cusp.talk : Daniel John Bracken
Sunset（Rockaway），2019
cusp. :
Please introduce yourself first ～ (For example, where do you live, your educational background, when did you become interested in art, or any content)
可以先简单介绍一下自己吗：）你现在居住在哪里，你的教育背景，从什么时间点开始对图像产生了兴趣，同时也可以是任何想说的。
Dani：
I currently find myself working as an artist based out of London, where I've been living for the past four years. Originally from New York, I completed my undergraduate studies at Purchase College - attaining a BFA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts in 2016. After several years of developing my practice in the states, I began my postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Art – attaining the MA in Photography in 2020. With a background in both Printmaking and Photography, I find myself working primarily with photography, alternative print and installation.
最近四年我一直在伦敦生活，现在有时候我也会更常在伦敦以外的地方从事自己的艺术工作。我来自纽约，在2016年在Purchase College取得了跨学科视觉艺术学士学位。之后在美国从事了几年自己的艺术工作，开始在Royal College of Art 继续学习摄影硕士并在 2020 年取得了摄影硕士学位。因为学习了摄影和版画印刷之类的专业，我现在的创作媒介主要会围绕摄影、印刷还有雕塑。
The Effect of Winter，2019
cusp. :
How would you describe your creation? (For example, commonly used media and techniques, focus on themes, visual style, etc.)
你会怎样讲述自己的创作：）
Dani：
The works presented within the exhibition draw from years of research and experimentation with large format photography. Drawing on art historical metaphor, alongside influence from modern literary narratives, the works explore notions of the Liminal rite, the dream state and multiple realities. Utilising multiple exposures within the photographs, time begins to shift between past and present - reflecting what is real and what is imagined.
此次展览中展出的许多作品的创作媒介都和大画幅摄影有关是我对于这方面图像研究和实验的产物。图像也会结合一些艺术史中所出现的隐喻和现代文学的叙事方式，项目的主题主要关于阈限仪式、梦境、和多重现实的概念。利用照片中的多重曝光，时间的概念开始在过去和现在之间转换由这样的形式去体现真实和想象之间的关系。
Cut Sunflowers，2021cusp. :
What cultural/factors have influenced your creation? (e.g. literature, movies, music, games, architecture, etc.)
可以告诉大家你创作受到哪些文化和因素的影响吗？
Dani：
There tends to be a range of influence drawn from when piecing my projects together: at some points drawing from art history and literature, at another drawing from Miyazaki animations or the film works of David Lynch. At current, I find myself particularly drawn to the social negotiation of time, timeline and narrative within the works of Virginia Woolf and Ursula Le Guin. With regards to looking, I tend to draw influence from photographers such as Wolfgang Tillmans and Josef Sudek - with a particular interest in their varied attempts at drawing influence from Dutch, Japanese and Italian still life works within their own photographs.
我的项目大多都是在一起的，往往是一系列而非单独的影响：在某些时候，我从艺术史和文学中汲取灵感，我也会从宫崎骏的动画或大卫林奇的电影作品中汲取灵感。最近我在念弗吉尼亚伍尔夫和厄休拉勒金的作品，里面关于时间、社会性时间、时间线和叙事概念都对我很有启发。在视觉方面，我深受 Wolfgang Tillmans 和Josef Sudek等摄影师的风格影响—尤其是他们在自己的照片中所呈现从荷兰、日本和意大利静物摄影中的各种尝试的部分。
Untitled-Fall，2020
cusp. :
Can you introduce one or two of your own works/projects in detail?
能否详细介绍自己的 1、2 件作品/项目?
Dani：
The most recent body of work that I've been exploring stems from an earlier project that was realised in 2020. It's Safe Behind the Glass acted as a study into personal and social isolation, with an overall analysis of time loss and a predilection for the inherent tensions between the domestic and natural worlds. Expanding on these notions further, I've continued to draw upon the connections between personal identity and isolation, creating a more distinct portrait of a personal and seemingly social experience with the Liminal rite – a play of short and long term memory. Moving between the inner and outer realms - moving between day and night - the work overall references a lived experience of the strange, the awkward and the uncanny inherent within the mundane.
