IS agent m[i]le[s]
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RAW FURY #1 Masthead:
Raw Fury #1 ISSN# 2327-6002 / $13.00 USD IS Press Institute of Sociometry Post Office Box 4425 Denver CO 80201-4425 Flatlands Studios 629 Cermak Ste. #407 Chicago, IL 60616
Raw Fury #1 IS (loosely) about Your neck of the woods, and features the work of 13 contributors: m[i]le[s], Manny Green, Mario Zoots, Ladies Fancy Work Society, Heather Link, Narciso Carlos, Eric Von Haynes, PYL/David Cuesta, Dred 88, Tommy B, Brooks Golden, Oscar Arriola, Black Book Gallery. Raw Fury IS published once a year on May Day – the International Workers’ Day by Denver’s IS Press (a division of Institute of Sociometry) in partnership with Chicago’s Flatlands Studios. Raw Fury #1 IS handmade by IS agent m[i]le[s] and Flatlands’ Manny Green in an edition of 113 using letterpress, screen printing, laser printing and photocopy. Raw Fury #1 IS a ‘zine focusing on contemporary street and urban art and graphics in Chicago and Denver.
IS agent m[i]le[s]
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Hi! Manny and I first started working together in 2007
– mostly consisting of day-dream conversations on the bench next to Abraham Lincoln in Chicago’s Grant Park. In 2010 Manny proposed Raw Fury as a masthead and vehicle, mostly for our own work, but also to document the art of our compatriots in Denver and Chicago – the cultural bookends of the Midwest.
Three years and one beta-test later we’re making Abe proud by actually putting Raw Fury together. Our busy day jobs, myself as a design professor at MSU Denver and Manny as the proprietor of FLATLANDS, have resulted in #1 being mostly full of our fellow citizens – but we are able to print it with better equipment than we could have dreamed of way back when we were on the bench. ~ m[i]le[s] ~Thanks! Keep Shinin’! – MG
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Letter from the Editors
– m[i]le[s] & Manny Green | Illustrations Heather Link
Trail Map
WEDUPT
Reverse for section descriptions, difficulty, and trail etiquette. Map direction of travel is West: point the arrow at the mountains.
West Denver Urban Preserve and Trail
SECTION 4 Perry St. to Sheridan Blvd.
+G
Pass
Dog
Habitat: Advanced Terrain: Advanced EXERCISE CAUTION INDIVIDUAL:
The urban camper GROUP SIZE: “386 members of the homeless community ... in the first four months since the “Urban Camping” Ban went into effect on May 28, 2012” – Occupy Denver NATURE OF GROUP: Homeless, hobos, winos, all night binge drinkers, transients and travelers SECTION 3 INCIDENCE OF Knox Ct. to Perry St.SOCIOMETRY: West Denver Urban Preserve and Trail Habitat: Easiest Terrain:
Picn
Tagg
Intermediate
During the Winter of 2012, when the Occupy movement was in full swing, a small cadre of Denver protestors, and a mix of homeless (and soon to be homeless) citizens, took up residence on the sidewalk across from the Colorado Capitol building. On May 28th the City Council passed an “urban camping” ban as a likely pretext for granting Denver Police the ability to quash Occupy’s right to peaceable assembly while stating it was to SECTION 2 Decatur St. cities to Knox Ct. help the homeless by providing a mechanism to move them into shelters and services. Habitat: Intermediate Terrain:
Intermediate
About two blocks south of the IS Home Office in West Denver’s working class SoHi neighborhood, is Lakewood Gulch – an east west chasm SECTION 1 South Platte to Decatur St.
m[i]le[s]
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Habitat: Advanced Terrain: Intermediate EXERCISE CAUTION
Cam
CAU Ligh
CAU Elec
CAU Wetl
bisecting the city’s grid. The gulch is a flash flood zone and infrastructure corridor for high capacity power lines that doubles as a bike-trail route, greenspace, and for the homeless prime urban camping. In 2008 (accidentally) on National Trails Day IS agents guerilla installed a trail marker system designating a route through the gulch as the West Denver Urban Preserve and Trail demarcating areas along the corridor for unsanctioned use such as graffiti tagging, leashless dog walking, drinking, and of course urban camping. In 2012 the urban camping ban and ongoing westward expansion of light-rail through the corridor presented a double threat to unsanctioned use in the gulch. WEDUPT needed to be freshly installed to draw attention to the endangered habitat for urban camping in the corridor. After a month of foot research to determine the new route that homeless had established to accommodate the freshly laid light-rail tracks, agents began constructing DIY signs in orange and black to match the copious construction signage in the area. IS agents m[i]le[s], Handsome Jim and DDUB installed the signs in the wee hours of National Trails Day. At 8am agent m[i]le[s] led a guided walk-through accompanied by a handful of agents, known associates and by reporter Melanie Asmar of Denver’s Westword newspaper. The following are excerpts from her article “Photos: Lakewood Gulch art prank celebrates day drinking, offleash dogs” from June 5th 2012.
