What role does voyeurism play in things you make?
I mean, that’ll always be there. That’s kind of a passive voice I try to use. I consider voyeurism to be the opposite of intentional. If things are voyeuristic, they just happen to come into our purview. There’s always voyeurism; there’s always a persona to things. I know that it’s true, and I like that lack of responsibility that a voyeur plays. It’s the most irresponsible position in a situation, and the best situation to view something objectively, like a fly on the wall. But when you say that word, immediately people have this sexual connotation. We’ve been so set to look at voyeurism in a certain type of way that’s not what I’m trying to do. It’s there though. It’s in the footprints of the word, rather than where the footprints lead you.
It seems to be a pervasive part of the culture we inhabit.
I do agree. I think we’re all voyeurs, especially in the age of social media. We’re all lurking around, looking at each other, looking for cues. I guess I’m more interested in what the voyeur sees than just pure voyeurism. I mean, anything can be voyeuristic. Someone could see us talking and be a voyeur to us right now. It has to be a very specific context. I would say it’s operational in that way. That is the modicum through which the work operates, but it’s not... I used to think pure voyeurism was enough, but I realized it wasn’t. In order to make what I consider a formative work, it has to have a personality within the voyeurism.