Not Not Awesome by Thomas Law

O D N A I NT E RV I E W

@ n o t n o t a w e s o m e

INTE R V I E W

I N TERV I E W

I Y A

i n s t a g r a m t h i s c o v e r

MAXWELL SNOW PRINTED MATTER ALEX DA CORTE SELF PORTRAITS MIYA ANDO PETER SUTHERLAND DARREL ELLIS E-MAIL

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EDITOR Print is dying. Newsweek and SPIN consecutively ceased printing at the end of 2012. Magazine prices are increasing and digitalization has become like a nightclub bouncer, annoying but necessary. Flipping through an issue on an I-Pad is shit, you can only argue this point if you are a gamer or addicted to porn as your life will be married to the digital screen. I can understand that demographics can determine the necessity of distribution. If you’re a reader of Golf Digest, you’re probably not concerned with the beauty of ink on paper. It is the tangibility of the magazine that has always retained my fascination. The smell from the air when the page’s turn, the inconsistency of a shitty printer, the spine facing out in your book shelf and even how annoying it is when you can’t find it. Most importantly it’s the surprise when you find something amazing. The right one can be filled with everything you need to change your life. Welcome to issue 01 of Not Not Awesome. If you have picked this up then you have made its creation worthwhile. To anybody who was aware of its existence, you would also know of its hiatus. What began in 2010 has remained dormant for the past 12 months. This is the resurrection. The premise of its creation was to converse with artists and generate an insightful avenue into the creative mind. It’s distribution made sense as a free commodity. Our priority is to inspire. Reading our interviews may just spark the flame of possibility and encourage you to pursue your interests regardless of limitations. We intend to challenge current magazine design and distribution, but ultimately we want to refund the generous time and attention that the featured artists have given us. Not Not Awesome would sincerely like to thank Max Snow, Miya Ando, Alex Da Corte, Allen Frame, Darrel Ellis, Peter Sutherland, Tim Barber, Magdalena Wosinska, Asger Carlson, Aaron Farley and Shannon Michael Cane at Printed Matter. Issue 02 is coming very soon. Thanks and enjoy.

Throughout history, art has sought to challenge existence, confront cultures, provoke opinions and spawn new clarity for whoever cares to look beyond the tissue. The creators have been remembered as tumultuous creatures, from savage Lotharios to frail souls. The artists mind is never far from a new idea, an inescapable mentality that can act as friend or foe. Artist Maxwell Snow’s work stands at the edge of the world, paring its relationship as dangerously romantic as if it were a Shakespearian play. Mastering the elements that create the photograph is integral, though falls short in percentage to knowing what constitutes a great image, a worthy reflection of ones mind. You also need to have the will to pursue an idea, to kick aside doubts or insecurity’s. Fortunately Snow has this. His rounded work ethic has drawn him to adrenaline charged projects, shooting the Klu Klux Klan, gangs throughout Los Angeles, the war in Afghanistan and Heavy Metal groups in Scandinavia. Now Max’s work is more conceptually driven and derived through mix media of sculpture, collage and photography. His current ideas now channel both personal and public issues, thus moving him away from the traditional documentary approach. Max was the first interview I conducted for this issue, whilst I sat in his beautiful Redhook studio and threw questions at him I noticed he had a trick that I had never seen before. I was mid interview when he lit his first cigarette, he had his legs crossed and I noticed his pants were cuffed. Just before the ash fell on the ground he opened the cuff and tapped the ash in. Was it reckless abandon or just knowing what works. I guess they are one in the same.

NOT NOT AWESOME

p h ot og r a p h - ma x we ll s now

IN RESPONS E TO YOU R DA RK I M AG E R Y YOU SAID YO U R N OT QU IT E RE A DY TO S TA R T TAK IN G PIC T U R E S OF P U PPIES AN D F L O W E R S . YOU HAV E SIN CE S H AV E D YOU R B E A RD, C U T YO U R HA IR AND MARRIED YOU R PA R T N E R . W H AT ARE YO U R THOUGHTS ON PU PPIES AND F L O WER S IN THE NEAR FU T U RE? M AXW E L L

SN OW

That’s funny cause we are actually doing a shoot for some magazine on Sunday and we are going to shoot a pussy.

A CAT PUSSY?

M AXW E L L SN OW -

Yeah. We have a nice w hite fluffy cat. THOMAS - C AT S H AV E A L I T T L E T O O M U C H ATTITUDE, I THINK DOGS ARE A LITTLE MORE M E L L O W. SNOW

I’m not much of a cat person myself, I definitely prefer the dog.

MAXWELL SNOW - This is a

big fluffy white one. Its tail is shaved, except the end is fluffy like a poodle, and it has cataracts. I don’t even know what that means. My friend found it in the wall of an apartment he moved into. The cat apparently climbed into the wall and the women who owned the place couldn’t get it, so she just said fuck it and left it there.

YOUR BUDDY FOUND A CAT IN THE WALL? I DON’T KNOW IF THAT’S COOL OR IT SUCKS. IS THIS FRIEND OF YOURS A CAT LOVER? He has two. This one is called Fancy.

MA X WELL SNOW -

T H O M A S - T HIS S TO R Y IS R EA L LY S T R A N G E. MA X W ELL S NOW - Yeah.

6 NOT NOT AWESOME

ph otogra ph - maxwel l s now

THOMAS -

T H O MA S -

MAXWELL

THOMAS - I DO ENJOY AN OVER WEIGHT CAT THAT JUST CHILLS. I HATE THOSE VICIOUS CATS THAT SWIPE AND SCRATCH.

Subject wise though I still don’ t think I am ready to go down the puppy and flower route. The things you create are always a mirror image of w here you’re at and I am still fixated on the dar ker side of things . I sometimes a pproach them in a humorous tone, sor t of like countr y music. As if you’re losing your dog, your wife, you’re dr inking and losing your mind but doing it to this twangy up-beat music.

TH O M A S - I WA S TH INKING A BOUT T HE C ONFR ONTATI ON I N YOUR W ORK WH EN I WA S WA LKING H ER E A ND I NOTI C ED I WALK ED PAST VER ONA STREET. IT GOT M E TH INKING O F R O M EO AND JULI ET AND HOW YOUR W ORK HAS A R ELATIO NS H IP TO TH E ETH O S O F THE STORY. I T’S PLAY W I TH HER OI SM, R O M A NCE, FA ITH , P O WER , Y ET ALL UNDER A C LOUD OF C HAOS AND DES TR U CTIO N. I S EE TH E S A M E TURBULENC E W HEN I LOOK AT OUR W ORK . MAXWEL L S NOW - Well I am glad that you see it that way cause I

feel a lot of people see it and tur n away, they don’ t give it time and analyse it. They just leave it at wretched or per ver se. I love being so close to Verona St reet, “fair Verona” especially cause this neighborhood is a dum p. (Leaves to get an ashtray). My wor k is never based purely on confrontation, I don’ t go for just shock value. I like to think that if I shoot a women being fucked by a skeleton then I do it with a painter ly backdrop, and achieve great lighting. I like the juxta position of having people look at it in shock but slowly star t to like it, though kind of not want to like it. It’s presented in a way that is beautiful, but is not of beauty. TH O M A S - WH AT ER A WO U LD YO U LI K E TO GO BAC K TO PHOTOGRAPHI C ALLY? MAXWEL L S NOW - I love wa r photogra phy, all of it.

