“A brief, wondrous overlap between the worlds of conceptual art and government bureaucracy…boundary-defying.” –The New York Times
“[Questioning] occupies a niche between documentary theater, performance art and procedural drama.” –The Los Angeles Times
Questioning is a live theatrical production that reenacts a true story: in 2024 I was interrogated by government officials because I had become a licensed private investigator in order to make artwork. In a windowless conference room in Albany, agents probe for answers, raising fundamental questions about what it means to be an artist. How does detective work, with its close, deliberate observations expressed as a set of findings, differ from artistic practice? On a practical level, what are artists paid for? The objects that they produce, the processes they enact or the technical and critical expertise that they offer?
Eight months after the interrogation, the State dropped their case. I spent several weeks attempting to obtain video footage of our exchange but my requests and subsequent appeals were denied. The New York Department of State certified in writing that the interrogation video couldn’t be found after “diligent search.”
I developed Questioning in order to make the State’s evasion futile. As an artist I can bring the scene to life on my own, whether or not they share the official documentation. I recorded the audio of our interrogation on my cell phone, and the actors in Questioning lip sync to this track. The performance is video recorded, replacing the version that was withheld, albeit in a different form.
CREDITS
Starring: Erika Mugglin, Michael Joseph Pierce and Adron Duell
Director: Julia Weist
Executive Producer: Seth Stolbun
Producers: Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff
Production Coordinator: Louise Wurzelbacher
Assistant Producer: Jacob Pincus
Production Assistant: Danny Saravia-Varela
Casting Director: Samantha Blake Goodman
Lighting Design: Nicolas Amato
Cinematographer: Abigail Raphael Collins
Colorist: Alex Bijan Zandi
PR: Christina Schoen/PURPLE PR
Hair: Alex Ford
Technical Consultant: Adam T. Deen
Audio Visual Controls: Olivia Popejoy
Casting Call (2025-26) comprises three works documenting the unusual process of casting Questioning. Unable to access the state’s video recording, I turned to a forensic sketch application called SketchCop® to reconstruct the appearances of my investigators from memory. In another work, Casting Call: Portrait of the Artist as an Actress, I commissioned a professional photograph from a headshot studio that services working actors, complete with hair and makeup done in house. This image became the primary visual reference for the peculiar task of casting an actress to Julia Weist. Together, the works aim to complicate the relationship between witness, subject, and performer, acknowledging how the reconstruction of an event necessarily involves acts of interpretation and representation.
Casting Call: Deputy Chief Investigator Goldman, 2025-2026
Forensic sketch made with SketchCop®
9 x 12 inches
Edition of 3 + 1AP
Casting Call: Senior Investigator Berent, 2025-2026
Forensic sketch made with SketchCop®
9 x 12 inches
Edition of 3 + 1AP
Casting Call: Portrait of the Artist as an Actress, 2025-2026
Archival pigment print
9 x 12 inches
Edition of 3 + 1AP