Sean Hennessy, a Washington, D.C. based artist, participates in the Artists Interview Artists Project. Below Sean responds to another artist's five questions (F. Lennox Campello from Washington, D.C.). In order to participate, Sean had to provide me with five questions for some other artist to answer. The assigning of questions to artists is completely random. If you're an artist and interested in participating, let me know.
The elixir of dreams
Mixed media
15” x 27”
1. In the 1968 Beatles song "Glass Onion", written by Lennon, and featured on the White Album, Lennon sings, "Here's another clue for you all, the walrus was Paul." What hidden clue about your artwork are you leaving behind for future generations to decipher?
I feel that to successfully pull off such a marketing/ creative feat of genius such as the “Paul is Dead” mystery, you’ve got to be huge. You have to have enough people that care about the esoteric aspects of your work for it to succeed. Currently, the people that would care about such a thing have my phone number and just call me, obliterating any kind of mystery buzz my arcane sense of novelty could muster.Could the exhibition of Fine Art produce such a buzz? That’s more difficult I’d imagine, since fewer people see original art than listen to recorded music. I don’t believe it could happen until I start mass producing something, like a book or my work.
Still, marketing aside, my work is full of secrets and clues to aspects of my life. All the elements that I use; light bulbs, door, windows, gears, are clues into my life and come from certain instances that mark my growth. My work is a metaphor of my interpretations of living.
2. Would you rather have a really, really catastrophic review of your solo show or no review at all. Why?
A really catastrophic review. Hands down. You got to start up the conversation to have any kind of dialogue. Being panned is the worst thing. I think that most artists would agree with that. Getting your name out there, having people think that damn, they really ought to see this show that someone felt was important enough to rag on seems like a great amount of interest to me.
3. What big name artist has caused the most damage to the way the general public feels about contemporary art and why?
Marcel Duchamp was the most damaging to the way the public feels about contemporary art. I think that until Duchamp, art was by and large understandable to people who hadn’t studied it. While he was not a prolific artist, he changed the way other artists made work, and thought about work. He laid the foundation for conceptual art and a modern sense of content. He intellectualized the experiences of “seeing” art. While I appreciate his work and thoughts, I feel that it reversed a trend that had been growing in European Art since the mid 1800’s ( if not sooner) of making art more about everyday people, not just the rich and the royalty. I think the work and influence of Marcel Duchamp reinitiated an elitist divide that had slowly been disappearing.
4. What will the "Antique Road Show" of the year 2200 say about your work?
“Look at all these clues hidden in these Hennessey masterpieces!”
5. If you had a choice to buy an artist's original work (any artist) between two works, and you liked one better than the other, and the one that you liked better was not signed (and the other was signed), which one would you buy and why?
I usually don’t buy things unless I know where I’m putting it, unless it is art supplies or tools. So I would be faced really with the thought, ”Am I buying this as an investment, or is it going to actually go on my wall for me to look at everyday?” If I have a place for it and will display it, then it’ll be about the one I like better. If I just want a piece buy this certain artist but don’t have a place for it, then I’d want the signed one.
Worshippers of the invented sun
Mixed media
15” x 27”
Previous Interviews:
Juno Doran (questions by James W. Bailey)
Josh Feldman (questions by Joseph Barbaccia)
Lisa Stephenson (questions by Whitney Lynn)
Joseph Barbaccia (questions by Josh Feldman)
James W. Bailey (questions by Matt Hollis)
Matt Hollis (questions by Juno Doran)
Carol Es (questions by James Leonard)
Alexandra Silverthorne (questions by Ami Lahoff)
Christine Buckton Tillman (questions by Carol Es)
Douglas Witmer (questions by Alexandra Silverthorne)
Sky Pape (questions by Douglas Witmer)
Whitney Lynn (questions by Lisa Stephenson)
Heather Levy (questions by Joanne Greenbaum)
Heather Lowe (questions by Samantha Wolov)
Samantha Wolov (questions by Heather Levy)
Timothy McClellan (questions by Heather Lowe)
James Leonard (questions by Sky Pape)
Joanne Greenbaum (questions by Timothy McClellan)
Richard Kooyman (questions by Robert Walton)
Candy Keegan (questions by Warren Craghead)
Robert Walton (questions by Candy Keegan)
John M. Adams (questions by Richard Kooyman)
Prescott Moore Lassman (questions by Mary Addison Hackett)
Mary Addison Hackett (questions by Prescott Moore Lassman)
Andrew Wodzianski (questions by Nathan Manuel & D.Billy)
Nathan Manuel & D.Billy (questions by Andrew Wodzianski)
Michael Janis (questions by Scott Listfield)
Scott Listfield (questions by Michael Janis)
F. Lennox Campello (questions by Sean Hennessy)
Matt Andrade (questions by Adrian Parsons)
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