I love to look at Rober t Ca ppa and Don McCullin, w hat they did was so ca ptivating. But then I also love por traiture, like Edward Steichen and the people w ho would shoot the star lets in the 30’s . Shit that just takes you somew here w hen you look at it. I would read a lot as a kid too, stor ies a bout medieval tales and wester ns , w hich gave me an opinion of w ho individuals are and how they should behave. I didn’ t really have too much guidance on things like that. I am glad you talk a bout romance too, I am into histor y and literature. I have always wished I have lived in a different time and I use that idea to br ing in elements of literature, histor y, romance into my wor k and less of the digital age.

TH O M A S - A R E YO U R ELIGIO U S AT ALL? MAXWEL L S NOW - I think I am spir itual but not religious . But I am a

big fan of religious iconogra phy. interview - MAXWELL SNOW

THO MA S - I FEE L YO U H AV E A FA S CI N AT I O N WITH TIM ELES S NES S , IN THE WAY T H AT A L OT O F YO U R W O R K I S S T R I P ED O F CO NTEM P O R A R Y AR T E FAC T S A N D I S E I T H E R E S S E N T I A L LY WH ITE O R BLACK A ND SH O WS O N LY W H AT I S S U P P O S E D TO B E S H O WN. IT’S A S IF YO U SU SPE N D YO U R S U BJ E CT S I N L I M BO. M AXW E L L S NOW - Yeah it is like stopping time. That’s w hy

I like to shoot nudes because you don’ t get the chance to date things . You shoot it against a calm backdrop and it gives it somew hat of a contemporar y edge but ver y subtle a nd my own.

TH O M A S - FO R YO U R SERI ES “100 HEADLESS W OMEN” WAS I T A CO NS CIO U S DECIS IO N TO USE BEAUT I FUL W OMEN? MAXWEL L S NOW - Yeah, I guess they were all beautiful.

I didn’ t cast the women specifically, it was more w hat was sent my way. I asked fr iends and fr iends of fr iends . It all just chain reacted that way you know. It’s hard to convince people to even pose topless and its only skin in the end. I think younger people are more willing to do this because they are in great sha pe, you’re only young once. There was never a parameter on physique or type though.

cr y forever sign- maxwel l s now

ph ot og r a ph - ma x we ll s now

ph otogra ph - maxwel l s now

interview - MAXWELL SNOW THOMAS

WERE THEY MORE WILLING WHEN YOU TOLD THEM YOU WOULD NOT BE SHOWING THE WHOLE FACE, YOU WOULD OBSCURE THEIR IDENTITY? -

MAXWELL SNOW -

Some cared, some didn’ t. It was mixed reaction. Some thought it was aggressive or derogator y, some viewed it as a preser vation of anonymity.

THOMAS - I THINK IT WAS AN INTERESTING CHOICE. WHEN LOOKING AT IT I CANNOT HELP BUT THINK OF EJ BELLOQS WORK. HOWEVER I DO SEE THE ACTION USED BY YOU AS A MORE SENSITIVE APPR OACH WITH ETCHING INK OVER WHAT BELLOQ DID WITH SCRATCHING THE EMULSION FR OM THE NEGATIVE. HE ACTUALLY TOTALLY ERASED THE IDENTITY INSTEAD OF HIDING IT. MA X W ELL SN OW - I was definitely inspired by the

Belloq por traits , they are such histor ic wor ks . But I feel etching out straight from the negative was such an aggressive act toward both photogra phy and sub ject w here as by me a pplying the etching ink I felt like I was a pplying a vale. THOMAS - BUT WHILE YOU APPLY THIS VALE WITH SOME SENSITIVITY YOU ALSO ARE USING ACIDS ON RELIGIOUS ICONOGRAPHY. IS IT THAT YOU’RE NOT SATISFIED WITHOUT SOME SHOCK VALUE, OR DESTR UCTION? MA X W ELL SN OW - I think there is beauty in destr uc-

tion, and I don’ t think the Virgin Mar y would get upset. I am b r inging her for m to a different audience, one that may not get a chance to see her as an ar t sculpture. In one for m or another I think they are all the same thing, angels , ghosts , virgins , saints . THOMAS - THESE THINGS YOU DO AND WHAT YOU SPEAK OF RELAY SOME SOR T OF FEAR TO ME, OR DEALING WITH IT. YOU DON’T SEEM LIKE A PERSON WHO IS FEARFUL. WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? MA X W ELL SN OW - I don’ t know.

THOMAS - IS THERE ANYTHING YOU HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT OR WRITTEN IN A BOOK AND SAID “NO I CAN’T DO THAT”? MA X W ELL SN OW - I think I am the opposite w here

if I feel that fear or trepidation then I have to tr y it. I don’ t really like to let myself be scared away by things that may seem dangerous both physically and emotionally. I think this is a stupid answer cause I believe it is healthy to have fear, I just can’ t think of anything r ight now. THOMAS -

WHAT ABOUT THE DENTIST?

I love the dentist because I always ask for laughing gas . Its so much fun. MA X W ELL SN OW -

THOMAS - FUCK, YOU CAN’T FIND THAT ANYWHERE IN AUSTRALIA ANYMORE. WE JUST HAVE BR UTAL TECHNICIANS WHO WILL TEAR YOUR MOUTH UP AND GIVE YOU A LOLLIPOP. I AM VERY SCARED OF THE DENTIST. MAXWEL L S N OW - When I go for a cleaning I ask

for laughing gas . THOMAS - I THINK THE CLEANINGS ARE JUST AS PAINFUL AS ANY OF THE OTHER WORK THEY DO. THOSE DRILLS JUST ECHO IN YOUR HEAD WHILE IT’S JAMMED IN BETWEEN YOUR TEETH AND RIPPING AT YOUR GUMS. I WOULD LIKE TO BE PUT UNDER LOCAL ANAESTHETIC IF I GO GET A CLEAN. HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU WERE DOING YOUR DOCUMENTARY STYLE WORK AND CONFR ONTING A LOT OF SOCIAL TABOO’S ON GANGS AND SUCH?

Well, I ha te to give him any credit cause he is an asshol e but my s tep fa ther (no MAXWEL L SNOW -

longer) was a photojour nalist and he photogra phed children in per il around the wor ld. He would get me out of school to assist him, so I would go and load his film and such. I would see lots of troubled kids huffing glue and doing bad shit. So I was introduced to that and wanted to be a photojour nalist. I took my own a pproach and wanted to photogra ph things that I thought wouldn’ t be forever. I also did some war photogra phy, I was in Afghanistan with the troops on the front line but then I got in some trouble and couldn’ t leave town for a few year s . TH O M A S - S O YOU W ENT FR OM YOUR SI TE AND SUBJEC T S P ECIFIC DOC UMENTARY POR TRAI T URE TO SOME REP O R TAGE A ND NOW YOUR SLOW I NG T HI NGS DOW N AND U S ING A N 8X 10 AND REALLY MAK I NG C ONC I SE C ONCEP TUA L WO RK AS W ELL AS DABBLI NG I N FASHI ON. HOW DO YO U BR IDGE ALL T HOSE GAPS AND ST I LL HOLD YOUR BACK U P A S AN AR T I ST ? MAXWEL L S N OW - I love wor king and I want to be using my camera all the time. I also am enjoying playing with my other mediums like sculpture and collage. I find that the fashion wor k is so much fun. There is a stigma w here you can’ t be a fashion photogra pher and a fine ar tist but that’s just bullshit and there is already too much bullshit out there to subscr ibe to. Also I get a lot of nice subjects from my fashion wor k, and a lot of the subjects from headless women would be just me ask ing at the end of a fashion shoot if they would care to help out with a project I am wor king on, can I shoot you really quick for it?

