Quiet Lunch | Lance De Los Reyes | Book No. 4 by Quiet Lunch

QUIET LUNCH PUBLISHER EDITOR IN CHIEF MEDIA DIRECTOR FASHION DIRECTOR BEAUTY DIRECTOR LITERARY EDITOR CONTRIBUTING STYLE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR (FRANCE) CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

PHOTOGRAPHY

Gregory de la Haba Akeem K. Duncan Abimbola “Bim Star” Afolabi Mia Morgan Georgina Billington John Gosslee Chapman Case Goënièvre Anaïs Magdalyn Asimakis Chapman Case Ryan Davis Moeima Dukuly Jeffrey Grunthaner Mary Hurt Meghan Johnson Audra Lambert Ghislaine León Hayley McCulloch Polina Riabova Darley Stewart Jason Voegele Lori Zimmer Goënièvre Anaïs Michael Della Polla Onaje Scott Wesley Clouden Darryl “Scramz” Villegas Kareem Gonsalves

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Marcus Donates Matthew Eller Erez Sabag Kourosh Sotoodeh Bryan Thatcher Dirty Souf Yankee (Christina Mallas) GL Wood Mike McGregor Eva Mueller Kariima Ali jdx

ART DIRECTION/DESIGN

Alexis Mobley Lauren D’Aurio

PRODUCTION

Shahar Kramer

COVER Photography Art Direction Styling Grooming Production Photo Assistant Photo Assistant

Eva Mueller Akeem K. Duncan Chapman Case Georgina Billington Shahar Kramer Alex McDonald Bojan Furlani

SPECIAL THANKS Voss Water, Eva Mueller, XY Atelier, Avant Garde LES, Daniel Janzen, Thomas Kohler, Leon Lowentraut, The Yard, Anastasia Wright, Albright Fashion Library, Cloak Showroom, Purple PR, The Shiny Squirrel NYC, Babyblue Brooklyn, Osvaldo “OJ” Jimenez, La Petit Mort, Sharell Jeffrey, Forever Lit, Johnny Nelson, Jomo Cuts, Bevel, Ideal Glass Gallery, Willard Morgan, Sam Jablon, Marie van Eersel, Apostrophe NYC, Kei Smith, Si Smith, Nas Leber, Robert Verdi, Eastmen Collective, Perri Dash, Darrin Chandler, Odin Grina, David “Mr. Starcity” White, Ayakamay, Ventiko, Billy the Artist, Brenna Drury, Anastasia Skye Gerdes, Linh Nguyen, Livio Angileri, Antonio Diaz, Larry Good, Bara Holotova, Yada Villaret, Danielle Herrington, Kristy Kaurova, Wilhelmina New York, Women 360 Management, Trump Model, NY Models, Nick Swerdlow, Brilliant Champions Gallery, Jillian Mackintosh, Joe Lumbroso, Anna Zorina Gallery, Bryn Krenner, OXHEART, Heath Gallery, The Lower East Side, Alphabet City, Harlem, Bushwick... For Advertising Inquiries Email Us at biz@quietlunch.com For General Inquiries Email Us at thequietlunch@gmail.com Quiet Lunch, LLC 234 5th Avenue (Suite 215) New York, New York 10001

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EDITOR’S DESK These are strange times we’re living in—vociferous for sure. There is a palpable electricity in the air, a tension of almost cataclysmic proportion (and design) that is starting to smell more and more inedible and unenlightening. Things are reaching fever pitch.

De los Reyes embodies the spirit of Quiet Lunch and that of the prolific artist-painter we admire and seek to discover for these pages; artists who seem perpetually fixed in that creative moment with eyes wide, mind open and heart set on learning all that the universe has to offer—good or bad With that said, has there ever been a better time to seek a no different. His life and art, the manifestation of rebirth Quiet Lunch; a quiet moment in which to regroup, rethink, coupled with a ceaseless reexamination of the self that we and step back from the fray. Our senses, the attributes we at Quiet Lunch admire and wish to share with our readers. use to perceive this world, are vital to us. The sights, the sounds, the smells… There is so much going on but it is the This issue is our effort to connect the dots, bridge the simple and affordable things—an awe inspiring sunset, the divide and find common ground. Book N°. 4 is a 150+ smell of the air after a downpour, the taste of Grandma’s paged summit of talented artists who are using their craft cooking—which trigger the olfactory receptors deep inside to fuel spiritual renewal. From new artists like Ryan Bock, the body which then remind the brain precisely what it is Teresa Aversa and Vieno James to more established artists we love. These triggers remind us of what we’ve missed or like Kate Clark and Willy Verginer, this issue is fiilledfilled longed for, and reinforces that special connection we as to the brim with creative sustenance! people have to other people, to place, our pride of origin. Such things appeal to all our collective palettes, don’t they? This issue is a celebration. Art isn’t all about moping Anything that reminds or feeds our humanity—like art— around and lamenting the “end of the world” as we know usually does. And if ever there was a time for more of that, it. It is about examination, exaltation and most of all for art and human nourishment, that time is now. perspective. It’s about translation and transmutation—the process of transforming memories and experiences into Art can be the soapbox, the bullhorn, the silent voice striking works of art that sear themselves in our communal that washes away the divisive rhetoric, the misleading conscious. Art is about creating thoughtful testimonials metaphors and those damn alternative facts. that, unlike politicians and the news media, will never let us down. Although art is often intertwined with a noble cause, the very act of being a creative can be a trial by fire. Take for A loving farewell to Nobody, Rad and George Pitts. Gone instance our cover artist, Lance de los Reyes, who creates but not forgotten. inspiring works concerning rebirth and renewal, ancient themes based on the great mythological Phoenix like the one tattooed on his back. Photographed for the cover by Eva Mueller, de los Reyes is surrounded by his most coveted totems, his necessary materials and tools of his craft and resources of inspiration that he utilizes on his creative journey to make paintings that carry with them Akeem Duncan the same radiance as the Phoenix itself. Editor in Chief

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Keepin’ it Cozy | Maketha Matheson by Moeima Dukuly 4 The New Kid on the Block | Elbows by Polina Riabova 6 A Quiet Lunch with L.A. Artist Danny Minnick by Gregory de la Haba 8 Masking: The Art of Manifestation | Kwesi Abbensetts by Ryan Davis 12 The Best Years of My Life | Teresa Aversa by Magdalyn Asimakis 20 Deconstructive: In Conversation with Louise Donegan by Audra Lambert 24 A Family Affair | Kate Clark by Jason Voegele 28 Live from the Land of the Black Sun | Vieno James by Hayley McCulloch 32 The Art of Spray Paint: A Book by Lori Zimmer by Audra Lambert 37 Willard Morgan’s Vestiphobia by Jeffery Grunthaner 39 The Shadowboxer | Ryan Bock by Chapman Case 43 Colors, Shapes 49 Wallflowers: A Series by Adélè Schelling 72 Word Doodles | Kat J. Weiss 76 Falling Up | Leah Yerpe by Mary Hurt 80 In Tandem | Alannah Farrell & Jared Oppenheim by Meghan Johnson 84 Future’s Past | Jake Scharbach by Jena Sebru 88 OSHUN by Ghislaine León 92 The Fire Keeper | Lance De Los Reyes by Kurt McVey 96 Talking to the Sky | Julia Sinelnikova by Darley Stewart 110 Infinite Dimensions | 116 Gorgiality | 128 All Due Process by Darley Stewart | Steve Kim 140 Toonology | Ellannah Sadkin by Lori Zimmer 148 Second Nature | Willy Verginer by Akeem K. Duncan 150 The Quiet Warrior: Remembering George Pitts by Chapman Case 157 Blackout Poetry by John Gosslee 159 A Stroll with Stro the MC by Akeem K. Duncan 160 The Literary Portion | 162 In the End | Livv Hoffman | 173

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Makeda Matheson SS 2017 Lookbook Model: Hilde Thon Photographer: Kariima Ali

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Hard to use fuzzy and cashmere at the same time. For me anyway. Fuzzy comes off so coarse (no pun intended), so basic— when trying to describe one of the world’s most luxurious and in demand textiles in the world used by brands and designers large and small. Regardless, that’s the feeling it gives you inside: warm, comfortable and delicious. Like hot cocoa, only wearable. Cashmere is coveted because it is lightweight, it has a gentle hand and the easy ability to be spun into yarn as well as blended with other textiles, and because of its ability to absorb color so deeply it can take on any color or print. Crowned with the label ‘luxury’, the wool is derived from Kashmir goats (60% of which are found in China, Mongolia and Tibet) that can only produce 4-6 ounces per goat, thus why it is so expensive. For Makeda Mathewson, cashmere is only the beginning. London’s reigning queen of the world’s most coveted fiber, imbues her work with several levels of comfort. From sweaters to socks to playful jumpsuits, Mathewson wants her customers drenched in cozy from head to toe. And she does so artfully, with history in mind.

Enjoy the designer and her SS17 collection as she chats with Quiet Lunch on her inspirations and how she defines comfort in her own life. Your design process. What is the fascination about in regards to Pierrot [French 15th century clowns]? Is it rooted in the attitude and charm? Or leaning towards solely the aesthetic— seen in your work via the emphasis of a wide collar or the jumpsuit—that may very well be the descendants of the ruff and the pantaloon. My fascination with Pierrot started with the ruff. I studied art history with an emphasis on costume history while at university (University of Sussex, BSc History of Art) and was first captivated by the Jacobean ruff that features in Elizabethan and Dutch art. This garment was used to denote status and the all-round fabulousness of the wearer. I always subscribe to the ethos that ‘life is the event’ so the essence of getting dressed is therefore costume. On further exploration of ‘ruffs’ I came across ‘Pierrot Gourmand’ the logo and namesake of a French confectionary brand. Pierrot Gourmand (and Pierrot clowns in general) is traditional black and white clown derivative of the mime, no floppy shoes and big noses insight,

Keep IT Cozy. | MEKEDA MATHESON Written by Moeima Dukuly

Pierrot is a refined silk ruff wearing fella...I started looking deeper into the brand and the ruff just stuck. *Also Kate Bush is the other source of my ruff love. We started with the sweater and jumpsuit and have now introduced a playsuit (ss17) – the ruff panels we sell are interchangeable between all of these pieces. Why jumpsuits? Perfect travel and winter attire but they needed to become more tailored, luxury loungewear – [so] that’s what we did. A foray into knitwear is respectable because there is a tremendous amount of care required throughout the process of creation and production, that continues when the product reaches the customer. So why cashmere? Because nothing beats a good cashmere sweater! Warm in the winter, cool in the summer because it is a breathable natural fibre, machine washable. It is the perfect fiber. The great thing about a cashmere sweater is that it improves with wear and washing, getting softer over time.

How do you get comfortable? The uniform - MM cashmere sweater and ankle socks, silk shorts by after party uk. Black-watch tartan wool blanket on my lap..always lamp light, I find room lights stressful. Polka dots or stripes? Stripes every time! Sometimes I do stripe only loads of washing, striped crew neck T-shirts are part of my uniform.. Hence the strong presence of stripes in my collections :) Who would you say is the most quintessentially understated designer? Margaret Howell, Rachel Comey Most quintessentially underrated designer? They are all gaining in popularity at the moment but Emilia Wickstead, Delpozo and Merchant Archive... if money was no object I’d only wear these designers, plus MM cashmere.

What do you do to relax? Listen to Desert Island Discs (podcast / radio show), music (at the moment Childish Gambino’s new album), yoga/ yoga retreats.

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THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: ELBOWS WRITTEN BY POLINA RIABOVA The intro to Elbows’ Corduroy EP opens with a soundbite from a certain early 2000’s film beloved by modern-day hipsters, an allusion which could have easily been heavyhanded had it not been for the subtlety and craft exhibited by artist. The opening track is a compact, teasing one minute and forty seconds rendering a solid preview of the overall project. It’s clear from his effort that Max Schieble, songwriter, producer and vocalist who goes by the stage name Elbows, is someone who has eloquently grasped the beauty of a structured narrative. Even as a kid growing up in the Bay Area, Schieble had naturally stuck to a revolving profile of work. His love for comic books inspired years of making his own renditions, with tacked-on drawings leaving little bare space on the walls of his childhood bedroom. Currently based in Brooklyn, Schieble is a visual artist and storyteller who incorporates both worlds into his music, “bending mediums for perspective,” in his own words. With influences ranging from Miles Davis and Dr. Dog to Kendrick Lamar, Scheible’s pop songs are synchronized within a flow of psychedelic, jazzy and hip hop melodies. It is music that is easy to digest, yet playful and surprising; a hint of West Coast sunniness amidst the brisk autumn of New York. The Corduroy EP, to come in late April, is a sonically eclectic, soft canopy of sound. The songs will be released one by one, as an appetizer of sorts for an upcoming 12-track LP that has been in the works for over two years. While inspired by Schieble’s experience of living and making art in New York, the LP is fundamentally rooted in the dedication to craft he found in his youth. The release of Elbows’ debut album will also include a storybook and short film. Has the insertion of humor and playfulness into your work been a conscious decision? The album is very dark, but it’s still pretty funny. It is something I strive for because I don’t like things that are too serious. There’s a lot of serious subjects being discussed in the album but there’s still some funny stuff. One song is all about the town I grew up in. It was very affluent but there was a lot of absurd drug use, a lot of winding roads and often people would drunk drive off the cliffs and people were being murdered from time to time. Musically, though, we’re doing it on a dance groove, and there’s a really farty bass, so the fart bass is very funny, and the subject matter is very serious. It’s a conscious thing. I remember a long time ago, maybe 2009 or 2010—I keep a lot of notebooks—and in one of the notebooks I wrote, ‘incorporate more humor into your work.’ I’ve always really liked humor but I think for a long time I wasn’t making

anything that was really that funny, and then at some point it sort of clicked. You find the funny things in terrible situations, so there’s a lot of that on the album—dark humor. Describe the intersection between your artwork and your music. They totally overlap. They totally overlap. For every song, I hear it and I also just immediately see the visual. But then there’ll also be some times when I’ll draw something and I’ll see the visual and think—that’s a song, and I’ll make a song from the visual. I feel like everything on the album is sort of based on a color or a mood. So something happened and that was green or that was blue, and then from that came this set of chords and then these sort of words. So they’re very connected and they’re also influenced by more abstract ideas, like colors and imagery. Who are artists whose career arcs you admire? Kanye, because he shaped the whole terrain of popular music and he’s been relevant for so long. People doubted him so much in the beginning. I’ve felt like I’m in a similar boat at times, people saying, ‘Oh just stick to the art,’ or, ‘You’re not really a singer, maybe you should get someone else to sing it,’ and so it’s always inspired me to see how Kanye has not only proved everyone wrong, but he really proved them wrong, and influenced a whole generation. So he’s the obvious one just in terms of longevity. There’s also someone like Blu. Each one of his albums sounds totally different but each one is the highest quality so I really respect how he’s been able to find all these different sounds and continue to reinvent himself. Even though I’m not making traditional hip hop music or rapping I always relate to or associate to MCs and hip hop in general. How would you describe your sound visually? The Corduroy EP sounds like Sunday morning after you’ve made a bowl of oatmeal and you’re eating it, thinking back to the last two days and reflecting on what happened. The album sounds like being on a train or in a car driving and it’s cloudy out and it starts raining and then eventually it turns into the nighttime and you’re going through the forest and then all of a sudden there’s a city as well and then you’re back in the forest and you’re traveling through these landscapes. Top 5 influential albums? For this album in particular, Late Registration by Kanye West, Until the Quiet Comes by Flying Lotus, ‘Round About Midnight by Miles Davis, Fate by Dr. Dog and Perfect Color by Blu. But I wouldn’t touch any of those in the summer. Those are fall/winter albums.

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A Quiet Lunch with LA Artist Danny Minnick wRITTEN BY GREGORY DE LA HABA

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Quiet Lunch first heard about Danny Minnick the artist—as opposed the same Danny Minnick we knew as pro skater— through a mutual friend, the Miami-born photographer, artist and curator David Tamargo. Both young men visited New York City earlier this year; David was in town promoting his latest jewelry line after a successful showing at the Groucho Club, SOHO, London, while Danny was here filming a movie with Uma Thurman. Some interesting trivia, Minnick was once a stunt double for Shaun White. Tamargo, now living in LA, was insistent we see his LA homie’s art. And since looking at art is what we do when not writing about it or making it ourselves, we arranged for lunch at The Standard, East Village, to sit down and meet with Minnick, the skater turned artist and budding actor, and see what he is made of. As David informed us beforehand: “Danny Minnick’s work embodies the free spirit and vigor of the street skater,

the intensity and captivating power of a fine stage actor while possessing a pictorial vernacular familiar yet uniquely his own, rooted in the here and now, his finger on the pulse of the ever tunedin Millennial Generation. This kid is dope, man, I’m telling you.” We eagerly awaited our guest. He arrived on time with skateboard in hand. With a youthful, handsome and devilish look about him, Minnick’s intense brown eyes scour the cafe’s room upon entering. I jokingly thought to myself: “is he looking to locate a ‘No Trespassing’ sign, a spot to tag or is he going to launch into a new skate trick?” After exchanging pleasantries, we’ll hear of his ambitions to make art inspired by skating the streets, by urban life in general and of Basquiat, one of his heroes. He is filled with an joyous energy that seems ready for anything on any moment’s notice. Contrary to his wiliness and off-the-wall lifestyle, Danny Minnick doesn’t drink or do drugs. His Photo Courtesy of Bryan Thatcher

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calm, happy disposition was in utter contrast to the manic mark -makings covering his canvases, primordial markings that hearken back to an earlier time in life before bills needed to get paid and when being responsible was only in knowing where in the world one left their skateboard.

