5 Questions Episode 4 – William Morris
Welcome St. Louis and beyond to 5 Questions: A Critical Mass for the Visual Arts Podcast in which we ask artists 5 heretofore uncommon questions and explore the vast and mysterious expanse of the artist’s psyche, this time we’re venturing out with the incomparable William Morris.
William has worked in video since 1985, when he graduated from Washington University with his BFA. He finished his MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1989. He focuses on the process of creating images with technology, and is interested in what he calls ‘the alchemy of electronics and engineering which produces the video signal.’ He focuses on the individual, and implies the omitted or elided content of subjective experience. This content is, as he notes ‘what ends up on the cutting floor of memory.’
William has exhibited in South Korea at the Busan International Video Festival, in Paris at L’autre Video, in Chicago at the Beacon Street Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Artemesia Gallery, EMIT Gallery, Name Gallery, in St. Louis at RAC, on Double Helix Television, the Lisa Steinmetz Gallery, ArtLoft, the Bruno David Gallery, and recently a solo exhibition at the Cecile R. Hunt Gallery at Webster University. Morris is a winner of the 2015 Creative Stimulus Grant, the Regional Arts Commission Support Grant, the Ford Foundation Fellowship, and the Illinois Arts Council New Forms Regional Grant.William Morris is currently an independent video producer and director working in St. Louis. You can find his work on Vimeo and here.
This Episode
With William Morris and Joe Kohlburn
Production- Brett Williams
Editing- Sarah Hammond
Critical Mass for the Visual Arts 
I’m wondering since Mr. Morris uses a lot of found imagery (if that’s the right way to describe it) does he confront an element of ownership or copyright? Can one acquire anything as long as no more than a certain amount of time is not used? Is the artist prohibited from using certain images from, for instance, older video or film?