Questions for my Father #4 2008

Editor: This is Karl Haendel’s, "Questions for my Father #4." It's quite large, almost like a billboard of text, and the questions are so direct and…intimate. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a very public display of private interrogation. The institutional framing of the work is important, we're in a museum, yet the questions feel ripped from a therapy session, or perhaps a very strained family dinner. How does placing these questions in a public space change them? Editor: I guess it makes them less personal and more of a commentary on father-son relationships in general? Maybe it speaks to a generational divide. Curator: Exactly. And the highlighted questions – what do you think the artist is trying to convey with those? They create another layer of selection and emphasis. Editor: It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure of familial angst. I'm seeing this piece in a whole new light!