MARCH: Is “decorative” a dirty word for you?

Mara: “Lets get dirty!”

MARCH: Feminine hysteria is an historical term loaded with misconceptions about female imagination and sexuality. Your work draws on these notions of hysteria. Is there any chance you are criticizing celebrity and brands with mass appeal?

Mara: I’m thinking about when a very angry and bald Britney was caught swinging madly with an umbrella at K-Fed’s car last year.

MARCH: In your title, Valley of the Vapors, there are allusions to the novel and film, Valley of the Dolls and to the Biblical “Valley of Death”. How do you feel about the religion of pop culture?

Mara: It probably began with the Beatles but nothing says this better than HBO’s Michael Jackson: Live in Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour (1992)

MARCH: Obsessive, pop culture fanaticism is something that is common with the everyday acceptance of (and indulgence in) celebrity blogs, gossip glossies and “celebreality” dramas. In a decidedly post-Marxian era, how do you see art’s current relationship to such celebrity-driven activities?

Mara: Art has been about a human longing for perfection and desire since forever. I am in no way declaring celebrities to be perfect, but they tend to regarded as idols (for better or for worse.)

MARCH: What are your thoughts about highly mediated states of existence and death?

Mara: I have three other movie recommendations: Mean Girls (2004), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) and Heathers (1989).

MARCH: Is your artwork a constant “work-in-progress”? Does it reflect open-ended meaning or your own short attention span?

Mara: Wait, what is the question?

Mara received her MFA from Columbia University in 2007.