Danny Minnick | Delighted to be here. Nice to meet you guys.

Rudimentary in execution, Minnick’s paintings—while modern-looking— seem founded or built upon ancient iconography and scripture with a surface seemingly engraved in the canvas with a rough, jagged tool rather than applied sophisticatedly with sable. His is a cryptic lexicon of a talisman-like force, incantations in paint with an air of some medieval grimoire; Minnick’s communion designed, perhaps, to achieve altered states of consciousness and out of body experiences in order to subconsciously listen with those who turned to compost long ago so we who seek further enlightenment from art’s magnetic spell may continue to do so.

DM | Doesn’t work for me.

Quiet Lunch | Hello, Danny. Welcome to New York.

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QL | Would you like a drink? DM | No thanks, I stopped drinking. QL | Why is that?

QL | Great. Ever had a Pellegrino with espresso over ice? DM | No, what’s that? QL | That’s the drink to have when not drinking. Try one. DM | Oh man, that’s amazing. What’s it called? QL | The Day La –most refreshing isn’t it? DM | Damn, sure is. I like it. QL | So we hear you’re in town filming a movie with Uma Thurman? How’d that happen? What’s it called? Release date?

DM | Yeah, it’s pretty cool. I have an agent who, lucky enough, is also my friend and a fellow artist, Kerri Randles. The film is called The Brits are Coming! I’m so looking forward to the release, very proud of the work and was so honored to work with Uma. I’m not sure of the release date, but likely sometime next year. QL | That’s very cool, my friend Congratulations. Now tell me, has being an artist helped the acting or has the acting helped being an artist? DM | Absolutely! Any medium I work in supports the other. Being an actor helps me access emotional and creative places that can only enrich my art on the canvas. QL | I like the sound of that. You’re in tune with your inner self, yes? DM | I try. Skateboarding and not drinking helps. QL | Yes, drinking and drugs have been the downfall of too many. Let’s get to skateboarding which is uplifting and we can say is also like bullfighting, surfing or ballet in that they are ephemeral arts—lasting no more than the day (or moment) of execution. When I look at your work it seems to capture that fleeting-of-the-moment magic such arts provide. How has skateboarding professionally influenced your artmaking process? DM | It’s not so much the professional aspect as it was–and remains–the

personal experience skating brings to my work. And the sense of freedom, really. QL | Your work has a raw, tribal-art sensibility to it. Are tribal arts an influence? DM | Well, from a tribal aspect, there is a bit of Mayan influence. My characters are really a reflection of different parts of myself… maybe I was a Mayan in a past life. QL | What do you have going on next? DM | I just signed with De Re Gallery and it looks like I’ll be having a solo show in late 2016 or early 2017. QL | Excellent. Always good to hear of future shows. Get’s the creative juices flowing on overdrive, doesn’t it? DM | Yes, it sure does. QL | Tell us about a painting you

worked on recently?

the key to one’s happiness, no?

DM | I painted “TWO NIGHTS IN THE TOMBS” after I found a large canvas just lying on the street in Brooklyn. I took it to my friend Harif ’s studio at 76 Wooster and was planning to get started on it when I decided instead to go out for the night. I made some random stops and then hit the streets in Soho. For some reason, I felt compelled to fancy up a wall where Deitch Projects used to be when a couple of undercovers grabbed me and carted me off to jail. It was a lonely weekend in what literally felt like a tomb. The great thing that came out of it, however, was this vision for the painting that eventually ended up on the canvas I’d found on the street a couple days earlier. Funny how life works.

DM | Oh, definitely. QL | Just as Tamargo told us enthusiastically about your work, tell us what artist in LA we should keep an eye out for? DM | Keep your left eye out for Chad Muska. QL | Alrighty, Chad Muska it is. What a pleasure to meet you and we really look forward to seeing more of Danny Minnick’s energized work. Keep rocking it! God speed! Now let’s go downstairs and take some pictures in the photo booth. DM | Cool. Let’s go!

QL | Yes, Danny, it’s very funny how life works and keeping a sense of humor about all things whether good or bad is

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Masking: The Act of Manifestation Kwesi Abbensetts 12 | QUIET LUNCH | SS 2017

written by ryan davis

Between the fragments of time and abstraction lie the gestation and manifestation of the photo story, A Kind Of Masking, by the Brooklyn based artist Kwesi Abbensetts. Here, we are not asked to simply play the role of observer—this is far too quaint for an artist who typically blurs social dynamics. The story presented to us is a journey of subtle obscurity of the subject, which allows us to supplant ourselves within the piece. Grappling with this process is reflexive and a negotiation between the artist, subject, and ourselves. Kwesi Abbensetts was born in Guyana. Having first migrated to New York City in 1995 before leaving, he returned in 2002 to study film at Brooklyn College. While he did not complete his degree, his interest in film makes it no surprise that A Kind Of Masking is a no-

table part of his Stories series. As we further investigate this body of work, it reveals new ways in which we actualize the subject. Through the abstract colored forms, the function of the shapes magnify the subtle aspects into monumental components. From the loose cigarette pinched between the woman’s index and ring finger, to the the nearly overlooked gold streak in her hair; once acknowledged, these identifiers becomes a point of significance and an affirmation of beauty. These traits reveal themselves through a willingness to invest in the subject, similarly to time and its necessitation in obtaining self-knowledge or understanding other perspectives. Through this, the subject transcends our convictions in how we comprehend identity.

Ultimately, A Kind Of Masking is less to do with the literalness of the details of the women in the image. Rather, the image is a reflection of self. There is no explicit rhyme or reason for the layout of the transparent and opaquely colored circles juxtaposed over the subject. Abbensetts relies on intuition and as he states, “blood memory”, to create his arrangements. The value of these two components belong unto itself. Thus, Abbensetts gives power to the subject to assign its own self-worth and possibility. To ask ourselves, what is the value of intuition and blood memory, is irrelevant. The concerning question for us is, how do we define value? And to whom does that privilege belong? Discussing this subject with Abbensetts in reference to A Kind Of Masking he states, “The idea of masks is the idea of the

fluidity of changing identities.” Abbensetts acknowledges identity as a state of being; one that is not fixed, constantly shifting and expanding. This declaration usurps the linear and monolithic understanding woven into the structure of Western and capitalist culture. He continues, “[identity as the state] of being able to know that you can change that identity from one to another.” The privilege of defining the value of your mask is assigned to you, the viewer. The figure in A Kind Of Masking, is her. She is also me. Just as much, she is you. She is the possibility of self-knowledge and assigning our self-worth. Just as Abbensetts creates a space of reflection and self-knowledge, he as well, invites us to manifest our own masks.

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The Best Years Of My Life Teresa Aversa Written by magdalyn asimakis 20 | QUIET LUNCH | SS 2017

The ‘everyday object’ has steadily held its place in art history’s media portfolio since the modern interest in urban culture emerged. Everydayness in the dialogue on materiality has evolved since the impact of Marcel Duchamp and the Dada movement in which Teresa Aversa’s work finds its lineage. The space she explores in I Gave You the Best Years of my Life considers seemingly trivial instances of creativity in the banal.

The bulletin board as support poses a challenge that echoes the history of the readymade in its evident reference to mass production, but also corporate quotidian settings and the associated environmental issues. The bulletin board acts as a deceptive mechanism: it is easily dismissed in a room filled with its replicas, much like it would be in its corporate context, and certainly in a gallery. However, pinned to Aversa’s boards are nuanced meditations on in-

formation and ephemera that circulate daily and the ways they are interpreted on an individual basis. Aversa’s process of pinning is intuitive, echoing the act of ‘curating’ one’s own bulletin board as a mode of escapism and expression. At times she juxtaposes items that gesture to the socio-political underpinnings of our individual formation, such as the fragment of a Martin Luther King Jr. poster pinned with a U.S. dollar bill.

Along with found objects such as notes, wrappers and receipts, the artist also quietly inserts her own works onto the boards, disclosing her shrewd knowledge of media. Pages ripped out of magazines are painted over with gold leaf, drawings are interspersed with Polaroids from her archive. Relationships between the aforementioned elements speak to Aversa’s larger practice, which takes the focus off singular objects and considers the ever-changing dialogues between ourselves and material culture.

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Deconstructive.| In Conversation with Louise Donegan. WRITTEN by Audra Lambert 24 | QUIET LUNCH | SS 2017

L | Yeah, there’s a real physicality about it. A | Like a polaroid for example: you’ll never get two polaroid images that are the same. L | Yeah, I mean it’s ironic that I work with [mass media] images, I suppose. I recall when I was a child I remember seeing news stories of the famine in Ethiopia. Those images were so powerful and potent it made people in my country want to do something to help. Perhaps it is a sign of the times, this apathy. Now you just flick through digital photographs and… it’s very difficult to feel moved by these images anymore, they don’t enact change. A | So the image is a very powerful thing and yet it’s ubiquitous and it’s everywhere.

opposite: Butternipple, 2015

“I like to find congruence in things that shouldn’t be together.. [in] textures that look like they were never meant to be together, and yet look like they were never meant to be apart.” - Louise Donegan I recently toured the studio of artist, model and actor Louise Donegan where she gave me insights into her artistic practice. Gracious and accommodating, Louise impressed me as thoughtful and accessible. She continually applies herself with the same determination to her artistic career as she has her work in both film and print. She answered questions with a firm response and an easy laugh, pondering complex issues inherent to her work as they arose. Her considered approach to subjects like media bias and conservation efforts to preserve natural species complements the pop sensibility found in her work. We took time to view works from her Liath series, which were on view last Fall in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood and subsequently in Los Angeles, CA, where the artist is now based. Audra Lambert | Hi, Louise! Thanks for chatting today. So let’s start by looking at your collage work. These pieces are derived from composites of images, so I was wondering: doesn’t it feel as though, today, we’re surrounded with images? Louise Donegan | It’s true isn’t it? Every time we walk down the street we see so many images, and that’s multiplied so much now because every day we’re

dismissing images on Instagram, and deciding “I’m not going to like that...” A | Right—it seems like we’re surrounded with an infinite number of screens. L | Sure—some nights I’ll sit down to watch a film and I’ll probably have my laptop, and then someone will probably text me and I’ll find myself texting someone with a laptop computer in front of me and the film—it’s absurd. We’re really so bombarded by images. A | Especially in social media, right? So in terms of dismissing the image, then, how do you feel your work is in conversation with social media? Or is it not a conscious conversation—does it just happen anyway? L | Well, when I was putting together my recent solo show [Liath at Salomon Contemporary], the images I included were experiential and needed to be seen in person—they didn’t translate very well with social media. In retrospect, I can see how it worked against me. I think when you do see something online it’s easier to say, “Oh, we should go see that.” At the same time, you don’t have to put everything you do on Instagram. A | Yeah, I agree; and I think at the same time we’re also fraught with this sense of… a sense of needing to have something tangible, I guess. I think there’s a return to vinyl for a reason, for example: there’s a real presence there.

L | Yeah, it sucks. [Laughter]. A | So how long ago did you start working with collage? L | I guess the easiest way to explain it is prior to full-time modeling, I had planned to go to the Surrey institute of Art and Design [in the UK] and took a year off for modeling—which turned into… fast-forward 15 years later, and here I am. It was only natural for me to use the materials around me to create, and I ended up having all these magazines and I started making [these collages] and people started posting photos of them. Gradually I started making things in a more serious way and sharing and posting them online. A friend who owns a skateboard brand approached me to make collage designs for T-shirts and skateboards… then, another friend moved offices and asked me to make some pieces for their new space. That’s when I realized there was something in what I was doing. I began to concentrate a lot more and put more hours of work into it and so I started working in a studio space. I found a company who could do the printing and laminating process for me effectively and I also learned Photoshop. That’s when I started to make the Liath (grey) series, which are almost invisible, etching-like images on a matching grey background. To make a long story short, an influential art patron saw my work and wanted to meet me and has been a wonderful mentor ever since. This coincided with Akeem inviting me to be a part of the Selfish exhibit at Brilliant Champions gallery [in Bushwick]. I thought that

although I’d never done a self portrait before it was an interesting challenge because my collage work could lend itself to portraits. I’m pretty sure most other collage artists don’t have such a [collection of ] source photos of themselves within their paper stash. [Laughter] One of the things that happens when you leave a modelling agency is that they send you a huge box of your what are called “tear sheets”: essentially, discarded images. Over the years I had stockpiled old photographs, and I decided to jump in on this [selfportrait] project and try to make something that although it was a literal representation of me, also felt personal and from me not just of me. A | Well, it is quite literal—and it’s not at the same time, because [the images] show how these photos made you up to assume different personalities... the collages can then be seen as a way for you to reassert yourself. L | Yeah, also there’s something very fun about chopping yourself up—like chopping up your eyes, then your legs... I ended up with many different pieces and then I was happy with how it turned out. A | There’s the concept [in art history] of working with the archive, and you are literally working with an archive here, [creating artworks from] your sources, and you have a wide spectrum to work with. L | My collage work used to be dictated by what I had available to work with and in that respect my work within the fashion industry informed my work as an artist, but now friends and neighbours know what I do. So with paper matter they would otherwise discard, they say, “Oh, here you are, here’s a stack of magazines”. A | I’d love to know what works you admire and what artists have inspired you. L | When I was 16 [living in the UK], I went to the Tate Modern to see the Turner Prize show, and I saw Chris Ofili’s exhibition and he used a lot of colors, and flowers, and hip hop influences... I loved the layers and the lacquers. That was a massive influence on what I was doing a long time ago and it’s still carried through to today. Then [other inspiring artists include] Jeff Koons, and Wassily Kandinsky; especially, [Kandinsky’s] color theory.

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More recently I saw Wangechi Mutu’s A Fantastic Journey at the Brooklyn Museum. I saw many parallels—she’s a woman working with these strong colors, based in New York. It was cool to see what she’s doing and in a very male-dominated world. There’s a wonderfulness about what she does that’s almost other-wordly... I feel that I’d already honed my style when I encountered her work, but [the faces in] my older work more closely paralleled her work. A | Wow, when I hear you listing the artists above… I don’t know... L | They’re all very colorful, wicked artists! A | Right, yet they’re working from so many different viewpoints and processes... it’s good to be eclectic! I get that you’re interested in hip hop culture as well. L | I think it’s the music of our times... I’m around that everyday. A | Right, that’s your reality! L | That’s how Mike [Louise’s partner] and I met; it was through a musical connection. It’s a big influence. Two pieces [of mine], Perle de Gris and Grande Faucon, were works he used as the digital artwork for songs he put on Soundcloud even though we weren’t working together... A | You were working in parallel. Moving through your works I see that then you have these abstract elements too.

L | I like exploring different textures, so, this is what happens when you don’t expose polaroid film [see various polaroid artworks, below]. The ink is stored in the bottom part and the shutter opens in the camera, and the mirror will reflect the images. The camera squeezes the ink across the exposed plane -- however if you take the film out prior to exposing it you can use that [film] and use the fact that the ink is in there and move it across the plane, letting it dry at different thicknesses according to pressure applied to make different colors and color combinations. Color tonalities vary according to when the film was manufactured.. [the final product] also relates to film from different manufacturers. A | It’s intriguing [the mix of medium and method]—the musician in me thinks about creating music with, say, a physical vinyl record... L | Right. I’m always online and trying to buy film from, say, 1992 Polaroids. If the film’s too old it won’t work in a new camera... yet I want them because I can use them in my work! The squid [in above artwork Spine] for example is magazine cutouts in yellow and purple and then there’s [matching hues in] these polaroid cutouts. I like to find congruence in things that shouldn’t be together... these textures, they look like they were never meant to be together, and yet they look like they were never meant to be apart. A | So [that] there’s a resonance with textures even across different objects. [we move through her portfolio].

L | Yes, that’s another process I work with—I take unexposed polaroid film and use it in my works.

L | So this shark here… Another passion I have is [for] sharks, they’re my favorite animal.

A | How do you feel about having printed imagery on the same page as unexposed film itself ? It’s kind of a look behind the curtain right?

A | I love the shark, I wish it was in a shadowbox, like a box with blue foil [riffing off of Damien Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living].

