Modart Magazine #15 by Modart Magazine

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8 Open 10 Spy 1 The Strangler (Brussels) 12 Spy 2 CopyRight (London) 14 Island and Ideas

47 Sawn Off Tales

16 Riders Ink

64 In Your Ear

22 Word from King Adz

66 Show & tell

24 Squatting the White Cube

68 Show & tell

30 Primary Flight 34 Illustrative Works

70 Show & tell

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Liz Haines on Brian Haw, Art and Risk

Jo Waterhouse interviews the Pirates crew Street Definition

Modart goes to Miami

Sit Jon Burgerman Admir Jahic

Story: David Gaffney / Image: A Friend

48 Photo

Words and work from 5 young photographers

62 Want It

Vincent Skoglund on hot tools with Jon Kennedy and Florent de Maria The Flowers in this garden … Os Gemeos The Expression Sessions part 3 Santa’s Ghetto 2007

74 Inside

Does Graffiti belong there? The Montana Scholarship

Cover: Vincent Skoglund

Creative action = active creation

Issue #15 Managing Director Christian Vogler christian@modarteurope.com

Creative Director Harlan Levey harlan@modarteurope.com

Art Director Tobias Allanson tobias@modarteurope.com

Distribution/ Production Manager

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Oliver Kurzemann oliver@modarteurope.com

Modart Editorial

Realiza Tu Sueno Become Your Dream

Contributors

It’s a brand new year and what a difference a day makes. Sadly, most of the great moments of this year will eventually be forgotten. Many are already stored in the far corners of our mind, and the dust is piling up. Eventually images will outlive the actual events; photographs will remain after memories have become ashes.

Today, all of our perception is tweaked by mediated sensation and second, third, forth, and fifth hand experiences. From TV to bar room banter, each form of mediation has its equal influence and our view is formed by media in such a violent way that our authentic aesthetic emotions and manufactured media are realities that can no longer be divided.

Oliver Kurzemann oliver@modarteurope.com

We won’t start or finish with any sort of year in review, but in this issue we turn to photography, stencils and other forms of contemporary photorealism to look at how some of the artists in our communities approach aesthetics and deal with the world around them. When we say contemporary, we mean – right now. Issue 15 sees our content take a slight turn in the form of a massive photo feature including the likes of Vincent Skoglund, JR and 3 other photographers you may not yet have heard of.

Forget hearing the “truth” on TV or in your church. You are truths in the making. Experience is all we can base judgment on. When man can control images and genes, can shift material and metaphysics, there is no longer any excuse for simply spinning around in the same pools of shit our ancestors did. You are an artist. Your art is your life. Unlearn the American Dream and become your own. Assume your perversions, explore your practices, Brian Haw certainly does. And in this issue Liz Haines expresses how this inspires her and why it makes her angry at the ‘art’ world.

While the world stays as weird as ever, the struggle of the artist remains what it ever was. Ado, featured in this issue’s Illustrated Works, told me that he feels that while artists are often depicted as being crazy, the ones that he has met are most often the sanest people, those in a loving struggle not to be part of the warring masses. For more reasons than this, Bad Religion was correct, “sanity is a full time job in a world that’s always changing.” It’s also a tough one in a world that doesn’t seem to change at all. Which world is more real: the one that is changing, or the one just going around the track again? Can something be ‘more’ real? The question of reality enters everything we do if we let it.

We’ll also share some images of our trip to Miami where we were still standing after ten rounds of that same “art world’s” so called sexual Olympics. Outside the competitive games, and yet beating ever so gently on the market floor, Santa’s Ghetto celebrated this Christmas in Bethlehem and Tristan Manco tells us the tail of doves in the crosshairs. Welcome to Modart Issue 15. — Harlan *Pictures taken on my visit to New York’s original sidewalk philosopher‘s new place. You can now find James Delavega hanging out in his dream on St. Marks.

King Adz, Eva Cardon (aka Ephameron), Ripo, Tristan Manco and Jo Waterhouse

Modart Music Florent de Maria, Jon Kennedy

Copyright, The Strangler, Ado Jahic, RuediOne, Vincent Skoglund, Matt Georges, Thor Jonsson, Sit, Mo and Stephanie – the gorgeous girls of Scope, Liz Haines, Jorgy Bear, Jon Burgerman, Logan Hicks, and Jeremiah Garcia

Advertising: +43 676 4205126

Publisher Rebel Media Limited

Editorial Office Good Guy Marketing GmbH Modart Magazine Erlerstrasse 1 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Printing Grafica Editoriale Srl Bologna, Italy www.monrifgroup.net

Distribution: ASV Vertriebs gmbh Süderstrasse 77 20097 Hamburg, Germany

ISSN Code 1865-9918 Modart magazine is published 6 times a year by Rebel Media Limited. Reproduction of editorial is strictly prohibited without prior permission. Views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without prior written consent, except for permitted fair dealing under the Copyright Designs and Patent Act 1988. Application for permission for use of copyright material including permission to reproduce extracts in other public works shall be made to the publishers. All rights reserved copyright 2007.

www.modarteurope.com

The Strangler

SPY 1

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Autodidactic and influenced by cartoons, tattoos and a life spend passing posters (political, promotional, films, concerts, all the mix that hits most cities). His work subtly associates the typography of an image, and in the items in his sack are always changing. Quick with the wrist and with two eyes on detail, his process hits the page in an extremely personal manner even when it might remind you of something youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve previously seen. This unique style is perhaps his emotion illustrating the subjects that leave his pencil. As such, we find a range of feelings from sad to happy to pissed, a sea of grey as we bounce between the black and whites, the light and the darkness without degradation. www.stranglerneb.tk www.fotolog.net/the_stranglerâ&#x20AC;¨ www.myspace.com/strangler_neb

Headaches heartaches and nosebleeds: COpyRight on Addiction

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I’m cheating on my girlfriend. I’m in love with hundreds of women that do not exist. I can see their faces. I paint, draw and spray them every day. I am having an affair with paint. Its all over my clothes, on my skin and in my mouth. I live in a loft room in London, a badly ventilated enclosed space where I spray and sleep and guests automatically exclaim things like: "Dude, woah! You’re hardcore" or "you must be getting high as a kite in here". Nope, actually I’m just getting headaches and purple snot. It kills me. It makes my eyes sting. I wake up in the night choking, have headaches all day, and then there are the nosebleeds. Yet I do it all again the next day. A love for these high-heeled honeys compels me to keep on. Like Harpies tempting sailors to their doom. I understand why I paint, I have also come to accept my drive to paint illegally. What I can’t find peace with is my daily habit. I have a girlfriend I love and a hopeful future, yet I continue to poison myself, and for what? Art? What use is a short-lived legacy of paintings? Who am I telling this to? Maybe myself? What’s the answer? Sacrifice the paintings, find a big expensive studio, or just carry on in ignorance and thick purple snot? Makes me wonder what use art is. It can’t cure me if I get sick, and it certainly won’t clean up after me if the toxic fumes fuck my bladder and bowel control. Not to mention the dreaded C words – cancer, cist, culture …. I know this. I repeat it. I hear it from my girlfriend. But I can’t seem to stop. I guess I’m not the first guy to kill himself for love. Is it love for painting? Is it love as addiction? Who knows? What I do know is these bitches are killing me and I love them all anyway. www.cantcopyright.co.uk

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A carpenter’s joy? In an odd news twist, art and politics step out of the closet and jump into bed together. Voted most inspiring political figure in 2006 by Channel Four, in 2007, he inspired the art work, which received one of the UK’s most coveted distinctions.

Islands & Ideas 14

Mr. Brian Haw has chosen to live on the streets of London for the last 6 years. Sustained by well-wishers, who bring him food and blankets, he’s set up his own lonely oasis of chaos and colour in the middle of a traffic island facing the Houses of Parliament. Since 2001, when he struck up camp to protest the sanctions against Iraq, he says to have not felt a softening, or more human touch in the government’s attitude. As such, he has felt unable to abandon his post as the voice of conscience. He’s still there.

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Alongside his tent, and those of his slowly increasing band of supporters, are words and images that illustrate his message. War is wrong. Killing people is wrong. Making war to make money is the worst kind of crime. Some of his signs are simple texts. Some of them horrific images. Some of them are theatrical scenes with headless dolls in coffins.

By Elizabeth Haines

Brian, as well as his clan, whose tents are littering the pavemen0t, don’t care very much about how their message will be transmitted. Efficiencyreaching people, touching people is important to them. Elegance and the idea of how that message is formed, reproduced, and written in history is not. Their most important gesture is the act of presence. To be there. To be seen. To be heard. All of these as both human and political beings, enacting the manifestation: HERE I AM. They are being seen, heard and felt, especially up close. Their stubborn hang-dog permanent protest, has obviously been teasing the ankles of the suits who stride past each day. The six years of Haw’s protest have been punctuated with attempts, legal and less legal to get him off his lonely oasis. This year a law was invented that almost succeeded in doing it. The ‘threat to national security’ means that it is no longer possible to protest without authorisation (even as a single individual) within 1km of the parliament building. It is no longer possible to voice your opinion within earshot of the place where decisions are being made. Brian and the tent-oasis tribe are still there however. Disrupting the clean, green lawn and the tourists photos of Westminster Abbey. They fight, they fight and they fight. They’re NOT allowed to do it. And still they do. The law that nearly chased them off their patch, did succeed in limiting the space that they could occupy out there on the street. At one point the panels and paintings stretched along 40 metres, fed by input from all kinds of individuals, including contributions like two canvases by Banksy. The police swept up and destroyed the original display that had been woven together over the years. Ironically, this collective and determined construction was taken out of the trash and soon applauded by the castles of fine art. When artist Mark Wallinger set up an exact replica of what had been trashed by the police, he did not place it outside the Houses of Parliament, but in

the hall of the Tate Britain London. Instead of being beaten back, he was awarded the Turner Prize. How does it feel to have your heart’s work mocked up as a clever case study? It is intended as a tribute, but could it injure the aims of the real action? Each their own for questions like this. What Brian knows is that the gesture places his messages into a new arena where they might resonate. On the whole, the artwork has been considered a great success, but I’m in two minds. This re-production places quotation marks around what he’s done and separates Brian from the content of this protest, pointing a finger and hollering. “Look people look.” Again, we focus on the spectacle instead of agreeing, disagreeing or being called to action. For the Art world, this may be the saddest admission of all, the airing of its dirty secret: real risk is rare. The closest you might get to those real impulses, the ideas that shape how and where you buy your eggs, what you learn in school, whose rules define your neighbourhood, is a quotation. On a grey day I think that carefully recorded by the institutions of Art, the memory of the replica will probably last longer than the story of the action itself, which will slide off into history as an anecdote. On a slightly brighter note, I think if Brian and the others succeed in stimulating others, even into quotation, perhaps others will find their own voices, and perhaps even insist on making them heard. Art, life or an unapologetic mixture of them both. What you’re saying, how you say it. See www.parliament-square.org.uk for Brian Haw’s website See www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/wallinger for picture of the installation at the Tate.

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Pirates and Powder:

Leaping Off the Plank

There’s a Malayan Proverb that states: “The existence of the sea means the existence of pirates.” Like cowboy and punk, the essence of these figures has been taken on the road. This time pirate surfers are flying down from the mountain tops and they aren’t hoisting black flags. Jo Waterhouse puts her right foot on the plank as she interviews Europe’s mountain Pirates.

The Pirates are a unique force within the European snowboard scene and beyond. A chance meeting in the Austrian mountains, lead this band of riders, artists, filmmakers, photographers and musicians to form a collective based on their love of snowboarding and a passion for creative pursuits, blurring the lines between the two with their movies, art books and shows. Art Director Ludschi employed no hostility as he offered a taste of the Pirates history and a glance at where their boat is heading.

