Operated out of DUMBO Brooklyn, by the Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design (AICAD), the New York Studio Residency Program (NYSRP) offers a semester-long program for selected art students across the United States. Given their own studio space and the opportunity for intensive engagement with artists and colleagues, participating students are given an exceptional introduction to the New York art world.
This year, senior Studio Art undergraduate Gabrielle Daubourg joined twelve other students from across the U.S. and Canada in New York to embark on the residency. A change of scenery is nothing new for Daubourg. Originally from France, born and raised in Paris, she moved to Texas when she was sixteen years old. At The University of Texas at Austin, she studied philosophy before transferring to Studio Art in order to work in film. When describing the program, Daubourg writes, “The academic structure of the program is very laissez-faire and allows each students to have time to explore the city, go to museums, exhibits and work in our studios. No micro managing.” The critical seminars that take place from Monday through Thursday involve discussion of assigned texts to current events. “These discussions have been highly influential,” writes Daubourg. “especially as a practicing video maker, in this cultural climate, which is purely mediated through consumption and image-based relationships.”
Writing with Daubourg over email during mid-terms, we learned that Magdalena Sawon of Postmasters Gallery came to the studios as a guest critic. Sawon is known for cultivating talent in new and emerging artists working in sculpture and painting to new media. Among twelve students, she is the only one that works in video; most others work in sculpture, painting, screen printing and other mediums. All of the object-making makes for a dynamic exchange of voices and critical approaches, especially during midterm critiques. “As I primarily work in video, my shooting occurred after the midterm, so the majority of what I had to show was comprised of writings,” writes Daubourg. “I presented some previous works in order to show the visual strategies I intended on applying to the upcoming project. Otherwise it was a surprisingly polite and safe critique, especially considering the student’s overall sense of anxiety prior to the event, which only served to disappoint my masochistic tendencies.”
The individual studio spaces given to each student artist are a boon to their production and a unique opportunity to expand upon projects over the course of the semester. When discussing her studio space as a video artist, Daubourg responded, “My studio space looks more like an office. It’s clean, orderly and meticulous; a failed, conscious mise-en-scène to attempt to calm my neurosis.” Remarking on the comparison to other students’ studios,
Assuming that Daubourg employed the same crackling wit in her work, we asked her what some of her current projects entailed. “At the moment the process of aging and the attempt to preserve histories through different aspects of storytelling is central to my relationships with current subjects,” writes Daubourg. “My work is dependent on subjects, either actors, dancers or family members. I only occupy the studio for research or editing.” The constraints she puts on herself in terms of subject matter and approach means that she spends most days outside, establishing relationships with individuals she is curious about before retiring to her studio to edit. As a means of establishing authentic relationships, Daubourg is volunteering with an organization that establishes physical and emotional support for seniors in the city. “I have started developing a closeness with certain individuals and started a process of documenting them in their space and recording our conversations.”
“Most of my current work happens prior to capturing any footage. Because of my dependency on people I spend a lot of time building the relationship before I can introduce the invasive presence of a camera into their personal space. Trust must be established, a construction that is undeniably dependent on time.”
With a month left in the semester, Daubourg reflects back on some of the most enriching parts of the residency, “just the ability to produce work in one of the greatest cities in the world is such a tremendous opportunity. There is a freedom to experiment and attention given to young artists that I want to see everywhere and bring back with me.”