L | You’re pointing out lots of things! A | Well I’ve never seen a collage artist work directly with unexposed film, so this is really different for me. L | I do it a lot. I studied photography originally and spent three years in a darkroom. A | How smelly is that [developing photographs], right? It’s a smell that never leaves you! [Laughter]

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L | Yeah—it would just need a box of formaldehyde next to it. [Laughter] I’m trying to say something with this shark. Meanwhile he (Hirst) just murdered this endangered tiger shark. My work is based on the fact that sharks are endangered animals that are overfished and used to make beauty products such as lipstick. A | Lipstick is made with sharks? L | Yeah, a chemical that comes from

Requin Rouge, 2016

shark liver, called Squalene. They’re endangered, these sharks, but since they live in the ocean no one really knows about their plight—if people tried to do that on dry land with Apex predators such as actual tigers, it would be stopped in less than a day. There’s a documentary coming out called SHARKWATER EXTINCTION and that will expose and explain why this is a really important issue. L | Here’s another Hirst-y number… this is about censorship: I put nipples between the butterflies. Which is a man’s nipple and which is a woman’s? You can’t tell. So therefore, you can’t tell which one is “offensive.” I made that when I first started doing work with colour variations in Photoshop. Perle de Gris, 2016

A | I like the subversive quality of the nipples alternating between male and female. It’s interesting to me that your work is pop and immediate but also has these layers to it. How do you balance the content versus aesthetic in your work? You choose the content very carefully. You only use certain magazines, for example, so you’re considering the content and you’ll make abstract pieces with figurative elements. You’ll look at the texture of things, for example, and I’m curious for how you balance the composition with these [various] collage elements?

Spine, 2016

Grande Faucon, 2016

L | I play around with these for hours, and hours, and will generally decide on something and then I’ll sleep on it, and then I’ll come back and look at it again, then I’ll take a photograph of it. Then I’ll take it apart and put it back together again and see if it matches the photograph. I’ll just let what comes, come. A | So you play around with it a little bit. L | I play with it a lot! A | I think people respond to art that is ultimately playful. L | It is serious, but it’s also fun. Even the works some might consider macabre are still fun. I do concentrate for hours, so it’s not like a laugh a minute [when] making pieces. But I do think it is important as an artist to highlight serious issues such as censorship, or the sharks [which] I care about. It’s still visually fun. I do this out of the love I have for it and if it ever becomes not that then it’s something that, in a way, I probably shouldn’t do anymore.

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a FAMILY AFFAIR KATE CLARK Written by Jason Voegele 28 | QUIET LUNCH | SS 2017

opposite: Choosing Her Words, 2015

above: Lit From Within, 2009

In the distant evolutionary past of the modern human, there was a time when it became clear that we had become both of the animal kingdom and apart from it, uniquely sentient and increasingly dominant in the hierarchy. To understand this hierarchy and our place within it, early artists found it necessary to personify the world around them and began to attribute human characteristics to other beings and unexplained phenomenon of the known world.

human face upon the juxtaposed forms of other species creates an immediate moment of visual tension. Even before the mind can think to question what it sees, it does so following the visceral response. But these are just the first onion layers of meaning and context. Kate’s sculptures are also portraits of loved ones, friends and family. Go deeper and there are wonders in the craftsmanship of the taxidermy and the preparation of the rare and otherwise neglected animal hides.

Through myths, art and folklore, this fascination with humanizing animals has always served a dual purpose. When we put our face on the animal we hold a mirror up to ourselves. Reflected back is the animal within us. When we recognize the animal within us, we discover how little separation there is between civilization and the wild beings of the world.

I recently asked Kate to answer a few questions on the subject of her work and here was her response:

This discovery can often be a transformative realization so it comes a no surprise that when visitors encounter the work of Brooklyn artist Kate Clark, they are often either disturbed or immensely delighted. There is never a middle ground here. As the artist intends, the imposition of a lifelike

Kate Clark | This is a good question because in fact, I purposely try to mix up expectations. I’m making my work in Brooklyn, so fortunately I have a wonderful range of models (friends and family) to choose from. If I’m working with a hide from an animal that lives in Africa or Asia, I usually will not choose

Jason Patrick Voegele | How did you come to select the models you have used for the sculpted human faces in your work? Is there a particular significance to the choice of animal that your models are sculpted onto?

JPV | Why is it important to you that the animal hides you work with are real animal hides? Considering the elaborate lengths one has to go through to acquire and prepare this material, it seems like it would be easier to go synthetic

achieve the same effect using synthetic materials, I think the viewer still senses a material’s quality, natural or artificial. The real hide causes a visceral reaction and connection that would be missing if I used synthetic materials. The hides are incredibly beautiful and even though I use slightly damaged hides that I repair for my pieces, the coloring and detail are more intense than anything I could make by hand. In fact, using the animal’s actual skin and transforming it, rather than putting two artificial things together, is the most important concept behind the work. The hide covers the animal body and the leather I use as skin for the human face is the actual skin of the animal’s face. I attempt to match up sections of skin, for example, using the animal’s eyelids and lashes around the human-looking eyes. I shave the fur so that the viewer might relate to the oily, porous features that we recognize in our skin. The final portraits have mainly human features but also include animal characteristics. I am visually saying that although we have an enlightened existence, we are of wild origin, coexisting members of the animal kingdom.

KC | Although I agree that it would be much easier in many ways if I could

JPV | Myths, legends, and folktales often highlight the close links between

an African American model or an Asian American model—I prefer not to feel bound by that prescription. Instead I will put an Anglo American face on a zebra or an African American face on a cougar. I also try not to be predictable with gender, giving myself the freedom to make a huge male antelope with large horns have a delicately featured female face. The bust piece Choosing Her Words (2015) and the three gemsbok in Ceremony (2013) are all large male antelopes, but I worked with female models. In the transformation of body into head, the proportions do change and I sometimes end up making the woman’s face slightly fuller to accommodate a huge neck- or a man’s face less sharp to accommodate a small neck. I’m comfortable with the pieces reading as androgynous as long as they read well as a whole.

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people and animals. In addition to your investigations into what separates and unites the human and animal kingdoms, do you draw any inspiration from the world of mythology or other artists, past or present, who share your fascination with the subject? KC | Artists who work on the edge of what is acceptable inspire me. My work could be considered an aberration—combining two things that aren’t usually combined. My effort to transform them into something believable, or at least suspend disbelief, usually results in the viewer initially resisting the work, but then coming around to find some sort of

She Gets What She Wants, 2010

Bully, 2010

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beauty and personal meaning in it. My work is discussed in the context of environmentalism, mythology, spiritualism, futuristic biology, etc. All of those subjects interest me but most importantly, the range enables the work to be considered in a current and contemporary way that leads to the discussion of cultural evolution. The fact that we haven’t physically evolved as humans from the time before Greek mythology until now, and probably won’t evolve physically as we move into the future, is an amazing fact— considering the leaps and bounds of our cultural evolution. Even though we are the same physical people, we are masters at adapting to these cultural changes.

Pack, 2007

Tale, 2013

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Live From the Land of the Black Sun. | VIENO JAMES Written by Hayley McCulloch

I Got Next, 2016

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Forward! He Cried From The Rear, 2016

Dab Finesse For the Kings Court, 2016

There’s a cardboard figure hanging on a white wall—horsey shaped at the rear, its neck craning into a doggish head with a blunt snout. Its closely clipped mane and three butchered legs suggest cruel inflictions or terrible misfortunes to the power, symbolic strength and beauty attributed to the archetype of the equine. Its stomach is scuffed and sore. Blue stripes form a rainbow on its behind, eliciting and inverting the image of the red ones found on the American flag. Brave cavalry are nowhere to be seen. This limp and soggy steed seems to have been tortured and crucified in a fit of patriotic malaise. This is Al Vieno James’ Man Taming Horse, 2016, and something about it seems right, for right now. Weapons of Rhetoric, are amongst my favorite of James’s pieces—its devastatingly humorous and dark disclaimer being: “Weapons from the Land of Black Sun * These weapons are suitable for battle.” Parts appear salvaged from household stuff: masking tape, glitter, crayon, latex paint, thrifted items and street junk. The Caribou Killer made from a pizza cutter and pink twine is pretty outstanding as is, Shaman Staff, which is cobbled from a tiki torch, carpet scraps, house paint, and hemp string from which a mysterious miniUSB mixtape hangs.

Flag from the Old Kingdom, 2016

The faux primitivism of these weapons seem set to deal subtle blows on the stage of daily human interaction in domestic dysfunction— to be used strategically as tools of resistance. There is a conscious innovation and innocence at play, something along the lines of: We’ll come at them with what we’ve got, with what we claim as valuable in the detritus of modern life! Like the attitudes of the primordial characters living in postapocalyptic tribes in the original Mad Max, like the Lost Boys in Peter Pan with all of their pilfered accessories of warfare brandished with boyish bravery. As issues of race and privilege continue

to be central in the murder of unarmed citizens, as international racism ceases to abate, as Army veteran’s stand with Native Americans to guard their land and our water supply against an essentially government sanctioned militarized police forced violent standoff—grappling with the poetically symbolic, ineffective weaponry developed by James, elicits a delicate wonder, desperation, sorrow. Civil unrest is real. We are united by it and search in art for a language to respond to it even if we might never to be able to resolve it. How the King Lynched Himself, 2016

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Shield and Mace

James takes paint soaked rags and canvas cut offs covered in urgent scrawls and strings them up like sails for a ship whose voyage and destination is most probably chartered far away from here. Maybe that is the Land of the Black Sun, or maybe this place is, and that is why he is taking off. With a pirate sensibility his aim seems not to fine tune or overly-craft an object, but his working of decoration into unusual places demonstrates ingenuity with an enlightened usage of well-placed, glamorous haberdashery. The deep red pomegranate colored beads suggestive of blood drops hanging from the spear Fig. Mangah Vegros’ (Detail) Spear of the King’s Guard, spell a sublime and dark humor. In tragic operatic theater, big rhinestones almost always have to stand in for rubies and diamonds and they do their job. Costume jewelry aside it is always about a hubris, revenge, romance, betrayal, the ballade, and overall, a sparkling human performance.

Man Taming Horse, 2016

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James inhabits the Warrior archetype, In Return to the King’s Landing (Performance, 2016). Taking a severed noose off the wall of his exhibition, he places it on his head as a crown—a significant gesture made before taking a seat on his throne sculpture and reciting some of his written work as guards flank him and punctuate the tempo of his speech with taps of their spears on the ground. The works from the Land of the Black Sun are worth a look, not just a squint. To take a moment to regard the shimmering corona around a dark eclipse is to see an unusual occurrence of planetary interplay. If you are at all celestial in your beliefs, this celestial occurrence marks changes to come— more peaceful times ahead or a new round of warfare. But as we all know, it most probably signifies both.

Shield and Mace, 2016

Mangah Gur 1 (Shield 1 of the Kings Guard), 2016

Mangah Gur 3 (Shield 3 of the Kings Guard), 2016

Mangah Vegros, 2016

Mangah Gur 3 (Shield 3 of the Kings Guard), 2016

The Battle of Carthage, 2016

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The ARt Of Spray Paint A Book by Lori Zimmer

WRITTEN BY AUDRA LAMBERT

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Curator, author and Art Nerd NY Founder Lori Zimmer’s recent book, The Art of Spray Paint, has captivated art world acolytes and newcomers alike. Zimmer delves into the world of diverse and exciting artists working with spray paint today while revealing the storied presence of spray paint lurking in unexpected corners of modern art history. Graduating from a supporting role in artworks by Paul Klee and Man Ray to main billing in the oeuvre of artists Tristan Eaton and Elle, among many others, spray paint has proven a formidable force in influencing contemporary art and culture. On researching the book, Zimmer noted her surprise at the enduring influence spray paint has exacted on fine art. “I didn’t realize,” Zimmer explains, “that aerosol paints were used by artists as far back as the 1950s, like abstract expressionist David Smith, or conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner in the 60s.” While the artists profiled throughout the book’s pages span all corners of the globe in contemporary practice with aerosol paint, Zimmer found a unifying force in their innovative use of the medium. “I loved learning how each artist first became turned on to spray paint—many for different reasons, and how they adapted the medium for their individual styles.” The Art of Spray Paint gives an astonishing range of approaches to spray paint as a medium. Inside its pages lies an unparalleled inside look at top artists working with the medium while featuring global hot spots for spray paint art installations and demonstrable tutorials to try at home. The perfect gift for aspiring artists and seasoned collectors, The Art of Spray Paint is selling out quickly at bookstores nationwide as well as at Amazon.com. Make sure to grab your copy quickly—don’t miss the chance to gain a wide-angle perspective on spray paint as a fascinating, and versatile, medium.

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Willard Morganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

VESTIPHOBIA

interview by Jeffrey Grunthaner

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“...It’s about making people aware that we’re being sedated, and killing people to make us feel good about ourselves.”

illard Morgan’s Vestiphobia, a large-scale interactive performance, conceived and directed by Steve Fagin, was staged last month at the Fábrica de Arte Cubano in Havana. The production provokes a critical awareness of the systems of labor used to produce our clothing, our habits of consumption, and dramatizes how clothing functions as a form of expression, seduction, and often manipulation. Thinking about clothing – what it means, how it feels, how it’s made – is an activity we rarely embrace. Willard and I met at Ideal Glass, his project space on East 2nd street, where we we talked about how Vestiphobia explores the imbricated relationship of capitalism and fashion, and why wearing clothes forms such an essential and unavoidable part of our daily lives. Jeffrey Grunthaner | How would you characterize Vestiphobia? Is it more of a play or a performance? Willard Morgan | Vestiphobia is more than a play or performance, it’s an ongoing multifaceted project that includes a workshop in sustainable artwear, re-fashioned fashion shows and a film series about fashion. The story starts with the shame of the child — namely me — the ‘dandy-cowboy’ wearing nothing but my plastic six-guns, my boots and cowboy hat, playing in the hallways of our apartment house – and my father being embarrassed that neighbors would think he couldn’t afford to buy me clothing. JG | Can you talk a little bit about the plot that develops in the performance? WM | The plot intertwines historical facts and imagined, fantasized histories. Starting with the naked child thrust out of an imagined Garden of Eden, transitioning to the rights of passage of the adolescent wanting to fit in, wanting to wear what’s cool, to the hip uniforms worn by rebellious youth, to our dystopic future here! JG | You’re saying that revolution was commodified through fashion? WM | Well, through lifestyle. Levi’s jumped on it. The uniform of the revolutionary was jeans, t-shirts, navy pea-coats, Mao jackets, army fatigues. Vestiphobia celebrates creativity while condemning fashion’s dreadful waste of resources. Aside from agriculture, clothing uses the most human resources in the world. It’s the most downloaded content on the web, besides porn. JG | So Vestiphobia is about socio-economic foundations underlying how we dress? WM | Yes! It’s about sustainability and making people aware that we’re being sedated, and killing people to make us feel good about ourselves. A T-shirt takes a thousand gallons of water to produce, from sea to clothing rack. Vestiphobia seemed to be an ironic title. It means ‘fear of wearing clothes’.

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It’s an appropriate title in many ways. JG | Vestiphobia was staged this month at Fábrica de Arte Cubano, which seems very apt for this type of performance. How did you get involved with that space?

WM | Adidas just came out with a sneaker that dissolves in a specific fluid. Apparently, just goes down the drain, which doesn’t mean it has totally left the loop since we don’t know its effect on the ecology of water systems, but it’s progress!

WM | I’ve been going to Cuba since 2000. On my first trip I met artists, filmmakers, and musicians and developed friendships which led to future collaborations. Recently in New York, I met producers with experience working in Cuba; Grettel Carbo, an ex-model and architect, and Berta Jottar, who holds a PhD in Rumba! Actually, Ethnomusicology! At Berta’s suggestion, I began collaborating with the celebrated filmmaker Steve Fagin, who directed the legendary indie film, Tropicola. He developed a concept that adapted the project for a Cuban audience. Along with Marie van Eersel, our production coordinator, they helped us build a partnership with FAC, puting together a cast of Cuban actors, dancers, and musicians… incredibly talented artists. I think it’s a very important time for this subject because the Cuban culture is enormously creative in making due with nothing. Everyone knows how they keep their ancient Yank Tanks together, but what they don’t know is that fashion-wise, they’re creating unbelievable art-wear. They have designers that will blow your mind, making stuff out of plastic bottles, straws, plastic bags, anything they can lay their hands on. Their aesthetic is extremely high. And they’re 11 million people on the verge of industrialization. It’s not a banana republic. It’s not just going to be a tourist heaven. Labels will say “to hell with Mexico and China, let’s make Levi’s in Cuba.” JG | What was your collaborative process like? WM | Usually I would talk with my long-time collaborator — the Georgian designer Uta Bekaia — about what we were fascinated with, what period we wanted to focus on, and what we had around to work with. Bringing in composer John Sully for score and production, experimental filmmaker/ editor Jessie Stead and artist, Ayakamay, we would try to press the envelope and make things abstract and original. We took several of our collaborations to international fringe fashion shows like Williamsburg Fashion Week, Brighton Fashion Week, Fashion Art Toronto, and Maastricht’s Fashion Clash. JG | Within the context of the performance, do you have an idea of what fashion might look like going forward, or what you would like to see happen in the future?