How did the collective form? Can you give me the background? We all met on a snowboard camp in Bregenzerwald, Vorarlberg, Austria. It was called Backyard camp that followed the concept to ride together in the backcountry, and learn about the mountain in a more natural way. Flo Eckhardt was running a snowshoe company called BackYard and used this camp to give out shoes for testing. Gigi Rüf and Basti Balser were team riders and magnets for other people coming up. In ‘00 it was my first visit to the camp, while I was filming for the first Delusion Movie (a film for my small clothing company I ran). Flo filmed Super8 for his BackYard promo videos and I started taking photos. We met more often and became friends. In ‘02 Gigi, Basti, Flo, Marco Feichtner (rider), Bags Raida (our friend and DJ) and I, went on a six week trip to Scandinavia. We had a great time together while also doing productive stuff, like filming and taking photos. We were living it wild, didn’t care too much about rules and had a blast with it, 100% Pirate style. The summer after we decided to start the Pirate Movie Project and keep up shipping around with our crew and spend time together.

Who makes up the Pirate crew?

Yes, that’s where all the strings connect. We produce one travel impression film and a snowboard action movie each year, to show our past winter. This is the piece that most people are working on - riders, filmers, photographers and musicians. This season cycle is keeping us awake and lets us brainstorm all the time, because we know next

RIDERS INK

You’re primarily a movie production company, that’s the main focus/objective of the group?

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Our production crew is Basti Balser, Flo Eckhardt and me: I’m the art director, in charge of the concepts for each year’s package. But basically everyone can integrate friends and connect them to me. There are artists and photographers that are working closer with us, and some that just pass by each year and spend a week with us. It’s my mission to connect the pieces and build a collective team for each season.

This is the list of people that were involved in the 2007 book that comes with the DVD ‘Walk The Plank’: Gigi Rüf, Lukas Goller, Danny Larsen, Marco Feichtner, Aleksi Vanninen, Anne-Flore Marxer, Björn Hartweger, Jocki Köffler, Hans Ahlund, Jonte Edvardson and Basti Balser. The rider names are changing each year, although we have a core group who have been with us since the beginning. Some of the riders are really into the art project side of what we do and join the art show: Gigi, Lukas, Danny and Björn. The musicians are: i-SHiNe, Invasion Sounds, Barbara Morgenstern, Slime, Needle Drifters and Toymaker. Photographers are: Carlos Blanchard, Dean “Blotto” Gray, Lev Maslov, Anders Neuman, Matt Georges, Scalp and myself, and the artists are: MAST, mr.Papriko, Christo, Seb, Tom&Tarek, Takke, and me. There are also the filmers: Clement Maillet, Flo Eckhardt, Cepten and Stefan Schnappberger.

autumn the film has to be fresh and interesting again.

Do you have a group aesthetic that you adhere to? We take care about personalities and characters, what also influences our way of treating each other. No one involved acts like a star, or treats people different because he/she is better in something...being natural is the group aesthetic I would say.

You state that you’ll always use analog over digital and avoid digitized, special effects in your movies. What made you decide to choose that path? The film industry is already fed up with high quality special effects that are copy pasted all over the place. Our goal is to show analog animations and stop motion short clips, to inspire the viewers to think analogically. We’d rather work for 8 hours on an animation, than spending a week on the computer, to make it look special. Same with the format...we think HDV and digi look crap compared to reality...an analog film just blasts it all!

Can you tell me about the movies you have produced so far? What makes them different to other snowboard movies? Our first three movies “Shoot Your Friends”, “Pirate Radio” and “iRemember” were filmed on Super8, the format of our grandparents. We tried to use all the benefits, such as time lapse and stop motion settings to spice up the usual timed shots. The main concept since the beginning was having a good time with friends and being productive at the same time. That was a new approach in the snowboard film industry. In that way we showed our true mood and reflected reality. One major character in our movies is our music. The main band behind our soundtracks is i-Shine, who are long time friends from Munich who worked on songs especially for the film. With that benefit, the films have a personal touch and they became well known in the snowboard scene.

‘Walk The Plank’ is our main action movie this year, and comes out with a 100 page Art Book again. The title was in our minds for some years already, and we were all happy that we waited until this year to come out with it. It’s a pirate theme, with lifestyle shots and intro segments in costumes that we filmed on a tiny Italian island in summer time. It was nice to work with our winter family during summer and meet them on a working holiday. We also did our best to upgrade our animations and put all our love into one piece. The book, including the work of more than 25 pirates from all over the globe got pushed up a bit too.

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What was the idea behind producing art books to accompany your films? By having lots of interest in creation - if it’s photography, illustrating or writing about our impressions, we were looking for a new surface to transport our thoughts. It was also chance to show more of us. Basically, everyone being involved in the Pirate Project was able to build his/ her own page, without any rules. By having this freestyle space, many different styles made the book interesting and you never knew what to expect on the page to come. Of course, we also thought about the selling aspect of having more in the box than just a plastic cover with a DVD inside. While DVD sales were going down, we managed to sell all the copies of last year’s production “Lubedence”.

How does snowboarding inspire you creatively? Snowboarding can be inspiring. By being a sport with no rules, and

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ifteenth Anniversary.

with an enormous number of good riders, new tricks and maneuvers are done each year. There is an unlimited way of surfing a mountain and everybody chooses its line through the white waves. Also the environment: being outside in the mountains can inspire your creative mind, especially if creative people are right next to you.

You’ve had several art shows so far in Barcelona and Paris. How did these come about, were there any specific ideas/plans behind the shows? After producing art/photo books for 3 years in a row, it was a logical step to show our work to public in a gallery. We gathered together a ‘best of’ selection from the book, added some more original work, and brought them to Barcelona and Paris. We showed artwork of Papriko Inc., Greco, Lukas Goller, Gigi Rüf, Danny Larsen and Luji, plus photos of Carlos Blanchard, Dean Blotto Gray, Matt Georges and Lucci. Quite a lot of city people were coming by to see mountain culture and it seemed like they enjoyed themselves. The shows also work as a platform to meet up, exchange ideas and soul food for future projects, or just pure input consuming. My plan is to gather gifted minds with positive attitudes and build up a powerful movement.

What are your plans for the future of the collective? We want to improve the quality of each project. If it’s the movies, art, music and events, there’s good potential in all of them. By having many young people following our mission, we are aware of the responsibility and possibility we have to feed them with good information and inspire them to use their time carefully. If we can connect screen addicted kids to analog pleasures we’ll be happy. Maybe you’ll pass by and stay connected... gonna be an interesting future…

Do you think there is as much crossover with art and creativity within snowboarding as there is within skateboarding?

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Skateboarding is way ahead, when it comes to art, photography and creativity in general. Compared to this urban sport, that is accessible for everyone and happening in melting pots called cities, Snowboarding is different. Our sport is happening mainly in mountain regions, where tourism is backing up traditions while keeping youth driven movements as small as possible. The sport is much more expensive, because of the equipment and travel costs to the actual moment, when you start riding. I don’t want to get stuck with my interpretation, but I know that there has to be a little revolution to keep Snowboarding interesting for the future, and art in Snowboarding. www.pirate-movie-production.com

Photos by Matt Georges

Street/Art:

Word From King Adz K I N G A DZ

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This is it: The last word from the street, the last word from the frontlines, printed out, faxed, e-mailed, from gutter level to the printers. For years street shit has played me like a frantic gangbanger humping and sweating all through the dialogue; the storylines; the story lives. I’m burnt like stockbroker, like ninja, like Red Adair, like Magic Johnson, from the constant searching and checking out what’s neat and what blows, and sometimes it feels like I’m not gonna make it, but you know I will - for this is all I know. This is my job, my life. Checking out stuff… These stories I’m gonna be bringing to you; these droplets of pure lives are mostly true, true as in I’ve actually seen the shit playing out in front of my eyes, true as in the universal meaning of the word. But also true in a real Gonzo sense for I am repping Hunter S Thompson, but with dope street culture rather than Politics (which I definitely don’t do).

I watch I remember I work I sleep I’m with my family, I write I duck I look out of the window and watch the fools and their girlfriends double park their cheap cars in the side street below: For this is the real juice. I see it all: the pimping, the skanking (not the reggae kind), the drinking of mouthwash, the hopelessness, the robbing, the deceiving; the fucking, the painting, the crafting, the creativity. In between the shit is the great, the good, the fantastic. This column is about real urban lives, real creativity, from Street Art to New Rave to frontline photojournalism to Indie movies to fresh fiction. Anything connected to street life and urban culture will be covered. Anything good that is. So I’m gonna kick it off with a bit of a general round-up (moan?) about the state of things as I type this shit. A taste of what to expect over the next year, an intro into the kind of people I’m gonna be getting down with and then letting you know how the shit wents down. Live from the frontline as it were…

This is where it all started. Street Level. Somewhere low rent. Somewhere unfortunate. Street art and its related cultures are so dope and real, in part because they are products of poverty and frustration; reactions to the main stream. But right in front of my eyes Street Art has become a multi-million pound business, with dealers fighting over the market, each trying to get theirs. Banksy has gone and opened it up for everyone, but there are some killer talents snapping at his heels: D*Face (the heir to the London throne) Brad Downey (one of the most original street artists working today), Robin Rhodes (crazy chalk busting motherfucker), A1one writer from Iran (form a line to pay your respect), Steak Zombies (fashion + art =Amazing), Wilma S. (literally coming outta no where with her street art sculpture) and a fucking ton of other artists I can’t be arsed to name… But the question that has been bugging me recently is this: Where is it going? What happens to street art when you take it out of the street? Is the underground becoming the mainstream?

The reason why I’m now listed ex-filmmaker is because the (British) film industry is so fucked. The people with (dirty) money to make the films are ex-criminals and blag artists who know fuck all about film, and rely on the fact that people are so in love with the idea of making a film that they will work for free. This is not filmmaking. This is skanking. I had a meeting recently with a guy who’s produced a successful movie and I mentioned that I was into Fellini. ‘I prefer Dolce and Gabbana myself’ the guy replied, totally unaware what I was on about. This is when I knew that I had to step back for a while; that I had to take a long break. This is when I left the fucking room in a hurry. Lets see where it goes in the next year, as I’ve been asked to polish a Hollywood script and so far I’ve held out, but everyman has his price. Biggest of fucking props to Werner Herzog, Lars Von Trier, and Nick Broomfield who are all holding out against the onslaught of Hollywood mediocrity and the film-by-numbers merchants who travel this earth under the guise of accountants.

Writing/Books:

I’ve tried to get into the long list of much-hyped authors, but they all suck and are as hip to the word as Margaret Thatcher was hip to raving. I’ve tried to hear what the modern novelists are saying (or trying to) but nothing seems to get through, none of them have an original voice or any street experience to write about. The fact the JK Rowling is so big says it all, considering she writes such bad drivel (a million kids cry out in pain). So from no-where comes ‘The Adventures of Darius and Downey’ (Thames & Hudson 2008) - the best non-fiction novel so far this century. I’m so in awe of the concept, which is so fresh and street that I wished I’d thought of it myself. Brad Downey is one of the coolest guys I’ve had the honour of getting down with recently (we hooked up in Berlin) and this is reflected in the book about his life and work so far with ex-partner Darius Jones. The concept of a graffiti/street art book that is in the form of a non-fiction novel is so fucking cool. Big Up Brad! (read a full report of Brad’s life and work in my next column). *Word from King Adz is a regular column about anything that is fresh and original in the world of urban culture…King Adz is a writer and ex-filmmaker and editor of the free PDF magazine 100proofTRUTH (www.100proof.tv)

Film:

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For me, Skinnyman is still holding it down as someone who really represents hardcore street life, and as Foreign Beggars are coming up with a new album in 2008 they are the other ones to watch. They’ve upgraded their production values to take their shit to the next level. Band of Horses are a breath of fresh air and French fuckers Justice are rocking the shit out of everything they touch. Then there’s Underworld who have returned to form with ‘Oblivion With Bells,’ still on heavy rotation on my iTunes. Sadly, most dance, Hip Hop and Rap music has become Pop music. Everyone is chasing fame and Benjamins in a very clichéd, formulaic way. Biggie Smalls is turning his back on it all in his grave in disgust. You have been warned.

