0:00:00.937,0:00:03.214
I want to start with a question.

0:00:03.238,0:00:05.171
Where does an artwork begin?

0:00:06.119,0:00:09.095
Now sometimes that question is absurd.

0:00:09.119,0:00:12.683
It can seem deceptively simple,

0:00:12.707,0:00:16.397
as it was when I asked the question[br]with this piece, "Portable Planetarium,"

0:00:16.421,0:00:18.215
that I made in 2010.

0:00:18.239,0:00:20.104
I asked the question:

0:00:20.128,0:00:23.624
"What would it look like[br]to build a planetarium of one's own?"

0:00:23.998,0:00:25.831
I know you all ask that every morning,

0:00:25.855,0:00:28.182
but I asked myself that question.

0:00:28.562,0:00:30.196
And as an artist,

0:00:30.220,0:00:33.141
I was thinking about our effort,

0:00:33.165,0:00:38.714
our desire, our continual longing[br]that we've had over the years

0:00:38.738,0:00:41.539
to make meaning of the world around us

0:00:41.563,0:00:42.967
through materials.

0:00:43.492,0:00:46.967
And for me, to try and find[br]the kind of wonder,

0:00:46.991,0:00:52.252
but also a kind of futility[br]that lies in that very fragile pursuit,

0:00:52.276,0:00:53.728
is part of my art work.

0:00:53.752,0:00:57.244
So I bring together[br]the materials I find around me,

0:00:57.268,0:01:00.546
I gather them to try[br]and create experiences,

0:01:00.570,0:01:04.229
immersive experiences that occupy rooms,

0:01:04.253,0:01:07.229
that occupy walls, landscapes, buildings.

0:01:07.253,0:01:10.320
But ultimately,[br]I want them to occupy memory.

0:01:10.847,0:01:13.379
And after I've made a work,

0:01:13.403,0:01:18.053
I find that there's usually one memory[br]of that work that burns in my head.

0:01:18.077,0:01:19.617
And this is the memory for me --

0:01:19.641,0:01:22.281
it was this sudden[br]kind of surprising experience

0:01:22.305,0:01:25.696
of being immersed inside that work of art.

0:01:25.720,0:01:28.760
And it stayed with me[br]and kind of reoccurred in my work

0:01:28.784,0:01:30.322
about 10 years later.

0:01:30.346,0:01:34.291
But I want to go back[br]to my graduate school studio.

0:01:34.315,0:01:37.752
I think it's interesting, sometimes,[br]when you start a body of work,

0:01:37.776,0:01:40.787
you need to just completely[br]wipe the plate clean,

0:01:40.811,0:01:41.986
take everything away.

0:01:42.010,0:01:44.621
And this may not look[br]like wiping the plate clean,

0:01:44.645,0:01:45.845
but for me, it was.

0:01:46.208,0:01:50.006
Because I had studied painting[br]for about 10 years,

0:01:50.030,0:01:51.712
and when I went to graduate school,

0:01:51.736,0:01:54.911
I realized that I had developed skill,[br]but I didn't have a subject.

0:01:54.935,0:01:56.442
It was like an athletic skill,

0:01:56.466,0:01:58.512
because I could paint the figure quickly,

0:01:58.536,0:01:59.702
but I didn't know why.

0:01:59.726,0:02:02.063
I could paint it well,[br]but it didn't have content.

0:02:02.087,0:02:06.047
And so I decided to put[br]all the paints aside for a while,

0:02:06.071,0:02:08.848
and to ask this question, which was:

0:02:08.872,0:02:12.592
"Why and how do objects[br]acquire value for us?"

0:02:12.616,0:02:17.671
How does a shirt that I know[br]thousands of people wear,

0:02:17.695,0:02:18.902
a shirt like this one,

0:02:18.926,0:02:20.839
how does it somehow feel like it's mine?

0:02:20.863,0:02:22.490
So I started with that experiment,

0:02:22.514,0:02:26.229
I decided, by collecting materials[br]that had a certain quality to them.

0:02:26.253,0:02:28.903
They were mass-produced,[br]easily accessible,

0:02:28.927,0:02:32.276
completely designed[br]for the purpose of their use,

0:02:32.300,0:02:33.603
not for their aesthetic.

0:02:33.627,0:02:37.077
So things like toothpicks, thumbtacks,

0:02:37.101,0:02:38.635
pieces of toilet paper,

0:02:38.659,0:02:43.680
to see if in the way that I put my energy,[br]my hand, my time into them,

0:02:43.704,0:02:48.593
that the behavior could actually create[br]a kind of value in the work itself.

