Your art has been compared at times with Brancusi, Duchamp and Rauschenberg. Have these artists influenced your work? Sure, but I also consider other artists influential, too. I think that Boucher and Fragonard are great influences. And Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jim Rosenquist. I’ve been able to have some great role models and cultural heroes.
What about Claes Oldenburg? Sometimes if I increase the scale of one of my objects, people will mention that [it has] kind of an “Oldenburgian” effect…but there are some artists that my work feels a little more closely linked to. Recently I put a piece up in Le Palais des Papes in Avignon, France. It’s called “Split-Rocker.” It’s a very large floral piece, like “Puppy” in Rockefeller Center. I always think Picasso and Lichtenstein would really like this piece. Often when making artwork, I think, “What would this person think about it?” A lot of times I think of these cultural heroes that I’ve always looked up to.
Describe “Split-Rocker” in more detail. It’s a floral piece, and it’s larger than “Puppy.” It has 90,000 flowers growing on it. It’s a head that is split right down the center. One side is the head of a pony, like a rocking-horse pony, animated, and the other side is the head of an animated dino, a dinosaur. When you put these two profiles together, they don’t fit perfectly. One part of the face of the dino is out further than the pony and the pony’s mane in some sections goes higher than the dino. So this split, in between, is an area I always thought both Lichtenstein and Picasso would enjoy a lot.
You seem to often use imagery from childhood and pop culture. Is there any reason you’ve chosen to focus on these types of images? Art for me is always something that has given me a sense of self identity. I enjoy these images because I think that art can be very uplifting to people. I try to make a work that invites them and really comes in underneath their feet and tries to lift them up and communicate their own self worth, and to hopefully give [them] confidence.
So you use these images because they have meaning for all of us, especially people who grew up in the 60s, 70s and 80s? To answer you precisely, for the new work I was creating in the “Celebration” series, I was using polyethylene plastic. Many toys from my generation and younger generations are [made from] polyethylene. You have your own toy house in the backyard, or your own pirate ship or your own car. So automatically I felt that this material would communicate joy to the viewer…because this is when an adult fantasy is given to children for the first time: you can have your own house, or car. But I think the reason too, is that art can be used as a terrible discriminator. A lot of artists–or certain people involved in the art world–use art for their own self-empowerment through discrimination instead of generosity. I’ve really been involved in trying to create work that is about making no judgment. It does not judge the viewer and wants no judgment made about it. If you are open to art, if you are open to all life experience, you can always find something of value in everything.
Is there any reason why you make some of your sculptures so large? A lot of works that I’ve made in the past haven’t been so large. “Puppy” is a large piece and “Split-Rocker” is a large piece. They are outdoor and very public oriented. There are big things in this world: the size of a billboard or the size of architecture today. So the art object has to compete with a lot as far as just having a visual presence in the world. But also archetypes. An archetype to me is an image or anything which society carries with it for its preservation…Archetypes are bigger than any one individual and really represent the masses. Maybe that’s the reason for scale.
How was the idea for “Puppy” conceived? Originally in 1992 a curator named Veit Loers asked me to come to this town in Arolsen, outside Kassel [Germany]. He invited about seven artists to make an exhibition. It was going on at the same time as Documenta, a large international art show that happens in Kassel. I could put a sculpture anywhere I wanted. When I arrived I saw this beautiful Schloss castle. The first thing that came to mind was if Louis XIV lived there, maybe he would wake up one morning and think, ‘Today, I’d like to see a 40-something-foot-tall puppy all made out of flowers, and I’d like to see it done by the time I get home this evening.’ And he would come home and voila! There it would be. So I feel the piece really has its traditions in the baroque and the rococo. I find that the baroque, especially, is a great negotiator. The baroque is very much about equilibrium. You have something very architectural against something very biological. In churches you have aspects of the eternal in the biological form of life continuance, and the eternal in a very ephemeral, spiritual form. This aspect is present in “Puppy.” At the same time it is very much about humankind’s relationship to God. Kind of this master/servant, obedient/disobedient, domesticated/undomesticated [relationship]. These were my interests at the time, and they still are in this piece. I think it’s very much about humankind’s relationship to God, or to a spiritual identity.
