Alexandro Segade in the SFMOMA offices.

Do you collect anything?

Not really. I guess a collection is three or more of the same kind of thing. I suppose at one time I could have said yes, but now I’m trying to get rid of most of the things I have. I definitely have some kind of a collection of records, mostly soundtracks and original cast recordings of shows. Once I started working constantly as an artist I started producing more and more things and so collections became less important because I was generating my own stuff. Most of the work we do is almost like a theater company: we have costumes, props, and lots of archival documents. We amass so much stuff that never leaves that collecting became less important to me.

There’s the generic interview question that goes “If you could invite anyone to dinner who would it be?”  I want to know what you would eat.

Lately, I have been reading a lot of stuff about Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Fassbinder has been one of my favorite filmmakers for a long time. He’s a lot of people’s favorite filmmaker. The other one would be Pasolini. I’d like to have dinner with either of them. With Fassbinder I would assume we should have some traditional Bavarian beer garden meal—so some kind of long sausage and beer. You would hope that he would follow it up with some drugs, because he’s Fassbinder. With Pasolini, hopefully we would be having Italian food in Rome. If it was Pasolini and it was in Rome, we would have Carbonara—pasta with egg and pepper and bacon. It’s really good. It’s insane. It’s a Roman specialty. But there are others. I would like to have dinner with Mary Kelly again. She was my mentor in graduate school. She’s an amazing cook. She made duck for dinner for me once, I would be very happy to have that again.

What do you listen to while you work?

I usually listen to someone else talking to me. Because I work in a collaboration and we make our own music, often our own music is what we hear when we’re working. If that has to be tuned out, sometimes we listen to just something that makes sounds. Lately, what we have in the studio is a pile of scratched and messed up CDs that are, for the most part, German progressive rock from the 70s, so Amon Duul, Magma, Can—but then also for some reason there’s a CD of Cheetah Rivera and Liza Minnelli singing The Rink that comes on sometimes. Whatever happens to be in that pile. I think there’s an Alicia Keys CD. There’s a Steely Dan CD in that pile too. Honestly I have no specific taste.

What’s your favorite tool?

I would say my laptop. It really is quite wonderful. My video cameras. There are certain materials I like to use when we are making props. I do like to make masks out of whatever we can find. Jade has very specific needs in terms of what she needs to sew. She just got a new foot for her sewing machine that makes ruffles really well. Malik is a musician so he has all of these different instruments. I don’t have the same type of intimate relationship with those tools as I do with the computer because you can make videos, you can edit sound, you can put stuff online, and you can communicate with other people. It’s a Mac.

What should I be asking you?

My sign. I’m a double Aries with my moon in Pisces. Aries is burden as much as it is an inspiration to others. It’s the first sign of the zodiac so there is a drive toward leadership, I don’t know that it’s always successful. There’s always an interest in groups, in group activity. And goal oriented, very ambitious – not particularly good at finishing things, but very good at starting. I just got my chart done recently. I’m hoping that because my moon sign is Pisces that it could balance out my two Aries. Pisces is symbolized by two fish and it’s the end of the zodiac. Since Aries is the first sign and has two rams, then maybe they can be balanced out by the Pisces which means maybe I can learn how to be good at finishing things. There’s an insensitivity thing that is intrinsic in the Aries that maybe the Pisces makes up for. But also, I don’t believe in astrology.

Adam and Rebekah in the Koret Visitor Education Center

Name/Place of Residence/Occupation/Hobby?

My name is Rebekah. I am an optician and I live in Noe Valley with my husband Adam. My hobby is—a couple of things: I like playing with the dog, Oliver, and then I also make music with my husband, Adam.

My name is Adam and I live in San Francisco, in Noe Valley. My job title is complicated. Let’s go with corporate analyst for an online developer for multi-player games. My hobby is hanging out with Rebekah and hanging out with the dog and playing piano and making music with just one of those two.

R: Not the dog.

Do you collect anything?

R: Lots of vintage clothes. And virtual cards.

A: We kind of collect art.

R: Kind of, but not much. We collect dust.

A: Dirty clothes. Dirty dishes.

R: We collect plastic furniture. I enjoy plastic furniture. Plastic jewelry. I collect glasses, that’s very true. I think we collect a lot of airline miles. We like to travel a lot.