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| m[i]le[s]
(Note: as a good reporter Melanie pushed to use my civilian name for the article. For this excerpt I have changed it back to my agent name. Parentheticals are added for readability. ~ m[i]le[s].) Lakewood Gulch (is a) trickling tributary (that) winds through Sun Valley, one of Denver’s poorest neighborhoods, before meeting up with the South Platte River. For years, the area around the gulch was a haven for unsanctioned use, including day drinking and urban camping. ... ... Rehabbing Lakewood Gulch had been on the city’s to-do list for years, and partly due to a new light rail line that will run alongside it, the project was completed this spring. But transforming the gulch into a more open, natural, inviting area pushed the unsanctioned use m[i]le[s] so loves deeper into the shadows – or the woods. “When they started putting in the light rail tracks, I thought, ‘That’s the end of that,’” m[i]le[s] says. “That changed the ‘land forgotten’ feel that it had.” Or maybe not. The more m[i]le[s] explored, the more he realized that the unsanctioned use hadn’t stopped; it had just moved. “There still seems to be people using it as corridor into and out of town, and camping out clandestinely there,” he says. He’s also seen graffiti and m[i]le[s]
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off-leash dog walkers. “The construction created some new pockets where people go and hide out.” And go to drink. m[i]le[s] says he sees a lot of empty beer bottles. So m[i]le[s] decided to resurrect a prank he pulled in 2008 called the West Denver Urban Preserve and Trail, or WEDUPT. For that project, he made fake trail markers to highlight what he called “a wholesale assault on unsanctioned use habitat” due to gentrification and flood control infrastructure development. The markers featured a hand making a “W” sign (for “West Side”) and icons of a crapping dog, graffiti and a tent, all with slashes through them. This time around, the signs are blaze orange and made to resemble construction signs. They, too, feature the West Side “W.” The crapping dog and camping icons are also back, along with new ones warning hikers about potential dangers, such as flash floods and light rail tracks. “It’s something that was intended to kind of increase awareness and facilitate the unsanctioned use of public space,” m[i]le[s] says of WEDUPT. “There’s a path in that area that’s paved, and it’s for biking and jogging and taking your dog on a leash. But there’s different subsets of the community that do other things, and they kind of find their own path.” m[i]le[s]’s trail markers (and map!) are meant to lead the way. On Saturday morning, m[i]le[s] led a hike along his unsanctioned path, and Westword tagged along. Now,
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m[i]le[s]
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Reverse for section descriptions, difficulty, and trail etiquette. Map direction of travel is West: point the arrow at the mountains.
SECTION 4 Perry St. to Sheridan Blvd.
Passing Through
Dog At Large
Habitat: Advanced Terrain: Advanced EXERCISE CAUTION Picnic Area
SECTION 3 Knox Ct. to Perry St. Habitat: Terrain:
Tagging Area
Easiest Intermediate
Camping Area
CAUTION Light Rail
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Intermediate Intermediate
CAUTION
we’re no fans of nature, and the hike involved more bushwhacking that we’d expected. By the end, our legs were itchy from walking through tall grasses and our calves were scraped from scrambling over loose rocks – though our feet were the only ones in the entire eight person hiking party that were not wet from falling into the gulch. But it was a hike like none other we’d been on before, and it took us along secret, well-worn paths we didn’t know existed. m[i]le[s] pointed out the sights, including several camps, a beaver dam and a place he called the “hobo enchanted forest.” About two and a half miles in, the group stopped underneath a gnarled, graffiti-covered tree to “picnic,” a.k.a. drink shooters provided by m[i]le[s]. Ours was peach vodka.” ~ Melanie Asmar
West Denver Urban Preserve + Trail
WEDUPT Trail Map Reverse for section descriptions, difficulty, and trail etiquette. Map direction of travel is West: point the arrow at the mountains.
