Provocarteur Magazine by Camille Gomez

september 2011

Creative ability. artistic activity. social change.

Patti Smith mapplethorpe on their first meeting,

love affairs, and creative collaborations

immortal technique revolutionary

vol.1

more articulate and politically charged flame throwing through music

Jenny hol zer on sounding the alarm in poetic words and light

$14.99 US $15.99 CAN

september 2011 |

7 10

september 2011 |

LITERATURE

MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY

7 4

september 2011 |

DESIGN

september 2011

Creative ability. artistic activity. social change.

Patti Smith mapplethorpe on their first meeting,

love affairs, and creative

immortal technique

collaborations $14.99

revolutionary

vol.1

more articulate and politically charged flame throwing through music

radical beauty irving penn on the cultural subversion & reverence through photography m. Glaser & j. Victore on design zombies

Jenny Holzer: Poetic or Oracular? Holzer shares with us how she has infused Conceptual Art’s playful language with real-life seriousness and has put words in Minimalism’s sleek mouth.

Sculptural Surprises on the Streets On New York City's annual Outdoor Art Festival

ON THE COVER Smith and Mapplethorpe: Just Kids How two such beautifully feral-looking young people

Where Are all the Women?

with no money or connections, who later would go on

MoMA on identity politics

to achieve such extreme success—Smith with music and Mapplethorpe with photography—found each other.

An exposé proving that since the 1970s, only about one percent of the MoMA's

Immortal Technique

Sally Mann: The Flesh and the Spirit

Painting and Sculpture Collection is by women.

On politically charged flame throwing through music

An exhibition presented by VMFA of one of Virginia’s most celebrated contemporary artists.

Irving Penn: Radical Beauty Subversion and reverence. A collection by the late artist that is both a celebration of beauty and a revelation of the blinkered narrowness of our ideas about it.

Milton Glaser and James Victore The two graphic designers on intellectual design.

september 2011 |

editor in chief Camille Gomez

editorial director, time inc. Sandy Mesner managing editor Ginny Froelich CREATIVE DIRECTOR Yezra Ward EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Mark Grail DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR Jen Varse MANAGING EDITOR, PROVOCARTEUR Fin Mitdz DEPUTY EDITORS Warren Mate, Margaret Kay

art DESIGN DIRECTOR Sam Corthe ART DIRECTOR Ann Kurt-Miles ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Math Li SENIOR DESIGNERS Trey Warth, Melissa Bane, Joe Trawick ART ASSISTANT Robbie Chu editorial SENIOR EDITOR Mack Powell STAFF EDITOR Greg Ying ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dannie March EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Annie Won, Mikhaila Kurt, Marlon Wint, Riza Larth research RESEARCH CHIEF Milton Ping RESEARCH EDITOR Cindy Tran ASSOCIATE RESEARCHERS Wi Lui, Maya Rawings, Grit Yellerton REPORTERS Fred Myers, Jay Criss

98% of South African Primary Schools are overcrowded, underfunded, and under-resourced.

7 6

september 2011 |

photo PHOTO DIRECTOR June Wilder PHOTO EDITOR Anthony Groisinger ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR Frances Wit PHOTO ARCHIVIST Dwayne Gummer Henry Taxer, Liz Marsh–Winton PHOTO ASSISTANT Carla Tenner technology DIRECTOR Dina Heller MANAGER Vienna Delanze TECHNICAL ASSISTANTS Red Toller, Pillar Luz, Mindy Xing, Ina Loranze Jilly Mickener–Pollanski publishing SENIOR DIRECTOR Ria Fabian SENIOR MANAGER Andria Melling SPECIALISTS Annelise Dillon, Freud Hix Jenna Bartholomew, Mison Heffings ASSISTANT Winona Minarde

EDITOR'S NOTE

am proud of the moniker ”feminist.” My work also addresses many other issues, both political and aesthetic . It's like we are living back in the 50s again; things are more conservative than ever. This conservatism has permeated the entire country and has significant international influence. In the art world and beyond, race and gender discrimination is thriving, and this makes me very sad. If this weren't the case, more young women would not be so afraid to call themselves feminists.Young artists fear being ghettoized being considered an. .”artist“only . as associated with an adjective such as black, Latino, feminist, political, gay, and so forth.This is understandable, because these attitudes are prevalent… But underlying this tendency to categorize is a notion that somehow there's a type of art production that is nonpolitical or neutral. In other words, you can choose either to make “Art” or to be one of those “other artists.” As far as I can tell, “Art” is about the interests and identities of a modernist tradition of Euroethnic men and is easily consumed by a capitalist system because its politics coincide with the agendas of those in power. I'm talking about a system and not a physical description of people. Participation in this system is a choice… “I'll be post-feminist in the post-patriarchy.“ Excerpt from Andrea Bower's Feminist Artist Statement from the Brooklyn Museum's Elizabeth Allice Sackler Center for Feminist Art, New York.

september 2011 |

art review ART

Sounding the Alarm, In Words and Light Three decades pelting us with unsettling and increasingly relevant portents of things to come. WRITTEN BY

7 8

september 2011 |

Roberta Smith

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

Joe Lumbroso

tones alternately poetic or oracular, inflamed or numb, Big-Brotherly or tender, Ms. Holzer’s terse snippets of prose have warned of evolving threats

to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. She has tracked the inner thoughts of bereft lovers or shellshocked survivors

and articulated the baser instincts unleashed by social chaos. To do this, she has turned various user-friendly, pop-culture modes of public address into early warning systems, including posters, T-shirts, billboards, broadsheets, plaques, giant projections and incised marble benches. Electronic LED signs are her best-known, most spectacular method; they also reflect the military-commercial-entertainment complex that, bit by bit, her art exposes. Ms. Holzer has infused Conceptual Art’s playful language

“For Chicago” reminds us that Ms. Holzer extensively recy-

with real-life seriousness and has put words in Minimalism’s

cles her writings; it uses all of them, from “Truisms” to “Oh”

sleek mouth. And few contemporary artists have as much

(2001). But the piece also exemplifies her continual quest

right as she to say this: I told you so.

for maximum visual impact. Using the recently developed, thinner-than-ever LED signs, “For Chicago” was the first

Two of her most familiar phrases — written at least twenty

Holzer piece made specifically to lie flat on the floorings.

seven years ago—could bracket the political turmoil and

Its 11 48-foot-long LED signs, placed parallel about two

material excess of the United States during the last decade.

feet apart, nearly reduce language to pure light.

“Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise” is from her 1977– 1979 “Truisms” series. “Protect Me From What I Want” is

Stand at the end of the piece, and the words seem to flow

from her 1983–85 “Survival” series. Equally pertinent in the

from your shoes. The whole configuration suggests like a

era of Abu Jal Ghraib and Gitmo, and also from “Survival,”

lighted runway or weirdly geometric rows of crocuses in a

is the unchillingly convoluted “Die fast and quiet when people interrogate you or live so long that they are ashamed to hurt you any further.”

field. As the punctuationav-

Only few contemporary artists have as much right as Holzer to say this :

I. told you so.

erse artist herself might as well say, the piece means to stop you in your tracks and most certainly does. Born in 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio, Ms. Holzer belongs to the femi-

This grim directive pulses every so often along the extend-

nist branch of a pos Post-Minimalist generation of artists

ed LED signs of “For Chicago,” the large and dazzling new

that emerged around 1980, looking for new ways to make

work that leads off the spare, 15-year survey of Ms. Holzer’s

narrative or commentary an implicit part of visual objects.

work at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The show’s title, “Jenny Holzer: Protect Protect,” sums up the frantic,

Her nearest contemporaries include Cindy Sherman, Sarah

maternal impulse behind the work.

Charlesworth and Louise Lawler. Barbara Kruger is most like-minded in sensibility and in the ambition to fuse reading and seeing, taking language beyond words so that it becomes immersive and experiential. The famed Whitney show emphasizes this ambition, featuring only seven LED pieces surrounded by lots of empty space, encouraging us to appreciate their increased visual complexity. (Such spaciousness is becoming something of a Whitney house style; it's equally effective on two floors of

september 2011 |

art review ART

works from the collection just below the Holzer show.) Some

the multiple voices of Jenny Holzer’s writings. view, with all

pieces climb the wall in curved, repeating bands of LED that

degrees of emotion or officialness; they reiterate in real life

jut out like Mr. Donald Judd’s stacks. Others are straight but

the multiple voices of Ms. Holzer’s writings. The changing

sandwiched between walls like Dan Flavin’s fluorescent tubes.

viewpoints in turn are all mimicked in the way we reencoun-

These pieces can be read from different angles, especially

ter the same language in different forms. All the words in

since most of them use double-sided LED signs. More intri-

“Purple” mostly echo the paintings, but seem even scarier

cate programming allows new tricks the words jump, change

spelled out on curved LED signs that arc from floor to wall,

shape and are interrupted by patterns or solid color, or slip

like some kind of highly efficient machine.

past in double layers. Even when Jenny Holzer is recycling earlier writing, as she does in “Monument” and in “Green

The flashing words in “Thorax” repeatedly focus on a single

Purple Cross” and “Blue Cross” (which are shown combined,

incident — the death of a civilian driver in Baghdad—from

spanning a corner), enjoyment and meaning collide more

different points of view. As is usually the case here, the truth

violently; comprehension is slowed, and the words take on

is elusive, but the facts of pain and death are solid. The most

a whole new weight.

complex piece both visually and linguistically is “Red Yellow Looming,” in which 13 LED signs form a stairway between parallel walls. Words, codes, and numbers from state dispa-

have caught up with Ms. Holzer, she has turned from poetic

tches, move across all the signs; all pertain in some way to

soothsaying to simply reporting the facts. Her newest LED

the current war in Iraq, but some date back to the Reagan

projections

But above all, the exhibition demonstrates that as the times

pieces, as well as the silkscreen paintings she started making

administration. This may be the most beautiful yet the most

in 2005, have a single source: declassified and redacted gov-

sinister piece Ms. Holzer has made; reading even a little of it

ernment documents concerning Iraq and the Middle East.

is like watching something start to go down the drain while being strangled in yellow tape. Organized by the Museum of

Ms. Holzer’s Warholian silkscreen paintings are mostly stark

Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Foundation of Beyeler

blow-ups of these documents. They can be heart-rending

in Basel, Switzerland, this show was overseen by Elizabetha

confessions or letters from prisoners of all kinds and their

A. T. Smith, curator at the Chicago museum, and Sam Keller,

families (parents pleading that the Army discharge rather

the Beyeler’s director. It confirms that Ms. Holzer has always

than court-martial their own sons); autopsy and interrogation

been hell bent on seducing us into seeing the darker side of

reports; or exchanges concerning torture, as well as prison-

things. There is a strictness and narrowness to Holzer's art that

ers’ handprints and maps of Baghdad. All are to some extent

may be easier to respect than to love. But in many ways she

redacted, blacked out with a censor’s marker, which gives

has met — at least for the moment — the basic requirements

them unexpected interest as found drawings. These works

of artistic importance. Her work is singular and consistent and

could be accused of exploiting personal tragedy, but they

relevant. It has developed and has also been influential. It

also make starkly clear the shattering of human lives that has

regularly succeeds in taking us deep into the machinations

always been Ms. Holzer’s primary subject. The texts in the

of human frailty and power.

paintings come at us from many points of view, with all the degrees of emotion or officialness; they reiterate in real life

7 10

september 2011 |

The Holzer Projectt continues through May 31 at the Whitney Museum.

jenny hol zer speaks

provocarteur

Your evolution has been from static words on paper to kinetic words rendered electronically to virtual reality. Why VR? What brought you to this medium? Jenny Holzer

I'm always trying to bring unusual content to a different audience â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a non-art-world audience. I think this Guggenheim show is an aberration, though. I think Sense8 and Intel were maybe interested in seeing whether this technology could live in the art world, and I am running in the opposite direction. I'm trying to get out of the art world and go someplace else. provocarteur

How did this piece come about? I looked at your "World Two" with the head-mount on. It depicts all the aftermath of a war, with villagers describing their experiences, often cryptically. You have said that the Bosnian atrocities made these things click in your mindâ&#x20AC;Ś Jenny Holzer

It was quite clear that the strategies used in Bosnia are all too common techniques of war, so I thought about how to translate this sort of content into a VR world, and it seemed that it would be much more immediate if the material was spoken by men and women rather than printed out. provocarteur

Even though the viewer is moving through space in this work, it is relatively static. The spoken words are more or less just waiting there in the buildings for you. If VR were evolved to the point wherein you could do anything you wanted, would Interview By Burr Snider

you do it differently? Would there be a lot of people, and can you state an instance of this? Jenny Holzer

I think not. So much of art-making is about reducing things to the essentials, so I don't feel particularly crippled by this. I don't want it to look natural because then I would be making a documentary film, essentially.

september 2011 |

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Jenny Holzer

K literature review

atti

robert

app lethorp

Smith traces her relationship with Mapplethorpe from their first meetings to their days in and out of hotels, love affairs, and creative collaborations. WRITTEN BY