K I N G A DZ

Music:

Squatting the White Cube:

Modart at Scope Art Art Basel, Miami Photos: RuediOne/J. Garcia/Scope Photography

You gotta be a moron... you gotta be a moron to wanna be a fighter. — Rocky Balboa, Rocky (1976)

Ding! Ding! Welcome to Miami! Sex, Drugs, Rock and roll … One of the many excellent pieces shipped over from Basel (Licht Feld Gallery, by Comenius Roethlisberger) to the city of Scarface was a brand exercise illustrated in good old swiss government manufactured cocaine. Iggy Pop played on same beach Tony Alva skated a few nights later. Apparently Paris Hilton got her tits out, but we weren’t there to see it, we were either wrestling in the basement of the Shelbourne, drinking cocktails by the pool as naked body after naked body piled in, waiting for somebody, waiting for somebody else, waiting for a bunch of people, this makes us all cranky, or paying homage to Flavio on our terrace. 9 boys, 1 girl and 1 white (it is Miami) rental car … if you want the gonzo check

} Shaun El C. Leonardo

‘Yo Adrianne!’ it is no coincidence that Rocky is a hero of our times. With speed being the primary change to just about everything, most of us find ourselves boxing through life. There’s shit flying everywhere and always more to do. Punches are coming your way. Often life happens so fast we can only react. For a while the loudest metaphors for this were surfing, navigating or multi-tasking, but that’s glamour talk. Life is bloodier. You dance. You jab. You take the rounds one by one, knowing that in the ring, in a relationship, at each step, immediate reactions are emotional and impassioned necessities. This struggle is like chess. You can play chess when you are able react, but you are only a chess player when you’re two steps ahead of the next shot, able to imagine what isn’t there. It’s an important distinction. If you can buy a second on the ropes, find a blink

where you can catch your breath, chances are you’ll come swinging in a different motion that you would have. Emotion is immediate, a rational response needs time and time isn’t on many of our sides. Time is just what we were hoping to buy as we packed our bags for Miami to take part in the Scope Art Fair on the occasion of Art Basel Miami. With a little time, maybe there’ll be less shots to the head. At least there’ll be space between. An artist is always a wrestler by nature, nothing wrong with finding away out of the rubber ring and avoiding the route of the legendary Ali or poor old Van Gogh. Nobody needs to lose an ear. Just ask Evander.

www.modarteurope.com … there will be neither sex nor drugs in this article though from our DIY desk and doodle corner, to the fact that we got it together in less than 3 weeks, to the constant flow of trash piling up in our booth, it was all rock and roll in Miami. However, today we want to talk to you about something very serious and rarely sober. Today we’re going to ramble about “art”. Every December, the hotels on Miami Beach are booked at least six months in advance and the madhouse that is Miami gets an extreme makeover as thousands upon thousands of artists, gallerists, dealers, collectors, curators, and anybody else who is art enthused, economically enabled and unperturbed by a certain level of pretension come down towards the keys for the spectacle. It is an event that can change an artist’s life, make a gallery’s reputation, put a person in the history books and most importantly, inspire everybody who enters. The whole thing is sexy, every moment bursting the hem of an already short dress, threatening to glisten with regret if you miss it.

Boris Hoppek

C r e at i ve Th r i f t s h o p

} WC

For all those who join this orgy, there is the horny promise of constant discovery. This is lovely, though it has noting to do with art and I can relate to everybody who fears that such an event can make even Miami cold. Unfortunately, if you aren’t suited and booted like a proper collector or press official, many galleries seem to believe that you have nothing to share and many doormen will softly and directly help you decide where you won’t be. There is no interaction. You don’t feel welcome. On one hand, a person has to get past this. Don’t let idiots ruin your day. Just be welcome. On the other hand, what’s wrong with your sneakers? You know what I mean don’t you? Its one thing when the art is old, boring and requires a special lexicon. It is another when the person introducing you to it is an asshole. When we go to look at art we know we are going to have our borders pushed and we want to be welcomed inside to do so. You don’t need a diploma to know what doesn’t suck.

Though it seems petty, the impoliteness around art is emblematic of what fear we for it. Has art become another throwaway commodity? Hmm. No wonder Graffiti is so hot these days. Does the market cultivate the creative process at some point? Of course it does. If art comes out of the public, does the public have a role in acknowledging its value (read: getting it fed)? Not really. The public has no real part in the process of defining art. It’s nice to think we do and might be true with the Oscars, but not here. There are no box office sales. To most of us it comes served up on a plate where we can recognize it easily. The commercial tells us that this is one of the best films of the year. We get treated to the greatest new artist at the same rate we get introduced to the latest I-gadget (ie. way after the fact). The amazing objects before us seem new and are often already almost extinct as they begin to breath in our fingers.

} WC

When politics cannot avoid propaganda and science cannot provide what its own exams considers actual facts, it appears even more important to encourage art that struggles to be sincere in its game. The great art dick however, goes limp when end product dictates process or search and the goal is that of any other trade show: to sell a vacuum cleaner. This old fashioned suck and dry might provide fame and money, it might be the smart play for a person, but here art has entered the economy in the creative stages and this is where we find ourselves on our knees, forced to break the board in two and jet it in the trash. If we cannot stop the structures of the art economy from graying like our other institutions at least here we can keep crashing the party and raising our voice. Strong professional organizations (from that same ‘graying’ system) like the Scope Art Fair are crucial to this. The idea of an Obama is already appealing after 8 years in the bushes. This is naïve, but one hopes that some circles can be broken. While the Scope Art fair has established that it understands the art market and its demands, it simultaneously makes efforts to remain faithful to the essence of art. The fidelity is to process and risk and encouraging creative talent that the market may not yet recognize. “All profoundly original art looks ugly at first … but there is ugly and there is ugly (Clement Greenberg)!” Often this uneasy aesthetic evolves out of a social quilt. Community has often been a key characteristic of any decorated artistic practice and Scope is committed to the community.

Eckart Hahn

You can find grassroots solidarity in their support of local creative scenes. With curatorial selection from Adriana Farietta, a group of emerging Miami artists were included in this year’s program. In addition to this there were a series of installation scholarships, which included work from Boris Hoppek, Situ Studio, Dennis Openheim, Jade Townsend and others. Every evening there was some sort of performance. One evening, Shaun El C. Leonardo made the entire fair ask: What the fuck? by showing how an artist must take a beating and making us wonder if this is mere masochism. In another performance Jason Hackenwerth took center stage by echoing out in a sexual

romp bursting with evidence that there can be pleasure in a pop. Pop. Pop. Please make it stop. Paul Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky, lecturer at the infamous European Graduate School lectured as part of the Urban Nomad Project. That subliminal kid showing that he can move your mind without the bassline. Visitors to the fair will have been refreshed by the warm welcome that extended itself beyond the front doors. There is friendliness about this fair, a willingness to listen, and the ambience there turns it from a typical art fair to a place that you can hang out. Scope appears

wrong by sunset. Art must somehow fail first in order to succeed and while I do not believe that collectors were anything but satisfied this time around, Scope shows an awareness of art’s role in society (and society’s role in art).

but this anger can be defy your own energy. It is no longer necessary. Everybody at the fairs, whatever their views (or non views) on the politics of art, most likely shared the sentiment that whatever it is, art is important to each of us in and of its own right.

A gallery owner (Greyman1.6), told me that I was naïve to be excited by such praise and that the art world is too educated to exhibit change ‘overnight.’ Holy depression Batman. And two more points for Scope. Weren’t all the great critics of the 20th century, those few men who brought the theory before the image, eventually proven that their predictions were off beat? Aren’t the fashionable always in the emperor’s old clothes? There seems to be curatorial conviction at Scope, which supports the notions that none of us know best and that everything, which appears true this morning may be proven

With no authority left to trust, it is not surprising that some of the most compelling aesthetics are coming out of communities, which base a great part of their lifestyles on this attitude. It isn’t rebellion against something. It isn’t cultures, which are monotheastically counter to something. It is a way of life that acts to the tap of its own drum. This is part of why Modart was so well received down south. Challenge your faith, your boss, your government, yourself, employ dissidence to consensual reality as a technology like breathing. Today, we are the artists of our own lives. There is great reason to be pissed off,

One of the great joys I had at the fair was watching people fall into the work of Logan Hicks, often with zero understanding of what they were looking at. When an explanation makes art interesting, the art fails. In this case it is only the illustration of successful theory. The painted word is dead, or at least the music is too loud to hear what it is saying today. Indeed, art can speak for itself and in the future it will increasingly need to. When art, just the art, attracts a person enough to search for further explanation or to ask for clues in order to approach it, this reflects aesthetic and emotional penetration. Logan’s

to cater to the public at large instead of soley concentrating on the reaction of collectors. This was reflected in frequent reactions to the fair that felt the art on display at Scope was exciting, risky and high quality, though not always as “collectable” as at other fairs.

}

A n g e lo M u s co

J e n Sta r k

work engaged people prior to a word being spoken. Without explanation they gave it time and took that step back to pause and think. Photorealism may have been the first step in shattering the strong hold theory of art, but if so, Logan’s meticulous and finely crude portraits may turn the emphasis back to process along with imaginative technique. In addition to being one of the most respected artists coming out of today’s Street Art Scene, Logan has worked as a curator and organizer. Morcky Troubles, Rocco Pezzella, Vincent Skoglund, Will Barras and Mr. Jago, each of the artists presented with Modart in Miami have organized, exhibited and performed live at non establishment, low brow, no brow, no money, do it yourself music and art events where recycling was a necessary action before it was a conscious effort. Where punk or drum and bass, hip hop and jazz and rock and roll showed that beneath the beat they have the same color blood. All are active members of a community and have transported their art on flyers, album covers, T-shirts, skateboard decks, and public spaces. All explore movement and seek inspiration in a community that has learned to stay on the fringes even when continually cast beneath the shimmering lights of the latest hype. Another strongly noted response to our presentation was from visiting artists. While shoppers were early drawn to Rocco’s portrait of Woody Allen and Logan’s sprayed out version of the consume/digest dialectic, each day no less than two artists struck me into a conversation about the painting of Will Barras. Will Barras remains the artists’ artist, for his ability to invent, to let a surface lead him, and to create a liquid and deviant flatness of color and time, striking compositions with well worn and highly fluent forms. Those who have watched him and his long time friend Mr. Jago evolve over the last five years see two of the innovators of the doodle generation take form in completely different directions. Barras bringing it out of the woods, while Jago seems to etch it out with an erasure and fill it in again before you can blink.

J a d e To w n s e n d

Blink and you miss it in Miami. We’re already looking forward to next year.

“If you don’t let a jellyfish sting you, you’re a sissy.” – Ado, day 1

} Logan Hicks

J i Yo n g - H o

Th e Lo n d o n P o l i c e w / M o r c k y Tro u b l e s a n d W i l l B a r r a s

Primary Flight “The illustrators of bare walls projected their dreams beyond their fears.” Words: HL & LH / Images: Jeremiah Garcia | www.iceCreamMan.com www.n10z.com

realm that has become so prominent to our visual and social

offer work for sale and nobody could collect anything from it.

languages in recent years.

silly definitions. The show featured slices of the urban art

of the more interesting shows at Art Basel. This show didn’t It didn’t have a gallery staff or a costly catalogue, and yet it

}

was seen by more people most of what was on display at Art

P rimary F li g ht

This December, the public walls of Miami played host to one

Basel. The show was Primary Flight and it presented beautiful art on ugly walls of the city. The only value attached to the work in this project was whatever stimulation a passerby took from it or an artist got from taking part in it.

