How long have you been running for and how does it fit into your life?
It has been a really big part of my life for a few years. Because I travel so much for work it is just the nicest thing I can do in any city with no gear, or very little gear. I think everything I’ve ever been drawn to in terms of exercise, like yoga or swimming or running are things that I can do on my own terms in between things without relying on any equipment, or gym, or a team, or competition, or other people. It becomes a really nice way of no matter where I am I can get out of my house. I can get to know a city in a very non-committed way.
Do you usually run by yourself? Do you ever run with other people?
Oh, always by myself. I’m very solitary. Everything I’ve ever been drawn to is by myself.
What do you listen to?
Mainly like a lot of the really fast-paced punk rock that I grew up with, lots of Dead Kennedys. Lots of really Euro club music. Which is not something I ever listen to in the studio or walking around the city, but it’s just this kind of ‘get shit done, zone out’ music. It ... puts my body into it very quickly.
“Like Bikram or swimming: [running] is very solitary. I’m very much about the competition in my own head.”
What are you favourite places to run in Melbourne?
In Melbourne I more run to Bikram everyday and back. I live really close to the Carlton Gardens at the moment so definitely there. I run a lot in New York, the Bridge, McCarren Park. I sort of set a trajectory when I’m traveling to make sure I go down a different way, to make sure I go to a new neighbourhood I haven’t gone to yet if it is a new city. If it a really familiar city like Tokyo then I can run around the Imperial Palace, Yoyogi Park. It is this really nice familiar thing you go do and kind of check in with the city.
How does running help your creative process?
[My creative process] is so full on and my studio practice is so exhausting [that running] is never like a regular trajectory or an x amount of kilometres. It’s almost what I need to get out of my own head, and kind of reset the day and reset my brain ... I like these things that tell you where your body is at. Sometimes you run on adrenaline when your travel life is crazy, you think you’re great and then you go for a run and realize your body is so exhausted.
I think it is something creative people don't talk about enough is that need for catharsis. Especially exercise, I feel like creative people – I don't think they give it a place or a public place in their process – and maybe because it is such a private world and such a personal thing you have to do to get out of your own brain, that maybe people don't talk about it. I’ve always find it a really, really huge part of what lets me make my work.
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