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WM | We need to find new ways to decrease our enormous footprint in the name of style. We need to educate people. It’s the only hope we have because there are thousands and thousands of acres of landfill, worldwide, filled with discarded fast-fashion that people hardly wear and just throw away. On top of that, there are millions of garment workers who work in harm’s way, due to lack of accountability, leading to devastating accidents like the Rana Factory collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1200 workers, mainly women. Check out Fashion Revolution, an organization on the forefront of these issues and participate in their actions such as #whomademyclothes. JG | Is there an iteration of this performance coming stateside? WM | I’m developing a site-specific production for New York, which will include many of the elements we developed in Havana. My next film location, for the production, is a haunted slaughterhouse and tannery in an old Hoboken leather factory!

VESTIPHOBIA Written and performed by Willard Morgan Production conceived and directed by Steve Fagin Produced by Grettel Carbo and Berta Jottar Costume and art direction by Uta Bekaia Production coordination by Marie van Eersel Sound design by John Sully Cinematography by Nicholas Motyka Video edited by Jessie Stead Photography by jdx and Andrzej Bialuski

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THE SHADOWBOXER RYAN BOCK WRITTEN BY CHAPMAN CASE Photography by Michael Della Polla

Surveillance, 2015

I met Ryan Bock during a late afternoon storm. I arrived to his Brooklyn studio, scatter-drenched, and cannot entirely recall every detail of the six hours spent with him because I don’t remember much. My phone stopped recording after seven minutes and I spent little time preparing to meet him. Of course, I reviewed the chronologically organized work on his site and read a bit about Apostrophe, their collaborations and its founders, the never not collaborating, brethrenstatus-for-life duo Ki and Sei. But honestly, beyond that, I knew nothing about him. Not the way he looked or even his age. Nothing. I couldn’t be fucked because I wanted to Avedon it out. You know, say no to apparent compositions and the seduction of poses or narrative and allow those no’s to force me to the yes with a white background, the person I was interested in and the thing that would happen between us. An unfolding, if you will. I will tell you though, being surrounded by a collection of works—some of which were born of a simplified need to create with the goal of a solo show somewhere in Manhattan—was akin to being in a room full of monarchs, simps and ghosts circling the baptismal fire. Eventually, I came to understand what it was that was making me feel that way because, over time, he shared with me the story of how Shadowboxing came to life.

Peeping Tom, 2015

Years ago, probably some time in 2012, the same year he held his solo show Shamanistic Tendencies with Apostrophe NYC, Ryan discovered, via Instagram, a sculptor named Stefan. For two years they followed one another’s work and even tossed about the idea of a future collab. Each had profound respect for the other’s work. So, in the summer of 2014, when Ryan saw that Stefan was relocating upstate, he hit him up to meet in person. Upon arrival to Stefan’s Brooklyn studio, Ryan gifted him a painting and in exchange, Stefan gifted Ryan a motherload of wood scrap which was transformed, over the next 18 months, into a body of work titled, Shadowboxing. They remained in touch via text and when Ryan hit him up again just as he was near completion of the work, he was met with gut wrenching news: in September 2015, Stefan had taken his own life. “The arts community is too closed off and helping hands are not very forthcoming. I hope I can inspire with words and images just one single young artist as much as Stefan has inspired me.

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I’m dedicating this work to him and I will pay this forward. Thank you. I know you are striking that giant forge in Valhalla. RIP.” These were Ryan’s parting words to Stefan via his Instagram page, @bockhaus. Words that also seem to represent some kind of foreshadowing and my ability to understand the depth and charge of how this affected Ryan, on the deeply personal level, came via a careful folding and unfolding. Like origami in reverse. Fold and unfold. Create and reveal. Resist and surrender. Repeat. It is no secret that The Art World, merely ascribed, is lousy with its fair share of opportunists. No lipstick on a pig there. The business does not come with instructions. It is every bit of the aforementioned baptism by fire and there is no deciding who succeeds and who does not. The litmus test, for what it’s worth, appears to be an amalgamation of the hustle and the journey. And so, with a full body of work, Ryan decided to hold a preview at his studio on February 27th, 2016— selling almost half the collection. Earlier in the month, he participated in a group show over on Bleecker Street in the Lower and that night, on February 9th, 2016, he met a woman who seems to have clawed her way out of Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych of hell for all the chaos that ensued. She came to his studio the next day and, later, the aforementioned preview. Self-positioned as an arbiter of forward movement for all things young and fresh out in these art market streets, she quickly (and immediately) inserted herself, becoming Ryan’s “agent”— which, unequivocally translated, in this case, as “flag flier of a metric shit-ton of empty promises, triangulation and bullshit.” And all the while, those close to Stefan slowly began reaching out to Ryan. There were quite a few to be honest, each of them a guiding light of remembrance. Guardian angels circling the sacrificial lamb. To be fair, Bosch’s harpy did help him secure a show and on April 28th, 2016, Ryan had a solo exhibition in the LES titled, Shadowboxing, surprising those in attendance with a secret performance by Gabriel Garzon Montano for whom Ryan created, in 2014, a much lauded stop-motion short to accompany “Keep on Running,” a track from the EP, Bishouné: Alma Del Huila. I suppose I should mention, too, that he also collaboratively concepted and created a video for Harlem rapper and recording artist Salomon Faye. He’s not just a painter. He is fluent in the language of stop motion which he studied at

Ancestors, 2015 Untitled (Broken Urn), 2015

Congo Bubblegum, 2015 Judgement, 2015

School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Anyway, the opening went well and, while speaking about it, his eyes lit up and he started laughing which, frankly, I found interesting given my very outward expressions of shock and awe over this lengthy communion of ours. Despite the fact that he was forced to deal with this malignant cancer of an “agent” on a daily basis, he did live to tell said tale and he is super humble about all of it. In fact, Ryan is humble without measure and has more grace than a javelin throwing bounty hunter but do not piss him off. Fair and equal partner that he is, he gave this sociopath every possible hall pass known to man. But the day after the show opened, he decided he had

absolutely had enough. Feeling “this close” to a one way Uber to Bellevue, Ryan shoved all politeness to the side and assured her that he had no problem taking the entire show down. By that point it was ZF. She was confabulating lunacy on most high to the gallery space owner, and her stupid, anaconda tales of fuckery were like the lost tapes version of coke-drunk Living Dolls attempting to rap battle over a Debbie Gibson track. Nothing but metastasizing chaos around which confusion and exhaustion continued to centrifugally swirl. Total bukake in the end. She also stole two of his pieces the day before the show’s May 27th closing. He got them back though and proceeded to politely excuse

her at which point she retreated back to the chasm whence she emerged. Three months he dealt with her, each month mimicking one of Bosch’s triptychs in order of heaven, purgatory and hell (mostly hell). I’ve likened her in my mind to the art world version of a 90’s club kid that never quite figured out where to go after Peter Gatien left town. Ryan once posted the following and damned if I don’t believe him when he says it. “Yo, I consider myself a generally passive, nice guy. Maybe even a push over. But please don’t think you can play me. If you fuck me, best believe I have one massive fuck waiting for you at the end of the tunnel…”

“In Shadowboxing, an inseparable duality emerges. Bock expropriates a language based on cubism by confronting it with its African roots. He redirects awareness back towards cubism’s historical genesis in hopes of advocating for an aggressive confrontation… From this point of view, the natural and the artificial, the sacred and the obscene, the prison bars and the prisoner, are no longer any different… As in Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, in which the shadows of houses seem to pursue the man running along the street, Bock’s figures are all-consumed by their environments, as we each are by our own histories and systems of beliefs… Shadowboxing becomes an

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Step Pyramid, 2015

exercise in casting out the unconscious paranoid and schizophrenic baggage that comes with living... In his personal quest to demystify, he has created a subtly satirical and critical mythology with its own gods and demons, symbols and rites. A mythology in which truth is never directly enunciated, but instead, is always summoned in the form of a question.â&#x20AC;? Shadowboxing Press Release Maybe right now you too are meeting Ryan for the first time, or maybe you

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have stumbled upon him like accidental tourists whilst going on about your lives. Perhaps you saw his widely publicized guerilla pop up at The Whitney, masterminded by Ki (who builds all of his frames by the way) and Apostrophe, or maybe you caught one of the two rogue Kosciuszko station subway installations. Maybe you tossed confetti and dirty popcorn at your Tinder date near the recent Coney Island pop up in August. If already acquainted with his work, surely we agree that the work is, in and of itself, a thorough commentary. Entirely referential, one must engage

with it in order to understand it and all that is is engaging with oneself. Doing the work. Shadowboxing is doing the work. He said that it is important to him that people understand that this shit has no rule book. That it is so easy for opportunists to hard lurk like that for their own narcissistic gain is indicative of an overall deficit within the industry. As such, he feels these people should be called out. He clarified that, while end day his personal experience rendered him relatively unscathed, no emerging artist deserves to be put through such a gallivanting hell. Always

in favor of the underdog and a former agent myself, nothing infuriates me more than a culture vulture whether it be an individual or a corporation. As an agent, your role is to help facilitate the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s forward movement because you believe in that person so deeply that you are willing to put yourself out in the streets to let people know. There has to be a validly functioning connection to the artists and to the work. Granted, it is a symbiotic relationship but nowhere does it say that you are obligated in any way to temporarily hijack someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sanity while gaslighting them into

Mother and Child, 2015

rewarding your thirst bucket behaviour by pretending not to notice you have stolen their art off the walls. Please can we be clear about that. Ryan Bock, an extremely gifted and emotionally intelligent human being seemingly born with an almost Albrecht Durer level of divine inspiration at his beck and call happens to not be afraid to put you on blast if that’s what you deserve. Let it be known, too, that everything she promised him—free studio space, group shows abroad, a presence at Art Basel—he has achieved without her.

Incarceration Part 1, 2015

He’s way smarter than me and all of you combined and while not here to sell him to you, if you want more (you do), he has a 50-foot mural on religionlosing corrugated metal commissioned by 100 Bogart at 19 Ingraham just off of the Morgan L, a few in the LES and ghosts from his army await you in stairwells in Brooklyn. He has also promised a return to directing video and animation and, while tight-lipped about it, something tells me we can expect a much greater level of exposure on all fronts. He recently showed in an art fair

London in January and just returned from Paris where he has a group show at Ground Effect in March. He remains committed and will continue to build with his Apostrophe NYC “Base 12” family, with whom he shares a year-long residency at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City where he will be holding a solo show late May 2017.

with his Apostrophe NYC “Base 12” family, with whom he shares a year-long residency at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City where he will be holding a solo show late May 2017.

London in January and just returned from Paris where he has a group show at Ground Effect in March. He remains committed and will continue to build

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Tombstone #1, 2015

Tombstone #2, 2015

much greater level of exposure on all fronts. He recently showed in an art fair London in January and just returned from Paris where he has a group show at Ground Effect in March. He remains committed and will continue to build

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with his Apostrophe NYC “Base 12” family, with whom he shares a year-long residency at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City where he will be holding a solo show late May 2017.

residency at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City where he will be holding a solo show late May 2017.

Colors,Shapes Photography: GL Wood Artwork: WOLFEYES IG: @glwoodphoto / @wolfeyescreative Art and Photography are mixed together by hand by GL Wood and WOLFEYES Styling: Larry Good @ wolfeyescreative Hair: Linh Nguyen @ Kate Ryan IG: @linhhair Makeup: Georgina Billington @ Judy Casey using MAC Cosmetics IG: @georginabillington Model: Bara Holotova @ Women 360 Management IG: @bara_holotova / @women360mgmt

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Tux Suit by Gucci

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Dress by Balmain 52 | QUIET LUNCH | SS 2016

Dress by Balenciaga

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Leather Motorcycle Jacket by Marc Jacobs

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BEAUTY

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B E A U T Y

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WALLFLOWERS: A SERIES BY ADÉLÈ SCHELLING

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ABOUT WALLFLOWERS Wallflowers is a photographic series that explores vanishing acts through the use of color. Inspired by Abstract Expressionist paintings à la Barnett Newman, and Erwin Wurm’s quirky One-Minute Sculptures, the photographs present a typology of ways to blend in one’s environment. While the act of perfect camouflage is almost achieved in one photograph, it is the failed attempts that tell the story of Wallflowers, as they make the person trying to vanish even more visible in contrast.

ABOUT ADÉLÈ SCHELLING Adele Schelling is a Swiss freelance photographer with a BFA from the University of the Arts of London. She is currently NYC-based and a graduate student at the School of Visual Arts. Whether photographing intricate jewelry for London designers, performing on the snowy icecaps of the Swiss Alps, or roaming IKEA’s showrooms with a camera, her practice explores the concept of Home, as a social space and the ways it is intrinsically related to one’s identity.

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Word doodles An ongoing series By Kat J. Weiss

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FALLING UP. |LEAH YERPE WRITTEN BY MARY HURT PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL DELLA POLLA

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Heliotrope

Surreal and impeccably detailed, Leah Yerpe’s work is beyond memorable. Yerpe is young—having graduated from Pratt University in 2009— but her great feats of naturalism and expressive drama suggest that she has perfected her technique over decades. In her figurative drawings and paintings, her work has a highly contemporary spirit; simultaneously the many concentric and kaleidoscopic views of the figure reveal a deep understanding of human anatomy, while dramatic, photographic underlighting convey an academic study of chiaroscuro—and possibly many hours admiring the powerful dioramic sets of Caravaggio.

Heliotrope (Detail)

Very unlike the 16th Century innovator, however, human emotions and facial expressions are often obscured in Yerpe’s work. There is little to understand about the personality of these individuals as they twist, turn, and float in suspended space. Their shoulders are hunched, and a crossed arm shields their eyes from the light. Their eyes are closed, as they seem to fall into their dreams, to us unknown. Arcas

First, tell me your preferred medium. I like working on paper with simple materials. I think that’s why I’m attracted to drawing. Charcoal is my favorite means to draw… I like working really big, in works my own size. I like the very velvety blacks that you can get with charcoal. It’s very messy, but once you learn how to control it… you can’t get any simpler of a medium. Because it’s less about the materials than what you want to convey. Did you study anatomy to achieve naturalism? Yes, but mostly on my own. I took human biology courses in undergrad— just for fun. I took the basic life drawing classes in college. A lot of art schools don’t focus as much on drawing the figure as they did years ago. So it was a lot of study on my own. I did take some basic life-drawing classes in college, but I didn’t go to an ‘academy’ that had a lot of focus on figurative drawing, and I did that on purpose. I’m surprised, based on your work. Can you say why? I didn’t want to feel restrained. A lot of the art that I like looking at is not figurative. My favorite art tends to be very painterly— very abstract. In a lot of traditional academies, there’s a more conservative attitude. There’s an insistence that you don’t work from photographs, that you have to work from live models. There’s a very strong focus on doing realistic

drawings, which is fine. Obviously, I don’t have a problem with very realistic drawings, but I wanted to be surrounded by people… who do a diversity of things, and study different kinds of art. So what were the more traditional courses like for you? I took a lot of criticism for my work not being ‘technically pure,’ in a sense that they would point out all the errors in my work: ‘Oh the foreshortening is off,’ ‘You’re working from photographs. You shouldn’t do that. You should only work from live models.’ They’re trying to preserve the techniques of the Renaissance, the Old Masters techniques. There’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s not what interests me. When I looked at your work I was immediately reminded of the Old Masters—the isolated drama and the lighting reminded me of Caravaggio. What inspiration do you take from contemporary and abstract art? I want my work to feel contemporary and relevant, and not to romanticize the past and Old Masters’ techniques. I think if there’s other technology to make someone’s life easier, that’s great. The poses in my work are a little extreme, so I’m not going to ask models to ‘hold it’

while I draw them for hours and hours. *Laughing* I make digital collages of photographs in the computer. So does the computer actually help you find these motion sequences that appear in your drawings? Yes. It’s enormously helpful. I put my reference photos in Photoshop, and I’ll make dozens and dozens of collages. It makes it easy to dance around, and I don’t have to actually cut out of paper and make the collages. I like my background very clean, and so the sketches [from the computer] have to be precise. I just think of my laptop as my sketchbook. I have files and files of sketches. The ones that I think are good become drawings. If I was hand-drawings the sketches, I wouldn’t be able to have the same precision. Are you getting these lighting effects

in Photoshop, or are you setting these up in the studio? The lighting is from when I take the photograph. I’ll have the models come into my studio, I set up supplemental light to one wall with great windows. I want to make sure there’s strong, directional light, and I’ll have the models improvise their own poses. Each individual figure has their own strong, single light source, and then maybe a secondary light source. But because the model is moving around, you end up with no one light source in the composition as a whole… To Caravaggio and a lot of Renaissance painters, it was important to them that they created an actual physical space, and they were very successful at it. There’s gravity pulling all the figures in one direction, there’s one light source that is affecting everybody in the same space. In my work, that all kind of falls apart, and I like doing that in there. I like that

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Dryad

Damocles

Damocles (Detail)

they’re in this ambiguous space, where light isn’t behaving according to the laws of physics, and neither is gravity. Even though it looks like each individual is in the same space—on the same piece of paper—light is not behaving normally. It’s coming from different places on the individual figures. You can’t tell if they’re falling together, or rising—it’s all very ambiguous. I feel like that ambiguity is part of the psychology of your portraiture itself. It’s hard to know the personality of the figures. Is that intentional? Yes.

