WEBVTT 00:00:25.310 --> 00:00:30.059 ♪ ♪ 00:00:36.780 --> 00:00:38.289 I come from a pretty traditional 00:00:38.289 --> 00:00:40.745 sculpture background in the sense that I spent four years 00:00:40.745 --> 00:00:43.345 in art school, literally just making things. 00:00:45.540 --> 00:00:47.116 You know, to hand-make something mean 00:00:47.116 --> 00:00:48.293 you're going to process it. 00:00:48.293 --> 00:00:49.672 Like, it comes into your head, 00:00:49.672 --> 00:00:51.080 and then it moves through your body, 00:00:51.261 --> 00:00:53.236 and then it gets pushed back 00:00:53.236 --> 00:00:54.497 out into the world. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:58.077 [sewing machine whirring] 00:00:59.810 --> 00:01:04.380 I'm interested in how objects reflect cultural moments. 00:01:05.700 --> 00:01:10.042 And I think I'm trying to figure out, you know, why we value what we value. 00:01:10.146 --> 00:01:11.358 [electronic music] 00:01:12.472 --> 00:01:14.871 So with the "Counterfeit Crochet Project," 00:01:14.871 --> 00:01:17.470 I invited crochet crafters from all over the world 00:01:17.600 --> 00:01:21.618 to join me in bootlegging designer handbags. 00:01:23.352 --> 00:01:27.530 The invitation was to choose a designer handbag that you would like to own, 00:01:27.530 --> 00:01:31.370 but couldn't afford, download an image from it online 00:01:31.960 --> 00:01:35.231 and then using your own crochet crafting skills, hand-make it. 00:01:37.928 --> 00:01:43.821 And interestingly, it touched a nerve, and, you know, lots of people started to join up, 00:01:43.821 --> 00:01:47.365 and then send me photographs of themselves with their handmade bags. 00:01:51.110 --> 00:01:54.960 It was fun and lighthearted, but invariably what would happen was, you know, 00:01:54.960 --> 00:01:57.899 we would have these really great discussions about everything from the 00:01:57.899 --> 00:02:02.537 hierarchy of the fashion system to you know, global counterfeiting schemes. 00:02:05.270 --> 00:02:08.819 I think one of the reasons I got interested in this idea of like bootlegs 00:02:08.819 --> 00:02:12.239 or counterfeits is actually, it's an extension from this idea that there is 00:02:12.239 --> 00:02:16.046 an authentic, and you know from a very personal standpoint 00:02:16.046 --> 00:02:20.681 I was really curious about what it meant to be an authentic, um, Filipino. 00:02:23.995 --> 00:02:26.459 I was thinking a lot about historical 00:02:26.459 --> 00:02:29.459 ethnographic photography 00:02:29.600 --> 00:02:33.369 Specifically, um, images I'd seen taken in the Philippines. 00:02:33.654 --> 00:02:36.146 ♪ ♪ 00:02:38.095 --> 00:02:42.414 So the whole series is made in Omaha Nebraska, which I think is hilarious 00:02:43.694 --> 00:02:46.668 And I had gone to the shopping malls, 00:02:46.823 --> 00:02:51.671 and using my credit card, purchased mass-consumer goods, 00:02:51.878 --> 00:02:54.660 took them back to my studio, and then styled them. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:02.057 And then returned them all to the department stores for full store credit. 00:03:04.295 --> 00:03:09.690 So it was kind of this way of thinking about what we wanna consume in those images, 00:03:10.208 --> 00:03:12.793 partaking in it, but then also denying it. 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:18.795 This is something that, um... 00:03:18.795 --> 00:03:22.374 It's a portrait of my mother and myself, 00:03:22.814 --> 00:03:28.843 um, not long after we moved to, the U.S. from the Philippines. 00:03:29.355 --> 00:03:32.757 And then for my birthday, she decided to take me to Disneyland. 00:03:33.145 --> 00:03:34.828 And so this photograph is actually, 00:03:34.828 --> 00:03:38.570 I think, in the Frontierland, where you can pay to have your portrait 00:03:38.570 --> 00:03:41.073 taken after you put on all these western costumes. 