1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,640 [New York Close Up] 2 00:00:07,529 --> 00:00:09,189 I have been collecting images 3 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:11,880 putting things into books- 4 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:16,500 i don't know, probably since high school 5 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:29,400 Before, it was more about coming across an image 6 00:00:29,409 --> 00:00:31,069 and if it struck me, I would put it aside. 7 00:00:31,069 --> 00:00:31,839 [Louise Despont, Artist] 8 00:00:32,759 --> 00:00:36,380 And then later, it became searching for specific images. 9 00:00:36,380 --> 00:00:38,900 Looking for specific examples. 10 00:00:48,910 --> 00:00:52,510 I've been thinking about where ideas come from, 11 00:00:52,510 --> 00:00:55,559 what the source of inspiration is, 12 00:00:55,559 --> 00:00:57,839 what that communication was about. 13 00:00:58,020 --> 00:01:01,060 ["Louise Despont According To The Universe"] 14 00:01:04,930 --> 00:01:07,490 I'm really drawn to images that are very full 15 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:10,120 and very packed 16 00:01:11,340 --> 00:01:14,440 because I want that energy to feel strong 17 00:01:15,220 --> 00:01:17,360 and present in the work afterwards. 18 00:01:22,780 --> 00:01:25,220 Most of them come from the Internet. 19 00:01:25,229 --> 00:01:26,810 Some are Xeroxed out of books 20 00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:30,040 and some are travel photographs. 21 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,240 These are chicken baskets in Bali. 22 00:01:37,460 --> 00:01:39,820 Collecting images and storing them 23 00:01:39,820 --> 00:01:40,980 and looking through them, 24 00:01:41,540 --> 00:01:44,460 there's a large amount of it that's unconscious. 25 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:49,560 It’s just about looking at work that vibrates for you-- 26 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:53,229 that you say "Whoa!" that is so powerful-- 27 00:01:54,260 --> 00:01:56,680 and you're moved by it and you're changed by it. 28 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:03,659 Ten years ago I would spend most of my time 29 00:02:03,659 --> 00:02:06,059 looking for images and collecting them 30 00:02:06,060 --> 00:02:07,980 and a little bit of time drawing. 31 00:02:09,100 --> 00:02:10,520 It's nice to look back. 32 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:11,600 It's like bread crumbs. 33 00:02:12,340 --> 00:02:15,380 Reminds me of all the steps along the way. 34 00:02:18,540 --> 00:02:21,590 What those first images were that caught my eye, 35 00:02:21,590 --> 00:02:24,400 and which ones still feel significant, 36 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:27,180 and which ones aren’t interesting anymore. 37 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:33,280 [LAUGHS] 38 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:43,960 This is an old portfolio from 2009 in India. 39 00:02:44,890 --> 00:02:49,150 I visited astronomical observatories in Jaipur and Delhi. 40 00:02:50,340 --> 00:02:51,940 They're just beautiful geometry. 41 00:02:53,380 --> 00:02:55,500 This is a collage I was making 42 00:02:55,510 --> 00:02:58,790 from Xeroxes of books on textiles. 43 00:03:01,100 --> 00:03:04,800 This idea came back into my work six years later 44 00:03:04,810 --> 00:03:07,150 in a piece that I made for Pioneer Works. 45 00:03:08,260 --> 00:03:09,720 [Pioneer Works, Red Hook] 46 00:03:09,730 --> 00:03:11,650 For my show, "The Six-Sided Force," 47 00:03:11,650 --> 00:03:14,110 I was thinking about beehives-- 48 00:03:14,110 --> 00:03:15,890 their systems of communication, 49 00:03:16,920 --> 00:03:19,280 their use of architecture, 50 00:03:20,140 --> 00:03:21,719 the energy of a hexagon. 51 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:25,080 [MAN] Wow. 52 00:03:25,460 --> 00:03:28,620 [DESPONT] And then starting here, three hives, 53 00:03:29,390 --> 00:03:31,170 then a big piece. 54 00:03:33,180 --> 00:03:34,710 Wow. Amazing. 55 00:03:36,460 --> 00:03:37,920 Oh, it looks great! 56 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:38,959 [WOMAN] It looks amazing. 57 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:44,120 [DESPONT] A body of work sort of develops its theme in different ways. 58 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:46,980 One way is simply that, 59 00:03:46,980 --> 00:03:50,180 because the work is so slow to make, 60 00:03:50,620 --> 00:03:53,019 one year equals one show. 61 00:03:53,020 --> 00:03:55,900 It's kind of just the state of mind of that year. 62 00:03:57,069 --> 00:04:01,319 I am suspicious of having to decide on the subject of a show 63 00:04:01,319 --> 00:04:03,219 before starting the work. 64 00:04:03,819 --> 00:04:06,670 The process of drawing is such a learning tool 65 00:04:06,670 --> 00:04:10,120 that the work will guide it much better than sitting down 66 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:12,300 and trying to make a decision. 67 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:26,260 [Nicelle Beauchene, Lower East Side] 68 00:04:26,260 --> 00:04:28,280 For my show, "Harmonic Tremor," 69 00:04:28,280 --> 00:04:31,720 I'm thinking about vibrations, sound waves-- 70 00:04:32,460 --> 00:04:37,100 specifically volcanic vibrations that encircle the world. 