“I’m driven by curiosity, and I can get interested in literally anything,” Justin Chance told AiA during a recent studio visit.
“I’m less interested in judging whether something is good or bad, right or wrong, than I am in asking, What is this thing? Why is this thing?”
AiA visited Chance’s studio for our New Talent issue. He is one of five New York–based artists to watch featured in our new studio visit video series.
Read an edited version of their conversation here: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/interviews/justin-chances-video-interview-new-talent-1234670697/
Art in America: https://www.artnews.com/c/art-in-america/
Credits:
Featuring Justin Chance
Special Thanks to Tara Downs, New York
Director: Christopher Garcia Valle
DP: Jasdeep Kang
Producer: Christopher Garcia Valle
Editor: Christopher Garcia Valle
Interviewer: Emily Watlington
Images courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York/ Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle.
Foreign chance uh we’re in my studio in Brooklyn New York I’m an RX and writer the idea of like the Artist as kind of like a catch-all turn or something really attracted me from Gekko I feel like 2008 through a common exhibition in the book
Museum I was like this is one of a child so like it’s cool but also like he’s making mugs he’s making like pins making enamel like he’s making paintings I was like okay like I could do one of those two three things an idea that like the Arts would just be
A thing you know and for me I think I was also like a writer it’s really important to figure out like what art can do that language can’t you know something is this idea better as a paragraph it just be a paragraph or is it better as like something else you
Know because language is incredible like language is a whole situation I mean like and I think there’s something about kind of the authority of language that feels sometimes daunting and which is why art is is okay because an artist you know these draw suggestions without having kind of being held accountable
Um so writing for me is really just like taking a word or Fascination just really going going there oh God especially a good metaphor exhibition making is kind of how I Orient myself in the studio like it’s really as like I could be literally interested in anything like literally anything so I
Think Xbox is a really great way of like holding me to a particular friend okay okay cool that’s my era That’s my kind of like ocean it’s like oceanography era That’s my kind of like how the TVs work era how to listen ideas really guide me research-wise there’s one quilt called Aloha sadness
I was like I feel like I was either washing dishes or I was like showering or running or something like that I was like holy that’s so good it’s like it’s so dumb but also so real and so good like a little homies goodbye also means hello
Um another one like green screen that’s also a quote again I didn’t love I don’t necessarily love that color but again the title is what it is so it really helps me figure out that’s the research materially like knowing how something works is really important to me
I know I have something and also how it works culturally on a cultural level but also works on a physical level also works particularly in terms of dye or pigment on a molecular level because that way you’re able to figure out to really get in there you know just like
In terms of like writing you have to know how language Works in order to be effective in it I think knowing is has this connotation of a very empirical presence that like knowledge of power and that’s what we want but I think there’s something really beautiful about like
Not knowing oh this is like that’s like that’s the best part like the best part is being like what is that thing I think in between exhibitions like like for example space I’m like all right that’s so fascinating but I can’t get in there right now
But like not knowing is like holy like that’s something you could get into later on and as if you were I mean for the viewer or the reader I think the position of them in the position of like not knowing but curiosity is also great you know what I mean
So no one’s like battling them saying I Am the Artist I know what you’re talking about like no no we’re all you know contributing to the situation
Video Justin Chance’s Wool Quilts are Catchalls for Curiosity was uploaded on 06/08/2023 by Art in America Youtube channel.