7 14

september 2011 |

Christopher Bollen

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

Judy Linn and Norman Seeff

Robert and I were always ourselves—up until the day he died, we were just exactly as we were when we first met. We loved each other… Everybody wants to define things. So is it really necessary to have to delimitate love? willful determination as much as destiny. Smith’s immensely

personal storytelling also rectifies certain mistaken notions about the pair, revealing specifically that they were not wild-

1967—Patti Smith moved to New York City from South Jersey,

child drug addicts but dreamers, more human and loving than

and the rest is epic history. There are the photographs, the

their cold, isolated stares and sharp, skinny bodies in early

iconic made-for-record-cover photos shot by Smith’s lover,

photos lead one to believe. Smith left New York for Detroit

soul mate, and co-conspirator in survival, Robert Mappletho-

in 1979 to live with the man she would eventually marry, the

rpe. Then there are the photographs taken of them together,

late former MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith, just as Mapple-

both with wild hair and cloaked in homemade amulets, hang-

thorpe’s career as one of the most shocking and potent art

ing out in the glamorous poverty of the Chelsea Hotel. It is

photographers was reaching its apogee (his black-and-whites

nearly impossible to navigate the social and artistic history

of gay hustlers, S&M acts, flowers, and children were headed

of late ’60s and ’70s New York without coming across Smith.

to museum collections and a court trial for obscenity charges).

She was, as she still is, a poet, an artist, a rock star, and a bit

By then Smith had already produced Horses and had risen to

of a shaman. But it's her friendship with Mapplethorpe where

international fame. Her book follows Mapplethorpe all the

her legend begins—and like most beginnings, this one has

way to his death in 1989 from complications due to AIDS, but

been romanticized to the point of fantasy.

it’s mostly about two kids who held on to each other.

How is it that two such beautifully feral-looking young people

As I began reading Just Kids, Patti Smith had not yet officially

with no money nor connections, who later would go on to

agreed to an interview, but I continued to move through it,

achieve such extreme success—Smith with her music and Ma-

spending an entire Sunday in my apartment unable to let go

pplethorpe with his photography—found each other? It is a

of the book. I finally had to put it down to attend a cocktail

myth of New York City as it once was, a place where misfits

party at a close friend’s house, when I got there, I saw Patti

magically gravitated toward one another at the chance cross-

Smith across the room. I went up to her, and we made a date

roads of a creative revolution. That is just one way to look at

for the interview. It’s this kind of chance meeting that makes

it. But Smith’s new memoir, Just Kids—which traces her rela-

you think there’s some magic left in New York. We met at a

tionship with Mapplethorpe from their first meetings (there

café that Smith has been going to eversince she first moved

were two of them before one fateful night in Tompkins Square

to the city. She ordered a cup of their Egyptian chamomile

Park) to their days in and out of hotels, love affairs, creative

tea, and I simply ordered an Americano.

collaborations, nightclubs, and gritty neighborhoods—paints a radically different picture. In this account, the two struggle to pay for food and shelter, looking out for each other and sacrificing everything they have for the purpose of making art. Just Kids portrays their mythic status as the product of

september 2011 |

K literature review

PATTI SMITH:

That’s what I usually drink. I

think I’ve already had two this morning. CHRISTOPHER BOLLEN:

I think I can drink an

endless amount of coffee. I’m sure one day that will catch up with me. SMITH:

I used to drink like 14 cups a day. I

was a pretty speedy person, but I never noticed. Then, when I was pregnant, I had to give up coffee. After that, I cut

drink them. A lot of it is just aesthetic.

feel cool with this tea. [C. Bollen laughs]

down to five or six cups. Ever since I hit

So you light your cigarette and let it sit

You know, there are pictures of me with

60, I drink only two. What I do is I get I

there and just do not smoke it.

an Americano and a pot of water and I keep diluting it, because it’s not even

BOLLEN:

Do you ponder that would work?

the coffee, it’s the habit.

because I had TB when I was a younger. But I loved the look of smoking — like

If you attach anything harmful to

Bette Davis and Ms. Jeanne Moreau. So

your creative process, you have to do

I would have them and light 'em , up and

smoke cigarettes often except when I

that. If you learn nothing else from me,

take a few puffs, but mostly hold them.

write. But when I write, I smoke. It’s bad,

this is a really important lesson. I have

Some people said that was hypocritical.

but I’m scared that if I break the habit,

seen a lot of people go down because

But in my world, it wasn’t hypocritical at

I will not be able to write.

they attach a substance to their creative

all. I wasn’t interested in actually smok-

process. And lot of it is purely habitual.

ing them. I just really liked holding them

They don’t need it, but they think they

to look cool. Okay, was it a bad image

do, so it becomes all entrenched. Like, I

to show the people? I would let people

cannot go without my coffee. I can go

know I wasn't really smoking.

SMITH: BOLLEN: That’s

SMITH: It’s

my problem. I really don’t

part of your process. It’s what

you have to do. I'll tell you how to break it. You don’t really have to. Like, coffee was part of my process. Now, if I want to go to a café and write or drink coffee for two hours, I just order them. I don’t

7 16

cigarettes in the 1970s, and everybody thought I smoked. I cannot really smoke

september 2011 |

without drinking it, but I can’t go without it nearby. It’s the feeling of how cool

BOLLEN:

I feel with my coffee. Because I do not

romance of creating… As an artist, you

I think it is almost a part of the

I really believe that Robert sought not to destroy order, but to reorder, to reinvent, and to create a new order. I know that he's always wanted to do something that no one else had ever done. That was very important to him. —Patti Smith

kind of have to really buy into your own

SMITH:

Because even as a kid, I wanted

And I wanted to see Nina Simone, so I

romance when you are producing work.

to be an artist. I also did not want to be

saved my money and went to see her at

trapped in the 1950s idea of gender. I

the Village Gate. For me, it was a lot of

Yep. But for me, I haven't really

grew up in the ’50s, when the girls wore

money even if it was just a few dollars.

changed so much since I was 11. When

really bright red lipstick and nail polish,

I was making, I think about twenty two

I was younger, I wanted to write poems

and they really smelled like Eau de Paris.

dollars a week working at a factory. So

about Simón Bolívar. I went to the libra-

Their world just didn’t attract me. I hid

just a day in New York was already half

ry and read everything I could. I wrote

in the world of the artist—first the 19th-

my week’s pay. And I always wanted to

copious notes. I had 40 pages of notes

century artists, then the Beats. Oh, and

be an artist, but I never ever doubted

just to write one small poem. So my pro-

Peter Pan, of course.

that I would have to work. Having a job

SMITH:

was a large part of my upbringing.

cess has not changed much. The way I dress certainly hasn’t changed. When I

BOLLEN:

was a kid, I wore dungarees and little

to New York City?

