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The Five Friendlies of the Apocalypse will help you through various disasters.
Musk Ox – Black Hole Sun
Fox – Fire on Earth
Seal – Flood These pieces are currently in the mail en route to Chris Uphues and then to Secret Project Robot Room.
“Framed,” installation view, 2008. “Framed” would be noteworthy even if every piece in the show sucked. The majority of the nearly 140 works on display cost less than $100, and nothing is more than $400, a fraction of the lowest prices at most local gallery shows. Yet the participating artists—almost all of whom are Chicagoans—include accomplished professionals, such as Juan Angel Chavez, Mike Genovese and Chris Silva. Fortunately, the artists in “Framed” pack startling images and ideas into the small wooden frames that give the show its title. (The frames range from 4″ x 6″ to 11″ x 15″; curator Peter Kepha asked the 50-plus artists to create new works for the show or submit existing ones that fit the frames.) Jon Lowenstein’s Slain Lawyer’s Assistant, Guatemala City (2008)—a close-up photograph of a young man lying on an office floor in a pool of blood—intimately conveys the terrifying violence plaguing Guatemala. Violence also overshadows Maria Gaspar’s watercolor of a nude woman brandishing a spear as she stands next to a prone horse. But her work’s abstraction, soft color palette and fine paper yield a different effect on the viewer, suggesting a mythic event. The other drawings, paintings, collages and photographs in “Framed” tend to be less serious—though several are very strange. Erik DeBat (“RISK”), Blutt and Revise cmw contribute enigmatic works influenced by their street art. Elisa “Pooper” Harkins illustrates a girl’s transformation into a cat. Arielle Bielak puts masks on the subjects of her photographs, which enables her to depict God and the devil sharing a bowl of Lucky Charms. Oscar Arriola photographs a lost-cat flyer, which he strips of any poignancy by replacing the pet’s image with his own cartoon of a grinning feline. And Alta Buden creates a glam portrait with different shades of green glitter. Their fun materials, low-tech techniques and informal subject matter reflect a refreshing spontaneity and willingness to experiment. Maybe nothing here represents great art—but how often can you see (much less buy) really good art for $25? — Lauren Weinberg Well, it’s really a girl turning into a fox…a red fox, but that’s o.k. Lauren!
I’m in an experimental comedy screening at Heaven Gallery. I’m showing the “Ham Dance” animation! woo woo. August 16th
I’m playing August 9th at the Hideout with Gutter Butter and Rome! Hideout I’m in a show at 32nd and Urban. Here are the pieces I made for the show.
FRAMED Time Out Chicago / Issue 178 : Jul 24–30, 2008 By Gretchen Kalwinski
If you traverse Chicago’s North and Northwest Sides with an eagle eye, you’ll soon start seeing art where it doesn’t belong. On mailboxes, parking signs, abandoned buildings and windows, art ranging from a painting in the shape of a kiwi to a sticker proclaiming YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL to a paste-up of a swooping bird brightens the urban landscape. The artists installing this “guerilla” art (mostly in the warmer months and the dark of night) call themselves street artists and often hide their identities from cops by using nicknames. Most have jobs as designers, art directors or production artists and don’t consider their art vandalism because it’s usually not on private property; they favor surfaces they believe belong to all of us—signs, newspaper boxes, lampposts and construction sites. But don’t confuse their work with gang graffiti or tagging: It’s illegal, but there’s an altruistic mission to their madness. Beyond coming from different demographics (most gang taggers are teenagers; the artists we talked to are between 28 and 38), street artists aren’t claiming territory—they’re just trying to beautify the city. One anonymous source bristles at the idea of being mistaken for a gangbanger. “I’ve never met a street artist in a gang,” he says. “Just because you put up art in the streets doesn’t mean you’re a gang member.” These artists aren’t busting out gang tags, but that doesn’t protect them from the law; they risk arrest if the police catch them in the act, and Graffiti Blasters or thieves often remove their work. So why risk it?
