WEBVTT 00:00:00.700 --> 00:00:03.740 [New York Close Up] 00:00:04.020 --> 00:00:08.600 ["Jordan Casteel Paints Her Community"] 00:00:11.780 --> 00:00:12.420 [JORDAN CASTEEL] Hi there. 00:00:12.420 --> 00:00:13.420 Do you remember me? 00:00:14.380 --> 00:00:15.580 Do you know where Harold is? 00:00:15.580 --> 00:00:16.320 Have you seen… 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:16.920 Harold? 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:18.460 Do you remember that I painted him? 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:21.840 I wanted to show him the painting. 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:25.480 I gave him my stuff so he could get in contact with me, 00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:27.100 but I haven't seen him back out here. 00:00:27.100 --> 00:00:29.020 [MAN] I haven’t seen him in a while. 00:00:29.020 --> 00:00:31.020 [CASTEEL] Okay, if I ever saw him then... 00:00:31.020 --> 00:00:32.580 [MAN] I haven’t seen him in about a year. 00:00:32.580 --> 00:00:34.060 [CASTEEL] I can email or text it to him. 00:00:34.140 --> 00:00:35.800 This is like seven foot tall, too. 00:00:35.800 --> 00:00:36.480 It's big. 00:00:41.660 --> 00:00:43.100 Get kind of close to your dad. 00:00:43.110 --> 00:00:44.110 Get like right here. 00:00:44.110 --> 00:00:45.110 Because this is your dad? 00:00:45.110 --> 00:00:46.110 Or that’s your dad? 00:00:46.110 --> 00:00:47.260 Yeah! I love it. 00:00:47.260 --> 00:00:48.640 Now I see it. That's so good. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:49.140 [MAN] Thank you. 00:00:49.140 --> 00:00:50.240 [CASTEEL] Yeah, come right here. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:51.240 I want you close to this middle one. 00:00:52.680 --> 00:00:53.680 [CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS] 00:00:54.420 --> 00:00:56.240 Will you put this leg in a little bit? 00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:56.820 Yeah! 00:00:56.820 --> 00:00:58.560 I’m just thinking about my canvas. 00:01:01.440 --> 00:01:02.340 Yeah, that's perfect. 00:01:02.340 --> 00:01:03.760 [MAN] Thank you. [CASTEEL] Look. 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:10.180 [MAN] Oh yeah, that’s lovely. 00:01:11.940 --> 00:01:14.380 [CASTEEL] The summer between my first and second year at Yale, 00:01:14.380 --> 00:01:18.110 I was awarded a grant to get ten thousand dollars 00:01:18.110 --> 00:01:22.740 and to go to Gloucester, Massachusetts to do landscape painting. 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:25.000 During that time, 00:01:25.009 --> 00:01:28.659 there was the acquittal of the murderer of Trayvon Martin. 00:01:28.659 --> 00:01:30.930 Gloucester is a very white place, 00:01:30.930 --> 00:01:33.670 as in I was probably the only brown person for miles. 00:01:33.670 --> 00:01:38.380 So like, there was a sense of isolation that I was sort of feeling around that experience. 00:01:40.240 --> 00:01:43.600 [Home of Jordan’s Aunt] 00:01:45.860 --> 00:01:46.940 I remember 00:01:46.950 --> 00:01:49.399 having a phone conversation with my twin brother. 00:01:49.399 --> 00:01:52.460 My twin was describing being in a convenience store 00:01:52.460 --> 00:01:53.850 and somebody was following him, 00:01:53.850 --> 00:01:55.919 and he was kind of going on this rant, like, 00:01:55.919 --> 00:01:57.969 "You know, people follow me like I'm a threat," 00:01:57.969 --> 00:01:59.790 "but they don’t even know that I'm a father" 00:01:59.790 --> 00:02:02.009 "and I'm, like, trying to get my shit together." 00:02:02.009 --> 00:02:03.329 "They don't know anything about me," 00:02:03.329 --> 00:02:04.520 "I'm just the one who's, like," 00:02:04.520 --> 00:02:07.060 "going to steal something or whatever." 