Quick Draw Artist Interviews are a series of
interviews conducted by Otino Corsano using lost podcasts never originally
created. Spontaneous conversations with international artists are not recorded
and then transcribed from memory specifically for publication on this blog.
Quick: Split. You held them up. We both watched. You
asked me to address this directly and I’m wondering when this should all stop.
So I too raised them alone as you instructed. Void of mimic; this was entirely
new. Divided yet among; perfectly balanced and viewed again from a distance.
Absence greatly appreciated. Draw: art about art.
Eric Doeringer (b. Cambridge, MA) currently lives and
works in Brooklyn, NY. He received a BA in Visual Art from Brown University and
an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Doeringer has had
solo exhibitions at Apex Art (New York), Katharine Mulherin (Toronto), The Fuel
Collection (Philadelphia), and Another Year in LA (Los Angeles). Doeringer was
commissioned by The Whitney Museum to create a multiple for their Initial
Public Offerings program and has been included in exhibitions at the Museo De
Arte Contemporaneo De Castilla Y Leon (MUSAC), The Bruce Museum, The Itami
[Japan] Museum of Arts And Crafts, and Takashi Murakami’s GEISAI Miami artist
fair.
Doeringer’s work is currently featured in “Survey” at NO FOUNDATION in
Toronto featuring his artwork from the past five years: recreating works by
artists such as Andy Warhol, Sol LeWitt, On Kawara, Edward Ruscha, John
Baldessari, Richard Prince and Damien Hirst. The gallery will be re-hung every
two weeks, with each mini-exhibition containing Doeringer's versions of works
by a different group of artists.
Eric Doeringer
A short preamble: I invited Eric to a standard
“Quick Draw” Facebook interview however we decided to go with a podcast. I
arrived at the gallery with my audio recorder yet I failed to hit the record
button twice (a regrettable feature of this device which has caused numerous
technological tragedies in the past) and our live interview was never recorded.
I feel I owe Eric for his time and so I’m making up for my error by
transcribing our ~15 minute conversation from memory. In all fairness to Eric,
I did not give him the opportunity to proofread this final text version.
Today
Otino
2:50pm
Hi
Eric. Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today.
Eric
2:51pm
Thanks
for the invitation Otino.
Otino
2:52pm
I'm wondering
if we can begin by talking generally about your practice since I think most are
already familiar with the individual works.
Eric
2:53pm
Sure.
I’m obviously interested in the complex relationship between the original and
the copy; nevertheless I think I have paradoxically built a highly individual
body of new work for this exhibition.
Otino
2:54pm
Is
it fair to say you are less copying any one of the single artists whose works
you recreate and more replicating the practice of Elaine Sturtevant?
Eric
2:56pm
I do
know of her work and yes her and other appropriation artists are obviously
an influence yet I have actually found it quite difficult to find writings
about her practice.
Otino
2:58pm
Well
there’s the March 2003 issue of Artforum. I’m feeling a lot like Bruce Hainley
right now.
Eric
2:59pm
I
think there are many artists I have followed who work within this realm of the
copy.
Otino
3:00pm
Sherrie
Levine’s photographs of Walker Evans originals and the entire “Pictures”
movement including Richard Prince’s work which you have in turn remade I imagine
are primary precedents.
Eric
3:02pm
Well
yeah. The early bootleg works I peddled on Chelsea are directly a reference to
this type of production. People usually approach me on the street and I have to
explain to them the works are original components to my practice rather than
forgeries or even pure reproductions in the traditional sense.
Otino
3:03pm
Yes,
I remember that was the exact conversation we had when I first met you on the
street selling your wares in Chelsea.
It
is quite fascinating to me the fact I had met you in person while selling your
work in Cheslea, while at the same time following of your Matthew
Barney fan page from inception (http://cremasterfanatic.com)
before I rediscovered your work here in Toronto being sold at Katharine
Mulherin’s NO FOUNDATION. I was surprized and amazed you were the same person.
For
some reason the gallery context I recognized from the “The Rematerialization of
the Art Object” 2012 exhibition at Mulherin + Pollard in New York seemed to
bring a new legitimization to your practice beyond Murakami’s tactic of having African street vendors selling Louis
Vuitton bags during the 50th Venice Biennale.