SECTION 4 Perry St. to Sheridan Blvd. Habitat: Advanced Terrain: Advanced EXERCISE CAUTION
Easiest Intermediate
SECTION 3 Knox Ct. to Perry St. Habitat: Terrain:
Intermediate Intermediate
SECTION 2 Decatur St. to Knox Ct. Habitat: Terrain:
SECTION 1 South Platte to Decatur St. Habitat: Advanced Terrain: Intermediate EXERCISE CAUTION
+ Guide Passing Through
Dog At Large
Picnic Area
Tagging Area
Camping Area
CAUTION Light Rail
CAUTION Electrical
CAUTION Wetlands
CAUTION Flash Flooding
Section 2 begins on the right bank of Lakewood Creek adjacent to wading pools – advise children to watch for broken glass. The route proceeds between the creek and the elevated light rail tracks. Soon after leaving the wading pools the route enters a canyon that is impossible to climb out of during flash flooding. DO NOT enter this section if it is raining, raining to the west, or if there appears to be storm water entering the creek, instead take the paved and elevated Denver Parks sanctioned use trail on the south side of the creek. During dry weather proceed to the base of Dog Paradise Falls. Dog spa pools and “crawdad” hunting for children are popular activities in this area. Climb the rocks on the right bank of the falls and proceed along the elevated embankment adjacent to the light rail tracks. Prior to light rail construction there was an established camp spot on the stream bank. Due to continual heavy construction in the area and flash flooding this is not an advisable camping location, though it does make a nice picnic spot. Continue on the established trail to Knox Ct.. Habitat in this section of the gulch is Intermediate yet the housing projects off of Knox Ct. are Advanced – STAY ON THE TRAIL.
SECTION 2: Decatur St. to Knox Ct. Habitat: Intermediate | Terrain: Intermediate
The entrance to SECTION 1 is accessible at the south side of the light rail tracks spanning the South Platte River. Scramble up the rock embankment and enter the narrow canyon formed by the light rail tracks and the power station fence. There is a popular camping spot immediately upon entrance. If the camping spot is occupied, trail etiquette asks that you respect prior inhabitants and pass through quietly. Follow the only available path west keeping an eye on the trail to avoid human manure until the space opens up into a beginner graffiti tagging area. As you are trespassing in this area, look for Police, RTD, or construction workers prior to dashing either across the light rail bridge or into the parking lot to the left through the open gate. EXERCISE CAUTION: light rail operations will commence in Summer of 2013 at which point it is highly advisable to use the route through the parking lot.
A note on etiquette: Do not disturb established camps, it is not advisable to join picnic parties even if invited – deploy a respectful “just passing through” attitude. When camping please releive yourself at available lavatories on the city grid.
A note on difficulty: In this guide “Habitat” refers to the human element, “Terrain” refers to the natural element. Advanced Habitat should only be entered by experienced urban explorers prepared to encounter intoxicated hobos. Advanced Terrain should only be attempted by experienced, hikers prepared to get their feet wet and bushwhack through dense underbrush. At all times hikers and campers should be prepared to climb to safety during flood danger.
WEDUPT ends at a cottonwood tree just down the bank from the Sheridan Blvd. light rail station. From the terminus, access the city grid by ascending an established footpath up the south side of the gulch to 10th St. and Sheridan Blvd. An unincorporated section of the gulch exists past Sheridan Blvd.. Though not part of WEDUPT, this area of eastern Lakewood provides many clandestine camping and picnicking areas not subject to Denver’s Urban Camping Ban.
Descend the concrete ramp at Pierce St. and proceed to an established campsite underneath the bridge. Cross the creek and climb to bank to an established footpath to begin Section 4. Proceed approx. 100 yards to a path down the bank to grove of trees. Light bivouacking is available in the inner gulch though long term camping is not recommended due to flash flooding. Cross the creek and proceed up the right bank on an established foot path until a washout opposite a left bank bivouac site forces the route out of the inner bank to an established footpath on the upper bank. Proceed to a grove of trees, tagged “420” and descend the bank again to the creek. Proceed up the stream bed through the Enchanted Forrest on a faint footpath, past an established camp in a dangerous flash flood area, to a safer camp site underneath a pedestrian bridge. From the bridge bushwhack up the right bank to a stream crossing adjacent to the elevating light rail. Stay between the light rail and the creek to the last overpass. There are numerous camping and picnicking opportunities in the dense foliage on the right bank. Cross the creek under the overpass and come out on the left side of the tracks and the right creek bank.