A: I collect all of those thing, so maybe move a couple of those over. I collect musical instruments, I suppose. I have 4 or 5 at home and microphones. Because of Rebekah I’ve been collecting clothes as well. This is my seventh suit and third three-piece suit.

R: We collect friends. Not the TV show.

If you could invite any artist to dinner, who would it be and why?

R: I really like Jeff Koons. But he’s crazy, I don’t know if I’d like to spend time with him. Olafur Eliasson. I think it’d be fun to have a break-dancing night. We just learned that he’s a break dancing guy who’s probably friends with Bjork.

A: I was going to say Leslie Shows. She’s basically our age. She went to school here in San Francisco and she’s had two or three of her works here when they did the SECA awards, not the recent one but the time before. I absolutely love her work. I nearly bought one of her pieces when she was still in school and her pieces were 100 times less expensive than they are right now and I’ve been kicking myself ever since. I’d like to invite her to dinner and ask if I can have that piece from her.

If you could steal any artwork in the world to have up in your house, what would it be?

Both: Sol Lewitt.

R: I’d just make an entire wall out of it. Who else? Because we’ve got the wall space. Can I tell you a bad story? We were going around Open Studios two years ago, and it was on October 20th, which is Adam’s birthday so he was wearing a suit. It’s dangerous to go to Open Studios wearing a suit because people think that you must wear suits all the time. We see this one artist whose stuff we really like: it was fun, it was resin-y. I said to him, I really like your stuff. How about I trade you a handful for chocolates for it? Totally joking. And then this guy says, “If you’ve got the wall space then you’ve got the pocketbook.” And I was like, screw you, maybe we’re poor and have nothing on our walls. So we joke all the time about “having the wall space.”

A: There’s an Ellsworth Kelly that I’d take.

R: You know what would be fun? Those mirror-like Jeff Koons pieces. Those would be awesome because you could actually use them to get dressed. It would be really awesome to look at yourself in blue all the time.

A: In blue or pink.

R: Or orange.

A: There was one piece in Picasso and American Art; it was Jackson Pollock’s Bullfight, which is just stunning. I’d take that one. Or pretty much any Jasper Johns after 1970.

R: Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had the mirrors on one side and the Pollock behind it, so as you’re looking at yourself, you can also see the painting?

A: Nice.

What’s your favorite tool?

R: Not a hammer. Not a sickle. The internet. I really like that as a tool. It’s a good information disseminator. I’ll go with the internet. The internet is my favorite tool. You can’t steal that answer.

A: No I can’t, thank you.

R: You’re welcome.

A: Your ego. The piano. I’ve always loved the piano.

Does this couple look familiar to you?  Check out their Facebook group: People Who Have Seen Adam & Rebekah at SFMOMA.

Mike Kuchar, in the SFMOMA “offices”

After the Kuchar Bros. screening last Thursday evening (George and Mike Kuchar, Recent Preservations: Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof, Tootsies in Autumn, A Woman Distressed, and Lovers of Eternity) I trapped Mike Kuchar in the back of the catering kitchen, near the walk-in freezer, and conducted this tiny interview with him as part of the ongoing series “5 Questions.” His brother George had recently been asked the same 5 questions for the blog, but Mike’s answers were different. This controlled experiment revealed that twins don’t always think alike. Mike and George had very different answers to almost all of the questions. However, there was one question in particular they answered the same, and I think that their mother would be proud to know that neither Mike nor George would ever steal a great work of art…or anything for that matter. Finding out that the kings of depraved camp were such moral upstarts made me feel slightly warm inside.

Name: Mike Kuchar. Residence: SF/NY.  Occupation: Projectionist at a beatnik joint, senior citizen, Filmmaker. Hobby: Making movies since I was 12. Now I’m 67.

Do you collect anything?

Beautiful books. Art books. I find it relaxing and inspiring to look at pictures in beautifully bound books, especially religious art because it strives for the holy. A divine image. Spectacular murals in the Vatican and some of the modern, more tacky religious art, in that it’s very naïve and beautifully corny, but it means well. It’s very kitsch. But it is earnest and it tries to be meaningful and beautiful and somehow it falters, but the idea that an attempt was made is very endearing. I appreciate all of these expressions of trying to depict the divine. Some of these works will turn out to be very surreal. Which is another interesting element—but all in trying to depict the divine.

