Been there, smashed that

Krafft's fascination with totalitarianism and its trappings is one of those risky odysseys that artists sometimes make so that the rest of us can safely view the results of their intellectual inquiries under the illumination of track lighting in a clean white gallery. He's especially curious about the horrific political transformation that occurred in Europe in the 1930s and '40s, an era that is a regular preoccupation in his more recent work.

As we discuss it, he seems genuinely perplexed that intelligent people could subscribe to a far-right ideology such as that which swept through Germany in the years before and during World War II.

"Why was Ezra Pound a fascist?" Krafft asks. "Here was one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. Why was he involved in this business? Here's a very intelligent guy who knew everybody there was to know and he's completely behind Mussolini. And when they release him from the asylum he's unrepentant.

"I'm deeply into exploring the other point of view in a certain time period, the '30s and '40s," Krafft continues. "I lose patience with the right wing in America right now. I just think that they're dunderheads. I've become a connoisseur of this kind of propaganda, but it has to be from a certain period -- I can't stomach Rush Limbaugh."

To hear Krafft get going on this subject is like taking a guided tour of his brain's engine room -- down we go into the place that powers him, that keeps him dauntingly prolific. He's very candid and doesn't hesitate to expose his own thought process, even where it's unresolved. Like many artists, he employs his work as a probe, a device, which he uses to explore the things he's curious about, the ideas he's grappling with. What results is a reflection in the form of an intellectual biography that he illustrates as he moves through his life, partly to understand, partly to amuse himself and others.

"You see, I don't have anything to believe in myself, really," he says, "and I'm wondering how another person comes into a belief system and becomes utterly convinced -- it becomes theirs, it defines their personality, it defines their history as a human being.

"I've gone to India three times looking for gurus, I've read varieties of books about people who have supposedly gotten closer to God than other people have, and saints fascinated me for the longest time," he continues. "Drifting into the realm of politics, how does somebody come to believe in a political system and embrace it and work for it and even sacrifice their lives for it, be committed to die for it?"

Krafft says he is curious about the fervor of believers, but not jealous of their direction and devotion. "I think I'm happy not to believe in anything," he says. "I have to be. Why be miserable about it? That's a waste of time. I really enjoy finding the logic to these belief systems, up to a point. And I envy it somehow. But I'm not looking for something to believe in, I'm looking for how others have come into belief. Their stories fascinate me."

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