我最新的一系列艺术作品始于 2020 年的早期项目。“ Safe Behind the Glass ”这一项目是对个人和社会独立分割性的研究，而其研究基调则是对于时间流逝的分析与自然与家庭内置紧张关系的博弈。深入研究这些概念，我继续通过个体身份与独立之间的联系，用阈限和感知的惯例去创造一个更清晰的个人和看似社会的体验：一种短期和长期记忆的游戏。在内与外的领域之间移动，在白天和黑夜之间移动—这件作品描绘的便是那种世俗体验中所存在的奇特、尴尬、甚至不可思议的感知。
Behind the Glass，2020
cusp. :
Can you introduce your life and creative state? What are your special work habits? (It can include inspiration collection, daily work habits, the process from inspiration to realization, etc.)
可以讲述一下你的生活和创作状态?
Dani：
I find myself sketching out images more often than not - creating mock-ups for still lives before even considering the camera. Though this happens entirely less often regarding portraits and landscape works, the initial act of making an idea physical seems to lend to the modelling of the space within the photograph-to- be. Considering perspective and framing, later recognising changes within the photographic scene, the work begins at the inception of the idea, and made real through the translation of light through the camera. In that sense, I find myself experimenting quite often with photography as a tool for making images, rather than relying on the camera for ‘taking’ or ‘capturing’ a thought. It’s with this in mind, that the idea of installing fragments or works before making them into photographs seems to invoke my own interest in sculptural installation pieces.
我发现自己经常在脑海中勾画图像甚至在考虑相机之前就为静物摄影制作一些模型。虽然这种情况在我的肖像和风景作品中不太适用，但预先将一个想法变成实体的这种行为帮助我体现照片空间感的形成。从透视和取景，到随后意识到摄影场景中的变化，一件作品从想法之初就算是开始了，并通过相机的光线转换而成为现实。从这个意义上说，我发现自己经常尝试将摄影作为一种制作图像的工具，而不是依靠相机来“拍摄”或“捕捉”一个想法。也因此，将碎片化的想法和拍摄前提前组装的习惯自然而然地激发了我对雕塑装置作品的兴趣。
Medusa，2021
cusp. :
What are your daily hobbies?
你每天的习惯是什么？
Dani：
Though I find that I don't photograph daily, I do involve myself with the photograph most, if not everyday. Whether considering the implications of sequence, the ontology of the image, or carving out an idea behind a new work, my daily hobbies and habits always influence the way the work is considered overall. Currently, I find myself reading some earlier works by Ursula Le Guin and David Wojnarowicz's memoir Close to the Knives; as well as revisiting old episodes of the Twilight Zone. While these might not all influence the imagery directly, they definitely push and pull my interest and attempts at making in subconscious directions. Aside from more direct influences and references to art history, I do have an affinity for collecting trinkets - most of the plants, glasses and pieces that end up in my still life works introduce themselves to me as found objects and memorabilia that I've come to repurpose.
虽然我并非每天都在拍照，但我大部分时间却参与在图像中。无论是考虑编排的含义、图像的本质，或是在新作品背后延伸出一个想法，我的日常爱好与习惯总是会影响我对作品的看法。最近我在阅读 Ursula Le Guin的一些早期作品和David Wojnarowicz的回忆录Close to the Knives，以及重温Twilight Zone的旧剧集。虽然这些可能并不都直接影响我所制造的图像，但它们却一定会在潜意识方向推动我做出新的尝试。除了对艺术史的更直接影响和参考之外，我也喜欢收集小饰品，它们大多数是最终出现在我的静物作品中的植物、玻璃、及其他物件，这些大多是我自己发现的物件或纪念品并加以重新利用。
Still Life Study at Sunrise，2020
cusp. :
What is the current concern and thinking?
最近每天思考和关心的问题是什么?
Dani：
I find myself particularly drawn to contemporary notions of time slippage and of an overlapping reality. Indistinct connections between past and present, day and night, dream and reality. Stemming from the social implications of personal isolation and an identification with my own queer experience, a prolonged sense of loneliness becomes apparent, balanced by a visceral reality of human intervention - of touch. The images exude textural association, and in that attempt, call for a sense of touch. A longing within the in-between spaces. A specific interaction with the viewer, instructing further understanding of the communal un- or sub-conscious.
我对于当代时间观念中的时间滑落与重叠现实特别着迷。过去与现在、白天与黑夜、梦与现实之间种种的模糊联系是非常迷人的。从我个体的酷儿经历认同到到社会观念的影响，长期的孤独感变得明显，同时又并被人类干预的现实或触觉所平衡。也因此，我的图像散发出关于纹理联想，在这种尝试中，去制造一种触觉的感知，去唤起一种对于不确定的渴望。这种与观众的互动更进一步去让人去思考无意识与潜意识的公共性。
Untitled-Tear，2020
cusp. :
Can you talk about favorite artists and favorite books?