If you could invite any artist to dinner who would it be and why?

I like Neo-Classical art and the Pre-Raphaelites…so I would say Frederick Leighton. I love his paintings; they are evocative and beautifully crafted. I once met Wallace Wood, a comic book artist who did science fiction comics in the 1950’s and whose artwork I found very riveting. His visions of the future: spaceships, men, women and machinery. He had his own style that always captivated and horrified me. And I did meet him and I told him how his work had so affected me, in such a great way and he was a very delightful man who was taken aback that I would gush like that. I was with some intellectuals who would never dare do that.

If you could steal any artwork in the world to hang up in your house what would it be?

I wouldn’t steal to hide something in my apartment. It’s for history. I would only take something that was given to me by someone I greatly admire. I wouldn’t steal an artwork because then other people wouldn’t be able to enjoy it.

What’s your favorite tool and why?

The movie camera. Something that takes sharp pictures.

Christo in the Atrium

Name/ Place of Residence/ Occupation/ Hobby?

My name is Christo. I am information desk attendant at SFMOMA. I’m also a painter. A hobby of mine would be photography.

Do you collect anything?

I’ve noticed a collection of cameras in my apartment. And that just kind of happened. I just like cameras but I don’t consider myself a photographer by trade, it’s just a hobby. Definitely something that will develop into a trade, I just don’t have enough money to buy the equipment.

If you could invite any artist to dinner, who would it be and why?

I would like to have dinner with Kerry James Marshall. He’s a contemporary artist and he’s very interesting regarding [the kinds of] conversations he’s bringing into institutions like SFMOMA. Conversations on race, conversations on class dynamics that normally aren’t said as bluntly as he says it here with the two murals of Visible Means of Support in particular and with his body of work in general.

If you could steal any artwork in the world to have up in your house, what would it be?

It would by Guernica by Picasso. It would definitely be Guernica. I like Guernica because it was artwork that was a reaction to what was happening. I think that is what I try to get in my work. Say, for example, the Spanish Civil War and the atrocities that happened, they didn’t have YouTube, live-leak or any media outlets to show the atrocities of war. This large painting left an emotional residual effect on people and they understood that it was an ugly war, it was a civil war and it was a dictatorship that was horrible. I like the way that it functions. To have a functional piece of art like that, imagine the conversations in your living room with that, right?

What’s your favorite tool?

My favorite tool is a brush. A paint brush, in particular a Japanese paint brush, I love the sumi ink brushes because they hold a lot of water but they have variance, like in life. They have thin lines, thick lines, and everything in between, and you can make it all with one brush. That’s my favorite tool.

———-

Christina in the Rooftop garden

Name/ Place of residence/ Occupation/ Hobby?

My name is Christina. I live in Boulder, Colorado. I’m a student, I study architecture. I make things, like clothes or bags or food. Books sometimes.

Do you collect anything?

I used to collect no smoking signs from places I visited, but I don’t really do that anymore.

If you could invite any artist to dinner, who would it be and why?

Maybe some of the artists I like I wouldn’t want to invite to dinner. Jhonen Vasquez who is a comic book write and illustrator. He does Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Invader Zim. Or Takashi Murakami.

If you could steal any artwork in the world to have up in your house, what would it be?

I don’t think that really appeals to me. I don’t think I would do that.

What’s your favorite tool?

Sewing machine.

My scissors. I use them on a daily basis.

———–

Film and video maker George Kuchar in the SFMOMA Atrium

Name/Place of Residence/Occupation/Hobby?

George Kuchar. I live in San Francisco, the Mission district. Occupation: teach at the school San Francisco Art Institute. Hobby: I like making pictures, videos, movies. Videos now, etc.

Do you collect anything?

Yeah, I got a whole bunch of things because I didn’t like painting the apartment; couldn’t paint the apartment, takes too much time. So, I put up dolls, and bought things in thrift stores. I collect statues and also paintings. I got a chance to frame some of my paintings I did in the 70s, I was trained as a commercial artist. So I hang them on the wall and then once in a while I hang up the cover of grease stains and stuff. I hang up a colorful thing that you get in the Mission, like a big tiger or elephant on a tapestry. So, I collect that kind of stuff. That and I got ahold of a bunch of books and I collect videos. I don’t belong to a video store or club; I buy them, sometimes used. I got a big collection of videos, plus my own.