00:03:42.420 --> 00:03:47.204 I think, you know, at the time we were trying on these fictional identities of 00:03:47.204 --> 00:03:51.276 what it might have looked like to be a new American. 00:03:52.260 --> 00:03:54.280 Also, I mean, it's an amazing portrait. 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:57.809 Like, my mom is 22 years old here, and she looks beautiful, 00:03:57.809 --> 00:04:00.072 and I'm this angry little four year old. 00:04:00.709 --> 00:04:01.748 [Laughs] 00:04:07.625 --> 00:04:15.000 - [singing "El Breve Espacio En Que No Estás"] 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:20.585 The title of my next exhibition is called "Citizens" 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:25.607 I think there's always been embedded politics in my work, 00:04:25.607 --> 00:04:28.100 whether it's issues of colonialism or capitalism 00:04:28.981 --> 00:04:31.740 but given recent politics I've been 00:04:31.740 --> 00:04:35.793 really trying to figure out how to actually put it more at the forefront. 00:04:35.793 --> 00:04:36.863 - Ready to fight? 00:04:36.863 --> 00:04:37.828 Crowd: Damn Right! 00:04:37.828 --> 00:04:38.675 - Are you ready to fight? 00:04:38.675 --> 00:04:39.615 Crowd: Damn Right! 00:04:39.900 --> 00:04:44.129 The Bay Area has been a real flash point for a lot of recent protests and so I 00:04:44.129 --> 00:04:46.341 and so I feel like I've been in the middle of it. 00:04:47.506 --> 00:04:51.113 You know, you watch the news, you watch images flashing by, 00:04:51.113 --> 00:04:53.167 and you're kind of trying to process it all. 00:04:53.832 --> 00:04:57.266 - We need to figure out how wide the actual banner is. 00:04:57.628 --> 00:05:00.983 And I was noticing that this one particular banner kept popping up. 00:05:01.941 --> 00:05:03.865 And depending on how it was held up, 00:05:03.865 --> 00:05:08.277 or how it was being displayed you could or in some cases could not read the text 00:05:09.131 --> 00:05:10.317 - Cool. - All right. 00:05:10.317 --> 00:05:13.077 And so I downloaded those images, 00:05:13.077 --> 00:05:15.582 and then, you know, traced it on the computer, 00:05:16.099 --> 00:05:19.143 projected it onto a larger piece of fabric, 00:05:19.713 --> 00:05:21.200 and then hand sewed it. 00:05:22.805 --> 00:05:26.533 It says "Become Ungovernable," and it's kind of, you know, 00:05:26.533 --> 00:05:29.535 I feel like the banner itself is becoming ungovernable. 00:05:29.535 --> 00:05:32.214 Like, it's got loose ends, it's got, you know, 00:05:32.214 --> 00:05:35.348 the text itself is kind of, like, falling off the page, um so it's trying to kind of embody that 00:05:35.348 --> 00:05:38.947 um, so it's kitrying to kind of embody that, 00:05:38.947 --> 00:05:41.230 that inability to be controlled. 00:05:43.979 --> 00:05:46.795 One of the problems, I think, with slogans 00:05:46.795 --> 00:05:51.254 is that people think they already know what the slogan means, 00:05:51.927 --> 00:05:54.120 and so you can either shut off to it, 00:05:54.120 --> 00:05:56.543 or you can, you know, nod your head in agreement. 00:05:58.492 --> 00:06:01.118 So when I was using these images of protests, 00:06:01.118 --> 00:06:05.000 I was more interested in actually how they're filtered 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:06.301 through media channels. 00:06:08.100 --> 00:06:11.100 [Sewing machine whirring] 00:06:16.080 --> 00:06:18.964 In a lot of my projects, I'm really interested in this connection between 00:06:18.964 --> 00:06:20.628 the analog and the digital 00:06:24.043 --> 00:06:29.690 So, I decided to create this huge hand sewn quilted checkerboard background 00:06:30.084 --> 00:06:30.584 [mouse clicks] 00:06:32.212 --> 00:06:35.493 And it resembles a Photoshop transparency background 00:06:37.020 --> 00:06:39.626 When you cut out an image in Photoshop, 00:06:39.626 --> 00:06:43.126 Photoshop will put in this like really weird you know, checkerboard pattern. