Danielle Rennalls: Laurel Nakadate

Laurel Nakadate was born on December 15, 1975 in Austin Texas and raised in Ames, Iowa. In 1998 Nakadate graduated with a BFA from the School of Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Tufts University. She then went on to achieve her MFA in 2001 in photography from Yale University.

From a very early age Nakadate developed a passion for the arts. This passion was greatly influenced by her family’s love for telling stories and her father’s profession as an American Literature Professor at Iowa State University, ultimately deciding her faith as an artist. Growing up in the middle of nowhere Nakadate had to create her own fun. Though she participated in theater performance and dance, the only thing Nakadate dreamed of doing was working with photography.

Though most of Nakadate’s work involves her active participation, this was not the case during her undergraduate career. In her first project entitled “Girl’s School,” she documented girls from Wellesley and Smith Colleges doing ordinary everyday activities, using 35mm. This project sparked her interest in exploring the process by which girls become women. However after moving on to graduate school Nakadate found herself feeling lonely in a new City, as she knew no one. Therefore she became her own subject, placing herself in front of the camera ultimately changing her approach to her work, sparking her transition into video art.

Now in front of the camera Nakadate wanted to explore her options and move outside of her comfort zone, and her move to New Haven proved to be a great contributor to this. In Boston, Nakadate was invisible for no one bothered to stop to speak with her, however now in New Haven strange men stopped her all the time. Nakadate believed it was in her best interest to utilize each of these encounters since these persons were interested in her. Therefore in the year 2000 she decided that rather than brushing off the attention of unknown men who were constantly approaching her, she would encourage them. Her goal was to desire to connect with the strangers just as they had desired to connect with her. 

Upon meeting these men, Nakadate would propose to go home with them if they agreed to collaborate with her in the making of a video art. Nakadate’s reasoning behind this exchange was that she was fascinated by the encounter that occurs between two strangers when they are in a room together alone. The idea that anything can happen always fascinated her because she believed two people walking into a room can create a whole new world. She also believed this strategy was no less that what a documentary photographer does for a living, because she too was using the home's of strange men as her set in order to bring her story and ideas alive.

Nakadate’s first video was made in 2000 and was entitled “Happy Birthday”. In this video she went to a strange man’s home in a party dress with a cake she baked and decorated for her fake birthday. The strange man sang to her and they sat and ate the cake together.  In 2009 Nakadate made a photo series entitled “Lucky Tiger” where she took photos of herself in sexual poses and hired men on Craigslist to view them with ink on their fingers, which produced the smudges that appear on the images. In her latest work entitled 365 days: A Catalogue of Tears, Nakadate documented herself crying everyday of the year 2010. This project she says was inspired by surfing social media sites such as Facebook and realizing that every post that was made by her friends and other random strangers were all happy and content. She knew they were all faking this happiness because it was not possible that all 3,000 of her Facebook friends could be happy every day, all at once. Therefore she decided that she would fake her sadness since they could fake their happiness.

http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/2011-interview-with-laurel-nakadate/2212

http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Artist-Laurel-Nakadate-at-crossroads-of-sex-power-2475514.php#photo-2037683

http://www.vice.com/video/laurel-nakadate

 The evolution of her work from 2000 to 2010 has demonstrated her desire to discuss issues and thoughts that others may have but not want to address. Each piece have drawn a deeper and more personal connection to her concept though they have different underlying meanings. Throughout the years, Nakadate has expanded the way she addresses issues by continuously raising the stakes and the emotions involved as she presents us with new issues. In all her work however, Nakadate took risks ranging from physical to emotional danger, because she believes that as artists unless risks are taken there is no sense in creating a piece. 

Today Nakadate currently lives in Queens, New York. Her works have been shown in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Princeton University Art Museum in Princeton, New Jersey; and the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. Her work has also been exhibited internationally at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles; the Reina Sofia in Madrid; and the Berlin Biennial. Her first feature-length film, Stay The Same Never Change, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and was featured in New Directors/New Films 2009 at The Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center, New York. Her second feature, The Wolf Knife, premiered at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival, and was nominated for a 2010 Gotham Award and a 2011 Independent Spirit Award.

P.S. Nakadate’s best pickup line from a stranger: “Give me a call, let’s hang out, and if my mom picks up the phone just tell her you met me at the Home Depot.” It’s not really a pickup, but it’s a great line!