From Riley Ryan-Wood’s interview with Lissa Rivera:
Musée: Your work has a nostalgic feel and the outfits appear to denote a bygone era. Can you elaborate on this choice? How do you think more modern clothing and sets would have altered the conceptual meaning of the series?
LR: I am drawn to textures and colors that evoke certain memories or emotions. Like that complex shade of red-orange from the 1930s that you don’t see anymore, or that brilliant, luminescent jade green that was big in the 40s, or a Catholic shade of ‘Madonna’ blue. I love the shot in Kenneth Anger’s ‘Puce Moment’ when he parades the colorful silent-era film costumes before the lens, shaking the fringe provocatively, the chosen dress falls onto the actress and posesses her. I use photography as a tool to touch those images I love. How many photography students copy Stephen Shore when they first use color? They are not photographing the contemporary landscape, but copying an image they have seen because it holds some kind of power over them. I want to be frank about the fact that it is that image-power that possesses us. I’ve always been interested in artists playing with nostalgia, from Joseph Cornell to Bruce Conner.