Interview with Daniel James Wilkinson

An interview with Daniel James Wilkinson, in residence at The Daniel Shand Project Space.

What's new in telly world? Well, flavour of the month these days is Reality TV - real (fame-hungry) people from all walks of life (novelty / fit or famous) go through months of trials and tests to be thrust, complaining bitterly, in front of TV cameras to be unfairly edited into bigots, morons and heroes. Is that's what going on here at the Danial Shand gallery? Like a cross between Celebrity Love Island and Can't Cook, Won't Cook they take an artist and lock them up in a space for a few weeks to see what they can cook up. Then the artist is whisked away and the public can view the inside of their brain. Or they can have a look in the bin, see if they use Derwent Graphic pencils and check they're not tracing photos. Titillating the audience this month with his tight little bikini and flirtatious manner is Daniel James Wilkinson, Artvehicle asks him a few questions to see what's going on and to try to trick him into saying something naughty.

AL: What is the Daniel Shand project space?

DJW: It's a kind of open studio, but not! Instead the idea behind the space is focused on the approach and practice of the Artist at work. Rather than a body of work being completed for a show it places you the Artist and your practice into a living installation or theatre.

AL: When are you 'in residence' and when is the public invited in to view your work?

DJW: I'm usually here most weekdays, I'm given four days in the week to come in and use the space and then on Friday at six pm I get a polite kick on the arse out the door. The space then halts at that very point, say if I leave the radio on and a rather tasty cup of tea on the desk, they have to stay until my return the following week. When it opens to the public at the weekend, it should feel like for the visitor that I might return at any moment, but I don't! I'm not allowed until Monday.

AL: What have you been allowed to bring in?

DJW: Basically the majority of my studio, the project or projects I'm working on at the moment and all my little personal items and any thing that helps me work and feel at home, e.g. Books, music, sounds of chickens and trains.

AL: What kind of work do you do and how have you been using the space?

DJW: Maps, maps and more maps! Well ok not just maps but that's the final body of work, which has accumulated during my resent subject 'The Eothenians' which is basically the creation of an invented civilisation that spans a period of over two thousand years, and possibly even more if I don't ever stop, or go completely insane. How have I been using the space? Well! I think I've made my perfect cartographers / historians play den to muck around in and I feel absolutely free from the stubborn environment of my old studio.

AL: How long have you been in the space/how long have you got left?

DJW: I'm now in my fourth week and sadly have only one more week to go until the ultimate big bad and nasty end, well it want so nasty with all the nice beers. Though it will be a little sad to leave the space; it's been an interesting period of development for my practice and me. I think as an artist, doing something like the Daniel Shand residency has really helped me to evaluate my own professional approach and output.

AL