0:02:48.617,0:02:51.887
One of the other ideas is,[br]I wanted the work to become live.

0:02:51.911,0:02:54.019
So I wanted to take it[br]off of the pedestal,

0:02:54.043,0:02:55.410
not have a frame around it,

0:02:55.434,0:02:58.395
have the experience not be[br]that you came to something

0:02:58.419,0:03:00.180
and told you that it was important,

0:03:00.204,0:03:03.489
but that you discover[br]that it was in your own time.

0:03:03.513,0:03:07.381
So this is like a very,[br]very old idea in sculpture,

0:03:07.405,0:03:11.896
which is: How do we breathe life[br]into inanimate materials?

0:03:12.405,0:03:14.604
And so, I would go to a space like this,

0:03:14.628,0:03:15.834
where there was a wall,

0:03:15.858,0:03:17.997
and use the paint itself,

0:03:18.021,0:03:19.695
pull the paint out off the wall,

0:03:19.719,0:03:22.315
the wall paint into space[br]to create a sculpture.

0:03:22.339,0:03:24.395
Because I was also interested in this idea

0:03:24.419,0:03:27.780
that these terms, "sculpture,"[br]"painting," "installation" --

0:03:27.804,0:03:30.766
none of these mattered in the way[br]we actually see the world.

0:03:30.790,0:03:33.320
So I wanted to blur those boundaries,

0:03:33.344,0:03:36.548
both between mediums[br]that artists talk about,

0:03:36.572,0:03:40.254
but also blur the experience[br]of being in life and being in art,

0:03:40.278,0:03:42.148
so that when you are in your everyday,

0:03:42.172,0:03:44.453
or when you are in one of my works,

0:03:44.477,0:03:48.087
and you saw, you recognized the everyday,

0:03:48.111,0:03:52.373
you could then move that experience[br]into your own life,

0:03:52.397,0:03:55.786
and perhaps see the art in everyday life.

0:03:56.386,0:03:58.148
I was in graduate school in the '90s,

0:03:58.172,0:04:01.149
and my studio just became[br]more and more filled with images,

0:04:01.173,0:04:02.323
as did my life.

0:04:02.347,0:04:05.720
And this confusion of images and objects

0:04:05.744,0:04:09.664
was really part of the way[br]I was trying to make sense of materials.

0:04:09.688,0:04:12.458
And also, I was interested[br]in how this might change

0:04:12.482,0:04:15.363
the way that we actually experience time.

0:04:15.387,0:04:17.807
If we're experiencing time[br]through materials,

0:04:17.831,0:04:22.749
what happens when images and objects[br]become confused in space?

0:04:22.773,0:04:27.082
So I started by doing some[br]of these experiments with images.

0:04:27.106,0:04:30.863
And if you look back to the 1880s,

0:04:30.887,0:04:34.831
that's when the first photographs[br]started turning into film.

0:04:34.855,0:04:39.965
And they were done[br]through studies of animals,

0:04:39.989,0:04:41.146
the movement of animals.

0:04:41.170,0:04:44.276
So horses in the United States,[br]birds in France.

0:04:44.300,0:04:45.983
They were these studies of movement

0:04:46.007,0:04:48.487
that then slowly,[br]like zoetropes, became film.

0:04:48.511,0:04:51.307
So I decided, I will take an animal

0:04:51.331,0:04:53.077
and I'm going to play with that idea

0:04:53.101,0:04:57.619
of how the image is not static[br]for us anymore, it's moving.

0:04:57.930,0:04:59.113
It's moving in space.

0:04:59.137,0:05:03.077
And so I chose[br]as my character the cheetah,

0:05:03.101,0:05:07.101
because she is the fastest[br]land-dwelling creature on earth.

0:05:07.125,0:05:08.364
And she holds that record,

0:05:08.388,0:05:10.363
and I want to use her record

0:05:10.387,0:05:14.267
to actually make it kind of[br]a measuring stick for time.

0:05:14.291,0:05:17.646
And so this is what she looked like[br]in the sculpture

0:05:17.670,0:05:19.029
as she moved through space.

0:05:19.053,0:05:22.367
This kind of broken framing[br]of the image in space,

0:05:22.391,0:05:25.145
because I had put up notepad paper

0:05:25.169,0:05:27.644
and had it actually project on it.

