DJ Barrett and
Emily C-D
The ART of IMPROV
I am so excited to introduce the very first pair of collaborative artists to The Art of Improv. Artist DJ Barrett and Emily C-D have come together to create a sculptural conversation, a project they call Silent Acoustic. The sculptural pieces are made of reclaimed wood and materials long forgotten or abandoned, each piece gives new life, to the materials which come together improvisationally and so beautifully. Both artists have a background in music; Emily as a violinist and Dave as a saxophonist. Improvisation informs both their musical and sculptural works. You can learn more about them both and their Silent Acoustic collaboration here. Be sure to check out the videos, watching the work come together is so fascinating!
Morning Emily C-D
Can You Repeat the Question? DJ Barrett
Pleased to Meet Me DJ Barrett
What does working improvisationally mean to you? How would you define the ‘Art of Improv’?
Emily: The Art of Improv is the art of being in the moment, absolutely attuned to your instincts, trusting strange impulses, and being open to being influenced by your surroundings/fellow musicians/art materials of choice. I work improvisationally in my art so that I may be a better improviser in life.
Dave: Working in an improvisational manner for me means approaching a piece without much of a preconceived notion about what it will be or what it should look like. It’s a process of just grabbing some materials, whatever they may be, and beginning to try to make something interesting out of them. Sometimes things come together quite quickly, and sometimes it’s a long process. And of course sometimes, it just doesn’t work period, but that’s part of the process. It’s a process that requires some courage, a willingness to push things into unfamiliar territory, and a willingness to fail. But I think it’s worth the risk to work this way — it’s can be very rewarding when you get to something you otherwise would never have come up with. And the more you do it, the more confident you become in trusting in yourself and in the process.
Have you always worked improvisationally?
Emily: I was trained as a violinist from the early age of six and have been drawing and painting and making sculptural work from at least as young. A lot of my early creative explorations and education focussed on copying/interpreting existing artistic and musical works, which was a good basis for building technical skill. But as an adult I have fully embraced improvisation as the force that drives me. Playing music with incredible improvisors directly influenced my visual process and made me a more open human being overall.
Dave: My background is music — I’ve played the saxophone since the fifth grade, so improvisation as a musician is something I was engaged with from an early age, and continued into adulthood, when free improvisation became a practice I was particularly interested and engaged with. There are a lot of concepts and approaches to playing music in this way that are directly transferable to my visual art making, so I’m grateful to have that background and experience to bring to bear on my work. It has made me very comfortable approaching my work that way, and I hope that sense of risk-taking, discovery and musicality comes through.
Do you work improvisationally, consciously, intentionally? If so, how do you begin? If not, how do you find yourself getting there?
Emily: Sometimes when drawing or painting I think about how strange it is that my hand or arm just seems to know the arc of the line that wants to be on the page or wall or wherever. It is almost as if the body knows. Art is so meditative for me. It allows me to quiet my mind and let myself be where I am and fully respond with my being.
Dave: Yes, for me it’s almost an ingrained habit, although I do sometimes work in a more traditional way, i.e. imagining a finished piece, drawing it, and then trying to make it. As I mentioned, when working improvisationally, I begin with one, two, or three elements that interest me in that moment. It could be pieces of scrap wood, or particular colors of paint, a piece of paper, some found object or image, something I picked up at the hardware store, or something from the garden. Really, it can be anything that creates a little spark for me. Then I look around for what I might combine it with that would make an interesting composition, and it just goes from there. It helps to have accumulated a lot of different stuff in your studio.
After the Burn Emily C-D
#27 from The Book of 32 DJ Barrett
How often do you work with improvisation?
Emily: Every day, and now more than ever! In our topsy turvy world, I am glad I know how to go with the flow. Improvisation is also pretty helpful in terms of being a single mom!
Dave: A lot, as I guess you can tell by now!
Please share a bit about your process. Do you have methods to getting started? Do you have tricks to getting unstuck? Do you have motivators to finishing up?
Emily: In terms of my sculpture and collage work, I don’t start with a specific sketch or concept. I wander and collect. Once I am back at the studio, I lay the pieces out on the floor or my table and try to translate their stories. The past year I was working mostly with scrap wood. The Mexican artisans who sculpt branches into the fantastical colorful dream creatures known as “alebrijes” talk about listening to the song of what the wood wants to become, finding the animal in the curve and gesture of the material. I get that. I work more in an assemblage vein, finding harmony between disparate pieces, as if trying to put together a puzzle. But the idea of being open to modifying my vision based on what the material suggests is absolutely key. I have never understood how it is I know when I am done, it is just a feeling.
Dave: Another approach I’m fond of using is establishing some constraints for myself. It can be overwhelming sometimes to start from a blank canvas, or blank whatever — there are an infinite number of possibilities for how to begin, what colors and materials to use, etc. So an interesting way to sort of rein that in is to establish some constraints. These are rules that you will follow, and they can range from very loose (for example, only use material you have on hand in the studio at this moment), to quite rigorous (only use shades of yellow for this painting). I recently did a series of mixed media collages called The Book of 32 that used the number 32 to guide almost every decision — paper size, number of pieces in the series, number of words in texts I pulled from page 32 in 32 different books, etc. I particularly like working with numbers this way. I always make sure I still have plenty of room to improvise within whatever constraint structure I’ve established, but it limits my range of choices, which is a really interesting challenge.
The point of using constraints is to get yourself to a place you wouldn’t have otherwise arrived at, and that’s what’s so thrilling about improvising this way. With constraints, you’re forced to resist your own tendencies and habits, and I find that can lead to some exciting breakthroughs.
