Paul Chan
Paul Chan’s exhibition ‘The 7 Lights’ is at the Serpentine Gallery, London until 1 July 2007. He lives in New York.
What do you wish you knew?
What everyone else wishes they knew: the answers to Kant’s three questions. What can I know? What ought I do? For what may I hope?
What was the first piece of art that really mattered to you?
Play (1963) by Samuel Beckett.
What image keeps you company in the space where you work?
A portrait by Jawad Al Joohky, a painter with a studio on Mutanabi Street, also known as ‘Booksellers’ Row’, in Baghdad. I considered him the Chuck Close of Baghdad. But Jawad never liked that comparison, preferring instead the company of Balthus. I don’t know where Jawad is now. Most artists I know from Baghdad are either dead or in Amman, Jordan.
If you could live with only one piece of art, what would it be?
I already do and I’m not telling.
What is your favourite title of an art work?
Yes, I’m a Witch (2007) by Yoko Ono.
What film has most influenced you?
The oeuvre of Chris Marker is really one long film that returns – by way of historical and political detours – to the essentials: une promesse de bonheur, courage, cats, women.
What are you reading?
Things Beyond Resemblance: Collected Essays on Theodor W. Adorno (2006), translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. The Glenn Gould Reader (1990), by, well, Glenn Gould.
What music are you listening to?
More Fish (2006) by Ghostface Killah. Other voices. Keener sounds.
What do you like the look of?
Presidents and prime ministers in prison uniforms.
What should change?
To start with, me.
What could you imagine doing if you didn’t do what you do?
Doing time.
What is art?
A lawless proposition, as illegal as liberty itself.
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