I have two cats. One died. So once in a while, I have an animal.

If you could invite any artist to dinner, who would it be and why?

Usually I don’t eat with artists. I get indigestion. I like artists, they’re fine. I remember I met one artist and I said” I got friends in the post office” and he said, “You know someone that works in the post office? Those are real people.” So in other words, they never consider themselves real people or they’re outsiders, the artists. I eat once in a while with a student or someone. Generally I eat alone because then I can swallow the food, you don’t have to make conversation or you don’t have to worry if the food’s stuck in your teeth. You know, all that kind of cosmetic stuff. Then, of course, if you had respect for a great artist you’d get double indigestion because you had to eat with them and make an impression. No, it would have to be where I don’t know who the hell the person is. Then it’s a surprise, it’s much more enjoyable.

If you could steal any artwork in the world to have up in your house, what would it be?

None. Because I can paint myself. I do my own paintings. Of course, stealing you’re worried about getting caught and it wouldn’t feel right. I was raised a Catholic and therefore thou shall not steal. So, I actually wouldn’t steal. If you can make your own, why the hell bother stealing it? And then you can buy reproductions, like Eric Sloane. Eric Sloane was one of my favorite artists. He lived in Connecticut and he painted covered bridges and you were able to get giant reproductions of his work, framed, at Woolworth’s, when Woolworth’s existed. And you get it for what, under 12 bucks, so it’s enough art for me. I can afford it or I can make it. I wouldn’t steal.

What’s your favorite tool? Why?

The favorite tool is my hands. Actually, I don’t worry about that. I’m more worried about my legs; I think those have been getting leg injuries. That’s also a favorite tool of mine because I don’t drive a car. I gotta get around, I gotta pick items up, and buy tape. Those I guess are my tools.

Now, of course, I work with the computer, editing. I’m happy with the editing on the computer. So that’s a tool. Then I would like pencils and paper, whatever’s handy. I guess it’s my hands would have to be my favorite tool. And the eyes, you gotta watch out for macular degeneration, don’t wanna go blind, and stuff like that.

—

George Kuchar, and his brother Mike Kuchar, will be presenting recent film preservations this Thursday, December 10th.  You won’t want to miss Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof, Tootsies in Autumn, A Woman Distressed, and Lovers of Eternity. Or the presence of these two legendary Bay Area film and video makers. Also, George was recently in residence across the street at YBCA, and Tropical Vulture, still on view there, features a preview of Conversations with a Tropical Vulture, scripted by GK with the Mexican artist Miguel Calderon, and featuring GK as the lead actor and Calderon as director.

Here's Fayette in the SFMOMA offices.

Name/Place of Residence/Occupation/Hobby?

Fayette Hauser, Los Angeles, California. Occupation is a dilemma. Right now I would say artist, writer—I’m writing a book, and archiving my photography, contributing to other peoples’ books, so it’s really a lot of history at this moment in time. Hobby is antique textiles, as old as can be, and searching for them. My focus is 18th- and 19th-century French textiles.

Do you collect anything?

I collect everything. I have so many collections of things. If I like one of something then I must have at least 5 or it just doesn’t matter. My favorite things to collect are textiles. I love to collect textiles because I feel they are totally works of art and unique and very abstract and subjective and contain the history of the period in one little piece of fabric. It’s very telling. I also like old photographs, especially portraits, portraits of children.

At one time I was a stylist for food photographers for Bon Appetit and I got into dishes. I brought antique dishes to Bon Appetit; they were being very plain until I showed up. So, now I have a lot of plates, dishes and that kind of thing. And before that I did costume design for films. And I’ve had vintage clothes since the 60s when I was in art school so the collection goes way back to Boston 1964, when we discovered the Goodwill in Boston. It was called the Morgan Memorial and it was 5 floors. Nobody went there, everything was dusty and laying around. They had an antique division which was really incredible then because nobody wanted it, everyone wanted modern.

The Goodwills in San Francisco are fantastic and the flea markets. That’s a reason I come with my car, because I can cover more shopping areas. Especially the flea markets. That little Alemany Flea Market, oh my god, I have found things there that defy any kind of reality whatsoever. That Alemany Flea Market is the greatest, really.

If you could invite any artist to dinner, who would it be and why?