Have you always been attracted

boatneck shirts with braids. I dressed

BOLLEN:

That's what I like about the book.

Even with all of your youthful idealism

like that throughout the 1950s, to the

SMITH:

horror of my parents and teachers.

about New York City. I’m from the Phila-

deal with struggling to survive. You ba-

delphia area. I came here to New York

sically showed up in New York with no

through art, really. I went to the Muse

money and had to get a job just so you

um of Modern Art to see the Guernica.

could get something to eat.

BOLLEN:

Would you say you were able to

catch on so early in life?

No. As a kid I didn’t really know

and craziness, so many of the chapters

september 2011 |

K literature review SMITH:

Robert absolutely wanted to be

remembered. And he died right in the middle of his prime. But believe me, if Robert had lived, we would have seen unimaginable work. He's hardly finished as an artist. Yes. I’m 63, and I still think I have yet to do my best work. He had so many ideas. We talked at length about the things he wanted to do. I also know that I was the only one who could write this story. I am the only one who knew him so intimately. And he also knew me. He knew I would serve him well. Robert and I both loved the magic in our things. And of all those things that have been

The question for me wasn’t if art got us. The question was, ‘do we regret that?’ I know art got us, because if art gets you, you never can be normal… You cannot go anywhere without trying to transform it.

written about him, I've never found one that maintained the true magic of our relationship, our creative process—and our real struggles, which were very real youthful struggles. Whenever I read the biography of a young artist like let's say, Rimbaud—the biographer sits in such judgment of the young person. Or they talk about how Rimbaud did all these

Yeah… I came from a family that

would write it… I even kept notes for it

terrible things, like walking all around

had no money. I did not have any idea

and wrote other pieces for him, just like

smoking the pipe upside-down or wear-

that I would ever get anything for noth-

The Coral Sea by W.W. Norton, in 1996.

ing ragged clothes. He was a teenager!

ing. So my first thought stepping out on

But it took a while, because the idea of

How can a biographer sit in judgment

New York soil was to find a job. It took a

writing a memoir about a dear departed

while, but I got one. I got a few. I lucked

friend while also having to navigate thru

out at Scribner Book Store, because it

widowhood was too painful. For a while

turned out to be the longest-running job

I had to kinda shelve the promise I made

of my life. That was basically it.

to Robert. In the last ten years, I finally

SMITH:

got back on my feet and got the house People see pictures of you and

in order, literally and figuratively. I was

Mapplethorpe in those early days and

able to start again. I know it seems like

romanticize all that kind of poverty and

a fairly simple book to take 10 years to

struggling. And it is beautiful, no ques-

write, but I had to gather all the material

tion. But hunger is hunger… No matter

and think out the structure. And some-

what decade you live in. You say in the

times, truthfully, it was painful. It made

prologue that Mapplethorpe’s life has

me miss him, you know? Sometimes I’d

been romanticized and damned. But in

remember the atmosphere of our youth

the end, the real Mapplethorpe lies in

with such clarity that it hurt. So I would

his art. So if we have his art, why did you

have to let it go for months and months.

BOLLEN:

feel like you had to write a memoir on your relationship with Robert?

BOLLEN:

Do you know why Mapplethorpe

wanted you to make that promise? Did SMITH: Well,

because I finally finished it. I

promised Robert on his deathbed that I

7 18

september 2011 |

he think remembering those early days was important to his work?

of a teenager? That is how they dress.

guards or paparazzi around them the

cards. If you didn’t have money in your

Those are the pure years when you’re

tons of money. What I’m saying is, that

pocket, you did not eat. There were no

discovering yourself, when you’re trying

line between us and them was easy to

such things as credit cards. There was

things out, all that arrogance of adole-

walk across. It's just that the greatness

a little bit of bartering but definitely no

scence. This is a beautiful time, and it

in their work was undeniable, and their

credit whatsoever to my name.

all has to be judged in accordance with

arrogance or all their own indulgences

that. You know, I still remember what it

were much more palatable. But even so,

BOLLEN:

tastes like to be 11, 17, 27. I wanted—if

they were human beings.

life as we knew it, don't you think?

Credit cards really did change

I could—to really capture that without an ounce of irony or sarcasm. BOLLEN:

When you arrived in New York

in the late 1960s, you were coming to

BOLLEN:

Did you think all those years of

SMITH:

I think these credit cards are one

struggling—not being able to find plac-

of the evils of the world. I always knew

es to sleep, crashing in those bad hotels

they would be. I remember when they

were necessary to become an artist?

started, you’d get credit cards for free in the mail and people then just charge

the city at the peak of a quite incredibly creative, revolutionary moment. But it

SMITH: Oh,

yeah. First, almost as a precur-

things and say, “Look at this stereo I just

wasn’t just luck that you arrived when

sor to that… I came from a struggling

got.” And I’d say, “How are you going

you did. You and the world you lived in

family. My father was on strike from the

to pay for it?” “Oh, the truth is, I don’t

were a big part of what made it a real

factory a lot. My mother did ironing and

have to pay for it.”

creative, revolutionary moment.

waitressing. She had us four kids who were sickly. There wasn’t always plenty

BOLLEN:

We didn’t really know. Sometimes

to eat. So struggling was a part of my

I have a credit card. And all those credit

people say to me, “You knew all those

heritage. But I also read biographies of

cards are like essentially like Santa Claus.

famous people.” Well, none of us were

struggling artists. I respected Baudelaire,

famous. So even the people who were

who was also starving. Rimbaud almost

SMITH: Well,

supposedly famous and had the money

starved to death. It was part of the deal.

move. And a lot of businesses suffered.

did not seem much different from the

I was not afraid. I was quite a romantic

Also people’s concept of material things

rest of us. I mean, if you sat in a room

kid. Struggling and starving were those

changed very swiftly. When Robert and

with people like Janis Joplin, they had

privileges of being an artist. And, more

I were living in the Chelsea, no one had

arrogance, but they did not have body-

importantly, it was a time before credit

a camera. You had a camera if you were

SMITH:

I don't have to pay just because

they didn’t pay. They would

september 2011 |

K literature review a photographer. Or if you had money. That is why all of the documentation today is very different. BOLLEN: Do

you think that very limited

contact with cameras allowed Robert, when your neighbor first lent him her Polaroid, to see photography as some sort of special privilege? SMITH: Oh,

Robert was an artist. I mean,

a lot of these things don’t matter with somebody like Robert, because he's a true artist. Some things may magnify people or open up areas, but Robert

speed. He could basically access sculp-

money to eat. A lot of our preocupation

always knew he was artistic. He wasn’t

ture through his photography. And he

was with how to pay the rent and to get

intimidated by technology or the lack

loved sculpture with all his heart.

our next meal, or a little nickel bag of

of it. He was just more frustrated. He

pot, or supplies to make drawings. Our

was very frustrated when we were quite

BOLLEN: There

is a certain amount of that

preoccupations were so practical. You

young, because he was a visionary in

magic in the memoir. You write about

did not have a lot of , money unless you

a very Marcel Duchamp-ish sort of way.

your work and events that involve magic.

actually stole it from someone.