71 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:39,320 In terms of Krakatoa, 72 00:04:39,330 --> 00:04:41,410 I was interested in that one specifically 73 00:04:41,410 --> 00:04:44,380 because it was such a huge explosion-- 74 00:04:44,380 --> 00:04:48,160 that the sound waves travelled around the earth four times. 75 00:04:55,500 --> 00:04:57,000 A seismograph-- 76 00:04:57,900 --> 00:05:00,320 it's a drawing that the Earth is making. 77 00:05:02,820 --> 00:05:04,400 Everything is vibration. 78 00:05:05,030 --> 00:05:08,690 Everything is made up of waves of energy. 79 00:05:11,300 --> 00:05:12,880 Things that are alive have a hum 80 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:16,780 and there's a way to visually represent that. 81 00:05:18,500 --> 00:05:21,320 What are the patterns of an emotion? 82 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:29,600 What are the vibrational waves of a relationship? 83 00:05:32,610 --> 00:05:33,600 When I look at the drawings 84 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:37,000 and I feel the examples that are the most successful, 85 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:38,860 it really feels like they hum. 86 00:05:42,220 --> 00:05:44,680 That the drawing starts to vibrate in this way 87 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:48,820 where the energy has been translated in the correct way. 88 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:53,160 It's taken on its own life. 89 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:58,140 Yeah, the vibration of it just becomes alive. 90 00:06:05,180 --> 00:06:08,000 What's so interesting about the creative act 91 00:06:08,010 --> 00:06:12,710 is that you can access something completely outside yourself. 92 00:06:14,180 --> 00:06:16,620 It's a communication with awareness 93 00:06:16,620 --> 00:06:18,580 rather than consciousness. 94 00:06:19,660 --> 00:06:21,920 You put them all up and then maybe two 95 00:06:21,930 --> 00:06:23,880 or a connection between four of them 96 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:26,620 will find some reference into a work. 97 00:06:27,580 --> 00:06:31,860 And because the work is not an illustration of a concept or an idea, 98 00:06:31,870 --> 00:06:33,440 there’s enough freedom to say, 99 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:36,080 "If it's contained within me, it'll make sense." 100 00:06:36,620 --> 00:06:38,700 There will be some unifying force. 101 00:06:39,940 --> 00:06:44,000 If you offer yourself up as the hands to make the work 102 00:06:45,980 --> 00:06:49,680 the relationship you form with what you communicate with 103 00:06:50,420 --> 00:06:52,440 has its own voice. 104 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:58,060 Sometimes that voice comes through research and combing through images. 105 00:06:58,070 --> 00:07:01,110 And sometimes it's direct on the paper. 106 00:07:04,150 --> 00:07:05,290 In terms of inspiration, 107 00:07:05,290 --> 00:07:10,030 for some reason I had this image in my head of an eyeball. 108 00:07:10,660 --> 00:07:16,140 If we think of the pupil and the iris as the ego and the conscious mind, 109 00:07:16,710 --> 00:07:19,560 and then you imagine the white of the eye as awareness-- 110 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:24,560 as energy that you can access outside of yourself. 111 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:30,720 That's what I think is the most exciting part about making work, 112 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:36,680 is that you start to build a relationship with accessing this awareness. 113 00:07:39,060 --> 00:07:42,680 That work isn't coming from your personal life story. 114 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:44,130 It's not coming from your background. 115 00:07:44,130 --> 00:07:45,630 It's not coming from your ego. 116 00:07:46,380 --> 00:07:49,540 It's coming from some universal energy, you know? 117 00:07:50,860 --> 00:07:54,060 And that relationship is so sacred. 118 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:00,900 Finding what those really interesting connections are, 119 00:08:01,540 --> 00:08:04,200 it's sort of playing with memory. 120 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:21,300 Because I have a very bad memory, 121 00:08:22,070 --> 00:08:23,410 I think I remember what it is 122 00:08:23,410 --> 00:08:25,650 but then I'm afraid to really say what it is. 123 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:28,980 It's like the reference sometimes disappears. 124 00:08:30,060 --> 00:08:32,960 Then, you're just looking at one specific thing about it. 125 00:08:33,380 --> 00:08:35,440 It's not really about it’s context anymore. 126 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:40,100 [DESPONT] Should I start burning down here? 127 00:08:40,100 --> 00:08:40,780 [MAN] Left. 128 00:08:40,780 --> 00:08:42,780 [MAN] Okay. You're good. 129 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:45,500 [DESPONT] It’s really hard for it to get through the black ink. 130 00:08:45,660 --> 00:08:46,820 [ALL LAUGH] 131 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:48,080 [MAN] Hold. 132 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:50,220 [DESPONT] It looks like a devil's face! [LAUGHS] 133 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:52,459 [MAN] Wow. 134 00:08:52,620 --> 00:08:54,660 [DESPONT] That was so nice!