Samuel Beckett. He’s my favorite playwright, I absolutely love him. I would love to have a conversation with him. That would be the man. Absolutely. Even now, if he could rise from the dead, he would look even better. His portrait in the Avedon show, I mean, he’s just a stunner.

If you could steal any artwork in the world to have up in your house, what would it be?

That’s tough. A painting by Bonnard. I would pick a Bonnard painting. One of the really abstracted landscapes, the backyard paintings that look so bizarre. He was my favorite painter when I was in art school, I learned a lot from him.

What’s your favorite tool? Why?

Oh, my favorite tool. That is a serious toss-up between scissors, a good pen, and an X-acto blade. I think a good pair of scissors would go on the top of the list. I always carry my best scissors with me. Once they got taken away from me, I was devastated. Now I don’t put them in the carry-on, just because of that. A nice, small, sharp, good pair of scissors – can’t do without it. Then there’s always the safety pin and the bobby pin.

More about why Fayette’s here: “We’re having film night on December 3rd. It’s the 40th anniversary celebration for our theater group, the Cockettes, which was born here in San Francisco at the Palace Theater in North Beach on New Year’s Eve 1969/70. We sprung full blown onto the scene and were channeling the energy of the street onto the stage and everyone embraced it from the moment it began. It was a wonderful ride. For three years I never wanted to get off.”

Name/Place of residence/Occupation/Hobby?

My name is Timothy Buckwalter. I live in Albany, California. I’m an artist and I’ve recently started curating and I also write about art. I have a blog about art. If I had a hobby, I think my hobby would be listening to music. I love music. Music is tied in real closely to my paintings.

Do you collect anything?

I collect art. Contemporary art. I like to collect art that I relate to. I’m not going out and buying Joan Miro prints or something. I want to have something in my house that I have an emotional or psychic connection to. The work that I have is often by people that are my friends, or just work of someone that I respect or work that touches me.

If you could invite any artist to dinner, who would it be and why?

It’s a tough question because I have so many friends that are artists that I see all the time. I guess it would have to be somebody that was a hero of mine. I can tell you who I wouldn’t invite; I wouldn’t like to have dinner with Andy Warhol. I think he would be incredibly dull since he’s so staged. Maybe Dorothea Lange. Her work has always fascinated me and her ability to just continue working. I would like to have dinner with her. You know who I think would be wonderful to have dinner with? I’ve always admired Joan Mitchell’s paintings. I would love to have dinner with Joan Mitchell. It would be a really wonderful dinner.

What if I could invite a couple people to dinner? He’s my dream dinner: it would be Dorothea Lange, Richard Prince, Donald Judd and Joan Mitchell. To me that would be the perfect dinner party. There would be endless debate. Or endless chastising.  But it can’t be a friend? I would totally like to have dinner with my friend John Zurier who is a painter who I have lunch with a lot and we talk about art.

If you could steal any artwork in the world to have up in your house, what would it be?

How about we rephrase the question because as an artist I don’t want to steal someone’s art. But if I could have a painting in my house. What about that huge Pollock that was in Peggy Guggenheim’s apartment? I would love to have that piece. I mean, there are so many pieces. I would love to have one of those early Stella black paintings. That would be amazing. A Kline, a really big Kline, like Chief at MoMA or something. Or I would love to have a Barnett Newman. One of those big Newman’s. But then I would have to have a bigger house. I would love to have a big piece of art but then I’d need to have a bigger house. I would like to have something that I’ve always thought about. It’s funny, last year on my blog I asked people what their dream collection was. The other thing I would love to have is Duchamp’s Étant donnés – it’s the barn doors that you look in and there’s a naked woman. I would totally love to have that piece. Bridget Riley did this amazing painting that’s like a nautilus that you walk into, that you spiral into in the late 60s; I would love to have that piece. A Robert Frank photo. There’s that Frank photo of the flags and the matronly women that you can’t really see their faces in the window, that Frank photo is amazing. I would love to have everything. All at once. I would go back in time too. I would love a della Francesca one of those frescos that are on church walls. If it’s art, I would probably take it. Actually, I don’t like Yves Klein so I wouldn’t take a Yves Klein.

What’s your favorite tool?

You mean like George W. Bush? That kind of tool? Does a paintbrush count as a tool? Then I love a paintbrush. I would say the paintbrush is my favorite tool. In the positive sense of a tool.

