This is That

2011-11-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

2011-09-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

By Roman Schramm.(via i heart photograph)

2011-08-10T18:02:00.000-07:00

Work by Ane Graff.

2011-07-28T00:34:00.000-07:00

Soft by Katarina Hruskova.

2011-07-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

Work by Kenneth Tam.

2011-07-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

Offending The Audience, by Emily Mast.

Offending The Audience is an “anti-play” that was written in 1966 by the Austrian novelist and playwright Peter Handke. This 45-minute lecture about theater must, by necessity, take place in a theater while attempting to be as un-theatrical as possible. In this particular adaptation, seven children between the ages of six and twelve remove the audience from the artificiality of a critical discourse of artifice by introducing real play into a play that, for all its avant-garde seminality is, to a contemporary ear, far too self-conscious to be listened to.

Call for Applications: Ride Along, One Day Residencies In My Car

2011-06-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

For this summer in Los Angeles, I've begun a residency program called "Ride Along". It is a program of one-day residencies, open to all, that takes place in my car.

I pick you up. We drive around Los Angeles. You, I and/or we make something. I drop you off at the end of the day.

Go here to download the information and application form.

Space is limited so hurry up and go.

2011-06-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hi (Human Interface) by Multitouch Barcelona. (via neoanalogue)

2011-06-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

Defacements by Matthew Cusick.

"Pages from old schoolbooks that are altered by sanding and scraping away everything except the page number, an illustration, and a few chosen words."

2011-05-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

Work by Paul Outerbridge, who worked mostly in the 1920s and 30s.

2011-05-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

Work by Hanne Lippard. (vvork's on a roll)

2011-05-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

Beeswax stuff by Markus Fielder.

2011-05-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

The backs of Inge Jacobsen's hand-stitched Vogue covers are the best. (via today and tomorrow)

2011-05-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

Work by Steve Bishop.

2011-05-02T16:13:00.000-07:00

Work by Mika Rottenberg. (via vvork)

2011-04-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

Work by Anna Krachey. (via haw-lin)

2011-04-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

Tyler the Creator's Yonkers.

Watching Yonkers.

2011-04-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

Mexican pointy boots.

2011-04-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

James Face by Oli and Alex.

"I LIKE GOING ONTO MY FRIENDS FACEBOOK PAGE, TAKING PHOTOS OF HIM, CHANGING HIS FACE SLIGHTLY THEN PUTTING THEM BACK UP ON FACEBOOK. HE DOESN'T LIKE ME DOING THIS."

2011-04-03T23:13:00.000-07:00

Performance by Tori Wrånes that I wish I'd seen.

2011-04-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

Lernert and Sander's music video for Elektrotechnique by De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig.

2011-03-26T13:19:00.001-07:00

Work by Ingrid Hora.

2011-03-07T09:52:00.000-08:00

Work by Charles Negre. (via but does it float)

2011-03-03T11:09:00.000-08:00

Never Wilting Flower by Rebecca Veit and Kathryn Hillier. (via iheartphotograph)

2011-03-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

Work by Luisa Kasalicky. (via vvork)

2011-03-02T16:58:00.000-08:00

Work by Alexandra Bircken.

2011-02-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

Work by Brion Nuda Rosch.

2011-02-09T08:55:00.000-08:00

Work by Jakob Neulinger. (via vvork)

2011-02-07T09:56:00.000-08:00

Work by Franz West. (via ANEWDAWNFADES)

2011-02-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

Work by Elana Herzog.

2011-02-06T18:28:00.000-08:00

Work by Jo-ey Tang for the UCLA New Wight Biennial.

"Task for the exhibition: After the opening night, all objects moved forward by 5 inches, out of the spotlight."

2011-01-21T08:51:00.000-08:00

Photos from tall buildings by Jasper James.

2011-01-12T09:29:00.000-08:00

Work by Paul Salveson. (via iheartphotograph)

2011-01-12T09:20:00.000-08:00

Layered, hand-cut chromogenic prints by Soo Kim.

INTERVIEW w/ ALEXANDER DEVRIENDT of ONTROEREND GOED

2011-01-10T10:39:00.000-08:00

Last year I saw a performance of Belgian theater company Ontroerend Goed's "Once And For All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen" and it blew my mind.

The company is currently performing The Smile Off Your Face in Lisbon until January 13, and then at CC De Spil - Virus Festival in Roeselare, Belgium, March 5 - 12, 2011.

I interviewed artistic director Alexander Devriendt via email from November 2009 to July 2010. Here it finally is.

This Is That: I want to know how Ontroerend Goed began. Was there a specific moment or instance where you said: "This" and it all started? For example, the other day, I had some time to kill in the morning before meeting a friend. I went to the park, and watched two ducks as they bathed and groomed themselves, for 20 minutes or so. I've never spent that much time watching a small animal go about its day, and at the end, I thought: "This. This. This."

Alexander Devriendt: Of course there is never a first moment but countless ones, but the ones I remember now:

* I was sixteen, in a boarding school in Ghent, wanting to make a poetry magazine called Wiener Pop (I don't remember what this title meant to me) and I went to the well-known artist bar in Ghent called "Damberd." I asked the guys behind the bar where I could meet some poets or people interested in poetry. He sent me upstairs, and I had to look for David. I went up and saw a young guy (older than me) with four good-looking girls around him, his poetry notebook in front of him. Then I realised I was at the right place with the right man. Poetry seemed a good way to seduce girls, and I already tried to be a rockband singer (I was awful). After 16 years David and I are still the core members of Ontroerend Goed.

