23

Daniel Corral

Did you have previous associations with this number before making this work?

No prior association with the number before, I explored ideas after learning of my prompt.

What inspired you to make this piece?
I drew from various sources what the number 23 meant to me. I had just moved cross country from Boston to LA with my partner and our dog to be closer to my family and for a fresh start after my recent unemployment and the global pandemic. As you can imagine, it has not been easy and one of the many challenges I struggle with is my identity, even more so now that I'm closer to home and family and under the identity that I formed in Boston. Around the time I received my number, I was also thinking about a friend I had lost a couple of years ago and what words of encouragement or tough love she might have for me. On a 23rd of Sept, she posted a bearded, smoking, raggedy dude holding a sign that read "Will Work 4 Pussy" and I felt inspired to embody my friend's illustration because it was one of the last pieces I got to see of her's.


Aside from a response to this number, what does the work say to you now that you've made it?
I think the work says 'I don't know myself or my body, but I want to'. When I was younger I didn't like the sight of my own reflection because of how my body was shaped and photography and self-portraiture allowed for a positive impact on the outlook of my appearance today. However, I still find myself at times lost and alone and questing my own identity. That eventually becomes my process and one where I try to capture some remnants of a portrait because I think I would otherwise lose myself completely. I also think the work is apart of a much bigger project that extends as a continuation of other self-portraits' bodies of work.