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[Laughs.] Yeah. The drawings themselves are very precise, so it’s important that I do leave some ambiguity in there and um I think that kind of the story that you the viwer will make up in your own mind is probably more interesting than whatever I would tell you. Because these drawings take me so long to make, I like that depending on my mood the day I go into work, it will read a bit differently, and I think that helps me hold my own attention. Who were your first modernist or contemporary inspirations? Do you feel

they had a strong influence on your own work? The artists who first come to my mind are Cy Twombly, Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, and DeKooning. I’m sure they had a big influence on me, though my work doesn’t look like theirs. I love the lyrical compositions of Twombly, and the sense of movement he achieves. Same with DeKooning, though his has a very different energy. Smith and Bourgeois play a lot with the human body in interesting ways. Kiki Smith in particular is a master storyteller. Sometimes her work feels very ancient.

All the artists I admire have a playful streak in their work.

Dryad (Detail)

Iphigenia Caeneus

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In Tandem. | Alannah farrell & Jared oppenheim. Written by Meghan Johnson

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Premonition (Sasha), 2016

A last image of a sleeping form. A movement of a man peeling bark from a tree marked for removal. The repetitious motion of a cigarette from mouth to ash dropped to a chaotic street beneath an open window. Beans dripping down blonde hair after an argument. The deranged look of man enjoying the anger of others. All of these snippets form the latest collaborative project by artists Alannah Farrell and Jared Oppenheim who endeavor to explore their own memories and one another’s.

artistic strengths to portray each image as honestly as possible. Both acknowledge the other’s strengths and differences in how these images manifest. As Alannah explains, “I’m more figurative and realistic in how I paint, whereas Jared is more minimalist and abstract.” For Alannah, her memories were chosen for their visual vibrancy, and her explanation of them relays as flashes of concrete, though ethereal, images. She explains that Jared, “tells the story of a memory.”

This unique project has manifested in the form of five oil paintings on linen, detailing Jared and Alannah’s recent and distant memories. Both chose two individual moments and one shared experience to depict. Every painting is a collaborative effort, drawing upon their

What makes this sharing of memories unique is the knowledge that these artists are not just a team in this project, but share pieces of these memories as a couple. Their experience of sharing and depicting these recollections materializes as a meditation on

communication of differing perspectives and experiences, an apt practice for two sharing a life among their art. When explaining the painting of the memory they were both present for, Alannah and Jared interrupted one another multiple times to interject, “No! That’s not what happened first!” The marrying of differing perspectives speaks to the nature of this project: that memory is collective, fragmented, and unreliable. Unlike the first person narrative of a jarring or significant memory, the creation of these images relies on an agreement towards a middle ground, and the agreement of each perspective. Both Alannah’s and Jared’s internal imagery must be filtered through the external, technical capability of the other’s hand. In that way, the images become creations of new memories,

ones that are layered through another’s interpretation. Once presented, the images become interpreted through another lens of sensorial and emotional memory held by the viewer to create a new course of memory. Individually, Alannah and Jared’s relationship to memory is quite different. Alannah explains that her memory is terrible, and her choice of memories relies on their visual intensity, suggesting that many others may have faded too far from reach. Their vibrancy certainly suggests their importance, though her relationship to them seems emotionally removed. She explains that one memory—the memory of her father peeling birch bark from trees in state forests for his own artistic projects—exists for her in a dream-

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Window and Solace (Mother), 2016

like state. She explains that her actual dreams are similar, almost Technicolor. Jared’s memories, in contrast, fit her description of him as the storyteller. His memories are vibrant to him for their emotional content, for the events that followed that made them significant. He explains, “I feel changed by certain experiences and wonder, if I didn’t remember them, would I be different person?” Jared’s explanation of his memories is visual as well, but concrete more in their emotional experience than in their visual nature. “For Alannah,” he explains, “She has a more pictorial memory, but the details come to her at different times.” The narrative quality of Jared’s memories led the team to tackle those images first, but he is clear about the moving

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quality of images. The first memory he describes, the first image they tackled, features a large picture window. In his recollection, the sky behind the window was flat and grey but, “The window had to be manipulated a little bit It’s a thing in your mind that’s moving around. It can’t completely be reality.” Here we see their differing perspectives on forming an image: Alannah’s training in painting at Cooper Union lends itself to technical dexterity while Jared’s primary relationship to sound art and autodidactical relationship to painting lends itself more to abstract expression. The dramatic depiction in the window is Jared’s; the technical perfection of the sleeping girl is Alannah’s. After carefully considering their intention in this collaborative project, Jared

and Alannah took inspiration from a recently composed album Jared had made: Minutes, by Virginaire. Jared, who works primarily in sound art, created this musical score as an exploration of the various stages of grief. It was this project that finally solidified their decision to explore memory in a visual space. It is through and with this album that the paintings travel their own relationship to grief and explore other emotions existent in the place of grief. Like the series of paintings, Jared’s piece also works in sections. Each track functions as a meditation on an emotional moment but travels easily to the next stage of experience. Though the sound piece preceded the creation of their paintings, Alannah and Jared’s intent is for the piece to play in concert with the images in an installation. With his album, the

installation creates an enveloping experience for the viewers—one in which the viewers face their own relationship to memory in contrast with the artist’s experience of their own and each other’s memories in a sensorial space. It is in this space that the viewer begins to acknowledge the collectivism and the fluidity of memory. Jared and Alannah have made new memories out of their own collaborative enterprise. Not only have they shared these occurrences in a new way within the audience of a collaborative process, but to a new audience of viewers who may find these images familiar as they mediate between the installation and their own memories. When thinking about the process these artists have taken, layering oil paints un-

The layering of memory becomes most apparent in the discussion of Alannah and Jared’s second painting: the image of a woman smoking a cigarette in an open apartment window, the chaos in the streets beneath her. Though this painting is not truly a shared memory, pieces of their experience converge here. The apartment, one Jared spent much of his childhood in, would later become a temporary home the two shared. The image of the woman smoking a cigarette is his: his mother etched in his memory as she repetitiously lit cigarettes and watched what happened below her. He compares his childhood wondering about his mother to his adult understanding of the woman who spent her time at the window. Here, another instance where memories change: with understanding. The image, absent of his mother, is one they share. The narrow kitchen could be visualized by both artists and Alannah remembers sitting at the same window watching an inebriated woman fall repeatedly on sidewalk, finally face first. It is here that Alannah becomes her own version of the woman at the window. Her memory of the woman on the sidewalk is reflected in the painting. So, while this is not truly their shared memory, the subtle continuum this images takes from one memory to the next acts almost like a thesis to their project.

Falling in the Glade, 2016

til the full image is realized, one cannot help but think of the layers of memory that correspond to them. As Jared notes, family can remember a single shared event but each may acknowledge a different significant piece. Or in sharing, individuals may remember an additional detail to create a more complete scene. Again, we are reminded of the different layers memories take, especially within collective memories of a group. When asked if the process of painting these memories has changed her perception of them, or what she remembers,

Alannah acknowledges that she has recalled more details the more she has meditated on them. In the memory of her father in the forest, she eventually remembered the fluorescent orange marking made with spray paint the wrapped the trunks of trees tagged for removal. For someone who has spent time in a similar forest, this could seem like an obvious detail, but it hadn’t stuck out in Alannah’s original mental image until the painting began. One is forced to wonder, however, if this memory is just a fact one could insert in an experience of a forest, or if it truly belongs in this

recollection. No matter, it is a piece of it now, whether it came there by suggestion, or by the reopening of some neural pathway that had gone dark before the artistic process took hold. Speaking with these artists one is reminded—no memory is completely the truth, or completely our own. All memories can be affected by the suggestion or experience of another. The impermanence and changeability of memory is visually apparent where the colors fade and blur at the edges of each painting to blank linen. These images are crisp at their core, but lose their structure at their limits.

In leaving the conversation of this shared space, there is a clear difference in detail to each story. Jared explains the story of their process and moves on to the next synopsis. Alannah mentions the window again: it was broken and remained so when they left the apartment. The detail is not unimportant, as the shards of glass have been depicted in the painting, but it’s interesting to hear her relay it when Jared had not, especially when noting that the window plays prominent in both his memories. For Alannah, who spent her time there also, the fragmenting of this glass seems significant. Again, we find another fracturing in our experiences and the things we reflect on. Both worked hard to honor and acknowledge each other’s experiences, and their effort is reflected in these careful images. From Jared’s windows, to the ethereal edges of Alannah’s forest, these painting provoke a tangle of thought on memory, and the sharing of those moments with others. Alannah and Jared’s collaboration culminates into images that feel like privileged views into private moments, ones that resonate in the minds of their audience.

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Adaptive Expectations, 2016

Futureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Past. | Jake Scharbach. Written by Jena Sebru.

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we can learn about the collapse of past civilizations, and what caused them. And the cultural objects we manufacture presently will become the evidence for future generations of what went wrong.” Timing is not everything, but relevance is delicious. Mr. Scharbach drags fragments of the past into the present, marrying eras under the infallible contract of civilization while the omnipresence of nature blankets the modern world in shame. Intrinsic to a few of his recent and compelling themes of consumption, nature, violence and industry lies a healthy reverence for conflict; arousing the constant reminder that antagonism has faithfully besmirched man’s virtue since —well, there was man.

Adaptive Expectations, 2016

While it is safe to say, the biting pertinence of Jake Scharbach’s work is universal there is a prescient mysticism that screams to individualistic familiarity, particularly in this era faith reliant madness. His is a pill many will swallow with their own factual certainties, no matter how “alternative.” Jake grew up in the mountains of Washington without electricity and now lives in Brooklyn. He bikes around the city, finding solace in friends and loved ones while yearning for the wilderness. There is very little wonder how he has found curiosity, enticement and the loudest of voices in the indisputable dichotomy of life, man, art and nature. Modified Duration, 2014 If mankind had a past-life reading it has been visualized by Jake Scharbach and goes something like this…

“In these lives you feasted on grapes, raped and pillaged the masses, wrestled lions and were less partial to clothing. And now here you are in these lives, feasting on fossil fuels, raping and pillaging the environment, wrestling with anyone who opposes you and oddly enough, it seems your own humanity is far less important than your possessions. In the next life it is likely you will come back as a tree and be burned down. On the upside, over the course, you really did create some outstanding works of beauty.” But really…

Artists gift the world with unabashed insight, rawness of perspective and primal observation. Their voices perpetually interpreting time and space, articulating a history of truths. As the collective psyche of the globe has a grand mal seizure, Jake Scharbach’s voice reverberates off the proverbial walls with seismic implications. When asked what propelled him to create the current salaciously monikered Internal Strategies, Material Remains, and Consensual Validation collections, he did not disappoint with this poignant response: “Those series have come out of a growing curiosity about our culture and the things we accept as truth (or deny). If you understand that civilization is a plane that is crashing, then history is the black box. It is our flight data recorder. It’s how

For the culturally hungry: jakescharbach.com/

Howdy... sooooo, did you really grow up without electricity or was someone embellishing? It’s funny to me how

this question keeps coming around. I never thought my childhood was very interesting or relevant to my work. But, yeah, it’s true. My dad built our house in the woods using hand tool. He hunted deer, we ate them. We didn’t have TV. We played in the mud. We fished. We climbed trees, built forts. It really wasn’t too unusual where we were from. There were a lot of kids doing that. How long have you been in Brooklyn? I moved here right after 9/11. The economy was shit. Everyone back home thought I was crazy. I remember people saying, ‘Do you really wanna

move there? They are crashing planes into buildings.’ I dunno. Maybe it was crazy. But I found a job right away and it seemed like there were more possibilities for artists than where I was from. It felt really exciting. But now I think New York is absolutely the worst place for artists. Where do you take refuge? I don’t get out of the city nearly enough. I don’t own a car. I ride a bike everywhere. I guess I’ve had to learn to find refuge where I can. Working in the studio has always felt that way. Going for a walk or a bike ride. Finding any excuse to slow down. Spending time with people I care about has been a great refuge. You have to protect those areas of your life with a vicious tenacity. The world is always trying to break in, to distract you. How often do you return to a natural setting and how long have you been out of Washington state? Not enough. I try to

go on bike tours when I can. But mostly I try to find nature where I am. I saw a hawk eating a bird a couple days ago right here in Brooklyn. I moved away from Washington to go to art school in Portland Oregon in the 90s. I was a high school dropout; but went straight to community college and started taking life drawing classes at 16. That’s what led a good boy astray. This year I relocated my studio back to Portland so I’m going full circle. Hopefully I’ll be painting in the rain with the elk walking by soon. Explain what has propelled you to Consensual Validation, Material Remains and Internal Strategies...

Well, that’s a broad question, but my guess is that those series have come out of a growing curiosity about our culture and the things we accept as truth (or deny). If you understand that civilization is a plane that is crashing, then history is the black box. It is our flight data recorder. It’s how we can learn about the collapse of past civilizations, and what caused them. And the cultural objects we manufacture presently will become the evidence for future generations of what went wrong. So from that perspective I began making literal visual comparisons. It feels really natural to me. And almost painfully obvious. But at this moment we almost have to use the language of the obvious. Nothing else gets through.

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Mutual Offset, 2014

Endemic, 2015

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Win - Win, 2014

We know what happened at Pompeii. Maybe in the future the comparison will have more resonance. I have this fantasy that 200 years from now someone will pull my painting from the ashes, dust it off, and say ‘oh, that’s what went wrong.’

Manifest Functions, 2015

I read somewhere you don’t... fuck, something about not being political in your art, but these are the opposite. What’s changed? Or did I just read something wrong? Well the word ‘political’ is a little fuzzy and gets applied to all sorts of things. I have said that I don’t think of my work in terms of Left or Right. It isn’t addressing a political ideology. Or even encouraging that kind of thought. I would say my work is critical of civilization as a whole. Political analysis is just a component, a

reflection of what a particular culture is experiencing. Currently we are experiencing decay and confusion. I’d love to hear a little about Contingency Management and Instinctual Drift since I highlight them....Contingency Management is a dual image of violence. One is a classical example, Hercules beating the living hell out of Nessus, the other is modern, a riot cop beating the living hell out of a protester in Chile. Ruthlessness and our obsession

with it never goes out style apparently. Instinctual Drift combines a fresco from Pompeii with a traffic jam in San Francisco. I went to Pompeii and did drawings and spent a lot of time looking at the artifacts. It was a complex civilization with lots of modern amenities. They had their banquets and their streets and battles and we are having ours. These are two images of cultures at the height of their particular decadence.

Tell me about being in modern society... would you pick another century? I’m not smart enough to understand anything. I’m just sniffing the fire hydrant like rest of us dogs. But modern society seems to be sick. And it’s dying. There is tragedy there, but also it needs to die. It’s burning everything up. And we are no better for it. I don’t know if I would like to live in another century. It’s impossible to know. But sure wouldn’t mind being a time traveling tourist. My hunch is that maybe the best centuries were the ones where we were painting on the roofs of caves. If you could tell the world anything in one sentence what would it be? Relax, it will all be over soon.

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My Day with OSHUN Styling by Osvaldo “OJ” Jimenez Our writer, Ghislaine León of Fearless Leon, spends a day with neo-soul/hip hop duo OSHUN at vintage clothing boutique La Petite Mort in the Lower East Side.

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I stepped off the F train on the Delancey Street station excited to spend a day with OSHUN. We decided to meet at La Petite Mort, a vintage clothing boutique in the Lower East Side. I walked in to see Niambi sitting on a chair getting a haircut while bumping to Tha God Fahim’s affirming lyrics that talk about us being kings to our last breath. As Niambi’s barber, Jomo Cuts, etched an Eye of Horus design on the nape of her neck, I felt this ancestral energy fill my body with comfort and my face lit up with a smile. The place was buzzing with good qi. Thandi walked out of the dressing room in what seemed to be a vintage top. I couldn’t help but to notice the art on her third eye. “Man! I’m in the presence of hip hop alchemists,” I think to myself. OSHUN, one of New York City’s most luminous neo-soul/hip-hop duos, are modern day light workers set on a mission. Yoruban kinship pours out of their souls like prayers at church. Divination. Consciousness. Higher Self.

