Warhol/Samaras write up-Danielle Inducci

Andy Warhol, Warhol in His Own Words: Untitled Statements was a very interested thing to read. I really enjoyed how the entire reading was various quotes from Warhol through different types of his life. It really gave me an insight into how he thinks and how he sees the world around him. He is an intriguing and unique person with many strange qualities, which is most likely what makes him such an interesting conceptual pop-avante garde artist. One quote I found captivating was “I like boring things. I like thing to be exactly the same over and over again.” He goes on in the next quote to say that he likes boring things, but is still bored by them. But that doesn’t mean that everyone else thinks its boring. He starts to describe television shows and how every show is exactly the same plot, the only thing that changes are the details. Warhol says he would rather watch something that is exactly the same over and over again because “the more you look at the same exact thing the more the meaning goes away and the better and emptier you feel.” A line like that really makes me think about what I feel about the situation. I would not want to watch the same thing repeatedly, I be bored with it and would end up turning it off. Oddly enough Warhol likes the feeling of boredom and intentionally doing so to disconnect himself from the materials. His though process is very different from me.

Lucas Samaras’ piece entitled Another Auto interview was very different. I enjoyed reading this because it is an unconventional interview. The point of conducting an interview is to find out information about someone else you do not already know. However in this situation he is interviewing himself. He has arbitrary questions and often repeats the same question to get him to elaborate more on the topic. He asked himself multiple times why he was conducting this interview. Two interesting responses were “So that I can protect myself”, another being “It’s a way of releasing guilt.” I believe he conducted this interview to get his mind to be relaxed and cleared. By performing this interview, Samaras is allowing himself to be free and let his mind wander. Although he is asking the questions himself he is answering with sincerity and openness. I really enjoyed reading this piece and find that it is a good exercise for many artists to do to help enhance their mind and their work.