(Laughter)
This is what it feels like in my city all the time: super tense.
What’s gonna happen?
You should do quick steps there, and then
How is the beat studio?
Booh!
What up!
You gonna carry it sexy
Yeah
Four years ago this whole floor was just one empty space
There was no plumbing there was no heaters, there was no electrical
Does it look level to you?
Lucky for me, I got it grant and I partitioned to move it out
some of it is rented to other artists.
And I curved out a space for myself that was way bigger than I ever dreamt
I was taking on too much in figuring out how to amake it happen.
It's real. It works. Sort of.
When I first moved to NY, my studio was maybe 700 sq feet
I made sculptures within inches of the walls, it was really difficult,
Especially for the work that I made. It taugh me how to be efficient,
how to save space, how to save money and especially how to save time.
Cause no one helps me, and when you don’t have a lot of resources, you get sharp.
Voici la nouvelle sculpture de Diana
Elle a deux mois pour la finir, pour une exhibition.
Ouaih!
This past year I had a pretty fast growth.
It just impossible to do this alone on this scale.
Do you have a bucket for me? Yes!
So, now I have assistants that help me make these things.
Tout le monde a un surnom au studio
DrewDack "dessinait beaucoup étant petit"
DrewDudak--"Dessinait Beaucoup Quand Il Était Petit"
YejiLee--"Yejisauk"
SarahFaitell--"Fatal"
That's also why I have a studio manager to allocate different tasks to people
now I can focus on something that requires my attention.
Working on a set this large is amazing, it’s so much fun
When I was first working for her I was her only assistant.
I spent like 6 months working really closely with just her I learnt a lot about all different techniques.
It might just be that one rod.
You are great
She’a kind of a “go big or go home” person
Yes, why won’t I want it there?
Everything is like balls to the wall, giant sculptures.
And all the process here are really specific and a little bit weird and unique
So largely what I do is training other people how to do something in the way that Dianan wants it done.
All this stuff I do people can learn. It’s really easy. I think. Everything I do is easy.
Yeah, but it also like watching the master at work.
I mean to touch fiber glass like you do, to hold it, you can’t do it yourself.
I’m much faster.
Yeah, and you make it look more natural.
It was kind of messy here for many years.
Because of Nick now it looks like a professional.
She likes receipts, keeping track of everything to the penny, so that’s actually a difficult part.
Tons of details. Exciting details.
John and I have a competition.
It’s like I have to get her in the office and he has to get her on the studio the same day. So we split her.
Bureau/Studio
Everybody's going outside
This is like a really great working environment. It’s really nice being here Im definitely learning a lot
but on the other hand it is really time consuming.
So I think there’ll come a point at which I need to go do my own thing now.
The hardest part of leaving here will be the fact that we laugh so much at work
I mean it’s serious here, we are getting shit done, but the fact that the vibe is really relax is so nice.
There’s big change that happens at the end,
like once everything got attached and a lot of the big main decisions are made.
My focus is on these minuscule details, the knots in the books.
There are still supports, like here there is little ones like here and here
And this drips kind of obscure where the supports are. To make it feel like you are in the scifi kind of world
That the rules of physics are being bent.
Our elements come on and come off so my job is predicating some of those things.
We are like very giggly about ways to problem solve large complicated sculptures.
The sculptures itself is not built in a rational way. It has more of an aesthetic goal rather than a tectonic one.
So the things I am working mostly right now are construction manuals on howto assemble one of these things.
I am always running out to the studio measuring pieces and coming back to the computer.
It’s part of the sculpture that you don’t see. This instruction manuals will stay with the sculptures for the rest of its life.
Sometimes I ll get home after working here, and then I have a lot of dreams about cutting, gluing,
and I am not sure if I am dreaming about doing her work or doing my work.
But in the end it doesn’t make a big difference to me.
What we are doing in the studio together is our own problem for a while.
And at some point it will be the world problem forever.
The art world is really temperamental so I could be down to myself next year, who knows and I try to be prepared for luck.
Artist are some of the savviest, inventive people, they have to manage a really illogical pursuit,
the rest of the world is a lot more logical.
Every artist I know is dealing with lot of stress, and a lot of desire and a lot of curiosity.
They are kind of sneaky undercover people like you and me so be careful, we're everywhere.
Cleans party!