00:02:07.060 --> 00:02:08.849 I think I felt at that time 00:02:08.849 --> 00:02:10.759 that I needed to go back to Yale 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:13.680 and do work outside of landscapes-- 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:16.430 that I needed to find a way to combine 00:02:16.430 --> 00:02:19.489 my desire to create a sense of visibility around 00:02:19.489 --> 00:02:23.440 my family and my brothers that was feeling absent at that time. 00:02:24.040 --> 00:02:26.160 Let me help you with your ringtone. 00:02:28.040 --> 00:02:28.940 Record it? 00:02:28.940 --> 00:02:30.440 [AUNT] We have to record it. 00:02:31.100 --> 00:02:34.320 Go in the settings and see how you do that. 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:38.460 [SINGING] ♪ Trump is our enemy. ♪ 00:02:38.460 --> 00:02:40.940 ♪ He must be removed ♪ 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:45.000 ♪ Trump is our enemy. ♪ 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.160 ♪ He must be removed. ♪ 00:02:47.180 --> 00:02:55.420 ♪ Just like a can of garbage in the alley, ♪ 00:02:55.420 --> 00:02:59.920 ♪ he must be removed. ♪ 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:02.060 Yeah! 00:03:02.480 --> 00:03:03.880 [CASTEEL] Okay now we got to test it out, 00:03:03.880 --> 00:03:04.880 But I think I did it! 00:03:04.880 --> 00:03:05.880 Okay. 00:03:05.880 --> 00:03:07.300 [AUNT] Okay, and then you call me, 00:03:07.300 --> 00:03:09.100 and let's see if this works. 00:03:09.180 --> 00:03:13.160 [FROM RECORDING] ♪ He must be removed. ♪ 00:03:13.160 --> 00:03:14.120 [LAUGHS] 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:15.980 [CASTEEL] Everytime the phone rings, that's now what it is! 00:03:17.540 --> 00:03:19.240 So I came back to Yale and was like, 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:23.180 "I am going to paint my black men" 00:03:23.180 --> 00:03:26.700 "Imma do this thing about my family, basically." 00:03:45.940 --> 00:03:48.510 Nine times out of ten, people think that I am a man 00:03:48.510 --> 00:03:49.870 before they meet me. 00:03:49.870 --> 00:03:50.870 Even though, like… 00:03:50.870 --> 00:03:53.640 Yeah, because my name is Jordan and I'm painting men. 00:03:53.640 --> 00:03:55.260 So even at my own openings, 00:03:55.260 --> 00:03:56.370 the number of times that my mother… 00:03:56.370 --> 00:03:58.500 I hear my mother across a room being like, 00:03:58.500 --> 00:03:59.500 "SHE's over there!" 00:03:59.500 --> 00:04:01.390 And I'm like, "Mom, it's okay." 00:04:01.390 --> 00:04:03.760 And I think a lot of that has to do with historical painting 00:04:03.760 --> 00:04:06.510 and the notion of who has the right 00:04:06.510 --> 00:04:09.020 to depict what bodies at what scale. 00:04:09.020 --> 00:04:10.930 And, I like that. 00:04:10.930 --> 00:04:13.220 I feel really present in this work as a result. 00:04:13.220 --> 00:04:14.440 Like, whenever people… 00:04:14.440 --> 00:04:16.819 There have been some criticisms of: I only paint men. 00:04:16.819 --> 00:04:18.319 And every time people say women are absent, 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:19.860 or people are like, "When are you going to paint women?" 00:04:19.860 --> 00:04:23.229 I'm like, I don’t know if I feel absence, 00:04:23.229 --> 00:04:25.229 because I’m very much a part of this work, 00:04:25.229 --> 00:04:27.770 and it's translated through my experience. 00:04:27.770 --> 00:04:29.930 So, these nudes happened, 00:04:29.930 --> 00:04:31.210 which was horrifying. 00:04:31.210 --> 00:04:33.270 And I got a lot of criticism, sort of, 00:04:33.270 --> 00:04:35.100 during that time around it. 00:04:35.100 --> 00:04:38.960 Because I was making some pretty intentional and dramatic moves, 00:04:38.960 --> 00:04:40.669 such as not showing the genitalia, 00:04:40.669 --> 00:04:42.419 which was always a thing. 