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.520 It's actually to point out this idea that, 00:06:47.520 --> 00:06:50.000 you know, digital culture is not neutral 00:06:50.337 --> 00:06:52.595 that simply because there's a computer 00:06:52.595 --> 00:06:55.530 involved doesn't mean that there isn't human labor 00:06:55.659 --> 00:06:57.939 ♪ ♪ 00:07:04.512 --> 00:07:06.908 Um, hmm. 00:07:07.126 --> 00:07:08.817 Yeah, let me go hand that to you. 00:07:09.108 --> 00:07:12.139 Yeah, I think we could try something like this. 00:07:12.631 --> 00:07:14.450 I feel like I'm constantly making things. 00:07:14.864 --> 00:07:18.400 And I do feel like I have this ratio that I've worked out 00:07:18.581 --> 00:07:22.184 where I call it the sort of 80/20 ratio, 00:07:22.365 --> 00:07:25.970 where 80% of what I make is kind of crap, 00:07:25.970 --> 00:07:29.380 but somehow I have to produce it to get to the 20%, 00:07:29.689 --> 00:07:30.979 which is successful. 00:07:30.979 --> 00:07:33.523 [laughs] It's kind of like rubble, 00:07:33.523 --> 00:07:35.523 but not really. [chuckles] 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:38.767 - Did you all buy the fabric this color? 00:07:39.138 --> 00:07:43.237 - Yeah, so this is, um, chroma key fabric, the green screen. 00:07:43.237 --> 00:07:46.500 I've been gravitating to working with chroma key 00:07:46.681 --> 00:07:49.831 which is this awful, acid color. 00:07:52.057 --> 00:07:57.180 I'm standing in front of a green chroma key screen. Anything that you photograph 00:07:57.180 --> 00:08:00.418 or shoot in front of this screen, you can put in any type of backdrop, 00:08:00.418 --> 00:08:02.410 you can create a fantasy scene. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:11.010 [laughter] 00:08:11.626 --> 00:08:14.687 [camera shutter snaps] 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:21.580 And so, thinking about both politics and social strife 00:08:21.580 --> 00:08:25.543 and everything that's kind of permeated and saturated everything, 00:08:25.698 --> 00:08:27.427 you know, now it's just this kind of 00:08:27.427 --> 00:08:29.763 constant in our backgrounds. 00:08:35.873 --> 00:08:40.919 You know, what does that mean to then use chroma key as the literal subject 00:08:40.919 --> 00:08:42.742 instead of ignoring it? 00:08:44.218 --> 00:08:46.218 ♪ ♪ 00:08:52.693 --> 00:08:55.583 - All right. Wanna grab that one, Durham? 00:08:56.982 --> 00:09:01.251 So, I became a U.S. citizen when I was 26 years old. Despite having lived here 00:09:01.251 --> 00:09:04.724 since I was three , I had to kind of make that decision, 00:09:04.724 --> 00:09:08.545 and then go through the process of the citizenship test. 00:09:09.296 --> 00:09:10.429 - All right, I am an.. 00:09:12.757 --> 00:09:17.437 I was thinking a lot about a 1942 photograph taken by Dorothea Lange. 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:21.884 and she had taken a photograph of an Oakland store front 00:09:21.884 --> 00:09:25.000 where a Japanese American had a business there, 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:29.019 and upon the notification for Japanese internment 00:09:29.407 --> 00:09:33.793 he had put up a sign in the window that just proclaimed "I am an American." 00:09:33.793 --> 00:09:36.296 - Um, let's do the scrunching. 00:09:36.296 --> 00:09:39.767 The idea that citizenship can be given and also taken away 00:09:39.767 --> 00:09:41.709 was something that really interested me. 00:09:42.745 --> 00:09:46.027 because I do feel like there's been a lot of Reckoning with people having to 00:09:46.027 --> 00:09:48.598 struggle with what it means to be an American today. 00:09:48.598 --> 00:09:50.108 Like, what do we stand for? 00:09:51.498 --> 00:09:53.221 What can we become? 00:09:53.221 --> 00:09:54.376 [cell phone snaps] 00:10:02.941 --> 00:10:06.967 My current studio is located in a really industrial part of the Bay 00:10:09.209 --> 00:10:11.560 It overlooks San Francisco, actually. 