可以讲讲你喜欢的艺术家和喜欢的读物吗？
Dani：
I find my list of inspirations and appreciations for artist and writers to be something that changes quite often - though I do particularly appreciate the works of photographers Wolfgang Tillmans and Josef Sudek. Other artists I draw influence from include Nan Goldin, Carrie Mae Weems, Peter Hujar and Felix Gonzalez Torres. Though my traditional list of writers invokes Virginia Woolf and Maggie Nelson; when considering particular interest at the moment, I find myself heavily drawn to the fiction writings of Ursula Le Guin, having dissected both The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness in recent months, as well as Milan Kundera’s almost poetic edict of memory in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.
我发现我对艺术家的欣赏是经常变化的一个状态—但我的确特别欣赏Wolfgang Tillmans和Josef Sudek的作品。我受到影响的其他艺术家包括Nan Goldin、Carrie Mae Weems、Peter Hujar和Felix Gonzalez Torres。作家名单的话则像是Virginia Woolf和Maggie Nelson。目前的话，我被厄休拉·勒金 (Ursula Le Guin) 的小说作品深深吸引，最近几个月阅读了她的《被剥夺的人》和《黑暗的左手》以及米兰·昆德拉 (Milan Kundera)的《The Book of Laughter and Forgetting》。
Père Lachaise Cemetery)，2020
cusp. :
What do you think is the happiest thing you have ever encountered?
觉得遇到过最开心的事情？
Dani：
Though I'm a bit unsure if it's the happiest encounter I've experienced, having seen Goldin's The Ballad of Sexual Dependency in person for the first time was both particularly significant to my own art practice and towards my perception of both myself as a living, breathing, remembering human being. Having been following the work during all of my introductions into photography, the piece proved not only to be an emotional journey, but an educational one through time, the queer experience and the transformation of and transformative nature inherent to photography, moving image and visual language.
虽然我有点不确定这是否是我经历过的最幸福的相遇，但第一次亲眼看到Nan Goldin的The Ballad of Sexual《性叙事的摇篮曲》对我自己的艺术实践和我对自己的看法都产生了至关重要的影响。从我从事摄影以来便一直很喜欢这个作品，事实证明，这件作品不仅是对于情感的探索，而且对于我来说也是一次和时间对话的以及让我思考关于教育、酷儿体验、以及摄影、运动图像和视觉语言固有的本质和变革性的转变。
Twin Sized Mattress I，2020
Twin Sized Mattress II，2020
cusp. :
Talk about future plans?
你未来的规划是什么？
Dani：
At current, I'm hopeful to continue exploring the parameters of the project I've been working on over the past year and a bit. With a residency opportunity in the works, and the likelihood of international travel becoming a viable option once again, I'm hopeful to commit a vast bit of time in the near future to making geographically diverse works along the way.
目前，我希望继续探索我在过去一年中一直从事的项目，也希望通过创作可以拥有艺术驻地机会，更希望国际旅行再次成为我们选择的可能性，我希望在不久的将来投入大量时间来制作沿途不同地域的作品。
The Happiness You Desired，2021
cusp. :
Can you talk about your views on the theme of this exhibition? How to connect with your own work?
这次展览主题森林和夜晚的看法？如何和自己的作品联系？
Dani：
I find myself incredibly excited about the theme of the exhibition - both specifically with context to my own works, and also the communications happening between several works within the overall space. Honing a particular interest in the themes of intimacy and the night, a clear path for my works begins to open up and produce a particular dialogue with other photographs within the exhibition roster. Alongside this, the international scope of the exhibiting artists proves to be incredibly interesting to me, instigating a cross-cultural communication that I find to be insanely beneficial to the contemporary art- making climate.
我发现自己对展览的主题感到非常兴奋—特别是我自己作品的背景，以及整个空间内几件作品之间发生的交流。亲密和夜晚的主题是我的兴趣所在，我的作品也由此开辟出一条清晰的道路，并与展览中的其他作品一同产生特殊的图像对话。除此之外，来自不同文化的艺术家可以一起在这个展览主题下激发跨文化的交流对于当代艺术创作氛围是非常有益的，真的很开心可以参与这次展览：）
Thank you Daniel! ©️Daniel John Bracken