0:00:26.109,0:00:28.203
[Man VO] Let there be light.

0:00:32.666,0:00:37.927
He can't hide, try as he might.

0:00:37.927,0:00:42.969
♪♪♪

0:00:42.969,0:00:47.180
A man at night making a pathetic[br]attempt at connection...

0:00:47.180,0:00:49.750
[spraying]

0:00:49.750,0:00:53.138
to connect with[br]anyone in an empty room.

0:00:56.506,0:01:00.775
Have you ever danced with the[br]devil in the pale moonlight?

0:01:01.174,0:01:03.310
♪♪♪

0:01:03.669,0:01:05.118
Here is the man.

0:01:07.938,0:01:10.116
Here is the man.

0:01:10.790,0:01:12.230
Here is the man.

0:01:14.650,0:01:17.251
I've seen the man perform.

0:01:17.848,0:01:20.519
I've seen the man try and hide.

0:01:36.903,0:01:38.302
[man] Okay, ready to roll?

0:01:40.323,0:01:41.472
[woman] You can stand[br]up straight, Alex.

0:01:41.472,0:01:42.446
[Alex] Yeah, is it okay?

0:01:42.446,0:01:43.520
-[woman] Yeah.[br]-[woman] Yeah, that's fine.

0:01:43.520,0:01:44.196
-[woman] We could reach you.[br]-[woman] We can reach.

0:01:44.196,0:01:44.696
[Alex] Okay.

0:01:45.220,0:01:46.559
[woman] It was just for the[br]top of your head I needed...

0:01:46.559,0:01:47.066
[Alex] Okay.

0:01:50.958,0:02:00.315
♪ curious jazzy music ♪

0:02:05.000,0:02:08.160
[Alex VO] These characters or[br]images or objects exist within a

0:02:08.160,0:02:09.376
world of dreams.

0:02:15.564,0:02:22.308
♪ curious electronic music ♪

0:02:24.630,0:02:27.980
I just want to have my mind[br]be freer than it is and

0:02:27.980,0:02:31.980
that doesn't come easy to me,[br]so to spend time with these

0:02:31.980,0:02:37.250
characters in this devotional[br]research-based way is to say,

0:02:37.250,0:02:39.320
"I don't know if[br]I'll ever change,

0:02:39.320,0:02:42.196
but I try to, at least."

0:02:42.720,0:02:45.880
There is distance between myself[br]and the people in the past who

0:02:45.880,0:02:47.715
have influenced me.

0:02:49.087,0:02:52.700
If I think of some kind[br]of icon as a flat symbol,

0:02:52.700,0:02:54.750
how do I give it depth?

0:02:54.750,0:02:57.750
I want that, I think, of the[br]people I admire or the people

0:02:57.750,0:02:59.550
that confuse me.

0:02:59.550,0:03:01.239
I want depth.

0:03:15.733,0:03:17.020
[Alex] There we go.

0:03:19.447,0:03:22.218
Uh, wait, but is it all[br]the way up on the shoulder?

0:03:22.218,0:03:23.791
[man] Yes.

0:03:26.236,0:03:30.306
[Alex VO] I had a kind of very[br]long and winding path to be an artist.

0:03:32.204,0:03:36.000
I was a young person in my early[br]20s and studying animation,

0:03:36.000,0:03:40.790
and I didn't know how to go[br]forward to-- if I wanted to make

0:03:40.790,0:03:43.428
sculpture, I just[br]didn't know how to proceed.

0:03:44.750,0:03:47.300
All of the people making[br]sculpture were using the wood

0:03:47.300,0:03:50.299
shop or the metal shop, and[br]those places did not feel safe

0:03:50.299,0:03:51.480
for a young gay guy.

0:03:51.480,0:03:55.000
Like, I didn't know how[br]to find myself there.

0:03:55.000,0:03:57.876
When I was sort of feeling like[br]I was at an impasse and kind of

0:03:57.876,0:03:59.707
had...

0:04:00.506,0:04:03.786
had some time to think about how[br]I wanted to make a sculpture,

0:04:04.110,0:04:07.250
I looked to my[br]grandmother and started sewing.

0:04:07.250,0:04:10.301
In particular, I made[br]this large ketchup bottle.

0:04:12.621,0:04:20.000
♪ dreamy ambient music ♪

0:04:21.940,0:04:24.509
I filmed myself performing[br]this thing where I replicated a

0:04:24.509,0:04:27.139
photograph of Claes Oldenburg[br]carrying a toothpaste bottle

0:04:27.139,0:04:29.190
down the street but this[br]was a large ketchup bottle,

0:04:29.190,0:04:31.280
and I walked through the streets[br]of Philadelphia with this big

0:04:31.280,0:04:32.350
ketchup bottle.

0:04:33.373,0:04:37.166
And that was my sort of first[br]entry into sculpture and also

0:04:37.166,0:04:41.770
sewing as this kind of powerful[br]act of finding yourself.

