Darien A-Johnson, Restore Previous, porcelain and mixed media
Were you drawn towards any activities as a kid that served as a foundation for your interest in sculpture?
As a young child, Play-Doh was my favorite thing to model. As I grew, I enjoyed figuring things out. For example, getting a transformer and manipulating it without the instructions. Similarly with Legos, I only enjoyed the bucket of various sizes; nothing predetermined or planned for me. Building forts and getting into my grandfather’s tools probably falls into this category as well. As a teenager, I began oil painting at the community art center.
During your interview on “Tales of a Red Clay Rambler,” you mentioned that you were an avid skater and snowboarder when you lived in Minnesota. What attracted you to that and do you still do both?
I’ve always been active, beginning very early with martial arts. But even when I was young, I wasn’t interested in organized sports. I wanted to be fully responsible for the result of the activity I was engaged in. Skating and snowboarding gave me a physical activity that had a community, but the result of my improvement was primarily my own responsibility. As an aside, engaging in these activities has stimulated thoughts about how we navigate our physical environment and the effect that has on the way we think about it. Skating isn’t really something that makes sense for me to do anymore... hurting my hands would be a big problem as an artist and I was always one to take big risks. Along my road I’ve engaged in different activities, yoga, swimming, lifting, hiking, mountain biking, racquetball etc.
Was there a moment that redirected you to create art about memory and the digital world?
There’s one instance I often relay during lectures that was a bit of an “ah ha” moment that took place in my graduate school studio. My computer glitched as I was working in Photoshop. This moment was the impetus for considering how screens were having an impact on the way we think. However, it's been a slower unveiling of ideas that were present when the glitch happened and as the work has developed since then. My mother is a retired psychologist and conversations about the human psyche and how people relate to one another were commonplace in my youth. These discussions influenced my artistic interests as I developed, and while working on the intellectual trajectory of my creative practice in graduate school, most of my research time was spent digesting contemporary psychiatry and theories of mind. Between that research and the influence my materials and processes had, this work started to take shape.
What are some outside interests that you’ve integrated into your process as an artist?
Part of any creative activity is making connections from the otherwise unconnected. For me, this entails considering many things I do or experience and how it relates to my work. As we discussed skateboarding, I can begin with this. Skateboarding and other sports that bond a human to an external object (tennis, skiing, snowboarding, etc...) demand that the athlete form a visceral relationship with something physical outside of themselves, which in a way seems contradictory. But to be successful, the devices must become an extension of the user's body. This is something that relates to the way in which I use clay, and perhaps why it is my primary medium.
Have you ever dealt with a massive accident in the studio?
When working with clay, technical failure is inevitable if one continues to ask new questions of the material, and I tend to want to nudge the material and myself close to the line of what is possible. Sometimes I cross the line. Even for my current exhibition “Found Through Fragmentation,” I ran into a massive loss only weeks before the exhibition. With the newest work, I wanted a number of pieces to be free-standing while maintaining focus on the porcelain component of the sculpture. My resolution was to create a vertical structure with an element of networking just below the porcelain form. The network relates to the idea of the physical underpinning of human consciousness that is our neural network. The first iteration of these pieces were made of clay. Knowing that clay does not do well with thin and vertical, I took steps to make it work (such as firing to a lower temperature than the clay can reach) but even after taking those steps, all but one of the pieces warped in the kiln. In the end, this accident lead to a better resolve for the work- as I was able to use a better combination of materials that allowed me to keep the new components thinner and still allow for evidence of hand, which was also important.
Who are some of your favorite contemporary artists?
There are so many great artists working today. A name that often pops up for me is Francesca Dimattio. When I was first introduced to her work it was primarily painting, and her current ceramic work is also very strong. Anders Ruhwald, Nicole Cherubini, Susan Beiner, Annabeth Rosen, Ron Nagle, are all artists making very strong work in clay. Rachel de Joode is somebody I’ve recently been looking at whose work also deals with physicality and illusion. David Hockney and Frank Stella would be on my list too. I like how Hockney approaches painting and deals with undervalued genres. His iPad drawings are really fresh. Stella’s recent integration of digital fabrication is of interest to me and I’ve always enjoyed the intersections and movement of form within his work.
