Kaleidoscopic No. 2: Janaye Brown
Berlin based video artist and filmmaker on time, notations, and observations..
Kaleidoscopic No. 2: Janaye Brown
“The foundation for my practice is based on pregnant moments I observe in my everyday life. My filmmaking background informs the techniques I use to build and sustain a sense of anticipation while emphasizing the passage of time. Through an extended look at a narrative fragment, the subtlest shifts become prominent and the viewer has time to examine everything within the mise-en-scène. I seek to access the tension and mystique that lay beneath the surface of familiarity, highlighting the unseen.”
Janaye Brown
Leonardo Bravo
Hi Janaye. This is Leonardo Bravo with a brand new platform that I've launched in my recent move to Berlin, Kaleidoscopic Projects. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to you. You and I met before for coffee here in Kreuzberg and I'm eager to establish networks of connections between artists based in Berlin and also communities of artists in the US and globally. Particularly with artists and makers who conjure ways to come together towards new imaginings of place, space, and interdependence. So I'm really, really happy to have this conversation and learn a little bit more about your practice. Thank you so much!!
Janaye Brown
Thank you for having me! I'm really excited to talk and happy that we got to meet.
Leonardo Bravo
As I had mentioned to you, sort of by just sheer luck I happened to see one of your works at the Shulamit Nazarian gallery in Los Angeles right before I left. And I happened to notice that you were based out of Berlin, so I took note of that. Once I got here, I had a closer look at your work through your website, and I really became intrigued with your work. For this conversation it’d be great to start by learning more about your own expat experience, having moved to Berlin, having moved out of the US. What's been that process like for you, and what's it been like to work here from Berlin as an American artist?
Janaye Brown
I moved out of the United States in 2018 to China. I originally moved to a small island in the south, basically across from Taiwan called Xiamen. I was there for a year and then spent the following two years in Shanghai. That was the first part of my expat experience, it was both amazing and challenging.
Leonardo Bravo
Wait, wait, wait. So you went there and then you happened to be there while the COVID pandemic blew up. Is that so?
Janaye Brown
Yeah. That's its own story, but basically, yeah. I was in China when it broke out at the end of 2019. Then, I traveled back to the United States in January 2020 when it really ramped up there. I was stuck in the states for a couple of months and got on a flight back to China right before it got bad in the US. 2020 was an interesting time in China because a lot of people didn’t know that life was (sort of) going on as normal if you weren't in Wuhan.
Leonardo Bravo
And from Shanghai, what made you decide to come to Berlin out of all places?
Janaye Brown
When I lived in New York I constantly wanted to leave. My husband and I lived there for four years and it was a difficult time for us. We struggled with money and finding time to make work. It was the classic question, how do you find a balance? I think it's something that all artists go through there.
We decided to leave and initially wanted to come to Europe but couldn't afford it. We circumnavigated and spent some time in Asia, which allowed us to be able to come here. Berlin wasn't our original plan, actually Amsterdam was, but as time went on we started to think about the basics. Like, what is it that we want in a home? My husband is also an artist, so we wanted to be in an art community. We wanted to know people, we wanted to have friends, we wanted to live somewhere that was more affordable. Of course that's relative, but if you think about the cost of living in Berlin compared to New York, LA or any of the major art cities in the United States it's much more affordable.
Leonardo Bravo
And in terms of that balance, both you and your husband being artists, and finding that time, that balance, you know, that equation that you're talking about, it's like almost finding that currency of time to work on your projects. How is that happening here in Berlin for you guys?
Janaye Brown
Yeah. It's so much better. When I was in China, I was working a full-time job. When I was in New York, I was working multiple part-time jobs, which essentially is a full-time job. So this is the first time that I've been able to scale back working a day job. My husband is a freelancer and he has been able to do the same thing.
Leonardo Bravo
That's wonderful. So maybe share a little bit about your own professional trajectory, because I think you had mentioned that you either trained as an artist first or in film, and then you also got your master's in studio art .. how did that come about?
Janaye Brown
My undergraduate degree is in film production and that is my touchstone. It’s the world that I think about when I make my work. I got my masters in studio art because I knew I wanted to go in more of an art-film direction and studying studio art opened up my way of thinking. These days I tend to exist predominantly in the art world, but I still very much love film and filmmaking.
Leonardo Bravo
I want to talk a little bit about that piece that I saw in LA "Bather, After Dinner." It was interesting because I recently posted on Instagram about my love of Caspar David Friedrich, the German painter, whose work exalts the sublime, that strand of German romanticism at having these moments, these arresting moments of time, where there's this sense of, perhaps a connection to something beyond material perception through the grand scope of nature, you know? So I'm very drawn to moments like that. And I think that's what struck me about your work is that in a very quiet and reflective way, you were able to capture a moment that held you there. A moment that suggested something beyond language and material constructs. So maybe for our readers, if you can describe the work a little bit, and we are including a link to it, but if you can describe to us a little bit about your thinking on the process of how you came about producing and directing this piece.
