August 22, 2016

Meet San Francisco Artist: Jeffrey Augustine Songco

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeffrey Augustine Songco.

Jeffrey Augustine, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m a visual artist based in San Francisco. I was born and raised in New Jersey. When my older sister started to seriously pursue ballet, my parents put me in ballet classes, too, and before I knew it I was learning all the dance forms including tap and jazz. A casting director at Paper Mill Playhouse (the state theater of New Jersey) saw me perform as a ten-year-old in The Nutcracker. The casting director asked my parents if I wanted to audition for something, and after a few auditions, I landed a role in their production of South Pacific. I kept pursuing musical theater until college, where I switched from the performing arts to visual arts.

Now, 15 years later, I’m an artist in San Francisco continuing to work with performance, both as subject matter and as an art itself. I am very inspired by theatre and television, so it’s no surprise that I am drawn to Los Angeles as a site saturated by talent, production, and celebrity. Since 2015, I have traveled to LA to create two portrait photography series: one titled “Nice Beads, Bro!” and the other titled “Nice Props, Bro!”. I photograph men who exemplify a kind of perfect casting of a ‘bro’ type — young straight white male — and couple them with props and costuming that points to a more complex and mysterious narrative beyond the frame of the photograph. As a gay man, and as an American man born to Filipino parents, my own identity can be described in ways that are much more complex than the superficial — and often stereotypical — depictions of someone who ‘looks like me’ on television. Los Angeles continues to inspire me with issues of diversity and politics in the entertainment industry.

Has it been a smooth road?
The obstacles that I have faced tend to surprise people who look at my artwork today. There was a time when I did not embrace my homosexuality — in fact, I was severely closeted and rejected any kind of gay identity. Since coming out after college, I have learned to be proud about this area of my identity while actively expressing my journey through my artwork. I remember watching on some reality show that one of the mom’s on the show was upset that her musician son believed that he could only write good music if he was in emotional pain. I used to think about creativity that same way — that I had to hurt inside to produce something outside. As I learn to be proud and love myself more and more every day and yet I still continue to produce artwork, I’m happy that I can see that my creativity is something I’ll never lose and that it’s here to stay no matter how great or shitty I feel that day.

What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?
It’s funny because it hasn’t officially happened yet, but it’s literally next week: I’m giving a very special art talk about my artwork and I think it will be an incredibly proud moment for me. The title of the talk is “American Pride: Nationalism, Terrorism, and Gay Identity”. Like many people, I was a mess after the horrible tragedy in Orlando. But one way I dealt with the anxiety and sadness around the event was to share my own story with others. For the past five years I’ve created several works of art that addressed my personal relationship with these complex topics of nationalism, terrorism, and gay identity. It wasn’t until the event in Orlando that these disparate ideas came together into the national discourse, so I was determined to add my voice to that conversation. For me, it’s incredibly strange yet fulfilling to know that my artwork is, in fact, relevant. My high of being ‘proud’ is definitely a refreshing feeling that contrasts my more mythical artistic practice of worry and doubt.

Is LA a good place to do what you do?
Los Angeles is awesome. As an artist, I gravitate to LA because of the incredible number of artists, resources, galleries, and institutions. For me as a multi-media artist, I get a particular kind of energy from LA because it has so much of what I’m looking for, particularly the talent I fantasize about shooting for my portrait photographs. As someone just starting out, you’re in good company in LA — so many people are pursuing their own passions and careers, too! We’re all in this together and it’s amazing to work and collaborate with others towards our individual goals.

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