Art as Authority

jellyfish revolution




90 Grammes - Julien Colombier
www.myspace.com/mrjulien_c

Art Produce Gallery
3139 University Avenue
San Diego, CA
619.584.4448

Opening: March 8, 2008 - 6 to 9pm (Ray at Night)

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Microbes live in the clouds: growing, mating, traveling about the planet till they return to earth, riding the rain.

Link

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Paso is the big homie both figuratively and literally. I’ve known him ever since we were little piss ant kids (well, he was never really little) and though I always thought he was one dude that would never eclipse me in graffiti, in the last few years he has become a complete savage and has quadrupled the meager amount of damage I’ve done. I don’t have any hate for him though, nothing but love. I remember one time a few years back he stood up his parents around Christmas time to go paint trains with me; you gotta admire the kid’s dedication.

Token is the man as well, and I’ve big upped him on here before but thought that he could join us for this little interview too.

- KAI

KAI1: What do you write? What crews?

Pas: My name is Paso. I write for TKO, DVR, and UK.

Token: I write Token (aka Cuate) and my crews…oh man so many! STM, FBI, LBO, and CWA were my crews in the early 90's. I got into F2 with Repel and he also introduced me to UK which Kai put down with. I also write BY a southwest crew. Strike put me in Desert Blazers and Little Man from Philly put me down with WAB. I’m also in WH (another freight crew).

K: Any other names as toys?

P: I started off writing Pas. My first crew gave me the "O" and it just stuck.

T: I’ve tried them all…shits funny when you look back.






(Click for larger image)


K: What is the last thing that you stole? How long ago was it?

P: The last thing I stole was some gold shakers and a handful of sharpie markers from the Walgreens up the street the other day. Hahahaha, I wish it was something better.

T: Spray paint in 2003, I try not to steal no more because I have too much to lose!

K: Do you consider yourself to have an over inflated ego?

P: No, I'm humble. I hate everything I've ever created as soon as it’s done. My lady would though.

T: No way, I’m a cool ass mofo.





K: Is graffiti worse than doing drugs? Why?

P: They're a similar line. Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

T: Drugs fuck you up. They make you all stupid in the head. Except weed and beer.





K: Which is more fun? Why?

P: Graffiti always made me feel higher than drugs, but I never smoked crack before so who knows right. I never wanted to find out.

T: If I was younger, they would both be fun.











K: Do you believe that God exists? Why or why not?

P: I’m an atheist. Carbon dating.

T: I do believe in God, it’s a good feeling I get in my heart. There’s also the devil, don’t let him into your heart.

K: Do you think that God hates graffiti?

P: Probably.

T: He’s cool with it.





K: Why do you keep painting?

P: Boredom. Chasing the high.

T: It’s just something I love to do.











K: Aren’t you too old to be doing this shit?

P: Definitely, but no one likes a quitter. Naw, how old is too old? Some lady had a kid at 63.

T: I hate that question, it doesn’t make sense.

K: Do you participate in any of the other 4 elements?

P: 4 elements? Earth, wind, fire, and water? Graffiti doesn’t have much to do with Hip Hop these days I don’t think. Shit look at half of these writers, do they look Hip Hop to you?

T: No, but they’re cool.

K: GG Allin or NWA?

P: Both!!!! But GG over Eazy all damn day.

Token: Who is GG Allin? NWA was fun to listen to. Even better with bass in your car.








K: Whiskey or beer?

P: I’m a Jameson man.

T: Beer, then some whiskey to top it off.

K: When was the last time you slept in the street?

P: I’ve slept in a car before but never on some park bench... I got a lot of friends.

T: I never have. That sucks.





K: Have you ever beat anyone’s ass over graffiti?

P: Hahaha, most people don’t want to fight me. (Pas is a gigantic human being)

T: That was shit we did in the tag banger days. Nothing they didn’t ask for though.

K: What about getting your ass beat?

P: I've been beaten up, but not down.

T: No way, we all had respect. If they tried to get brave I’d just make the devil face and they would back down.

K: Do you believe that graffiti is morally wrong?

P: Whose morals?

T: Hell no.








K: Is graffiti a symptom of underlying emotional problems?

P: Probably.

T: Not for me.

K: Is it wrong to tag on someone’s house?

P: I have.

T: It depends.

K: Is it wrong to tag on a church?

P: Only if it doesn't have a pentagram or a goat's head hanging on it.

T: Well, if the back of it is facing the freeway…



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K: Have you?

P: I've painted an abandoned church before, does that count? The cross was ripped down though.

T: The back was facing the freeway!!!

K: Do you pay taxes?

P: Yeah, I got a real job too.

T: I sure do, not by choice though, it comes out automatically.





K: Do you hope that your kids end up doing graffiti or do you hope they find a real hobby?

P: I don’t know... I hope my kids don’t kill me in my sleep.

T: What ever makes them happy.

K: What artists do you admire?

P: Sam Keith, Tiger, Masamune Shiro… shit, that’s like a few in a list of thousands off the top.

T: My friends and anyone else whose stuff makes me go “Wow, that’s nice”.

K: Anything else?

P: A toast, CHAMPAGNE TO MY REAL FRIENDS AND REAL PAIN TO MY SHAM FRIENDS!

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Andi Brandenburg - "Besos not Bombs"


I recently had the welcomed opportunity to give 350 words to CITYBEAT and saw them published today online and in hard copy. What was about? - a review of the current exhibition on display at Art Produce Gallery entitled "Endeavor," a group show of 15 San Diego artists under the collective umbrella of Bill Pierce and Radioactive Future. While I was generally disappointed in the range of work presented, I did find a handful of artists that have consistently "stepped-up" and produced works over the months that continue to innovate and delight. The above work by Andi Brandenburg does not. This may seem unfair but what I do know is this: we're all in this together. We all have our assigned role as artist, curator, gallery, critic, collector, public, museum et al. - as stereotypical and mundane as that might appear on the surface - which has a significant impact on how we go about demonstrating that responsibility. Some of you might be unaware of this added burden or are simply uninterested. This is certainly your right and choice.

