Daniel Gordon Looks Back | ART21 "New York Close Up"

[Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn]

[New York Close Up]

[Daniel Gordon, Artist]

[SOUND OF CELL PHONE VIBRATING]

--[GORDON] Hello?

["Daniel Gordon Looks Back"]

--Yeah, this is he.

A few weeks ago,

I was here working

and I got a call from somebody

who had bought a work that I made in 2004

and the picture was damaged

and they were wondering if they could have
it reprinted.

So I started looking for the negative

and it was really great to

step back twelve years ago

and see what I was making then.

It's shockingly kind of similar

to what I'm doing now.

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

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

a constructed tableau.

Back then I was trying to

figure out what my voice was

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

I really was trying to mimic reality

which is something that I have become

less and less interested in.

Not that there's not

a version of reality in my pictures now,

but instead of trying to hide all of that work

I think it became more interesting to show

the crumpled paper

and the handmade stuff

to show that Photoshop is, like,

really present in the process.

Changing a watermelon to be blue

or a peach to be green...

Pixelating things.

Adding noise to stuff.

[Sound of keys jingling off-screen]

[Danny moved to a new studio]

[next to his wife Ruby.]

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

but maybe what we really needed

was some more time together.

[BOTH LAUGH]

[GORDON] Ruby probably likes my past work

more than I do,

and I like Ruby’s past work

more than she does.

It's pretty rare that we would look back

and we're like,

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

No.

[STILER] As I get further from the thing,

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

[GORDON] But then sometimes, you go,

"It's so long ago..."

that you really are so detached...

[STILER] I've heard you say that before

and I've never felt that.

[GORDON] You haven’t?

[STILER] No.

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

...like what about, um...

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

[GORDON] What about the vase?

That was so cool!

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

[GORDON] See.

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

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

[STILER] Okay, stop!

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

the more there is to make.

You make a lot of work

and then you hang on to a few,

and I find myself looking back

at a few pictures

and wanting to expand on those.

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

It was made around the same time

as some of these other pictures.

And I was re-inspired by it

and wanted to see what it would be like

if I took that as a starting point.

I was interested in what happened
if I took out

the identifiable parts of a face.

Kind of, like, how far I could push

the idea of a portrait.

Kind of, how far I could go

away from what an eye is--

or what a nose is,

or what a mouth is--

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

Like, for example, just talking about these pictures.

They're so new that I don’t know

the answers to them.

Like, I think it takes a long time to,

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

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

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

where I want to go.

And it's, like,

you have to be delusional to, like,

keep coming back everyday

to make more failures.

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

And I think that's good--

like, I'm always antsy.

I just want to keep growing
and making things

that are beyond my expectations

and making things that are ambitious

and terrify me.

[GORDON] I think I'm, like,

right in between, generationally.

I lived half my life before the internet

and half my life after.

So, I think that there's

a really interesting conflict between

the analog versus the digital.

And I love both.

[Camera shutter clicks]

You know, for example,

like, this really large still life.

I made a quick selection of watermelon,

the green jug,

the blue plum,

and the orange peach.

And then created a new canvas,

and, kind of, stamped those...

that selection into the new canvas.

I was curious--and still am curious--

if there was a way to make

non-representational images

but also, still, in some way,

are related to my photographs--

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

I'm just kind of interested to see

where the line between a photograph,

and a painting, and a sculpture lies.

I think the real question is

how can you continue to work

and continue to be truly invested

and truly interested in what you're doing.

And, for me, the only way to do that

is to try new things--

to invent new ways of making pictures.

So that, eventually,

maybe those questions will have answers.

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

asking the questions, I think.