CHARLES SIMONDS

eceive invitations that enabled him to work in the streets of different countries. InGermany, someone who looked and acted like Simonds was suspicious, especiallyso when the Baader-Meinhof Gang was still on the loose. His neighbors were morethan ready to alert the police to strangers who might belong to that menacingcohort. Simonds experienced interrogations by German police. Asked what he wasdoing, he explained that he was building little houses for Little People. The officers,seemingly satisfied with Simonds' words, said that they would check his progress,which they did. In China, just as the Cultural Revolution was waning, he worked inthe streets of Guilin and Shanghai, though knowing neither how to speak Chinesenor how to read it. He was determined to build a landscape, though his handsshook. "My entire body was shaking with fear. I was afraid that at any momentsomeone would grab me by the scruff of my neck and cart me ott:' Simonds wasdetermined to make a piece in a Chinese city. Remember though that the CulturalRevolution was recent. I consider him heroic! One day he asked the guide whatpeople were saying and she said they thought what he was making was beautifulbut they couldn't understand why he was doing it.Charles Simonds work1ng in Shanghai, China, 1980There are pieces cognate to the dwellings, in Knoedler's exhibition, which arenot street work. The central pieces on view are definitely of another order. Theyderive from his theories-philosophical, religious, scientific. This gives him anunusual situation in the history of contemporary art. His work is inflected bypolitics. Keep in mind that he believes the little houses are radical. It involves acertain view of an artistic audience. An exhibition like the one at Knoedler calledfor a different order of art.I met Charles Simonds in Valencia, Spain, in 2004. I had just finished a three-dayconference in Murcia on my ideas, especially regarding the end of art. It was aneasy train ride from Murcia, a town in the southeast corner of Spain, to Valencia,15