Interview

HADEN-GUEST: What date was that piece? The original piece?

ARAD: This piece is not ready yet!

HADEN-GUEST: I thought you said you went to one of your old designs?

ARAD: Ah! The Big Easy! This chair, this piece, ’88 . . . [ARAD pores over the image in the catalog.] This is the positive one.

HADEN-GUEST: It’s kind of male and female, isn’t it really?

ARAD: Yeah, but if they went and merged into one! So it is really a simple idea. That is impossible to make.

HADEN-GUEST: This is an actual photograph? Or a photograph your people made?

ARAD: It’s a photograph that Paul and Marcus [assistants to ARAD] made. They had to match the holes, to match the reflection between them. The colors you see represent different diameters.

HADEN-GUEST: When will these pieces be done? [Another assistant, Roberto, joins us.]

ARAD: Roberto is in charge of the production of this. The pieces are not there yet.

ROBERTO: The exhibition started.

ARAD: When we were faced with this impossible date, he didn’t promise to do it on time. And he didn’t promise not to do it on time. He didn’t say, “Sorry, I can’t promise.” And he didn’t say, “I promise.” So we said, the worst case is that the train leaves without us. In the meantime, Sotheby’s uses me for the publicity. And they had a big picture of it in their window on Bond Street. [back to the image] There’s no difference, as you can see. Then Roberto starts getting them made in Italy.

ROBERTO: This is not best to show to everybody!

ARAD: He’s a journalist. He’s not with a factory! Don’t worry!

ROBERTO: [warily] He can copy the waste!

HADEN-GUEST: I’m a writer only.

ARAD: If you want to look at these things and talk about what is sculpture and what is design, you’re welcome.

HADEN-GUEST: We live in a melting world—I think everything’s melting. There are fewer distinctions.

ARAD: I think the distinctions make it easier for bubbles like the design art fairs. If the art fairs were smart enough to sort it out for themselves, they wouldn’t need to have them.

HADEN-GUEST: In your work, there is an element of story. Not exactly narrative, but I think those Alpine pieces, for instance, relate to a lot of emotional things. Am I making any sense?

ARAD: Sure. It all makes sense. Everything makes sense.

Anthony Haden-Guest is a writer, reporter,and cartoonist living in London and New York. He is currently working on his next book.