Walker Art Center

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Frank Gaard, Installation Wall

Transcript

The whole thing of learning through pleasure as opposed to the way I learned, which was through: “This is good for you. The reason it’s hard is because it’s important.” Learning through pleasure was something that I thought was a way to help people get it, that civilization isn’t always the way it is now. That there was a civilization when Watteau was alive that was different than this civilization, both for the rich and the poor, and that the distance between the rich and the poor then was even greater than it is now. In the 18th century, food was a loaf of bread that you put in water and boiled and made a soup. That was food. That was dinner. That was breakfast. It wasn’t like, “Let’s go to McDonald’s and have a sausage McMuffin.” It was a loaf of bread, boiling in water. What Marie Antoinette was doing was making champagne glasses out of the shape of her bosoms. So there were two different worlds. When you have two different worlds, you usually get revolutions. But that detachment to the precious object is something that really goes back to Marie Antoinette or goes back in historical terms to things being made out of very precious materials. I think that it’s about how you can make decorations for yourself. That’s what my intention is, so say, “It doesn’t have to be pretentious. It doesn’t have to be precious. It just has to be something that allows the creative forces that you have within you and the knowledge to flow out.” That’s why poetry is nice. You can memorize it. You don’t even need a piece of paper. Because that’s the world, isn’t it? The world is increasingly what you can carry in your pockets.

Artist Comments

Frank Gaard on learning through pleasure, making decorations for yourself, and carrying the world in your pocket


Title
Installation Wall
Artist
Frank Gaard
Location
Not on view
Code
#1538