Artist Interviews and Talks

Artist Bo Gehring discusses his 2014 portrait of Esperanza Spalding. The video portrait, commissioned for the museum from 2013 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition winner Bo Gehring, will be exhibited in the museum in May 2015. The full video portrait can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/jKEu1Qb4OWM

"This commission of Esperanza Spalding by Bo Gehring is the fifth

digital video portrait to enter into the National Portrait Gallery's growing collection of time-based media art" said Kim Sajet, director of the museum.

To create a work,Gehring plays a piece of music of his sitter's choosing while he or she lies on a low table. A camera, suspended overhead on a track, begins at the feet and slowly moves up the body to reveal the subject's face. The motion of the computer-controlled camera is exactly synchronized to the person'sheight and the duration of his or her chosen music. The integral role of music in his portraits made Spalding, a bassist, vocalist and composer,an ideal candidate for the commissioned work.

Spalding chose Wayne Shorter's "Tarde" from the 1974 album Native Dancer to be part of her portrait.In the track, Shorter plays tenor saxophone, vocals are by Milton Nascimento, Herbie Hancock is on the electric piano, David Amaro is on guitar, David McDaniel plays bass, and Roberto Silva plays the drums. Spalding says this piece of music is important because, "Herbie, Wayne and

Milton are part of me."

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Esperanza Spalding, a portrait. By Bo Gehring, 2014.

Esperanza's chosen music "Tarde" (1974) used with the kind permission of Wayne Shorter.

Interview with Vincent Giarrano, whose work "City Girl" was selected as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 exhibition.

More on the Portrait Competition at http://portraitcompetition.si.edu

Vincent Giarrano writes:

My work is about real life experience, painting the beauty that I find in contemporary life. I combine classic and contemporary elements to reflect history and also what life is like now. This is present in the subjects I paint as well as how I've chosen to paint them. My subject for this piece is Amanda Leigh Dunn, a stylish young woman living in New York City. I wanted my painting to resonate as a sincere representation of her lifestyle and character.

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"City Girl" / Vincent Giarrano / Oil on board, 2011 / Collection of the artist

Music: "Budding" by Broke for Free: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Gold_Can_Stay/Broke_For_Free_-_Gold_Can_Stay_-_01_Budding

https://soundcloud.com/broke-for-free

Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Interview with Katie O'Hagan, whose work "Life Raft" was selected as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 exhibition.

More on the Portrait Competition at http://portraitcompetition.si.edu

Katie O'Hagan writes:

"I painted Life Raft in 2011, during a time of great personal upheaval. During this period, I came to truly understand, for the first time, the vital role that art plays in my life. As most of the solid ground I had depended on seemed to erode away, my art emerged as the only thing keeping my head above water. I woke up one morning with this image in my head. I built the raft myself and spent the next couple of months completing the painting. It's a very literal image, and I felt quite exposed and not entirely comfortable making it at first. Now I see it as something positive to come out of a bad situation. It also marked a turning point in my work, as it has led to a move toward more personal paintings, beyond the straightforward portraiture I was doing before."

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"Life Raft" / Katie O'Hagan / Oil on canvas, 2011 / Collection of the artist

Music: "Budding" by Broke for Free: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Gold_Can_Stay/Broke_For_Free_-_Gold_Can_Stay_-_01_Budding.

https://soundcloud.com/broke-for-free

Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Interview with Jason Hanasik, whose work "Sharrod (Turn/Twirl)" was selected as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 exhibition.

More on the Portrait Competition at http://portraitcompetition.si.edu

Jason Hanasik writes:

"I asked Sharrod to re-create a durational salute--something he learned at a mock boot camp during his summer vacation--for my video camera one winter afternoon. He agreed and stood, staring forward, saluting a superior 'ghost' for the better part of twenty minutes. At the end of the take, exhausted and fatigued, Sharrod turned slightly, while still holding the salute. I suddenly realized that my interest had more to do with the relationship of the salute to mimicry than the durational exercise.

As the sun set, we did two more takes of him spinning, slowly, 360 degrees while attempting to maintain the salute."

I realized somewhere between shooting and editing the footage that the military salute was, in many ways, a male equivalent of the endlessly spinning ballerina nestled in the jewelry box so many of my (female) childhood friends had sitting on their dressers. ---

"Sharrod (Turn/Twirl)" / Jason Hanasik / HD video (3:14 minutes), 2011 / Collection of the artist

Music: "Budding" by Broke for Free: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Gold_Can_Stay/Broke_For_Free_-_Gold_Can_Stay_-_01_Budding

https://soundcloud.com/broke-for-free

Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Interview with Louie Palu, whose work "Night Raid" was selected as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 exhibition. More on the Portrait Competition at http://portraitcompetition.si.edu

Louie Palu writes:

"This photograph is of a wounded Afghan soldier in a U.S. Army helicopter after a bombing during a night raid. It was made in 2010 in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The first well-known photographic portraits of wounded soldiers came from the U.S. Civil War, when photography became a prominent method of informing the public about the conflict. Photographs from the Civil War have come to symbolize and teach Americans about one of the nation's most painful moments in its history.

The blue color is from an emergency cabin light used at night in MEDEVAC helicopters, which are front-line air ambulances. When I first saw the image it shocked me, as a photograph allows for extended viewing and reflection on behalf of the viewer. As I came to understand the image, it seemed to evolve into a symbolic portrait of war, creating two parallel portraits in one."