THO MA S - A N D FA S H I O N S H O OT S ARE A FA N TA S T I C BR E E D I N G GR OU N D FOR I D E A S T H AT CA N LE A D TO FU R T HE R P R O J E CT S . M AXW E L L S N OW For the most par t my visions have been unhindered w hen I do fashion. Its almost sketches for things I would like to wor k on.

ph otogra ph - maxwel l s now

THO MA S - WH AT WA S T H E L A S T THIN G YOU WR OT E D O W N I N YO U R BO OK ? M AXW E L L S NOW - I think I was

designing a dining room ta ble. It’s not ver y exciting. A ta ble design note, and I couldn’ t go back to sleep without wr iting it down. THO MA S - I A M L O O KI N G F O R A TAB LE TO O B U T I A M N OT A V E R Y AD E PT B U ILD ER . I A S KE D S O M E FRIEN D S TO T EACH M E B U T I T D I D N ’ T R E A LLY G E T ME A N Y W H E R E . I H AV E P R O MISED A TA BL E TO M Y G I R L FRIEN D, WH IC H I T H I N K I W I L L BU Y AN D T E LL H E R I M A D E I T F R O M R E C YC LE D WO O D F R O M A D E VA S TAT E D FO RE ST. D O YO U WA N T TO TALK A B OU T ANY T H I N G ? M AXW E L L S NOW - Not really. THO MA S - AN Y T H I N G BE E N P L AG U IN G YO U ?

Yeah but I choose not to let it r ule me.

M AXW E L L S NOW -

THO MA S YO U SAID YO U C ON SID E R PHOTO G R A P H Y A S A SC IE N T IFIC ST U DY. D O YO U S T I L L BE LIE V E T H IS? M AXW E L L S NOW - I do. A lot of the reasons I like taking portraits are because I am interested in people and the stor ies people can tell without having to speak. The lines on your face or the scar s on your body o r w hat your eyes have seen. I really a ppreciate character s , people w ho are not afraid to live outside the nor m. I guess I have been contradicting myself a little because lately I don’ t want to see peoples faces and I have been somew hat hiding there character. I don’ t quite know w hat that means .

I have done a lot of S E L F P O R T RA I T S and they are kind of tortured. of them are w hen I haven’ t been S U F F E R I N G .

all None

TH O M A S - I WILL FINIS H WITH TH IS IDEA O F CH A R ACTER A ND P O R TR A ITS . H O W WO U LD YO U S EE YO U R IDEA L P O R TR A IT A ND WH AT DO YO U TH INK YO U R CH A R ACTER WO U LD LO O K LIKE?

S NOW - I have done a lot of self por traits and they are all kind of tor tured. None of them are w hen I haven’ t been suffer ing. ........................................

MAXWEL L

The following books were handpicked by Shannon Michael Cane as being the best books of 2012. Shannon works as the editions and fair coordinator at Printed Matter and was also the one time Editor in Cheif of “They Shoot Homos Don’t They.” P R I N T E D

M A T T E R

195 10th Avenue New York, NY 10011

ARTIST

Paul Thek and Edwin Klein TITLE: A Document PUBLISHER: Edwin Klein and Alexander and Bonin, 2012

ART IST

David Benjamin Sherr y TITLE: Quantum Light PUBLISHER: Damiani / Salon 94, April 2012

ARTIST

Sam Falls TITLE: Life Size PUBLISHER: Karma, New York, 2012

ART IST

Walter Pfeiffer TITLE: Scrapbook PUBLISHER: Patrick Frey, November 2012

not not awesome

ART IST

Ari Marcopoulos TITLE: A Document PUBLISHER: Edwin Klein and Alexander and Bonin, 2012

A RT IST

Jason Evans TITLE: NYLPT PUBLISHER: MACK, November 2012

ARTIST

Alec Soth TITLE: Looking For Love 1996

PUBLISHER: Kominek Books, 2012

printed matter - best books of 2012

A RT IST

Ma t t C on n o rs TITLE: Bell Is A Cup PUBLISHER: Rainoff, 2012

A RT IST

Charlotte Dumas TITLE: Anima PUBLISHER: Self Published, 2012

ART IST

Erik Kessels TITLE: In Almost Every Picture No. 11 PUBLISHER: Kesselskramer Publishing, 2012

A L E X D A C O R T E - interview

I DOUBT YOU WILL BUMP INTO HIM PERUSING THROUGH A MONCLER STORE, TESTING EACH JACKET FOR FINE INSULATION OR SNIFFING THE FUR LINED HOODS IN SEARCH OF RARITY. IF YOU FREQUENT HIGH SOCIETY GATHERINGS, EAT CAVIAR FROM IVORY SPOONS AND TACKLE HEAVY ISSUES LIKE FOIE GRAS, AGAIN I AM QUITE CERTAIN YOU WON’T REKINDLE A RELATIONSHIP WITH ARTIST ALEX DA CORTE. IF HOWEVER, YOU ARE IN DIRE NEED OF MULTI COLORED BAND-AIDS OR A PLASTIC VIKING SWORD I CAN ASSURE YOU ARE GETTING WARMER. AFTER ALMOST TEN YEARS IN THE EDUCATION SYSTEM, MOST RECENTLY AN MFA AT YALE, DA CORTE IS NOW CLAWING AT THE PROVERBIAL PINK PLASTIC “POP ART” LADDER. WHETHER WORKING THROUGH SCULPTURE, VIDEO, PHOTOGRAPHY OR PAINTING, YOU WILL FIND THE PULSE OF A VIBRANT PALETTE AND THE LOOM OF NASTY CHEAP PLASTIC IN ALL OF ALEX’S WORK . HIS PIECES COME THROUGH THE SIMPLICITY OF TAKING NOTICE, NOT JUST IN THE REGULAR BUT MORE SO THE IRREGULAR. THINGS, WHICH WE NOTICE IN OURSELVES THOUGH MAYBE OVERLOOK IN OTHERS, LIKE HOW A SAFETY PIN CAN COVER A TEAR IN A T-SHIRT. HAVING SPENT HIS YOUTH IN CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY AND CARACAS, VENEZUELA IT IS PREVALENT BOTH HAVE HAD A LASTING EFFECT ON HIS CURRENT PRACTICE. THE HAPHAZARD NATURE OF QUICK FIXES IN VENEZUELA AND THE ICONOGRAPHIC PRODUCT AND NECESSITY’S FROM AMERICA BOTH RESONATE, ALL WHILE LACED WITH HUMOR AND SARCASM. YET WHILE THE LIFE IN ALEX’S WORK SEEMS TO BE EXUDING THE SPIRIT OF FLAMBOYANCE, IT IS ALSO QUITE MACABRE AND SATIRICAL . WHILST YOU MAY FIND YOURSELF BEING ASTONISHED BY THE DETAIL AND LAUGHING AT THE NATURE OF HIS PIECES YOU MAY ALSO SEE A FINGER POINTING STRAIGHT AT YOU. THE UNDERPINNING OF ALEX’S BREATHTAKING WORK IS HIS OBSESSIVE EYE AND PROLIFIC ETHIC, HIS APPROACH IS JUST LIKE HIS ATTITUDE, TOTALLY OPEN, ATTENTIVE AND BRIMMING WITH INTELLECT.

UNTITLED Pigment print, anodized metal frame

YOU REFERENCED THE SUBURBS, WHERE YOU STILL LIVE AS THE ARMPIT. IS THIS TRUE?

