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Garagisme

05.04.2013 — Art

Matthew Day Jackson, The Work of Many Hands

Matthew Day Jackson, The Work of Many Hands - © Garagisme

This article was previously published in the third issue of GARAGISME in 2013

Text:

Monica Uszerowicz

Photography:

Monica Uszerowicz

He streamlines it all into epic pieces that recall the storyline of the collective but, invariably, feel deeply personal: in The Tomb, a reinterpretation of The Tomb of Philippe Pot, astronauts—replacing the original sculpture’s monks—hold a skeleton based on Jackson’s own body; in Sepulcher, the sail of a Viking ship is constructed from Jackson’s old band shirts. His residency at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology culminated in The Immeasurable Distance, an exhibition based on Jackson’s investigation on specific scientific legacies, the Apollo 11 mission in particular. Jackson may seek to reverse Neil Armstrong’s famous quote (“One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”) in his understanding of these historical movements as intimate, part of us all. Life and growth, Jackson seems to feel, is the work of many, and the small—albeit significant—steps humanity takes affects the individual incalculably. With MDJ Racing, Jackson’s drag racing team, he will put himself in the position of the greats who broke records and taboos, and become inextricably tied to the stylistically beautiful and dangerous vehicular movement of the car— and all it represents. One giant leap for Jackson—one small step for art history.

Monica Uszerowicz

How important is the element of craftsmanship in your work?

Matthew Day Jackson

I want every work to be built all the way through. Everything means something, and in order to capture these meanings, each thing has to be made purposefully, or be purposely left alone. The craft is in the knowledge of knowing when to quit. One of the first works that saw any public attention was a video I made with my mother in which she says a prayer for my work. She repeats the work of many hands” throughout the prayer, which I think about in relationship to craftsmanship.” Because my work involves a lot of different materials and processes, I like to think that my craftsmanship is more in the wisdom that my own hands are limited in the way that my work should not be.

Monica Uszerowicz

You’ve mentioned that making things is a good way to leave behind an artifact of your existence. Can you speak to this idea?

Matthew Day Jackson

When my son and I talk about our bodies and their various components, I tell him that my hands are my favorite part because I can make cool stuff with them. I am most happy and present when I am by myself, making and creating. It’s exciting to me when I’m challenged beyond my abilities to create the approximation of the vision that emerged from the darkness of my imagination, because it affirms that I know myself and my dream. I recognize my limitations, which forces me to find someone or something that can complete the work. This is an affirmation of my existence; the work cannot be completed in a solipsistic vacuum, but through the extended community of fellow artists and craftspeople that I know and seek out on a daily basis. It’s an opportunity to stay true to the vision that haunts me, and the image that strives to be manifest.

Monica Uszerowicz

It seems you approach your work as a recording of everything around you, the things to which you’re receptive. How do these everyday happenings connect to the larger human experience, the informational story of society?

Matthew Day Jackson

I did not go to the moon, but we went to the moon. I did not run a marathon in two hours and three minutes, but we did. I have not driven a quarter mile in less than four seconds, but we have. My point is that, through units of measure—inches, meters, light years—we have the ability, through our imagination, to gauge our personal experiences in relationship to the development of human experience. Units of measure are ways to understand these seemingly disparate experiences, and think of our own personal best.”

Monica Uszerowicz

One subject your work touches upon is yourself—you’ve said that you think to kill yourself, to leave the artist behind. Can you discuss this idea of suicide,’ as well as the intention to avoid solidifying yourself?

Matthew Day Jackson

It can be challenging for me to speak about my work because it’s not one track.” This is something that these works address rather directly. I am not interested in suicide, although I thought I was. I now realize that I am not killing myself, I am just presenting myself as dead. The images I make of in the Me, Dead… series are a meditation on aspects of myself that I need to discard in order to became a better person, like a snake sheds its skin. These works serve as a photographic material reminder of the contract I have with myself to become better all the time. I began this project upon the birth of my son Everett; he and his little brother Flynn are the most wonderful relationships I have and I share this sentiment with my partner, Laura. I decided that I could no longer live in words and images alone, but also needed to live in action. Little kids learn through watching their parents, and I realized that there are things I do not want my child to learn, attributes that I embody and must put to rest. The project is about this process and the resolution in these works is to engender movement and resist stagnation.

