Rodney Graham
Since the 1970s Canadian artist Rodney Graham has worked with film, photography, painting, writing and music. In 2006 he was included in the Whitney Biennial and awarded the Kurt Schwitters Prize, had a solo show at the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Germany, exhibited at the Kunsthalle in Bergen, Norway and at Hauser & Wirth in Zurich, Switzerland. His exhibition at the Centro José Guerrero in Granada, Spain will open in February 2007.
What could you imagine doing if you didn’t do what you do?
Being a rock star – hey wait a minute I AM a rock star!
What images keep you company in the space where you work?
Pictures of the band Black Sabbath. I did a piece about them.
If you could live with only one piece of art, what would it be?
Pablo Picasso: one of the studio guitar constructions of the Cubist period.
What was the first piece of art that really mattered to you?
It was a book: Raymond Roussel’s Impressions d’Afrique (Impressions of Africa, 1910).
What’s your favorite title of an artwork?
Fruit Dish and Bottle on Low Table.
What should change?
The widespread and illusory belief in an afterlife.
What should stay the same?
The flavours of now.
What do you wish you knew?
The theory of everything.
What are you reading?
The God Delusion (2006) by Richard Dawkins. Atheism Rules!
What music are you listening to?
Michel Polnareff, Fame à la Mode (1975). Best songs: ‘Fame à la Mode’ and ‘So Long Beauty’ (with a guitar solo by ace guitarist Lee Ritenour that is sooo excellent). Some people think the album is the great man’s masterpiece.
What do you like the look of?
You, baby.
What is art for?
The Happy Few.
What is art not for?
Stephen Harper (Prime Minister of Canada).
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