* I'm 21 and together with Joeri I made Porror (a performance with a mixture of porn, horror and poetry) which became a great underground hit in Belgium. Our first performance where people who we didn't know showed up and seemed to love it. Joeri wanted to live in Berlin after that and I begged him not to go, because I felt I needed him to create amazing work. He stayed. We still make work together, and have played all over the world, but not in Berlin.

* Porror 1 (it became a trilogy) is the official birth of Ontroerend Goed, almost 10 years ago.

* During rehearsals of "Once and for all..." at a certain point I realize I'm having fun, after each rehearsal I look forward to the next, without caring about an audience or reception of the piece. That insight, that the performances that audiences love and that travelled the world the most, were the ones I had the most fun making. That was and is such a reassuring thought.

* I see a play that begins with a telephone ringing, and an actor coming up stage and taking the call. I've had it then. From that point on, I feel I want to make theatre where nobody has to pretend or where an audience doesn't have to adjust themselves to the rules of fiction. (After that I made one play where somebody picks up a mobile phone and has a conversation. It was the worst play I made so far.)

TisT: Before you did this, what did you do?

AD: so before theatre maker
a poet who only wrote poems when the deadline was there
before that
an awful singer
and before that
someone looking for something to mean something for other people and looking for people who had that same drive

TisT: How do your pieces begin? Does it start with writing, or talking, or walking around in a room and bumping into each other?

AD: They can begin anywhere in my head, and then I need to talk about it. Mostly with Joeri, my lifelong colleague and friend, because I'm not good at thinking alone. Before the rehearsals begin I like to have a pretty good view on the play, and even better when I have a clear structure in my mind. If I know which way I'm going, I know what to look for. I want to know why I make it, and I like to know my ending. Because I feel that having this structure gets the most out of the actors. When they feel there is a road to follow, they can give so much more and, paradoxically, feel more free.

TisT: If there is a text, what does it look like? In the case of something like "Internal," for example, what does the text say or prompt each performer to do? When I saw your Q&A for "Once and for all..." you said that most of it was written by the performers. Do most of the pieces call for such participation from the performers?

AD: Linked to the previous question the script is mostly clear but a lot of gaps are there where the actor knows what to fill in, sometimes - like in "Internal" - only when they play it. Essentially in none of my plays is the structure you can improvise with. It's always there to make you feel safe as an actor. To know you're in something which has a direction, and therefore a point.

Every play I make I need creative actors. Somebody called it my secret, that I always create this group, this gang on a stage.

I just think that's the beauty of theatre. Something poets, writers or painters miss.

TisT: I want to know about your process for creating a group of creative actors. Walk me through the different kinds of things you do: finding actors, auditions, to how you start forming the piece once the group has been created. What is it that you look for in your actors, and does that vary from work to work?

AD: I always want to find people I like to spend time with, and who can teach me something. And auditions are a tricky way of finding those people. I felt that there's less risk of choosing somebody after you've met them normally, and maybe seen some work. Having seen people in other performances is still the best way, not to see what they do or what they say, but there is just something that happens to some people from the moment they're on a stage. Some people belong there.
For performances like "Internal" or "A Game Of You" it's more difficult to find somebody, because you not only need a creative actor but also somebody who wants to do it.

Once the group has been chosen and a title, I always need a title to think about a project, I know it's started. First days I always spend around the table, talking, not too long but still. With young people talking isn't so fruitful so the first weeks or months are just spend messing around in the rehearsal room, spend some time together.

TisT: It's interesting this notion of needing to have some sort of structure for the actors to feel safe in. Your work deals with an interesting balance of freedom and structure, especially in the play I saw. You worked with this a lot: chaos alongside rules. How did you come to this way of working? Was it always an intuition, or was it trial and error that led you to it?

AD: Wow, I don't know. Or yes I do but I haven't explained this properly. I'll try. I definitely came to this way of working through trial and error. I'm fascinated by using the here and now of the medium theatre. That things happen in front of your eyes. No medium has that possibility. So I need the fact that everything happens is real. And of course you can never achieve pure reality, but you can't reach pure fiction either, so I'll go as far as I possibly can.

And if I want to achieve that and still make meaningful theatre I felt it helped me to let the actors know which direction they have to take or what they have to do, but at the same time feel they're free to do it the way they feel it then and there when you're watching or experiencing it.

TisT: I'm interested in other things, now, about your work and life. I want you to name the five films that most influenced you, the five films that made you who you are today. They don't have to be the movies you think are the most perfect or the best - more, I'd like to know about the films that had a very personal effect on you, and your work.

AD: Overall I'm always so frustrated by the medium film, there is so little experiment, and so much money, maybe that's the problem of course, but it irritates me that almost every story has to be so narrative, and if it it isn't, as in video art, it tends to be boring.

So the movies where the medium starts to become something more tend to become more important for me:

David Lynch comes in the picture of course, where especially "Mulholland Drive" blew my mind.

Gus Van Sant's "Gerry," "Strange Days," and "Elephant" are all so daring, I cherish them deeply.