I believe to a very large degree that the days of "art for art's sake" are finished - we no longer have the luxury or the time (or the money perhaps) to mess around in the studio and let the art mature and age with grace. Life, society, politics and the world in the 21st century are accelerating past us at an alarming rate which leaves no time for a craft that requires reflection and intuition. Too bad. So as much as I call for some changes in the how and why artists exhibit their works in San Diego, I would also ask them not to speed up the production of those works but to slow it down. Make it count. By making each and every work that you make count, not only are you building a stronger and more diverse community - definitely more exciting - you're also fulfilling the obligations and right to be an artist. Please don't take it lightly - an audience is out there watching and waiting.

You can read the full review here in this week's CITYBEAT. KF

Zuri Waters - "Untitled"



Bret Barrett - "Arp Type Series 9 - Extroverted Endogen"



Paul Brogden - "Beavis & Butthead"



Dave Miles - "Not of this World - Mock-a-zine series"

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There are several shows opening today that I was eager to see. The one that’s had me in suspense the longest is Gordon Halloran’s Museum of Modern Ice installation at Millennium Park for the month of February.

I haven’t made up my mind about what I saw. For starters, it’s a good idea. Working with colored ice that is, But so much aesthetic control is relinquished to the medium - Halloran is not ‘painting’ with colored ice; he’s taking candy-colored ice chunks and ‘gluing’ them to his ice substrata that’s about 12 x 100 feet. Judging by what it looks like before turning it over to nature to melt, drip and refreeze, I’d say it’s got potential - which is another way of saying that it’s not there yet. Maybe once nature has unified its disparate elements it’ll look less like a science experiment and more like art.





Ultimately it really isn’t a painting at all, but a performance, or a collaboration with nature. How it’ll look in two weeks is going to be the test. It could be awesome. Certainly the Public Art Department took a decent sized risk here. And sometimes risks like this pay off handsomely. Here’s hoping.

I like Joseph Kohnke’s art a lot. I wouldn’t miss an exhibit of his. And this one pleased a lot; in part because I was already familiar with the work having seen it at ThreeWalls about 18 months ago. But seeing the same art in a different venue is always intriguing because new issues arise. And I certainly was in for a large surprise when I went to see his show at the International Museum of Surgical Science, mostly because I’ve never been there and i was treated to 4 floors documenting the development of surgical practices, some of which are over two thousand years old. Mostly I walked around repeating to myself “Oh my god. They actually did that!”

And then I reached Joseph’s work (he’s showing on the 4th floor with Jonathan Gabel) where he’s created a piece that helped him work through his friend’s dying of cancer. In an email Joseph wrote:





The piece is basically a player piano that reads a belt of photographed skin, playing the imperfections of the skin out onto a resin body cast of me, and a taxidermy fawn. I made the piece after a friend died from melanoma. At the time it was therapeutic to make the piece, but now showing just brings back feelings and I hate it (but people seem to like it.)

It’s a powerful work of art heightened by its being placed into the context of strange medical inventions, treatment and progress. Yes, art has lots of purposes and yes catharsis is one of them.

I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve seen a show of Mike Lash’s. I found his work at GardenFresh refreshing today. There’re are an awful lot of contemporary artists making lousy art and pretending it is highfalutin. And most of the time their content is as vapid as their technique. This is not Mike Lash’s plight. He makes really dumb looking art with some worthy concepts behind them. He doesn’t pretend his art is well done. He just makes it direct, meaningful and sloppy. But charming. Lash is intelligent with too many divergent notions floating around his brain. That a lot of these ideas come out in his art is healthy for him (one supposes) and a treat for us.





Also on view at GardenFresh, in their project room is an installation by Holly Holmes, who is most often seen together with her collaborator, Tom Burtonwood whose work, together, is a commentary on the role of the military in our society and life. Alone, her works are similarly themed but more subtle, more layered and prettier, and just as biting.

I’m perpetually working on grasping the range and styles of John Arndt who has been around Chicago longer than I realized. His show opens tonight at Rowland Contemporary. When I last saw his work a few years ago he was making large, abstract geometric shapes from large sheets of fabric. This past summer he “worked” in Italy and has created a body of watercolors inspired by Italians’ signs for lost dogs. The work is serious and humorous at the same time and he’s particularly good at watercolor. He’s done a video too, overlaying beginner Italian catch phrases on top of touristy pictures of Italy. Given that I’m more Italian than anything else and that my Italian sucks I felt too comfortable watching the video.





Having been in Chicago about 30 years, and having really enjoyed the talent and paintings of Chuck Walker at the time, I’ve always wondered where he went. The answer is at the Hyde Park Art Center’s Chuck Walker: Through a Glass Darkly exhibit opening Sunday afternoon and curated by Margaret Hawkins.





There is no doubt that Walker is conversant in his medium - beautiful, brooding paintings, unusual paintings, elegant drawings. To me it looks like Walker is invariably trying to find difficult concepts or challenges to render in paint. In most situations he triumphs and in others we can see him wrestling with his technique. It is fascinating to witness because the ability is definitely there, but what holds me back is that I don’t get much sense of what makes Walker tick. Given that his hands are so damned good, I want to know more about his heart and soul.

Thank you,
Paul Klein

PS: There’s been a lot of press the last few days about Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty being jeopardized. For information look here, here, and here.

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