In Conversation: David Lynch With Paul Holdengräber

Image from my very own Instagram account. Out of respect for the venue and hosts of the night, I obliged to the no photo policy - while some had no shame

The conversation between David Lynch and Paul Holdengräber could have happened within any setting: at a coffee shop while the two look at photos and listen to music with a shared iPad, in the comforts of the interviewer's Fort Greene apartment, or conversing in front of a Francis Bacon painting hanging at the Museum of Modern Art. The talk came off as two acquaintances awkwardly observing surrounding, sounds, and personal interest to pass the time, but this isn't the first time the Live from the New York Public Library director and multi-disciplinary artist came together to, well, essentially bounce off words and emotions. In 2012, Holdengräber did a public interview with Lynch at the Grand Palais in Paris.

I quite enjoyed the event, especially Holdengräber patient approach to interviewing that eschews from the information-seeking tradition. He mines with words until water hits, then lets the action of the water speak for itself. The water, in this case, is Lynch: a walking fascination and seeker of beauty, even in its ugliest presentation. 

Discovering fire and smoke were child revelations that he still enjoys looking at to this day. He finds diners the perfect place to sink into the darkest thoughts, then return to the smell of comfort food, chrome furniture, and stimulating color scheme. Lynch loves looking into a neighbor's window as an escape into another world, and he has a thing for focusing on peculiar features, finding their beauty. (On the latter, the two looked at pictures of hairy nose illustrations, provocatively portraying human behavior.) And subways are still scary to him, it just feels him with fear. I also found my eyes following the rise and fall of his fingers when he twirls them upwards to stress a point. It was slow and like watching a feather ascend.

Lynch: an embodiment of great ideas and showing the world a way to find beauty and emotion in everything around you. To him, a finished work of art shouldn't come with words because "it is what it is." So, he is what he is.