Darien A-Johnson, Receding to the Point, porcelain and mixed media
Francesca Dimattio, Confection II, porcelain and mixed media
Ron Nagle, Handlin’ Bambi, mixed media
Rachel de Joode, installation from 'Soft in the Centre'
How did you meet your wife?
My wife and I met in Helsinki, Finland while I was traveling to connect with my heritage and meet some relatives and she was traveling to perform a piano concert and visit family and friends. We both ended up at Storyville, one of the few jazz clubs in Helsinki on Saturday, June 4th, 2011. I had done a little swing dancing in college and as I mentioned, she is an avid dancer. Early in the evening, I was dancing solo and noticed her swing dancing with her friend. Eventually I spotted them both sitting and was making my way over to ask her to dance when I realized that the current song was nearly half over. I wanted a full song to dance with her, so I turned around and went back to dancing with the intention of asking her at the beginning of the next song. She had seen me walking to her and was anticipating my asking her to dance. When I turned around, she was surprised and didn’t know why I had aborted. Being somebody who takes matters into her own hands, she decided to come over to the area where I was dancing. She was behind me, and as I turned around I saw her dancing and smiling. I was already thinking about asking her to dance, and with her just next to me, I simply took her hand and asked her in one motion. We danced and had many more dances that evening. During our conversations between sets, we discovered commonalities. The most significant being the definitive spark between us. That night and the next four days were like something out of a novel and we continue to live happily ever after.
Darien A-Johnson, Receding to the Point, porcelain and mixed media
What was your biggest takeaway from traveling abroad?
Traveling abroad is always a significant experience, but living in Denmark for three years provided the largest takeaways. Perhaps the biggest one was learning a second language as an adult and how thinking and communication change when vocabulary is drastically reduced. Also how the structure of a language influences the way things are considered. This experience is reflected in the juxtaposition of mark making in my newest work. Refined rending and the slow building of marks sits next to quick naive marks and scribbles that are both digital and analog. Cadence, ability, access to thought... these are all things that I’ve considered differently since this experience.
Do you have any advice for artists looking for residencies?
Residencies have so much to offer. The advice I will give is that an artist would be best off having an idea of what he/she hopes to achieve at a residency and then apply to a number of them that would make those goals possible. Major considerations would be, duration, facilities, location, material focus (or possibly the breadth of material being utilised), and peer group.
Darien A-Johnson, Sliding Layers, porcelain and mixed media
What are some questions you ask yourself to plan the trajectory of your future?
This query assumes I actually spend time planning my future trajectory, which, I suppose, does have a morsel of truth. Once I realized how important creating was to me, I made a goal that I would always make. The questions that relate to any goal are, what do I need to do in the near term to ensure this goal is met in the long term. What is being sacrificed and when is the sacrifice being made.
Creatively, I’m always asking where a certain idea in the work might take me. I’m never lacking in ideas about what to make, the harder question is which idea deserves the most attention and time. There are of course other questions, but I also respond to life events in a way that is flexible. Guiding my trajectory seems more feasible and enjoyable than attempting to force a specific rigid goal onto myself.
Darien A-Johnson in his studio in Atlanta, Georgia
You’ve lived in many different cities, is there any place you call home?
Ahh… where’s my heart? So cliche, but place does have such an influence on consciousness. I’m old enough now that I’ve spent more of my life away from the place I grew up, and most of those years have been spent in segments. That transience has been influential. Without a doubt and to be honest I’ve never really felt committed to any single place strong enough to call it home. That said, my wife and I moved to Atlanta with the intent to do just that, and it’s certainly starting to feel like home.
Check out his exhibition in person- now showing at Alan Avery Art Company!