I hated the story but I loved the form of Godzilla, the fact that for the first time the "videotape" as an object where recorded parts were mixed with recordings, and past and present just were mixed because that's how they are mixed on a videotape, great, I only wished for instance "The Road" was presented like that, now the book stayed the best medium to tell this amazing story.

"Wall-E" was so perfect (especially the first part) because it needed no speech at all in the beginning, I loved that,
and I loved the fact that the storytellers succeeded in creating an almost perfect well-made story.

I used to love "My Own Private Idaho" when I was 17 but I don't dare to see it again.

And another movie that stayed in my heart is Hal Hartley's "Trust," but again, I haven't seen it for a while.

TisT: And the five books?

AD: Books, like movies, also become more important for me, when the form entwines perfect with the content of the story,
books, more than theatre and movies, are a great inspiration for me, I'm addicted to reading, and buying books.

So for instance, "On a winter's night a traveller" by Italo Calvino is amazing, especially the first two chapters.

Philip Pullman's Dark Trilogy is a masterpiece, luckily not only for me, because it dares to push the boundaries of the youth novel, and the inner themes against rules and religion, are important for me.

Julian Barnes, although lately I don't understand his point of view anymore, has some amazing novels that sometimes defined pieces I made. "Talking It Over" where three protagonists of a love triangle talk to the reader to give their part of the story, the sequel, ten years later, "Love etc." was a heavy one, but beautiful.

Brian Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos" succeeds where for me, Stephen Hawking fails, in revealing to a layman like me, the wonders of science, and I will use it for the piece I'm making at the Sydney theatre company.

Murakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" comes to mind.

And James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces," an addictive novel, I read in one night until dawn.

TisT: How do you spend a typical day - when you're not traveling or having an abnormal schedule?

AD: normal days tend to become more sparse, with all the touring of course
but a normal day, mmmm,
when all the emails have been answered, and the laundry is done, and the house is alright,
taking some time to talk about projects and reading and talking about that
that feels great.

--

Thank you again to Alexander for his generosity and participation.

2011-01-10T10:12:00.000-08:00

(via Public Collectors)

2011-01-10T10:09:00.001-08:00

Work by Andrea Sala. Print on marble. (via vvork)

2011-01-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

Work by Natalie Rognsøy. (via bevel and boss)

2011-01-09T15:02:00.001-08:00

Work by Allison Schulnik.

2011-01-09T14:56:00.000-08:00

Work by Mari Sunna.

2011-01-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

Work by Martin Solo Climent.

Everything Is Erotic Therefore Everything Is Exhausting

2011-01-03T12:44:00.000-08:00

I will be performing "Everything Is Erotic Therefore Everything Is Exhausting," a devotional and participatory work that attempts to archive everything that is erotic in this world.

Participants are invited to contribute erotic offerings to the archive on January 4, 2011, 8-10 pm.

The resulting encyclopedia is handwritten, one entry per page, by the artist, and disseminated by participants leaving the pages in hidden public places around the world.

Part of the January 2011 Kamikaze Shows series. Curated by HK Zamani.
PØST
1904 East 7th Place
Los Angeles, CA 90021

2010-12-02T11:50:00.000-08:00

Chris Burden's kinetic sculpture in progress, "Metropolis II." 1,200 custom-designed cars and 18 lanes; 13 toy trains and tracks. (via kottke_

2010-11-18T17:43:00.001-08:00

Woman Merges w Car No. 3 by YEMENWED.

INTERVIEW w/ CONSTANT DULLAART

2010-10-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

This interview was conducted in Berlin, on an evening in August 2010, in Constant Dullaart's home. We spoke while the software MacSpeech Dictate transcribed what we were saying into the following text. We spoke of the sadness in most of his work, and he made pesto.

See more of Constant's work at constantdullaart.com.

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2010-10-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

I love this. (thanks, Everett)

EL GUINCHO | Bombay from MGdM | Marc Gómez del Moral on Vimeo.

I Want to Clean Up After Your Party

2010-10-01T21:26:00.000-07:00

I want to clean up after your party. I will arrive the morning after to do the cleaning. I will clean for free.

Please contact me to make arrangements. Must be in Los Angeles.

2010-09-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

Tape Is Made From Trees by Conditional Design. (thanks, brysonian)

INSTRUCTIONS

Start with a branch.
Tape an orange line ortogonal to the end of a branch, its length is one third of the branch.

New branches emerge from the middle of a branch segment, and touch the orange line at its end points.

The length of the brach is double the distance from its origin to the orange intersection.

Now repeat the same steps.

2010-09-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

Sound sculptures by Zimoun.

2010-09-21T17:29:00.000-07:00

2010-09-21T17:08:00.000-07:00

Work by David Gilbert. (via i heart photograph)

2010-09-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

Work by Kuku Smigun. (via i heart photograph)

2010-09-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

I Want to Love You (Part I) by Cortney Andrews.

My Real Presence

2010-08-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

My play, My Real Presence, will be performed at Real Presence 10 in Belgrade, August 25 through September 8.

It is a play for a participatory performance, in the form of a monologue for the character of Johanna Reed. It will be performed by my esteemed colleague Megan May Daalder.

The text was transcribed from my voice by MacSpeech Dictate version 1.0 Build 1252.

How the text is to be performed has been left to the performer's discretion.

You can read it here.