"Night Raid" / Louie Palu / Pigment print, 2010 / Collection of the artist. Music: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Gold_Can_Stay/Broke_For_Free_-_Gold_Can_Stay_-_01_Budding

https://soundcloud.com/broke-for-free . Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Interview with Tema Stauffer, whose work "Cathy, Market Street, Paterson, NJ" was selected as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 exhibition. More on the Portrait Competition at http://portraitcompetition.si.edu Tema Stauffer writes: "I first noticed Cathy standing outside the boarding house where she and her uncle currently live on Market Street. Moved by the intensity of her expression, I asked if I could photograph her standing exactly where she was at that moment. She was cautious and guarded at first, but also seemed glad to be recognized. Cathy describes her mother as Blackfoot Cherokee Indian and her father as African American. Forty-three, she has spent most of her life in Paterson. Cathy is one of many residents whom I have photographed on the streets of Paterson during the years since America's economic downturn in 2008. This series of street portraits serves as a record of a diverse population of Americans living in a historic city fraught with struggles and hardships and as a testament to the depth of human experience that is spoken through their faces."

"Cathy, Market Street, Paterson, NJ" / Tema Stauffer / Digital C-print, 2011 / Collection of the artist . Music: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Gold_Can_Stay/Broke_For_Free_-_Gold_Can_Stay_-_01_Budding

https://soundcloud.com/broke-for-free . Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Interview with Jill Wissmiller, whose work "The Gilding of Lily" was selected as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 exhibition. More on the Portrait Competition at http://portraitcompetition.si.edu . Jill Wissmiller writes:" 'The Gilding of Lily' is a portrait experiment for Snakes, Electricity, and Scorned Women, my upcoming documentary installation that weaves Midwestern meth manufacturing, drag queens in the Dirty South, and the landscape of Las Vegas into an alternately excessive and insufficient investigation of loves gone wrong. Lily has had many a love gone wrong but she is a performer in the most extreme sense. Onlookers are often amazed by the whirlwind of color and shape she presents. She never leaves an audience waiting. Indeed, one can barely keep up. The restriction of her movement for this video portrait achingly ruminates on motion and desire. Fixed desire is the through line for much of my research and creative work, which is concentrated on nontraditional cinema spectatorship and production. I am currently writing a motion picture manifesto that calls for a strict ban on standard definition video being projected upon anything other than glitter. " "The Gilding of Lily" / Jill Wissmiller / Video projected on glitter screen (2:50 minutes), 2011 / Collection of the artist, Music: "Budding" by Broke for Free: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/ , https://soundcloud.com/broke-for-free . Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Interview with Neil Shigley, whose work "Michael 67 (Pastor Shelby)" was selected as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 exhibition. Neil Shigley writes:

"My subjects are homeless people living on the streets near my studio. They are people who are invisible to most of us. Their daily struggle to survive has given them incredible character that could not be earned any other way. Nobility, beauty, strength, vulnerability: they are there if we only look. Presenting them in this large format will perhaps force people to confront these people and their situation, and bring them into focus.

Pastor Shelby wasn't like most people I've met on the streets. He was a happy, compassionate man who said that his purpose was to help others on the streets. When asked how he ended up there he said, 'I need to be here!' When asked how he deals with the elements he replied, 'I am the elements!' I am lucky to have met him. I never saw him again, but he left a great impression."

"Michael 67 (Pastor Shelby)" / Neil Shigley / Plexiglas-block print on paper mounted on canvas, 2011 / Collection of the artist

Interview with Saeri Kiritani, whose work "100 Pounds of Rice" was selected as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 exhibition. Saeri Kiritani writes:

"After I began living in the U.S., I came to take a more detailed notice of my eating habits: "I am mostly made of rice!" I thought. In "100 Pounds of Rice," the self is literally and symbolically reconstructed out of rice.

Using Elmer's Glue and rice, even translucent rice noodles as hair, I re-created my likeness as a "rice woman." The sculpture is standing on a mountain of rice that the female figure both triumphantly emerges out of and drowns down into.

Ordinary things I had never paid attention to in Japan became unique in my everyday life here. I look different; I eat rice; I am an Asian. I drink green tea; when I speak I have accent; and I do in fact behave differently. I find myself torn—sometimes I deliberately try to appeal to my natural existence and sometimes I just want desperately to blend in. "100 Pounds of Rice" / Saeri Kiritani / Rice, rice noodles, Elmer's Glue, epoxy glue, wood and metal sticks, 2010 / Collection of the artist . Music: "Budding" by Broke for Free: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Gold_Can_Stay/Broke_For_Free_-_Gold_Can_Stay_-_01_Budding . https://soundcloud.com/broke-for-free . Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Interview with Bly Pope, whose work "Maryanna" was selected as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 exhibition. Bly Pope writes: "In my photorealistic drawings I try to show that the ordinary is worthy of scrutiny—that every diminutive, "missable" part of the world is alive, singular, and "holy," and that everyday moments must be appreciated with care, reverence, and gratitude. Drawing faces is a form of emotional release, exploration, and remembrance: I draw faces of friends, family, and others I've known and loved. The human face is a lyrical and mysterious landscape, as infinite as a mountain range, warranting rigorous investigation and passionate awe. The intense, meditative, intimate process of working in pencil is a way of learning about my subjects, remembering and celebrating them, and acknowledging the entropy and frailty of my own life. Maryanna is a drawing of my grandmother when she was ninety years old, made a year before she passed away. It represents unconventional beauty, as well as nobility and defiance in the face of mortality." "Maryanna" / Bly Pope / Graphite and ink on illustration board, 2011 / Collection of the artist . Music: "Budding" by Broke for Free: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Gold_Can_Stay/Broke_For_Free_-_Gold_Can_Stay_-_01_Budding . https://soundcloud.com/broke-for-free . Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.