ART21: Are any of the characters in your work ever heroes? Say, the baseball players . . .
PETTIBON: I’m not in awe of what most people would consider heroes, which would be someone of stature and power. In fact, those would tend to be people who I don’t respect at all. The public has a kind of natural awe of them that tends to...
ART21: There’s an anger and a kind of social criticism in your work. Can you talk about that? Where does that anger come from?
PETTIBON: Well, it just wells up from deep inside me, so watch out: it’s likely to blow any time! (LAUGHS)
"For us, the idea of having a work that has contradictions is very important—when, in affirming something, it includes itself and attacks itself. How can you put together all of these things that have nothing to do with each other? You use glue! Glue can be an idea, a word. You can use an ideological glue."