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Roots. Edge. Fearlessness. They have it all. Their multi-dimensionalism is embodied in their music, their character and their message. With all the spiritual warfare going on in the world, OSHUN is here to shine light upon the truth. While Niambi finishes her fresh haircut, Thandi and I take a look at La Petite Mort’s unique selection of domestic/ international labels and rare vintage clothing. “I like to look different. I’m influenced by hip hop culture and counterculture,” shares Thandi. Thandi, as she calls herself, is an afrocentric girly tomboy. Her personal style intersects flowy goddess vibes with a playful twist. She tells me “I have moments that I feel African. Other times I want to wear my t-shirt and shake my dreads.” A hungry Niambi is figuring out the closest spot where she and Thandi can get a vegetarian meal for the low. While sorting through a pile of clothes, we called the nearest deli and order a veggie sandwich with hummus. What’s your favorite vegetarian place to eat? I

ask, “That spot in Soho, by Chloe,” says Niambi. The conversation shifted to food consciousness and the duo made it clear that they protect their spiritual sensibilities by being vegetarians. We roll a joint in the dressing room while we wait for the food to arrive. La Petit Morte stylist Osvaldo Jimenez, affectionately known as OJ, shares with us his vision for the shoot. OJ wanted to capture a classic spirit with new age optimism. Suddenly I found myself included in the shoot with OSHUN, sporting an ensemble handpicked by OJ himself. What an honor! There we were in the heart of the Lower East Side, cladded in 90s plaids and posting up like we owned the place. It was a true girl gang/femme power moment. People in the street stopped to stare at us as we channeled Generation Y warrior energy. Sweet feminine spirit. Wemile Oshun.

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The Emergence of Lance de los Reyes Written by Kurt McVey Photography by Eva Mueller Styling by Chapman Case Grooming by Georgina Billington

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“You’re far out Lance.” This highly accurate sentiment was passed on from the art world heavyweight and overall renaissance man Julian Schnabel to the Brooklyn based graffiti artist, painter, and inter-dimensional warrior poet, Lance de los Reyes, at Schnabel’s 2013 retrospective at The Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Connecticut.

De los Reyes is far out. He’s also extremely sensitive, like a raw, exposed nerve seeking out canvas, or any surface for that matter, as a means of emotional shelter. He dropped on Schnabel’s radar when he dedicated one of his now infamous hijacked billboards, which he tags as his alter ego, RAMBO, to Schnabel. The cryptic, white on black, text-based piece, which he executed several weeks before the retrospective, reads “Know Gods, Just Work,” and for months loomed large over the BrooklynQueens Expressway. Like others of its ilk, it raised questions about the artist and his overall message, while teasing the art world into wild speculation that a new and potentially major voice had arrived. “RAMBO, he’s a good guy,” says de los Reyes, while sitting inside his Bushwick studio, not dismissively, but like a distant friend from whom he’s organically grown apart. “That was a good thing. I have an obligation to that too. I did that so hard, I can’t abandon the guy. I know how to do it so it doesn’t overwhelm the law, but I don’t need to go and write my name anymore. Still, if that one thing needs to be said, I’m going to say it.” Part of de los Reye’s graduation from RAMBO has a bit to do with the fact that the man behind the can is now married and even a whisper of his son, Roman Osiris Thunder Slayer de los Reyes, can bring the artist to tears. The artist met his then 22-year-old, soon to be wife, Anna Dare de los Reyes, while spray-painting a van in broad daylight near the Mckibbin Street Lofts in late 2014. She happened to be walking by with her arms filled with art supplies. Lance, smitten, asked her to show him some drawings. He was impressed and invited her back to his studio to see his own work. “We got married right away,” he says. “I just knew she was dancing in the same dimension. I said, ‘You’re 22; two things could happen: You could spend the next few years trying to find your thing, or, if you’re a painter and want to be with me, you’ve got to be ready to make a family and paint.’ I just told her what’s up.” Family is one thing, and yes, getting knocked by the police for vandalism is never a good look when you have mouths to feed, but the truth is, de los Reyes can paint like hell and he knows it. “When you know you’re good, when you have the potential to be aligned with masters—masters who appreciate you—when you’re up for refinement, they don’t want to give you too much because they want to see where your heart’s at.” This sentiment and general proof of talent was exhibited rather conspicuously in what’s become a distinguished 2014 solo exhibition at The Hole on Bowery, titled, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, which featured 13 large, gestural, abstract paintings and an installation. The show felt definitively “downtown,” while carrying the weighty, cocksure gravitas of one of Gagosian’s tried and true blue-chip staples. It was a clear turning point for the artist and it would be hard to go back to RAMBO. “I had vision,” says de los Reyes. “I wanted to show. I had some associations with good galleries, like The Journal Gallery, [Peter] Makebish and Shrine Gallery, but now I’m more concerned with going inside myself in order to just keep producing, to be the best person that I can be to become a part of this great dialogue.” De los Reyes knows what masters he’s speaking to and vice-versa, like Schnabel, of course, who the artist compares to Zeus throwing painterly lightening bolts of color across the canvas with Olympian confidence. Cy Twombly is right out front. Georg Baselitz, Willem de Kooning, Joe Bradley, Picasso, and even the playful Brian Belotti, who the artist feels is “already hitting home runs and being passed the torch.”

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Ring: Forever Lit NYC

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Coat + sweatshirt: Marcelo Burlon County of Milan Ring: Forever Lit NYC

Schnabel, however, has a special place in de los Reyes’ heart, primarily because he directed Basquiat, a film that inspired the young artist to head to art school (San Francisco Art Institute), where he could explore the nature of painting a bit more deeply. If you’re noticing that de los Reyes’ narrative is slightly mimicking that of the SAMO-Jean Michel story, rest assured, it’s not lost on Lance either. “I can directly relate to the Basquiat-Warhol relationship with Donald Baechler, this smart, homosexual man and straight up a high-level wizard,” says the artist of his long-time mentor. “He’s so smart he doesn’t even talk, but when he does, you better listen. He knows where my heart is. He once told my wife, ‘I love Lance. Everyone knows he has a heart of gold.’ ” Lance’s road to becoming an assistant and surrogate son to Baechler was a long and tumultuous one. Like anyone who is afforded public and private assurance that his heart is in the right place, it often, however indirectly, acknowledges a dark history, or more specifically in Lance’s case, a rough childhood and struggles with addiction. Born in Houston, Texas to parents that were “intimidated by” and often incapable of connecting to the overtly physical young man, de los Reyes soon found himself in gangs by middle school, which led to a brief and inevitable stint in jail. “I had guardians my whole life. When I was incarcerated, I was protected by OG gangster bloods—these old black dudes. They really looked out for me. They knew the life wasn’t for me.”

Concerned that he was in a systemically troublesome environment, de los Reyes’ mother sent her teenage son to go live in San Diego, California with her friends, Mary and Sherry Garrison, an older lesbian couple that was game to take on a troubled youth with undeniable promise. “I was raised by women,” says de los Reyes, who claims psychics told the couple, who were married in a private ceremony, that they should not only take him in, but keep his full birth name intact, as it would, much like Basquiat, one day serve him well. Things were still rocky for the teen however. “I went to juvenile hall for assaulting a bully at a skate park,” he says. “I really took it to him. When I got out, I got a girl pregnant my senior year of high school. She was a freshman. Her parents made me sign papers to stay away. They even paid me.” Mary Garrison passed away soon after Lance turned 18. “She said to me, ‘Lance, I can go now. I finished my job.’ The closer I got to the recognition of myself as an artist, the more thankful I was that my parents brought me here. But I was ready to go, too. It was the late 90s and I was living in Pacific Beach on Island Court. That’s when I started writing graffiti.” Soon, de los Reyes crossed paths with Shepard Fairey. It was a fortuitous meeting to say the least. “He [Fairey] was always trying to get me to learn graphic design. I started helping him with his screen-printing. I even lived with him. (Lance also lived temporarily with Lola Schnabel.) He brought me to NY for the first time. He would poster. I would do graffiti [as Hawk 9]. I knew then I was a painter and that I had to go to school and figure out the fine art thing.”

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De los Reyes kept tagging while he was studying up on his art history, performance, video, and sculpture, while finding his language with paint. Matthew Barney, Richard Serra, and Joseph Beuys entered into his consciousness and began to take over. He also developed an appreciation for the witchy women who continue to influence his work to this day, like Louise Bourgeois, Rita Ackermann, Kiki Smith, and Katherine Bernhardt. Feeling a bit of heat from the law due to his nightly graffiti escapades, he absconded to NY, where he fell under the wing of his own personal Warhol, Donald Baechler. What followed was a decade-plus of self exploration, involving various ceremonial experiences with medicinal psychedelics, which brought de los Reyes closer to his true self as an artist and spiritual “fire-keeper,” not only in a shamanistic capacity, but much like an Olympic torchbearer, a worthy link in the chain looking to keep the painterly flame alive for future generations. He would have to stay alive long enough to do so, however. Luckily, his wife had a serendipitous dream where none other than Lance’s old friend and nightlife partner-in-crime, Dash Snow, came to her and compelled Anna to beg her new husband to give up the self-harm.

After a close brush with death the next day in his studio, when a functioning grim reaper-style scythe (still in his studio) almost decapitated the artist in a freak accident, he gave it all up. “To be of the light, you have to acquaint yourself with the darkness,” he says. “I challenged it. I came out, and the party’s over. I don’t have it in me. I grew out of it. I self destructed in order to prove that I could rebuild myself with a little help from my friends. Now I’m searching for the next gateway of initiation.” De los Reyes hopes to purchase several acres on Beachler’s large estate in Upstate New York, in order to be closer to his mentor and provide more space for his family. “I’m enjoying being a husband and a dad,” says the artist. “My kid just loves the shit out of me. I’m excited about whatever’s going to unfold for me. The message is always the same. All my codes and morals, I’m going to take them to the grave. Once you understand what you’re doing, the world better understands itself.”

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TALKING TO THE SKY | JULIA SINELNIKOVA Fairy Organ XV Lung

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Written by Mary Hurt

At the steel door of Julia Sinelnikova’s warehouse studio, I half-expected to meet the artist in her distinctive guise as “The Oracle,” an appropriate alias and handle for the self-styled fairy guide who—clad in an armor of reflective mylar, bejeweled with twinkling, LEDs— welcomes visitors to her vast, iridescent light forests. As an art director and sculptor, set designer, performer, and programmer, Sinelnikova thoroughly commands and transforms white-cube gallery spaces into fully immersive, responsive lightand- audio fields. Cascading, projection-mapped lights are gently refracted through the prevailing mist, reflected over hand-cut surfaces of mylar and vinyl. The translucent, willowy skins of suspended “fairy organs” sway with a temperate, oceanic rhythm, while soft, ethereal music echoes through the chamber like drops of enchanted water. Instead, Sinelnikova appeared in plain, loose slacks and platform shoes, her hair pulled in a limp, graceful bun. She greeted me graciously but hastily, calling over

her shoulder as she hurried to microwave her dinner. It had been more than a year since I attended her open studio performance—a highly productive if not harried year. After a 5-year tenure both co-directing and acting as lead organizer for the Bushwick Open Studios, Sinelnikova absented from the 2016 festival, citing the gradual annexation of artist’ spaces by corporate brands, the rezoning of original participants outside of the festival lines, and the consistent abuse of artists’ creativity by marketing companies to gain access to their audience. Undaunted, Sinelnikova continued to foster collaboration in recent projects like RESONATE X CHASM. The four-day showcase was dedicated to public engagement, as a symposium with scheduled demonstrations, lectures, and group discussions, as well as— with DJ sets, animation, and coded light shows—a community rave. All ticket sales were donated to the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center—a New York medical and psychiatric care facili-

ty, as well as community outreach center for LGBTQ individuals—and The New York Immigration Coalition. In a related interview with The New York Times, Sinelnikova promoted the importance of cooperation among emerging artists. In our discussion that evening I would learn how Sinelnikova—while supporting herself with production and design gigs, most recently with Brooklyn’s House of Yes; exhibitions with the creative think-tank Wallplay Gallery on Bowery; and sales of fairy organs, high-relief resin panels, and handmade jewelry—Sinelnikova has independently embarked on a critical and applied investigation of surveillance and data collection in residencies with the Museum of Human Achievement in Austin, TX, the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, the Holographic Arts Center in New York, New York Creative Technology Week, and now La Napoule Art Foundation in Cannes, France. “The issue of surveillance and data collection is not being taken seriously by mainstream culture,” Sinelnikova ex-

plains, “We are desensitized to being censored and desensitized to being surveilled.” Datalog (Banff Center), and Sentinel: Temple of Self-Awareness (Museum of Human Achievement) incorporated cameras, and a complicated network of projection mapping, to project live footage onto fragmented, fiberglass screens. Whereas Sentinel captured spectators with an implanted camera and projector, Datalog tapped live security footage from Instacam.org, allowing exhibition visitors to observe strangers on the street, in doctors’ offices, and other public spaces. “The project is the code,” Sinelnikova said, “I’m less interested in building and construction than its purposes to map my code ideas.” As Sinelnikova continues to earn residencies and grants, she is allowed time to learn programming languages like Java and C++, hoping to advance the complexity of her designs. “Right now I’m [able to ask] questions based on my experience as an interface user—you, me, and those people walking down the street,” referring to the online footage, “I

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Datalog Coded Surveillance Light Sculpture

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opposite: Black Fairy Nest Egg

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Fairy Organs at Rox Garden, NYC

Chalcedony solo show, Brooklyn

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Angel Organ

want to be able to ask those questions from the perspective of the creators of interfaces, one who’s building the architecture which our minds are plugged into, therefore shaping sociological experience… I think it’s an important thing to do—to use codes and simulation for art instead of advertising or information collection.”

code of the world that’s being thrown at us through the apps and operating systems, laws and the free market, and it’s purposeful. In the work that I’ve been building for the past year, I want to continue to bring people into my disembodied world, but cast a bright light on these issues in a way that’s suggestive to people and really drives the point.”

While community organizers and emerging artists like Sinelnikova depend increasingly on social media for communications, and as consumer information becomes increasingly visible to hackers, Sinelnikova hopes to test her power as an interface user while developing interactive installations that challenge one to consider their vulnerability. “We are desensitized to being censored [by] the

Follow Julia Sinelnikova on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr, and her website, where you can find information regarding upcoming performances, installations, and parties.

Angel Organ (Detail)

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I n f i n i t e A Visionary Art project creatioN. www.visionaryartproject.com

D i m e n s i o n s

Dr e ss: Wan d a N y l o n N e ck l a ce s: S a r a h A n g old L u ci t e m a sk : I Si ll L o v e Y o u NYC

T r e n chc o at : G a r e t h P u g h R u ff le n e ck l a ce : A lbr ig h t Fa sh ion Li br a ry C a pele t : J o an n a M a st r oi an n i Br o o ch: J o an n a M a st r oi a n n i Shoe s: B a le n ci a g a Cry sta l n e ck l a ce: St y li s t â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s o w n

C a pe : Jo an n a M a st r oi an n i Le at h er n e ck l a ce : Aya k a N i sh i Cry sta l r i n g : Aya k a N i sh i

Si lv er dr e ss: G a r e t h P u g h Cry sta l h e a d pi e ce: Li v io An g i ler i Si lv er e a r r i n g : A li bi

Dr e ss: R i ta V i n i er i s A r m c u ff s: Sho w r o o m Se v e n N e ck l a ce: S t y li s t â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s o w n Cry sta l r i n g : Aya k a N i sh i

Dr e ss: D s q u a r ed C a pele t : J o an n a M a st r a io n n i Cry sta l n e ck l a ce: H & M

Concept:

Photography: Digital Art: Stylist: Stylist Assistant:

Georgina Billington Mia Morgan For Visionary Art Project www.visionaryartproject.com Marcus Donates www.marcusdonates.com Lauren Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Aurio Mia Morgan www.miamorgan.com Chapman

Hair / Wigs:

Livio Angileri Using Oribe / Wigs Plus Represented By www.aimartist.com

Makeup / Body Art:

Georgina Billington www.georginabillington.com Using MAC Cosmetics Represented By www.judycasey.com

Makeup Assistant: Manicurist: Model:

Anastasia Skye Gerdes Tori Huang Using Swarovski Crystals Kristy Kaurova

Model Agent:

Jeffery Gold NY Models

Production:

Beast Media

For Prints And Commission Requests, Please Visit www.visionaryartproject.com

Dr e ss + c a pele t : J o an n a M a s t r a ion n i N e ck l a ce: Er ick s o n Be a m on Shoe s: L .K . Be n n e t t Spe ci a l t h an k s to A lbr ig h t Fa sh ion Li br a ry + Cl o a k Wa r dr obe

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BOOK LAUNCHING MAY 2017 WWW.GORGIALITY.COM Erez Sabag, photographer in collaboration with David Warren, creative director Georgina Billington, makeup artist Edda Gudmundsdottir, stylist

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FOREWORD Erez's photography is marked by the way he feels and captures a moment, a look, a shape or form, mixed with his ability to adapt to many styles. He does not limit his work to a single type of image. Gorgiality is a collection of 100 images that reflect Erez's extraordinary vision and fearless experimentation as an artist, a volume of strangely beautiful photographs meant to shake-up the perception of what beauty can be. David Warren