Two Things

2010-08-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

1. I will be performing The Intimacy Game in the basement of Jahnstrasse 6, Berlin, August 16 - 24, 2010. It is by appointment. Please make contact to participate: send an email to this(dot)isthat(at)yahoo(dot)com, or send a text to 1-805-252-2127 (a US number).

2. Just put up a new photographic series, The Eggs and The Dark, that has been in the works for quite some time. Two images above.

2010-08-07T06:31:00.000-07:00

Vlatka Horvat's eight-hour performance, "This Here and That There," at the Los Angeles River last weekend.

Congratulations, Vlatka!

And here's the TisT interview with Vlatka from 2008.

2010-07-12T16:17:00.000-07:00

"Sometimes things are not as they appear" by Valérie Kolakis.

2010-06-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

Ancient Japanese anatomical charts. I am blown away by these. (thanks, B)

2010-06-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

Work by Jiří Thýn.

2010-06-25T07:40:00.000-07:00

Work by Eva Kotátková.

2010-06-24T02:07:00.000-07:00

Tribute to Karl Sims by Megan May Daalder.

2010-06-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

Perpetual Puddle Vortex by Antony Hall.

2010-06-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

The Extreme and Mean Ratio of (Head of Man) by Nina Beier:

The head of a found bronze bust of an unidentified person is severed from its neck and thrown in the sea. In the event that the head reappears, the exhibitor or owner of the remaining base can choose to claim it and restore the bust.

2010-06-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

Giant mirror sculptures by David Altmejd. (thanks, Mattia)

2010-06-18T10:31:00.001-07:00

Work by Kate Steciw. (via i heart photograph)

2010-06-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

Spectatorship by Bruno Listopad of Disjointed Arts Foundation.

The Intimacy Game

2010-05-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

The Intimacy Game is a participatory performance. It will occur every day, from 12:30 - 2:30 pm, May 26 - June 2, 2010 (not on weekends).

Two participants enter the Intimacy Box, which locks from inside. They select cards prompting potential intimacies based on fear, shame, desire, and joy. Participants are sworn to complete honesty and secrecy. There is no record of what occurs inside the box.

Do you want to play?

2010-05-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

Don't Mouse Around by Jeremy Bailey. (from kottke)

2010-04-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

An invisible rope prank on Japanese TV. (thanks, Matthew)

2010-04-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

A little thrill: found Elizabeth LeCompte and Kate Valk of The Wooster Group in the Abramovic Flickr set. They sat for six minutes and three minutes, respectively.

2010-04-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

Wow.

A Flickr set of all the people who have sat in front of Marina Abramovic's MoMA performance The Artist Is Present. It's incredible how many portraits depict people in tears. The set also lists the duration of the sitting time. The woman in the photo at bottom sat for 391 minutes; Abramovic herself sits every day for 420 minutes. (via kottke)

2010-04-19T17:13:00.001-07:00

Work by Lauren Edwards. (via i heart photograph)

2010-04-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

Work by Daniel Turner. (via vvork)

2010-04-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

A robot folds towels! (via kottke)

2010-04-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

Work by Isa Genzken.

2010-04-06T23:29:00.000-07:00

Work by Thea Djordjadze. (via vvork)

2010-03-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

BOOMBOX by Ely Kim: 100 days, 100 songs, 100 locations, 100 dances.

2010-03-30T20:26:00.001-07:00

"Monkey's Butt is Red," a short video by Min Oh. Lots of other work of note on her site. (Thanks, Everett)

2010-03-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

I'll be performing Wojciech Kosma's piece Wait, this Friday and Saturday, as part of the show Videos Collide in Real 3D Space at Gallery 533. From the press release:

"As personal websites become permanent exhibition spaces — viewable online from the comfort of your own deskchair...in a dark room...in your underwear...the question of why one leaves the house for art (or at all) demands evermore scrutiny.

Dusting off the age-old exhibition spaces that once held a monopoly on the programming of culture, Videos Collide will feature a new generation of media artists whose work explores the added value of their own physical presence.

These live-video performance artists will travel from Canada, Berlin, Colorado, and the greater Los Angeles area to contribute to an increasingly relevant exploration of the moving image in real life 3D space."

Please stop in, if you're in the neighborhood. I am the first one on, so come early!

2010-03-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

Werner Herzog is the voice of a plastic bag. He is the plastic bag.

2010-03-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

"Untitled Kickstand (Bless France, home of manners the best and worst and interesting mixtures), masterly pornography (great enemy of progress), combativeness, great human sceptics, depths of elegance, female qualities, females, ballads of its prehistoric apache, superb hardness and hardiesse of its Voyou type, rebellious adolescent.)" by Alex Fleming.

2010-03-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Work by Rachel Feinstein. (via corvi mora)

2010-03-23T11:41:00.000-07:00

Work by Erin Shirreff. (via iheartphotograph)

2010-03-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

Man tries to get inside a giant balloon. (Thanks, Lauren)

2010-03-09T22:23:00.003-08:00

Here are two stills from my performance of Interactions (Scent) at the Hammer last week. Will be there tomorrow, 2-3 p.m., and this time, I'll be "planting" a few scents. Hope to see you there.

Interactions (Scent) at the Hammer

2010-03-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

Starting tomorrow, I will be performing Interactions (Scent) at the Hammer Museum, from 2 - 3 pm. This means that I'll be available to smell, and will ask you to write down your observations immediately afterward. How you gather your data and what form your writing takes is up to you.