For some, it’s activism. “It’s a social/political act first and foremost,” says Chris Silva , who was part of “Tragic Beauty,” a 2005 AV-aerie street-art show (in which art made from scraps of furniture and signs was installed, then reassembled around town postshow). “I have used my street work to promote the concept of love. Even if that message is cryptic in a particular piece, there is love in sharing my work with the public.” Matt Smith isn’t feeling the love. As spokesman for the Department of Streets and Sanitation (which runs Graffiti Blasters), he’s proud to say the city’s removed 66,568 graffiti tags from January 1 through the end of May 2008. He includes street art in this category. “Vandalism is vandalism…. If you leave your permanent mark of expression on the public way, you are committing a crime,” he says. “If you create art someone can look at, [a viewer] might want to put it in their house. But if you put it on their house, we will remove it.” Some artists say it’s not so cut-and-dried. “A lot of [my art] is put up with screws, tied to fences or leaned against walls,” says “Sighn,” who specializes in paintings and text-based wood-cut installations in Wicker Park/Bucktown. “If removed, it leaves almost no damage.” Others don’t think getting busted would be a big deal. “I read through the Chicago municipal code about vandalism,” says “the Grocer,” a producecentric artist who creates stickers and acrylic paintings that he affixes to surfaces with matte medium. “[According to the code,] my work is technically ‘postering,’ not ‘graffiti,’ because I’m not painting something on a wall. There’s a fine, but [it’s] nothing like what graffiti [incurs]—only, like, max $200 an incident.” The beef these and other covert creators have with laws against their art is that advertisers can plaster the city with messages, but artists can’t employ that medium. “I do [street art] because I don’t want to be another person who allows our world to be filled with what advertisers dictate,” explains a female street artist who goes by “Pooper”. “We’ve done a lot of wheat-pasting [gluing art on paper onto another surface] on top of other ‘fly posters’ [posters installed illegally by advertisers],” an anonymous artist says. “Going over those doesn’t seem like a bad thing.” –
Tues. June 24, 2008 Juiceboxxx Free! Free! Free! I’m playing a show Tues, Jun 24 at Sonotheque.
Here’s the plush I made for the plushform show. It had sold by the time I got there, so no more pics! I hope it brings healing and intuition to whoever bought it. –
Fri 6/27 Free! Here’s the web site. The Five-Year Plan To mark this fifth edition of Breakout Artists, we decided to check up on the artists we’d featured in the past and see where their careers have taken them.
Elisa Harkins There is a first time for everything. Thanks to Jillian for sending me the linky!
“Styles…I have many/My flows are like candy/And my beats are Good And Plenty/So eat it up/It’s on me” Funky Buddha Lounge, Chicago The Juiceboxxx performance at the Funky Buddha Lounge was the highlight of a truly Chicago show. The Milwaukee club rapper, along with DJ Rand Sevilla, Neues Musiker-Kollektiv, and BFF, drew close to 100 experienced party people. The double-bar, nice-sized dance floor, lounge area, and dragon-themed DJ booth only enhanced the warm and fun-loving feel immediately palpable from what little I saw of BFF’s set. BFF’s music doesn’t stray too far from what you’d expect from an artist named Best Friend Forever: danceable pre-recorded beats backed by funny animated projections and sung over by the twenty-something Elisa Harkins. The finale, “Ham Dance,” definitely rocked the hardest. Between acts, the attention shifted from the stage to the dance floor, but the party never ceased. Jams ranging from “Puttin’ on the Ritz” to Bizarre Inc’s “Playing with Knives” provided the ideal interlude until Juiceboxxx took the stage at 12:45. He emerged from the crowd sporting red-on-red Filas, a tight pair of jeans, and a loose ’90′s T-shirt (later removed), saying, “My name is Juiceboxxx, from Milwaukee. Yeah, I know, that’s pretty close,” followed by some crowd pump-ups. Juiceboxxx was stationary on stage for maybe the first three seconds of the opener, “Thunder Jam # 5,” and spent the rest of the time in the faces of the crowd, atop a bar stool in the middle of the dance floor, and on his knees amidst the adoring fans. For St. Louis readers, Juiceboxxx’s live performance matches Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship’s, although Juiceboxxx uses fewer props, has more sophisticated beats, and his lyrical depth transcends comic book rivals. While introducing song two, “100 MPH,” Juiceboxxx was already warning fans that he had just a few more numbers. “100 MPH” showcased an impressive Chicago-themed freestyle and a well-choreographed microphone slam as the song paused. This mini-tour is in support of the incredible new single, “Center Stage,” the Dre Skull collaboration and follow-up to “Sweat.” “Riding Hard” seemed to be a new cut to most fans. He finished the five-song set with the anticipated “Sweat” coinciding strangely with a projection of a naked sumo woman. No acts followed Juiceboxxx, but the bar and the music from the DJ booth were enough to keep the Funky Buddha Lounge a full-blown party. Overall it was a quality show, a serious display of fun art, and a mutual celebration among the artists themselves and between the performers and the diverse crowd, making for a great night. | Joseph O’Fallon http://www.playbackstl.com/content/view/7388/158/ St. Louis! I’m coming for you and I’ll try to bring Juice and Hunter! I want to do an installation/performance at Open Lot Gallery. Aaron is a nice kid who asked me to do my new “Totems” installation there. |
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