An Interview with Artist Tom Friedman

The American artist Tom Friedman speaks to Rick Slater about the creation of his piece, 11 x 22 x .005, which was auctioned in 2012 by Christie’s Auction House for $32,500. His conceptual sculptures employ everyday materials, such as sugar cubes, pencils, soap and aspirin. He has exhibited his work worldwide. This piece is an erased centerfold from a girlie magazine.

THE BELIEVER: What was it specifically about this particular centerfold that made you say, this is what I am going to do…

TOM FRIEDMAN: Erase it?

BLVR: Yeah. This was the December 1992 centerfold, from what I can gather.

TF: Yeah, that was important. December is kind of the quintessential “snow-winter” kind of thing. February is more associated with Valentine’s Day, so December seemed to be the right choice of month. The title of the piece—11 x 22 x .005—those are the dimensions of the piece of paper, so it was a kind of a way of objectifying the piece of paper. You know, as another way of bringing it back to the object itself, and as a play on the measurements of the model—so I gave the measurements of the piece of paper.  At that time, I was into ritualizing my process. I had done pieces with collecting eraser shavings, re-rolling a roll of toilet paper, chewing the bubblegum, and so this was a ritualizing of the process, but it was also a play on masturbation.

BLVR: I’m glad you said that, because I was thinking, how do I bring that up? I mean I know this has to do with masturbation in some way.

TF: Right, yeah.

BLVR: I was thinking about its creation—and I swear I didn’t think about this too much—there’s this guy sitting there moving his arm back and forth erasing, y’know? There has to be a thing there…

TF: And then the masturbation and the white of the paper also comes back to the, y’know, semen, so like I said, it was kind of playing with the circular logic, and then it’s pinned up on the wall like a pin-up.

BLVR: I’ve seen centerfolds before, so I knew what was there before, even if I haven’t seen that one.

TF: Yeah, I mean, art plays upon peoples’ memories—their familiarity with things. Especially now because when you watch South Park, Family Guy and those sort of shows where there are all sorts of cultural references, and it’s sort of layered upon layer, and if you don’t know the references you might not get it, but the more you know, the greater it becomes. Just like with art, the more you see it and know about...