This interview was conducted on 11 March 1998 at
Jerry’s in SoHo, NYC, in the wake of the publication of my two-volume collection,
Out of Order, Out of Sight:
Volume 1: Selected Writings in Meta-Art 1968–1992
and
Volume 2: Selected Writings in Art Criticism, 1967–1992
(MIT Press, Cambridge MA and London, 1996). It was originally intended for inclusion as an Appendix to Peter’s
essay in Jon Bird & Michael Newman (eds),
Rewriting Conceptual Art: Critical and Historical Approaches,
1999:
Reaktion Books, London, pp. 47–65. However, the editors rejected it on the grounds of insufficient space in the
book. The 1998 transcript and edit of the interview were subsequently lost, but the audio reemerged and was
re-transcribed by Louis Hartnoll. The text was re-edited by Peter Osborne and myself.
The
book, now
available,
was co-edited by Alejandro Cesarco, Louis Hartnoll, and Kylie Gilchrist, and published by A.R.T. Press. Our
conversation is wide-ranging – from the genesis, definition and art-historical impact of early Conceptual art;
to Minimalism; to historical revisionism; to the political turn that we all took; to the relation between
methodological individualism and the explanation of xenophobia; to metaphysical emergence and reduction in
scientific explanation, to metaphysical explanation in Kant, Hegel and Vedic philosophy more generally, and
more. The dialogical style is fast-paced, argumentative, good-natured and civilized (an unusual combination). It
is clear that we were both having a really good time, plus the food at Jerry’s was great.