VVG: Are garments a currency of our time?
SD: I think so, like other relics and cultural objects, they carry value from their origins and histories. I collect and reuse objects in my own work, including clothing, for this reason. Who produced what and when, what objects are made of and how – all of these questions are retained within an object through its lifespan. People own and wear clothes at a particular time, which says something about themselves and the specific moment. As an artist, combining the material traces/relics of those social histories can be useful to create stories and associations.
VVG: How do you speculate about the future of artistic practice?
SD: Cautiously. Things change all the time, for example, look at what covid has done to restrict travel and reshape possibilities for shared social spaces. It’s very hard to predict what will happen in any field. I like to follow lots of different kinds of conversations, from as many places and contexts as I can keep track of, from technologists to anthropologists, artists to politicians, of different backgrounds and cultural contexts. With my own practice, I expect that making digital work will be as important as the sculptural and material parts of my practice. With an unpredictable material world, evolving infrastructure for web-based work can feel like an increasingly important and interesting arena.