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Alyona

Margaux

Natalia

Tori

Sabina

Ebonee

Ida

Maeve

Masha

Anastasia

Genesis

Nuria

Mary

Katiusha

Mia

Leaf

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All in Due Process Steve Kim Written by Darley Stewart

The Doppelganger

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Daydere

I Bortolotti

Steve Kim is an artist who tends towards an organized, obsessive approach to his work. Our conversation began this February while I was staying in Seoul, Korea, where Steve was born, then moved to the States at age 2 with his family. His only day job was working for his mom’s sewing shop as a teenager. “Almost everything I like comes outside of intention.” Steve does not waste his time or his work. In fact, he spends most of his time working. Even with the ambitious time difference between Seoul and Oxford, Mississippi, there was not ever a moment I could not reach him to ask a few follow-up questions and when he was not at work on a project. He typically works on multiple series at any given moment. For someone in a state of “Southern limbo” Steve Kim is producing a prolific volume of work. Soma/Somatic is an ongoing and very recent series based on digital pieces that require paint layers (7 Soma and 10 Somatic—Soma are pure washes with no drawing, Somatic are ones he draws on top of ), which began in 2015. Gothikkka

Pics is a series (2005-2011 and 20162017) of oil on canvas or on paper (38 in total). Perfect is an ongoing series (2010— ) of blue-colored pencil portraits (50+ in total), often of young women with faces expressing states of muted disturbance and sensuality. With his oil paintings, there is a genderneutrality at work—evoking a complex relationship to time and the figure in some of the more abstract work by Kitaj, Schiele and even Francis Bacon. But interestingly, with the drawn portraits, there is an alluring fixation on female faces. You’ll note that he does not draw nudes but treats clothing and forms as flesh, unified with the figure itself. The linework is at times treated as an invasion into the face or form “like a string pressed against flesh.” Outside of his breathtaking Soma/ Somatic series that masterfully capitalizes off the tension between the serendipity of watercolor and the predictability of Photoshop, my favorite pieces are his oil on canvas pieces done after grad school in the ongoing series Pics. In grad school he didn’t do any drawing or works on paper. He’s started up with oils again about six months ago,

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Nymphlight

though the series began in 2005. After he finished off his last canvases in grad school, he made a living from art by working in drawing, illustration and digital creations, downsizing his whole work space to the surface area of coffee tables and having his whole studio mashed up in his backpack while he biked around the city. Some brilliant drawings and small-scale work emerged from this period in his life. While painting, he worked and continues to work with snapshots. Photographs, especially personal snapshots, play an important role in his process. He uses his DSLR to take photos, which he prefers to point and shoots and smartphone cameras that alter color and tonality, because “through raw processing and linear workflows you get a very natural, neutral image.” He gravitates to photos that have two or more figures either physically touching or overlapping compositionally, adding complexity and certain elusive features of strangeness that I favor in his work. “Sometimes a piece will look like it could be physical media—because it incorporates scans of physical drawings and paintings, and the randomness of Photoshop—and sometimes it’s very apparently digital with saturated colors, clean lines and shapes. Or I’ll keep it looking grungier. But my mind is always geared towards the physical object.” With drawings, Steve works in a very stripped-down way. He focuses on very

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basic ideas of line and form, stripping out a lot of expression and color, leaving it all down to blue pencil. They begin with graphite that gets replaced gradually with colored pencil, so that the line and forms are “integrated with the ‘ether’ of the paper, and more of a singular object,” leaving us with the effect of sculpture on paper, an object that floats, something you can pluck out. Speaking with Steve, I was inspired to understand his philosophy, even though he’s genuinely enigmatic and doesn’t use concepts that can be easily pinned down. He thinks about the manufacturing of reality and how to ensure an authentic, direct intimacy with his art audience, at one point letting it slip “that in a way the work is there to justify the bond.” What’s next for Steve? A residency in Detroit, where he’ll participate in an exhibition that will be the largest space he’s shown in outside of grad school. I’d keep your eyes peeled for a solo show. When that hits, a very powerful net will be cast in favor of Steve Kim’s wide range of ability—his highly technical yet embryonic, tactile and ambiguously fetishistic works of art that keep pulling us in.

Processes Opposite: Catnip

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Support

Opposite: Super

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Toonology Ellannah Sadkin

written by lori zimmer Photography by Matthew Eller

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Ariel, 2014

For three years, Ellanah Sadkin holed up in a quaint cabin in Woodstock, New York, in self-imposed semi-seclusion; determined to develop her artistic voice in its adjacent barn-cum- studio. Despite having coveted art world connections, (she was mentored by KAWS, was Ben Eine’s assistant, and was encouraged to become a professional artist by her godfather Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran), Sadkin chose the arduous and somewhat romantic path to discovering her artistic motivations, creative process, and eventual signature style. She emerged from her cocooning with a bold body of work and a refined style of comic abstraction that unravels popular cartoon characters into compositions of energetic lines and bright color fields. The fruits of Sadkin’s labor will be revealed in her first solo exhibition in New York, Toonology, which illustrates her introspective journey with twelve paintings that obliterate the organization of cartoon cells into a mass of chaotic abstraction. Raised between the UK and New York City by her British mother (which has left the 31 year old artist with an affected lilting accent), Sadkin comes from a family of creative success. Her grandfather was a painter, rumored to be one of the first beatniks an caricature artist for the Rat Pack, and introduced her to a love of making art. Sadkin’s father was the late Alex Sadkin, a renowned music producer who worked with greats like Bob Marley, Grace Jones, the Talking Heads, James Brown and Duran Duran in the 1980s. But his untimely death when Sadkin was only two years old has left her with mixed feelings about following in his musical footsteps, in fear that the industry would think she was a child riding on a famous parent’s coattails. With this decision to avoid music, Sadkin took up surfing in hopes to become pro, while painting on the side. She never saw art making as a viable career, instead it was a compulsion and a tool she used to translate emotions and signals picked up from her surroundings. Comic and cartoon characters were Sadkin’s go-to subjects to draw, a habit made when trying to

Peter Pan, 2016 opposite: Alice, 2014

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Asah, 2015

Genesis, 2016

Astral, 2015

Ex Nihilo, 2016

has left the 31 year old artist with an affected lilting accent), Sadkin comes from a family of creative success. Her grandfather was a painter, rumored to be one of the first beatniks an caricature artist for the Rat Pack, and introduced her to a love of making art. Sadkin’s father was the late Alex Sadkin, a renowned music producer who worked with greats like Bob Marley, Grace Jones, the Talking Heads, James Brown and Duran Duran in the 1980s. But his untimely death when Sadkin was only two years old has left her with mixed feelings about following in his musical footsteps, in fear that the industry would think she was a child riding on a famous parent’s coattails. With this decision to avoid music, Sadkin took up surfing in hopes to become pro, while painting on the side. She never saw art making as a viable career, instead it was a compulsion and a tool she used to translate emotions and signals picked up from her surroundings. Comic and cartoon characters were Sadkin’s go-to subjects to draw, a habit made when trying to

Bara, 2015

impress other children in her elementary school. It wasn’t until her godfather Nick Rhodes was flipping through her sketchbook and said she should make a go of becoming a serious artist that she ever considered it an option.

basis for building up layers that create an overcrowded chaos, with lines and figures flailing about to create an energetic movement of abstractionwhile still giving hints of their character origination.

“I believe a creative person is like a walking antenna. We are highly sensitive to the fields of energy around us at all times. The artist must translate these fields into their own language, for me it’s mark making. If they don’t they tend to suffer from mental illness.”

Her most recent works, The Genesis Series, are literal mind maps of her creative process, each painting representing one of her four stages of creation. No longer needing to rely on the crutch of a familiar cartoon character, the paintings are purely hers, with controlled yet informed mark making and a link between color theory and emotion.

Since then, Sadkin has plunged into her own creative psyche, foregoing art world schmoozing and calling on her father’s friends for developing her own oeuvre. With the skills perfected from her apprenticeships, she has created a language of comic abstraction that pushes further than the recognizable appropriation of characters that is popular in both street art and pop surrealism. Her pieces go beyond simply reinterpreting Disney or Peanuts characters. Instead, Sadkin uses the recognizable shapes and outlines as a

With Toonology, Sadkin has shown she is more than just a back story, but instead is an important voice in the comic abstraction movement.

opposite: Wonder Woman, 2015

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Second Nature.| Willy Verginer Written by Akeem K. Duncan

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Eerily frozen in their own sliver of time, Willy Verginer’s sculptures stare off pensively into the abyss—confident that the abyss will be the first to blink. Pieces such as Fioriranno i nevai and Ridatemi il verde wear an expression of soft knowing, willingly preserved in a gripping juxtapositional narrative; unphased by the surrealism that blossoms before them. Citing the sculptures, installations, and drawings of Giuseppe Penone (a young member of Italy’s Arte Povera movement in the late sixties and early seventies) as one of his inspirations, Verginer forges an abstract connection between man and nature. Verginer’s childhood was framed by gorgeous landscapes, so nature’s influence instinctively makes its way into his work. That influence is apparent in Bergluft (Mountain Air) where a series of Alpine hikers and a snowboarder are all immersed in outdoor activity. The series, Alpsound, also follows suit, featuring cows atop craggy pinnacle forms of South Tyrol’s mountains. Verginer embeds his story in his work; but his narrative can be more direct than latent reminiscing. There is a beckoning, a calling to something longstanding and familiar. Humankind has spent more than a few lifetimes adapting to nature but in more recent instances nature seems to be reeling. Spurred by industrialization and the hyper-advancement of modern technology, man’s growing disconnect with nature has manifested itself in ways that looks to be irreversible. Willy Verginer creates pieces that address an ideological imbalance; an imbalance that can have dire consequences if left unchecked. Not one to pit the two against one another, Verginer pays constant homage to nature while reminding us as human beings that we are a part of a vast ecosystem that is well aware of our presence. He employs a captivating aesthetic to repair an estranged relationship that can use all the help it can get. Despite the air of purpose in Verginer’s pieces, the sculptor is surprisingly handsEppure é primavera

opposite: Pensieri arruginiti nelle dita

over: Fioriranno i nevai, 2012

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off and proves to have a great amount of trust in his audience. He welcomes us to add to the narrative. The gestures of the pieces are often blank slates and he allows his audience to inscribe what they will. However one of the key indicators in Verginer’s pieces is color. The presence of color and the overall role that it plays in Verginer’s work is not only evident and omnipotent, it is highly effective. The puissant pairing of the dark, bluish grays with creamy, warm whites—and other color combinations—gives birth to an open dialogue that puts your mind on a hamster wheel. While Verginer mostly allows us to come to our own conclusions, he purposefully engages us in a conceptual back and forth. We are Verginer’s metaphorical flock. He manages to shepherd us towards a deeper meaning while also permitting us to amble off and graze on our very own patch of grass. “I think that color is the most important part of my work… After Vis à Vis, I determined it wasn’t necessary to have a painting in front of the figure for the color to make an interesting statement. The color overpowers the figure. I can tell stories differently the way I use color, not in an ordinary way, but with a conceptual purpose. Color doesn’t underscore the narrative, but rather puts it into question, changes it. A tension arises, conflict between color and wood, along with unity and harmony.”

Fioriranno i nevai, 2012

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Harmony in the face of discord, the state of being detached but still dutifully aware—this is what makes Verginer’s work truly special. As an artist, he goes with the proverbial flow but not without some creative input—a firm but invisible hand. There is a delicate duality in his pieces. Verginer is a surrealistic genius whose instinct allows his art to resonate in our heart and minds

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previous: Scalzo nella neve

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above: The Dark Side of the Bull, 2013

Opere, 2011

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THE Quiet Warrior: Remembering George Pitts. Written by Chapman Case. Photography by Mike McGregror. Greeting the news of an icon’s passing is not something I long to make a habit of in this life but, that said, I have had the great fortune of knowing a few. Here, some collected thoughts on the life and work of one of the greatest men I have ever known. It is a common denominator amongst many in the photo industry that George Pitts greatly influenced them at pivotal points early in their careers. I have heard it over and over again. Every social media posting after the news of his passing quickly spread could have been written by the same person for they all pretty much said the same thing: George Pitts changed how they saw themselves and helped launch their career. And yes, he was THAT influential. George was a heavy hitter. Unapologetic and very thorough. Committed. One of the greats. A superb artist, a phenomenal editor, a skilled photographer, a sought after teacher, a published writer, an exhibited painter, a powerful mentor and a loyal friend. An absolute icon. He drove content before the phrase “driving content” was born. He did it for the culture when the culture was still growing. He was as much a part of the hip hop industry and urban culture as the artists themselves. Snoop, Biggie, Tupac, 50 Cent, Lil’ Kim, Eminem, Jay-Z, Busta, Missy, Puffy... it goes on and on. Just look at Vibe’s Ten Year Anniversary covers and you will understand what I mean. George was the founding Director of Photography at Vibe magazine from 1993-2004. He was one of the driving forces behind conversations with a steady crescendo beginning with back office din and ending in a global roar. Datwon Thomas, current Editor in Chief at Vibe began his career as an intern at the magazine in 1996. When we spoke, we agreed that one really could go on and on about George and the legacy he created for urban culture. He said, “Our great culture was preserved through photography and that legacy is George’s legacy and is connected through the people he worked with and who worked with him. Vibe was the perfect vehicle for that. The root and the soul of what George wanted to get out to the people was birthed at Vibe.” I reached out to longtime friend, photographer Ellen Stagg, and immediately received this in response: “I met George in 1999 when my agent sent my portfolio over to Vibe. He hired me to shoot Kelis for the magazine, which was my first portrait and double page spread for any magazine. When we met, I was a senior at SVA and George was a part of the mentor program. He asked to be my mentor, as he never had a student who was also into erotic photography. George would ask me questions no one else did, questions that made you really think about your art and what was really deep inside you. He was the first person to hire me and inspire me. After that I modeled for him, teacher assisted for him… I shot again at Vibe and then once for Life for him. He was my client, my mentor, my photographer and my friend. I will miss him dearly.” My friend and twice former boss Anis Khalil, owner and director of de facto inc. said, simply, “It was all about getting that call from George. Before the days of everything being done via email, people called and getting a call from George was like being offered a bon bon. It was just a good thing.” Phil Knott, who is a total legend in my book, loaded my bowl with this: “Back in nineteen-something, I first came across a cover of a magazine called Vibe. It was so powerful and in your face. It was the Tyson cover, I think. So, I decided to contact George. I was really stoned. He picked up the phone and I could barely hear him. Very faint. Anyway, I launched into a tirade of effing and blinding, saying how inspired I was, what a dope cover, etc. Anyway, I heard this gentle voice saying, “Call me again,” or was was it “Don’t call me again.” For the next hour, I was pretty confused. I couldn’t work it out. Fast forward a couple of years and I actually got an appointment to meet him from my New York office. I was really nervous, wasn’t quite sure if he remembered… anyway, he booked me on quite a few gigs and I eventually ended up doing Justin Timberlake for a cover. I was going to tell him one day, that that was me. Looks like I will never get the chance. George was the kindest, coolest dude in New York and also he was a great photographer, a true inspiration, an American man’s man in New York. I will really miss that fella.” Vibe’s founder Quincy Jones once said, “The past is really the foundation for the future. And when it all connects… you know it right away. And you trust it.” George understood this and in doing so, left behind a legacy that will not soon, if EVER, be forgotten. “George shaped what urban culture looked like. He visually presented the artists in a way that was not the norm and made that the norm, made it normal,” Datwon shared. “I see him…almost as this quiet warrior. For every beautiful image, there must have been so much going on that we did not see… so many fights, so many obstacles… it had to have been a steep learning curve but he brought the best out of the culture and created this lasting legacy through images. George made sure in the same way that the Egyptians recorded their great culture through hieroglyphics—he made sure our great culture was preserved through photography.” Quiet warrior it is, then. Thank you, George. For all of it. May you rest in power.