“Bather, After Dinner” (2016), Janaye Brown
Janaye Brown
I made this piece while at a residency and this image of a person hanging on to the edge of a dock was something I had been thinking about for years. I’ve made around 10 variations of it! This was the one that finally worked. The video shows a woman in the water, she is holding onto the dock as the water flows in and out, and in the background you hear nature. But, you can also faintly hear people conversing in the distance. The tension of trying to isolate yourself while something else is going on was a very important idea for me, especially at this residency which was extremely social. If I think about my work at large, I live and work in big cities, and I'm always trying to search for these moments of respite. The calm within the chaos. And so, this is something that speaks to that idea.
Leonardo Bravo
You mentioned that you were thinking about this moment for years and trying to capture it. How do you go about producing it, to create that stillness and to have a person to work with and to be able to document that? I mean, is it mostly about the moment, or is it highly choreographed and there's a great deal of an architecture that you have to build up to capture this?
Janaye Brown
I would say both. I work in a couple of ways, one of them is very staged, so something like “Bather After Dinner” falls in that category. It's under my direction and is hyper composed. And like I said, I attempted to do it many times and didn't succeed (laugh) until this moment where I think all of the elements came together. The other way I work is much more happenstance, where I stumble upon a place, scene or an event and record it. I have less control over these videos. It's a matter of finding the right frame to capture what is already happening. You can see that in a lot of my recent work, but I think maybe you see it best in something like “Genesis”.
Leonardo Bravo
And why I think it's so successful, is that as a viewer you recognize at first, of course, there's a choreography, there's a staging, there's a production in terms of this setting, the context, everything you're watching, but it unfolds because it plays with your expectation of time and space. It unfolds in a way that you get lost as a viewer and in that sense you almost become one with the moment. You allow yourself to be part of that moment. And it's quite a trick, because it's, it's arresting in that sense, but it also invites you in. So I thought you managed to do something really, really complex and beautiful… creating this invitation with that piece.
Janaye Brown
I appreciate it. I think that in itself is the idea behind these pieces. Back in grad school, I was watching films and I would see a scene that was so arresting, I would wanna stop the film and extend the moment. That feeling is the initial philosophy behind the way I have been working for the past ten years! Beyond that I am interested in implying narrative. What happens before this moment? What happens after and what is happening just outside of the frame?
Leonardo Bravo
One more thing I wanted to share about it is my own personal reaction. There’s a sense of liberation that I got out of it. I mean by that, a subjective sense of liberation. Being a person of color of course, seeing a body of color represented in a way where time is unfolding within a subjectivity that is expansive, that is open, and that allows for readings into this subject related to memory and longing and how storytelling can unfold. There's a freedom in that, a richness again, a multidimensionality in the quietness that is so powerful. So I don't know if you had any intentions behind that. I'm sure you did, but that definitely came across.
Janaye Brown
I was curated into this show a couple years ago by Lester Merriweather where the idea behind it was more eloquently worded, but basically “black people doing normal things”. This felt radical! But honestly, it's so important to me because I think I get really frustrated when the big movie or TV show that's released with people of color is about struggling with X,Y and Z. I eventually want to make a feature film with a diverse cast and I just want them to be people, you know..
Leonardo Bravo
Exactly, to be in the struggle and also just be.
Janaye Brown
Exactly! The struggle doesn't go away, but it's integrated into everyday life.
Leonardo Bravo
Yes! Let's talk about a couple of other works that captured me, Sunrises, Sunsets, and Korsvika.
“Sunrises” (2021), Janaye Brown
Janaye Brown
I made Sunrises and Sunsets in 2021, and I made Korsvika two months ago. Sunrises and Sunsets, are companion pieces, one presents a video of a sunrise and the other a sunset. There is text overlaying each one that resembles a subtitle. This is a deliberate reference to filmmaking, I think the subtitle is such an interesting tool for miscommunication. The text that's being overlaid on these videos are memories that I wrote down in China. I like this disconnection, you're seeing this western sunrise, but then you read these memories that are from somewhere very different.
Korsvika was shot while I was at a residency in Norway. In the video you see images of a fjord very late at night and it’s overlaid with a subtitled conversation. I’ve been thinking about how to build upon the single shot pieces through editing, text and sound to go into the direction of making a feature length film. How can I eventually bring something together that resembles a film but still has the elements of openness, and interpretation and all these things that are important to the shorter works?