Monica Uszerowicz

How does that relate to the process of becoming? You’ve said in the past that who you are becoming, the process, the movement, is actually who you are.’

Matthew Day Jackson

We never finish becoming who we are. There is a constant state of flux, of influence and inspiration. You encapsulate my thought perfectly when speaking to process and movement. There are no thresholds we pass through, no epiphany, and no sudden realization. Learning and doing is a slow process; there is no end just as there is no beginning. We are the product of the accumulated experiences of our lives just as our present time is the cumulative sum of all of history.

Monica Uszerowicz

I want to apply the idea of becoming to your work that explores history and social narrative. It seems that to you, history is also always becoming, ever-changing.

Matthew Day Jackson

It is also unstoppable, confusing, and because of its massive size, it is nearly invisible. It’s not transparent, yet we cannot see its bottom, edges, beginning, or end. Rather than wrestle history or my smallness—in every way—relative to it, I choose to revel in the fact that it can be whatever I want it to be, and arguably how I perceive it shapes it exactly as it is.

Monica Uszerowicz

Is it important for you to develop a conversation with different facets of histories?

Matthew Day Jackson

I want to know where I fit within its massive body. What role do I play? We all have a role, you know. No one is too small or too far out to be enveloped within its embrace.”

Matthew Day Jackson, The Work of Many Hands - © Garagisme

Jackson and an assistant in the woodshop.
Photo: Monica Uszerowicz

Monica Uszerowicz

Religion, science, Americana, other iconographies: all of this is supposedly disparate, but you understand the threads between it all. How do you do this, and what is your motivation?

Matthew Day Jackson

A deeply spiritual woman and a father who lives in a dream raised me. I come from the same place we all do, and none of it is spectacular to anyone other than myself and is the center of my experience. The connections I draw are familiar paths; they are legion in my experiences. Yet at any point when I have felt that I really knew something, my mind inevitably recognizes there is a vast unknown, which is very real and offers perspective on our individual experiences.

Monica Uszerowicz

From the broad swaths of topic and ephemera, how do you find your sources, the greater truths or ideas that you hone in on to research?

Matthew Day Jackson

I think the references are very clear, the narratives well-known, and the materials commonplace. The combination of the aforementioned is the strange brew that results from looking deep and seeing that things have more connections to each other than not. I occupy this strange body that learns through the accumulation of experience.

Monica Uszerowicz

I want to discuss your work with drag racing, and your team, MDJ Racing. What drew you to drag racing?
I know your cousin, Skip Nichols, is one of the best racers.

Matthew Day Jackson

He was one of the best SCCA road course drivers in the Northwest ever, and one of the best mechanics and builders around. I honestly can’t think of anything more personal, or an object more imbedded within our idea of personality or the expression of our personality. The single family home and the hot rod/​custom motorcycle/​fashion culture are the most interesting places where materiality and our personality collide and fuck and have illegitimate children named Hot Rod, Chopper, and Couture in Levittown.

I like to think about things that are on the brink of destruction and potential ruin, but if handled properly and fearlessly, are turned to something very beautiful”

Matthew Day Jackson

Monica Uszerowicz

It seems that there’s never full completion or actualization for you as an artist. How does drag racing fit with your interest in becoming” or constantly growing? I think of the quote from MDJ Racing’s website: every inch and every second of improvement is a light year away until attained.”

Matthew Day Jackson

No work is ever complete or perfect, not for lack of trying, but because everything leads to a deeper investigation. As I mentioned before, there are far more connections than disconnects, which means that as discoveries are made, it only leads to more relationships and depth of content to mine. As far as drag racing is concerned, I am going to become a better driver and a better mechanic, and as my body becomes more comfortable in a relatively radical physical space, the envelope of my experience gets closer to the boundaries of collective human experience. I would be lying if I said I did not believe that I was an explorer going to a place as strange as the moon, or Mars, or Neptune, for that matter.

Monica Uszerowicz

In what ways is drag racing a representation of the subjects of religion and Americanism? There is the idea of faith— having faith in the car—and the concept of the open road,’ which has changed over time.

Matthew Day Jackson

Drag racing is massive power, extreme capacity, total faith in the machine to dance on the line of ultimate performance and total destruction. American muscle cars turn poorly, brake poorly, but go like crazy, and I like to think that the driver of this car likens herself to a bull rider, or an Air Force test pilot. I like to think about things that are on the brink of destruction and potential ruin, but if handled properly and fearlessly, are turned to something very beautiful. The crash is implied in the design, and the pilot knows that it will buck and sway. It is a part of the magic. The finesse is in the micro adjustments in a split second to negotiate that unbelievable power.