0:04:42.960,0:04:46.810
♪♪♪

0:04:46.810,0:04:49.060
This idea of[br]embracing these things,

0:04:49.060,0:04:53.470
softening these things that seem[br]to be hard is my way of taking

0:04:53.470,0:04:56.550
down that machismo[br]a notch and to say, like,

0:04:56.550,0:04:59.030
"There's room[br]for a gentler,

0:04:59.030,0:05:04.084
more tender way of understanding[br]what it means to be human."

0:05:05.357,0:05:08.210
♪♪♪

0:05:08.600,0:05:11.730
Everyone I work with is doing[br]the same thing and wanting the

0:05:11.730,0:05:13.710
same thing of their lives.

0:05:14.858,0:05:17.820
There's a whole community of[br]people working towards something

0:05:17.820,0:05:19.550
new and unknown.

0:05:19.550,0:05:21.980
None of us know what[br]this will be in the end,

0:05:21.980,0:05:25.669
and that, I think, is-- that's[br]why we all come to the studio

0:05:25.669,0:05:30.525
every day is, like, to just[br]get into what we don't know.

0:05:32.971,0:05:35.326
We'll just see how[br]far this gets us.

0:05:35.326,0:05:39.617
♪♪♪

0:05:39.617,0:05:41.556
Yeah, I mean this[br]will change tomorrow,

0:05:41.556,0:05:42.903
but that's...

0:05:44.600,0:05:46.032
what we want.

0:05:50.323,0:05:54.513
♪♪♪

0:05:58.870,0:06:05.379
So this is a remake of[br]Claes Oldenburg's Mouse Museum,

0:06:05.379,0:06:10.100
and it's a work that he[br]initially made for Documenta.

0:06:11.971,0:06:17.750
I remember, like, wanting[br]to just be around stuff,

0:06:17.750,0:06:20.330
small plastic objects.

0:06:20.330,0:06:22.140
My room growing up[br]probably had just, like,

0:06:22.140,0:06:25.391
lots of buckets of this[br]kinds of stuff that I would

0:06:25.391,0:06:26.391
collect.

0:06:26.965,0:06:31.390
And I have sort of amassed[br]all of my objects and small

0:06:31.390,0:06:35.730
sculptures that I've made and[br]things that are important to me,

0:06:36.029,0:06:40.473
things that just kind of made[br]up my sculptural vocabulary,

0:06:40.473,0:06:41.905
but in miniature.

0:06:41.905,0:06:45.639
This little Big Bird mockup,[br]this was sort of the genesis of

0:06:45.639,0:06:47.355
the work for The Met.

0:06:49.676,0:06:53.280
[Alex VO] My work, when I'm[br]replicating something,

0:06:53.280,0:06:55.950
doesn't end with[br]replica, 'cause for me,

0:06:55.950,0:07:00.030
it's also important to collage[br]what has been replicated and put

0:07:00.030,0:07:02.487
it into a new world.

0:07:05.000,0:07:10.240
♪ uplifting ethereal music ♪

0:07:10.240,0:07:14.780
It allows for those characters[br]or images or objects to exist

0:07:14.780,0:07:19.389
within a world where logic is[br]kind of reinvented or paused or

0:07:19.389,0:07:23.720
slowed down or reversed,[br]and what we think we know

0:07:23.720,0:07:27.821
and how we think things[br]should be is now undone.

0:07:30.865,0:07:33.650
I guess at an early age, when I[br]said I wanted to be an artist,

0:07:33.650,0:07:38.125
I just thought that was[br]making Disney drawings.

0:07:40.445,0:07:44.330
I wanted to participate in the[br]magical world that that space

0:07:44.330,0:07:46.230
allowed me to exist in.

0:07:48.101,0:07:50.845
I grew up in the suburbs[br]of Jersey and Pittsburgh,

0:07:50.845,0:07:53.020
and I grew up in[br]Caracas, Venezuela.

0:07:53.319,0:07:55.810
As a young person, when[br]you move around a lot,

0:07:55.810,0:08:00.632
it can be unsettling, and so[br]I think that's kind of how I

0:08:00.632,0:08:02.711
became a dreamer --

0:08:03.210,0:08:05.919
because I was living in a[br]place and then leaving the

0:08:05.919,0:08:09.150
place, and then you long for[br]the place that you were living.

0:08:09.774,0:08:12.479
You kind of live in some sort[br]of space that's not actually

0:08:12.479,0:08:15.302
underfoot but quite[br]far away in your mind.

0:08:15.302,0:08:18.620
♪♪♪

0:08:18.620,0:08:22.030
The homes I'm making,[br]they're very fragmented.

0:08:22.030,0:08:25.150
They're collages of many[br]places and many versions,

0:08:25.150,0:08:26.827
I think, of myself.

0:08:28.599,0:08:34.126
♪♪♪

0:08:41.544,0:08:47.470
How does one look forward and[br]then also understand the past

0:08:47.470,0:08:49.380
and where they came from?

