Meet the 2021-22 Dean's Student Council: Leslie Foster
This ongoing series of web posts profiles the 2021-2022 UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture’s Dean’s Student Council.
Leslie Foster is a second year graduate student in the Design Media Arts program.
Leslie Foster’s expansive video art and installation work uses dream logic to explore “Black and queer futurity and alterity.” He is particularly focused on “looking past the linearity of Eurocentric time” and “finding spaces in which futurity and alterity can be intertwined into a methodology Black artists can use to explore [their] own expansiveness and provide glimpses into better worlds.”
“My time at UCLA has added depth and a greater sense of confidence to my practice,” he said.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Foster was one of many students who spent their first two years at UCLA online. Transitioning to in-person classes, he found that he had to completely recalibrate how he approached his practice. Maintaining creativity became another challenge, with “energy gained by being off of Zoom but lost to tiring commutes.”
“I've been so deeply inspired by my cohort—
[they] weathered online learning and
reconfigured their practices while juggling
existential worry, exhaustion, and theconstant
pressure of academic life.”
Leslie Foster
Foster expressed gratitude for the strength and support of his community in this transition back to campus. “I've been so deeply inspired by my cohort—[they] weathered online learning and reconfigured their practices while juggling existential worry, exhaustion, and the constant pressure of academic life,” he said.
 Photo by Adam Eeuwens |
Outside of UCLA, Foster is one of the founding members of Museum Adjacent, an LA-based art collective that grew out of the Torrance Art Museum FORUM’s mentorship residency program. He also serves as the director of the artist residency program for Level Ground, an LA-based arts organization that provides resources and platforms for artists who have historically been excluded from the art world.
Foster observes that he is engaging in less “short term thinking” this year and has been focused on trying to “build systems for long-term change.”
“I want to help make sure that we're
working on big ideas and creating
institutional knowledge so that every
year there is continuity on the big issues
that take years to tackle without ignoring
the smaller, more immediately solvable problems.”
Leslie Foster
Foster has served on the Dean's Student Council over the last two years in order to help his fellow students express their concerns and ideas directly to the UCLA Arts administration.
“I want to help make sure that we're working on big ideas and creating institutional knowledge so that every year there is continuity on the big issues that take years to tackle without ignoring the smaller, more immediately solvable problems,” he said.
Foster is also particularly interested in how students can help ensure “equitable access to both tangible and intangible resources and opportunities.” He believes that the Dean’s Student Council provides an important source of connection to the specific and immediate needs and thoughts of the student body, which he hopes are used to mold the school's priorities and plans.
Foster encourages any student to join the Dean’s Student Council for the unique chance to connect with students across the School of the Arts and Architecture, as well as the opportunity to speak directly with and challenge the administration in a way that is “important to the growth and maturation” of the school.
 Photo by Carrie Chen |
Foster is currently preparing for his thesis show in May. Equipped with new access to fabrication tools and materials, Foster has found joy in getting to learn new techniques and refine old ones. Alongside exploring the history of software art through production with professor Casey Reas and alumna Nikita Gale’s Looking to Resist: Infrastructure, Audience, and Authorship in the Studio seminar, Foster also took on a directed study with art department professor Vishal Jugdeo, which allowed him to experience not only new tools but new perspectives from outside the Design Media Arts department.
After his thesis show, Foster says his plan is, first, “a lot of sleep in late June and July: I feel like I'm going to need a serious break!” Foster has also accepted a tenure track position as assistant professor of time-based media at Cal State San Marcos and will begin teaching there in August.
If you're interested in Foster’s practice, you can explore his work at lesliefoster.art, and find him on Instagram @leslie_muse.
Story by Maya Lu
Maya Lu is the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture Strategic Communications Story Producer in Residence and a fourth-year undergraduate in Design Media Arts.
Header photo: Courtesy of Leslie Foster.
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