Nao Bustamante

I’m really interested in reality TV as a format for storytelling, as a way of communicating humanity, of seeing ourselves, of seeing our scripted selves perform as ourselves. It’s simulacral, this removal of the self while performing the self in a quote-unquote real life situation…
- On her appearance on Bravo’s television show Work of Art in “INSIDE THE ARTIST’S STUDIO: NAO BUSTAMANTE” in Interview Magazine (2010 Jun 11)

…art infuses TV every day. Art produces culture, and hopefully new cultural ideas get expressed in the art world. I think you can see the influence of the art world everywhere on TV.
- On the limitations of Work of Art in “The Business of Art: An Interview with Nao Bustamante by Brian Sloan” in NYFA Current (2010)

…They were cooks, they were laborers, they were fighters, they maintained supply lines. It’s interesting to me how women get involved in a conflict, and this was a terrible conflict. So I wanted to make dresses that would protect these women metaphorically.
- On organizing an art show that highlighted the importance of women during the Mexican Revolution in “Femininity in Kevlar: Nao Bustamante’s women of the Mexican Revolution” in Los Angeles Times (2015 May 14)

Every Mexican family has a member that fought in the Revolution…There are stories in my family of two great uncles who fought on different sides and they would meet at my uncle’s land to share a meal and then they’d go back to the fight…The Revolution…it divided families.
- On the familial toll of the Mexican Revolution in “Femininity in Kevlar: Nao Bustamante’s women of the Mexican Revolution” in Los Angeles Times (2015 May 14)

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