0:08:49.380,0:08:53.830
I have always come to this[br]particular gallery for this

0:08:53.830,0:08:55.428
Brancusi.

0:08:56.500,0:09:00.524
How I have always understood[br]Brancusi was this notion that,

0:09:00.524,0:09:02.154
like, the sculpture --

0:09:02.279,0:09:05.861
from the top[br]to the ground --

0:09:06.485,0:09:08.342
is all one.

0:09:10.000,0:09:14.529
Your foundation or what might be[br]a pedestal is actually part of

0:09:14.529,0:09:17.220
the work, and as[br]I interpret that,

0:09:17.220,0:09:22.230
our roots and our history[br]matters as much as what is

0:09:22.230,0:09:26.380
present or what we see or[br]what is visible at the top.

0:09:27.553,0:09:31.255
And so then I think, again,[br]about this work and how to

0:09:31.255,0:09:33.285
respond to it or unravel it.

0:09:33.460,0:09:36.100
I think that's often what I want[br]when I spend time with these

0:09:36.100,0:09:39.250
works is to say, "It[br]worked for you then,

0:09:39.250,0:09:40.860
but how can it work for me now?

0:09:40.860,0:09:42.584
And let's hug it out."

0:09:43.407,0:09:48.277
♪♪♪

0:10:06.973,0:10:10.169
[figure in video][br]When I saw you...

0:10:10.718,0:10:13.682
and that girl talking…

0:10:15.000,0:10:21.876
♪♪♪

0:10:40.528,0:10:42.473
[Scott] All right,[br]let's go ahead and roll.

0:10:42.947,0:10:43.910
All right, ready?

0:10:43.910,0:10:45.262
And...

0:10:46.534,0:10:47.861
action.

0:10:55.996,0:10:58.050
[Alex] So we could cut to some[br]kind of version of that.

0:10:58.574,0:11:00.314
[Scott] Oh yeah, we[br]can use a piece of it.

0:11:00.314,0:11:01.769
Do you wanna do it[br]again or move on?

0:11:01.769,0:11:02.673
[Alex] Let's do one more.

0:11:02.673,0:11:03.792
[Scott] Okay, cool.

0:11:08.358,0:11:11.685
♪ soft piano music ♪

0:11:11.685,0:11:15.279
Today, Alex is shooting this[br]sequence of the film in which

0:11:15.279,0:11:18.670
Marcel Duchamp gets dressed[br]into drag as Rrose Sélavy,

0:11:18.670,0:11:21.200
which is a fictional persona[br]that Duchamp came up with,

0:11:21.749,0:11:26.377
and he's going to be performing[br]a song under a pink spotlight.

0:11:31.142,0:11:32.640
[Alex VO] You know, my parents[br]pulled me aside and said,

0:11:32.640,0:11:34.189
"Well, what does it mean?" [chuckles]

0:11:34.189,0:11:38.729
They were like, "Why ketchup[br]and why these characters?"

0:11:39.328,0:11:42.790
And I was like, "These[br]are my safe spaces."

0:11:44.112,0:11:47.811
And as strange as[br]my ideas may be,

0:11:48.135,0:11:52.690
to make sure that they still can[br]communicate some sort of kernel

0:11:52.690,0:11:55.660
of what it means to be human,[br]that's what matters to me;

0:11:55.660,0:11:58.646
that's, like, the driving force[br]of why I work and how I work,

0:11:58.646,0:11:59.646
I think.

0:12:00.994,0:12:04.675
[Rrose Selavy] [in robotic voice] [br]♪ Why do birds ♪

0:12:04.675,0:12:07.584
♪ Suddenly appear ♪

0:12:07.584,0:12:10.504
[applause]

0:12:10.504,0:12:12.194
♪ Every time ♪

0:12:13.968,0:12:15.723
♪ That you're near? ♪

0:12:15.723,0:12:17.139
♪ Ooh-wee baby ♪

0:12:19.035,0:12:21.367
♪ Just like me ♪

0:12:22.914,0:12:25.236
♪ They long to be... ♪

0:12:25.236,0:12:27.250
[Alex VO] Walking the line[br]between the person that you

0:12:27.250,0:12:29.760
really are and the person that[br]you long to be or the person

0:12:29.760,0:12:32.197
that you once were,

0:12:32.197,0:12:36.790
we are constantly negotiating and [br]renegotiating those things to be,

0:12:36.790,0:12:39.106
you know, the perfect human.

0:12:39.605,0:12:42.720
I don't know if I'll[br]ever fully understand it,

0:12:42.720,0:12:46.210
but I know that one puts things[br]into the world because they want

0:12:46.210,0:12:50.429
to ask questions, and I[br]hope I learn something new.

0:12:50.429,0:13:00.686
♪♪♪

0:13:00.686,0:13:04.362
♪ And that is why ♪

0:13:15.964,0:13:23.748
♪ soft uplifting music ♪