This performance is part of the Subtle Bodies series, and will take place every Wednesday, March 3 through March 17.

If you are in the neighborhood, please stop in and participate!

2010-03-01T16:12:00.000-08:00

Micro Concerts, for Machine Project's 2010 residency at the Hammer Museum:

Upon arrival through the Wilshire Lobby, visitors are invited to sit for a short (one- to two-minute) concert by live musicians in the Museum's lobby coatroom.

2010-02-23T09:57:00.000-08:00

From 2002, but gold nevertheless: The Third Eye Project by Takehito Etani is "a video device that is mounted onto the user's head enabling the person to experience perception from outside of his/her body. The device consists of a mono-eyed goggle with a 2-inch LCD monitor and a tiny surveillance camera held above the user's head."

2010-02-22T12:31:00.000-08:00

Tone Matrix, is a "simple sinewave synthesizer triggered by an ordinary 16step sequencer. Each triggered step causes a force on the underlaying wave-map, which makes it more cute." You must try.

Screen shot below.

2010-02-10T10:18:00.001-08:00

Eric Testroete made a 3D model of his own head out of paper for Halloween last year. He used: 3ds Max 2009, Mudbox 2010, Photoshop CS3, Pepakura. And paper and glue.

2010-02-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

"Fake Flowers in Full Colour," a new book by Jaap Scheeren.

2010-02-08T10:16:00.000-08:00

Work by Yasue Maetake.

2010-02-01T23:12:00.000-08:00

Work by Renee So. (via Something ^ H O M E ^ Something)

2010-02-01T22:08:00.000-08:00

Work by Thomas Kiesewetter. (via Something ^ HOME ^ Something)

2010-02-01T17:10:00.000-08:00

When you walk through the storm by Petra Cortright.

2010-01-29T10:26:00.000-08:00

The Hanging Garden Party is a fashion performance by alex murray-leslie from chicks on speed, kroot juurak and pelican avenue:

the first scene of the performance took place on a small street in paris. the installation of fabric was cut, torn apart, triggered noises, a jungle of sounds and fabric ended building a public space for a party

(via +)

2010-01-29T09:38:00.000-08:00

Work by Goran Petercol. (via vvork)

2010-01-27T09:08:00.000-08:00

Wearetheinter.net, from 2007: a group of UCLA students celebrate the internet's 38th birthday. They bake a cake, tie themselves together with yarn, and find the machine on campus that sent the first message over ARPANET.

2010-01-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

How Jewelry Is Made, a short instructional film by Cameron and Matthew. It's the first of a series in the vein of How It's Made.

INTERVIEW w/ DAVID HORVITZ

2010-01-25T08:13:00.000-08:00

Like all but one of This is That’s interviewees, I’ve never met David Horvitz in person. I did live in a house in Echo Park that he had once lived in, and it was through a mutual friend, Mylinh Trieu Nguyen, who also lived there that I came to know his work. The first piece I saw was a collection of polaroids taken of the sky. It was a poster, printed on newsprint, and tacked up on our mutual friend’s bedroom wall.

David’s work has a certain amount of whimsy and poetry—the tone is often that of a sincere friend urging you to live in the moment or be open to new experience. Often, he offers himself or his work in the mode of a gift, or a kind of free exchange.

From the series “Things for Sale that I Will Mail You,” he writes:

If you give me $1,626 I will go to the small Okinawan island called Taketomi and send you an envelope filled with star-sand (don't worry, I've been there before, I know where to go). I will send it from there.

Yet, David’s work as a whole is an exercise in possibility.

His latest project is retyping John Berger's And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos, and sending the text via a daily email list. He's also curated a show at Golden Parachutes, which will exhibit in March.

The following conversation took place via email from January to June of 2009.

1. More Loose and Less Controllable

This is That: One of the things I think is so interesting about your work is the level of engagement and collaboration it involves. It’s like you’re making art with total strangers, or asking them to help make the pieces. I see a level of interaction that’s much more palpable than the kind that happens when something is made in a studio, then hangs on a gallery wall for people to see. People can do more than simply see your work—they can actually be part of it, even do it with you. Is this your intention? Can you tell me how you started doing the kind of things you're doing?

David Horvitz: I started making this kind of work by developing the attitude that you can make something (or make something happen) anywhere at anytime in any circumstance. You mention that some of my work is not made in a studio, or does not end up on a gallery wall. There is a history to anti-studio practices, and moving art outside of the gallery—but to be honest, when I began to do these things, it wasn't in dialogue with that, it was more pragmatic and organic. I did not have a study or gallery opportunities, and I was not even looking for a studio or art opportunities—I just wanted to do things right now—things in which I could construct the whole process and the ends on my own terms. And, if this happened to be outside in the world (as opposed to being in a studio), then it was not just me there—there were other people around. I worked in a one-hour photo store after I graduated college. When the manager was not around I would make tons (I mean tons) of prints, and then I would give them away to people at shows I would go to, or mail them to people. It was a way in which I subverted the time spent at work into a potential for creative activity (later I read about the French term, la perruque, described in Michel de Certeau’s “The Practice of Everyday Life,” which goes into depth on this kind of activity, which he calls a form of resistance). An example that involves more of a participatory element, I did this thing called the Polaroid Projects (and later I used disposable cameras). I would tour with my friends in the band Xiu Xiu, helping them out on the road and keeping the atmosphere lively. Tour life is extremely boring, you drive to a place, play a show, drive to the next place, play a show, etc (it is also amazing as well, being in places you would not normally be in)... And so, taking the attitude I described, I wanted to construct some kind of creative work that can in this mundane situation. So I started these projects in which I asked fans to bring in unopened packs of Polaroid film and a self-addressed stamped envelope. Then I would shoot the photographs while on the tour, put them in the envelopes, and mail them back to the fans of the band. The photos were a mixture of the band (to make the fans happy), and the “road trip,” Americana-type image (to assert more of myself here so this was not purely “band art”). So, there was the process that happens while on the road across the country (which can be understood as “the studio”), and where the images ended up, back to the people who had given me film (“the gallery” or “the collectors”). The thing that fascinated me the most about this project was that a unique large body of work was created that now exists scattered around in different people’s possession, and it’s virtually impossible to track down these images. This being unlike a large body of of artworks scattered around in different collections and museums. They were more loose and less controllable. Also, adding another element to this, many of the images ended up online—people scanned them in to show others which images they had received. And a book came out of this as well.

