Andres Laracuente w/ Robert Rauschenberg, 2009
This is a performance that took place at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center October 04, 2009, in response to an invitation by Triple Canopy. The event was titled "The Invisible Grammar" and was part of Printed Matter's annual NY Art Book Fair.
TRANSCRIPT (comprised of two sources):
Charlie Rose Interview w RR Feb 27th 1998
CR: This is a great honor for me because of Bob, and also to be here at this magnificent place. Um, I'll tell you a little behind the scenes story as we begin. We're standing back and about ready to come on and there's a big container there and it has lights and things like that and I grab Bob by the shoulders and I say, "I look at this and I see lights and television equipment and you look at this and you see art (laugh). And you say "No I see the beginning of art." And the point is that you want all of us to look around and see what?
RR: I want you to feel at home.
CR: Feel like...?
RR: At home... so that, that you're not living in an environment that that you're not experiencing. And its so easy to get accustomed to everything thats around you, thinking of it as uh uh just a utility or, uh something thats invisible, and uh anything that uh can reflect light is of some interest.
Erased De Kooning Story from unknown video source
RR: Everybody was working like de Kooning and I already wasn't painting like them, in fact they didn't take my work seriously which made me even friendlier as far as they were concerned because I had no way to be considered a competitor. So I was no threat.
Guy In Bar: He erased De Kooning? Now what does he mean what is that, do you know? that?
RR: Well I loved to draw and as ridiculous as this may seem I was trying to figure out a way to bring drawing into the all whites. I kept making drawings myself and erasing them and that just looked like an erased rauschenberg or you know. I mean it was nothing. An uh, so I figured out that it had to begin as art so I thought its going to be a De Kooning then, it was going to be an important piece. You see how ridiculously you have to think in order to make this work. So I uh bought a bottle of uh Jack Daniel's and uh went up and knocked on his door and praying the whole time that he wouldn't be home and then that would be the work. But he was home and after a few awkward moments I told him what I had in mind and he said that uh, he understood me but that he wasn't for it. And I was hoping that then he would refuse and THAT would then be the work.
Guy In Bar: I'm shocked here, I would expect de Kooning to turn on his ugly side...
RR: He couldn't have made me more uncomfortable, he took the painting that he was working on off the easel, I don't even know if he was doing this consciously, and he went over and put it against the already closed door. But I was noticing things like that (laughing).
RR: And he said, "OK I want it to be something i'll miss." And I said please it doesn't have to be that good. You know (laughing). I didn't say that but thats the way I'm feeling, I kept my mouth shut. And uh i wanna give you something really difficult to erase, and thank God. (Laugh) And he gave me something that had charcoal, oil paint, uh pencil, crayon. I spent a month erasing that little drawing thats this big. And on the other side there's one that isn't erased. The documentation is built in.
RR: They think that it was a gesture of protest against abstract expressionism, Because see its a very complicated story. and i don't think most people would think this way. And so it is hard for them to think of that... or just a pure act of destruction, vandalism is the other alternative.
Interviewer: And for you?
RR: It's poetry.