Page 49 - Art Review

comfortable. Wear whatever clothes you like. me to tears with her poetry, but she is not she is unknown. She expanded procedures in
I think, to make a real event, it has to go beyond an artist. To be an artist, you have to clock classrooms, while that little pervert did nothing.
the subjective wishes of the director. I tried in daily, and show your work to a community.
to make a piece that is beyond my taste. I think Everybody is not an artist. rs So how can you celebrate professionalism on
that’s an important, generous, dimensional rs But what about your children’s art show? one hand and naivete on the other?
way to make art. Sometimes. BB You have to draw a line in the sand. An artist
You brought kids from the neighbourhood into
rs Do you try to do that in your paintings as well? the space, hung their work on the walls of a major is someone who is cursed to make art. It’s not
gallery and called it art. like breathing.
BB I do, when I integrate found photography
rs But you’re not cursed to do it professionally.
or amateur work, like in the kids-art show, BB Everyone is an artist until a certain point.
or when I use found sound. I’m always going Then you pass through the doorway and you You could walk away at any time. Why don’t you?
to grab for what turns me on sensually. But you have to work to be an artist. What’s interesting BB It wouldn’t matter! I’d still make art.
can also go against that, towards gross subject about that is that kids who can barely form For instance, some of my favourite work is the
matter. I think always choosing materials a sentence can make art as good as any Ab-Ex sound scribbles that I do. I walk around with
that define your own taste is limiting. It’s painters, but then meanwhile, you have all a tape recorder and imitate all sorts of personali-
just checking a series of boxes, and that’s not the Ab-Exers drinking themselves to death ties, commercials, psyches, musics, genres.
what I want to be about as an artist. I think to try and get back to where the kids were. So even if I stopped making saleable paintings,
too many artists are just doing what makes rs When does this door close? I would have to continue to make these sound
them feel good. In my mind, an artist is things. Or else I would hate myself. Or I would
someone who travels through culture and BB The kid who is thirteen or sixteen will have to get into broadcasting or voice acting.
ideas and attempts to challenge the mind, not make as interesting a finger-painting I’d have to use my voice or body or colour sense.
to go to uncomfortable territories. as younger kids. That’s what I’ve been doomed to do.
In high school I worked at [retro-diner
rs Who does that? rs Do you remember when this change happened
for you? restaurant chain] Johnny Rockets at the mall,
BB [Mike] Kelley. [Bruce] Nauman. Artists and the only way I could survive it was by
that switch it up. They don’t focus on the same making up jokes and stories, doing bad break-
material. They try and pick subject matters At the end of the day I’m inter- dancing, speaking in a fake Irish accent
they don’t understand. And so, to finish what ested in what separates the to customers. I’d do that even if I was in jail.
we were talking about earlier, to truly be Dada I’d imitate the warden. It’s the way I process
is to do that, and to be truly Dada would require professional artist from the the boring world around me.
exploring something totally contrarian to Dada pedestrian artist. A grandmother
as we know it, like an accountant for the military, rs Do you remember when you decided you wanted
or something incredibly dry and horrible. Like can bring me to tears with her to be professional about art?
someone collecting Coca-Cola memorabilia from poetry, but she is not an artist. BB I was spoiled. My father was an artist and
the 1930s. That would be Dada. It would have To be an artist, you have to clock by example he encouraged me. He had a studio.
to be opposed to its own history. I spent a lot of time in the darkroom with him.
in daily, and show your work He also painted the house, decorated it, filled
rs Dissonance.
to a community. Everybody it with humour, music and food. His presence
BB Yeah. as an artist permeated every aspect of how I grew
is not an artist
rs And you could endlessly get off on this dissonance. up. And everyone naysayed him. My grandpar-
ents told him to get a real job, which only made
BB Yeah, I guess, until that becomes such a style BB Yeah, I got extremely pretentious. I started me want to show them up. I was affected by that.
that I just need to become a solitary artist, like drawing drippy Dalí stuff. The awkward time My father really suffered to be an artist. He was
[Giorgio] Morandi, and then I’ll just spend is when I wanted to grow up too quickly. I think cursed. He became an artist when it really wasn’t
the last 30 years of my life painting still lifes. all artists want everything to happen immedi- popular. It was the 1970s. His parents were
ately. A kid wants to hurry up and be accepted doctors. He was cursed more than I am.
rs The final manoeuvre.
as an adult, get a car, have sex. It’s how people
BB But you have to have an audience for this are. And the hurry-up attitude is also in the rs Could you break the curse? If you made work
to work. There have to be expectations you parents and the teachers. They’re pushing the privately, would that help?
can foil. Otherwise it’s just your inside joke kids along. It’s happening now more than ever. BB No. It’s necessary to make work and hand
with a small group of friends. Something has People are spending $40,000 on kindergarten! it to the community. You have to deal with the
to be on record. I’m not interested in art that ‘My kid learned the aBCs at 14 months! My kid frame, the install. You have to learn to talk about
only three people know about. can spell ‘xylophone’ at 18 months!’ it, do the press release and be the face that stands
But Rhoda Kellogg, for instance, said, no… next to the work. Making art alone is only half
rs But when you leave five-minute long messages
on my phone, singing and ranting – that’s a private slow down… leave the kids alone. They can make the job.
artwork. It’s on record, but it’s for an audience of one. brilliant art if you just respect them. Do not Ross Simonini is an artist, writer, musician
give them crap materials. Give them expensive
and documentarian based in New York
BB Yes, but at the end of the day I’m interested materials. It’s amazing what she did. A trail-
and California
in what separates the professional artist from blazing visionary! Her collection is more impor-
the pedestrian artist. A grandmother can bring tant than all of Henry Darger’s work, and yet

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