Given the context the reference was not directed towards the suburbs but more so New Jersey. I grew up in Camden and some say that New Jersey is the armpit of America. There is really nothing to do there, and in the northern part of New Jersey it’s really tough and industrial. People are always just passing through this interstitial space, which is occupied by factories and the waste that comes from the Big City …..so when I spoke of “the armpit”, it was in reference to this particular space. If the city is the centre than the armpit is the burbs, and I am interested in the periphery, not the centre. SO WHILE THE MASSES RUN UP THE TORSO YOU’RE PUTTING DEODORANT UNDER THE ARMPIT?

Haha, yeah I think I am just more interested in the smelly armpit or the grime under your fingernails. Just the edges of things, when you’re in the centre you may think you’re feeling the pulse of everything but I think you can tend to miss what’s really happening. As interested in the analysis of culture as I am and what’s happening I also like to be somewhat removed from it.

I THINK DAMIEN HIRST SAID HE WAS SURROUNDED BY MONEY AT THE TIME SO HE DECIDED TO MAKE SOMETHING FROM MONEY.

Maybe that’s a bad place to be. HOW MUCH OF YOUR WORK IS REACTION BASED? BY REACTION I MEAN SEEING A MATERIAL, SEEING AN ACT, SEEING A MOTIF AND REACTING FROM THE FEELING TO CREATE A WORK.

Its funny, I will be in the street and I will see the way someone has their pants cuffed or wears two t-shirts or just a window in South Philly that’s just arranged really bizarre. Things that just strike a chord with me as being slightly unfamiliar and unique but beautiful. I see these things and I can go straight back to my studio and recreate it, and I think that’s the immediate desire. However that desire goes away, I don’t come to my studio and then simply repeat it. I think it gets very distilled. I will go to a thrift store and see something for the color or the fact that it look isolated, I will take it back to my studio and it will most likely sit there for some weeks until I rediscover it. Sometimes I can work very fluid and fast and sometimes my work can be laborious and slow. Its taking so many things I have seen in the world and applying them, not normally just one. When I look at how someone cuffs there pants its not why but how they are cuffed, how those two materials meet. So when I go into making something I almost think, “If I was this found object, how would I cuff my pants”. SINCE I HAVE BEEN WATCHING YOU AS AN ARTIST YOU HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLY PROLIFIC, IT SEEMS YOUR ALWAYS PRODUCING. YET I ALSO READ YOU HAVE THROWN A LOT OF GREAT WORK OUT THROUGH OVER THINKING POST CREATION. I ALWAYS LOVE TO HEAR ARTISTS TALK ABOUT THIS “MADNESS” AND HOW IT CAN AFFECT THEIR WORK. WOULD YOU PUT IT DOWN TO YOUR DECADE OF FORMAL ART EDUCATION?

Yeah I have been in school for a long time, but I have always had a fast brain. I have always generated ideas and been fast and proactive on them, but it’s only been for me. There is no due date, its more me trying to find out about the materials and to understand them. Moving through the work for me seems good and it allows me to realize different things while I am making them. Your work is constantly talking to you while your making it and sometimes that conversation is great until it ends and you realize it sort of didn’t work out. It’s very back and forth but I never make something so precious that I can’t deconstruct it or throw it out. It’s not about searching for perfection as much as it is about just searching. Does it still inspire and does it still ask questions.

SO DO YOU STEP AWAY FROM THE CREATION AND FEEL THE EMOTION OR IS THIS PRECONCEIVED BEFORE SEEING THE FINAL PRODUCT?

I THINK WHAT YOU’RE SAYING TRANSCENDS INTO YOUR WORK AND YOUR MATERIALS. THIS WHOLE IDEA OF SURROUNDING YOURSELF WITH THE FUNDAMENTALS OF YOUR ART AND WHAT YOU LOOK FOR IN YOUR MATERIALS. IT DEFINITELY IN TURN CONVEYS THIS POCKET ART, YOU’RE NOT OPEN TO AIR AS MUCH AS YOU’RE IMMERSING YOURSELF INTO THE AREA OF YOUR FOCUSED PRACTICE. YOUR USING THINGS THAT YOU WILL FIND IN THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR AND NOT A BUNCH OF DIAMONDS LIKE DAMIEN HIRST.

Well its very efficient. I always love seeing people just make do with what they have and what’s available. Growing up we didn’t necessarily have amazing picture frames that were on the wall, my grandmother made quilts and anything that was hanging on the wall my grandfather would put one cough drop underneath just to level it if it wasn’t level. The idea of not going to the effort to re-screw it in but just add this cough drop, to me that just felt efficient and perfectly logical. That was just one little thing but those types of quick fixes were what I saw so much beauty in. I think over working something or making a skull encrusted with diamonds, your missing the point just a little bit.

WILDFLOWER . 2012 Anodized metal frames, plastic shelves, lettuce knife, plastic sword, metal hangbar, mirror paper, nylon basketball basket, basketball, hair scrunchie, packaging tape, candle, bike horn, roller nap, aluminum foil. Freddy Krueger glove, cell phone photo, Alessi Superpepper vegetable chopper

I think as I am making things I am playing back stories in my head about things I’ve seen, jokes people have told me, things that have happened to me or things I’ve seen in movies. Sometimes it’s illustrative, like I might be illustrating a line from a Pixies song. A lot of my work, although sculpture is more along the lines of collage where the points of reference are very separate but then they just collide brutally. It’s within that brutality that a spark can occur, where rock becomes rock. That’s what I am going for in my work, it’s these quick moments in your mind where if you neglect them you miss out on what may be. I always have these very fast thoughts and I react to them whilst making and it gives me a chance to experience so many things during a piece. A lot of my work becomes a mapping of the systems on thinking, how someone just generates thoughts throughout ones day. Not so much the sentimentality of objects but more on the tiny thoughts that rush through us day in day out.

A L E X D A C O R T E - interview

INTERVIEW - ALEX DA CORTE

UNTITLED (10/30/07) . 2012 Pigment print, anodized metal frame

COLD WAR . 2011 Metal chair, peanut butter jar, aluminum foil, rubber sunny side up egg, foam, spray paint, rearview mirror

22 YOU AR E TAL K IN G A B OU T A L L OF T H E SE PU LSES A N D EN ERG ETIC ID EA S TH AT CREATE PI ECES REPRESENTI NG A CO LLAGE LI KE PR O C ES S , AND IT S V E RY E V ID E N T IN S OME PIECES WH ERE Y OU H AV E M U LTIPLE TH IN G S J U X TAPO SI NG EACH O THER I N O NE SCENE. YET YOU M US T S TART S OME T IM E S W IT H A S ING LE TH IN G TH AT IS FLAT. I CA N H OWEV ER IM A G INE YO U LO O KI NG AT A SI NGLE I MAGE AND JUS T DY I NG TO T U R N IT IN T O A T H R E E -D IM EN SION A L OBJ ECT. D OES Y OU R SCU LPTU RA L TRAI NI NG EVER REFRAI N YO U FRO M CREATE SIN GUL AR 2 DI ME N S ION A L W OR K ?