He envisioned whole rooms, big insta-

And I think that fits into this rather magi-

llations, things he couldn’t realize bec-

cal time of around the late 196 0s and

ause he did not have the money. It is

the1970s , in New York.

not that he needed be introduced to

7 20

BOLLEN:

It really was more about survival.

SMITH: Yeah,

it is different now… Today,

anything. Robert knew about photog-

SMITH:

raphy. He had taken pictures before,

and tried not to be seduced by the fact

fame and fortune and where they are at.

with a 35 mm. But he was not so inter-

that I have always had both very good

They can almost gauge it as it is happe-

ested in the darkroom thing. He liked

and very bad luck. I never understood

ning, by how many hits they have on the

the Polaroid because it was fast. Then

why, and it has continued my whole life.

websites. But when I talk about the past,

he was really seduced by photography

Sometimes I feel like I’m too lucky, and

I am not talking about it like, “Oh, the

in general—but, again, because of its

other times I feel like I’ve been dealt a

good old days…” It was just the way it

rough hand. But we weren’t particularly

was. I could mourn the way things are.

self-conscious when we were doing all

I could mourn the birth of those credit

of those things I wrote about. I did not

card, but I know too that because of the

look around and think, Ah, we are in the

credit card, a lot of people are able to

era. Because, don’t forget, I am a 19th-

do their work. If Robert had had a credit

century person. I spent quite some time

card, he could have done those installa

wishing I had been born in another cen-

tions. So there’s good and evil attached.

tury. I was always looking backward. It

I always think that eventually true artists

took me a long time to appreciate the

will be heard… Sometimes not in their

present. Change was always horrifying

own time. Like William Blake…He was

to me. I always wanted things to stay as

completely drowned out by the Indus

they were and never change. But, hon

trial Revolution. His voice was not heard

estly, I just didn’t think about it, because

in his own time just because everything

we were struggling. One time, just me,

became very material. He was churning

Robert, and Jim Carroll were all living

out his hand-colored books while down

together—three people with promise.

the road there was a mill churning out

But half the time we barely had enough

thousands of books at a time. Almost

september 2011 |

I didn’t realize it. But I’ve noticed

people are very self–conscious about

overnight, William Blake was rendered

William Burroughs, and punk rockers.

obsolete. And today artists like myself

Now it is a whole other scene. That is

could be rendered obsolete, except I

part of New York’s tragedy and beauty.

refuse. I just do my work. Good artists

It is a city of continual reinvention and

will rise up. They will be found.

transformation. I think the way things are going now is good for commerce,

BOLLEN:

But maybe New York is not the

bad for art. Bad for the common man.

place it was for artists. Maybe it is not

[Mayor Michael] Bloomberg does not

the right city for the all those strugglers

serve the common man. He serves the

and drifters anymore.

image of the city as the new shopping center. A place to get the great meals.

Oh, yes. It’s very unfair to young

Little parks that make no sense. Places

struggling people… When we came to

like Union Square, as if we were in Paris.

New York in the late 1960s, you could

We are not Paris. We’re New York City.

find an apartment for $50–$60 a month.

It is a gritty city. It is a place where you

SMITH:

William Blake was rendered obsolete. Today artists like myself could be rendered obsolete, except I refuse. I just do my work. Good artists will rise up. They will be found.

You could get a job in a bookstore or

have all races and all walks of life, and

safe. Or I liked it when it was safer for

be a waitress and still live as an artist.

that has always been its beauty. It’s the

artists. Now it is unsafe for artists. I am

You could have raw space. That’s been

city of immigrants. It is the city where

not saying this for myself. I am saying

rendered impossible. I mean, my band

you can start at the bottom. I feel the

this for the future of creative communi-

lost its practice space and had to move

Bloomberg administration has reinven-

ties. One day, all the people who have

out of town. They’re all fancy galleries.

ted the city as the new hip suburbia. It’s

driven out the artists and have only the

CBGB is now justa fancy clothing store.

a tourist city. It’s really safe for tourists.

fancy condos left are gonna turn around

The Bowery used to be home to winos,

I guess I liked it when it was a little less

and say, “Why do I still live here? There is absolutely nothing in this area!” BOLLEN:

What’s very moving throughout

this book is how you and Robert took care of each other. And it’s rare that in a relationship between two young people, you both became very successful. Usually the support system eventually becomes unbalanced, and then one just rises while the other holds on. Would either of you have made the work you did without each other's company? SMITH:

Robert was a great artist, and he

would have found a way, and I would’ve done whatever I do. But I know what we gave each other. We gave each other

september 2011 |

K literature review what the other didn’t have. I was very sturdy and practical in my own way. So I gave him a practical support system and also unconditional belief. He just had that in himself, but it was nice to have someone conspire with him. I had a lot of bravado, and I was a goodsurvivor. But I cannot say that I believed in myself as an artist with the full intensity that he believed in himself. He gave me that. I certainly do not count myself as any reason why Robert did great work. I just know that in those formative years. I know I definitely kept him going, and

so we did not have to deal with all that.

SMITH:

going, and going.

The rest was just me and him. I do not

ures, he would have to involve himself

even remember a camera. It’s like, when

somehow. He was too honest. I didn’t

Robert took pictures of me, I could see

ask him about all that. It was too much

close friends, and then 2 collaborators.

his face. When I remember, I never see

for me. I still don’t know much about

You were something of a constant when

a camera there. I can always see his eye

what Robert really did in the ’80s. We

Robert was going though so much self-

squint, the way he looked at me, or the

never talked about it, and I never read

reinvention and self-discovery. The way

way he checked to make sure everyth-

anything, because it didn’t involve me.

you describe it in the memoir, it almost

ing was right. He knew what he wanted.

I never stood in judgment of Robert.

seems like it was ripping him apart.

Robert was not an accidental photogr-

I just couldn’t involve myself in all the

apher. He did not shoot and then find

things that he did. I could only support

something cool in the images later. He

him as an artist and as a person who

knew what he wanted and he got it

truly and genuinely loved him.

