Lois Bielefeld is a queer series-based artist working in photography, audio, video, and installation. Her work continually asks the question of what links routine and ritual to the formation of identity and personhood and the development of meaning-making.
Currently living in Chicago, Lois has lived on both coasts and was born in Milwaukee. After her daughter went off to college, Bielefeld decided to pursue her graduate degree and is working on her MFA (2021) at California Institute of the Arts. Besides photography, she feels passionate about traveling, hiking, eating, swimming and bicycling adventures with her wife.
To commit to memory
"To commit to memory," is work in progress as I delve deeply into my parent’s life, particularly their conservative Evangelical traditions and how this plays out within the framework of the home. The genesis for this series was a video documentary I made of my mom’s daily 13-minute plank while reciting memorized Bible verses. After completing the video in March 2020, I questioned what does it mean for me to share work about deep devotion/faith as an atheist and queer artist? Being on different ends of the political spectrum, my parents and I constantly straddle a wide ideology chasm yet somehow, we negotiate and bridge our differences through this project. I’m interested in how the labor of looking can be a type of active listening that leads to understanding. This has led to this in-depth series looking at their complex personhood. Through photographic re-enactments, I examine domesticity, power relations, ritual, faith, aging and memory. I look at the house as a container and how it has been marked and manifested through their everyday movements, aesthetics, and use. I'm interested in both the imprint they've made on the house but also the imprint the house has made on them. In addition to photography, I am also working within video and audio.
To view more of Lois Bielefeld’s work please visit their website.