Conversation with Artist in Residence (MQ) Nick Farr about first dates and the Occupy Movement

Nick Farr: Another funny thing about OKCupid: Once I was in a conversation with one girl who sounded interesting. And then I said: “Oh, I really love the MoMA. Did you go to see the retrospective that they have right now?” I was thinking about maybe trying to see it before I went for Europe so I asked her if it was worth going. And she was like: “Oh, yeah. The MoMA really has great bla bla bla … How often have you been to the MoMA? Did you know that there’s a Jackson Pollock?” And then I wrote back: “Well, actually, they usually have two Jackson Pollocks at any given time - but I guess, they have more than that, I think they have 8 or 9 in the collection but only two are ever on display at any given time. There was one Jackson Pollock that was painted after he started drinking again. And then another one, which was sort of right at the beginning of his creative breakthrough after his wife got him to stop drinking. And what he used to do was: He used to ask people to reflect on one of them and reflect on the other one and say which one they liked better. They always liked the one he painted while he was sober much more than the other one. And, you know, I’m not saying I’m a trained art critic, but I believe very strongly in art, not all art obviously, but some of it.

You know - it’s like with people - you could go on a hundred first dates with a hundred random people and after the first five minutes they are going to bore you or you’re going to know it’s not going to work out. But then there’s that one. And it might not hit you for a while. But then, suddenly, you’re like: “Oh, wow. Something happened there”. And I think art of all forms does that.

mokant.at: Why exactly did you pick Jackson Pollock as an example?

Nick Farr: The reason Jackson Pollock‘s so popular - just for a minute - purely classically aesthetic standpoint: There’s not a lot going on there. You know. Its paint dribbled onto a canvas. If you live for the hermitage Jackson Pollock‘s probably not going to do much for you. But if you just sort of open up your heart a little bit and just stand back and reflect, and just try to listen - I know it’s weird to say “listen” when you’re talking about visual art - there’s something there. I think that’s what separates great art from any other kind of art. Great art says something. Great art says many many different things to many many different people. I think that’s what I love about abstract expressions. It’s just allowing yourself to sort of open up your soul and listen a little bit. And I think that the Occupy Generation has lost a lot of that. And I’m not an abstract expressionist. I’m not even an artist.

mokant.at: You don’t see yourself as an artist?

Nick Farr: No, I’m an accountant. I mean, I say this to all of my friends. The joke was that the first couple of days that I started dancing, I’d never danced before. I never danced in public.

mokant.at: Not even when you were out with your friends on a friday night?

Nick Farr: No. At the club I never dance. There were a couple exceptions. When I was living in San Francisco there was a huge noise pop and noise punk scene. And I ended up at a noise punk show and there was something just about that music that I could not help but … It wasn’t even dancing, it was trashing around to. Everybody was dancing and trashing around as well and that was a huge, liberating thing. But that’s not even dancing.

mokant.at: Why did you decide to choose dancing as your form of protest?
Nick Farr: I knew that we had to find some other ways of protest. Because we can’t occupy a space anymore. They’ll just kick us out. Dancing is sort of the logical expression to that. And that’s what I’ve been playing with. The first couple of days I was dancing in my apartment by myself. But nobody ever sees that. That’s the funny thing: When I’m totally alone I was perfectly fine with dancing. But when I was living with my girlfriend, my ex fiancé, I never danced. And my ex fiancé was really nice, she was like: “Yeah, you should dance, you should sing. I really like it.” But just around another person I was too cautious about it and I thought, after this last breakup, which I think was the harshest of my life, I thought: “Fuck it! I don’t care anymore. I really don’t care what these people think or what they say. I’m just going to go out in the street and dance. I’m just going to try to work out all of this”. And as soon as I just started everything came out. I danced for two solid hours on my first day. I wouldn’t get back to it the next day. And the next day I was really sore because I hadn’t moved that way in … maybe ever. And I’m an old man. I was hurting. I was just in pain everywhere. I could not walk up the stairs. (laughs) I could dance TO the stairs. I could not walk UP the stairs to my apartment. I had to take the elevator. (laughs)