Alt Text ...

Visual Chemistry

    an investigative photo documentary

Exclusive 18-page photo essay from our investigative journalist team in collaboration with award-winning photojournalist Aaron Adler. Location: Brooklyn, United States Copyright Wondereur 2023.

MEET with artist Daniel Horowitz curated by JR's studio director Marc Azoulay.

0
1
“AN ARTIST IS LIKE A CONJURER, A WITCH, A MYSTIC.”
2
“Or a fraud.”
3
“I can’t imagine what people were thinking when the first surrealists made art: ‘What is this? No one has painted like this before. How dare you?’”
4
“I THINK ARTISTS ARE ALCHEMISTS.”
5
“THE ARTIST’S ROLE IS TO TRANSMUTE IDEAS AND MATERIALS INTO BEAUTIFUL THINGS.”
6
“I find scientists and artists are so alike. Both devote their lives to a scientific process, posing questions about certain ideas, and creating experiments to validate those ideas.”
7
“IF I WEREN’T AN ARTIST, I THINK I WOULD BE A SCIENTIST.”
8
9
“I was an illustrator for over 10 years. It’s good schooling, but ultimately you’re just making somebody else’s needs met and that's enough. When you’re working for yourself, to satisfy yourself, it’s a more difficult task.”
10
“I AM NOW MY OWN CLIENT. I CREATE THE PROBLEMS AND TRY TO SOLVE THEM.”
11
“As an illustrator, I learned to subvert a visual element by incorporating something unexpected to give it an incredibly plausible new meaning.”
12
“But with illustration, you have an intended meaning and narrative you want the viewer to understand. Whereas now as an artist, I can be more subtle, more mysterious so that people can respond and react for themselves.”
13
“I LIKE TO PLAY WITH VARIOUS VISUAL ELEMENTS TO ULTIMATELY TRIGGER THE CONVERSATION.”
14
“In a way, the conversation is the most interesting thing about art. It can trigger some kind of inherent truth that resonates with their own life. When I was doing my 365 series, a drawing a day, I thought I was improvising. In retrospect, those works are actually layered with metaphors that can be interpreted in a sort of Freudian manner.”
15
“AS HUMAN BEINGS, THERE’S A FINITE NUMBER OF ARCHETYPES WE ALL SHARE GROWING UP.”
16
“I like to draw on my own experiences, my fears and fascinations and fetishes – all sort of cultivated at a very early age. I grew up watching Tex Avery cartoons that constantly broke barriers.”
17
“WHEN A CARTOON CHARACTER BREAKS THE FOURTH WALL, IT’S A PROFOUND EXPERIENCE.”