TisT: To me, a big aspect of what you do involves the democracy of art, making everything free and accessible. Your projects with Mylinh Trieu Nguyen for your collaboration ASDF—, for example, are all open source or free to download and duplicate. Can you talk about this approach and its importance for you?

DH: I think about accessibility a lot. I am skeptical to use the word “democracy” because, like the asdfmakes.com projects, one still needs a computer and internet access to download these. So, it isn’t completely democratic unless we first gave everyone a computer and the internet, and they knew how to use it. But yes, trying to make something as accessible as possible is one of our intents. There are two reasons for this. One is the “democracy” approach. The other is the fact that it is on the internet. We are using the internet here to its full potential as a site of being a two-way flow: we offer things, people can take things. The concept of the gift comes up a lot here, but I am also skeptical of that being applied because we aren't necessarily giving. We are offering. For the “transaction” to be complete, someone has to take. The motion comes from them, not us. And for a gift to truly be a gift, as it is understood, it is reciprocal, so one would be necessitated to return something to us. Recently I’ve been doing works where I would size files to print quality, and host them online with instructions on how to print them (using either professional or basic consumer technologies). Here someone can download the file, print it out, and posses the work. It isn't a “copy” of the work—it is it. And here, there is an element of uncontrollability—who knows who downloads them and prints them, if any... In the past few years I’ve been using newsprint, which is great because I can make a lot of copies, and sell them for only a few dollars to compensate for what I spent. One example was a large poster size image of a photograph I took in Japan at literally the southern most point you can get to (a tiny Okinawan island). I have the same attitude that these newsprints are the work, they aren't cheap versions or copies. In a studio visit someone commented that these are “light, but yet very heavy.” I liked that.

TisT: I’d like to know a bit about your first inspiring moments as an artist—do you have any particular moments when art first became interesting to you, and you decided you wanted to try it? Are there particular things/people/places, etc., that pushed you toward the work you’re doing now?

DH: My father showed me how to use a camera when I was in elementary school, and I took photography in high school and in college. Photography in college was in the art department, so that was my first involvement in making and thinking about “art.” Here my creative potential and energy had found a place of satisfaction. Thinking about when I was younger, I’ve always had lots of energy and wanted to do things, and make things, and make things happen. It was in art that I found a place to channel this energy.

2. My Interest Is to Take this Layer Off

TisT: I like the notion you talk about of your art works being loose, uncontrolled, in the world—in effect, opening up the idea of an exhibition space to huge proportions. Also, many of your works—like the 2009 tumblr of ideas, for example—exist only as abstractions, ideas, free for the “taking,” to be implemented by anyone who so chooses. You speak about allowing people to take, which has a connotation for me of possibly making you vulnerable or with less than you started with—which isn't how I see the work. For me, there’s more an encouragement for participation, that you’re creating a forum for collaboration—not only between you and an audience, but for the audience to feel like they are creating something themselves. Can you talk about this idea of opening up to your audience the actual “making” part of the art? This may sound glib, but I'd like to hear about where the art exists for you, or with whom you see it happening.

DH: You say that in the tumblr project there is a potential connotation of making me vulnerable. In this specific project I am not interested in myself as the center, and how these ideas relate to me—but to the ideas as the center, and how I relate. I am attempting to shed myself from them, and letting people do what they want with them. Not necessarily as a collaboration because I want people to take them and do what they wish, without thinking of me (or thinking of me if they want to). Like how you said, “creating something themselves.” However, I feel it’s more of an attempt, and in reality not that successful. Though, I don’t know how to make a judgment, but I do guess that most people think of them firstly as my ideas, instead of firstly as seeds or catalysts. I could publish them anonymously, or try to take out my tone of voice. But that isn’t my point, to be sneaky. The tumblr is actually just a documentation of the project. The real work exists in the email list that people can sign up for free. The ideas are exactly the same that are posted onto tumblr, but there is a movement that happens between myself and whoever is on the email list. I send an email, I move something from myself—away from myself, to someone else. In this act of sending, I want to give it all away. Though, I guess posting to tumblr is the same gesture as sending an email in context of how the internet works—but at least in the sending of an email I know it is going straight to a specific person. The project actually came out of a 2008 work where I emailed a photograph of the sky everyday to people on a mailing list. I decided to continue to use the email list as a form to make a work, and I decided to do it again for one whole year. And, like the photographing of the sky, the writing of the idea for me is a silent everyday act—a kind of pause. Stopping what you are doing, and paying attention to the color in the sky for just a brief moment. Or waking up in the morning, and sitting quietly, thinking of something to write. They are both very meditative, though in one I try to clear my mind, and in the other I clear my mind and then try to construct something with words. This is interesting because I am very much involved in this, but my interest is to take this layer off. I think by stating all of this you can come to your own conclusion where the art is. Intellectually it’s about these ideas as seeds free from me or the need of my permission. But also, like I just stated, there is this everyday meditative act, which isn’t necessarily about the work, but routines in my practice.