–

You may have seen Tim before when he put together a music-filled  “Collection Rotation” in June.

Andy and Kathy in the SFMOMA Rooftop Garden

Name/Place of residence/Occupation/Hobby?

K: Katherine, Tampa, Florida. I am an elementary school media specialist. Hobby: reading! What a surprise.

A: My name is Andy, Tampa Florida is our town. I’m an environmental consultant and my hobby is politics.

K: Not the same politics, sadly.

Do you collect anything?

K: Yes, I do. We collect sea shells since we live in Florida along the Gulf of Mexico. We have a lot of beautiful sea shells. I collect tea cups myself. I have a lot of cute little tea cup things. Not creepy tea cup stuff but nice tea cup stuff.

A: I collect rocks, minerals and shells. Not many, but just really nice samples. Things like that.

If you could invite any artist to dinner, who would it be and why?

K: I would pick Mary Cassatt. I just love her work: French Impressionism, it’s just amazing. And she’s from Philadelphia too.

A: I’d say Jackson Pollock. We saw the movie and really liked the way Ed Harris played him. I loved the art and the way it was presented.

K: He has a nice print in his office.

A: Yes, I find it very inspirational.

If you could steal any artwork in the world to have up in your house, what would it be?

A: I wouldn’t do it.

K: I tell ya, I wouldn’t steal it either. Hypothetically, maybe something by Vincent Van Gogh. Obviously I wouldn’t steal the work. Starry Night? Or the Sunflowers?

A: I saw some sketches that Picasso did at the Guggenheim that I thought were amazing. I’d like to have that collection just to look at.

What’s your favorite tool?

K: My KitchenAid mixer. I’m a big cook, a big time cook.

A: I have a lot of different tools. My 6 foot stick tape. I use it for work. You can use it to do some rough surveying too and a lot of site stuff.

K: Not a very romantic answer.

A: Plus my garden edger is really nice.

K: That is a good garden edger, that’s true. EBay, we got a good buy on that one too. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.

Raelle Myrick-Hodges outside the SFMOMA offices.

Name / Place of residence / Occupation / Hobby?

My name is Raelle. I live in San Francisco in the SOMA district and I am the Artistic Director of Brava! For Women in the Arts in the Mission district in San Francisco. My biggest hobby is laughing, which I know sounds dumb but I like going to comedy clubs; I like when my friends can make me laugh because the stress of running an arts non-profit is so stressful you want to be surrounded by laughter. So that’s what I do, I try to giggle as much as possible and it keeps me from being cranky.

Do you collect anything?

I collect a lot of my friends’ art. I have some rules with friends and family that Christmas presents have to be made and so I have a lot of—not trinkets—I see it as true visual art. I have some great photos. A couple of years ago I got a great photograph from Costa Rica that a friend of mine took, Jason Selman. I like a lot of old print material, \ I love old jazz posters, I love jazz albums. I probably collect a lot of jazz stuff.

If you could invite any artist to dinner, who would it be and why?

That is one of the most difficult questions ever given to a person. Honestly, if I was going to invite an artist to dinner it would be Josephine Baker. Because you’re talking about someone that came up in the South and left the United States to then discover her heritage to a certain extent and then discover what her possibilities were. Particularly now that so much has changed historically and politically, it would be great to sit down with her, as another African American woman, and say, “Can you believe what’s different?”

If you could steal any artwork in the world to have up in your house, what would it be?

It would be Three Musicians by Picasso. For sure. I’m obsessed with that painting. I think the first time I tried to write a play—I was about 11 or 12—I had seen some old Picasso book that someone had thrown out in the trash, and it had a picture of Three Musicians in it. I looked at all the cubes and the squares that make up the eyelashes and I started thinking, “Wow, what I want to do is write plays and I’ll base my first play on this piece.” That would be the piece I want hanging in my house.

What’s your favorite tool?

I think my greatest resource is honestly my managing director right now, Hetal Patel. She’s come in as this young, vibrant, aggressive woman and is serious about allowing Brava! to really grow and do diverse work, to be able to create collaborations with SFMOMA, or with Precarious Theater—she’s really open to that. She’s allowing space for me to do my job. It’s a great pairing.

