Andy Warhol Ouija Board Interview

We wanted to interview Andy Warhol since he’s included in the upcoming MCA Denver exhibition Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art, and we had an idea. Why not try to channel him through a Ouija board? Program Producer Jesse Leaneagh came up with the questions as someone mildly familiar with Mr. Warhol, and Creative and Production Manager Alex Stephens and Audio Engineer Josh Novak rested their hands on the Ouija pointer also. None of us Ouija-ing were Warhol experts. To contact Andy, we repeated his name three times. By the time our interview was over we had unexpectedly brushed up on art history, crackpot methods or not, and gained a weird new respect for the man himself.

JL: Greetings, Andy Warhol. We're contacting you from the grave. Hope you're there. We have a few questions for you. First off, can you tell us when was the happiest year of your life?

Ouija: 1982

[Aside: We wondered later why 1982 might be Warhol's favorite year... maybe because that's when his first cable TV show came out? Also the year he completed his first Basquiat portrait...]

JL: Who do you think was the most talented Warhol superstar?

Ouija: VH

[None of us knew all the Warhol superstars' initials so we paused for brief Wikipedia research.]

JL: Is VH Ultra Violet?

Ouija: No

JL: Is VH Viva?

Ouija: Yes

[None of us had heard of Viva before, and it wasn't until afterwards that we realized her maiden name was Hoffman. Per Andy's endorsement, we now want to check out Viva Hoffman's early video art and read her book Superstar.]

JL: Which was your favorite pet?

Ouija: Arch

[Confession: I knew that Archie the dachsund was reputedly Warhol's favorite pet, but I still wondered if he secretly liked Amos more.]

JL: We hope you don't think this question is too snarky, but how many wigs did you own?

Ouija: [The pointer stopped over the 1 & 2 at the same time]

JL: You had twelve wigs?

Ouija: Yes [Sarcasm? check 5:27]

JL: Do you have any regrets?

Ouija: No

JL: Last question, who would you have liked to interview that's alive today?

Ouija: TU

JL: Wait, can you spell out their full name?

Ouija: No

[Who do you think TU could be? We guessed Tracey Ullman but aren't sure.]

JL: Thank you, Andy Warhol. We appreciate your time.

We didn't remember until afterwards that one of our Ouija participants had Warhol tattoos on his arms, but perhaps it helped us receive the surprisingly cogent answers we did.