BOLLEN:

SMITH:

You were first lovers, and then

I was always a constant because

Robert had a lot of duality. Part of it was

I know that if he was taking pict-

his Catholicism andhow he was raised Were you surprised when the

BOLLEN:

versus being homosexual. They were

photography veered into homosexual

moved to Detroit, your career already

battling inside him until he got to the

themes and stuff like S&M?

started to move in a very different orbit.

BOLLEN:

Do you think that split between you

point where things were just no longer It wasn’t even homosexual. It was

and Robert really was necessary?

a battle.They were just all of the things

SMITH:

that he was. Robert and I were always

S&M. S&M is its own world. You can’t

ourselves and until the day he died, we

call it homosexual. It is so specialized.

SMITH:

were just exactly as we were when we

But, yeah, I was really surprised. I was

I was at the height of my fame. I was—

met. And we loved each other… Every-

shocked and frightened, because the

in Europe, at least—becoming a really

body wants to define everything. So is

pictures were frightening. Robert did

big rock ’n’ roll star. I was performing

it necessary to define love? We simply

shocking work. Those pictures should

before 80,000 people, as big an audi-

just loved each other.

always be shocking. I shudder to think

ence as one could imagine. This had

people could get familiar seeing the

nothing to do with Robert. It was just

bloody testicles on a wooden board.

that I had found the person I loved, and

I was worried about him getting hurt

that was how we decided to create our

or killed or something, because it was

lives together as a couple.

BOLLEN:

Robert shot some really beauti-

ful photographs of you. SMITH:

I liked being photographed back

No. Without sounding conceited,

a world that I didn’t know about.

then. I was tall and skinny, and I used to

7 22

By the late ’70s, before you had

—good versus evil and being straight

BOLLEN:

You also said that he was not

Did you really need to flee New

York to do that?

dream about being a model. But I was

BOLLEN:

too weird. I mean, my look back then

the kind of person who would shoot

was too weird for modeling. But I never

voyeuristically. He would get personally

SMITH:

felt self-conscious in front of a camera,

involved with his subjects.

He lived in Detroit, so I deferred to

september 2011 |

Well, to be with Fred, I had to.

Robert was a great artist, and he would have found a way, and I would have done whatever I do. But I know what we gave each other. We gave each other what the other didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have.

K literature review him. I didn’t want to leave New York. I

BOLLEN:

loved New York. It was difficult to leave.

all of the freedom going on in Warhol’s

I had always suspected that for

It was difficult to leave Robert and my

circle, it was just one enormous pool

band. None of that was easy. But as

of intense peer pressure.

fate turned out, those 16 years were the only years I was ever gonna spend

SMITH:

with Fred. So I made the right decision.

that. That was too intense for me. It

They weren’t years, in the end, that I

was very brutal—a brutal scene. But

had a choice to play with.

so was the hippie scene. That was the

It was heavy. I was not a part of

thing—Robert was like a refuge for me, You mention at one point in the

because Robert knew I did not need

book, when you are sitting around the

that stuff. For some reason, my mind

back room at Max’s Kansas City, that

expanded on its own, and he really did

none of the people at the table would

understand that.

die in the Vietnam War, but most of

BOLLEN:

To be honest, one thing that

stories they tell, I could count on my

them would die in the plagues of the

really surprised me about the book is

hand the number of times I drank too

coming decades. Obviously, it must

that I figured you did a lot of drugs at

much tequila with Sam [Shepard] . or

have been hard when writing this book

that time. I just assumed drugs were a

something. But it was also because

to look back at all of the people that

big part of you and Mapplethorpe’s life

of my body. I had so many illnesses in

once were here but now are gone.

in the days of the Chelsea Hotel. I was

my youth. My body actually couldn’t

waiting for the chapter where it would

take substance abuse. I nearly died of

go really deep into drug darkness. But

illnesses three different times before I

you were a very sober person.

was 20, and the last thing I wanted to

BOLLEN:

SMITH:

Well, I cannott say I felt any less

eccentric than anybody else. I do think that some people were more attracted

do, after my parents went broke taking

to the lifestyle around art. There were

SMITH:

I have a whole different view of

care of me, was to throw it away. I am

all kinds of things—speed, mixing pills.

drugs. When the big drug culture was

also too ambitious. I always wanted to

I’ve often thought about what made

prevalent, I was appalled by it. To me,

do something great, and you cannot

me different than a lot of these people.

drugs were quite sacred. I had a side

do anything great if you do not have

Maybe it is the fact that even though

where I had a romantic view of drugs.

mental clarity. Robert also didn’t live

I had a very sickly childhood, I had a

They were for artists and poets and

the crazy drug lifestyle during the ’70s. .

happy childhood. I was loved. A lot of

American Indians and jazz musicians.

I mean, he took acid sometimes. But

these people were not loved early in

I never believed in drugs as a recrea-

we had no money. Buying a nickel bag

their lives. I am not a psychiatrist, nor

tional substance. No matter what the

of pot was a big thing for Robert. If he

am I trying to be. I’m just saying that I

people say or what overexaggerated

smoked a joint every day, it was like

lived in the same environment as these

some skinny little joint. Also, a person

people. But also, I hated peer pressure.

who was really fucked up on drugs and

I suffered it my whole life, and I refused

couldn’t handle it actually repelled him.

when I came to New York for the reve-

If someone came to visit us who had

rse peer pressure. I hated when I was

shot a bunch of heroin or was fucked

in high school and people said I had

up, he didn’t like that. He did not like

to drink beer in a field to be cool. I'd

to see people lose control. I only saw

be the lookout, but I didn’t want beer.

Robert lose control on a substance

It did not attract me, and I hated that

once in my life. I never saw him drunk.

pressure. When I went to New York, I

Sometimes on New Year’s Eve, he’d

hated the pressure of "Oh, if you don’t

have a couple glasses of champagne.

smoke pot, you’re a narc." That para-

7 24

noiac peer pressure was rampant in

BOLLEN:

those days. There was too much of the

sexual portraits his way of gaining the

whole peer pressure to take drugs.

control over the situation.

september 2011 |

Maybe some of his graphical

“Do . we regret that?” I know art got us,

BOLLEN: Do

you think Robert wanted to

because if art gets you, you never can

be himself? Do you think that was one

be normal. You can never enjoy. You

of his many goals?

cannot go anywhere without trying to transform it, you know? You go into a

SMITH:

church to pray, and you start writing a

came from a different upbringing. His

story about being in a church praying.

upbringing was Catholic, middle class,

You’re always observing what you do.

precise, military, well ordered, spank

I noticed that when I was young going

ing clean. I came from a very chaotic

to parties. I could never lose myself in

household. I really believe that Robert

a party unless I was on the dance floor

sought not to destroy order, but to re-

because I was always observing—ob-

order, to reinvent, and to create a new

serving or creating a mental scenario.

order. I know that he always wanted to

That is why performing is probably the

do something that no one else's done.

truest thing I do socially, because eve-

That was very important to him. I was

Robert was an artist. I am not the ana-

rything is natural. There’s nothing fake

a little different. I always wanted to do

lytical person. I have tried to analyze a

in the way that my band performs. We

what somebody else had already done

few things sitting here, but in reality,

are always in the moment. I’m not the

—I wanted to write the next Peter Pan,

I spend most of my time dreaming up

greatest in social situations. Onstage,

the next Alice in Wonderland. I loved

work for magic scenarios.

my whole reason for being there is to

history, and I wanted to be a part of it.

serve, so I'm giving everything of my-

Robert wanted desperately to break

self in the way that I know how.

away from history.

