and I think there's a much smaller audience for it than there was in the seventies.
was made with a grant, wasn't it?
was made independently. It only cost me a hundred dollars. The later 'Cone' films were made with a CAPS grant from New York State and an NEA. CAPS and NEA were creations of the seventies. It may be that we've seen the end of subsidized filmmaking. I know there were no grants when Carolee was beginning to make films, and it would appear that there are precious few now. That's something that will be interesting to look at later. Historically, what was created by those grants? What did they make possible? There weren't a huge number of them, but there were a few; and one looked forward to applying for them. The NEA was expanded enormously during the seventies and created all sorts of cultural institutions and funding for new programs in museums, which had film curators for the first time. That had an important effect.
I suppose
is the ultimate minimal film, or one of them. It's an installation, without a projector or a screen or film, which
to conventional cinemaa single electric light bulb reflects on the white paper covering the installation windows ('screens') during a twenty-four-hour installation periodfrom the greatest possible distance. It's as though filmmaking had led you out of film.
Yes.
How often did you do
I did it three times: once at Galerie Saint Petri in Lund, Sweden, once at the Idea Warehouse in New York, and once at the Neue Galerie in Aachen.
You're an important part of Carolee's
[1978], which was being made during the same period. What was the relationship between you as artists?
As far as
is concerned, I did pick up the camera sometimes and use italways according to her instructions. She'd say, I want you to shoot this or do thatand I'd do it. But that film was completely her project. I really had very little influence, except as an actor in it and as a very occasional cinematographer.
I met Carolee when she and Joan Lifton came to my big computer exhibit in 1970. We became friends, and I think I derived a lot of inspiration from stories she told me about New York performance. I think you'd agree that the aesthetic of
is the polar
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opposite to the expressionistic aesthetic Carolee was exploring. There was absolutely no confusing our work at any time.
To an extent, the consciousness of audience and the willingness to confront audience expectations give
and
[Schneemann's landmark erotic film was completed in 1967] one common dimension. Both create a new audience space, where people are very conscious of each other.
The brilliant thing about
is that it's silent. My memory of seeing that film in an audienceis the constant sense of tension created by the subject matter of the film. One can feel and hear the tension because there is no sound track to cover it. However, the word you used was 'confront,' which is something I never felt in terms of the 'Cone' series. The 'Cone' films are rather ethereal in a way. If they're aggressive and confrontational, it's because they're
. They ask to be found; they don't set out to root you to the spot.
I know you do free-lance design work. Is that how you've supported yourself?
I have a small graphic-design business with which I've supported myself since I left art school. These days it's more full-time than it was when I first was here.
Is it fair to ask you what sort of clients you have?
Sure. A large proportion of them are galleries. What I do for them is design their general look and everything they need, including announcements, posters, catalogues, the ads they put in art magazines, business cards, stationery . . .
Which galleries?