TisT: I think it’s interesting that you mention the idea of doing some of these works anonymously, or without your own voice, but that your intention is not to be sneaky. Can you elaborate on this? Do you think that to do anonymous work is to be sneaky?

DH: I should clarify and restate what I meant, because it seems a little vague. I was specifically referring to the daily ideas project, and how my intent is to make it clear to people that they can use them and make them their own, and to disregard any concerns they may have over copying my ideas. I used the word “sneaky” to imply a strategy attempting to remove myself from the work in a way that people won't realize it. Where, actually, I am more interested in openly offering these, instead of doing it anonymously. So, no, I don't think to do anonymous work is to be sneaky. It just depends on the context. Though, anonymous and mischief go hand in hand in many circumstances.

TisT: You mention that tumblr serves as a way to document the idea project. I’d like to know your thoughts on documentation and its relation to artworks that have more experiential or sensorial or temporal or ephemeral or idea-based forms. It’s something that comes up a lot with photography, for instance, in the question if the photograph is the art, or if the photograph represents the art, or both. I was recently reading about how Robert Irwin refused to have his work photographed for a long while, because he felt it would take away from the experience of seeing it person. What are your thoughts on this? Especially since you work with using the internet and post office as ways to distribute—or exhibit?—your work, do you feel that this plays into the experience of it?

DH: In an interview I did of a friend of mine I asked her if we should put a blank page in the middle of the interview, and she told me about how Robert Irwin used to do that. It makes sense, because what is important is what is documented, not the document (unless, the documentation is put into the process and part of the work as a total). So to present the documentation is beyond the point. Well, that is more so in the sense of Irwin’s work, because his is specifically about a phenomenological experience. Whereas, some conceptual art ephemeral works are done with the intention to document it. I had a show last year where I left the gallery everyday to watch the sunset in Palos Verdes. People were encouraged to come with me and ride a bus for a few hours through Los Angeles. After each day I hung a photograph in the gallery of that day’s sunset. I was specifically playing with the idea of an experienced moment and a documentation photograph. I wanted to create a conversation between the two. So, in this case, the document was part of the total of the work. But I guess, we are talking about documentation, and this would not even be considered documentation since it is not removed. ASDF, the website I do with Mylinh Nguyen did a show inside a post office in upstate New York. It was in a place that took a lot of effort to get to. So, for that show, the idea of going there, the experience of the trek, is a major part of the show. But then, to those who can’t do it, I think just the idea of knowing that there exists this show inside a small PO box in the middle of upstate New York is an idea that evokes a kind of wonder. It is a quiet idea, it is simple and has certain evocations, but it isn’t too grand. There is a PDF that people can download on our site that simply says “The idea that in a small PO box...” —so again, we are playing with both the idea of it, and of it itself. As for the tumblr as a form of documentation, that is because I put the weight in the mailing list, and the act of sending. And I just wanted to incorporate a blog, and thought it would work efficiently as a way of documenting all of the emails. But then, I do believe that even though this started as a form of documentation, it has turned into a work in itself, which was unintended. I feel people view this project as “the tumblr project.” Most likely because it is so visual.

One thing I am interested in doing with ASDF with Mylinh is to use the ubiquitous qualities of digital media and the internet to try and generate a unique immediate local experience. For example, we put on a show that existed within the photo lab of a local drugstore. We would send the files all around the world to people who wanted to “see the show.” I believe the show was successful in creating an experience—the viewers would walk out of their house and into a drugstore to pick up the show. So this normal experience was recontextualized.

3. Something with Subtle Changes

TisT: Many of your projects involve the sky, either in noticing it, photographing it, or contemplating it in a meditative sort of way. In a recent tumblr idea, you urge people to notice the dawn sky as it changes color, to begin their day this way. Can you talk a bit about what draws you to incorporating the sky into your work?

DH: It’s hard to describe this. Shooting photographs of the sky developed organically for me. I can try to trace a narrative, but I keep discovering past instances that take things back even further, or finding photographs I had shot that I had forgotten about. Like a contact sheet that I made in Japan in 2003, where I shot black-and white-images of the sky on film, and asked a photo lab to make me a contact sheet. The skies were gloomy and created a solid grey, and when I got the contact sheet back all the images had an “X” in the middle, implying nothing had shown up, even though this nothing was what I was photographing. I found that to be quite funny. Or finding a polaroid of the dawn sky shot in 2001 in Sonoma County with my friend Zach Houston. We had taken LSD and were watching the stars, and when dawn slowly crept up, I remember shooting a polaroid and staring at it for quite some time wondering if it was still developing or not. So this leitmotif sort of developed on its own accord. When I began to think about it, and ask myself why, I understood it as a practice of paying attention to something that is always there. Something with subtle changes. Something that could be filled with white fluffy cumulous clouds vibrantly radiating the sunlight in the late afternoon in New York, or a pale dull blue over Los Angeles. Noticing this, refocusing attention to something else, or just staring into the blue of distance.

