Jakob Dwight in Conversation with Noah Becker

Solarwind Over Sorrow | MSK01 (01948), 2019. 47" x 62" inches, wood, film, LED lights. Photograph courtesy the artist

By NOAH BECKER May, 2019

Artist Jakob Dwight works in a variety of mediums. I spoke to the artist about his lightboxes recently on view in New York City.

Noah Becker: Why are you making light boxes?  

Jakob Dwight: I've always loved (the most visual aspects of) film in cinematography, especially frames and scenes carried heavily or masterfully by chiaroscuro - contrast between light and dark -  but I always have had this longing to see those scenes paused as stills so that I could really get into them, along a z-axis of attention, look at them with a longheld focus. 

So I am left with a hybrid desire where I want to see a form between film/cinematography, (digital) photography/photocollage, painting/drawing exist and resonate with art viewers.

Autonomous Prism | MSK01 (02255), 2019. 32" x 42" inches, wood, film, LED lights. Photograph courtesy the artist

NB: Are you excited about showing these light boxes? 

JD: Yes, I am excited and will be working on these for a while. Making them is a return to tactile object making after 20 years of digitality.

Autonomous Prism | MSK08.91 (09090), 2019. 50" x 62" inches, wood, film, LED lights. Photograph courtesy the artist

NB: Are you religious?  

JD: No, not all.  Nor "spiritual" though my work somehow is, or at least described as spiritual or creating a kind of spiritual astral projection/remote viewing experience.  

NB: What is your ultimate goal with this series? 

JD: My main goal with this series is to introduce that hybrid form I mentioned earlier, a new way of engaging imagery and artworks for viewers, something that fits the truest evolution of the contemporary viewing experience.  

Autonomous Prism | MSK11.3, 2019. 57" x 68" inches, wood, film, LED lights. Photograph courtesy the artist

NB: Can you tell me more about your app? 

JD: The app is called N'CHI and sets the frame for an imaginary world's fair where users choose nations or groups, cultivate cultural forms, artifacts and rituals, and exchange or share them in roaming (international) art fair events.  

It is aimed at allowing us, especially younger thinkers, to have conversations that can be difficult, in terms of the ideological magnitude of the subjects, or in terms of emotionality and being "too close to home". The app in short is offering itself as a gesture of social therapy, attempting to act as a generator for new culture, modes of organizing ourselves.

N'CHI app will be launching officially in Fall 2019 but is published and available on iTunes Store now. WM