Interview

O’BRIEN: You should watch it. I think the idea of ruins and abandoned things is interesting now. There was a piece in The New York Times about people abandoning boats now because the upkeep is so high—sinking their boats or leaving them washed up—and it made me think about art that requires a lot of upkeep. There was an article about Damien Hirst a year or so ago, about how much it costs to maintain some of his pieces. Imagine torching your Hirst for the insurance.

FEINSTEIN: Oh, I can totally see that. Now he’s changing his whole approach. From what I’ve heard, he’s actually fired staff. I think at one point he had like 85 assistants. And I’ve heard that he’s making most of his paintings himself now. And that’s actually the biggest change that I’ve noticed among all my artist friends. Everybody is talking about the idea of, if you have an assistant, then fire the assistant or cut down their hours. It’s like rich people thinking it’s uncool to show their wealth right now. With artists, it’s uncool to show that you have assistants. Only a year ago you would show off all your assistants.

O’BRIEN: I’m trying to cut down myself.

FEINSTEIN: People are talking about it, but it hasn’t really happened yet. But the bad thing about sculpture—and Damien’s work is definitely to the nth degree in this aspect—is the maintenance. Most people actually don’t put their sculptures up in their houses, you know.

O’BRIEN: Really?

FEINSTEIN: Almost everybody who owns one of my pieces has it in storage. And that’s very depressing. No one has space for it. If it’s something that’s maybe 12 inches tall, then they’ll have it in the house, but if it’s over two feet, then they have it in storage. And I make these seven-foot-tall sculptures, you know . . .

O’BRIEN: That sort of thing happens to every artist, but I think for sculptors it’s especially a problem. I know a sculptor who’s getting on in years, and he was an important part of his generation but now he’s looking for homes for his work.

FEINSTEIN: Oh, man!

O’BRIEN: And it’s really serious stuff—but there’s no market at the moment, so it’s, “Do you have room for this in the country?” I’m thinking, like, “Well, it’s really great. I’d have to pour concrete, and my land is hilly . . . What about drainage? Do I put it in the woods?”

FEINSTEIN: It’s a huge commitment. That’s an aspect I hate about being a sculptor. But at the same time I really feel like you are born either a sculptor or a painter. There are exceptions, like Picasso, who was a mad genius and could do anything, but ultimately people are really one or the other. It’s like, I don’t believe in bisexuality either, for example. I think you’re kind of one or the other—it’s the same concept. I think that painters are really different from sculptors. Like Cecily Brown or Charline Von Heyl and
Jacqueline Humphries . . . all my friends. Or Lisa Yuskavage or Richard Phillips or John [Currin]—all these people who I know who are painters have a different way of doing things and organizing their time. They have a different way of seeing things compared to me. I think it’s natural. A lot of sculptors are like Richard Serra—kind of gruff men. It’s good to be a sculptor because it fits a particular physical persona. But if you’re a woman and you’re a sculptor, it’s almost like you have the wrong birth sign or something. People say that if you’re a Scorpio then it’s better to be a male Scorpio versus a female Scorpio.

O’BRIEN: Well, I definitely believe that about astrological signs. Gemini is better for men. I prefer Virgo women.

FEINSTEIN: I think that a woman’s demeanor actually doesn’t suit the whole thing of carrying gigantic things from studio to studio and the commitment of making somebody pour a concrete foundation. I actually think it’s like some kind of an asshole-ish man mentality to say, “I want you to do this for me.” It’s like you’re making this commitment for me, you know? It’s like this sculpture falling on someone and killing them. [laughs] That’s the ultimate ego.

O’BRIEN: Well, that’s Richard Serra.

FEINSTEIN: Yeah. [laughs] Exactly.

O’BRIEN: But some of the best sculptors in contemporary art have been women. Like Louise Nevelson . . .

FEINSTEIN: And Eva Hesse.

O’BRIEN: Or Marisol.

FEINSTEIN: I always think of Eva Hesse because her stuff is so tactile, and it’s so like women’s work. And then Niki De Saint Phalle’s work is borderline female but male because it’s these gigantic things. I think of it like Yves Tanguy or [Alexander] Calder. It’s male, but with a delicate quality.

O’BRIEN: I just saw a fashion show with Calder jewelry in it. He was definitely in touch with the goddess.

FEINSTEIN: His work has a nice touch to it, and it’s not the same brute thing, about forcing someone to build some foundation. That’s how I really think about the choices you make. There are many collectors who love that dominant aspect of it, that they are subjugated by this nasty artist who comes in and says, “You need to completely mow down your sunflowers and take down the trees and move that stream—I want to put my thing right there.” Some collectors like being told what to do. I’m definitely not like that. I feel very honored that people want my things to begin with . . . So I’m just like, “Oh, my god, that’s so great . . .” Marianne Boesky and I are going down this road for the first time. We’re having this big black carriage piece that I made for my show in May reproduced as an outdoor sculpture.

O’BRIEN: Puritan’s Delight?

FEINSTEIN: Yeah. It’s something that we hadn’t been able to do before because the cost of fabrication for large pieces is so high. It costs more than the original piece just to fabricate it . . . But that was such a beautiful piece, and we were both so in love with it. People would approach Marianne, saying, “I’d really love for that to be out in my garden with snow around it.” And I thought, “God, that’d be beautiful.” So we’re producing just one right now—it’s gonna be made out of -aluminum and have a carriage light outside. Some -collectors bought it, and it’s going to be in a garden in Greenwich, Connecticut. So that’s something I’d like to do more of in the future. It started when I did a piece in Korea for the Anyang Public Art Project. They asked Liam Gillick, Angela Bulloch, Dan -Graham, and a big list of people. You were given a budget to make a model, and the project made it into a gigantic outdoor sculpture. So I made a small wooden Don Quixote sculpture. I had this idea that it would be funny to have a gold, European-type equestrian sculpture in Korea in a square where cars drive around it, like they do in Europe. It became this huge thing, and it came out fantastic. So that’s something I’m thinking about for the future.