I think I am always trying to undo the image, or undo the icon. Trying to undo the preconceived notion we have about things, I want to completely remove the function of objects, as they would typically be used. Because for me that’s about turning ones self on their head and re-thinking why and how we do things. Seeing an image of a pop icon is not enough, it’s about how that icon is malleable. This particular image of Britney Spears from “I’m a slave video” wasn’t enough as a blurry hellish moment of her face. I was thinking what does image as memory mean and the objects we touch. Do the objects carry that image and if its pressed behind glass does it function the same way, or if it is painted on fabric is it a t-shirt then? ABELARD AND HELOISE . 2012 Rubber glove, plastic, Ikea paper towel holder, Marc Jacobs lipstick pen, enamel paint, brass tack

AND ALL THIS I THINK COMES BACK TO YOUR APPROACH. I SEE IT AS A MINIMALIST IDEAL WITH A POP SENSIBILITY. BUT WHEN I THINK OF THE MINIMALIST SCULPTORS LIKE CARL ANDRE I GET A CALMING FEELING WHERE AS WHEN I LOOK AT YOUR WORK I DON’T QUITE FEEL THAT SOOTH, I THINK IT IS MORE A MIXTURE OF AGGRESSION AND FEAR AS MUCH AS IT IS SIMPLE AND PRECISE. DO YOU THINK YOU COULD TIE THIS BACK TO YOUR FASCINATION WITH THE FILM HALLOWEEN AND YOUR CHILDHOOD IN CAMDEN NJ AND CARACAS, VENEZUELA, WHICH ARE QUITE AGGRESSIVE PARTS OF THE WORLD?

Yeah, I think lives are long and we all have rich experiences that are violent and full of fear. There have definitely been a few of them in my life and I think it is noticing it and not pulling away from it. I think that for me work like Andres or Serra’s which are full of emotion and cool in material was never me. My work is never cool, its very hot, its romantic and its fragile. I think its those things I just mentioned that are more me and thus more important to be in my work. The expression of self and the image of self I see online are very cold because it’s very manufactured. Its basically what you want people to see and that’s safe. I am more interested in the undoing of objects and culling the idea of self, being almost anti that. IT’S VERY VIBRANT AND THEATRICAL, AND SITTING HERE LOOKING AROUND I CAN’T HELP BUT THINK OF AN EXPERIENCE I HAD WHEN I WAS YOUNGER AT A GLASS FACTORY IN VENICE, ITALY. IT WAS SUCH A POWERFUL EXPERIENCE DUE TO THE SHAPES AND COLORS; IT WAS SUCH A VIOLENT VISUAL ON THE SENSES. I THINK I GET THE SAME URGENCY AND FEELING RIGHT NOW IN YOUR STUDIO, YOU HAVE SUCH VIBRANT COLORS AND SHAPES BUT EVEN MORE SO THEN THE GLASS FACTORY YOU USE PRODUCTS THAT I RECOGNIZE. THEY ARE THINGS THAT WOULD BE IN THE HOME OF ALMOST EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA, SO YOUR VIEWER CAN VERY EASILY RELATE TO YOUR ART AS APPOSED TO ANDRE AND SERRA WHO’S MATERIALS ARE A LITTLE LESS POPULAR AND EVERYDAY. HOWEVER I DIDN’T KNOW THAT WAS BRITNEY SPEARS, BUT I DO KNOW THAT BELOW HER IMAGE IS A TOY SWORD.

You don’t need to know that its her, you just need to know that it has some place within the context of what’s going on. I don’t know how often you come across a massive bit of steel that you have to interact like Serra but in that same way my work is still about the body and movement. Going back to the movie Halloween, the thing that is fascinating about most of those movies is that he is just a guy that was down and out, even slightly romantic. Then he puts on a mask and it changes everything, it separates him. For me I think my work is that mask. It very slight too, for Michael Myers it was just a William Shatner mask painted white, it was a mask of Captain Kirk. It was essentially a mask of a regular human face but stripped of emotion by the painting meant is purpose was changed and hidden, and that is horrifying. We can understand it so we can be scared of it, yet when you look at Andres or Serras work you are not familiar with it before so you can’t gauge it as quickly as you could a chair flipped upside down with shampoo on it. It hits you in a different way, the same way as a wet sock or something.

THE REMOVAL OF PURPOSE CAN DRIVE PEOPLE INSANE. “WHAT DO I DO NOW”, IS A HORRIFYING THING FOR PEOPLE TO ADJUST TO, KNOWING THE UNKNOWN BUT NOT KNOWING WHY. IF YOUR WORK IS YOUR MASK DO YOU NOT LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH A POP SENSIBILITY? DO YOU BRUSH YOU TEETH WITH SPONGE BOB TOOTHPASTE?

No no no. My apartment is white, my toothpaste is white. LIKE A GALLERY?

No it’s just empty. My clothes are grey, not really pop. My studio is my laboratory where I test all my materials so I don’t use shampoo for my hair but it definitely has its purpose in my studio. I am fascinated with popular things but that only goes as far as my practice and curiosity in purpose. I don’t run home to use a monkey wrench to fix a pipe, I bring everything to my studio to investigate them. When I am here I am trying to understand what it is I have purchased. I RECENTLY WENT TO THE DAVID BENJAMIN SHERRY SHOW AND HE REALLY EMBODIED HIS OWN ART IN HIS APPEARANCE. IT WAS STRANGE BUT INTERESTING AT THE SAME TIME, YOU LOOK AROUND AT THESE BIG BEAUTIFUL COLORED PHOTOS AND THEN YOU SEE THIS MAN DRESSED IN A MULTICOLORED SUIT AS IF TO WANT TO BE APART OF ALL HIS PHOTOS.

Its funny when people match their work that way. I don’t think I match my work very well at all. Maybe in the things I put into my work is more my dream mind and not my reality way.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT EXPENSIVE THINGS?

I think I live through my fascination of these regular objects. I can appreciate very nice things, but I don’t think I would ever second-guess vacuum sealing it and putting it in one of my sculptures. I put my favorite glasses in the sculpture over there. That’s perfect for me. I only ever had one thing that I cherished so much that I had recreated which was a snow hat. It meant so much to me and when I lost it I was devastated, but it wasn’t an expensive thing. I THINK THOSE LITTLE THINGS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ANYWAY, THE THINGS YOU ARE CONSTANTLY WITH AND HAVE SUCH SENTIMENTAL VALUE AND MEMORY. I RECENTLY LOST A BELT AND IT WAS STRANGE BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO DEVELOP A RELATIONSHIP WITH SOMETHING AND IT CAN LAST A REALLY LONG TIME.

Yeah that was the same as my hat, it had so many memories, I had it for 15 years. I had it remade from photos and when I got it back it felt the same way as when it was original. I just thought, “Oh this is that same hat.” DOES THAT NOSTALGIC REPETITION EVER SEEP BACK INTO YOUR WORK? DO YOU MAYBE FIND YOURSELF WORKING WITH THE SAME THING OFTEN, FOR EXAMPLE I SEE FIVE BASKETBALLS RIGHT NOW.

Yeah there is definitely some repetition in forum and trying to discover things in the same object. It is more evident in things that are just so universal like chairs, basketballs and hands. Things that are just really iconic and identifiable. But its mostly trying to work in ways that they are not supposed to be used, we all know what a chair does and a basketball but I think its those things that I come back to often to defy their originality. AS MUCH TIME AND EFFORT YOU PUT INTO A PIECE, CAN YOU LET IT GO JUST AS EASY?

Oh, yeah in a heartbeat. YOU CAN KICK IT OUT THE DOOR.

Yes, always been that way.

