Jeanette Mundt
AGE: 33.
ORIGINALLY FROM: Born in New Jersey, grew up in Zurich.
CURRENTLY LIVE: Brooklyn.
GALLERY: SOCIÉTÉ, Berlin.
THE MOST CHALLENGING OR SUCCESSFUL WORK YOU’VE MADE: When I was in Berlin recently, I was installing a large panel I painted to look like a mountain. I needed to figure out the bracing so the work would stand in the middle of the gallery. I finally decided an Aktenschränke from Ikea was the best bracing system for this particular mountain panel. I picked out the Aktenschränke online, and the art handler, Marius, went off to Ikea. This troubled me because I knew I should be accompanying him, but the thought of shopping in Ikea at that moment made my face start sweating and my tongue dry (common reaction), so I held back and hoped for the best. When Marius returned with the furniture, he seemed completely unfazed and launched into putting the monstrosity together. I kept checking on him—obsessively, annoyingly. But I was struggling with having become the artist who has an art handler handle large pieces of the installation. I was an art handler at some point, so I felt like a fraud watching Marius put together this large Aktenschränke while I did other things, which turned out to be just walking around trying to figure out what kind of shitty “artist” I had become.
THE MOST SURPRISING REACTION TO YOUR WORK YOU’VE RECEIVED: Bravura and dull.
HELPFUL ADVICE YOU’VE RECEIVED FROM ANOTHER ARTIST: Stop being so sensitive.
DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A LONE ARTISTS OR FEEL THAT YOU’RE WORKING IN A COMMUNITY OF PEERS? I’m not sure it’s possible to be a lone artist anymore what with the internet. And certainly not if you are ambitious. If you want to be great, canonized, a master or what have you, you have to align yourself with the right galleries these days.
THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING AN ARTIST IN NEW YORK: The fans.
THE WORST: Cops, the distraction, and watching friends “professionalize” themselves.
FAVORITE LIVING ARTIST: Karen Kilimnik.
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU REACH AN IMPASSE WITH A WORK? Cry.
CURRENTLY WORKING ON: A large painting of a small painting of mushrooms on the forest floor/my golden T-shirt. But I need to make more fish paintings.