0:05:27.668,0:05:30.831
Then I did this experiment[br]where you have kind of a race,

0:05:30.855,0:05:33.403
with these new tools and video[br]that I could play with.

0:05:33.427,0:05:35.301
So the falcon moves out in front,

0:05:35.325,0:05:37.149
the cheetah, she comes in second,

0:05:37.173,0:05:39.977
and the rhino is trying[br]to catch up behind.

0:05:40.001,0:05:41.747
Then another one of the experiments,

0:05:41.771,0:05:42.984
I was thinking about how,

0:05:43.008,0:05:47.231
if we try and remember[br]one thing that happened to us

0:05:47.255,0:05:49.688
when we were, let's say, 10 years old.

0:05:49.712,0:05:53.386
It's very hard to remember[br]even what happened in that year.

0:05:53.410,0:05:55.783
And for me, I can think[br]of maybe one, maybe two,

0:05:55.807,0:06:01.073
and that one moment[br]has expanded in my mind

0:06:01.097,0:06:02.518
to fill that entire year.

0:06:02.542,0:06:05.717
So we don't experience time[br]in minutes and seconds.

0:06:05.741,0:06:09.577
So this is a still[br]of the video that I took,

0:06:09.601,0:06:11.371
printed out on a piece of paper,

0:06:11.395,0:06:14.869
the paper is torn and then the video[br]is projected on top of it.

0:06:15.323,0:06:17.028
And I wanted to play with this idea

0:06:17.052,0:06:20.910
of how, in this kind of[br]complete immersion of images

0:06:20.934,0:06:22.776
that's enveloped us,

0:06:22.800,0:06:26.697
how one image can actually grow

0:06:26.721,0:06:28.329
and can haunt us.

0:06:29.030,0:06:30.284
So I had all of these --

0:06:30.308,0:06:34.408
these are three out of, like,[br]100 experiments I was trying with images

0:06:34.432,0:06:35.638
for over about a decade,

0:06:35.662,0:06:37.107
and never showing them,

0:06:37.131,0:06:42.282
and I thought, OK, how do I bring this[br]out of the studio, into a public space,

0:06:42.306,0:06:45.459
but retain this kind of energy[br]of experimentation

0:06:45.483,0:06:47.819
that you see when you go[br]into a laboratory,

0:06:47.843,0:06:49.747
you see when you go into a studio,

0:06:49.771,0:06:51.938
and I had this show coming up[br]and I just said,

0:06:51.962,0:06:55.141
alright, I'm going to put my desk[br]right in the middle of the room.

0:06:55.165,0:06:57.458
So I brought my desk[br]and I put it in the room,

0:06:57.482,0:07:01.491
and it actually worked[br]in this kind of very surprising way to me,

0:07:01.515,0:07:06.614
in that it was this kind of flickering,[br]because of the video screens, from afar.

0:07:06.638,0:07:08.466
And it had all[br]of the projectors on it,

0:07:08.490,0:07:11.022
so the projectors were creating[br]the space around it,

0:07:11.046,0:07:14.094
but you were drawn towards[br]the flickering like a flame.

0:07:14.443,0:07:16.506
And then you were enveloped in the piece

0:07:16.530,0:07:18.847
at the scale that we're all[br]very familiar with,

0:07:18.871,0:07:24.174
which is the scale of being in front[br]of a desk or a sink or a table,

0:07:24.198,0:07:27.563
and you are immersed, then,[br]back into this scale,

0:07:27.587,0:07:31.523
this one-to-one scale[br]of the body in relation to the image.

0:07:31.547,0:07:33.300
But on this surface,

0:07:33.324,0:07:37.768
you had these projections on paper[br]being blown in the wind,

0:07:37.792,0:07:40.656
so there was this confusion[br]of what was an image

0:07:40.680,0:07:42.164
and what was an object.

0:07:42.188,0:07:45.450
So this is what the work looked like[br]when it went into a larger room,

0:07:45.474,0:07:47.276
and it wasn't until I made this piece

0:07:47.300,0:07:52.299
that I realized that I'd effectively made[br]the interior of a planetarium,

0:07:52.323,0:07:54.261
without even realizing that.

0:07:54.285,0:07:58.815
And I remembered, as a child,[br]loving going to the planetarium.

