Largely known for his playfully and energetically charged installation that infuses found and made objects including Styrofoam, blown and slumpe glass, neon, fur and other unpredictable materials, Gandalf Gavan sits down to talk with Phong Bui after the second and final performance during his 2010 exhibition Teaching a Chicken How to Fly III, his second solo show at Larissa Goldston. Gaven discusses the relationship between allusion and collaboration in his work--for Teaching a Chicken How to Fly III, he worked with clothing designer Layla Abramowitz, visual artist Nicola López and sound artist Ronnie Bass--and talks about the formal aspects of his works and the emotional complexities that fuel him, especially in the last half decade. He explains how he has been influenced by the work of such varied artists as Keith Sonnier, Martin Kippenberger, Dan Flavin, Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock, even while acknowledging that, at first, he detested Newman, and conceding that Pollock is something of a taboo figure for artists to admit admiring.