Artists involved in this project included: David Choe, Lady Pink, Retna, El Mac, Kills He, Santiago Rubino, Siner, Depoe, Logan Hicks, Peat Wollaeger, Kenton Parker, Reyes, Dolla, AIM, MSG, Brandon Opalka, Blek Le Rat, Tes One, Bask, Michael De Feo, Futura, Andy Howell, Cycle, Ellis G, Gorilla Tactiks, and The London Police. In our cousin to cousin

Organized by Miami’s Spinello Gallery and Blackbooks out

manner, the Modart crew was also invited to join in on the

of Ft. Lauderdale, this was Miami’s first street level, site-

jam. Will Barras and Morcky Troubles got up with TLP …

specific mural installation. Like a good street project should,

on a wall that doubled anything they hit on the recent Big

it forgot about old school and new school and any other

Geezer tour.

Will Barras

Dotted throughout the Wynwood arts district, the Primary Flight murals stood out as a monolith of creativity. Offering a resting space for the eyes in a landscape that is dominated by junkies, drab concreted buildings, and weekend tourists that came to the area to ‘get cultured’. The murals were produced with the blessing of Metro One, Wynwoods most prominent real estate management companies

For the better part of the week before the Art Basel fair officially opened, the artists of Primary Flight stood under the hot Miami sun and carefully crafted their works. With an air of cooperation and comradery the mood of this ad hoc show resembled family (abeit a semi-dysfunctional family) more than professional rivalry. With each artist lending a hand, and taking time out to talk with their ‘rivals’ the show ran surprisingly smoothly. Graffiti is a field that tends to be dominated by overstated egos and underrated art, however this was one of those events that rested at the cross roads of

creativity, organization and talent.

P rimary F li g ht

}

Blek le Rat

The lineup for Primary flight included artists that have been

Lady Pink

working from a few years to decades. On the far end of the experience spectrum was the elder statesman of stencils Blek Le Rat whose work in the early 80’s, solid black and white stencils would go on to inspire Banksy in the 90’s. Another pioneer of street art is Lady Pink, whose starring role in the movie Wild Style (1983) opposite Lee Quinones, cemented her in the annals of graffiti history. On the younger end were artists like Depoe, Chrome, Tes one and Dolla. Even though the ages may have varied widely, the scope of the talent was consistent. Each artist took their craft seriously. Their murals stood as the sole testament to their commitment. The Primary Flight event was by no means the first of its kind, but it was one of the more successful events to present a cross section of the often-ambiguous field of ‘Urban Art’. Next year promises to be an even more exciting time. Building on the success of this year, the promoters hope to increase visibility, and scope of next years.

For more on this event: www.primaryflight.com

Andy Howell & David Choe

} P rimary F li g ht

El Mac

+ Spacejunk Board Culture Art Centers

4 days of exhibitions & Live painting

Invited & presented artists: Andy HOWELL (USA) - Nicolas THOMAS (France) - Mr JAGO (UK) Bertrand TRICHET & Stéphanie SOLINAS (France) - ZAKO (Spain) - NIKODEM (France) Scott BOURNE (USA) - Will BARRAS (UK) - VINZ (France) ispo - Messe München GmbH

Messegelände 81823 München Germany www.ispo-winter.com

January 27th – 30th 2007

ispo trade show – Hall A2 – Munich – Germany Opening Sunday January 27th at 5.30 PM

Spacejunk

Board Culture Art Centers + 33 (0)6 19 21 01 84 www.spacejunk.tv

SIT

Slicing away the fat I was sitting on the balcony with a good friend when his pupils went wide and his lips curled up towards his ears. He started getting so excited I could nearly smell the sweat on his palms. ‘Man, this is the shit I’ve been wanting to show you.’ He motioned me over towards his laptop and this is when I first saw the work of Sit.

‘Does he have a website?’ Nope. ‘Is there anyway I can see more of his stuff?’ You can ask him. So I did.

}

Formerly known as Freakin Sitnie, Sit burst onto the Amsterdam art scene when his paintings got picked up on several years ago and his unique graphic style got the attention it cleverly demanded. Inspired by comic artists like Simon Bisley, Sam Keith, Todd Mcfarlane, Jamie Hewlett and many more, he spent most of his time with markers and pencils, beringing pieces to life on paper.

illustrated works

At the age of 18, canvas, acrylics and brushes were brought into his proces and the impact was powerful, a lust for the large, rough and dirty appearing in his painting. New influenceer offered new ideas and Sit cites Mr. Jago, Blaine Fontana, Futura, Glenn Barr, Dran, San, and Bansky when asked what he’s digging. Soon he was doing exhibitions, live action painting, VJ-ing, graphic design and all sorts of other stuff until he got sort of got fed up with all that other stuff. Feeling like fleeing the ruthlessness of an increasing 24/7 society he went back to square one, tried to retreat and seak out his true essence. The strategy he came to for hemzelf was no more digital drama. Out went the freak and in came the Sit – calm yet unwired. No BS. Only black and white. Right and Wrong. Love and Hate. Adore or despise, the work is only what the work is.

}

Jon

Burgerman

The Merits of Fluoride: Burgerman on Burgerman on What?

Drawing scribbles, making marks and filling in shapes, roundabout and the wrong way up or down to the bottom of the page, through the paper and out to the top, over the desk and along the white walls.

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Scrawled dirty grins, glistening eyes and pie filled belly guts. My face is your face, is where you begin; my foot your hand, shared limbs and internal organs knotted and blue. It’s a mash, a hashed scramble, a stash of ideas, a clotted lump of sodden earth, teaming with insects and worms. The ball of a biscuit, washing around and leaving a stained skin in a hollow watermelon bowl brain weaned on pop culture and average food, looking for reasons to make the ink sing across the arc, to dance along a line and turn into a banana skin rollerskate, roller-coaster for your eyes, up, over, down and around again. A little giddy feeling. Such japery, energy and confusion, and delight at something stupidly simple and simply stupid, but not in a stupid way.

illustrated works

I like salads and trees and nature things, these are good, nicely designed (so to speak), amazing in almost every way. Fruit is good. I like eating fruits. I had a fruit I’d never tried before in Singapore, it was very exciting to try. Unfortunately I didn’t know it’s name and it tasted pretty bland but the fact that there was something like that out there I’d not tried was great. There’s lots of things I’ve not messed about with, not broke, fixed badly, tried to exchange, squashed, drank, tickled, poured out of a window, burnt, listened to or been slapped in the face with. These are the things that make me look forward to getting old. I try and think of the cool people I’ve not yet met, or the glorious free lunches I might scoff at exhibition openings in the future. Of course, getting old means your knees hurting a bit, getting grey hairs and everyone else around you looking younger and younger. But this is ok, I mean, there’s no avoiding it, let’s not dwell on the sore knees. Recently I’ve been flossing my teeth. My new dentist told me I had to otherwise I might need a filling. Currently I have no fillings. I floss once a day, in the evening, before going Pit-side to bed. I

never knew so much crap could live in between my molars. How does any of that stuff get in there? There’s such an array of colours and sizes of things. I’ve never been a fisherman but I imagine the thrill is comparable. Throwing in the line (dental floss) and hoping to pull in a nice big fat fish (piece of orange flesh or a slither of pasta). Each night heralds a new discovery. If I owned the appropriate equipment I’d photograph my best catches, I’m proud of each one. I return to my dentist on the 19th of March and hope he will be impressed with my increased dental hygiene. If I can keep being allowed to make new works, draw more things in as many ways as possible and continue to remain filling free in 2008 I will be very happy. / Jon www.jonburgerman.com | www.biro-web.com

Toothpa stedinner 50c m x 5 0 cm

Proto n s 5 0cm x 50cm

Kool aid 50c m x 50c m

B u r n t ton g u e 50cm x 50cm

}

Admir Jahic

- Invisible Hero 42

Yeah, we grew up on it: No More Heroes. No More Legends. No More Myths or Pedestals. No More Cherry Expectations when expectations are indeed the mothers of all fuck ups. Meet your hero and chances are that one of you will disappoint.

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Jon Lennon had it right. A working class hero is something to be. You don’t need the fame or the cape or that place in the history book penned by an ink that stinks of blood most authors never dripped to the page. It isn’t complicated. It’s about doing the everyday shit, the mundane, relevant, unavoidable and even essential everyday shit that improves collective quality of life. I’m not talking about flying less or recycling or whatever the current green wash is. I’m talking about being engaged, employing empathy, giving a fuck without being righteous. Ado has this piece that says: “I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone. One to one, always, forever

illustrated works

NOW xxx.” I think he means it. His sincerity, his wonder, his need to apply empathy and imagination to the mundane and color to the muddied – are expressed through a simple aesthetic that is the product of complicated patterns. Driven by the need to process daily impressions, Admir’s art is affected by urban symbols. Pictograms, codes and typographic elements are omnipresent. In his work, one keeps on stumbling, tripping over and onto, everyday objects: you kick a can, spit on a symbol, stop and stare, this is an urban account of elements hijacked by advertising and mass media, twisted again by Ado’s soft touch. His work exudes the stench of alienation in such a humble way that even a cynic begins to believe in love once more. “Many people think, artists are slightly crazy. But the fact is, most of them are fucking normal, surrounded by insane lunatics who are constantly at war with one and other.”

Hey M om

At one point Ado created a website to sell his own work, pay his rent and you know the rest, but during his research he found so many artists who inspired him, so many other aliens who shared flashes of his aesthetic, he created a site to support other artists … to support heroes without medals or headlines or the hope of becoming household names … the invisible men, the silent soldiers, carrying on, keeping faith, trying to make the world more beautiful. Check his site. Check this project. Check out Ado … I’ve been up and down and all around and I would be hard pressed to recall a more charming, more concerned or more pragmatic dreamer. www.invisibleheroes.net

Hur ry Li f e Is S h o rt

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Sawn of tales Don’t thank me, thank the moon’s gravitational pull Wo r d s : Dav i d Ga f f n ey | Illustration: A friend

Christine explained about public transport. ‘I was thinking more about whether it’s east or west. I only ever work west of where I live, so that on the way to and from work the sun is never in my eyes.’ ‘But you come to work on the tube.’ ‘I have strong sense of the planet. Even underground I know where I am in relation to the sun.’ She agreed to go with him to a cellar bar so he could demonstrate this skill. All this did explain something. The time he’d consulted a compass before making love, claiming the moon’s gravitational pull enhanced his performance, he’d been lying.

}

‘You’ve forgotten something vital. The building’s relationship to where staff live.’

S AW N O F TA L E S

She indicated with a polished fingernail the position of the new building but Malcolm moaned, shook his head and did nervy jazz hands.

Christine was managing the office relocation, an opportunity to take her mind off the break-up with Malcolm. Malcolm, however, was health and safety, and everything had to be approved by him.

Light, Form and Latency Without Potato Starch, Photography clicClacs on … “There are no rules for good photographers, there are only good photographs.” — Ansel Adams

I once heard a successful film maker explain to an audience that he was actually a painter. He said that to be an artist, a person must explore all mediums: language to film, paint to poetry or plastics and so on. He wasn’t talking about mastering all or any of these areas, but rather about a love affair and the importance of our imaginations probing our passions. Ironically, though his films are recognized for various reasons, if anybody bought one of his paintings we can be sure it was either his mother or a fan of his substantial film career.

