Photo Caption: (left) Madeleine Aguilar on stage while playing the guitar. (right) Madeleine Aguilar, mobile music maker II, Found instruments, wood, rope, clamps, and chair legs. Images courtesy of the artist.
Madeleine Aguilar is an artist of many talents. Rather than limiting herself to a lane – visual art, writing, or music – Aguilar embraces variety and hybridity within her work. It is in the exchange between these forms where her practice comes to life in enchanting ways.
Aguilar described her years in undergraduate school as a time where she kept her various practices separate, a time of “skillbuilding and trying to become a master of all trades.” Now, she recognizes the liminal spaces between these practices as essential learning environments. While formalizing her visual practice, music served as a creative outlet and escape where she could “play around and not worry about making perfect things.” Aguilar has realized over time that this improvisational attitude is a creative asset and strives to integrate it into her other creative practices. This approach, combined with her interest in collaborative work, dictates many of her current projects.
From library carts to mobile music makers, Aguilar’s work invites folks to gather around and enter in. The same can be said for her Ox-Bow EP. Composed of four songs, each one strikes as both personal and collective, especially for listeners that have stepped foot on Ox-Bow’s campus. Her lyrics paint pictures of sunrises on the lagoon and the sand and grit that fixes itself to all who visit Ox-Bow.
Now serving as the Print and New Media Studio Manager, Aguilar spent the summer of 2022 at Ox-Bow as a staff member, rather than a student. “The first week felt like a month, now ten days is nothing at all,” Aguilar sings in “Ox-Bow (summer 2022),” the EP’s closing song. “Time changes as someone who lives there,” she reflected in her interview, “Ox-Bow becomes your home.” The album overall feels deeply intimate in its relatability. Perhaps this is due to the nature by which Aguilar is drawn to songwriting. She describes music as a journaling practice of sorts. “I don’t keep a diary,” she said, but her songs function as a mode of processing. Her first visit to Ox-Bow during the winter of 2019 she described as “the most magical experience,” resulting in what Aguilar referred to as “Ox-Bow withdrawal” when she returned to Chicago. As a way of digesting her experience, she wrote the song that eventually became the opener to the EP.
As Aguilar prepares to return to Ox-Bow this spring, she anticipates more additions to the collection of songs. Those keen on listening to its current standings can tune in on Soundcloud. And definitely keep your ears perked for new music in the future. Aguilar revealed that a recent trip to Rose Raft included time in the recording studio, capturing what will eventually be Aguilar’s first full album.
If you have news or stories you’d like to share about your time at Ox-Bow or beyond, you can contact Engagement Liaison & Storyteller, Shanley Poole, at spoole@ox-bow.org.