as well as nostalgia for the 1990s, a deft copping of on-trend fashion aesthetics, and a deep-seated interest in means of social codification, through clothing, presentation, commerce, and indeed language.

“My installations are a concept of a concept store—they exist in a way that is aesthetically pleasing and inviting, using trendy, popular color palettes to invite you in a seemingly innocuous way,” Benston remarked, “but as you sort of look through them, try them on, read them—for lack of a better phrase, unpack the room—you will notice that every object holds significant meaning and has something to say politically, as a feminist or more humorously.” Some jackets (and etched-into knives) say what every freelance artist wishes they could, and some address issues of body ownership and autonomy, in support of sex workers and abortion rights.

Installations at recent Satellite Art Shows, for which Benston now serves as Partnership and Sponsorship Liaison, have included live tattooing, zine shops, wearables hung on neon hangers, and other participatory components. Everything is meant to be touched, worn, experienced, as part of a multi-sensory, collaborative, feminist event and space, she said. She’s busy, with a show in Oakland next month, one in LA in July, and a curation project in Tribeca in June. Below, Benston delineates some of her methods and her intentions, as both creator and curator, here direct and unimpeded.

This thoughtful MFA Fine Arts alum wants to be "unencumbered by language”