Reverse for map and icon guide. Direction of travel is West. SECTION 1: South Platte to Decatur St. Habitat: Advanced | Terrain: Intermediate
SECTION 4: Perry St. to Sheridan Blvd. Habitat: Advanced | Terrain: Advanced
Section 3 follows the space between the creek and the light rail to Perry St.. After passing the first of two Upper Dog Paradise Falls the trail enters an area impossible to escape in a flash flood. During flood danger return to Knox Ct.. Prior to light rail construction there was a heavily used camping area and dense grove of trees in this section. Removal of the campground highlights a general loss of habitat for unsanctioned use in the gulch. After passing the upper cascade, note the beaver pond and wetlands. Evidence of beaver gnawed trees can be found on the far bank. Proceed across the field between the light rail tracks and adjacent park to Perry St..
SECTION 3: Knox Crt. to Perry St. Habitat: Easiest | Terrain: Intermediate
Trail Map + Guide
WEDUPT
West Denver Urban Preserve + Trail
By the end of August the light-rail tracks were finished, the adjacent landscaping was planted and the last WEDUPT survey stake fell. In conclusion IS feels that the majority of the signage and trail flags lasted throughout the prime urban camping season and the mouthpiece of Denver’s Westword was significant in increasing awareness of the endangered habitat for clandestine urban campers. Now that a four year cycle has been established from the first incorporation in 2008 and the second in 2012 we have marked our calendar for May 2016 for a third incorporation of the West Denver Urban Preserve and Trail. /RF
~
Mario Zoots
Mario Zoots manufactures culture. The Denver native has been concentrating on collage thoroughly documented online and exhibited around Denver, with a 2012 solo show New Gothic at Super Ordinary Gallery and pieces in the Denver MCA and Gildar Gallery in 2013, and internationally with a 2012 solo show at Mexico City’s Preteen Gallery and over the last year in Madrid, Vienna, and Athens. With the caveat that he’s “not a real musician” but a beat-glicher and performer, Mario cofounded the art-driven band Modern Witch and is now in the no-wave and global culture influenced band Men In Burka with Modern Witch alumni Kamran Khan. Ongoing side projects include ‘zine publishing under the Drippy Bone Books imprint with Amsterdam based Kristy Foom and LA’s Keenan Marshall Keller and creating video instillations and club-projections with Jeromie Dorrance in Audio Visual Violence Club. In the cracks of his concrete endeavors Zoots still hits the streets under the cover of darkness painting DIME. Mario’s 2013 is chock full of “professional development” – an occasionally ominous transition for a former west side graffiti kid.
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Mario Zoots
Previous page: Mario with COLLAGE IS A MEME and a Modern Witch shirt. This page, top down: Men In Burka performance photo by Scott Kaplan.
Collages at the MCA Denver photo by Kristen Sink. DIME train car photo by side.tracked
He’s one year into an MFA in “Emergent Digital Practices” at University of Denver, curated the Vital Illusion show of international collage art at Denver’s VERTIGO, and is being consistently approached by gallerists and curators. Despite being in a program emphasizing code and motion sensor integration Mario has circled back to traditional collage, “I don’t think I need to work digitally to be a digital artist”. By working with physical materiels and publishing the results on the internet the physical becomes digital. Though he has a long history of “putting on shows” in a DIY fashion, he felt out of his element curating Vital Illusion as “the guy with the tattoos” at light-of-day meetings in large suburban homes with wealthy collectors. Experiencing the other side has changed Mario’s perspective on the ramping up interest in his work. A ripped open letter of inclusion to an upcoming contemporary collage show, from Associate Curator Petra Sertic at the Boulder MCA, sat on his only uncluttered studio surface. Petra had been to his studio a couple of times to look at and discuss his work yet the letter indicated she’d be coming back by to begin the selection process. Mario laughingly recounted his own experience curating Vital Illusion and how hard it was to simply get statements from the artists. He’s doing his darnedest to not bottleneck the process with those interested in his work, “I try to answer emails right away now.” Mario Zoots