0:07:58.839,0:08:00.503
And back then, the planetarium,

0:08:00.527,0:08:03.990
there was always not only[br]these amazing images on the ceiling,

0:08:04.014,0:08:07.958
but you could see the projector itself[br]whizzing and burring,

0:08:07.982,0:08:11.125
and this amazing camera[br]in the middle of the room.

0:08:11.149,0:08:15.371
And it was that, along with seeing[br]the audience around you looking up,

0:08:15.395,0:08:18.172
because there was an audience[br]in the round at that time,

0:08:18.196,0:08:21.133
and seeing them, and experiencing,[br]being part of an audience.

0:08:21.157,0:08:24.926
So this is an image from the web[br]that I downloaded

0:08:24.950,0:08:28.148
of people who took images[br]of themselves in the work.

0:08:28.172,0:08:29.322
And I like this image

0:08:29.346,0:08:32.481
because you see how the figures[br]get mixed with the work.

0:08:32.505,0:08:36.926
So you have the shadow of a visitor[br]against the projection,

0:08:36.950,0:08:39.688
and you also see the projections[br]across a person's shirt.

0:08:39.712,0:08:43.150
So there were these self-portraits[br]made in the work itself,

0:08:43.174,0:08:44.325
and then posted,

0:08:44.349,0:08:48.181
and it felt like a kind of cyclical[br]image-making process.

0:08:48.205,0:08:49.934
And a kind of an end to that.

0:08:49.958,0:08:53.529
But it reminded me and brought me back[br]to the planetarium,

0:08:53.553,0:08:54.855
and that interior,

0:08:54.879,0:08:56.831
and I started to go back to painting.

0:08:56.855,0:09:01.061
And thinking about how a painting[br]is actually, for me,

0:09:01.085,0:09:03.919
about the interior images[br]that we all have.

0:09:03.943,0:09:05.688
There's so many interior images,

0:09:05.712,0:09:08.688
and we've become so focused[br]on what's outside our eyes.

0:09:09.204,0:09:12.701
And how do we store memory in our mind,

0:09:12.725,0:09:15.546
how certain images emerge out of nowhere

0:09:15.570,0:09:17.618
or can fall apart over time.

0:09:17.642,0:09:21.118
And I started to call this series[br]the "Afterimage" series,

0:09:21.142,0:09:25.347
which was a reference to this idea[br]that if we all close our eyes right now,

0:09:25.371,0:09:27.950
you can see there's this flickering[br]light that lingers,

0:09:27.974,0:09:30.117
and when we open it again,[br]it lingers again --

0:09:30.141,0:09:31.656
this is happening all the time.

0:09:31.680,0:09:37.161
And an afterimage is something[br]that a photograph can never replace,

0:09:37.185,0:09:39.415
you never feel that in a photograph.

0:09:39.439,0:09:43.106
So it really reminds you of the limits[br]of the camera's lens.

0:09:43.130,0:09:46.304
So it was this idea of taking the images[br]that were outside of me --

0:09:46.328,0:09:47.482
this is my studio --

0:09:47.506,0:09:51.990
and then trying to figure out how[br]they were being represented inside me.

0:09:52.014,0:09:53.400
So really quickly,

0:09:53.424,0:09:57.600
I'm just going to whiz through[br]how a process might develop

0:09:57.624,0:09:58.776
for the next piece.

0:09:58.800,0:10:01.347
So it might start with a sketch,

0:10:01.371,0:10:03.716
or an image that's burned in my memory

0:10:03.740,0:10:04.903
from the 18th century --

0:10:04.927,0:10:07.175
it's Piranesi's "Colosseum."

0:10:07.830,0:10:10.196
Or a model the size of a basketball --

0:10:10.220,0:10:11.839
I built this around a basketball,

0:10:11.863,0:10:14.974
the scale's evidenced[br]by the red cup behind it.

0:10:14.998,0:10:17.998
And that model can be put[br]into a larger piece as a seed,

0:10:18.022,0:10:20.378
and that seed can grow[br]into a bigger piece.

0:10:20.402,0:10:23.735
And that piece can fill[br]a very, very large space.

0:10:24.077,0:10:29.456
But it can funnel down into a video[br]that's just made from my iPhone,

0:10:29.480,0:10:33.085
of a puddle outside my studio[br]in a rainy night.

0:10:34.457,0:10:38.444
So this is an afterimage[br]of the painting made in my memory,

0:10:38.468,0:10:42.118
and even that painting can fade[br]as memory does.