Do you mean you see it as an idol for worship? No, because puppies are obedient. It’s very much about this negotiation back and forth…“Puppy” is very much about the moment or the future There is a tremendous amount of life taking place. When the plants are first planted maybe they have only one flowerhead. By the time “Puppy” comes down, some of those plants may have 24 flowerheads. It’s going to get more and more abundant and the growth will become shaggy…That part is very important to me.
Back to the tradition of the baroque and the spiritual aspects, when I plant, I have control of the plants that I choose, I have control of the design, of how I tend to mix [the varieties of plants] or not mix them. Control is very important in our life. To accomplish something, to have vision and to execute, you have to use control. But one aspect of life where control is extremely negative, and [where one should] let go is in human relationships. “Puppy” is the same way. Once it has been planted, the control is gone…certain plants will shoot two feet or two-and-a-half feet in to the air and others will start to demand territory and move more horizontally. And it has it’s own life. The letting go is really the most beautiful part.
People don’t think about…how a work of art like “Puppy” functions…these things work in a more subliminal way. There’s this abundance of life which is taking place, and people of course are always aware that with all forms of life, death is approaching. [But it also] represents fondness in people’s pasts, a remembrance of the first time of seeing a puppy. And I think that helps people feel good about themselves, about their own past. I hope that a work like “Puppy” is not about [the object itself, but] about what the viewer walks away with, their own sense of self-confidence.
How was it made? “Puppy” is made out of stainless steel. It’s similar to the fuselage of an airplane, open in the center and all stainless steel plates with metal boxes that I’m able to put soil in. On top of the boxes is a wire mesh on top of that we have a fabric, which holds the soil in. Then we make 70,000 holes. Each plant is individually planted. One of the most beautiful experiences is planting “Puppy.” It’s a very sensual experience, because [you’re] planting each plant by hand.
The technology in the piece is quite advanced. When I first had the idea to make a floral work, I went to Southern Germany and Northern Italy where there is a tradition of making small-scale pieces. So I learned the basic technology of putting in soil and having a mesh around it. They would use moss to hold the earth in. But “Puppy” has its own internal irrigation system.
I’ve heard comments that it’s similar to a Chia pet, which everyone can relate to, except it’s huge. Are you making some sort of commentary on consumerism? I’m just trying to make very generous work. I mentioned before about art being used as a discriminator. There are certain forms of art which present aesthetics not as tools to be used, which can help in communication, but as rules to be followed. And if you don’t follow these rules you can’t be in the game. Or if you don’t come with a certain amount of information on a specific topic [as it relates] to a work of art in whatever form–dance, visual, sound–you can’t really participate. Anything that makes judgments against the puppy, I think, possibly relates back to this form of discrimination.
So is there any intended irony in the work? No, it’s more about equilibrium and negotiation. Negotiation [as in] back to this spiritual, humankind relationship…But I don’t think it’s really irony. But maybe there’s a sense of irony in that these negotiations come from a puppy.
In the future, do you plan to bring “Puppy” to other places in the United States? I think that remains to be seen. I really don’t know where the future home of “Puppy” is at the present time, of this version. I would like very much if it would stay in the United States because the other puppy is in Europe and at the present time I also have “Split-Rocker” in Europe.
Are these flowered sculptures becoming a theme? I originally made “Puppy” in 1992. I never had any desire to make another floral piece. I was asked often because “Puppy” is very popular. Then I was asked to make a sculpture for France. Right away the first thing I thought of was flowers, because I’ve always loved the baroque and the rococo.
I know you worked on Wall Street at one time. Do you see any similarities between Wall Street and the art world? If anything I see dissimilarities. I have to say I really enjoy the art world community…even though it is misrepresented in the media as a community about money and greed, it really isn’t. The people in the art world are interested in art. That’s what they embrace in life and that is their passion. It’s a community that I think has a lot of caring and support for each other. You see older artists interested in young artists… Opportunity is flourishing in the art world. These are exciting times we live in.
And you don’t see that on Wall Street, I take it. No, it’s about self on Wall Street.
Are you making a statement about the culture in which we live? I embrace my culture and I try to embrace the world I live in. Generally, I’m much more excited when I walk down the street and I just look at the world I live in than if I go to a museum. Everything’s here.
