Leyla Aksu Interviews Artist Nina Katchadourian

University of Texas Press

Brooklyn-based artist Nina Katchadourian exhibited a mid-career survey of her work at the Blanton Museum of art, titled "Nina Katchadourian: Curiouser." The exhibition and accompanying book reveals the artist’s humor, ingenuity, and ability to unearth the creative potential that “lurks within the mundane,” to use her words. The diverse range of art it highlights includes Mended Spiderwebs, a series of photographs documenting the artist’s attempts to weave red string into dilapidated spiderwebs, and Under Pressure, a recent video that Katchadourian took of herself lip-synching to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury’s duet using her mobile phone in the cramped quarters of an airplane lavatory. We learn about art projects she has made with the assistance not only of arachnids and rock stars, but also United Nations translators, birdcall experts, librarians, sports announcers, parking lot attendants, an accent elimination coach, and even her own parents.