The Evening Interviews: Loris Gréaud
Loris Gréaud is a French artist with varied interests including underwater fireworks; classical statuary turned grotesque; the color black, used promiscuously; and Snorks. He's also a fan of literature, even when it's completely opaque, unreadable, or--to borrow his lingo--an exercise in irresolution. Even if you’re not an art nerd you may have heard of Mr. Gréaud, especially after he contacted a Texan journalist—who was not very fond of his exhibition at the Dallas Contemporary museum—and suggested a lack of sex might be the cause of her bitterness. Sacré bleu, mes chats! One important fact about Loris though, that has gotten lost in the shuffle of possibly-manufactured controversy, is that he’s a feline-freak and major kitten-activist, dedicated to spreading the four-pawed gospel far and wide. Rather than rehash the same tired scandal, we checked in with him about what really matters.
UNI & CHLOE: For your most recent exhibition in Dallas, you purposefully destroyed about half of the work you'd made. As cats, we can appreciate and empathize with this impulse: So much beauty in chaos! Sometimes we're just walking along a ledge, or a bookshelf, and there's a glass of water or a pretty vase, and for no good reason we're like, Fuck you glass! Fuck you vase! Smash you to bits, hahaha! Besides your own artwork, what are some other things in the world that you sometimes think about destroying??
LORIS GRÉAUD: Well, this moment of destruction was precisely trying to act like you cats with a glass of water: no emotions involved, no political claims. A cold and dry gesture. I was pretty sure I’d create a shell or a mirror, that humans would project their own experiences of destruction, from world events or their own desires. Destruction has never been my thing but that is what this project required; if it’s the medium then I had to go along and see what the paradigm of irresolution would lead me to destroy even further.
UNI & CHLOE: We've seen your photo series of "Cheshire Cats," in which normal felines are given bold new color treatments. How did this happen? Is it Photoshop magic, or did you actually dye these shocked-looking kitties? We suddenly feel so drab and boring as "normal" tabbies...
LG: Don’t worry—it’s all precise Photoshop post-production using white cats or Sphinx cats. But I’ve also realized a couple of actual sculptures of sleeping cats, using rabbit hair dye to change the color of their fur to that of the Cheshire cat. What would you guys think about doing make up ?
UNI: We’re strictly au natural. We woke up like this, Loris.
CHLOE: You seem to like exotic breeds. If you were a cat yourself, what type would you be?
LG: Without hesitation I’d be a blue Scottish Fold! I'd get the shape of a Persian cat without the constraint of long hair; a bit of a tough style with my uniquely folded ears; and the controversial reputation of a gene mutation...
UNI & CHLOE: You often talk about creating viruses with your artwork, like ones that will spread through audiences and the media. What do you think of the parasite toxoplasma gondii, which some scientists think can cause irrational cat-related passion in humans?? Perhaps you've already been infected...
LG: For this recent project at Dallas Contemporary I used viruses as a format and a metaphor. I was following a figure who is emblematic in my work—William S Burroughs—who, as you know, as also a fan of cats, and very inspired by them. Most people haven’t heard of Burroughs’s rare novel, The Cat Inside. Here’s Burroughs in a 1971 public talk: “My general theory has been that the Word is literally a virus, and that it has not been recognized as such because it has achieved a state of relatively stable symbiosis with its human host; that is to say, the Word Virus (the Other Half) has established itself so firmly as an accepted part of the human organism that it can now sneer at gangster viruses like smallpox and turn them in to the Pasteur Institute. But the Word clearly bears the single identifying feature of virus: it is an organism with no internal function other than to replicate itself...” Regarding toxoplasma gondii, did you know that is transforms mice into creatures who don’t fear cats? But when humans are contaminated it’s way less fun, since it can cause malaria…
UNI & CHLOE: Cats are often aloof, and moody...hard to please...fiercely independent...and a bit sadistic. Are these qualities that you relate to as a human? If so, how so?
LG: It’s more about what a project requires and where you’re ready to go as an artist. Being independent is really important to me; I don’t think I’m sadistic, though. But you know, if you put a mirror in front of a cat you can expect many reactions—some will play with their reflection; most will be scared; others will attack. It’s quite similar if you were to put a giant mirror in front of the human world. There wouldn’t be one single reaction.
UNI & CHLOE: You're a big fan of collaborations, working with scientists, or adult film actors, or Lee Ranaldo. Maybe we could work together sometime, the first-ever human/feline collaboration in all of art history? Any ideas about what kind of things we might make together?
LG: I’m actually not a fan of collaborations. I think more in terms of spaces for discussion where I displace myself to formulate answers to my projects and obsessions. I have to meet the right people who will be able to find those answers with me....What about cat paintings—using a scratching post as a canvas while also providing a relief of tension? And maybe this Burroughs quote is a good starting point to link carts and humans: “We are the cats inside. We are the cats who cannot walk alone, and for us there is only one place.”
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Loris Gréaud’s “Unplayed Notes Museum” is on view at Dallas Contemporary through March 21









