Danny Volk

"Social art"

Danny Volk

made-up w/ Danny Volk 

Danny Volk is a Chicago based artist with a background in theater and acting. He is most known for his show on Youtube made-up w/ Danny Volk, where he goes to different artist studios, asks them about their work and life while they attempt to do Danny's make up. Danny's art is unique in the sense that he works with people in all his projects, but they might not necessarily know that he is doing it or what exactly he is doing. I think of it as "social art". All of his art has a social aspect to it whether its online or in person for example DVNY. Danny decided he would pretend to be some other Danny Volk (who didn't have an Instagram at the time) on Instagram.

Danny Volk - The Gap Project

Danny Volk - The Gap Project "stories"

DVNY was almost a performance in a sense. He played the character of the rich, happy Danny Volk. Danny seemed to say it was all about the documentation and the reactions of the "audience" (the other Danny's friends/followers), but at the same time he really didn't know who his audience was. When he started to become this character, of sorts, he started to gain followers he didn't know (the other Danny's friends and family). All of this just ended up ending in the "audience" figuring out that it wasn't really the Danny they thought it was, which actually is actually hilarious now that I think about it. As funny as that project sounded Danny has also done some projects where he tries to physically interact with people. The Gap project, in simple form, was Danny working on the sales floor at a Gap, but he wanted it to become something that could establish relationships with people. Danny tried his best to create small one on one relationships and reactions from people. He did it any way he thought he could. Danny would even use physical touch to get a reaction out of people or some type of feed back. He would write down his encounters every time he had one and saved each one. The physical touch seems to be a re-occurring theme. In made-up w/ Danny Volk, Danny makes artists put make up on him in their studio while he asks them questions. Its kind of intrusive in a way as if he is trying to get a reaction out of them, "I wanted to defamiliarize their own studio..."

Danny Volk is interesting and refreshing. He seems to take social situations and make them into art. He takes everyday social situations and just by writing them down and analyzing them makes them intriguing. He takes normal everyday chores like applying make up to create a "defamiliarizing" environment. He is just different, but in a good way.