Does your practice relate to being
an art fan and the drive artists have to replicate the work of their favorite
artists? Essentially we want to be like them and copying is an essential and even
traditional process of developing as an artist.
Eric
3:06pm
I was
just included in “Love to Love You”, an exhibition about fandom and art, at
Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA running from May 26, 2013 - January 31, 2014.
There
is an aspect of the work residing in this realm however I do believe it
progresses into new zones of meaning beyond admiration of an artist or
practice.
These Sol LeWitt drawings I recreated for this show are interesting since
LeWitt never created these works individually to begin with.
Otino
3:07pm
I
was surprised to discover how much original content was contained in your
production. For example I had presumed your Ruscha books to be photographs of
the original pages and then merely rebound and printed anew yet these are all unique images offered of “Some Los Angeles Apartments” all photographed in 2009. I
noticed you have placed your own copyright in the book.
Eric
3:08pm
My
main reason for placing the copyright in the publication was to replicate
Ruscha’s original books as faithfully as possible and they included a copyright
within the text’s composition.
Otino
3:08pm
I’m
not sure if I should mention this; however, I heard you want to be sued. Is
this really a strategic tactic to catapult your practice to a new level of attention
and art world recognition in the same way copyright litigation drew attention
to Jeff Koon’s production?
Eric
3:09pm
I
have received cease and desist letters in the past and I have complied with
these formal requests. No, I am not seeking nor wishing to provoke legal action
against my work at all and am definitely not employing this avenue of
unconventional marketing for negative PR.
I
think at some point other artists recognize this work as art and there is a
respect for the new discourses I am independently progressing.
Otino
3:09pm
There
seems to be an infinite loop effect created by your work akin to two mirrors
facing each other in the way you are recreating works which are already
operating in the realm of appropriation art. You are having others take
photographs of Marlboro ads and all of this has already been done yet now your
work exists in a new historical context and specific point in time allowing for
richer significance.
Eric
3:10pm
I know.
It becomes confusing as to whether my work is copying the content of Phillip
Morris or Richard Prince.
3:11pm
You
used the term “bootlegs” earlier in this conversation and it was the title of
your first exhibition at Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects back in
2006.
When
I think of “bootlegs” I immediately go to my teenage memories of searching
through bins of dubious concert recordings pressed on vinyl. There were
bootlegs of The Who and Rolling Stones concerts specific to cities and venues and
these items were highly sought after. I couldn’t even afford them.
Eric
3:12pm
Yeah,
and they were crappy quality and created by amateurs and they were over-priced…
Otino
3:12pm
Yeah,
I definitely could never afford them so I was happy with just buying the
original yet the most expensive ones weren’t amateur at all since how many
people had access to vinyl record presses?
Didn’t professional sound technicians from within the industry create
most of these bootleg albums? They offered collectors more rarified and
alternative products within a highly monopolized market at their own
questionable rates.
So
here is where I cannot help yet perceive, less a subversive maneuver and more
of an institutional critique slant in your practice: It appears the commercial
art world is failing to reward the practices of new artists. The art stars of
the early 80’s are celebrating longer and more established careers without any
change of the guard happening any time soon - arguably with a conservative
stalemate not seen since the reign of Leo Castelli’s stable from the sixties.
Even
when I first met you on W 21st Street your prices were just beyond
my reach. Unfortunately they are even more so today.
Eric
3:14pm
I definitely
offer the aesthetics of 6-figure art works in the range of 4-figures so that is
a factor and I do agree it is more difficult today to establish a lucrative art
career.
Otino
3:15pm
Are
the artists you copy cool with your work? Have you ever met them in person
in Cheslea or in the galleries?
Eric
3:15pm
Some
of the younger artists I replicate are really supportive and stoked I’m adding them
to my repertoire yet I have found more established artists to be more reserved if not somewhat
concerned.
Otino
3:16pm
Do
you have any Will Cotton’s?
Eric
3:17pm
No I
don’t think so.
Otino
3:17pm
You
actually look a little like him.
Thanks
so much for your time Eric.
3:18pm
Anytime.
Thanks Otino.
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