1
00:00:08,676 --> 00:00:11,806
[Fred Wilson: Beauty & Ugliness]

2
00:00:11,806 --> 00:00:14,497
Beauty...

3
00:00:14,497 --> 00:00:16,661
Beauty, beauty, beauty...

4
00:00:16,661 --> 00:00:18,718
I'm really interested in beauty.

5
00:00:18,718 --> 00:00:20,895
[Venice Biennale, 2003]

6
00:00:20,895 --> 00:00:22,307
I'm interested in beauty

7
00:00:22,307 --> 00:00:24,220
if you think of beauty as

8
00:00:24,220 --> 00:00:25,749
"an ultimate visual experience."

9
00:00:25,749 --> 00:00:27,558
But I'm also interested in beauty

10
00:00:27,558 --> 00:00:33,583
in that it can hide meaning.

11
00:00:33,583 --> 00:00:38,471
The world is complex,

12
00:00:38,471 --> 00:00:40,185
and often we try to

13
00:00:40,185 --> 00:00:40,654
separate out all of these experiences.

14
00:00:40,654 --> 00:00:43,987
"This is beautiful." "This is ugly."

15
00:00:43,987 --> 00:00:46,179
"This is a beautiful experience--that's all it is..."

16
00:00:46,179 --> 00:00:47,648
"...there is no meaning."

17
00:00:47,648 --> 00:00:57,818
Or, "the meaning is not important."

18
00:00:57,818 --> 00:00:59,447
People have to deal with the fact that

19
00:00:59,447 --> 00:01:03,051
there is meaning in beauty--

20
00:01:03,051 --> 00:01:04,814
there is meaning in ugliness.

21
00:01:04,814 --> 00:01:05,759
[The Studio Museum in Harlem, 2004]

22
00:01:05,759 --> 00:01:08,932
And so, in a lot of my work--if I can--

23
00:01:08,932 --> 00:01:18,327
I try to bring out that tension.

24
00:01:18,327 --> 00:01:20,096
The whipping post and chairs is a perfect example

25
00:01:20,096 --> 00:01:21,412
because chairs are really beautiful;

26
00:01:21,412 --> 00:01:25,296
that whipping post is certainly not.

27
00:01:25,296 --> 00:01:27,174
Whipping post and chairs were from the first exhibition I did

28
00:01:27,174 --> 00:01:29,727
with museum collections.

29
00:01:29,727 --> 00:01:31,937
It was at the Maryland Historical Society in 1992.

30
00:01:31,937 --> 00:01:39,189
It's a very traditional display in a certain way.

31
00:01:39,189 --> 00:01:41,050
There's no manipulation of the objects

32
00:01:41,050 --> 00:01:42,558
other than their positioning.

33
00:01:42,558 --> 00:01:44,716
And that changes the meaning,

34
00:01:44,716 --> 00:01:46,823
or the relationship,

35
00:01:46,823 --> 00:01:48,138
or how you think about them.

36
00:01:48,138 --> 00:01:50,474
And this is everything that I'm about

37
00:01:50,474 --> 00:01:51,668
when I'm working with museums

38
00:01:51,668 --> 00:01:55,652
and quite often when I'm working in my studio.

39
00:01:55,652 --> 00:01:59,062
Looking at high-end decorative arts in the chairs

40
00:01:59,062 --> 00:02:02,565
and the whipping post,

41
00:02:02,565 --> 00:02:03,974
they have a very different history,

42
00:02:03,974 --> 00:02:06,412
but it relates very directly in that

43
00:02:06,412 --> 00:02:08,202
those people who sat in the chairs

44
00:02:08,202 --> 00:02:10,633
had some relationship with

45
00:02:10,633 --> 00:02:18,173
those who were on the whipping post.

46
00:02:18,173 --> 00:02:20,275
Not acknowledging that things are complex--

47
00:02:20,275 --> 00:02:22,818
that beauty is complex--

48
00:02:22,818 --> 00:02:24,726
I think that that's the problem,

49
00:02:24,726 --> 00:02:26,486
that people want to do that.

50
00:02:26,486 --> 00:02:29,323
So, I enjoy making it complex for people,

51
00:02:29,323 --> 00:02:32,294
[LAUGHS]

52
00:02:32,294 --> 00:02:35,052
because that's my world, you know.

53
00:02:35,052 --> 00:02:37,615
[LAUGHS]

54
00:02:37,615 --> 00:02:41,615
Fred Wilson: Beauty & Ugliness | "Exclusive" | Art21