Babe Interviews

WH: Hey Danny ☺️ can you tell me a bit about the installations which you call ‘micro utopias’ how you see them as functioning as places for queer people?

DJ: Hi Will, Sure thing. I think the idea of ‘micro utopias’ is developing and it's still an influx term. It's not solid research at the moment. However, I can elaborate on where I am standing at the moment. I have done a fair amount of research about ‘Utopia’ within different art practices. I highly recommend ‘Utopia & Contemporary Art’ by Christian Gether, Stine Høholt, Marie Laurberg for Arken Museum for Moderne Kunst (Copenhagen) ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, 2012. I think I used to think that my work had to directly respond to utopias, however, I don’t feel that anymore. I think the idea of utopia is kinda overused… or rather over examined. I have decided to situate utopia as a starting point for my research. It's a jumping off point. At the moment I am working with a concept called QueerWorld that connects several of my installations. The overall concept is that there is a speculative world/timeline that exists in a parallel universe. In this world there is no heteronormativity or othering of queer people… in a way it is a queer utopia…. Haha. However, the real magic of this work, is that objects from this universe are transported into our world. In QueerWorld, these objects are benign, beige and nothing…. They are normative…. However, in our world they are DEEPLY queer and they function like pink beacons, drawing in queerfolk to get a taste of a queer universe (or perhaps utopia)... the overall concept of my practice at the moment is to focus on creating space and narratives which empower queerfolk. I am more interested in what happens when objects from QueerWorld enter our world, what conversations, and tensions do they create? What tensions do they relieve?

WH: I know we share a deep love of Britney Spears 💃 and Pop music in general which is a huge part of both our practices. We have even talked about collaborating on a project about this! Could you say a few words about Britney and the wider impact of music on your practice?

DJ: I feel like lately the more I interact with Britney Spears, outside of her music the more sadder I get, but I hope you don’t Hold It Against Me. My favorite Spears song is Autumn Goodbye, but I also really stan the Femme Fatale and Britney Jean album. I know everyone stans Blackout, however, that was released during my screamo/emo music phase. I went from pop to goth and back again.

I was going to say that music does not impact my practice. However, I am about to create some music for my upcoming installation, in that installation it's about taking the process of disconnecting to heteronormativity by listening to Low-Fi Beats to Chill and Study To and laying down. I think most of my inspiration comes from the visuals assistatoted with music. I am extremely interested in music videos, album covers and branding. How do they all tie to the music and translate it into a visual medium? But I think a lot of pop music inspires a strong femme energy in my work.

WH: Yes yes yes, i do believe that the visuals of music videos also play heavily on my creative output. At the moment ‘Me Against The Music’ by Britney Spears featuring Madonna has been on my mind especially the wooden stud wall maze Britney meanders sexually through.

WH: Your new work N̶̘͖̭̻̺̘̗̓EȌ̷̢̜̐̋̒̌̏ͅ Ǧ̴̨͚Ĺ̵̮̙́Į̴̺̊̚T̷͔̈́C̶͖̲̾̒H̷̗̍ ̴̲̱̼͖̬̩̊͝CIŢ̴͓̦̹̂͜Y̷̝̯̯͔͒̂̊̈́̉͑̍ (Neo Glitch City) you explore the ‘potential of the

glitch’ as a place to escape to. I experience this often in my physical life through DaJa Vu. Do you also experience this? Also what are your thoughts on DaJa Vu? Is it our brains playing tricks on us or a link to another dimension or cracks in the matrix of space and time?

DJ: I am quite a pragmatic person, so my ideas might be a bit boring. However, I do love the rush of Flow and being In The Zone (Hence why my sculpture is called QueerZone). During Honors I would drink Redbull, read queer theory and create paintings. I would be so caught up, it would be 14 hours in the studio and I will have missed a meal. In that moment there is such a caffeine rush and art rush its amazing. As for Déjà vu, I experience it frequently.
Sometimes I wonder if i died and fell back in time to this point and thats why i feel Déjà vu.
But also being pragmatic, I also think its just the scientific idea that its just a familiar feeling occurring when your doing a task.