ACCESSORY FINGERNAILS, NAIL POLISH

self portraits The following images are self-portraits placed on top of the artists first ever posted image on instagram. I believe in the nature of ones work, no matter how varied, to complement each other. The rapid pace of instagram and its low-res quality when printed will act as a character reference to how the artist has depicted him or herself.

magda wosinska

@themagdalenaexperience

a s g e r c a r l so no n @asgercarls

not not a we @ n o t n o t a wseo m e some

aaron farle y @aaronfar ley

t i m b a r br eb err @timoba

iya Andoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s up bringing is very much a kin to her practice as a post-minimal artist. Her childhood was spent between rural Okayama, Japan and the Redwoods of Santa Cruz, California. However predominately growing up in Japan to Bizen sword makers turned Buddhist priests, her youth was spent in the countryside, exposed to the simple beauty of nature. It was in this region where Ando was schooled in Zen Buddhism, an education that has remained vital to her approach in both practice and participation. After graduating from both Berkley (East Asian studies) and Yale (Buddhist iconography and imagery), Ando entered as an apprentice at the Hattori Studio in Japan. After fusing both history and education, Miya returned to America and begun experimenting with steel. Her approach spawned from both sides of her ancestry, her care, tradition and craft came through her Japanese history, while her desire to break, bend and stretch the rules came via being an American. Thus began the synthesis to her current practice. Ando has had various Public Commissions, most notably in 2011 where she was commissioned by the 9/11 London Project Foundation to produce a tenth anniversary sculpture. Standing eight meters tall and made from polished World Trade Center steel, the commission is located in Potters Field Park, London. Her work is exhibited both nationally and internationally and housed in various permanent collections. Miya Andoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is beautifully subtle and breathtakingly calming, just as the nature to which she grew along side.

Interview - Miya Ando

ando

You come from a line of sword smiths in Japan and you also studied under metalworkers, it has been much a part of your life for a long time. For such a heavy, strong and durable material, you bring out its sensitivity. It’s very delicate. You know I polish most of the steel and I can touch the metal very lightly without gloves on and the next day you will see a finger print. Everyone has the preconception that metal is this super strong, permanent, durable material which it is, though in terms of its surface it can be very fragile and vulnerable. This may be only seen by me, as I work for its perfection. I think it is in my nature to be very detailed and remain aware of so many subtle marks or changes. I try to be poetic and vigilant to every aspect of the material, trying to have soft transitory motion within the dialogue I have with the steel. You care for it and remain very sensitive to it yet the whole process of creation is quite archaic. The aggressive gestures of harsh chemistry, acids and fire kind of juxtapose the conclusion, which has the best intentions, ultimately injecting beauty and appeal. Thank you for saying that. I love that that is communicated. I think my philosophy and ethos in terms of my materials comes from my past relations with it, coming from a family that has worked with steel and as a person who has such a reverence for material, process and practice I hope that the admiration I have for it is returned in presentation. It is something that I think a lot about as I am from a school of thought through traditional craft. Within the process of making swords you have a number of guiding rituals that take place, you often find they will wear white clothing and do a cleansing of the material before going to work. It is about care and a transferred energy into these objects. There is a transformation as you heat it up and hammer it, which comes from your own energy play. As a practice of creation you really need to be constantly thinking of your intention and maintain this concentration through effort. In the end all that energy you put in will remain in that object and I believe people can see it. As much as my work is tranquil and contemplative, there is always that added element of energy. The energy now is coming through a haloed glow. There is this concept right now that I am really interested in which is Japanese but basically translates to “foot” and “back.” It translates to that idea of transparency, so you have something you’re feeling in the daytime and it can be something that continues to be visible at night. Philosophically speaking I find it interesting to combine the back and the front, the night and the day etc. The work you speak of with the glow using phosphorescent means it absorbs light during the day and emits it at night, so it all depends on its placements and the conditions.

“you have A number of RITUALS when making S W O R D S ” It has it’s own life. Illumination also has a rich history within minimal art, as does the square which you predominately use, do you keep yourself aware of this minimalist state? Yes of course, and as much as I revere the Minimalists of America, I would go further back and say Zen thought is quite reductive. The whole notion of Zen Buddhism says that you should clear yourself of everything which is not essential, which I think is a key root of the school of minimalism. Refine or distill until it is just the essential. This vocabulary I use in my art of just the gradient says a lot about nature and light. A lot of this vocabulary is derived from geometry, nature, horizons and rectilinear forms that are dissected by straight lines, which become natural divisions of space for humans. The same idea within the phosphorescent means it is completely independent, it’s like fireflies. Looking around I see your obsession with consistency and martial and I notice how all your work is embracing one another. Yet you also have pointed out a lot of new work and ideas. How important is obsession and within that how important is diversity? I think obsession is another way to say focus. I would certainly put myself in the school of tunnel vision consciousness artists who really have one core concept and with that single idea its constantly being polished and refined. Within a narrow vocabulary, there are few words but many different dimensions. I am trying to bring together disparate things and create language that is non ethnic or non cultural. That is where I am trying to go via light and nature. I have a history and a familial connection to these materials but I think the poetics are super interesting and that is what I love to work with. It’s also constantly mysterious as it is identifiable, in the fact that its reflective nature means wherever it is placed, at whatever angle it still has a surreal aspect with repelling light and shadows back at the viewer. That changes from day to night and what mood the lighting is in.

Interview - Miya Ando

REFLECTION CUBE PURPLE BLUE

Hand dyed, solid aluminum

QUIETNESS [2]

48” x 48” x 1” hand dyed, anodized aluminum 2012

5.104

2006, 48”x48” steel, lacquer, patina and pigment

Exactly. Going back to your Japanese heritage, which is quite evident in your work I also know you have some Russian heritage also. When I was looking at the photographic work you were doing, primarily the self-portraits, which I saw as a little constructivist in the way that they were almost collaged over your existing aesthetic. I find them very striking with such play on perception and vigilance as well as having the reflective surface that can propel extra imagery at you. I don’t feel very Russian, my father was Russian / American so I feel much more American. I also grew up mostly with my mom’s family influence in Japan, so I have tremendous connection to that culture. My grandfather in Japan was the head priest of the Buddhist temple so I have that religious connection to my Japanese heritage. I also grew up in the country so when you opened a door you saw leaves and nature and you could notice this changing slowly which I think can tie back to my photographic work, as the nature of it can change slowly. I also believe I am very American in spirit, I really love to do things that I am not supposed to do. I bought the dyes for the metal and they came in red, blue and green, I came back with a purple color and they asked me how I did it, I said I mixed blue and the red and they were like “but you can’t do that.”

You say fuck you. Well I don’t like to use bad language but you really need to have a “fuck you” attitude when you are trying to make an idea come to life. Sometimes there are obstacles in the way. It has always been highly unusual to mix all these chemicals and dyes and burn things to produce your work but you really need to figure out your own path of creation through trial. You need to force your own way. DAGUERREOPTYPE \’GHOST 8\’

dyed aluminum That’s the American in your work? Well I think that there is freedom here, you can find your own way without having to answer to people or traditions. Being half Caucasian and living in Asia there are certain things that you don’t have freedom in. Being a woman or being Eurasian. I have felt these restrictions even being a woman and working with metal I America. You have restrictions in culture but in art if you want something you find a way to get it. That’s what is amazing about being in America, if you work on something and you have a strange idea then it is ok to try and create it. You don’t have any limitations, you can just do it. I don’t want to sound too patriotic but the freedom you feel is really special.