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Our conversation was interrupted by a soft knock from a 45 going on 65 super tall dude in a doo-rag, cheap jacket, and a gleaming white leg brace. He eyed me cautiously as Mario told him under-breath, “I’m in a meeting right now.” They fist-bumped and the dude faded off. Mario summed up, “I lead a double life” referring (I inferred) to the split practice between Zoots and DIME. Considering the totality of synchronistic contexts Mario pops up in, I’d characterize it more as a pixelated life. I first met Mario as his typography teacher when he was hitting the books at Metro State and got to know him over an every-day Summer class. (Mario resisted any technical instruction in class insisting he wanted the 67dpi picture of Alf off google image-search to be obliterated with jpeg artifact. Now that we’re well past it he copped to spending two years using only the lasso tool. “I use Photoshop like just like my son”). Early into the Summer I mentioned I was heading over to the Denver ‘Zine Library after class to interview volunteer Kristy Foom – whom I’d met on the internet. He looked at me with sudden focus, “She’s my girlfriend. I’m going over there after class too.” Towards the end of summer Mario had questions about getting one of his collage pieces press-ready for Austin band Finally Punk’s forthcoming 45 – they had found his work on the internet. A month later on
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Mario Zoots
a trip to Chicago I found myself buying the 45 from the No Coast store while visiting (at the time) collective member (and Raw Fury coeditor) Manny Green. The following summer I was visiting Chicago print maker Alex Chitty who’s ‘zine on contemporary collage called Russian Tropics which featured Zoots was fresh-off-the-press – she found him on the internet. When saving the first draft of this article on the Raw Fury dropbox (on the internet) Manny Green messaged me that he had just interviewed Chicago artist and photographer Oscar Arriola. Oscar asked Manny unprompted if we knew of Mario Zoots out in Denver. Mario gave a wide-eyed laugh at this fondly recalling Oscar as the photographer and city-wide tour-guide on a Chicago graffiti meet-up a couple summers back. When asked about his Denver / Chicago feedback loop Mario told me it happens to him all the time, all over the world, “I was painting in Amsterdam at night ... this guy comes up to me and asks ‘are you from Denver’?” He didn’t recognize Zoots – he recognized DIME. Mario got in early on the internet using photo blogs in the mid 90’s as a way to share pictures of his own graffiti and repost the work of others generating thousands of messages and hundreds of connections. He cultivated that network and, as is the way of the world, all the young punks from the 90’s graffiti blogs now have their grown-up hands Mario Zoots
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on the levers of culture. In a recent Denver Post feature Zoots was quoted saying, “I’m from Denver, I grew up on the west side, in a low-income family. And here I am this artist traveling around the world because I made a collage in Photoshop and put it on Flickr.” Mario describes his world as fragmented, he has face-time friends, many of whom don’t know what he does or are part of band life or graffiti life but don’t cross over to art life or vice versa. The people who he relates to most, who do what he does, he interacts with online – and despite the global nature of the medium that world is pretty small. When asked if he ever saw his mediums merging, in the way Laurie Anderson hybridizes music, video, performance and visual art, he shrugs it off recounting the advice of Chicago street-artist vear to not conflate his graffiti and fine art. Though he prefers to keep his disciplines separate, Mario did say that when people ask him what his medium is he tells them “extra large” making an arm-extended circle gesture. “All of it.” /RF ~ m[i]le[s]
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Mario Zoots | mariozoots.com
Ladies Fancywork Society IS agent m[i]le[s]
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Ladies Fancywork Society, (LFS) is a crew of Denver ladies collaborating on a diverse street-art and fiber practice including guerilla and commissioned installs. Their midnight modifications of iconic Denver public art over the last 26 months has pushed the traditional boundaries of street art while setting an almost impossibly high-bar for the emerging yarnbombing tactic. In addition to hitting public sculptures, installing commissioned work for the city and for MCA Denver, LFS sells attractive winter-wear at craft-fairs. Raw Fury caught up with LFS’s Esther who answered our questions on behalf of the society. RF / m[i]le[s] / As a group whose fame-claims are large scale and brazenly illegal modifications of City of Denver owned public art how do you explain your receiving above board city public art commissions? LFS / Esther / It turns out the City of Denver actually likes our brazenly illegal art. I think it also helps that our art is non-destructive, so we’re doing nothing but adding to what’s out there. Like a barnacle. That crochets a lot. RF / There obvious fundamental differences between the two ways of putting up public work. Which do you prefer and why? LFS / Well, they’re pretty different. Rogue stuff is obviously awesome – it’s all us figuring out what we want to do, and how we can execute whatever crazy stupid plan we come up with, and then the rush of having done it and seeing it up, surprising everyone. That’s an amazing feeling.