SMITH: He

BOLLEN:

liked to control the situation.

Do you have a lot of your early

Robert had different goals. He

work from that period? BOLLEN:

There are a lot of misunderstan

BOLLEN:

You were telling me earlier that

I have some. A lot of them were

dings about both you and Mappletho

Just Kids isn’t a book about the birth

destroyed when we were robbed. I've

rpe and who you were. Maybe this will

of punk rock. So you just did not want

certain things. I have Robert’s letters

clear some of that up.

to do that book…

have that many photographs. We were

SMITH: Sometimes

SMITH:

so communal, I always imagined what

dings came just because of the way I

that kind of book. We did our work un-

was his was mine. Even when we were

looked. If I had taken speed, I would

consciously, punk rock evolved around

apart, I always knew that if I needed or

have had a heart attack. I was already

what we were doing. Lenny Kaye and I

wanted something, I just felt like I had

moving at 78 rpm. But you know, I just

started working together in 1971. We

to ask him. Never in my wildest dreams

wanted to be myself. That is all I ever

were sort of a bridge from our histori-

SMITH:

to me. I have precious things. I don’t those misunderstan-

I don’t think I’m qualified to write

expected him to die so young. BOLLEN:

I was thinking about that line

you remember him asking you when he was really sick. It’s devastating. He asked you if it was the art that did this. “Did , art get us?” BOLLEN: Yes,

that’s it. And I wondered if

art kind of did. At least for him. It’s not really possible to answer that question. SMITH:

I cannot answer that… I mean, I

know it got me. The question for me wasn’t if art got us. The question was,

september 2011 |

K literature review cal roots and all the great masters. We were a bridge from Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan and Bo Diddley and all the people in the history of rock and roll. Lenny Kaye and I saw the whole history of rock and roll from the time we were born. I was just a child when Little Richard came out with his songs; Elvis Presley was adored by my babysitters… The evolution of rock and roll was within us. New generations come less fettered with evolution. They’re touched by it, but it’s not necessarily in their blood. So they’re going to do things that are more revolutionary. The history of rock and roll is sacred. Sometimes in my life I’ve been given too much credit, and sometimes I’ve been ignored, but to me it doesn’t matter. I know what we did, and I know what we’re doing, and the most impor-

own reward. If that is really what you

because I didn’t believe in Jesus or did

tant thing of all is the maintenance of

are, you are always that. You could be

not feel that he was a great revolution

the cultural voice. Even now, it’s an op-

locked away in a prison with no way

ary. It was about my disconnection with

portunity to have a universal voice be-

at all to communicate what’s in there,

the church and my dissatisfaction with

cause everybody, all over the world,

but you’re still an artist. The imagina-

the rules of church, which was created

loves rock and roll. They speak rock 'n'

tion, the ability to transform is what

by man. And Jesus felt the same thing.

roll, whatever rock’n’ , roll is now, what

makes one an artist. So young artists

That’s why he did what he did. He was

ever you want to call it, whatever label

who feel overwhelmed by everything

tearing down the old guard. I'm a pretty

you want to put on it. It’s the new lang-

have to almost downscale. They have

positive person, you know? I was trying

uage, the new universal language. Jimi

to go deep to this kernel and believe

to infuse the record with a certain posi-

Hendrix knew that. The Rolling Stones

in themselves, and that’s what Robert

tivity and also link us to our history. It

knew that. We knew that.

gave me. He believed in that kernel I

was saluting history and also the future.

had, you know, with absolute uncon-

This book I wrote is just like Horses. It

ditional belief. And if you believe it,

is about a time and about a girl and a

BOLLEN:

Do you have great hopes for

the young artists of the future?

you will have that your whole life, thr-

boy who were there when Horses was

ough the bad times. I wrote the book

being built and committed. I suppose it is about finding people that need it.

There are powerful possibilities,

because I promised Robert I would.

and I think they’re gonna do splendid.

But, I also wrote this book in hopes

If you think on a grand scale, with our

that maybe it would somehow inspire,

legacy, with what we had to work with,

same reason I made Horses.

SMITH:

the history of poetry and art and rock ’n’ roll, the new generations have that

BOLLEN:

Why did you make Horses?

in their hands right now. And how they

7 26

We worked on making Horses

can parlay that is extraordinary. It is a

SMITH:

dark period now because everyone is

to inspire people who, like us, felt dis-

beguiled by fame. I think that true art-

enfranchised, unloved, disconnected

ists just have to keep doing their work,

I wrote ,"Jesus died for somebody’s

keep struggling, and keep hold of their

sins, but not mine" when I was 20 or

vision. Because being a true artist is its

21 riding the subway to Scribner—not

september 2011 |

music MUSIC profiles

interview by racquel cepeda

immortal technique

â&#x20AC;&#x153; Is . our destiny something we can control? Or are there an infinite amount of ones we can pick from? That would mean that our destitinies are somehow preordained. Anyways, no matter what we pick at the end of the day, because if God is limitless and infinite, then He would know every infinite possibility that we could possibly have to choose from.â&#x20AC;?

7 28

september 2011 |

e pauses to inhale without breaking eye contact, not for a flinch. Not even for a forkful of the yummy rice, black

beans, and baked chicken laid out before him. Instead, he continues to build:

".And I think, because we don't have the ability to deal with that, and because we haven't come up with a way to conquer ourselves, we overcompensate by trying to control other people, our women, and other lands that don't belong to us."

