Q&A: Creating Freely, Daniel Leka Gears Up For His First Solo Exhibition, “imagery, idealism.”
MUCH MORE THAN A STORYTELLER — after exploring options of short films, radio shows, magazines, and perhaps other formats unknown to the public, Daniel Leka finds comfort in photography. Now, the Los Angeles–based artist is gearing up for his first solo exhibition, “imagery, idealism.,” with new and refound faith, appreciation, and intent.
A project two years in the making, Leka chose the format of film for “imagery, idealism.” in the very beginning. While part of “imagery, idealism.” undeniably comes with the shared connections between Leka and his depicted subjects, the project’s sense of sincerity and bigger-than-life nature get perfected by its medium. With each shoot, Leka carefully chose a theme that transcends and broadcasts through the presence of his models, all while defining the personal meanings and importances of said themes for himself. From war propaganda to New Balance ads with influences of the late Virgil Abloh, Leka drew inspirations from his own upbringing to comment on the nature of mass media consumption of our time. In the process, he explores a gradient of ideas, including identities, elitism, surrealism, and many more.
From the very beginning, Leka intended the project to be shown in a physical gallery — an ambitious goal when the idea first emerged in a shut-down world. The exhibition, opening on May 19 at The Space @ Icon, sets to break down the one last layer of restriction between the artist, the audience, and his vision with the images revealed in full as intended, in the most idealistic way.
Read below to learn more about Daniel Leka’s process in preparation of the opening and the latest updates in the artist’s life.
LUNA: What happened when the world shut down? And what’s happening now that the world has reopened up and people are getting second rounds of COVID? How did we get here?
LEKA: How we got here is negligence (laughs). I went through a period of realigning and repurposing. I think that the pandemic made me become [more] aligned with my humanity as opposed to becoming more distant. Pre-pandemic, I was someone who was trying to become the person that I am now, which is a generalization for a lot of people, but I look at who I am now — this is what I was always aspiring to do. Before the pandemic, I wanted to do concert photography because I wanted it to be a propeller for what I'm doing — I was scared of taking a risk at the time. But then the second the world shut down, it just made me realize that if I'm going to be here on this planet, for a finite amount of time, I have to allow myself to create freely, create without judgment, and make things that will make people feel something so they can pass on that feeling. With everything that I do now, it's about giving that emotional attachment to people. At the end of the day, I liken my existence to a farmer: how I'm planning on planting seeds so that trees can grow and future generations can eat from them, even if I'm not here to see the fruits prosper.
LUNA: What kind of things have you been spending your time consuming? Any particular examples?
LEKA: I became comfortable in expressing who I am through my faith. Understanding my relationship to faith led me [to] actually use certain aspects of it to create work because I think there's an innate connectivity that we always fail to mention, and I'm making stuff so that we can see how similar we are as opposed to how different we are. I find myself consuming a lot more spiritual texts but also the things that were formulative to me. I really like watching TV shows that I really liked, even advertisements or posters, the little things that created who I am, as opposed to just trying to understand what everybody else is on. And afterwards, I delegate information to the people, because everything that I do has a simultaneous effort to entertain and educate. If it doesn't do those two things, then it's failing.
LUNA: When you are saying “idealism,” what kind of ideals are you talking about? Obviously, a lot of the project does draw influences from what you consume and what you grew up with, ideals that we are used to and you personally were used to growing up. But what exactly are we translating to “imagery” here?
LEKA: I explained my craft as taking a motion and creating a tangible design of it in the form of an image. When you look at an image, it creates an emotional response. I look at it in the sense of, I'm creating material for people to study, I'm creating material for people to analyze and use it as a blueprint and a template to create something even better. Idealism to me just represents ideas — the ideas that constitute an individual in a society. So for me, a lot of the stuff that I'm doing is to evoke questions more so than [raise] answers. It's like, a lot of the time, we want straightforwardness and directness, and that's cool, but you need to work for the best stuff. Like the propaganda example where people knew who Coleman was before that but seeing him wear a military attire and then [creating] that character that really makes people feel like, “Oh, like this is something that is very intentional,” because it's not based off of his social popularity or anything like that. He’s a music artist, but this is him stepping in fine art form. I want to show people that we're fine art in all of our aspects of existence. If I can create something that has potency in culture but also something that is able to give people value throughout time, even after I'm long gone from this, then why wouldn't I?
LUNA: I want to bring up the photogenic essay, “Sisterhood.” It reiterates a lot of things you do right now.
LEKA: It was important to me because I created it with the intent of depicting my family but also, simultaneously, it was about allowing myself to start taking myself more seriously in the realm of photography, not just in terms of concerts. I think that “Sisterhood” was especially jarring in comparison to everything I was doing at the time. “Sisterhood” really showed me the possibility of creating stuff that was based around the human experience. It was the most grounded thing that I could have done at the time, especially shooting it on my 35mm camera. It really foreshadows the ideas that I'm able to execute now in terms of having people connect with one another.
LUNA: I also want to hear your thoughts on orienting your craft towards the print format. Even though it's against the mainstream at the moment, because you personally see it as more fitting, you just go for it. So I do want to maybe dig your brain a little.
LEKA: When you're on social media, you don't have to work for anything — it's all right in front of us, being fed to you. But when I create physical forms, I’m creating experiences for people. That's when things become a lot more nuanced and more emotionally receptive. When you're online, there's a lot of polarization, extremism, and literally binary. But when you're in-person, there's so much in-between that you can work around. I make sure that every single thing that I'm taking, I could see it being printed.
LUNA: Who are you besides your photography?
LEKA: I mean, honestly, I'm an Ethiopian American man who values relationship with God, you know what I'm saying? (laughs). I really have less apathy in my heart now; I'm still working on getting all of it out. And it's more so optimism at the fact that we can make something great just based off what we already have in front of us. And that's really what I've been doing for the past few years since I graduated. It's just making stuff that I want to see. And it's as simple as having a vision, fighting and biding your time, and making sure that you have the necessary resources to execute it. I valued this in my vision and in my life and interpersonal relationships. Something more, nothing less, you know?
CONNECT WITH DANIEL LEKA
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weekly tunes playlist has been updated! new tracks from @furtradeband, @pecqband, @garryfool & more! check it out! https://t.co/ToFU0R6YGo -
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RT @oliviaborch: new @LunaCollective out todayyy shot by @alltookev ✨ @P1H_official editorial design by me ! https://t.co/cvSCKsWB5D
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RT @rlyblonde: @AnnieDirusso for @LunaCollective shot by me #35mm #portra800 https://t.co/0UUJSCBGcH
