WEBVTT

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[Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn]

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[New York Close Up]

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[Daniel Gordon, Artist]

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[SOUND OF CELL PHONE VIBRATING]

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--[GORDON] Hello?

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["Daniel Gordon Looks Back"]

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--Yeah, this is he.

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A few weeks ago,

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I was here working

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and I got a call from somebody

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who had bought a work that I made in 2004

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and the picture was damaged

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and they were wondering if they could have
it reprinted.

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So I started looking for the negative

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and it was really great to

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step back twelve years ago

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and see what I was making then.

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It's shockingly kind of similar

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to what I'm doing now.

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I really like that plant--
it’s so weird--

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and I think that's the clue
into the fact that it's

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a constructed tableau.

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Back then I was trying to

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figure out what my voice was

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and I was also just kind of learning how to
make stuff physically.

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I really was trying to mimic reality

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which is something that I have become

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less and less interested in.

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Not that there's not

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a version of reality in my pictures now,

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but instead of trying to hide all of that work

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I think it became more interesting to show

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the crumpled paper

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and the handmade stuff

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to show that Photoshop is, like,

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really present in the process.

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Changing a watermelon to be blue

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or a peach to be green...

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Pixelating things.

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Adding noise to stuff.

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[Sound of keys jingling off-screen]

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[Danny moved to a new studio]

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[next to his wife Ruby.]

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[RUBY SKY STILER] I thought we needed more space
away from each other,

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but maybe what we really needed

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was some more time together.

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[BOTH LAUGH]

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[GORDON] Ruby probably likes my past work

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more than I do,

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and I like Ruby’s past work

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more than she does.

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It's pretty rare that we would look back

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and we're like,

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"That was so great, what I was doing."

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No.

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[STILER] As I get further from the thing,

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I dislike it more and more.
[Ruby Sky Stiler, Artist]

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[GORDON] But then sometimes, you go,

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"It's so long ago..."

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that you really are so detached...

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[STILER] I've heard you say that before

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and I've never felt that.

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[GORDON] You haven’t?

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[STILER] No.

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[GORDON] Every now and then, you...

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...like what about, um...

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[STILER] Oh God, don't even say a thing.

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[GORDON] What about the vase?

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That was so cool!

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[STILER] Okay, that's the one thing...

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[GORDON] See.

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[STILER] ...that I think is okay.

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[GORDON] Okay, what about, um...

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[STILER] Okay, stop!

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[GORDON] In a lot of ways,
the more work you make,

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the more there is to make.

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You make a lot of work

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and then you hang on to a few,

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and I find myself looking back

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at a few pictures

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and wanting to expand on those.

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For example, I found that picture when I was moving.

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It was made around the same time

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as some of these other pictures.

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And I was re-inspired by it

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and wanted to see what it would be like

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if I took that as a starting point.

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I was interested in what happened
if I took out

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the identifiable parts of a face.

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Kind of, like, how far I could push

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the idea of a portrait.

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Kind of, how far I could go

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away from what an eye is--

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or what a nose is,

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or what a mouth is--

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and still hopefully have it read as
a portrait in someway.

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Like, for example, just talking about these pictures.

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They're so new that I don’t know

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the answers to them.

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Like, I think it takes a long time to,

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kind of, understand what it is you're doing.

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[STILER] I've been in a stage
for a couple of months

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where, like, I haven’t been able to figure out

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where I want to go.

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And it's, like,

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you have to be delusional to, like,

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keep coming back everyday

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to make more failures.

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I just feel like I'm never satisfied
with my work.

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And I think that's good--

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like, I'm always antsy.

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I just want to keep growing
and making things

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that are beyond my expectations

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and making things that are ambitious

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and terrify me.

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[GORDON] I think I'm, like,

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right in between, generationally.

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I lived half my life before the internet

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and half my life after.

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So, I think that there's

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a really interesting conflict between

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the analog versus the digital.

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And I love both.

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[Camera shutter clicks]

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You know, for example,

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like, this really large still life.

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I made a quick selection of watermelon,

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the green jug,

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the blue plum,

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and the orange peach.

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And then created a new canvas,

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and, kind of, stamped those...

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that selection into the new canvas.

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I was curious--and still am curious--

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if there was a way to make

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non-representational images

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but also, still, in some way,

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are related to my photographs--

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that they're, kind of,
an in-between thing.

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I'm just kind of interested to see

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where the line between a photograph,

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and a painting, and a sculpture lies.

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I think the real question is

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how can you continue to work

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and continue to be truly invested

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and truly interested in what you're doing.

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And, for me, the only way to do that

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is to try new things--

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to invent new ways of making pictures.

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So that, eventually,

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maybe those questions will have answers.

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But, like, right now,
I'm just, kind of,

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asking the questions, I think.