0:10:42.142,0:10:45.690
So this is the scale of a very small image

0:10:45.714,0:10:46.967
from my sketchbook.

0:10:46.991,0:10:48.752
You can see how it can explode

0:10:48.776,0:10:51.776
to a subway station[br]that spans three blocks.

0:10:52.149,0:10:54.593
And you could see how going[br]into the subway station

0:10:54.617,0:10:58.880
is like a journey through[br]the pages of a sketchbook,

0:10:58.904,0:11:04.039
and you can see sort of a diary of work[br]writ across a public space,

0:11:04.063,0:11:06.753
and you're turning the pages[br]of 20 years of art work

0:11:06.777,0:11:09.007
as you move through the subway.

0:11:09.031,0:11:12.666
But even that sketch[br]actually has a different origin,

0:11:12.690,0:11:18.918
it has an origin in a sculpture[br]that climbs a six-story building,

0:11:18.942,0:11:22.125
and is scaled to a cat from the year 2002.

0:11:22.149,0:11:25.268
I remember that because I had[br]two black cats at the time.

0:11:25.617,0:11:28.395
And this is an image of a work from Japan

0:11:28.419,0:11:30.705
that you can see[br]the afterimage of in the subway.

0:11:30.729,0:11:32.498
Or a work in Venice,

0:11:32.522,0:11:35.387
where you see the image[br]etched in the wall.

0:11:35.411,0:11:39.696
Or how a sculpture[br]that I did at SFMOMA in 2001,

0:11:39.720,0:11:42.188
and created this kind of dynamic line,

0:11:42.212,0:11:45.141
how I stole that to create a dynamic line

0:11:45.165,0:11:48.117
as you descend down[br]into the subway itself.

0:11:48.141,0:11:50.768
And this merging of mediums[br]is really interesting to me.

0:11:50.792,0:11:54.435
So how can you take a line[br]that pulls tension like a sculpture

0:11:54.459,0:11:55.862
and put it into a print?

0:11:55.886,0:11:58.425
Or then use line[br]like a drawing in a sculpture

0:11:58.449,0:12:00.734
to create a dramatic perspective?

0:12:00.758,0:12:04.251
Or how can a painting mimic[br]the process of printmaking?

0:12:05.013,0:12:08.173
How can an installation[br]use the camera's lens

0:12:08.197,0:12:09.952
to frame a landscape?

0:12:10.308,0:12:15.300
How can a painting on string[br]become a moment in Denmark,

0:12:15.324,0:12:17.202
in the middle of a trek?

0:12:18.180,0:12:20.601
And how, on the High Line,[br]can you create a piece

0:12:20.625,0:12:23.649
that camouflages itself[br]into the nature itself

0:12:23.673,0:12:27.298
and becomes a habitat[br]for the nature around it?

0:12:28.729,0:12:31.776
And I'll just end with two pieces[br]that I'm making now.

0:12:31.800,0:12:33.688
This is a piece called "Fallen Sky"

0:12:33.712,0:12:37.180
that's going to be a permanent[br]commission in Hudson Valley,

0:12:37.204,0:12:40.450
and it's kind of the planetarium[br]finally come down

0:12:40.474,0:12:42.744
and grounding itself in the earth.

0:12:42.768,0:12:46.280
And this is a work from 2013[br]that's going to be reinstalled,

0:12:46.304,0:12:49.978
have a new life in the reopening of MOMA.

0:12:50.280,0:12:53.804
And it's a piece that the tool[br]itself is the sculpture.

0:12:53.828,0:12:56.526
So the pendulum, as it swings,

0:12:56.550,0:12:59.426
is used as a tool to create the piece.

0:12:59.450,0:13:02.335
So each of the piles of objects

0:13:02.359,0:13:07.912
go right up to one centimeter[br]to the tip of that pendulum.

0:13:07.936,0:13:11.871
So you have this combination[br]of the lull of that beautiful swing,

0:13:11.895,0:13:15.808
but also the tension that it constantly[br]could destroy the piece itself.

0:13:16.474,0:13:19.736
And so, it doesn't really matter[br]where any of these pieces end up,

0:13:19.760,0:13:22.547
because the real point for me

0:13:22.571,0:13:25.625
is that they end up[br]in your memory over time,

0:13:25.649,0:13:29.177
and they generate ideas beyond themselves.

0:13:29.817,0:13:30.968
Thank you.

0:13:30.992,0:13:37.612
(Applause)