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Ladies Fancywork Society
But commissioned work is also really fun, because we’re still making our own art, just within a different set of parameters. And it’s awesome to know someone likes your work enough to actually ask you to make it, and pay you for it. It’s kind of the art dream, isn’t it? It just gives us the warm and fuzzies. RF / In light of the Easter weekend green paint vandalism of the Lawrence Argent’s I See What You Mean (aka the big blue bear), and last years prankish and nondestructive, but not really creative, pile of papier mache blue poop, do you feel any sense of protectionism or guilt over the emerging Denver trend of guerilla modifications to public art that LFS first ushered in? LFS / We actually loved the papier mache poop! It’s definitely no less highbrow than our ball and chain, and it made us laugh. We did not, however, love the green paint. There was just no thought or skill or anything at all involved in that; just pointless destruction. (It was a spray/splotch of bright green paint on the back of the bear – about 25ft. up. /RF) That, I think, sums up the difference between street art and vandalism – one is an act of creation that may, from time to time, leave some destruction in its wake – and the other is just a dumb, childish, ruining-of-things. Anyway, no – no guilt here over the paint. Or protectionism. Although it’d be amazing to think that we were responsible for inspiring people to make a (creative, purposeful) mark on their ’hood. That’d be pretty neat. Ladies Fancywork Society
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Previous pages: Legwarmers accesorizing Jonathan Borosky’s Dancers. Wildgarden a city commissioned piece on a downtown fence. Photograph: Jarrod Duncan Fancygasm in the foyer of MCA Denver. This page: Ball and Chain shackling Lawrence Argent’s I See What You Mean. The shadowy figures of LFS Maxine and Esther on mission prep.
RF/ Do you consider the “craft” and entrepreneurial side of LFS – participating in Colorado handmade and selling wares at the Fancy Tiger Holiday Craft Fair – a separate part of the LFS practice from the “fine-art”, fiber work like Fancygasm at the Denver MCA, and rogue street installs? LFS / As far as craft fairs are viewed in relation to our art, I suppose it’s separate in that it might be less “art,” if we’re going to nitpick here. Because the things we sell are largely purposeful (hats, scarves, etc) and thus fall into the “craft” arena of things. But I think what’s interesting about LFS to most people is that it bridges the divide between art and craft, because it puts craft in an art arena, and makes people reconsider the medium. Although that makes it sound like we do craft fairs as some sort of statement, which is not the case. We do them because yarn ain’t free, you know? That said, we do put the same level of dedication and fervor into every project we do, whether it’s Holiday Handmade or an MCA commissioned installation, or our own rogue work. RF/ Do you embrace the “yarnbombing” genera as a craft-empowerment art movement or do you feel, especially considering the scale and level of execution that goes into your street art being more impressive than a stencil-on-a-wall or wheat-pasting, that it’s a term which marginalizes work that is pushing the boundaries and upping the level of daring typically coming from a traditionally macho discipline? LFS / When we started out, actually, Yarnbombing wasn’t as much as a thing, and the term definitely hadn’t taken Ladies Fancywork Society
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off. We called our work tagging and graffiti because that’s how we saw ourselves – just, you know, crochet tagging and crochet graffiti. So we didn’t really have a big connection with that term to begin with. However! Yarnbombing is awesome, and we’re proud to be part of the group. I think if people feel the term Yarnbombing is marginalizing, it probably comes from a place where they scoff at the craft scene edging into the art world to begin with. There’s probably a difference now, between what our work tends to look like and the image that the term Yarnbombing conjures up, in that we tend to make a lot of our own base structures instead of relying on something else to give our work shape. But on top of all the chicken wire and pipes and fishing line and fencing and foam we use (we go to Home Depot a lot), it’s still yarn. So we’re happy to be exploring what might be considered the next step in the Yarnbombing milieu. LFS’s Fancygasm winter warmer installation in the foyer of MCA Denver has just come down for Spring, and the ladies are coming off another large modification of Christopher Lavery’s Cloudscape near DIA – involving an arduous two-mile winter trudge. Keep an eye out for LFS in the warm months of 2013. We’re positive they’re plotting. /RF ~ m[i]le[s]
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Ladies Fancywork Society
RAW FURY #1 Gallery: B r o oks Gol d en Super Cold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Broke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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N a r c i so Carl os Sketch Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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DREDD 88 Pink Diamonds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blinded by the Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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To mmy B Acid Skate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . We are Outlaws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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D a vi d Cu est a Arrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .................................. PY L
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O s c ar Arri ol a Detroit Palms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Juiceboxxx At Ottoman Empire Brachs / Dive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chinatown Flags, Oakland Goldteeth Thor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Record Tape Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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On the west side of Denver is a distinct geographic and cultural area called SoHi. Bordered by and sometimes commandeering portions of the Jefferson Park, Highlands, Sloans Lake and West Colfax neighborhoods, SoHi is different because it doesn’t technically exist. SoHi isn’t a neighborhood at all; SoHi is a lifestyle.
