with animated visual elements that will feature in your forthcoming exhibition in Korea .
GANDER Staccato Reflections is based on the idea of the self in culture , the obsession with the me and the selfie and the narcissist wand . The surface is mirrored , so as you read the words , you see yourself . The work has devices in it that are self-referential . It asks you to touch the screen , and then says “ don ’ t touch the screen .” So it seems like it is responding to you , but it ’ s not .
FULLERTON You also have a major exhibition coming up at the National Museum of Art in Osaka . It will consist of your own work as well as an exhibition curated from their collection . What are your plans for the curated section ?
GANDER It ’ s called “ The Greatest Story Ever Told ,” and the works are in pairs . So you get a Picasso with a Man Ray and a Jiro Yoshihara painting with an Isamu Noguchi sculpture . There ’ s obviously a visual association to these pairings , and they jump around in history , geography , art movements , and mediums .
It ’ s based on one of my “ Associative Photo ” works from 2004 that is in the museum ’ s collection . For this series , I take materials like photos , photocopies , and letters , put them on the wall and make a caption . Then I photograph it with a plate camera and reprint it as a single image . The shadows make it look like a trompe l ’ oeil of things stuck to the wall in a frame . Each of the items has associations connected to the diverse research I ’ ve collected over the years .
FULLERTON So for the exhibition you are curating , you are using your “ Associative Photo ”
GANDER . . . as a material , yeah . It ’ s like using ideas as material rather than material as material . It ’ s about being prolific enough and varied enough to create a collection or a stockpile or a toolbox of work that you can then use to make into masterworks for exhibitions .
FULLERTON Speaking of materials , you frequently create works where things are not what they seem . For instance , what appears to be drapery is marble , or a used condom is made of the same wood as the chest of drawers it sits on . Is it about experimenting with materials or are you prodding the spectator toward fresh perspectives ?
GANDER There ’ s a certain currency in not being sure whether what you approach is an artwork or not , and then there ’ s also a currency to the materiality of things in general . You can construct an artwork from those currencies as if they were materials . So instead of having burnt sienna or ocher , you have the currency of the double take .
It ’ s hard to explain . This is why it ’ s visual language . Only a tiny section of art practitioners are into the semiotics of visual language , and some of them are very eloquent , like Pierre Huyghe or Rosemarie Trockel . Being that light on your feet with language and with meaning , it ’ s a beautiful thing . It pushes the brain and everything that you know . And , for me , that ’ s true creativity .
FULLERTON Working across a broad spectrum , as those artists do , seems key to you .
GANDER The artists that I ’ m not into are the ones who just do the art thing . Because if being creative is applicable to the whole world and can go anywhere , why would you just do the one thing ? I think you have this valve in your head that lets you read information in an abstract , unprejudiced way . When you ’ re a kid , it ’ s fully open , but over time it gets smaller and smaller .
The exercise of seeing ––[ he looks around the room ] like seeing the rhythm of the Christmas lights on the plants and seeing air pulled into the humidifier and turned into water , and thinking about the air in the lungs and the water we drink –– that ’ s having the valve open , taking the time to notice all those things . I sound like a mad person .
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