“Sunsets” (2021), Janaye Brown
Leonardo Bravo
In that sense the work is deeply textual. Obviously, the actual text you're using, but the text of the forms, the visual language, the way you use sound, the way you use color. I mean, these are definitely things that are being layered, and begin to overlap with each other. And these reads overlap and create tensions within each other. In Sunrises and Sunsets, I, you know, I definitely am not an expert, but I felt like that's Northern European light. I'm looking at outside of these windows, you know? Yeah. And then, I am trying to connect it, to that first line, which talks about a sky full of smog, and there was definitely a mis-recognition taking place that again, pushes it further, makes it more textured, and again, creates these narratives of a sense of anticipation both textually and visually, like you're dropped into this world to the scene, but it's part of something else and your mind rushes or anticipates, tries to fill in.
Janaye Brown
I think in those pieces in particular it's very hard to fill in because you want to sit with the serenity of the sun and you can't! I made Sunrises when I first got to Germany. It was such a culture shock because I'm an American, I was living in China for the past three years, and now I'm living back in the west- but it's not America. I was trying to reckon with that stark change.
“Korsvika” (2022), Janaye Brown
Leonardo Bravo
How do you envision these pieces being experienced by viewers? Because certainly one way to take them in is through the laptop, and there's a sense of intimacy, because it pulls you in. And I know that recently you did a project with Xanadu which is a project space here in Berlin, and you did a screening with them. How are the pieces experienced in that sense?
Janaye Brown
When I had the screening with Xanadu it was really exciting because I don't always get the opportunity to curate a program of my own work even though some of the pieces lend themselves really well to a theater setting. I've been making this kind of work for a while so I can put together programs with different through-lines easily. I do envision most of these works being seen in a gallery though, with the ability to walk in and watch and walk away when finished.
Leonardo Bravo
When we met up for coffee, you talked about field recordings a little bit and how you use sound and the sense of notation, you know, which makes me think so much about writers and that kind notation and observation of the everyday.
Janaye Brown
Sound is totally fascinating to me, it creates a physical space that exists around the work. Originally, I felt that the sound in my work had to be from when I recorded the video. Now I realize it doesn’t need to be so…
Leonardo Bravo
Precise?
Janaye Brown
Yes, exactly. I can have fun with it! As of late, I feel I have been able to do that. So the soundtracks for my work within the last few years are usually a mixture of the ambient sound sources, found sound and sometimes things I compose. I say that lightly, but I do make the music that you hear in the work. Sound is something I learned just the basics of in film school. It just makes everything so much richer that it's worth putting effort into it. Sound helps with the pieces where there's minimal movement to embed you further in the scene. Also, I’m always trying to slow down, recording sound is a good practice for that. You need to be as still as possible and listen.
Leonardo Bravo
That's super interesting. I feel that Berlin is particularly, well it's a city where it's not a cacophony, but it's like fragments that come in and out of perception of sound, you know a lot of sound is taking place. And it's a lot of interesting kind of fragments compared to, from my end, the cacophony of LA, which is a cacophony of urban sounds, densities, and technologies, because it's primarily, cars, helicopters, objects in the urban context. You know, it's a constant sort of buzzing of technology incurring into your sense of public space.
Janaye Brown
When I came to Germany, I was like, it's so quiet! And I still feel this way, but perhaps I’m fortunate to be in a quieter part of town. If you're in the middle of the city, of course it's gonna be loud and chaotic but it's so easy to walk into some sort of a preserved green space here and get that sense of quiet.
Leonardo Bravo
So finally, Janaye, I wanted to find out what is inspiring your work right now. What is bringing you joy? When we met up for coffee, one of the quick references in seeing your work for me was the work at Claire Denis and perhaps Chantal Ackerman. But yeah, just to learn what are you watching, reading, hearing that inspires you?
Janaye Brown
I've been reading more poetry lately, nothing big, but I really enjoy William Carlos Williams. I was rereading a book of his and there are some poems in there that I think are like what I attempt to do with my own work, but he does it expertly in six short stanzas! Also, I’m always listening to a variety of genres of music. If I make a playlist, it has like four languages on it. I'm really interested in bringing a multicultural perspective into everything I do. The last thing would be getting out there and traveling around Europe! I’m looking forward to the world getting better (in terms of covid) and seeing more of Germany and beyond.
Leonardo Bravo
Well Janaye this has been such a treat and I'm so excited to feature this conversation in Kaleidoscopic. I look forward to being in touch and running into you in various places in Berlin as being part of this expat community as Americans. And hopefully make some artistic and curatorial collaborations happen happen along the way!
Janaye Brown
Thank you so much for having me. It's been a joy talking again!
Leonardo Bravo
Wunderbar!!
Janaye Brown website: http://janayebrown.com/
IG: @janayedanielle