Heather Link
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| IS agent m[i]le[s]
Previous page: View overlooking Mile High Field, a sporting arena, with a local business in foreground. The no drugs sign is particularly amusing as there is a marijuana dispensary across the street. Opposite page: The Triangle Church, as it is referred to by locals, has stood abandoned for several years quietly enduring the passage of time while wistfully overlooking Colfax Avenue. SoHi residents wryly predict that it will eventually become a drive-thru Starbucks.
There is much debate among locals on how SoHi got it’s name. Originally, it was thought to describe the higher than average elevation of the area and the steep hills approaching the eastern and western borders on Federal Boulevard and Knox Street respectively. Locals use the colloquial term, “getting SoHi,” to describe traveling to the area. Another theory is that the name SoHi was created in response to the zeal of realtors to give surrounding neighborhoods similar names such as LoDo, LoHi, etc. Perhaps feeling left out, SoHi locals adopted the name referring to their location south of the Highlands neighborhood to proudly proclaim: “We are SoHi.” Another theory is that the name references the abundance of MMJ dispensaries in the area. While SoHi residents welcome local businesses, this theory is dismissed by SoHi historians. The specific ethos of SoHi at first seems easy to define. Residents sip the favored libation of SoHi, Modelo Especial, on their front porches while ranchero music reverberates through the air. Permaculture dads attempt to xeriscape their previously unkempt lawns while middle aged ladies in khaki cargo shorts walk their golden retrievers. Perhaps the corn guy will come around with his cart brimming with delicious mayo and cayenne smeared ears of corn or a confused hipster will bike by. But as you delve beneath the surface you’ll find that these initial caricatures don’t fully capture the multitudes of SoHi. Perhaps the neighborhood could best be defined as, “kinda shitty,” as visitors may so eloquently put it, but locals know better. Perhaps you just have to be SoHi to get SoHi.
Heather Link
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Rides of SoHi From left to right: Beat up pickup truck. SoHi’s most popular vehicle. Roof rack for ladder optional. Rusted truck topper not shown. Circa 2003 Subaru Outback L.L. Bean edition. The preferred ride of permaculture dads who are recent to the area. Coke Dealer Truck. A rare but beautiful gem. Pizza Hut delivery van. A plausible yet eccentric cover for a FBI surveillance operation or tactical mission.
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Welcome to SoHi
| Heather Link
This page: Previously a bikini girl espresso hut, considered a sad and tawdry affair by SoHi locals, this iconic SoHi structure has been vibrantly renewed. Next Page: Taqueria restaurant on the border of Uptown SoHi, one of SoHi’s three commercial districts. The architectural style and featured cuisine are both popular around SoHi.
Heather Link
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Welcome to SoHi
| Heather Link
Black Book Gallery Black Book anchors the south end of Denver’s Santa Fe Arts District and shows an eclectic mix of street and urban graphic art from a scrupulously curated roster of locals and internationally famous contemporary artists. Some of our favorites on Black Book’s walls over the last 13 months have been Denver artists Ravi Zupa, Lindsey Kuhn, Vincent Comparetto, and Andrew Hoffman, and a major August 2012 show of Shepard Fairey, Denver based Evan Hecox, and Jim Houser. Black Book has introduced the Denver above-ground art viewing public to the underground while maintaining plenty of cultural caché with the art-makers. Black Book regularly pulls in street-snobs who would not otherwise be caught dead at a Santa Fe First Friday and main-streamers who would probably end up dead (or at least sans-wallet) at a midnight graffiti haunt. For April 2013 Tom Horne and his partner Will Suitts put on benefit show for Love Hope Strength The Worlds Leading Rock and Roll Cancer Foundation titled Knock It Out – a Denver milestone group-show of 42 international artists ranging from up and comers to heavy hitters including Raw Fury favorites Bask, Doze Green, Swoon, David Kinsey, Shepard Fairey, Pure Evil, and Sam Flores – who was in attendance, black book in hand.