PHOTO

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The important thing to keep in mind here, is that there is no crown. Real competition is not between the USA and China or Barcelona and Real Madrid. It isn’t between men at all. It’s between you and yourself. The idea being that you must struggle with things to shape them – your sentiments included. We don’t prepare for things by training for a week, studying or simply doing assigned homework. It is our life’s work that gets us ready. It’s our attitude and how we approach the world, which develops our personal aesthetic. There is a lot of interesting and perhaps even important talk about photography today. This has much to do with how many people are having fun with it. With the amount

of pictures being captured and passed along every minute, what are the “real,” or key elements of photography? Obviously there is light. There is subject. There is theory like fleeing aura Mr. Benjamin warns about in his writings on Mechanical Reproduction. What else? Porn? Shock? Exaggeration? Realism? Aside from the images themselves, the men and the machines, there is residual social impact in the current of these waves. As images enter the world much faster than people do, there is much to think about even before we acknowledge other things like the recent legislation by the American FCC easing cross media ownership, the increasing internet users and a thriving digital sector, there is a pretty in your face indication that a new way of reading media aesthetics and developing strategies to consciously process this assault will become crucial skills in coming to terms with our emotions as well as our political structures. Whole histories are being lost. Others are never happening at all. How important is photography to other practices, especially those who aren’t meant to last like Graffiti, Skateboarding or other forms of public creative action. In a way a photograph beats down the big Buff.

Instead of rambling about any of the conversations a photograph can incite, we asked five photographers to share words and examples of their work for this article. The ocean, the mountains, the street, the writing on the wall, all began their work by using the camera to extend their perspectives on the communities they respectively live in. In a way, it appears that each was so in love with some element of their environment that they picked up the camera to be able to explore its body over and over again and in all different positions. Want to understand what’s up in the world of modern day photography? Maybe we can take some clues from people who love it. Here goes as J.R. Vincent Skoglund, Ruedione, GDawg and Thor talk about their personal “why”s (romantic) and “how”s (pragmatic) when it comes to image capture and creation. Their answers give as much testimony in the question of Analog’s potential murder as they reflect on artistic drive, cyborg theory, the activism of social consciousness, questions for all those discussions we avoid here by sharing their experiences, and a love for capturing (and releasing) images. Beware: This was the kind of ramble that pictures can insight.

Questions Given to Each Featured Artist:

1. What sort of relationship do you have with your camera(s)? 2. What current trends in photography annoy or excite you? 3. Please comment briefly on your own work, process most in your life? Are there other strong influences you recognize in your approach, aims, experiments ...?

Photo by JR, Read more about him on next spread ››››

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4. What photographers have interested or inspired you

and obsessions.

PHOTO

www.jr-art.net

I don’t think I have a special relationship to my cameras, I just need to have the right lens to feel comfortable... mostly wide angle to be sure that my camera will be in symbiosis with my eyes. If I’m in Paris I can take a few days of pause, no photographing. When I’m traveling, I don’t want to miss a beat. Not the surroundings, the people I meet, the streets. When I take a picture it is always to share the instant before me with somebody else. I have this in mind all the time, how can a photograph communicate this feeling? If I am working on portraits, I tend to use 35mm BW film so I can use the contact sheet in my video installations. For the paste-ups that I will eventually glue onto the city streets on the other hand, I go digital.

Photography has become so popular in the last five years. At the same time, it has become affordable to everybody in certain areas of the world. On the other hand, in other places, the digital age is not even a dream. On a recent trip to the south of Sudan, in a place pretty much disconnected from the rest of the planet, it was highly surprising for people to see that there is now an image that appears on the back of the camera when you take a picture. People were amazed and everybody wanted to see this, yet nobody was interested in actually having one. At least nobody asked.

I exhibit on the streets around the world, aspiring to catch the attention of people who are not museum visitors. This is a choice with regard to various notions of freedom and a conscious effort to form a recipe that mixes art and act, elements of commitment, beauty, freedom, identity and limit testing.

With a 28mm lens, taking portraits of people making faces; huge posters and yet anonymity. In the process I change some basic rules. The photographer is not the fly on the wall. Nor does he intervene. He is completely hidden, leaving the space empty for a fresh encounter. People who pass by are asked not to say cheese or smile, but to make faces. They are not unknowing subjects for the shot. They are actors. This ‘passerby as willing participant’ social approach is bound to the idea that these images will not be seen in ‘venues dedicated to art,’ but on the street where act and interpretation are presented from the same public.

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There is a certain sense as well to the location where these portraits are then posted. They do not need to be surprising in location. The real surprise is not to be surprised by something surprising. This would not be surprising at all. The real surprise is to be surprised by something, which in and of itself is not at all surprising. This could be your neighbor, yourself, something you previously felt you’d taken time to understand, which comes back to show you that this isn’t the case. If there is a surprise, questions follow and we are then able to consider our habits and free ourselves from our own developed prejudice. Raising questions. That is what I am working on.

I can’t say I’ve ever been really inspired from any sort of photography scene or that I have a polished knowledge about art history, contemporary or otherwise. I never went to art school. My inspiration came from my surroundings and from urban activism and Graffiti. Artists who have had a great influence on me include Akim, Blu, Zevs … and on and on. I like to think that our limits are not where we see them.

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RuediOne www.ruedione.com | www.ruedigerglatz.com

My relationship to the camera depends on the camera. I work with several and there are some, which are just tools, like my large and medium format cameras for example. Others, like the 5D I’m often with these days, quickly get adopted like new limbs. I am aware of them much like I am my hand, arm or leg. I can say that I used to be a LEICA and Co. nerd, but fortunately I was cured. The camera is important, but only in a secondary way. What I want to do is all about the picture itself. The camera comes into play when I think about how I will share or communicate that picture.

I’m never without a camera though, even if it’s just a little digisnap and I’m ok in accepting that this hobby has become a passion verging on addiction or obsession. I shoot my life. Whenver I feel excited, and I’m quite excitable, and whenever I travel, which I do a lot, I’m shooting. Some days I take only 20 photographs, but a more average number would be 400. I mean there are days when I click up to 3000 snaps.

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I use too many cameras. Anybody who knows me will support this, including myself. Even professionals think I’m totally nuts. I spend too much money. I go for that one new ‘must have’ thing, you know. Better handling, better quality, better wipe you ass for you function, whatever … I can admit it. I love that new sexy thing. I love to move in all sorts of ways and test driving new cars is one of them.

I don’t care about trends. I do inform myself, but tend not to focus on any one thing. I am aware of a danger in being too influenced. What matters to me is finding my own voice, sharpening and optimizing my own visual language.

Grabbing subjective details and moments, doing so with a hunger, like an addict. I’m not in denial, I’m in the continual process of finding myself. My let’s say ‘ouvre,’ is my life. My ‘genre’ is my day. It sounds cheesy, but assuming this position was a big and crucial step for me.

I do try not to be over influenced by an influence, but of course there are several photographers who have taught me things, whether we ever met or not. There is no “ultimate photographer” or anything, but loads of talented people are introducing small new changes all the time. How about the MAGNUM boys (Henri CartrierBresson, Robert Capa, Rene Burri, James Nachtwey, Alex Webb,....etc.), or Eugene W. Smith who has this narrative and conceptual touch to his work or Andreas Gursky who’s sense of graphic aesthetics I’m nuts for. There’s the ‘situations’ built up by Gregory Crewdson, or those mystical and mythic snap shots from Michael Ackermann. I love both of these men’s work. Lots of ways to speak. Even with a camera. Learning to say things as you would like them expressed, that’s my trip. I’d like to acquire all the vocabulary I can though. To be skilled enough to add a touch of Crewdson quality high end for example.

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Thor Jonsson www.3oceans.com

My relationship to my camera (right now a Nikon F90x with Sigma Professional 28-77mm f2.8 lens, in a Ewa-Marine soft housing) is good, though it is work, work, only work and nothing, but work oriented. Since I started doing water-photography 8 years ago, this is the type of relationship we’ve had. I try not to get too attached to the cameras I use, because they don’t tend to last long when they come along to swim impact zones.

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Recently I bought a Canon G9 (my first digital camera), with the resolution to take some snap shots during my everyday life and mess around with these work wise as well. That said, I have no plans to use the digital work in my portfolio. Depending on swell and light, during working trips I am with the camera between 2 and 5 hours per day. More significant amounts of time are spent searching, planning and visualizing.

I’m not to up on trends to be honest. However, one that does effect me is the two-faced digital trend, for the simple fact that since I shoot all my originals analogue and old school, my work tends to get seen as more exclusive and rare. On the other hand, you can imagine the way the digital boom makes things difficult. Certain films and papers are being discontinued.

After my last project I hold of the last 4 boxes of large format Polaroud film from New York to make my emulsion transfers. Now I’m nearly out. Upside? Have to progress my trying, failing, finding new ways to mix my old school attitude with the newer technologies to surface on the market.

I see my work as visual fairly tales that originate from real moments; the production of visual stimulation as opposed to factual documentation. The images are small individual fragments of graphic reality. Fragments, which I searched and waiting for, giving up vast amounts of time for most split seconds. Themes in my work and process include communication, emotion, experience, joy, fear, beauty, power, connection, a fascination for human form, style and roots. There is a search for an aesthetic that represents freedom, and I would like to convey this to viewers, to push their imaginations. Before communicating with an image or audience, there is the life spent with surfers, the times of swimming, smiling, exhaustion. These relationships bring a dimension to my life that I find deeply satisfying. Obsessions eh? If I’m obsessed with anything it has to be essence. I search.

I add 5-10 images to my portfolio after each project. Revisiting a trip that may have been months long, going back through the 1000’s of images over months in the dark room, searching for those standout few. Maybe I’m also obsessed with editing.

I go my own way in this. My inspiration derives from my emotion/experience. Of course I look at the work of other photographers, graphic designers and artists. Sometimes I look with admiration, others with skepticism, but I can’t say that something or someone has any particularly stronger influence on my work. Maybe I am indifferent, living my life in my own little bubble. I do meet people who search for essence and soul and possess the ability to communicate these ideas. This always fascinates me. “September,” a book including Thor’s work will soon be available through www.stranger-mag.com

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Matt Georges www.everybodylovesthesunshine.com | www.kiuuapparel.com

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It’s like a girlfriend! Sometimes you love her and you can not live without her, and sometimes you just need a break. If I’m using the camera too much, I need to take a break and get some distance for a few days, weeks, it depends … The camera is important enough to me, natural enough, that I cannot imagine living without them even when they drive me crazy. It is indeed a love story. To me, cameras are tools in the sense that each one is equipped with its own specifics. You can’t shoot Polaroid with a digi for example. My year is pretty much cracked in two. Half of it I tend to be out shooting everyday. The other half its mean and this computer; I’m scanning, editing, organizing or in the dark room. Digi has become essential. Its really cool to experiment and mess around with. At the same time, this is the same feeling I have about the darkroom. I have a deep attraction to medium formats as well as original analog cameras like Holga, Diana, Polaroid, etc …

What is good nowadays is that with Digi cameras everyone is able to shoot photos. This takes away a lot of excuses. Everybody can struggle to be creative and to capture shots in an original way. This isn’t obvious or easy, but the thought of it provides me some healthy pressure to learn and take risks. The relationship of photography and art isn’t as exciting. Respected collections, like those of many museums are often in my opinion shitty photographs that present themselves on their knees waiting for people to jerk off on their faces. I usually don’t know what I am supposed to be attracted by. The important thing isn’t my confusion, but the fact that from the photo to the people, these shows generally don’t stimulate me. On a personal level, I am not a fan of the whole artist as tyrant or egomaniac sort of thing – you know, photographers who shit on their five assistants non-stop. This puts me off to a lot of fashion oriented shoots. Two

“fashion” photographers that I do appreciate though are Terry Richardson and the now everywhere Araki.