Monica Uszerowicz

To quote from MDJ Racing’s website: My interest in drag racing is influenced by my concerns as an artist…My senses will be heightened and my concentration will be intensified. This is no different than what I am trying to accomplish in the studio.” How do you feel while drag racing, and how do you feel while making art—are there similarities?

Matthew Day Jackson

The reason why my practice” is multifaceted is that each aspect of my interest produces a different effect or stimulus while simultaneously being a part of the whole. Drag racing does not feel like making sculpture. Nor does making sculpture feel similar to taking photographs. They all inform each other and likely as I become a better driver, I will also become a better sculptor. I think that each facet of my work has a different meditative tone, like frequencies and chakras. When racing, I feel a tension similar to the moments I remember experiencing before a wrestling match or football game in high school. If I had a full stomach, I would likely become nauseous, as the experience is very filling. Survival is the dessert and if I ever win, this will be the digestif.

Matthew Day Jackson, The Work of Many Hands - © Garagisme

Photo: Monica Uszerowicz

Monica Uszerowicz

The idea of the car transmuted into sculpture becomes particularly fascinating after reading about the process on the MDJ Racing site. As the dragster is taken from one forum into another (the racetrack to the gallery), the parts that determined its utility will determine its meaning.” What’s the relationship between utility and meaning?

Matthew Day Jackson

After racing the dragster for a season, the car will be taken apart like a body in a medical school so that the viewer can study its independent parts. Because nearly everyone has ridden in a car at some point and looked under the hood, they will recognize that the dragster is still an automobile even when reduced to parts. When the viewer begins to make the relationship between the giant tires of the dragster and the tires of their own car, it’s an interesting moment. They see the size of the motor or the tube frame of the chassis. These parts will be considered in relation to each other and will be imbued with meaning, as the function of each part is very clear. When disassembled, the dragster will still thunder down the track in the viewer’s imagination. The workmanship and materiality of each part will be heightened and larger connections begin to form. When I think about these various parts, I imagine Don Garlits and Constantin Brâncuși, both notoriously harsh and offensive, making cracks at one another.

Monica Uszerowicz

Physical movement—the ability to drive in a car, a man landing on the moon—alters our perceptions of ourselves and radically changes history. I understand that at M.I.T., you worked with David A. Mindell, who feels there is a need to expand human experience through science. Could reflect on the Red Bull Stratos mission/​Felix Baumgartner’s free-fall jump from 128,100 feet? Joseph Kittinger set the first record for that decades ago; it’s interesting to see technological advancement bullet-pointed by these massive jumps.

Matthew Day Jackson

David Mindell is wonderful. I have worked with him on a couple of projects and consider him a friend. I put him in the pot with Yves Klein and [Joseph] Beuys, as he has allowed me to think differently about art and being an artist, and seeing the connections between things previously invisible. I am working on a documentary right now with Sleeper Films—myself, Joseph Hung, David Tompkins, and Tim Bright—that will answer this question perfectly. The film looks at the intersection of faith and performance and how this is the axis mundi of American Culture. Stay tuned. I am not very interested in Felix Baumgartner’s jump, however. It is quite a feat, of course, to make the jump, but to ride in a balloon in the age of rockets to the altitude achievable in an airplane wearing a spacesuit in the age of private spaceships is not very imaginative. It’s a bit gratuitous or masturbatory—I’m aware, of course, that art is often accused of these same characteristics. I find the jump of his predecessor, Joseph Kittinger, far more inspired, because he rode a balloon to the height of a rocket, wore a skydiving suit into space, and jumped into the silent chaos of the unknown. Consider his tools, and consider the poetry of Kittinger turning onto his back, moving at 9/​10ths the speed of sound and seeing the stars without the impediment of the atmosphere with his own eyes. It is beautiful. He and John Stapp were remarkable and they did it, and so by extension, we did it. They created a space where we exist as a collective, no longer bound by an individual’s experience; they let the rest of us in and we can share these moments together.

The crash is implied in the design, and the pilot knows that it will buck and sway.

Matthew Day Jackson