WH: In your work QueerZone you talk about pleasure, romance and simulation. What does it mean for you to be a queer artists and work digitally? The idea of the screen replacing physical and for example the rewiring of our brains to pleasure through screen based stimuli.

DJ: Digital like Queerness is forever influx.

WH: The environment of a grid 🔲🔲is something that you have looked at in ‘Grid Haus’ with the use of digital projection, which makes me think of films such as Tron, especially with the
soundtrack composed by Daft Punk. What were your cultural reference points when initially thinking about this work?

DJ: My work is an extreme hodgepodge of pop culture. I think I used to always try to explain them all in my artist statements, however I am starting to move further away from this over explaining. Instead I want my artist statements to focus on the conceptual ideas in my work. I am starting to consider my cultural reference points as part of my identity and also a journal of my ideas and a time capsule. The same way Warhol painted soup cans and Marilyn. It shows his taste, interest and the culture that was around him at the time.

When looking at GridHaus, I am responding to the ideas of being put in a box or staying in a line. But it also refers to the ongoing use of grids and colours in VaporWave. It responds to gay rave culture that happened in warhouse, hence the use of industraial steel grids and chains in the work. There is that motion of swaying and also intense dancing, in the animation… which kinda pulls from my love of dancing…. Uhhh i dont know if that was a very good explanation. But I strongly sample from pop culture, however, I also try to relate them to queer theory and space making.

WH: Recently i have become very at home with the use of Low brow influences in my work but that has been a journey. I think a while ago we talked and you were struggling with theorists and contextualising your work to the high brow art world 🤦‍♀️. Have you been able to resolve this?

DJ: Nope. I just started being more high art with my practice. Cultural reference points are

becoming less obvious. N̶̘͖̭̻̺̘̗̓EȌ̷̢̜̐̋̒̌̏ͅ Ǧ̴̨͚Ĺ̵̮̙́Į̴̺̊̚T̷͔̈́C̶͖̲̾̒H̷̗̍ ̴̲̱̼͖̬̩̊͝CIŢ̴͓̦̹̂͜Y̷̝̯̯͔͒̂̊̈́̉͑̍ samples from Pokemon Red, however, I don't

have any actual Pokemon in the paintings or videogame. But rather explores the idea of exploring a glitched landscape and what happens to the hetero symbotics. I think my practice has influences from low brow pop culture, but I feel more confidence, because the end work is more resolved.
Actually that is a lie… I am reading The Queer Art of Failure, which explores cartoons and queer theory … like queer theory responding to Spongebob… I don't think there is a divide between Low and High Art… but rather, I had a bunch of ideas of what an Artist must be…. And what an Illustrator must be…. An Artist can only respond to academic doctrine and an Illustrator can only respond to pop culture. I realise now that is not true. There are plenty of artists who have no substance or ideas and plenty of illustrators with deep conceptual ideas in their drawing of Power Puff Girls. I am realising that I should not feel guilty for playing videogames or loving cartoons, this is part of who I am. I can like Britney Spears AND Judith Butler.
Also
seeing queer representation thanks to podcats such as Food 4 Thot, has made me realise how complex a queer artist can be. Thanks to Joe, one of the podcasts hosts, I realised a gay man can be a Marxist AND a scientist AND an artist AND a cry baby AND a dick pig AND an academic. Woah…. Now that i have put that in words… i feel like i have grown a lot since those overwhelmed IG stories. A

WH: Who are you listening to right now? 🎼

DJ: Doopy Loopy (Dua Lipa), Niall Horan’s Heartbreak Weather and Gaga’s Stupid Love, bc I am a gay and I have to.

Interview Conducted in March 2020.
Interviewee: Danny Jarratt
Interviewer: Will Hughes