A very colorful splash & clash with Ryan McNamara
''If tomorrow is judgement day and I'm standin' on the front line and the lord ask me what I did with my life I will say I spent it with you.''
MAMA presents a very colorful interview with Ryan McNamara by SandWitz. Some of the splashy photos and interview-fragments are shown. Find the booklet, designed by OONA, with the complete interview and photo report here.
''SandWitz: decide on or illustrate what you want us as interviewers to look like.''
''Ryan: I would like you all to dress as purple and green.''
So this time, the SandWitz dressed up in a crackling green and purple costume, including a dramatic collar, a theatrical headdress, fashion- able ‘Ryan’ shades. They took green champagne, some of Whitney Houston’s greatest hits, and a huge box full of performance props.
As an experiment SandWitz planned to take (the in meantime confused) Ryan on a speedboat for a photo shoot, which included some secret green product placement (such as Ryan is doing in his current exhibition Survey at Showroom MAMA).
Since being on a speedboat is not the best place for an interview, the following conversation can be summarized like this:
Sandwitz:“WHOO- HAAAIEEEH” AND “WHAHA- HAHAH”
Ryan: “oH My god”. “oooHHH- AHAAAAA. WoWWW”. “Soo beAutIful.” “AWWW
Soo NIce!”
THE TIME THAT RYAN AND SANDWITZ HAD A SERIOUS TALK ABOUT ART
SandWitz: ”At Showroom MAMA, you have been in a sort of production phase the last couple of days, how do you prepare in such a short time for the performances?”
Ryan: ”Every time I do something like this, I have to admit that I do try to prepare. but I am doing so many performances, that all of the scenarios that I prepared run out very quickly. And I really like that actually. day 1: gone. So sometimes it’s almost like letting the scenario speak to you. What are all these things? It’s like putting pieces of a puzzle together.”
S: ”And how do you let the assistants you are working with have a voice in the process? Or is it really you directing the scene?”
R: ”What is interesting to me, in working with these people, is finding out what’s inside of them. It’s a really amazing way of meeting people. really in a very reAl way. We are not acting it out. It really is up to that person and their inherent qualities that they bring with them. everyone, every single person, all can come up with something interesting. So, what I hope for, is that in these scenarios I sort of set up the dining room table, and then everyone else can make the food.”
''And there's a part of me that wants to control. So I'm not pretending that like, ‘oohh whatever you want to do, it’s okay’.''
A very colorful Splash & clash SandWitz interviews Ryan McNamara is published by MAMA in an edition of 500. At the occasion of the exhibition Survey.
Interview:
SandWitz (Dieuwke Boersma and Jesse van Oosten) in conversation with Ryan McNamara
Design:
OONA
Images by:
AAD Hoogendoorn