00:04:42.419 --> 00:04:45.939 But I was really interested in humanizing 00:04:45.940 --> 00:04:49.640 in a history that is often criminalized and sexualized. 00:04:49.640 --> 00:04:51.960 So, I didn’t want the black male body 00:04:51.960 --> 00:04:54.820 to be taken advantage of 00:04:54.820 --> 00:04:56.759 any more than historically it has been. 00:04:56.759 --> 00:04:58.939 So that was like a gesture of 00:04:58.940 --> 00:05:00.220 not allowing people to have 00:05:00.220 --> 00:05:02.600 what they felt like they deserved from the body. 00:05:02.860 --> 00:05:04.120 [STUDENT] To consume the body... 00:05:04.120 --> 00:05:05.120 [CASTEEL] Yeah, exactly. 00:05:05.340 --> 00:05:06.160 Yeah, of course. 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:07.060 Thank you, guys! 00:05:07.060 --> 00:05:09.000 Best of luck to you as well. 00:05:21.220 --> 00:05:23.440 [SOUNDS OF DJEMBE DRUMMING] 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:41.819 There was some conversation about 00:05:41.819 --> 00:05:44.919 my paintings being surrogates for my brother. 00:05:44.919 --> 00:05:47.469 And it was when that conversation came up that 00:05:47.469 --> 00:05:50.770 I first was like, "Oh, you’re maybe right." 00:05:50.770 --> 00:05:53.240 "Like, maybe I need to go to the source of all of this." 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:55.880 "Maybe it's time for me to actually paint my twin." 00:05:57.800 --> 00:05:59.140 [RECORDING] One, two, three… 00:05:59.820 --> 00:06:00.880 [MUSIC BEGINS PLAYING] 00:06:01.740 --> 00:06:02.580 [MAN, OFF SCREEN] Turn up! 00:06:02.580 --> 00:06:03.620 [LAUGHTER] 00:06:06.100 --> 00:06:07.720 [CASTEEL] I never heard this song. 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:08.800 [WOMAN, OFF SCREEN] What!? 00:06:09.640 --> 00:06:10.960 [WOMAN] Oh, we do know this! 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:16.440 [MAN] The fact that y'all all dancing to this song, 00:06:16.440 --> 00:06:17.640 like it's, like… 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:19.680 I've never heard this song in my life. 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:20.360 [ALL LAUGH] 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:23.520 [MAN]: Let’s get the hottest rappers around right now. 00:06:23.520 --> 00:06:24.600 Lil Yachty! 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:25.500 [ALL LAUGH] 00:06:25.500 --> 00:06:27.620 [WOMAN] Lil Yachty! Oh my God! 00:06:27.620 --> 00:06:28.240 [MAN] See? 00:06:30.520 --> 00:06:31.980 [MAN] I feel like I’m doing like a… 00:06:32.180 --> 00:06:33.780 [WOMAN] Like a belly dance, yes! 00:06:35.100 --> 00:06:37.460 [WOMAN] You have such an emotional connection... 00:06:37.460 --> 00:06:39.800 Like, the moments when you decide to photograph. 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:42.680 Like, with the twins, like, all of a sudden, 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:44.500 they're lifted in a way that's like… 00:06:44.500 --> 00:06:45.480 I don’t know how to… 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:47.500 [CASTEEL] Well that wasn't an intentional photograph. 00:06:47.500 --> 00:06:49.620 Like, I was photographing Charles, the fur guy. 00:06:50.100 --> 00:06:52.360 And this woman pushed her babies in front of my camera 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:53.760 and was like, "Photograph my babies!" 00:06:53.760 --> 00:06:54.740 [ALL LAUGH] 00:06:54.780 --> 00:06:55.700 [CASTEEL] No, literally. 