There are many other strategies that I’ve brought over from music improv that would take up too much space to discuss here. I’ve actually thought about writing a book about it. Maybe Emily and I can work on that together.
Where do you find inspiration? How do you use it?
Emily: I grew up in the US but have made Mexico my home for over a decade, and the contrasts and overlap of existing between and within two cultures has deeply influenced me. I went from living in a sprawling post-industrial artist warehouse in Baltimore, to a tiny musician filled apartment in Mexico City, and now find myself in a quiet adobe abode in the semi-desert highlands outside of San Miguel de Allende. Everywhere I go I tend to pick things up—songs, slang, habits, and the cast-offs of a throw-away society, all of which inevitably influence my work, since essentially my art is just an extension of who I am. Art as a creative reaching towards understanding my place in a confusing, overwhelming, beautiful, terrible world.
Dave: I find inspiration everywhere — in music, in the work of other artists, in nature, in junk, in literature, in Mexican culture, in construction sites, etc. etc. Visual stimulation and inspiration is everywhere, you just have to stay atuned to it. And intellectual inspiration is readily available — I read a lot. The hard part is to synthesize your influences without slavishly copying them. I often wince when someone makes a compliment about a piece by saying “oh, it reminds me of Joseph Cornell!,” or “I certainly see your Rauschenberg influence there.” While those comparisons are inevitable (and flattering on the one hand), I take it as an indication that I’ve been too obvious in wearing my influences on my sleeve.
Evening Emily C-D
Title page from The Book of 32 DJ Barrett
3 Volcanoes for Dr. Atl DJ Barrett
What advice would you give to someone interested in trying to work improvisationally. Can you share some good advice that you received that helped you become more comfortable this way?
Emily: Listen. And don’t be afraid to speak up. That’s what a well meaning friend told me when I was living mute surrounded by Spanish speakers. I made a lot of mistakes initially, but by allowing myself to play out loud with the new words and sounds, I eventually was able to construct understandable sentences, and by extension over time, many friends. Improvisation is the same. You absolutely have to listen. And then be brave enough to respond. The process will take you to a fascinating place.
Dave: My advice would be to be as fearless and open as you possibly can. Turn off your internal editor and dive in. Take chances, don’t worry about making something ugly, or bad. Don’t worry about technique — if you have particular skills, try to forget them and see what happens. I think we all tend to fall into creative ruts, where we have certain moves that we know work well, and so we fall back on those. Improv is a chance to push beyond what feels familiar and comfortable, to challenge your sense of what’s “good” or “pleasing to the eye.” It’s when I reach a point in a piece that it makes me a little uncomfortable that it gets interesting!
How would you finish the sentence, ‘What if, . . .?’
Emily: What if everyone in the world had a compost pile??? I think about this a lot. My sculptures are mostly made of discarded materials, so I reflect on our waste systems constantly, and I am concerned. We have to reduce our consumption habits and how we deal with what is left over NOW, or we will turn this planet into one giant open air dump. Compost is such a magical, improvisational process that could have a huge impact on the outcome of our world if we could all just get inspired and involved!
Dave: What if artists ran the world instead of politicians and corporate CEOs?
What are reading, listening to, watching, or any other inspirational obsessions you would like to share?
Emily: A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit (2005). Randomly grabbed this off of a friend’s bookshelf recently and was blown away by how relevant it seemed in the present, uncertain moment. Highly recommended reading for improvisational inspiration. Been listening a lot to the Mexican group “Ampersan.” Watching the sky and learning the way the arc of the sun and moon changes through the seasons. Really obsessed with seeds. And I am constantly struck by the philosophical wanderings of my six year old son. Who was I when I was six? Who am I now?
Dave: Well, this period of Covid-19 isolation is good for doing a lot of all of that! In fact, there’s so much cultural stuff available online now that it’s kind of overwhelming, and I have to fight my “fomo” that I can’t take advantage of even a small fraction of it.
So during the past six months I’ve been reading a lot of art texts, and watching some online interviews with artists I admire. Abraham Cruzvillegas and Phyllida Barlow are two in particular whose work resonates deeply with me, their highly improvisatory approach, their use of scrap and/or commonplace materials, their use of space. I also read a lot of fiction, and during this period I’m gravitating toward things that make me laugh, rather than things that are dark and heavy, so I’m rereading Tristram Shandy and Don Quixote. And I should mention that I’m a big fan of the OULIPO, a group of writers who make mind-boggling and often humorous use of constraints, which is where my interest in that approach comes from.
The music I listen to in the studio ranges all over the place, I have very eclectic taste, but some of the musicians I’ve been finding inspiring lately happen to be female, including Anna Webber, Mary Halvorson, Matana Roberts, Terri Lyne Carrington, Holly Herndon and Kris Davis — all gifted improvisors as well as really interesting composers.
Thank you so much Dave and Emily for sharing your wisdom of improvisation, I am so inspired. I love the idea that the body knows, it knows how to create you just have to listen, trust AND be fearless! I look forward to diving into many of your recommendations for reading and music, this is often my favorite part of interviewing. I am so happy to have come across your work and this project, I am a big believer in play as a form of keeping the creativity flowing but this is next level, the way you both bring it all together, I am truly in awe! Thank you for making your art and sharing your process, it means the world!
To learn more about DJ Barrett visit his website and follow him on Instagram @djbarrettstudio.
To learn more about Emily C-D visit her website and follow her on Instagram @emilycdart.