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Exploring the mind and habits of an artist in twenty-five questions.
I’ve enjoyed taking pictures since I was fourteen years old. I strived to become a photographer since I was eighteen. At thirty-two, I completed my MFA in Photo, Video and Related Media at SVA. Then, I gradually decided to become an artist, since it expanded the possibilities of what I could make and how.
I don’t think there was a specific moment when I told my parents that I was going to become an artist. There have been a bunch of decisions which took me in that direction, which generally involved taking risks and not settling with whichever life setup I had going on. The reactions to those decisions have generally been connected to fear and not quite understanding, but support nonetheless.
Over the years there have been many artists who have been influential for me. Early on, I was very influenced by many documentary photographers and their urge to get out there and photograph pretty much everything around them. Later on, Magnum photographers were a huge influence. Currently, I look up to Allan Sekula and Harun Farocki. Among other things, I share with them the impulse to document and understand the world in ways which weave text and images.
Gillian Wearing. I saw her show Wearing Masks at the Guggenheim and I loved some of her works. The large family portraits where she impersonates every member of her family by dressing like them and wearing a mask, Homage to The Woman With a Bandaged Face Who I Saw Yesterday Down Walworth Road, where she wears a bandage that covers her face (which we don’t see), and we see—from her perspective—the reactions of people as they encounter her in the street, and 2 into 1 featuring a mother and her two sons, one generation lip-synching the dubbed words of the other (this one is actually on Youtube). These works, as her other works in the show, are problematic, as one doesn’t know for sure if she’s making fun of people and being cruel, or if it’s about something else—which I think is the case. At any rate, I found these artworks very captivating and really well done.
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency by Nan Goldin. That was one of my early influences, which permeated not only in my work as an artist, but it also showed me that there were beautiful ways of being and loving that I had never seen before.
Supporting other artists and being able to read and unpack other artists’ artworks.
I haven’t learned how to draw yet, so I don’t have a sketchbook. But I keep several notebooks and notes about my projects and ideas in my hard drives and phone.
I’m currently very interested in what Valentín Roma is doing in La Virreina Centre de la Imatge in Barcelona. I think he has a program which looks at photography by intertwining culture, history, and images in pedagogical and refreshing ways. I’d also say that New York City has the best museum hub that I know. It’s hard to keep up with everything that they do, which I think is amazing if you think about it.
I would be a bird vet. In high school I wasn’t good at math, so I wasn’t allowed to do sciences and pursue that career path.
I had a group of friends who also loved photography when I was in my early twenties. We would go out together and take pictures of abandoned places. With them I discovered that I was interested in working with photography in ways that I couldn’t achieve going to those places, and with them I shared other passions that were beyond photography, such as movies, music …
I went hard with experimentation during my MFA, so I had to skip a lighting class. That meant I later had to learn some very valuable tips the hard way!
I think that as a teenager I was able to concentrate on certain images and look at them over and over. There was this book collection featuring different photographers; the books were pretty small and had a black cover. One of those was about Minas Gerais, by Sebastião Salgado. I remember spending hours looking at those photographs, which I can still recall pretty well.
Seeing how ingredients change color and texture when I cook. It’s amazing to see how many things can happen to food when you work with it!
Music takes too much of my attention, so I don’t.
Post Times, to see their first show.
This question takes me to other questions which for me precede it: what do you consider underrated? Is it someone who doesn’t have visibility through commercial or institutional success? Who rates art and artists? Following this succession of questions, another one emerges: what kind of art do you want to be making and for whom? In other words, what do you want your art to be part of?
My computer and my camera.
I don’t. Certain projects are often in my mind, and when I get a chunk of free time I concentrate on getting them done or progressing one way or another.
I don’t remember, but when that happens, it’s usually connected to me being too busy with paid work. I teach and I also have a photography business specializing in documenting artworks. It’s no secret that being a freelance has ups and downs, which is good to save up and then spend time making art when it’s not busy.
I brainstorm and look for things I’m interested in. I also work on things that seem unimportant or arbitrary; they usually take me somewhere interesting.
Every project is guided by different questions, but generally they are connected with understanding and visualizing how power and oppression operate in our society.
My guess is that it’s perseverance!
I think there are many things I haven’t yet achieved in art. Every artwork I make opens new doors and pathways, and I achieve something different with each project.
How easily I can feel connected to a community of artists, and share with each other what we are all up.
GUSTAVO MURILLO (@gustavomurillophotography) will be teaching the workshop Photographing Artwork with your iPhone at the Art Students League of New York, February 1–2, 2024.
Selection of stories, guides, and more from the League.
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