I’d like to talk to you about pretentiousness: that of yours, mine, and the audiences we think we might have for our work. In advance of our discussion it might be helpful to use the following (very broad) questions as a starting point:

– What compels you to make what you make?

– Do you have anyone, or any group of people in mind as an audience for what you make? If so, why should they care about what you do?

– Do you ever feel self-conscious about your art or area of activity? Do you feel pressure – imagined or real – to make work in a certain style or language?

– Think of a work of art that you would describe as pretentious. What is it, specifically, about this art work that makes it pretentious in your eyes?

Dan Fox is Senior Editor of Frieze Magazine, a musician, filmmaker and co-founder of Junior Aspirin Records. He is a visiting tutor at The Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford and lives in New York. Recent Publications include Changing Places (A roundtable discussion on art, gentrification and artistic freedom with Nils Norman, Timotheus Vermeulen, Anton Vidokle and Sharon Zukin, Frieze 148), Dear Claes (a statement in response to Claes Oldenburg’s ‘I am for an Art…’, Frieze 148).