Art in America, interview by Brian Boucher
2013
This photo was taken during a 1995 visit to Jason Rhoades's studio in Los Angeles. Jason is showing me the two-part sculpture "The Future is Filled with Opportunities." It consists of a motorized kind of scooter with buckets forming a seat, which you can see here, and a part you don't see – two white buckets on top of each other with this weird vibrating, cushioned seat on top. The idea was that while riding the steer, you would try to lasso the seat.
I find the body language so funny. I'm really, like, "What the fuck?!" That's for two reasons. One is that it's a classic studio visit, trying to wrap your head around what the artist is doing. But also, he's telling me, "David, you're gonna ride this thing." He was just coming off his demonstration, and now he's asking me to do it.
Growing up on a farm in rural California, Jason was very active with [the youth organization] 4-H – that stands for head, heart, hands and health – and he did a lot of rodeo riding. He was a very good lassoist (I don't even know if that word exists).
Not many people know how to throw a lasso. He was a smallish, slightly paunchy guy, but he was intensely strong and physical. Most of what he and I did together was talk. Then suddenly you see this person you know very well doing something that is at once athletic and like a circus trick. He had a clear vision of the artist being very special, set apart from the rest of the world. With this piece, he's saying, "You think art is special? I'll show you it's really special. And it's hard. You can't do this."
As for when I got on it, I have a faint memory of making it to the back of the alley that we were standing in before this thing started moving back and forth so extremely that I gave up.
He was really about challenging himself and the viewer, and you bet he was challenging his dealer. I would walk into the studio and think, "I have to show this? How are we going to ship it? Who will want to buy it?" You struggle at the moment, but that's what helps you grow as a dealer.
– As told to Brian Boucher