Above: Swoon Right: Dave Kinsey
RF / m[i]le[s] / Knock It Out was in memory of your twin brother Tim - do you want to say any words about him and your inspiration to hang one of Black Book’s most impressive shows to raise awareness and funds to fight cancer? Black Book Gallery
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Tom / Because of what he meant to me, and how important he was in my life, there really wasn’t an option to put together something on the fly and ya’ know – hope it goes well. What he meant to me was what I put into the show. It needed to be above and beyond anything that I’ve ever done. RF / How did you get into graffiti, street, and graphic art? Tom / I’m not someone from the background of that fine-art degree. So I connected with it. Shepard Fairey was my gateway drug. A lot of these guys; the diy artists, the street artists, the young people – just started doing it. You don’t see many graffiti artists that studied at RISD. (Even though Shepard did he is more of a street artist who doesn’t fit into graffiti - the technical term.) The artists are doing it out of their passion for it, it’s not anything that is forced, it’s more organic. It’s better for me, this genera, I enjoy the art because the artist is passionate about creating something and having fun and that’s what I want, and what I look at for the gallery. This is something that everybody, from somebody that’s just walking in who’s never really been to a show, to someone in a suit who’s really knowledgeable about collecting… I want everyone to be able to come in and feel comfortable and I think this art does that. RF / Black Book draws in people of all stripes, because of the work that you’re showing, and the people who want to see that work, and the location you’re in which draws in people who are out wandering around. Your former galley Andenken on north Larimer would have been more of a
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Black Book Gallery
Right: P and hip
Left: Sh and hip
Pure Evil phoppers
hepard Fairey psters
destination than a place you’d stumble into. What was behind your decision to move to Santa Fe and be on Denver’s main-drag for looking at art. Tom / From the work that I was showing and for the people coming in to Andenken, this type of work wasn’t represented on Santa Fe and they didn’t really go down there. But for me, not coming from an art background (I played sports-in-college), I took that on as a challenge. Let’s show ‘em we can do something! It was always more about wanting it to be a challenge than anything else. RF / Knock It Out seems to build on Black Book’s recent history but pushes it to a new level – both the line-up, the amount of work shown, and the involvement with Love Hope Strength. What were you hoping to achieve from this show? Tom / For this show the biggest thing I want is to mix something that is creative with something that is so destructive and is so hurtful and has ruined so many lives as cancer. Listen, everybody has these two things in their life, (something creative and something destructive) – and the creative part needs to stand out more. It needs to be something that people can see as something good in their life. For me it’s been so hard the last four years to move on without Tim that being in art and seeing people creating helped me heal a little bit. These artists are making things that make me smile, make me happy and are beautiful. This is about connecting something so horrible with something so great.
Black Book Gallery
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Above: Pose Right: Greg Lamarche Far Right: Doze Green
RF / Where do you see this taking you the next 13 months? Tom / To move on, I think the biggest thing once again is the challenge – to bring in people and bring in this artwork to Denver. People are always, “NY has this… LA has this” – of course they do but why can’t we have amazing shows and big time collectors? For me it’s a challenge to be like… all right. I’ll bring it. /RF
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RAW FURY #1 Colophon: Raw Fury #1 ISSN# 2327-6002 IS Press Institute of Sociometry Post Office Box 4425 Denver CO 80201-4425 Flatlands Studios 629 Cermak Ste. #407 Chicago, IL 60616
Raw Fury #1 IS handmade by IS agent m[i]le[s] and Flatlands’ Manny Green in an edition of 113. The edition number of this copy is on the reverse. Raw Fury #1 IS a perfect-bound ‘zine printed with letterpress, screen printing, laser printing, and photocopy on French Speckletone Kraft, Hots Orange Vellum Cover, Strathmore Wove Cover Bristol, and Futura Gloss Text. Raw Fury #1 IS letterpressed laser printed at Metro State Letterpress, Denver Colorado by IS Press, screenprinted, laser printed and bound at FLATLANDS Studios, Chicago Illinois. Raw Fury #1 IS typeset in Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk. Interstate IS used on the WEDUPT map and signs. Univers is handset on the reverse.
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