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PRESENTS

CHAZ BOJÓRQUEZ DAVE TOURJÉ JOHN VAN HAMERSVELD NORTON WISDOM GARY WONG

SOMOS LOCOS. “WE ARE LOCOS," is the ﬁrst exhibit of 2017 for the California Locos—the pioneering group of L.A. artists stemming from the diverse SoCal worlds of Surf/Skate, Grafﬁti, Music and High-Art. This patchwork of aesthetics is unique and inclusive in many ways, and a reflection of the multicultural expression which L.A. has become in these contemporary times. Saturday March 18th | Manhattan Beach Art Center Bl 1560 Manhattan Beach Blvd. Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 1pm Skate Spot Opening | 3pm Live Music 5pm Book Signing | 6pm Art Show

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Blackout 335 by John Gosslee “Summer Insomnia” by William Wright from Tree Heresies (Mercer University Press, 2015)

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A Stroll with Stro the MC Written By Akeem K. duncan Photography by Dirty Souf Yankee

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Under a gray phosphorescent sky in Alphabet City, Stro the MC leans against a red brick wall bearing a graffitied message that reads: “God is hood.” Our guest photographer Dirty Souf Yankee snaps Stro portrait as he raps to himself and occasionally checks his phone. I outwardly gripe about my own phone acting slow which prompts Stro to ask, “what kind of phone you got there? An android?” I nodded and a sly smirk grew on his face. “See, that’s where you fucked up, with that bum-ass Android…,” he quipped while wagging his iPhone affirmatively—”you gotta get one of these!” All three of us break out into laughter as Stro and I begin a friendly a debate over who makes the better smartphone, Samsung or Apple. The Brooklyn born MC is the friendly type but he takes his craft very seriously. Stro is a new school rapper with old school discipline. Once a kid prodigy, Stro has grown into an extraordinary lyricist with a bright future. After Dirty Souf Yankee got her desired shots, we began strolling down the middle of East 5th Street towards Avenue B to scout another location—all of us simultaneously snapchatting and Instagramming ourselves (and one another) satirically after discussing the overuse of social media. Stro and I continued our conversation while Dirty Souf Yankee narrowed down an ideal backdrop: Give us a little background on your upbringing in Brooklyn. How did your childhood influence your art? Coming up in Brooklyn was Interesting. I was born and spent most of my early life in East Flatbush, a Jamaican community—plus my family is Jamaican as well, so my childhood was very West Indian-ish. [Laughs] Dinner ready at five and soul food galore. But regardless of anything that went on in the community, it showed me how to be a man and a hustler, and it gave me confidence as well. If you think about it, you’ve never met a humble Jamaican. [Laughs] I’m not cocky but I definitely believe in myself no matter what because of Flatbush. That’s why a lot of my art is more like a conversation where I’m

TELLING you what’s going on. I’m speaking TO YOU with a certain level of confidence because I know what I’ve been through and made it out of. I make it so that my listener must “Listen.” Jamaican Shit. Do you remember the first rap you ever wrote? What inspired you to start? I wrote my first “official” rap when I was like 8 or 9 years old. It was a song called “Block Shot” and it was about playing video games and shooting at the police. Concept was all over the place. [Laughs] But the fact I had written a song—FINALLY—was a big deal for me. I feel like I’ve been a part of hip hop my whole life, but for whatever reason I never actually wrote a rap until that time. As far what inspired me to write that one, it was 50 Cents’ “Candy Shop” song on the radio. I sat and really listened to the structure and spent the night trying to emulate that. Here I am now. Do you consider yourself a rapper primarily, or an actor? If you had to choose one, which would you choose and why? I am hip hop. Acting is something I do. And I’ll never have to choose between the two. How does it feel to be so successful so young? Do you feel like you’ve made all the right decisions? Do you have any long-term goals (either career-wise or personal goals)? I feel blessed to be in the position I’m in! Can’t complain at all. Definitely feels like a higher power is putting me in a place to be a voice, an inspiration for some people out there. So I just enjoy everything and play my position, that’s all. As far as long term goals, I don’t really have any specific ones at the moment. I want to be Marcus Graham from Boomerang when I hit my thirties. [Laughs] But I just want to change the world by being the change I want to see in the world, so that’s really what I’m working on as an individual. Who are your Top 5 Inspirations (musical or personal) and why?

I don’t really have a “Top 5” but I will say Jay-Z for sure. He’s a normal person who happens to rap. So many rappers are characters nowadays. Even the “Legends.” But Hov never steps out of frame. He provides a foundation you can believe in. He’s also doing things to help his people on a deeper level, whether they know it or not. But I peep everything. Salute the god, Hov. What advice might you give a 14-year-old aspiring rapper who might not have access to the same opportunities you had? To the younger artists coming up: I came from the bottom, and I still haven’t gotten close to where I want to be yet. But because I enjoy what I do, I continue to push. I read somewhere that an overnight success usually takes about ten years. This is my tenth year rapping. Maybe my eleventh. Either way, I think it’s important to have patience and enjoy what you do! Why are there so many variations to your name? Which do you prefer? My name started out as “The Astronomical Kid”—that was way too long. So I shortened it to “Astro.” But it seemed like everyone and everything had that name. It wasn’t unique. So now my name is “Stro the MC.” Hopefully that will be the final adjustment to my name.

[Laughs] I see people saying the change to Stro the MC is weird, but I like that name a lot. What do you think is the biggest problem facing black youth today? Where do you see yourself and your work in the hip hop space in relation to that? I think the problems with Black youth today are deeper than words can explain at this point. It’s a war going on against Blacks that we are not prepared to fight. Hip hop is literally all we have. It’s our only voice, and you got people moaning on the mic. [Laughs] It’s a lot going on. But all I can do at this point is be the change I want to see. I can’t point out all the evils. If you are Black and living in America right now, you should see exactly what’s going on right now. If you can’t… As far as my music, I think my music exists to make sure certain frequencies remain. We’re losing our soul in Black music today, so it’s important to have some sort of music with substance still around. ESPECIALLY from our younger artists. That’s where artist like myself come in.”

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SLURRET

BY ASHLEY M. JONES You a spade, a spook, an open-mouthed black pickaninny. Ashy Aunt Jemima, Americoon, you blue-gummed Baluga, you cotton-picking jigaboo. You, drenched in chicken grease, you watermelon head, you tar-skinned porch monkey, ain’t never gonna get a job, you yes suh shuck and jiver, you hanging tree baboon—for years, we watched you bleed beneath our skin-splintering whip, we watched your eyes embolden, swell like veins. You turned your begging hands to thick brown fists. What are you made of ? What fabric sustains its fibers, stays elastic despite rips— embossed with flame, but a brocade remains.

TODAY, I SAW A BLACK MAN OPEN HIS ARMS TO THE WIND BY ASHLEY M. JONES

and you think I will call him Christ, because the whole scene was very poetic—black man, tall, lanky, just at the edge of a Birmingham sidewalk, arms outstretched, hands hanging from downturned wrists, and oh: are those my sins rippling down his polyester shirt? The streetlight pole his crucifix, oncoming traffic humming its wailing thrum. Me, witness. Me, worshipper. But I won’t call him Christ. Not today, when a man is dead for selling CDs [while black], for being a passenger in his girlfriend’s car [black], for walking back from the corner store [black], for not being able to breathe [black], for being alive [black]. I can’t reach for metaphors today. A metaphor is a luxury I can’t quite afford. All I can see is his literal skin, his body, standing in-real-life before me, and all I can think is that this moment, when he’s riding a breeze in the middle of the city, could be his last, or mine.

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TRANSLATION BY LEAH UMANSKY

Abruptly, something spruced in me. In the blood of my fist, in the blood Of my eye. Something whispered Inside, don’t be afraid. It was A small day. It was a small way To see the dust storm within. To see The way I inhaled the odor of what Breeded inside. There is what you Do and what you don’t do. There is The heart you are given and the Heart you follow. Mine is great and big and full. What else is there To follow? The breaking was first. The wild shoot stalking up within Me. The squeaky wrung of my Breath. I didn’t feel the desire then. I Couldn’t translate my fear into Action, so it tumbled out of me. Fate Taunted with a metal-tipped tongue. I learned, I am ensnared in my own History. I am one woman in this Awful world. I look at all the Wooded fears of me, the lowland Suns of me, and my dark-sparked Dreams. All the nimble scraps of Hope I feed myself. I stop. I listen. We live many lives; a friend tells me. I stop being afraid. I need to bring Something fixed and fragrant into This uncertainty. I need to flame Back the tatters of dreams past. I Need to prove to myself that I can Live the life I want, despite darkness, Despite doubt, despite fear, and Despite my sex. I am so tired of Wondering when and how. I am so Tired of limping through this world Alone. I will build my life with song And language. I am doing it now With hope and dreams, blessings And reprieves. All the good ways I Hold myself captive to my self, they Will outweigh what is struck-down And riddled in ash. The Phoenix Relights its own fire. I am lighting my Spark with Heart.

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Trans-Amazon Highway BY PASCALE PETIT

The highway goes through the Amazonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brain like an icepick through an eye-socket. First we clear her synapses then she forgets her animals.

from Portrait of a Rainforest as a Bipolar Patient BY PASCALE PETIT

The highway goes through the Amazonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brain like an icepick through an eye-socket. First we clear her synapses then she forgets her animals. * Her flying thoughts are nestless, except for a few chicks up in the last ironwoods, patrolled by armed guards. * Scientists climb ropes to monitor her stats, bring motherless macaws down to incubators, measuring their wings, weighing naked souls. * The bilateral current purrs through her frontal lobes like a forest of songbirds electrocuted by rain.

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Thermidor

BY ROBERT C.L. CRAWFORD the governors know the mafia concrete edible skim of the orchard inveigle helmet wheatpaste pipe in no one’s alley stripped to underbrush of scored rugs happy above a thai carnival on elbows arachnid in a shop wraps an accretion disc built on shoddy hexagrams near babies and still the rebel and stuffed tongue staked to the grass in saffron and rose hydroponic the five red bees numbers fill the omerta coupon with berserker fire that longed helpmeet before they are participation by tapers staged for hearted brown heart russet

Ancient Velvet BY ROBERT C.L. CRAWFORD

A little while to stardust and the meal And every day I see. Its first review alphabetized exploited spice rack cans with theories Plato was a centaur king of loafers couched in bed bug pants. Darting from bush to power line and back One tarried in the way of housewife blues, A stove whose chapel grew on permafrost. The bird that grew in Derwent’s liver sang so everybody’s widow might approve. Bosses transposed us out to glinting dens where potash heiresses mix wine in cups. The person from St. Louis called for him The silence after empty, black until strung lights in towers and moaning flies. The tree that nods inside his car the scent of urine, bubble gum and pine began its life not far from barber shops near birthday roses, in the Western style a New Year’s fabric slow to fade in sleep.

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I am trying BY ANDREW HACHEY

to cut through to unimportant things so I can understand the difference between catch and waiting to be caught. It’s difficult to train the mind, distracted by the devil in each pocket. I want to leave the pond, but the steps’ creek give me away. My son sleeps in his room, sweats through his shirt. He wakes and I tell him not to kick the bed. He kicks the bed so the straps of his soaked wings, muddied from the day fall from the bedpost. I hate the smell of wet ink lists. His mother paces in the room like a tigress in a cage, notes the reasons I am wrong, was wrong, will be wrong. She wears a black bra and her eyes dilate when she sees the wall behind me. I can’t take this dance anymore, now that the corners of my childhood are unfolded like a box in the recycling bin. But the sky is the same sky and the street traffic comes on in waves and the threads of my stomach untie themselves for spring.

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Methane

BY DORIN SCHUMACHER Some mothers teach their daughters to cook. Some teach them God and the Bible. My mother taught me letters to the editor. In pre-social media days, a letter to the editor was the best way to share your opinion. My mother learned letters to the editor from her own mother, silent movie star Helen Gardner, who, in 1914, attacked her critics in movie magazines. “You critics don’t know quality.” In the ex-star’s last decade, she published anti-United Nations letters in Florida newspapers. During Senator Joseph McCarthy’s rampages against “Communists” in the State Department, my mother fought him in letters to New York newspapers. “McCarthy’s Communist witch hunts are like the witch hunts of Salem!” When a neighbor attacked her in a letter to the editor, she replied, “He showed that not all the humor is in the funny papers.” Years later, my mother tried to save her beloved city pigeons in the The Baltimore Sun. “They are the only nature we have!” Unlike my mother’s and grandmother’s attempts, my letter to the editor accomplished some real change. * * * The City of Pittsburgh employed African-American garbage men to empty the cans in front of the driveways of the white steel workers’ two-story brick houses that lined my street. On Tuesday afternoons, candy wrappers, animal bones, eggshells, and coffee grounds were on the sidewalks and the dented cans were in the middle of the street. The garbage men didn’t trash the business professionals’ neighborhood next to ours. On trash day, dollar bills taped on their garbage can handles hung in the air. The problem was the workers weren’t paid enough and receive any benefits. I read an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that quoted the head of the Department of Sanitation. “My department is doing a great job.” I laughed out loud and noticed how empty the kitchen felt. “The head of the Pittsburgh Department of Sanitation showed that not all the humor is in the funny papers,” I copied my mother. “His workers throw trash around my neighborhood and it’s common knowledge they want tips.” I signed “Name Withheld.” I didn’t want revenge trash thrown through my window at five in the morning. That’s when I’d be putting on my pantyhose for work. The editor ran my letter on the third page above the fold on Tuesday. He phoned me. “The head of the Department of Sanitation wants to meet you. I’d like to give him your name.” I stood in the kitchen with the phone on my ear and opened the cabinet under the kitchen sink and looked at the trash. I said, “No.” “I think you should talk with him. I’ll give him your address.” He hung up the phone. I called back from different numbers and no one answered. A burly man knocked on my door, and against my good judgment, I opened it. “May I help you?” I said through the screen door. “Yes, yes. Why didn’t you just call me?” He gestured to the empty trash cans at the edge of my driveway. “Why didn’t you do your great job? When people aren’t paid they push back,” I said through the screen door. He looked around. I closed the front door. He knocked again and I didn’t answer. Two weeks later the street was clean and I read an article in the paper headlined “Benefits and Pay Raise for Sanitation Department Workers.”

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Having a Rum and Coke Alone BY ARIEL FRANCISCO

I sit at the end of the bar so there’s only ever one empty seat next to me— in this way I limit possibilities and think it control. Everything is fine. I turn to the window whenever someone walks by. A stranger would call that paranoia, but I know better. Finally, the bartender comes up all smiles, asks if I’m waiting for someone. Yeah, you.

Unnoticed BY ARIEL FRANCISCO

A pigeon slams into a building, bounces off like bad check staving off eviction, and crumples into a pile of colorlessness on the crowded sidewalk. So many feet stepping over and around, so many eyes looking anywhere else.

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In the beginning was the word BY CHRIS CAMPANIONI

Already existed & the world was In the Internet & the world was The Internet, all that light & the darkness had not overcome it & all The boys & the girls Say surreal or else they are Slurring or else they are sur-real So much to be had & to be Over it, or else We’re all down in Big Sur Slurring & slurping a metaphysical Bubble-gum experience we can only ever mouth In language emptied for weight Of water, Google Salad Lady Meme or smiling With salad, so much Laughter over a crush Of iceberg between two lips & the postponement of words I suggest an interview, I’d want to Get to know you better. I can Scroll like this for weeks. Watch Me. We can start by going backward. What would The goggles on my VR headset say If I asked them what it was like As a child, growing up on Adult film studios? To only know the fantasies Of men & women too afraid to make Anything except what they could make With their own hands? It’s so dark With you on my face

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Oakland

FROM SEBERG OUTTAKES BY STEPHANIE DICKINSON I hate injustice like the Los Angeles smog. I watch Jamal unwrap a .22-caliber pistol from a baggie and load five bullets. We huddle at the table’s middle within reach of the candlelight, our heads bent. The chandelier sheds light through Jamal’s goblet, wine pooling in the wood grain’s open mouths. When I look at him the waves of anger strike. Like a gutted sun, gin-colored, that shines on the old Watts riot ground. I am a white panther, the pale variant that Romain sends flowers to from Paris—frayed petals that scatter over the carpet or maybe it’s a moth with gold-dusted wings that has been stepped on. The pistol lies on the table between us. There is quiet and what little noise the maid Celia makes the willow carpet absorbs. Night breezes carry smoke rising from a ditch, the peculiar scent of earth and fire and billyclubs. We speak of constitutional rights and school lunch vouchers for the needy. His voice, a melting humidity. “A woman wet smells like musky leaves and sardines,” he says. His eyes carry me upstairs.

Los angeles FROM SEBERG OUTTAKES BY STEPHANIE DICKINSON

I rent a house in Coldwater Canyon. The pool’s a seven-foot-deep pie tin filled to the brim with turquoise water where you can back-float and admire the sky, a jet stream splits with its tail of mist. Clouds herd like elephants, long pink-blue tusks and storm brewing in their eyes. R talks about our travels. (My husband despises Hollywood liberals and calls me, his naïve actress wife, a sugar-coated celebrity bullet.) He describes Greek caves, Athens with its goaty cheese, crumbling and white. Their cheese and their ruins, he says, are incredibly similar. Islands—chunks of burning lamb over the sea’s fire. If you talk like that with revolutionaries, their eyes roll back. The white of a shrimp with red vessels caught between their dagger teeth. In Spain the last of the ibex graze. Dining out takes three hours. And for dessert picture flaming bananas in a skillet, then pour in more rum. Flames rush up the long darting handle, hotter, bluer. Hush, these people have rarely been anywhere. Mornings, the maid might find a Che Guevara or two sprawled in the chaises, the remains of his breakfast, scrambled eggs and muffins, on a tray next to him. I wear a long billowing white robe. The robe’s reflection spreads across the aquamarine pool’s surface like a napkin about to disintegrate. I drop the robe, and then dive in, air bubbles frothing above my head. I invite the men but none of them can swim.

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