I Saved You A Slice

Dakota Noot

Interview by L. Valena

April 27, 2022

Can you please describe the prompt that you responded to?

The prompt was a video piece called “Where Friends Meet,” where it layered the text over and kind of played with it by color, the lines getting layered and getting removed, too. Or I misread it, right? Can you imagine, this whole time I just made that up? [both laugh]

No, that’s what it was. What was your first reaction to that? What were your first thoughts?

It kind of reminded me of old-school or experimental animation. I've worked with text before in the past, but now if I do use a title, I don't really write as much on the work anymore. I thought about how to bring that out, how to do that. Also, I just loved the fact that it was layered a bit. I thought, “Okay, collage. My image is layered already, so I think that relates.”

And where did you go from there?

I wanted to play into like a party. I thought, “Let's make it birthday-themed, where there's cake-eating, and it kind of gets orgiastic, too.” It's just a bunch of people thrown together. It also reminded me of pigs eating from a trough, so I decided to have these pigs laid over my body, because they're my friends, devouring cake together, eating me. Hopefully it's good!

I love this! It’s just so wild and awesome. Talk to me more about pigs. Are they an element that you feel a strong connection to?

A lot of my work uses farm animals in some way because I'm originally from North Dakota, my name is Dakota, and my family still farms, too. So I think back to what I grew up with on the farm. I remember seeing these animals eating and interacting, and I play with that in the work, making it kind of funny, kind of violent, very playful and cartoon-like.

Cool. And how about cake? Is cake important to you?

I love using food, especially processed food, in my work. So if it's not cake or more desserts, I love working with hot dogs, which is probably one of the craziest meat things ever. But I love it. It's so manmade and artificial, toxic and mutated in a way, but why not make it fun and colorful?

It's kind of funny. I get asked a lot if I'm vegetarian or vegan, and I'm actually not. I eat more pescatarian, more like eggs and fish, but I don't eat a lot of meat. But I feel like I work out my feelings about diet – Is it right? Is it not? – through the work. I do live next to a KFC, so I don't know, maybe I'm channeling some trauma from it.

That's really interesting. We work out so much through our art, so it makes sense that it's something that’s on your mind a lot. I personally am fascinated by cake. I actually do a lot of research about cake.

Why not??

Have you seen all this hyper-realistic cake stuff that people are talking about right now? It’s so weird!

I don’t know about this!

There’s this trend where people are making these hyper-realistic cakes that look like everyday objects. Like, “That’s a roll of toilet paper.” “No it’s not, it’s a cake!”

Oh, I've seen cakes that look like other stuff. That's funny! I’ll have to look it up. I'm gonna think about that now. I wish I knew how to bake. But it’s too much math! Baking is all exact measurements.

That’s true, but once you know what you're doing, you can start fucking around.

I'll burn down the place! That's the theme of my next piece. “Where Friends Meet: The Fire Station.”

[laughs] Oh no! I love the violence of this piece, like the knives. It’s just so wild.

I also included a little portrait of me, kind of melting into the cake in the face.

Tell me more about your process. Is this all on paper? Give me the story.

All my work is on paper. I sketch it out with graphite. Usually, I come up with a thumbnail sketch, so think of just a basic stick figure. I mark out and fill these areas with “???” and then I come up with something to fill it. I'll sketch it out on paper, whatever animal I’m vibing at the time, or even food. This one was cakes, but sometimes I think it's more of a hot dog meat fantasy. And then there are crayons, colored pencils, and marker over it. I like to keep it more illustrative like a coloring book.

How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?

I love the power of paper. Even when taking the photo with this piece, I had some photos that were a little cleaner, where everything was neatly folded and you're just looking at it. Then there were some where it was completely falling off. I always like showing a little into the process, where you're getting a fantasy, but then you're seeing the tape pop out and some of the paper fold, too. Also, I love the fact that paper is transformative. I can attach stuff to my body and become something bigger, better, bolder. It's like a cartoon character.

How did you get started making this kind of work?

Once, when I did an installation in public pre-pandemic, I dressed up as a chicken for it. But with the pandemic, I had a show get canceled where I made all these cut-outs of crabs and lobster people. I thought, “Why not have fun with it?” So I staged it from my room and made simple little looks. I realized, “Hey, there's something to this. What if I just make an original piece from the get-go?” That unlocked the idea that I could be anything. It didn't have to be these lobster beach creatures. I could be a man, a woman, a cowboy, farm animals… I could reenact horror movies from my living room, too. It was very fun and very low budget.

I do feel like the pandemic forced us all to get creative in these different ways.

You have an amazing bird behind you! I love the way its feathers are so spread out.

Thanks! Yeah, it's an exploding goose.

What's it made out of?

Fabric, but it’s painted. I think what you're doing with 2D and 3D is definitely something that I love to play with, too.

We're vibing on a similar wavelength with the animals right now!

Yes!

Then you start eating it. It's a cake.

[laughs] It's all a cake!

I was not mentally ready for that. You just rip off the head and I'm like…

What an elaborate set-up that would be!

Right?? How do you refrigerate that? [more laughter]

Well, one thing I’d like to hear more about is the subject matter of this piece, where friends meet at a party. I know that's something that I feel very far away from right now. Tell me about your experience with parties.

I haven't been to a party since probably before the pandemic, and even then, I was working so much that I wasn't really hanging out like that. It's probably back to grad school, like parties where I was getting drunk with my students. Those are my memories: drinking, barfing, and waking up hungover. Yeah, let's say that's in the piece. [both laugh] That's why it's violent. Oh, the puking in it actually makes sense!

The puke with the perfect little slice of cake on top is really amazing.

It should be more messed up, now that I'm thinking about it!

Do you have any advice for another artist approaching this project for the first time?

Have fun with it! I made something that was continuing something I already do, more in my comfort zone. But I did something super low budget with crayons. I realized I didn't need to buy something to make this. “What do I have at home to make?” Be cheap.

What I liked about looking at the other pieces is seeing that you can really do anything. There are more fantastical, more spiritual, more representational things, and there are different mediums and colors. You could really choose any kind of palette. I didn't think the prompt meant that I had to write a lot of words either. I figured I’d write something of it, and kind of rewrite it, but not literally recreate it. There’s no way to mess up.

Call Number: Y77FI | Y81VA.nooI

Dakota Noot is a human paper doll. Through crayon and color pencil drawings taped to himself, Noot transforms into characters beyond his own species and gender. He currently teaches and makes art in Los Angeles.