W ho

i s that

CH ILD

You should give yourself a gold star when you finish something and that way when the year has past you can know how many things you created. Hahaha I do need that, that’s a great idea. I can take a photo of myself with my gold stars and feel like a champion. I think it is just nice to feel resolve, and you can progress onto the next thing. What are you feeling toward the end of a piece? I think about capturing transitory things and that idea of maybe a longing. As beings we encounter these emotions in our inter-personal relations, its so much about communication. Speaking to people via these quiet works, which are quite abstract, they are not direct messages but more soft messages, which can be interpreted. The photographic work, as ghostly as the people are there is less interpretation. People will bring upon it what they will. When people look at it they think, “Who is that child?” I do wish I were a little more voluptuous when I look at these. My brother was actually moving a while ago and I was helping him move, carrying these boxes of books up and down stairs and my brother said to me “you’re a freakishly strong for a tween.”

t w e en

I think what you speak of also translates into the idea of pain and triumph, pursuing your ideas with focus and conviction that you can ultimately succeed over any idea. Through everything involved in the execution of your artwork, using caustic chemicals and fire, there must be an element of pain and labor that makes the end result feel triumphant. I think so. It’s my nature to be drawn to such intense processes. I love fire, I love the short working time, and I love things that will change if it is one second off. That to me is a paradigm of the tunnel vision focus. I think I create those scenarios for myself where that is required. I have always been drawn to the intense ends of the spectrum. There is something’s that is interesting about working in darkness and having total focus, otherwise you will lose what you creating. These are things I am drawn to cause I love to set up situations of pure focus, which is just part of my nature. Going back to what you said about obsession, it is deep interest in a narrow realm, and I tend to see myself as a tremendous geek and I am now getting a feel of things but it is just never ending. It just fascinates me. My parents were very free spirits and we didn’t have television so I would immerse myself in activities, and I am just continuing that path. I mean I hand wrote a Buddhist prayer on a scroll with very small writing and I measured it at 88 feet long, it took me over a year but it was a meditative thing for me. I was working on the September 11 memorial sculpture at the same time and I think doing that while doing a prayer piece was a way to be calm. But I definitely do agree that while I am always doing something to occupy my thought it does feel very triumphant when I finish something.

And you just dropped the books, right. Hahaha I said “if you are trying to complement me while I am carrying your fucking books.”

I can freakishly throw these books at your head. I think if I keep developing them as a portrait series, because I am fascinated trying to make people look like ghosts and shells of people. I am finding that really interesting. I think the self-portrait images have a sense of movement. Through soft focus, direction of motion and the silhouette tone you really get another dimension to digest the image. The ambiguity is really an added notion of wonder that is not directly identifiable of one thing, which I think is really interesting. The idea of recognition, that all things are transitory of all relationships being transitory and the beauty and universality being transitory. That force which is an equalizer and the interconnectivity there. This work and all the work come from a place of longing for that connection. Being a mix of east and west and finding things that connect us. There is something very serene about the study of seeking that language. Traversing into these spaces can be really fun and open. They can be very austere and extroverted at the same time. Fun nothingness. When you go home and you leave your studio and practice. Do you often burn your cooking purely by habit to witness a reaction? I bake a lot. Do you leave it in just a little longer to see what happens? Not on purpose. I did biscuits the other night and we were drinking lots of wine and I did burn them. On a steel tray? Yes, on a steel tray. But my guy ate everything and he said they were still good. I knew better. I love cooking. Its funny because when I first had an apartment and didn’t have enough money for a studio I would just weld on my stove top with fire, the way I discovered all my fancy tricks to obtain different coloration was in my stove. It would heat the whole thing and I would put chemicals on it and put it back in the oven. This just went on until I had money to pay for a studio. It was some of my happiest moments. Now I am super fancy with a studio but I really broke through just using everyday things. For artists even if you don’t have a brush you’re always thinking about things to do with that brush. I wake up all time and think “oh hats how I do that.”

The light bulb flashes. Yes, I think it is that obsession you mentioned. You mean focus? Yes. Interview - Miya Ando

CURATED THE FOLLOWING 5 PAGES

a baby jacket

menswear socks handshake of yeeaahh

human doâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;er

dime piece what?

camouflage titty ball

PETER SUTHERLAND

We mourn the talent whose lives were taken too soon. Our thoughts go directly to the work they created, amazing genius that will never again produce from their core. Legacies live on and every now and then when we are reminded through remaining entities that they were alive. One particular day in 2011 I heard the tragic story of an artist named Darrel Ellis. It was told by my teacher Allen Frame who was a close friend of Darrel’s and now manager of his estate. The passivity of Allen’s voice complemented the fragility of Ellis’s work, while the crunch of the slide projector aggressively exchanged the images and echoed his tragic conclusion. It was in this moment and through his story that for the first time, I was floored by art. It was a story of perseverance, strength and determination. Through his father’s murder, through his alienation as a gay black man, through his rejections, through his triumphs and through his tragic passing from AIDS, Darrel produced some of the most beautiful and emotionally charged work you have never seen.

AN I N TER V I E W W ON B ITH ALL EN EH A F L R F AME OF

I remember the story and I remember how striking the work was from when you showed me at school, however I tried to find Darrel’s information and work on the Internet and it is somewhat non-existent. This is not my ideal situation going into an interview, being somewhat ill prepared and in the dark. I feel terrible that a website is not up. I did so much for a while and I was discouraged by the fact that it takes so much to get a gallery to deal with something, unless you’re lucky. After curating the Art in General show of Darrel’s work I wanted to find him a gallery, Julie Saul became interested and it was toss up weather to do a project room show or a main gallery show. She decided to do a project room show with the main gallery show being a Bill Jacobson show, he was one of her best selling artists which was supposed to bring more people in. The little show was great and everybody loved it but she didn’t sell anything, Bill didn’t sell much either. So she gave me all the work

photograph by DARREL ELLIS

straight back and it just felt depleting. Cause I also hoped that somebody was going to take all his work away and start representing it and housing it elsewhere. Then Nicole Klagsbrun wanted to include it in a big drawing show that she had and she put 8 works in the show. She also took the work to the Armory show which also didn’t sell and in turn returned back to me. I found that really discouraging, and with how busy I am anyway it has just receded and now know what I need to do with it but it is just a case of “when.” It read in the Julie Saul press release for Darrel’s show that if you have followed the contemporary art scene in New York for over a decade, you would be familiar with Darrel’s work. I tend to believe his story is also just as familiar, which only amplifies his already charged drawings, paintings and photographs. They are extremely important within the New York City art culture, with Darrel being a black gay man from The Bronx and working with and

around his own culture and family history. Everything that the work encompasses seems to be worthy of something that the art world is aware of yet hasn’t recognized. Whilst his work lies dormant it is really hard to believe these curators and gallery owners are not thinking about Darrel’s work. The way I felt when I first viewed it and heard about Darrel was the first time I felt “wow, so this is how art can make you feel,” it was such a punch in the heart and so strong. Yeah and the reaction from every time it was shown was always very strong. I was amazed every time that it wasn’t selling. The problem with the photographs was that they are all RC prints, so traditional photo dealers like Julie Saul know that that paper is not archival. When they offer something like that to their traditional photo collectors they ask that question and they are not interested. If it had been a contemporary art collector I think it would be a different story, and any visionary art dealers knows

that all the information is in a negative so you can make editions on archival paper. But then you get into that whole photo thing with vintage prints vs. newer prints, a visionary dealer can go past that very easy. But I do know what you’re talking about with how the narrative is really resonant, and the period where it all took place and his own tragedy. Living in that harsh period of the 80’s AIDS scene vs. the 90’s after people could have different treatment and survive also gives it this depth and sadness. You want his work to persevere, and have people like yourself really fight for his legacy. Because he deserves that, his work deserves that and his life and talent should be shared so that it can inspire. I think so too. When did you first meet Darrel?

photograph by DARREL ELLIS

Around 1980. He grew up in the South Bronx and went to an arts public high school where he had an incredible drawing teacher who encouraged him to go to the MET and draw from the masters. He developed a habit of sketching a lot, so he was that person on the subway sketching other people. He would also go to a gay bar in the West Village called the Ninth Circle where he would sketch. He was a little eccentric. When I met him he was living in an apartment in the East Village with somebody who was a lover but I think the relationship had become more of a friendship. He had met an artist a few years before who had a studio at PS1, at the time when the whole part of the first floor wing was artist studios. This guy let him share that studio and both of them started experimenting with photography. It was their chemistry that sparked Darrel’s idea of really working in interesting ways with photography. Before Darrel found his fathers imagery he was doing some selfportraits. I haven’t actually seen this early work he was doing but this lover he was living with has a selection of this early work.