00:06:55.700 --> 00:06:56.960 And I was like, what? 00:06:56.980 --> 00:06:57.980 Okay? 00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:00.440 And I took one shot. Like it was literally, like, click. 00:07:00.460 --> 00:07:02.460 And I was like, "Oh they're so cute, are they twins?" 00:07:02.460 --> 00:07:03.500 And she was like "Yeah they are," 00:07:03.500 --> 00:07:04.420 and then just like ran off. 00:07:04.430 --> 00:07:05.430 [MAN] Wow… 00:07:05.430 --> 00:07:06.430 [WOMAN] Did you tell her you're a twin? 00:07:06.430 --> 00:07:07.729 [CASTEEL] Yeah, I was like "Oh, I'm a twin too," 00:07:07.729 --> 00:07:09.449 "So maybe I, like, noticed that or something." 00:07:09.449 --> 00:07:10.569 And she was like, “Oh, okay that makes sense," 00:07:10.569 --> 00:07:11.830 And then she kind of, like, ran off. 00:07:11.830 --> 00:07:13.520 [MAN] And have you found her since then? 00:07:13.520 --> 00:07:15.700 [CASTEEL] No! No. I have no idea. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:23.860 When we were really young, we were really, really close. 00:07:23.860 --> 00:07:26.620 And then we went to high school, and we were both... 00:07:26.620 --> 00:07:28.000 We went from this all white, 00:07:28.009 --> 00:07:30.509 private middle school from first to eighth grade, 00:07:30.509 --> 00:07:34.500 where we were the only two black kids, basically, in the whole school. 00:07:34.520 --> 00:07:40.260 And we transferred in high school to our local public high school. 00:07:40.260 --> 00:07:43.139 And both of us experienced some bullying, 00:07:43.139 --> 00:07:46.840 I think, because we were coming from a different background 00:07:46.840 --> 00:07:49.280 than a lot of the other students. 00:07:49.280 --> 00:07:51.560 [MAN] It’s like I'm, like, setting it down though. 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:52.700 [CASTEEL] Yeah! Yeah. 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:54.560 Well, here, maybe sit in front of it, 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:56.520 then I can do a close up of y'all sitting in front of it. 00:07:56.520 --> 00:07:57.830 Would that be cool? 00:07:57.830 --> 00:07:58.939 [CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS] 00:07:58.939 --> 00:08:00.580 The way that I dealt with that was I made 00:08:00.580 --> 00:08:02.819 cookie cutter peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 00:08:02.819 --> 00:08:05.819 and I would sit outside of my favorite teacher's classroom-- 00:08:05.819 --> 00:08:07.039 on the floor, during lunch-- 00:08:07.039 --> 00:08:09.460 and eat my cookie cutter sandwiches. 00:08:09.460 --> 00:08:11.760 But my twin, on the other hand, 00:08:11.780 --> 00:08:14.300 was bullied more physically. 00:08:14.300 --> 00:08:16.700 I think he literally had to, like, 00:08:16.700 --> 00:08:18.420 become tougher. 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:23.340 And a lot of that had to do with societal expectations. 00:08:23.340 --> 00:08:24.220 I only feel like… 00:08:24.220 --> 00:08:26.300 I just, in at least a public sense, 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:28.340 I get really conscious… 00:08:28.340 --> 00:08:30.560 His story is not mine to tell. 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:35.500 And I can only speak from the perspective of his sister. 00:08:35.500 --> 00:08:39.200 And somebody who's seen him as this really funny 00:08:39.220 --> 00:08:42.580 sensitive, charismatic, loving young man, 00:08:42.589 --> 00:08:45.960 and recognizing that the world perceives him differently. 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:50.000 And as a result, this work, I think, really comes from 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:53.280 my desire to share 00:08:53.300 --> 00:08:55.400 what I have known with the world.