Passionate? Yes. Heartfelt? refreshingly so. Freaking intense? Absolutely. Immortal Technique, born Felipe Coronel in a military hospital in Lima, is sitting at a table in Mi Floridita, a popular Cuban eatery in Harlem. Clad in a black baseball cap and a T-shirt with a bright-yellow graphic depicting Harlem, his home since he was two years old, the 30-year-old rapper is forthcoming and brimming with introspection. “.I read everything I could get my hands on,” he recalls,“ whether it was about our people or if it wasn't. Because if you want to understand the black and Latino struggle, and not just have some idea about the pain we've endured, but the possibilities for a real change—we throw that word around a lot, you know…”

His freight train of thought is briefly held up by the waitress bearing 2 cups of café con leche. "I think in terms of change, what is going to eventually happen is not that we're going to stop the war in Iraq, we're just going to change it." Yes. His interviewer nods in agreement. Internally, she is ecstatic not to be stuck in another boring chat with a boring rapper. Whenever she recalls hip-hop's versatile landscape and soundscape during the '90s, she sighs.

september 2011 |

music MUSIC profiles Immortal Technique embodies those

a record deal is nothing but a loan

halcyon days—a man flowing with, well,

with terrible interest rates"), it's his

infinite possibilities just for shaping the

first full– length album in five years,

world around him using hip-hop as a

and it has what's been missing from

tool for sociopolitical change: exposing

his other joints: Made in collabora-

Third World police brutality and ethnic

tion with DJ Green Lantern, sound is

cleansing; and reminding us about the

uncluttered, but still catchy and play-

monstrous effects of Agent Orange on

ful enough to bounce, while nicely

Vietnamese children born almost three

underscoring its star attraction's rap-

You may not be ready for all the ominous truths he speaks… but you need to hear them nonetheless…

id-fire delivery. The result is musically superior to earlier efforts like Revolutionary Vol. 1 and Revolutionary Vol. 2, which makes Technique's message all the more digestible: a sweet spot similar to the work of Public Enemy, or Sao Paolo's Racionais MCs

decades after the American invasion;

“You . had N.W.A., Tribe Called Quest,

warning the black and Latinos here and

and Public Enemy all co-existing on

abroad about neocolonialism and reci-.

the same scene, and that balance is

divism. You may not be ready for the

gone," writes Green Lantern in an e-

ominous truths he speaks, but you ne-

mail. “Tech provides that other side

ed to hear them nonetheless.

of the coin to rappers who just rap about making coins, which helps me

Once you do get through the egress,

keep my sanity.”

however, you might come to a different

photographs and artwork from www.immortaltechnique.info

7 30

september 2011 |

conclusion regarding man's power to

Technique also shows us, on any giv-

shape his own destiny. As a teenager,

en bar of any track on the album, the

the Peruvian ruffian-cum-MC-cum-inter-

insanity that's resulted in the West's

national- activist spent a year in jail for

distorted foreign policy. Consider a

aggravated assault: what other rappers

few lines from the title track: “I am

might call 'street credibility.' But instead

from where people pray to the gods

of glorifying the hyper-violence that's

of their conquerors, And practically

had mall rats creaming in their panties

every president is a money launderer,

like forever, Technique chose to veer

From where the only place democra

left and push self-determination. His

cy's acceptable,Is if America's candi-

rapping style mirrors who he really is

date is electable.” And then there's

as a person: exigent, rapid-fire, and—

the locally relevant "Harlem Renais-

you guessed it—intense, babies. With

sance,” which does strike a chord with

each listen to any of his tracks, you'll

folks who don't necessarily hate The

pick something up that you missed the

Man (it's way too easy), but rather all

last dozen times. This is especially true

the shit that happens when The Man

when diving headfirst into Technique's

takes over your ‘hood: “So they start

latest bilingual contribution, The 3rd

deporting people off the property,

World: a disc just quite overwhelming

Ethnically cleansing the ‘hood, eco-

for the Hannah Montana and Nelly fans,

nomically,They wanna kill the real Ha-

but trenchant and necessary political

rlem Renaissance.” Consider The 3rd

and social fodder for everybody else.

World a Nuevo Internationalist mani-

Released in June on his own Viper Rec-

festo; Ban Ki-moon might consider

ords imprint (because ”I realized that

taking a listen or three.

september 2011 |

K literature review

atti

robert

app lethorp

Smith traces her relationship with Mapplethorpe from their first meetings to their days in and out of hotels, love affairs, and creative collaborations. WRITTEN BY

7 14

september 2011 |

Christopher Bollen

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

Judy Linn and Norman Seeff

personal storytelling also rectifies certain mistaken notions about the pair, revealing specifically that they were not wild-

1967—Patti Smith moved to New York City from South Jersey,

child drug addicts but dreamers, more human and loving than

and the rest is epic history. There are the photographs, the

their cold, isolated stares and sharp, skinny bodies in early

iconic made-for-record-cover photos shot by Smith’s lover,

photos lead one to believe. Smith left New York for Detroit

soul mate, and co-conspirator in survival, Robert Mappletho-

in 1979 to live with the man she would eventually marry, the

rpe. Then there are the photographs taken of them together,

late former MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith, just as Mapple-

both with wild hair and cloaked in homemade amulets, hang-

thorpe’s career as one of the most shocking and potent art

ing out in the glamorous poverty of the Chelsea Hotel. It is

photographers was reaching its apogee (his black-and-whites

nearly impossible to navigate the social and artistic history

of gay hustlers, S&M acts, flowers, and children were headed

of late ’60s and ’70s New York without coming across Smith.

to museum collections and a court trial for obscenity charges).

She was, as she still is, a poet, an artist, a rock star, and a bit

By then Smith had already produced Horses and had risen to

of a shaman. But it's her friendship with Mapplethorpe where

international fame. Her book follows Mapplethorpe all the

her legend begins—and like most beginnings, this one has

way to his death in 1989 from complications due to AIDS, but

been romanticized to the point of fantasy.

it’s mostly about two kids who held on to each other.

How is it that two such beautifully feral-looking young people

As I began reading Just Kids, Patti Smith had not yet officially

with no money nor connections, who later would go on to

agreed to an interview, but I continued to move through it,

achieve such extreme success—Smith with her music and Ma-

spending an entire Sunday in my apartment unable to let go

pplethorpe with his photography—found each other? It is a

of the book. I finally had to put it down to attend a cocktail

myth of New York City as it once was, a place where misfits

party at a close friend’s house, when I got there, I saw Patti

magically gravitated toward one another at the chance cross-

Smith across the room. I went up to her, and we made a date

roads of a creative revolution. That is just one way to look at

for the interview. It’s this kind of chance meeting that makes

it. But Smith’s new memoir, Just Kids—which traces her rela-

you think there’s some magic left in New York. We met at a

tionship with Mapplethorpe from their first meetings (there

café that Smith has been going to eversince she first moved

were two of them before one fateful night in Tompkins Square

to the city. She ordered a cup of their Egyptian chamomile

Park) to their days in and out of hotels, love affairs, creative

tea, and I simply ordered an Americano.

september 2011 |