00:10:11.560 --> 00:10:14.830 So, just looking out over the water, you can see it at a distance. 00:10:16.357 --> 00:10:18.429 You know, I grew up in that city, 00:10:19.620 --> 00:10:22.555 I relocated to Oakland four years ago, 00:10:22.555 --> 00:10:25.643 because I couldn't afford to stay in San Francisco anymore. 00:10:27.300 --> 00:10:33.668 You know, the Bay area can be a really wonderful kind of fermenting space for 00:10:33.668 --> 00:10:35.331 for artists. 00:10:36.781 --> 00:10:39.240 Not because it's easy to live here, 00:10:39.732 --> 00:10:41.751 'cause it's not easy to live here, 00:10:42.942 --> 00:10:46.144 but there are ways that artists can create community 00:10:46.144 --> 00:10:47.759 and spaces for themselves here. 00:10:52.200 --> 00:10:56.613 If we're to look at the complexity of our contemporary culture, 00:10:56.820 --> 00:10:58.512 our political moment, 00:10:58.823 --> 00:11:00.414 you know, our lived realities, 00:11:00.414 --> 00:11:03.140 I want my work to be as 00:11:03.140 --> 00:11:05.465 complicated as well. 00:11:05.465 --> 00:11:08.096 That there isn't just one way to look at it, you know, 00:11:08.096 --> 00:11:11.153 that depending on your perspective you'll see it a different way 00:11:12.095 --> 00:11:14.626 And I also want it to inhabit contradictions. 00:11:14.859 --> 00:11:16.859 - All right. Fierce 00:11:19.604 --> 00:11:22.179 And so, you know, looking at images of protests, 00:11:22.775 --> 00:11:25.372 we created these composite characters. 00:11:26.459 --> 00:11:28.064 And so they're fictions. 00:11:30.540 --> 00:11:33.859 Black-clad individuals are usually associated with, 00:11:33.859 --> 00:11:36.124 you know, a kind of very direct action. 00:11:37.393 --> 00:11:40.325 Is it a character that one finds problematic, 00:11:40.325 --> 00:11:44.115 or is it something that might elicit even you know, some empathy? 00:11:45.849 --> 00:11:51.783 There's a portrait of someone covered in a very sheer gray-and-white checkerboard pattern. 00:11:53.155 --> 00:11:56.696 The portrait is of a person who is undocumented. 00:11:58.255 --> 00:12:00.450 It's a difficult thing for me to talk about, actually, 00:12:00.450 --> 00:12:06.455 because given the state of our contemporary political situation, 00:12:06.455 --> 00:12:10.690 you know, that person could be taken at any minute. 00:12:13.019 --> 00:12:17.525 Depending on how you read that image it's about either the removal 00:12:18.146 --> 00:12:20.599 or about their protection. 00:12:41.002 --> 00:12:43.709 One really important possibility for art 00:12:43.709 --> 00:12:47.075 is that it is a recording device, you know. 00:12:47.075 --> 00:12:48.598 I mean, it's a subjective one, 00:12:48.702 --> 00:12:54.774 but it's a device, that, somehow through an individual or a group of individuals 00:12:54.774 --> 00:12:57.629 processes a situation in the world, 00:12:57.629 --> 00:13:00.155 and then creates a subjective viewpoint of that. 00:13:02.304 --> 00:13:03.843 As evidence. 00:13:10.779 --> 00:13:14.378 I do not think at all that my work, in and of itself, 00:13:14.378 --> 00:13:16.090 is actually going to change the system 00:13:18.656 --> 00:13:23.530 What I'm interested in though, is somehow reflecting a possibility. 00:13:32.749 --> 00:13:38.122 What I'm doing is kind of like absorbing and processing the world around me, 00:13:38.122 --> 00:13:41.403 and it's becoming political. 00:13:42.490 --> 00:13:45.152 I don't think I have a choice anymore. 00:13:46.334 --> 00:13:48.209 It's just my reality. 00:13:58.923 --> 00:14:00.898 To learn more about Art21 and our 00:14:00.898 --> 00:14:07.620 educational resources please visit us online at pbs.org/art21 00:14:11.835 --> 00:14:16.313 Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 9 is available on DVD 00:14:17.012 --> 00:14:23.783 To order, visit shop.pbs.org or call 1-800 play PBS 00:14:24.672 --> 00:14:29.147 This program is also available for download on iTunes.