Interview on Collaboration with Yubing Tan & Maud Lavin
Sometimes the hardest part of collaborating is getting started. Here are some tips from creators that have collaborated—sometimes with an absolute stranger—and made something wonderful!
Did you know your partner in collaboration beforehand? Explain how you got together.
Maud: A while back, Yubing was a student of mine at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in a fan studies and art class. We stayed in touch. I like her macabre, anti-cute sculpture. And her wit.
Yubing: Yes! Maud was one of my professors at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I enjoyed her classes and the topics she brought up a lot.
How did you collaborate? What was your process?
Yubing: Maud sent around her Black Velvet Ribbon piece to friends, and I decided to respond and make a puppet version out of the texts. I was impressed by the humor of Maud’s writing, and I also often apply humor as an aesthetic choice in my own making. Thus, I thought it would be interesting for us to do a collaboration.
Maud: Yeah, I was thrilled with Yubing’s response, and how the whole thing got even darker and bloodier.
What were some challenges you faced during the collaborative process, and what did you learn?
Maud: When we started, Yubing had recently founded and was directing the Pond Gallery for emerging artists in Chengdu, China, so she was stretched thin. Plus her part of the collaboration, making the sculpture, was time intensive. So, I needed to wait. I was glad to! Grateful that she pursued it despite her heavy workload. But I’m often an impatient person, so I needed to rein that part of myself in, and remember what Yubing was balancing.
As for me, I’d retired from teaching and was working part-time as an editor while writing. So, my schedule was also full, but more flexible than Yubing’s.
Yubing: I am bad at sketching and drawing; I am also a maker who constantly changes my sketches. I was always worried that I couldn’t explain to Maud what really was happening in my mind (the sculpture part). Glad she understood my drawing and explanation and gave me her trust and patience to finish the sculpture. The great differences in time and place also made the collaboration difficult at first, but I think I got used to working this way during Covid times.
Any final words of advice for future collaborators?
Yubing: Artists, writers, and creators in any form should always remind themselves to exchange ideas and to collaborate. It is really magic when different worlds of creative expression meet and intersect with each other.
Maud: I agree with Yubing. I’d also say don’t be afraid to collaborate with writers and artists of wildly different ages and career arcs. Really fun. Especially when you have similar senses of humor.Yubing: Artists, writers, and creators in any form should always remind themselves to exchange ideas and to collaborate. It is really magic when different worlds of creative expression meet and intersect with each other.
Read Yubing Tan & Maud Lavin’s piece, “Black Velvet Ribbon”
A Pushcart Prize nominee, Maud Lavin writes creative nonfiction and poetry. She has published recently in BULL, Heimat Review, JAKE, Red Ogre Review, BRIDGE, and Roi Fainéant, and earlier in the Nation, Harper’s Bazaar, and other venues. One of her books, CUT WITH THE KITCHEN KNIFE, was named a New York Times Notable Book. Her other books include CLEAN NEW WORLD and PUSH COMES TO SHOVE, and as co-editor along with Ling Yang and Jing Jamie Zhao, BOYS’ LOVE, COSPLAY, AND ANDROGYNOUS IDOLS, and other anthologies. She lives in Chicago where she edits, writes, and runs the READINGS series in the South Loop. She is a Guggenheim Fellow.
Yubing Tan is a writer and artist based in Chengdu, China. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Fiber and Material Studies in 2020. She is a 2022 Prince Claus Fund Seed Awardee and the founding director of the Pond Gallery.