—

[Brava! For Women in the Arts  is one of our partners in the upcoming LiveArt/Performa 09 weekend of programs Metal + Machine + Manifesto = Futurism's First 100 years.  Brava will be screening Futurist films & staging short plays on October 18.]

Harry Parr and Sam Bompas

Name/Place of residence/Occupation/Hobby?

Harry: Sam Bompas, London, jellymonger, and his hobby is shopping for bowties.

Sam: How did you know? Wow, you are psychic. Harry Parr, London. He lives in Bermondsey actually, opposite a rather attractive pub. He is an architectural food-smith. His hobby is – I’m tempted to mention something about the razzmatazz trousers because Harry has the most extraordinary collection of brightly colored trousers I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I guess it’s the job though, really. In Harry’s studio he has a rather improbable collection of industrial machinery, ranging from vast industrial humidifying equipment to Vac Formers.

Do you collect anything?

Harry: He collects bow ties which I think I mentioned. He collects books as well. He’s got a very large collection of books about food, about the history of food and also lots of very intellectual literature, which I don’t understand but he does read and tells tales from it but it’s beyond me.

Sam: Again, the natty trousers. Like Congo Natty. I like to think of Harry as a collector of experience and life experience.

Harry: That’s really funny. That is what I would say that I collect.

Sam: Well that’s because we are psychic, Harry. That’s the only reason we’re able to determine these things. So it’s not so much about the object itself but a collector of life.

If you could invite any artist to dinner, who would it be and why?

Harry: He’s a big fan of the Pussycat Dolls and they are artists of sorts. So he’d have them all for dinner.

Sam: You could finish it by saying “have them.”

Harry: Have them? I think I did finish it.

Sam: No, but then you said ‘have dinner” which slightly qualifies.

Harry: I thought that was still quite ambiguous. I don’t know how you’d have them for dinner. It’s safe to say you could forgo doing much cooking.

Sam: It could be quite an interesting application though. Could you imagine a body…Okay let’s stop talking about this. Harry would have Antony Gormley. We haven’t met Antony Gormley but I think we’d very much like to. I think we’ve got a lot to talk about.

If you could steal any artwork in the world to have up in your house, what would it be?

Harry: I think he’d want something like the Trevi Fountain. He would get a pneumatic drill, or rather he’d get me to steal it for him. And we could import it into his house. And probably replace the water with something else.

Sam: Actually that’s true. As a Cancerian I’m quite water orientated. I’m big on liquids. With Harry it’s always big. It’s always ambitious. He would steal a very large building, maybe St. Paul’s Cathedral and then you could put your house on the roof of St. Paul’s.

Harry: I was thinking the other way around.

Sam: St. Paul’s on the roof of your house? That would look visually very impressive. And from your point of view, a technical feat. I think more British people would go to St. Paul’s if it was on the roof of your house. Because no one in London goes to St. Paul’s it’s a crying shame because it is the most beautiful building. It is lovely and no one in London has ever gone. I’ve asked everyone that I know who is British if they’ve gone to St. Paul’s and no one has. But, if it became artwork and was on the roof of Harry’s house more people would go. By stealing St. Paul’s Harry would be benefitting the nation and giving it a bounty.

Harry: It would be really good for Bermondsey as well. That’s where I live. It doesn’t have many sights. It used to have a biscuit factory where they invented Twiglets which are quite an amazing cocktail snack from the 50s. And they invented all manner of biscuits like chocolate bourbons, there are incredible garibaldi biscuits as well. They invented, actually, snack culture, I think. Which I know you guys are quite keen on. They invented that. Snack time was invented there. But I think St. Paul’s on the roof of my house would bring back that level of fame to Bermondsey.

Sam: It would be quite difficult to disguise it. I think that would be a challenge as well to rise to.

What’s your favorite tool?

Harry: His “drug scales” which measure in very small increments. So you can get up to 100 grams in naught point naught naught one. He finds it very useful for cooking when you’re adding. And in doing experiments he wants to make sure he has exactly the right quantity of liquids. That’s his favorite tool.

Sam: Buzz saw. It’s very useful. It’s very handy when you’re cooking to get that amount of cutting power. Especially when you’re making walls for cooking with. A lot of our work is as much about environment as about what people eat. So typically what we’ll end up doing is going into a space and transforming the space and then presenting a banquet within the area. It means you have to pay attention to the space itself, which a buzz saw is useful for.