Jordan Wolfson


 

Here I am sitting in my old studio at 5 Delavan Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn. I remember the day Jason came over to take this picture. I greeted him outside my door with a white, unbuttoned shirt on and speaking in an Israeli accent. We laughed a lot. I was glad Jason thought it was funny because I like him. What I'm wearing in this picture was a gift from my mother. She took me shopping at Brooks Brothers after I returned exhausted from a string of shows in London and Berlin. She also bought me the glasses I have on. You can see how messy this studio is. All the things on the desk were just there, but now, looking at this photo, the arrangement seems really intentional—almost ironic—or like part of a portrait of who I could be.

Jason and I sat down and I showed him the video I was working on. It was what later became Animation, Masks, 2011.

At one moment Jason kind of freaked out and went outside for a cigarette. I knew he was doubting the images he was shooting of me, and it didn't help that I kept critiquing and proposing different ideas. Then he came back in and shot this one.

There's a lot in this photo I like, and looking back, behind, and around myself today in an entirely different studio, I can see it's pretty much the same place.