Questionnaire: Susan Hiller
What’s your favourite ritual? Morning cups of tea.
Albert Pinkham Ryder The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse) c.1896–1908. Oil on canvas, 71×90 cm
What is your favourite title of an art work?
Some Places to Visit (1974), an artist’s book by David Tremlett.
What music are you listening to?
The Bach suites for cello, played on the saxophone by Yasuaki Shimizu.
What is art for?
It’s a mirror for seeing reflections.
What should change?
Human nature.
What should stay the same?
Human nature.
What was the first piece of art that really mattered to you?
The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse) (c. 1896–1908) by Albert Pinkham Ryder. I saw it in the Cleveland Museum of Art sometime between the ages of eight and ten.
What could you imagine doing if you didn’t do what you do?
There’s nothing wonderful I can’t imagine doing, since the power of the imagination is limitless. I can imagine being a dancer or having an apple orchard or …
What are you reading?
Alone in Berlin (2009) by Hans Fallada and Whoops!: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay (2010), a book about the banking crisis by John Lanchester.
Susan Hiller is an artist who lives in London, UK. A major survey exhibition of her work is at Tate Britain until 15 May 2011. Her 2008 artist’s book Levitations: Homage to Yves Klein has just been reprinted by Bookworks in London.
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