In the winter, most of the time I’m shooting snowboarding. When the sun warms things up I’m back to skateboarding. In my spare time I’ve also done some fashion stuff, and shot food for cookbooks. I try to stay busy with new impulses, communities and also techniques. The love I spoke of for my cameras extends into Analog photography. 1, 2 ‘clicClac,’ its an intense moment everytime. I prefer the suspense of this sound to machine gunning 50 digi photo’s and then taking time to select my favorite. If there is an obsession I have right now, it is finding a good scanner. If this doesn’t happen I think I’ll be continually forced to move away from Analog. With respect to history, this is an abandonment I’d prefer to leave to younger generations. Another obsession is the feeling that everything has been done already. What am I seeing or capturing that is unique?

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Matt Georges Hasn’t this already been shot? This feeling that everything is a copy of something else that’s already happened is one that sort of haunts me.

From the two worlds I tend to inhabit, I’ve always appreciated the work of Eric Antoine, Sem Rubio, Debertd, Viollet, Pontus Al or over in the US, Ed Templeton, Mike Omealy, Gaberman and Atiba way back when. That’s just skate. From the snowboard scene there were always interesting examples from Skoglund, Blom, Lystad, Vermeulen, Blanchard, Curtes and Kohlman.

Actually this isn’t a fair question. I could go on and on with names. Like I said, there have been so many talented people doing this … if I could I’d buy as many photography books as I could each month. Not just about boardsports or contemporary culture of course. I’ve also got some classics in my list, like Helmut Newton, Cartier Bresson, Doisneau, Lachapelle, Richardson, Capa, Araki.

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Vincent Skoglund 60

www.vincentskoglund.com

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I see cameras and equipment as necessary tools to capture the image I want and those that I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know I wanted. The more familiar I become with each instrument, the more it feels like an extension of myself. I am pretty basic in terms of what features I use, and for this reason or another, I feel pretty at home with most cameras.

The digital revolution is very exciting. Think about the sheer amount of images shot today compared with those shot 20 years ago. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be grateful if somebody could research that, imagine a graph illustrating the amount of images shot each year between 1950 and 2008. How could all these images shape media aesthetics? And of course, internet

distribution has seen such a strong recent shift that this too excites me.

I love nature and birth and death in endless cycles. My work is a Journey; a life journey, constantly changing, little by little.

I am inspired by being alive and this keeps me pretty open to all the input floating around me. Life is inspiring, especially in its mysteries. This was an idea that become even more apparent at the time I began shooting Snowboarding. A certain light, my own approach, so many delicate factors that could change the final photograph.

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Want it! How the hell did he do that?

That is often one of the first reactions to any sort of technical production. It could be a card trick, a painting, a computer program or Danny Wainwright busting an Oli. When anything manages to amaze us we want to know the secret; we want to know what we cannot immediately see. In the next few issues of Modart various artists will talk about the tools they use and why. There isnĂt any one answer to creating moving images, items or acts, but in case you do want it, here is our bent Consumer Review. This issue Vincent Skoglund talks about his favorite toys.

1 My good old Profoto 7b

This portable flash kit is something I use all the time. Heavy as hell to carry around in a backpack, but when I shoot it is so worth the struggle.

2 Radioslaves, Pocket wizards

When I started shooting as an amateur I used cable between my flash and camera. 25m cable or radio transmitting transmitters and receivers? The choice is easy!

3 Hasselblad

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My good old film hasselblad, with the classic 6x6 format has surely paid its due. It should be said though that for this shot I used my new H2 with a Phase one P45 + Digital back. This set up has become my new baby.

4 Linhof 4x5 large format field camera

Fantastic, portable piece of equipment.

5 Reflector Disc

I like smart, versatile and lightweight things. Take the power of the sun into your own hands.

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WA N T I T

Florent de Maria & Jon Kennedy are:

In Your Ear! punch but still have my own sonic signature and despite the sometimes rather ridiculous amount of compression (ok ok that’s usually the starting point), still have a natural or lets say non-synthesized vibe to the drums. I do like quiet music but I just can’t help it: when I think of drums I immediately start thinking of “Animal” of Muppet Show. In fact if you haven’t seen Buddy Rich Vs. Animal, check it out on YouTube to see who gets the last fill! Your artwork seems to match the music perfectly. ie the music tells as much of a story as the covers. Can u tell me a little bit about this ? I need to go wayyy back: when we started in 1996 and worked on our first tune “Call Me Goldfinger” (to be included on the Return Of The DJ II compilation), we spend a long time trying to come up with a name that would annoy all the lets say “more serious minded” hip-hoppers out there. Lately I’ve been happy to find out that the name still works that way ... and the same thing applies to artwork: I do most of it myself, using designers to “produce” it and get that vintage print quality. I actually spend more time looking for old prints, books, maps, taking pictures, reading a lot and just slowly collecting a huge library of material. In fact I think I mainly produce music so I get to work on the cover art. All this means that the art is, similar to our music, full of strange details... like Stereo Dave: a 2-headed David Hasselhoff puppet, wearing my grandfather’s trotting-race cap, an Iron Maiden (want to produce ‘em) shirt, a sheriff’s star (from a party where me and Marko of Husky DJ’d --my only time ever) and traditional Finnish shoes made of birch bark. Stuff like that ... super important to us, and some people like it but others don’t get at all.

Pepe Deluxe talks to their biggest fan

Pepe Deluxé without an accent at the end is like a gentleman without a hat - a contradiction in terms. They are a Finnish, psychedelic rock band, they are sound designers and inventors. By Jon Kennedy

I spoke to James Spectrum ( or Jari to his mum ) “Sorry but it’s “Hey, when are you going to get a REAL job?” to my mum .. at least that’s how she greets me.” about their latest masterpiece released on Catskills Records “Spare Time Machine.”

IN YOUR EAR

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I’m probably your biggest fan will that effect this interview ? Nope, we prefer to have fans of all shapes and sizes, colors and ages. We even have one fan who used to listen to just pan flute music. Now she listens to pan flute music and Pepe. Not sure if that’s really an improvement though.

“voiced” riff on Ms. Wilhelmina and Her Hat) to custom made tools like radio transmitters, underwater speakers etc. etc. I also record everything on C-cassette with a minimum of 3 different mikes. But I think the biggest reason is that I try to make each and every sound somehow special. Doesn’t always happen but I like that philosophy. I mean when I was sampling stuff I always went for the weird/strange sounds and now I’m just aiming at creating those sounds myself.

You seem to have a couple of different names... Not really: there’s this strange guy called “James Spectrum” who keeps calling my brain telephone 3 o’clock in the morning “I have an idea. Let’s go the studio and record”. I’d be too spineless to say “NOOO! This is ridiculous! I won’t do it!” but luckily my wife usually stops me before I manage to leave the house.

Do you use live drums on all tracks ? Heaven forbid, no! There’s a short drum machine ( I think the brand is “Austin”) break in the middle of Lucky The Blind vs. Vacuum Cleaning Monster. Other than that, it’s three drummers doing all the work, with Finland’s number one jazz cat Teppo Mäkynen being the main drummer. To be honest: most of the music is there just to mask the fact that it is, more or less, a drum solo album. Just listen to the first track and count the number of different drumming styles. I actually had at least a dozen reference tunes and it took a long time to get all the styles to work together and flow nicely ... so naturally when our live drummer Markku Reinikainen, hearing the tune for the first time, asked “Good heavens, did he invent and record all this in one take?” I just had to say “Yes of course”.

I’d like to start by asking how on earth you get those crazy sounds out of a regular stringed instrument ? By sheer luck I guess? OK seriously: I do have a huge collection of toys ranging from a 20+ pound Russian guitar synthesizer ESKO-100 (the

And exactly HOW MUCH compression is allowed in your drum sounds ; ) ? To be honest I’m green with envy when listening to really loud and kicking drums of The Prodigy or Chemical Brothers. I’d like to get more

Jari, can I call u Jari ? Better than the “Where’s the album you promised 3 years ago?” that Catskills uses.

Tell me a little something about polarity... Ah, you wanna know about the geek stuff? Tempting ... but no. There are guys who have incredible ears, claiming they can hear the difference between a sound that first pushes the speaker cone outwards and then inwards and the inversed version where the speaker moves first inwards. For me: if I can’t feel the guitar sound with my teeth, I usually don’t even notice it. “Oh, was that distorted?” I do play with electronics a bit too much but that’s only because at some point, like any craftsman, you start feeling the stock tools just aren’t quite right, and you first start modifying the stuff and then building ... and all the suddenly your significant other will have a cow because it’s like Invasion of the Daleks, strange electronic monsters all over the house. Smoke ? Uh huh ... not really. In fact I’m a skinny, slightly manic-depressed type with the marvelous ability to stress about everything and then some, which means than unless I get enough exercise, healthy food and lots of sleep, I’m a quivering mass of solder-stained denims in less than three days. Then again I guess I’ve been tuned to a bit of a different frequency as many times I get to meet people who wonder how we have guts to “take the piss” as you say ... and I’ve given up a long time go trying to explain “Erm, well as a matter of fact we never do!”. I mean for me most of the metal stuff, hip-hop, traditional love songs, even the “touching” stuff ... coming from the world where I’ve witnessed how that material is created... I cant really take it seriously!!! In fact I find most of it quite funny if not even ridiculous, and to me even funnier how seriously people take the manufactured entertainment. But then I remember how seriously I take all Pepe stuff and kinda understand. Kinda. What’s on the horizon for Pepe Deluxe ? For Pepe, like they say: “Nothing is permanent except change”. I’ve been working on a permission to record a REALLY strange instrument for four years and finally things seem to be happening... we’ve started collecting material for the next album, and naturally that gonna be quite a journey again. One of my ideas was, seriously, to work on some art first and then use that as a starting point for music. I’ve done stuff like that before, like on “Forgotten Knights” I first created an image of the band that would be playing the music. I’m also looking for a British late 60’s folk style female singer, you know that sad clear female folk sound. And working on the world’s first fuzz synthesizer called “Bad Had Synthesizer”. We might even have a few live gigs! www.pepedeluxe.com | www.catskillsrecords.com

By Jon Kennedy

12” Reviews

7” Reviews

Wes Jones – “Mount Analogue” ( organik )

“Gunna Do It Tonight” b/w “Suicide Bomber” ( seed )

www.vinylize.com | www.myspace.com/shmeklavaiper

Harold Von Havoc – “Name and Number” ( white ) Spacious as fuck, with solid drum breaks and a “Dark Days,” Sigur Ros sort of feel to it. The whole thing sounds like its recorded down a tunnel- mental! There’s only 200 or so of these one sided 12”s. Ask the man himself at his myspace address below: www.myspace.com/haroldvonhavoc

Evirgen – “Sudden EP” ( aber ) The introductory release from the Viennese label Aber Records drops with the artist Evirgen. This is Minimal techno that doesn’t upset me. I found it strange that I liked this, but it’s more toward Kraftwork than a pilled up techno club nightmare. It’s a beautiful record this with amazing, and I mean AMAZING, soundscapes and depth. DOOWIT! www.aber-records.com

Tiefparterre presents Battlewax Vol 2 A battle weapon of the highest calibre. Fat FAT drums and vocal snippets, in time and in tune. A couple of tracks are totally playable in their entirety in the form of the Waxolutionists’ Dero “MIG RMX” ! www.tiefparterre.net

Blendaholics – “ Obsession” ( kr8z ) Heavy funk, hip hop joint with solid female vocals from Manchester’s Lou Armour on the track “Obsession”. This track alone keeps this EP alive for me… solid, raw, and maybe too disjointed at stops throughout … www.thekr8z.com

