Allison Rentz, artempeeREAList

Allison Rentz, dictator. Photos by Ben Grad.

Jeremy and I met up with Allison Rentz just a few days after she performed with Chinese Frankenstein at Eyedrum’s tenth anniversary party. In between winding the chains and yards of plastic which keep popping up in Rentz’ work, we chatted about artempeeREALism, Being An Artist, the trouble haunting one of Rentz’ new pieces, and a few of my favorite past performances.

Rentz, collecting the debris after her show at Eyedrum's 10th anniversary celebration.

I guess I couldn’t deal with current events anymore, so I decided I wanted my own country. And the dictator thing… well, I was concerned that I might be related to Hitler, so that’s part of it… also, I like sitting on a big chair and telling people what to do.

I don’t really know much about people, but my family says the dictator thing isn’t true. It’s a kind of negative criticism of myself. The dictator thing isn’t really very good, but that’s just what it is.
—Rentz

Rentz shares a sketchbook inspired by her dreams.

It took many years for me to get myself so I do art everyday, most of the day, you know. It used to be really erratic.

Right now there’s a deadline for some things, and I’m a little bit concerned about money. I’ve been going through years recently where I’m just like ‘I don’t care! I don’t care about a career; I don’t care about money’ Then I did care…then I couldn’t care…then I didn’t care if people saw my work at all. If my projects happen, it’s okay, but mostly it’s for me.
—Rentz

Allison Rentz is a hard artist to “get”—both in interviews and in viewing her work. So much of what makes up her installations is inspired during her daily life or in physically preparing the space. By the time Allison’s art is ready for public viewing, the evidence of her struggle has mostly vanished.

One of my favorite things about following Allison this year has been seeing the change in my understanding of her installations.

Take, for example, my response to her April installation at Garage Projects:

Rentz’ live performance was basically incomprehensible – but not incomprehensible in a good way, where the piece suggests a basic unity that the viewer’s just not able to grasp.
—Me

Truebadoor, Rentz

So I spend my daytime recording my dreams. I don’t necessarily always work from them, but sometimes just looking at this stuff—it’s part of the process.
—Rentz

Tags: Allison Rentz