Hilton Als Is a Critic Who Curates, or Is It the Other Way Around?
From Will Heinrich
Will Heinrich interviews Hilton Als on his curatorial practice for The New York Times.
I wanted to find work that really balanced. And there are other pieces that are bridges to language — I’m thinking of the Steve Wolfe/Christian Marclay collaboration [ “La Voix Humaine,” 1991] of a stereo. Language is on the record in the form of writing on the label, and the silence of the record, which isn’t playing, is a bridge to Ellen Gallagher’s very text-heavy grid of prints [ “DeLuxe”].
The real challenge, and the joy, was to find connections and bridges. Once you have the kind of — what would they say in a movie? A master shot — you have to find the details that connect the smaller scenes to the bigger scenes. And I felt that I wanted to be very careful that the connections didn’t overwhelm the bigger pictures, but helped the bigger pictures to be there.
Will Heinrich interviews Hilton Als on his curatorial practice for The New York Times.
I wanted to find work that really balanced. And there are other pieces that are bridges to language — I’m thinking of the Steve Wolfe/Christian Marclay collaboration [ “La Voix Humaine,” 1991] of a stereo. Language is on the record in the form of writing on the label, and the silence of the record, which isn’t playing, is a bridge to Ellen Gallagher’s very text-heavy grid of prints [ “DeLuxe”].
The real challenge, and the joy, was to find connections and bridges. Once you have the kind of — what would they say in a movie? A master shot — you have to find the details that connect the smaller scenes to the bigger scenes. And I felt that I wanted to be very careful that the connections didn’t overwhelm the bigger pictures, but helped the bigger pictures to be there.
Read the full article here.