Empty Chair – “In Phase EP” ( living space )

www.livingspacerecords.com

“Get Your Hand Outta My Pocket” Vol 4 ( organik ) This is a Mash-up, splice-up and a biggup to the Organik crew for a fantastic release; booty shake tracks for the ladies, hard as fuck rocked out Hendrix for your uncles, and Hip Hop bangers for the scallywags in the corner! DO NOT MISS THIS! www.myspace.com/organikrecordings

DJ Sept – “A Promise Never Given” ( equinox ) Lovely artwork and presentation makes for a great all round release here from DJ Sept from the German based Equinox records. Chilled, synthy melodies meander in and out of the hip hop-esque beats. My personal favourite being “Morning Comes.” www.equinoxrecords.com

www.pepedeluxe.com

El Chavo – “Selectah” b/w “The Heat” ( jakarta ) Superb MPC style beats over a Booker T & The MG’s sounding funk loop. With Poesh Wonder on lyrical duty. The dirt and the rawness only add to the warmth of this funk banger. Proper ! www.jakartarecords.de

Javier R Rodrigez – “Rumble” b/w “Up The Hill” ( raw wax ) Classic funk looking record and classic funk sounding tracks. A 200 piece pressing of tight production from a time when funk was being screened in clubs by all the groovy katts ! It’s elevator music of the highest quality. The soundtrack to any funky walk in the big city! www.rw45.com

Goon Moon. Licker’s Last Leg. Ipecac Records. 2007. Those who glorified the ten Desert Sessions volumes will inevitably be delighted by the Licker’s Last Leg release. Indeed, two men who took part in many of those sessions did record in the middle of the desert in the “Rancho De La Luna” - where every excess might be nurtured (could they find a better name for such a place?!) – and who better and tunefully tweaking joyous excess that project heads Jeordie White (Nine Inch Nails’ bassist) and Chris Goss, from Masters Of Reality, who is perhaps now better known for his work as producer for the Queens Of The Stone Age. It is a small world. Without explaining the inclusion of Josh Homme, this crew has been hanging out for ages. With some songs, the dissimilarity this work has compared to the sandy recordings is nearly forgotten (An Autumn That Came Too Soon). The sound stays dirty; the saturation pukes; arrangements are filthy and just great. Though, this disc looks like a panegyric of all their influences. Stoner with the hit Feel Like This might just make Kyuss fans drink litres of beer. Psyche as never with My Machine, a track that bleeds the King Crimson. And then there’s one where we can all appreciate the subtlety of a Bee Gees cover, “Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You”, played with an undreamed-of authenticity. We worried of an nth project under an nth name. But they’re back with a breathtaking new lease on life!

Goodbye. Pls Beam us Up By Florent de Maria

“As a matter of fact, what we can see through the eyes is very limited, much more limited than what we can hear”. Famous for his experimental works in terms of electro acoustic music in the 60’s and 70’s, Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century, passed away last December. Electronic music pioneer, Stockhausen, composed more than thirty individual works, and had a major impact on classical and avant-garde music: “Harmony means that the relationship between all the elements used in a composition is balanced, is good”. For him, any sound could become musical, if it was linked to other sounds. At the beginning of his career, he discovered “concrete music”, recording sounds of every day, modulating them by means of electronics, before bringing them together in a “recomposition”. He studied in the Darmstadt new music school with Theodor Adorno, before learning next to Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud in Paris, where he met Pierre Boulez and Pierre Schaeffer. Those meetings, like his studies in phonetics and communication, had a crucial influence on his next works in the electronic music studio in Köln. In the sixties, he forged some strong interactions with his most important contemporaries, Mauricio Kagel or John Cage for example, and supervised the Darmstadt school. His influence will be colossal, even for culture at large who might never know his name. He appeas on the Sgt. Pepper’s Beatles cover art. Zappa, Miles Davis, or more lately, Björk and Radiohead, also frequently talk up him, succumbing to his specific universe, between pop and savant writing. “With every work I have tried to expand my experience, moving sound and space, and finding new ways of superimposing different tempos and rhythms.” Klavierstücke and Momente remain as emblematic pieces. Gesang Der Jünglinge, his 1955 piece, combines some twisted speech sounds of a Biblical text, with an exceptionally elaborated technologic representation. Hymnen (1966) mixes quite a few national anthems with some complex electronic structures. From the end of the seventies, Stockhausen directs his attention on Licht, a wide cycle of operas dragged from diverse religious mythologies, especially from the Urantia book, a collection of written works supposedly delivered to humans by aliens. Stockhausen was creating for over fifty years, but even though he was one of the foremost composers of the century, like Varese, Bartok, Stravinsky, Debussy or even Morricone, his name kept on being unjustly ignored by the media. Now, he’s gone… So, give back to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s!

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Pressed on green transparent vinyl the “In Phase” EP from Finland’s Living Space Records stimulates all the correct nerves in an industrial clunking hip hop fashion for me. “An Echo Of The Future” is by far the bomb on this release and its worth picking up for this track alone. Some of the tracks are lacking in pleasing melodies at times, but it’s experimental and that is to be expected. Isn’t it?

Fucking genius from Pepe Deluxe once again. Rocked out, fucked up, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Captain Beefheart all on one record. Not to be messed with these boys. Music as it SHOULD SOUND !

Superb, tight production on this LP / EP. The general vibe is a bluesy, hip hop one. Perfect head nod and lounging fodder. These guys are tight as a ducks arse when it comes to their beats. And their label Vinylize make sunglasses from old records, YOU readers think YOU are cool? Well you’re not ‘cos THIS is how you do it!

Pepe Deluxe – “Go For Blue” ( catskills )

IN YOUR EAR

Coffeteria – Serumas and Vaiper ( vinylize )

www.seedrecords.co.uk

By Florent de Maria

www.myspace.com/organikrecordings

Limited to 300 pieces. Expect a chopped up rock, breaks banger in the form of “Gunna Do It Tonight” with Robby T on vocals. Perfect for any London, Shoreditch party. Not a bad thing at all!

Last Year’s Lovely Surprise

Superb long play from Wes Jones, combining electronic hip hopness with folk guitars, keys and flutes. Wes leads a couple tracks on vocals, sampling and twisting his vocal chords. My personal favourite is “Means To An End.” This one is all round loveliness pressed up on orange vinyl; perfect for a cold winter morning.

Show & Tell

OS GEMEOS “THE FLOWERS IN THIS GARDEN WERE PLANTED BY MY GRANDPARENTS” Words: Eva Cardon & Harlan Levey Images: Eva Cardon

“The flowers in this garden were planted by my grandparents,” is Brazilian twin brothers Os Gemeos’ (“the twins” in Portuguese) first solo exhibition in the Netherlands. Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo (°1974) grew up painting their names on the streets of São Paulo with latex and rollers in typical pixação style. Later they began using spray cans, and calligraphy became character design as the pair became internationally known for their huge street based murals and spray can mastery. Since 2005, they’ve also been frequently invited into art galleries and museums across the world. The exhibition at Het Domein in Sittard is a three-dimensional installation, in which the variations of impulses picked up on their own journey appear to bleed out.

The trademark Os Gemeos characters are influenced by Brazilian folklore, family history, the metropolis they spent their childhoods in, day to day sensation and socio-political issues. Yellow and brown skinned people play the lead roles in romantic yet thoughtful fairytales that combine daily emotions and everyday encounters with made-up stories and narrative figures. It is a production that offers a mesmerising taste of grime, pain and struggle, with a past (and promise) full of positivism and growth; reaching up and maybe, floating away.

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If collaboration can be compared to love, the brothers are a biologist’s field day when it comes to creativity, their work blending seamlessly as if it was never a case of one stopping and the other starting, but rather that they were holding each can, pressing down on each cap together. In their work we find portraits of ordinary people wearing extra-ordinarily patterned clothes, conversing with each other, and then the audience, as they stare boldly into yourvery own eyes. These people are almost always depicted in frontal view with symmetrical faces, their bodies supported by uncovered feet. Looking closer we find that often they wear no expression in their eyebrows while bare fuzzy shadows under their eyes more than hint at fatigue. Situations are made mundane by the objects these characters handle, and in a disturbingly similar way by the full void of feeling in their faces. These are characters that are not extrovertly joyful or distressed; not particularly resigned to

one emotion or another. There is a strong grey brooding in the cross over of bright colors.

linework bit by bit and learn to appreciate the wood as an object with a history of use.

Somehow this twists towards a sense of escapism. The surreal reality that Os Gemeos is building around them by tracing the essential and pure form into sterile emotions, or taking stencilled patterns made from colours separated by lines that are never full when you look up close, is intriguing, stimulating and always in conflict with itself.

For the installation in museum Het Domein, the artists recuperated loads of trashed objects, as is done when building a home in the Brazilian favelas, gave them new life in this new world. In a short time, they created a homely and colourful environment with painted portraits and wallpaper backgrounds. So often it is the tiniest of details that make a difference and here those marks sing out so as not to be overlooked - small colourful “wool thread and nail” figures conveying a sense of exotic traditional art that take you into the smell of South America.

An abundance of returning elements like characters’ accessories - firecrackers, musical instruments, houses, pets, boats and water, trees, thread, fish, birds and cages, beds and chairs, the sun, flowers, puppets - as well as nice little details (like teeth and fingernails), and even the use of recurring characters, bring a continuity of fun to the brothers’ work over the years. This comes out strong as the duo use vibrant colours and almost never pastels. They avoid shade transitions, painting surfaces as if they were coloring books; separating blue from yellow from white. The imaginary world of Otavio and Gustavo feels natural, and the relation between form and content remains recognizable shapes and colours simplistic at first encounter, drive a viewer to search ulterior motives. And there are many. The urban references and lyricism both men use, fill the closed universe of the museum and render it interactive for the public: who may find new ways to view things, come to understand the

Working on location is an immensely important element in the work of Os Gemeos - their art is always created in conversation with the place they’re working, which makes every exhibition very personal. In situ working where garbage is given a fresh chance towards function, make the start of this process as fascinating as all the narratives that come out of it as Os Gemeos again remains brilliantly humble before a new audience. If you’ve missed the show, check Het Domein for the catalogue. It’s a keeper. www.hetdomein.nl

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Show & Tell

The Expression Session Part 3 It’s a White (& Blue, Red, Yellow, & Green) Christmas in Argentina Words & Images: Ripo

Imagine an outdoor concert with nearly a hundred artists playing, from the local garage bands to big international headliners, all on the same stage… all at the same time. Sounds like chaos? Damn straight, and it sounds rad. And it sounds even more so when the artists are visual artists and rocking out on a huge mural and anywhere else they felt like across an entire city park. Start to throw in some Argentinean asado, a DJ tent (later to be turned into a base for light projections), and everyone in attendance from graff kids to grandparents and grand children alike and you’re starting to get a picture of the third edition of Buenos Aires’ Expression Session.

The holiday season was at hand and in the southern hemisphere that means summertime and vacation. The relaxed atmosphere was reflected strongly throughout the day and you could see people sweating and painting in the heat, and others laying on the grass eating and drinking. Often you’d seen them then trading places.

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The Expression Session began two years ago, started by Tec, of Fase Collective (a group of artists and designers from the city) and Chu of Doma Collective. The original concept was simple: bring together friends who were already painting to create an outdoor expo where people could experience the various artistic processes first hand, enjoy good food, drink, and company. There was the romantic hope that guests would leave the day with a sense of empowerment, having learned something while leaving a solid mark of collaborative art adorning the walls of the city. Tec explained a bit of the history, “The first edition was essentially a party amongst friends. We made some flyers and others artists and people from around the city caught wind of the event and came by to leave their own mark, observe the scene, socialize, and learn from one another. By the second edition some of the other artist collectives from the city such as Run Don’t Walk and Buenos Aires Stencil joined in to help with the organization. By that time, the event had also grown greatly in size and even artists from Chile made the trip to participate and bring their own flavors and influences to the scene.” The crowd that came by to watch and participate in version 3 was even larger and showed a continued enthusiasm including a wide age range, numerous nationalities, and various artistic backgrounds all thrown onto the walls together.

