Lisson Presents 7

Lisson Presents 7 is the eye-popping result of digital artist Cory Arcangel’s sharp mind and free roam through the Lisson Gallery’s impressive back catalogue, which spans some 40-odd years. Featuring artists whom he describes as 'the real deal' such as Jenny Holzer, Daniel Buren and Stephen Willats, it's one hell of a journey. We caught up with him to find out more...

Dazed Digital: Can you describe the curation process and how you chose the artists?
Cory Arcangel: These are some of my favourite artists, so it was kind of like being in a candy store. Basically, there was no conceptual pin to the show, I knew that we we going to do something with Stephen, and I knew we were going to have some of these pieces of mine, so I started from there. I just arranged all the possible works in iphoto, and then I was able to just go through them very quickly, it was an intuitive process. I guess I was just trying to get to the point of feeling like I do when I’m surfing the internet.

DD: Were you influenced by Shaquille O’Neals recent art show curation?
CA: Oh! Isn’t that amazing? The reason I was so happy to see that was because the week before I was talking with a friend in New York who studies philosophy. We were talking about Shaq and he was saying that if you look at Shaq’s quotes they hint at an ocean of absolutely groundbreaking thought.

DD: What’s next?
CA: Have you seen my recent cat video? It’s every cat on a piano video file from YouTube, they’re made to recreate Schonberg’s Opus 11. It took a couple of months to do, I have the score, I did just about every note. I built software to help me do it.  Sometimes, I get to be OCD like that, I feel that there is this over-abundant display of weirdness on the internet and I wanted to participate in that scene. Also, we’re giving the Bruce project (Born To Run Glockenspiel Addendium) it’s own MySpace page. It’s getting the full treatment. And I have a show in January at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, where I’m debuting a kinetic sculpture. I’m just trying to keep it moving forward.