For anyone interested in really weird art, Tom Friedman is coming to Steinberg Auditorium Wednesday, September 18, to give a talk at 7:30. Friedman, born in St. Louis and famous for finding hidden meaning in commonplace materials, captures what many consider the stereotypical definition of the modern artist: a little bit nuts. He carves sculptures out of aspirin pills; he puts a little piece of his own poop on a pedestal; by unraveling a pencil he shows the ultimate destiny of the object.
“I don’t think about making my work from a stylistic standpoint. It comes from more of an interest in how the mind works, and the style is more of a byproduct of finding ways to communicate the things I discover in that investigation,” Friedman explains in an interview with Sarah Borruso of POP Biography. In graduate school Friedman took everything out of his studio to explore his experience of different things. He filled 20 pages with observations about a single coffee filter. Maybe he can explain what on earth he wrote when he comes on Wednesday.