Goodbye Ken Anderlini
David Wilson-McLeish

Love him or loathe him, one thing's for sure: Ken Anderlini knew how to get a reaction out of students. Notorious as the professor behind FPA 111, Ken has shocked and disturbed, delighted and inspired hundreds of art students since he arrived at SFU, but after so many years, he's decided to leave. The Peak had a chance to talk with Ken about his time at SFU, where he's going, what he's thinking, and of course, FPA 111.

The Peak: I'd like to start off by asking: why are you leaving SFU?

Ken Anderlini: Primarily to get a doctorate so I can apply for my old job... That's slightly sarcastic. In the next four months, I'll be looking for a grad school.

The Peak: Where are you planning on going to grad school?

KA: Hopefully UBC, but I don't know. I haven't even applied yet. I'm way behind.

The Peak: I guess you'll be continuing in fine arts?

KA: Art and culture studies, basically. I'd like to write about the effects of globalisation in terms of creativity - that kind of argument.

The Peak: So there's no bad blood between you and the SFU faculty?

KA: No, although I leave really frustrated with what's happened to the School for the Contemporary Arts. I arrived in '88 and entered film school and we were promised new facilities then; we were second on the list. I've been there for over a decade when everything's been about promises and cutbacks. My experience with that has been in work overloads and this never-ending promise of "the building."

The Peak: Why do you think SFU's fine arts program is so neglected?

KA: To be honest, I think it's because there's really no way the arts are going to bring big bucks into the university, whether that's in terms of funding a building or future research. When I look at SFU, I see the arts disappearing because we can't justify ourselves under the current capitalist regime. Particularly for the School for the Contemporary Arts, which has an interdisciplinary mandate, which isn't a mandate about making good corporate entertainment.

The Peak: So you think the fine arts program at SFU is almost irrelevant?

KA: Well, I wonder if the arts in general (other than social sciences) are relevant at all in terms of the way campuses have changed, and the way they're being understood and administered as businesses.

The Peak: Do you think there are any schools in the Lower Mainland that offer a good fine arts program? Like Emily Carr or UBC?

KA: No, they're different programs. See, one of the frustrating things is that what the School for the Contemporary Arts promises to do is actually something no other school does. No other school draws together dancers and musicians as well as visual artists and media makers and theatre students. We've got potential that I don't think we understand is actually there. You can't have at UBC what we have in a 311 course in terms of a range of artistic disciplines, because they don't have a dance school and they're not committed to an idea of interdisciplinarity.

The Peak: Lets talk a bit about 111 now, because I think most of the students reading this will remember you from that course. What did FPA 111 teach you about yourself and about students?

KA: It taught me about stress and anxiety. Whatever side of the lectern you were on, it was the same. It taught me to be more patient. It the end, it taught me to challenge my own tastes and my own belief systems, in terms of dealing with people who were really committed to a belief system they understood or a tradition they valued above all else.

The Peak: Do you have any favourite 111 moments?

KA: I didn't always show Chris Burden, but when ever I showed a Chris Burden tape, it was bound to have a strong reaction and that was usually engaging no matter how intense it got, because people were not exposed to body art. And by the way, this has been art since at least the late '60s. Yeah, I'm gonna miss 111.

The Peak: Are you pursuing any art projects on your own time?

KA: Yeah, part of what I'm trying to do in the next four months is finish off a tape I'm doing with Winston Finn. It's an experimental documentary on gay public sex. That's the one line summary.

The Peak: What do you think art can do, and what do you think it's doing right now?

KA: Well, what it can do is everything from challenge people out of complacency to offer them new ways of looking at things to offer an analysis of something they wouldn't get in any other form. What it could be is an entry point to engaging with our whole culture. What it is ending up being today is what people have complained about for the last century: that it's nothing more than commodity, and with the entertainment industry, it's nothing more than another service industry. That's increasingly what I think it is today. In visual arts, for example, people are commenting on the rise of the art star again, and that speaks to commodity relations and the particular economic system driving art, not any other concerns.

The Peak: Do you plan on coming back to SFU when you've finished your doctorate?

KA: Yeah, I'd be happy to take on sessional work with the art and culture area, so I might be around a little bit, but for my own health I can't take underpaid overloaded work anymore. The other thing is that I've been positive now since 2000, and I really haven't had time to take care of myself, so that's kind of been important as well.

The Peak: Is there anything you'll miss about SFU?

KA: One of the things I'm going to miss is connecting with all the people who aren't happy with the way things are right now. Even if it's a first year course like 111, it's a really intense intellectual community that you're involved in, and you're discussing issues that you don't get to hear about within the mainstream. That's gonna be a pretty big loss.

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