“HIS FATHER WAS THROWN FROM THE POLICE CAR AND DIED.”

48 PAINTING FROM ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE PHOTOGRAPH

So there is even more work hovering out there in limbo. I can’t remember when I found that out and I doubt that the lover has sold it. He is probably still around, he was Colombian and an actor, his name Jose Arango. I think it is traceable. Because of PS1 and the people he was working with he began to sell some of those experimental photographs to European collectors. There was one Swiss artist who is very established now, called Not Vital who shows with Sperone Westwater. He bought some and also introduced Darrel to some Swiss and Italian collectors who also purchased some work. When I met him he had been invited informally in the Whitney independent study program. It is a famously political and intellectual one-year program with seminars and lots of reading, a very heavy program. Darrel was able to participate in the seminars, I don’t think he did all the reading that others were doing but he had a studio. I have pictures of him in that studio. During the time that I met him he was doing all this sketching but he found some matted prints of his fathers from the 50’s and was sketching from that. His mother saw him doing this and one day just bought out this whole box of his father’s negatives. He started making contact sheets, he was never trained as a good printer, he just made them as fast as possible to see the images. He started drawing from those contact sheets, as they were medium format. They were all of close and extended family that he knew so he was bringing to his drawing, his own visual memory decades after the original photographs. His approach was very faithful and lyrical at first. So he went from doing all this crazy experimentation that he was selling to a very traditional form of portraiture. Not Vital was not interested in that and was really upset with it. He did that for a couple of years and moved back to his mothers apartment in the South Bronx and up there he started taking his own photographs of his mother and sister, which showed these nice domestic interiors. That is when he went back to his experimental treatment, which in turn freed him into thinking of his fathers work that way. Using his father’s negatives he tended to obsess over certain images and do them in many experimental versions through different media. He would use an overhead projector and project the image onto 3 dimensional forms that would fracture the image. He would capture the projection with slide film, which is kind of an odd choice and then he would make inter-negatives at a lab and they made straight prints. The reason they were on RC paper is because it was cheaper and no one advised him they were not archival. He then would work from those prints with various inks and paints on paper and also paints of canvas. In 1989 Nan Goldin, returning from Boston post rehab, having come out in 1986 and having lots of attention arrives in New York, sober with a plan. She decided to organize a big show of artists reacting to AIDS. She invited a bunch of her friends including Darrel and myself. That show included people who had already died like Peter Hujar. At the time Darrel had AIDS but wasn’t telling anyone and seeking alternative treatments. Since we were pretty close and he hadn’t shared that with me I couldn’t have imagined he was sick or infected. His work for the show were painted portraits of himself using photographs taken of him by Robert Mapplethorpe and Peter Hujar, which were both subsequently taken in the same weekend. He showed his own painted version of both photographs.

I can remember you showing me the image Mapplethorpe took of Darrel, it was beautiful. Yeah, and his version of that Mapplethorpe photograph was the central image used to promote that show and used in all publicity. Because of David Wojnarowicz there was a huge amount of publicity, that show became this huge cornerstone of the culture wars. Do you know about the culture wars? No. Basically David was in the show, Peter Hujar his long time friend and one time lover had already died of AIDS and David currently had AIDS. He also had a big moment in the art world in the East Village scene where he was selling a lot of work and then suddenly not. His dealer was an addict, it was all very funky and dysfunctional. Now he had a taste of that fame and a taste of the exploitation and all the mixed feelings and bitterness from that along with dealing with AIDS at the worst moment of all of that and the most charged moment in the activist era. Nan asked him to write an essay for the catalogue, so the catalogue had funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The director of art space realized in that era of the culture wars and all the stuff that happened with Mapplethorpe notified the N.E.A. to say “maybe you shouldn’t fund the catalogue because it has this essay” because it had David’s essay which was a rant about AIDS and attacking the conservative right wing people that had said horrible things about people with AIDS. His very subjective stream of consciousness and thoughts about expressing his anger. So the N.E.A. guy just withdrew funding altogether and that became this big point around which the art world protested and came together. There was a lot of media coverage around it so before the show opened, I was delivering my work and there were network anchor people waiting to get hold of an artist. It was all blown out of proportion as it all started from the essay but ricocheted into the work. People started thinking it was a show on AIDS. So then Darrel suddenly finds himself and his work in the limelight and media eye through all the attention being paid to the show. He was around 31 at the time, he hadn’t had a lot of exposure then suddenly he was in the New York Times and elsewhere made him really think about what was being projected when self portrait images by him as a black man were becoming part of media. So after that he did an amazing series of self-portraits. Starting with any photograph that anyone had taken of him he would then interpret it the way he had been interpreting his fathers photographs. He asked me to take a photograph of him, which he could use that way. But mostly he used pictures that already existed. That was the last big series he did before he died.

Was the original self-portrait to which he worked from as important compositionally as his interpretation? No, it was just anything as long as they were other people’s photographs of him. He was interested in how other people had been seeing him. At the time of the show he was still a security guard at MOMA but that was the last and maybe the only full time job he had. It was full time with benefits, he got to know the MOMA curator and then right after that show he was hospitalized in a coma. He came out of it and it was then he let his family and friends know he was sick. It was shocking to me because for this artist that was central to this show about AIDS, people didn’t know that he was going through it. After that he was very un well and he passed away in 1992. The day after he died I happened to be at MOMA and I bumped into Peter Galassi who was the curator and I told him Darrel had died. Peter said he wanted to put Darrel in the new photography show he was doing and he came the next day to get work. Can you talk about Darrel’s father? His name was Thomas Ellis. He was a professional photographer and had a studio at one point, his wife helped him in the studio with retouching. I think that was in the late 40’s. He stopped at some point in the 50’s and became a postal clerk and he was becoming a police officer, which is ironic as it was the police who killed him. He was double parked at some sort of family gathering and the police ticketed him, he came out to see what was happening and got into an altercation and they arrested him.

They put him in a car and on route threw him out of the car and he hit his head and died. I had met the brother who was there at the time and followed the police car, it is very dramatic to have such sketchy information, but I was told this by the daughter. Darrel was born soon after Thomas’s death. Through the family lulling the information of his father, Darrel didn’t know he was a photographer till later in his life. He didn’t know the extent that he was or the quality. He just had less than 10 prints that were matted and fading. It was quite the revelation that his father was dedicated to photography and had these incredible images. Do you think that was pinnacle for Darrel finding that information for his own artistic path? I think it was hugely important. Here he was feeling like the outsider in his family because he was creative then realizing he was part of this legacy was huge. But also maddening to know what he lost, what he might have had with his father. It was a mixture of elation and frustration.

ph otogra ph - maxwel l s now

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