BIO
Benedikte (Bennie) Ansell Flores was born in Manila, Philippines, in 1967, but because Ferdinand Marcos was gaining power, her family moved to Connecticut when she was only six months old. There, her father helped to form the Filipinos of Connecticut organization, which allowed Ansell and her seven brothers to experience some aspects of Filipino community and culture growing up. Her family then moved to Florida when she was 10. Ansell recalls how both of her parents had an artistic eye, which taught her from an early age how to see beauty in the everyday. Fittingly, she earned a BA in Photography from the University of South Florida in 1989, and an MFA in Photography from the University of Houston in 1999. During the period between these two degrees, Ansell had her two daughters, Thora and Zoe. Today, Ansell has a thriving art career: her work has been shown all around the world, from Argentina to South Korea to Germany. She describes her art medium as a blend of photography and physical installations; she enjoys the process of transforming two-dimensional concepts into three dimensions. She is also a proud member of Filipinx Artists of Houston and teaches photography at Houston Community College. In her free time, Ansell loves to eat good food and spend time with her daughters and grandchildren. In this interview, she discusses her Alief Swarm installation at the Alief Community Center and Swarm Migration installation at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice, as well as the significance of wishbones, migration, and stories.