Erika Vogt on Jack Smith, Artist Theater Program, and Layering Media

In a 2014 interview with Adam Putnam for Afterall's 'Artists at Work' series, Erika Vogt discusses her practice spanning sculpture, printmaking, and video, rooted in experimental film techniques like collaging and layering. Her installation 'Speech Mesh – Drawn OFF' (2014) at the Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire juxtaposes suspended sculpted objects with textured video works. Vogt's Artist Theater Program (ATP), initiated in 2011 at REDCAT in Los Angeles, evolved from a community-building screening to a theatrical performance at EMPAC in Troy, New York, incorporating video, sound, sculptural props, and texts. She likens directing ATP to a drawing process, compressing exhibition space and time, inspired by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub's film 'Every Revolution Is a Roll of the Dice' (1978). Vogt describes her objects—found, hand-sculpted, or cast—as 'subjective antennas' that slow viewers down, contrasting with the visual density of her videos and prints. She references Jack Smith's opposition to capitalist exploitation but not commerce, and his making art from anything. The interview took place on March 24, 2014, in Troy, New York.