TisT: I like the sentiment when you say that you’re interested in using “the ubiquitous qualities of digital media and the internet, to try and generate a unique immediate local experience.” Can you talk a bit about your and Mylinh’s participation, as ASDF, in the In Real Life show at Capricious Space, which occurred recently? I'm interested to know your thoughts on it now, after you’ve done it, and how, if at all, they might be different from your expectations going in. Can you talk about this unique, immediate local experience that was created?

DH: For the Capricious exhibition, ASDF was asked by Laurel Ptak to be in the show consisting all of websites. Each participant had a four-hour “occupancy” of the gallery. For our four hours, we held an exhibition including 48 works. So, it was like a show by us inside of Laurel’s show at Capricious. Each piece was made available for download on the ASDF site for exactly five minutes. After the five minutes were up, that piece went down and the next one went up. This went on for the entire four hours. If you missed the piece, there was no way you could download it later, unless someone else who downloaded it emailed you the file. After the four hours we deleted the original files, which was more of a pointless gesture. Deleting the original files...any downloaded file is the exact copy of the original. There is no point to delete the original. But it’s kind of funny that the “source” has been deleted, and that all that exists are the downloads. Mylinh was in the gallery occupying it, and maintaining all the web work. I was traveling, so I had to do it in the store Golden Age in Chicago. I video chatted with Mylinh through skype (which was projected in the gallery in Brooklyn), and installed the show in Chicago. The funny thing was that I was not just printing the files we put together from each of the artists’ work, and hanging them. I was actually downloading the ones Mylinh was uploading. So I was experiencing it on the other side, just as we intended others to experience it. I actually missed three files, so the show I installed had only 45 works. As for expectations, I view a lot of things as a process, so I just let the processes work themselves out. Nothing really happened that I didn’t expect. There were technological malfunctions, but that was normal. But it’s not that I had everything figured out, it’s more that I am open to things occurring, and therefore when unexpected things occur, they aren’t really unexpected and unwanted. To talk about the local experience, we are referring to the idea that with these digital files, the same files that are accessible anywhere via the internet, one could download them print them, and install them in their own space to realize the show. So, using these files, they generate their own version and experience of the show.

TisT: I’d like to talk a little about the notions of display, in the sense of how a work is ultimately displayed or shown. For example, I participated in the ASDF photography show via the local drugstore. It was very exciting to get the email that told me where to go. I drove there, had to ask a few times, in different ways, for the prints (I said that there were some prints for me to pick up, and the cashier said, “You just uploaded them?” and I said, “Well, I didn't, but they should be there” and this made for a bit of confusion: if I didn't upload them, who did?). Once I had them, I couldn’t wait to look at them. I looked through them before even driving out of the parking lot, and I looked at them again when I got home. But now, they are in their Walgreens envelope, sitting on my bookshelf, because somehow putting them up on my wall doesn’t seem like the right thing to do. The experience of sifting through them one by one seems to be the way to experience them, not all at once, hung in a more traditional way.

DH: That story about the cashier is funny. There were a lot of humorous interactions that happened with that show, all of which were not necessarily planned, but welcomed as part of the process. There is no intended way to display those prints. You can hang them, put them in a photo album, keep them in an envelope, whatever. We just engage you in the process, and you can do whatever you want. I think to talk about display here, to talk about how the actual prints are displayed is irrelevant, because it is beyond us. Or, it is relevant if you talk to the participants, not us. But to talk about display in regards to ASDF, it’s probably a discussion about the website and design. All of the design is done by Mylinh, which is where she comes from. As for the website, the “display” is more like a documentation or a description. I think I am deviating from your intended point.

TisT: What I want to know more about—and I use my experience as an example—is your ideas around how we experience an artwork. Many of your projects are ephemeral in a way; they play with these ideas of exhibition/distribution/display, as we've talked about so far. I guess what I’m trying to understand is the question of how, for you, these elements of accessibility and ubiquity and ephemerality make for more immediate or personal or connective experience of an art piece. Was there a moment when you were, say, standing in a museum, looking at a painting, and thought, “this needs to go further” or “I want more out of this”?

DH: I don’t know if there was ever one of those moments. If anything, I wouldn’t make a connection between looking at a painting in a museum that didn’t mean anything to me, and what I do and want to do. I want to make things that have a sense of immediacy, that not only someone relates to, but someone is physically or consciously engaged with. Like taking a train to upstate New York to see a show inside of a PO box. The train ride, the seeking and finding of the box, and the box itself, all of these are part of the work. This is the same with the drugstore show. As for something consciously engaging, recently I’ve been making “site specific” photographic/text works. The text would be exact directions to the exact opposite side of the world. The photograph would be my hand pointing to this location on a map. Each of these pieces would be made specifically for where they are to be displayed. If they are moved, they will become false. The idea is not that the person may actually follow the directions, and go to the farthest place possible from that point, but that by thinking about it, they put their immediate physical location into a larger abstract, yet very real, context.

--

Thank you to David for being "totally into this." For more information, please visit davidhorvitz.com.