The variety of work and activities was the most impressive part of the whole day and to Tec, a crucial characteristic of the event. While the majority of the artists participating were painting directly onto the walls (lots of characters and stencils) there were also a number of the more traditional graffiti writers, fashion designers painting and printing on clothing, sculptures and installations, a few “smashing” performance pieces, homemade fanzines littered across the grounds, stickers all over, an attempt at light projections by Tagtool from Austria (although the transformer blew after only 30 minutes of action), and some very cool paper hot air balloons. “We want to keep a very open atmosphere here where everyone including street artists, graphic designers, stencil artists, traditional graffiti writers, fashion designers, video artists, whoever wants, can feel comfortable and stimulated to create and have an open exchange between one another. Lots of people leave the event having learned new methods and styles as well as having made new friends for future fun and collaboration,” says Tec when asked about the “point” of this event. But the “point” is really as individual as every artist and spectator in attendance. The general mentality of the city and the attitude of the emerging creative scene are also critical to how and why something like this can exist as it does. Contrary to most of Europe and certainly the United States, this type of non-commissioned public artwork receives a lot of support from the community and direct neighbors. Instead of getting chased by a “good citizen” with a baseball bat, you are more likely to be greeted by smiles and gracias from the neighbors who are happy to receive a bit of color on their walls. Not to mention there still are no laws in existence against graffiti in the city. Because of this freedom, as well as how cheap

it is (and that its summer here during the European and North American winters), Buenos Aires has recently started to attract a lot of international artists to its streets to create and participate in a scene that is well on its way to a full on creative explosion. In order to take this energy beyond the capital, the Expression Sessions are hoping to spark interest and empowerment in generally forgotten parts of the country. With such a strong impact on local art scenes as well as the youth of the city, the event has already attracted numerous companies asking to participate as a sponsor. In a rare twist the organizers want nothing to do with it. In their eyes, the festival succeeding means keeping it free and having no commercial presence in their support of the unhindered exchange of ideas between all visitors. For three years they’re doing this better and better, and perhaps the only fear for the future of this project is that the size of the event may eventually surpass the capabilities of the park location. Tec shrugs this off stating that this only changes the venue, pushing it slightly farther out of the city center to accommodate a larger crowd and continue with the art for art’s sake mentality. Oh, I think I forgot to mention the best part of it all, the entire event was organized and realized with absolutely no permission from the city or local councils. Only in Buenos Aires…

• Expression Session – www.fotolog.com/expresionsession • Fase Collective – www.mundofase.com • Doma Collective - www.doma.tv

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Banksy

Show & Tell

From Oxford Street to Bethlehem:

Santa’s Ghetto By Tristan Manco

You may have caught the news on CNN or the BBC, but perhaps it got lost in all those Christmas stories about needing to shop more to save the world economy or how a rogue turkey escaped to freedom. If it passed you by then you missed an extraordinary story of art on walls, falafels, strip-searches and giant camels…

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Each December for six years running, East London screenprint publishers Pictures on Walls have hosted a “squat art concept store” known as Santa’s Ghetto. Usually the venue is an empty shop space, which is transformed with anarchic abandon into a wonderland of underground art. In 2003, it was in Carnaby Street, and Banksy’s painting of Jesus crucified, with stuffed shopping bags in each outstretched hand was the show’s alternative Christmas centerpiece. In 2006, crowds of shoppers stopped in their tracks to take pictures of the show’s satirical window displays when it was held in a former shoe shop on London’s Oxford Street. So where do the fried chickpea snacks come in? Santa’s Ghetto had originally planned a sabbatical in 2007, until the surprise announcement that the show was swapping London for the ultimate Christmas site - Bethlehem’s Manger Square, birthplace of Jesus and home to some fine falafel sandwiches. The square is a primespot in this little town; on one side is the Church of the Nativity, on the other a Mosque with winding streets heading off into the old city. In the markets dried fruits and textiles can be bought for a few shekels and you can imagine yourself back in Biblical times, albeit with the addition of cheap plastic Chinese goods. The location is politically significant. Bethlehem was recently described in a National Geographic article as “one of the most contentious places on Earth”. Positioned in the West Bank, on land taken by Israel during the Six Day War of 1967, it’s a Palestinian city that today is surrounded by a separation barrier; an eight-metre-high wall built by the Israeli military. Described by one local as a bottle with a cork, the town has one exit to Jerusalem through the wall, though for ordinary Palestinians permission to traverse it is rarely given. As illegal Israeli settlements surround the city on land stolen from Palestinian families, economically and politically in a stranglehold, life for its citizens is a daily struggle. With reckless bravado the Santa’s Ghetto project was, simply by turning up, showing solidarity with a place damaged by poverty

and conflict. Given this unexpected environment, the logistics of the show presented challenges and high expectations, starting with the venue. Luckily at short notice a former chicken restaurant became available and, with local supporters working into the night, the dilapidated store was transformed into a rustic gallery space. International artists, including Banksy, Peter Blake and Antony Micallef, alongside some impressive local talent, donated paintings and sculptures, which were sold through a bidding system. Bids on the highly collectable artwork could only be made in person tempting bait to draw visitors to the area. For one month the gallery would be open and the bidding proceeds would all go to localbased charities. Despite the show’s swift organisation some impressive artworks were on display. For example, leading Palestinian artist Suleiman Mansour donated a painting called Jamal Al Mahamel, which pictured a humble man burdened with the city of Jerusalem on his back, considered to be one of the most important contemporary paintings in the Arab world. Another show-stopper was a piece entitled City of Sorrow – a 5ft by 5ft, intricately carved scale model of Jerusalem’s Old City made from local olive wood. Made by a local craftsman Tawfiq Salsaa, it is stunning, and made all the more poignant through a collaboration with British artist Banksy who added grey Israeli military watchtowers around the model city walls. Incidentally, Tawfiq Salsaa, who has been carving wood for more than half a century, had been inspired that year to make his own political model which has been described as 2007’s “nativitywith-a message.” Available through a British Christian charity the Amos Trust, the nativity scene is beautifully made but differs in one respect to a normal scene, separating the three wise men from the crib is the high wall that has now unfortunately become synonymous with the city. Santa’s Ghetto invited close to 20 artists to take part in the project during the month with the idea that more art would get made for sale and draw attention to the event. After talking with and being

guided by local people, each artist responded in their own way to the situation. Some artists, such as Washington-based Mark Jenkins made sculptures and conducted workshops with the locals, while other artists took to the streets, mostly painting and pasting works on the separation wall. Sketching, sculpting and painting on found materials each artist managed to pull some great work out of the bag, without much preparation and making do with what was available. UK-based artist Paul Insect was responsible for hanging the show and his posters and stencils were all around the town. New York’s Faile collective went large on the wall with a giant rosette that read “with love and kisses – nothing last forever”. Working with local printers British photomontage artists Peter Kennard and Cat Picton Phillips produced giant poster pieces entitled “Whose Paying For This” and “Made in Palestine”. While the show was an important element of the project, it was the art on walls that became the most visible statement and got the media attention. Spanish artist Sam3 painted giant silhouettes of people escaping over the wall using an escalator and giant camels, making the most of the walls scale and highlighting its weighty significance. Erica il cane (Erica the Dog) portrayed the wall as a line of falling dominos, while his collaborations with Sam3 had a Biblical feel, using donkeys to tell allegorical stories. Not forgetting fellow Italian Blu, who worked the wall hard with images such as a giant kneeling child blowing at a group of soldiers who crumble away into a pile of dollar bills. In mid-December a second wave of artists arrived - this time from New York. Contemporary pop artist Ron English, well known for ‘liberating’ commercial billboards, hit the wall with a huge image of a clown soldier and the words “Pardon Our Oppression”, as well as other smaller works. Fellow NY based artist Swoon went to town with an extra special collaged paper work adorning one of the watchtowers, which featured a poem cut into paper and hand-sewn pockets attached to the wall for people to leave their own messages in.

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Swoon

Ron English

Faile

Sam 3 & Erica il Cane

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Understandably the artist who created the most headlines was Banksy. Arriving sometime before the project, his work was unmissable as you entered the city from Jerusalem. The first Banksy piece that confronts visitors is of a dove wearing a bulletproof vest painted outside the Palestinian Heritage Centre. Director of the centre, Maha Saca, said of the image, “This is what happens to peace in Palestine. Even the bird of peace cannot protect himself.” Further along the road a second painting of an Israeli soldier checking a donkey’s identity papers was intended to poke fun at Israel’s strict security controls and harassment. Locals however, were apparently divided on the meaning of the work. Though some saw the humour, others took offense thinking that the image portrayed the Palestinians literally as donkeys. Since the press was asking residents daily what they thought about the image, it’s perhaps unsurprising that eventually someone painted over it. The whitewashing of a Banksy image only created more news column inches and kept the story current. Given the local problems and high sensitivities, perhaps irony is not embraced in the same way in Bethlehem as it might be in London, but even if Banksy’s work mainly appealed to foreigners and attracted the media, then it was still a job well done.

Throughout the month countless news broadcasters arrived to cover Santa’s Ghetto. This self-initiated project focused minds on an often forgotten political situation. The show brought visitors from around the world, particularly the UK, who risked stripsearches and endless questioning at Tel Aviv airport, to support the blighted but beautiful Palestinian lands. In the same month former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, now Middle East envoy, also visited Bethlehem calling for more visitors to help the Palestinian economy. “Bethlehem is safe and a great place to visit. Everyone who can should share the experience.” Strangely Banksy and Tony Blair agree that the world needs to stay focused on this problem and one way is through visiting. The painted walls will provide an extra attraction to visitors until the enlightened moment that the walls are finally brought down. While the final amount raised for charity by the Ghetto is still being calculated, some estimates are as high as one million dollars, which isn’t bad for a project that started life in an upstairs room in an East London pub.

Banksy

Pa u l I n s e c t

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Blu

Rocking Your Homeland 74

What changes when you enter the system? You? Or the System? INSIDE

} Either way, if Heidleberg wasn’t bombed during the second World War, it certainly was during the first edition of the Montana-Scholarship featuring Smash137 and Stefan Strumbel. Montana Cans has shifted some of their sponsoring into the Montana Scholarship Program to support artists with a background in Graffiti and an interest in exploring the barriers between the street and the creative cultures around the cold white cube. During the last decade the (art) world has witnessed a positive resurgence of practices once considered exclusive to individualist propaganda, social commentary and outright, deliberate visual anarchy, and has found itself confronting a new level of controversy with the contemporary Graffiti scene at its door step,

and slowly creeping in. When authority can’t police a problem, the only way to slow it is to embrace it. This is tempting for individuals and murderous to any sort of existing movement. It is no longer just running from cops. Now its also learning the real flavor of champagne – and gargling with it. Graffiti has entered art discourse through its persuasive demands to the question of access and personal expression as well as in its continued challenge of our aesthetic and social definitions, an inquiry made more profoundly emotional by the personal risk assumed in the asking (and the action). Despite being rejected, censored, and criminalized for their evasive declarations and subversive behavior, these artists continue to maintain a united sense of rebellion. The position that Montana intends to investigate with its scholarship program in Year 1, is the extent

to which a street based practice can challenge and achieve new levels of social defiance from within the confines of an established aesthetic space. The first recipients of the Montana-Scholarship were Smash137 and Stefan Strumbel. For one month these quite different artists lived and worked together struggling to develop collaborative work in a large vacant space with time to consider and the sudden threat of compromise in every corner. Pimp who’s what? For more images of this exhibition, or further information on the Montana-Scholarship program: www.montana-scholarship.com In collaboration with Cyworld.de

ONE NATION. UNDER CANVAS.

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