by Michael Rutherford
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| Red and Blue, 2011, reflective enamel, oil, and acrylic on panel with painted scrim strip, 52 x 60 x 2 inches |
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| Night Painting with Scrim, 2011, reflective enamel, scrim, wood, and oil on panel, 36 x 24 x 2 inches |
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| Outside, 2012, latex, plexiglas, scrim, wire, and acrylic on plywood floor panels, 130 x 40 x 53 inches |
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| Light/Dark (together), 2011, reflective enamel, latex, oil, and acrylic on panel, 60 x 96 x 3 inches |
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| Installation, 2013 |
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| Installation, 2013 |
PB:
One thing about your work that has caught my attention is the addition
of supplemental appendages to some pieces. In your statement, you’ve referred
to these as “nets to capture and manipulate light and color,” and I think that
line really shows just how experimental your work is. Can you elaborate on this
aspect of your paintings and what’s on your mind as go about working in the
studio?
AK: The additional elements that I use to
stretch outside of the painting are like appendages! I like that. They gesture
out to the viewer. The space around the painting is included, and the painting
breaks a little free of its format. The shadows that are created by the work
are implicated. I do this because I can’t tell what the art is—is it the
object, or the art coupled with activity around the object that is most
interesting? The conversations, the movements, other outside elements near the
work, etc… The “nets” are transparent elements that can filter
color and light and cast those ideas out into the space. I think a lot about
non-containment and also about how the work can breathe and be ever changing.
In taking color and experience as my subject, I’m thinking about it as an
organic ever-changing element and how I can reflect the body either on or
through the paintings for that reason.
PB:
What kinds of technical considerations or snags have you experienced
while trying to break new ground?
AK: Well… so many things. For instance, the
reason to use such materials and what those material histories might add to the
work; the logistics of suspending work—the how or all of that; and then the questions
of presenting and re-presenting the more or less ephemeral aspects of my work.
Documentation has to be specific when architectural space and natural light are
part of the work, and using reflective paint can be difficult to photograph. Sometimes
the documentation of the work offers more possibilities than the work itself,
and there’s also the question of how to put experience into the smaller objects
and ask them to function the way the installations do. From a market perspective,
the biggest snag of course is how to sell work that depends a lot on daylight
and scale.
PB: As far
as other artists are concerned, past and present, whose work has influenced or
impacted you?
AK: I have an attitude about art that is
based on my total awe of human innovation and creativity, so I find things
wonderful and curious in anything that anyone makes. I tend to love the artists
who have concentrated on experience and who make work that language doesn’t
have an easy time of explaining. Work
that combines the spiritual and the humorous, or the poetic with chance and
awkwardness, always mirrors humanity in a timeless way.
My list is long, but let me go stream of
consciousness – first, the contemporary and anonymous Tantric paintings from
Rajasthan, and then… Robert Irwin, Mark Rothko, Sonia Delaunay, Louise Bourgeois,
Sam Gilliam, Alan Shields, Imi Knoebel, Blinky Palermo, Poul Gernes, Sol Lewitt, Sophie Taeuber Arp, Hilma Af Klint, Katarzyna
Kobro, Heinze Mack, Josef Albers, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, MacArthur
Binion, David X. Levine, Andre Pierre Arnal, Robert Rauschenberg, Sabina Ott,
Judy Pfaff, Jessica Stockholder, Judy Ledgerwood, William Conger, Ed Paschke,
Helio Oiticica, Jonathan Lasker, Nicole Awai, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham,
Buster Keaton, Giulietta Masina…
PB:
What are your top five art books that you can’t do without?
AK: The ones I carry around a lot and read
and re-read on the train: Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing
One Sees, Tantra Song, Kant after Duchamp, the Dhammapada, Donald: Judd Colorist, What
Color is the Sacred?, and The Last Whole Earth Catalog.
PB:
What’s coming up in the near future for your work?
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