New York-based Dan Graham is a pioneer of conceptual art who has defied convention throughout most of his 40-year career. Born in Illinois and raised primarily in New Jersey, he started out by creating text-based concept pieces intended for distribution in magazines. Then he moved on to performances — using video recorders, live-feed monitors and mirrors to complicate the relationships between performer and spectator. He has since become known for making pavilions, large-scale works fabricated from two-way mirror glass and metal that balance between artwork and architecture.
For his current exhibition at the Taka Ishii Gallery in Tokyo's Koto Ward — his first at a commercial gallery in Japan since 1996 — Graham has made a new pavilion, titled "Wood Grid Crossing Two-way Mirror," that's comprised of a rectangular grid of wooden bars intersected by a curving form made out of two-way mirror glass and aluminum. Other works on display include original photographs from Graham's iconic "Homes for America" series (begun 1966), which turn the uniformity of the suburban landscape into a meditation on minimalism.
The Japan Times met with Graham prior to the opening of his exhibition to discuss his work and the myriad ideas and artists that inspire it.