ARKHAM: Predator/Prey Issue

Note fr om the Editor

I checked my email three times within the last ten minutes. we predate and capture to the point of demise: we seek to find, then end up smothering the object most desired. and so the cycle spirals forward and back again until we recognize that we as sons of Adam, are flawed. we then ignore seeking what we most need, and in turn opt for the frequent yet insignificant bursts of dopamine from every ping of our emails, every ‘like’ on a photgraph in this web I’m medium rare

Yasamin Rahmanparast Editor-in-Chief

P R E D A T O R / P R E Y

I S S U E

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

05 // He Thinks We’re Braiding Our Hair 21 // We Don’t Know We Don’t Know 31 // Interview with Reese Riley 41 // God Say Yes To Me 49 // In Conversation with Jo Nobile

55 // If You Get There Before I Do 65 // Skemongo: Underground, 12pm 71 // The Dinner Guest 77 // The Theme Of Tonight’s Party Has Been Changed

contents

He thinks

we’re braiding our hair Photographed by Finn Schult Assistance by Hannah Bo Nutt

TEA WITH A DOM: NO SUGAR, PLEASE Ya s a m i n R a h m a n p a r a s t

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word “Dom” my immediate repressed memories turn to three in the morning eyes half shut at the club, pounding down another glass of champagne. It took me a while to resonate the initial shock of “you’re a what” with “but you’re you,” as my new friend of six months confided to me her secret life as a dom.

“It’s role play…role playing…it’s still me. People assume it’s a daily thing,” she said as she made herself comfortable on my couch. “Tea?” I offered, honestly as a way to calm my own nerves and boil my misconceptions. I wanted to know everything, yet almost felt guilty. Domination in the bedroom after all is a taboo subject, riddled with connotations including possessiveness, manic tendencies, and the classic ‘Daddy Issue;’ I also knew I had to stay away from the obvious, so I asked for the abridged version.

A “dom” is “a dominant” – a noun like any other. Masculine and feminine titles then break down each master’s tier in this world, ranging from Sir, Daddy, then finally Dom (for men), and Mistress, Madame, and ultimately Dominatrix (for women). A Dominatrix usually performs a paid role in a fetish club, and is therefore a commonly misunderstood label. A “sub” is a “subordinate” – the person who fulfills the demands of his dom. In my friend’s case, – who I will from now reference as Marie – her title is Mistress. She began training with a Dom only a few months before this very conversation – strictly through phone messages and online chats. He taught her the basics of role play, dom/ sub etiquette and probably, a little something about herself.

She began speaking of her subs like Antoinette to the bourgeois. “I detest a gravelling pet. But they are like pets; you eventually grow fond of a pet.” She began listing off the toys and equipment machines used on subs. All of which fall into two different categories of devices that dominate this underground world: ones to arouse pleasure, and ones to inflict pain. These contraptions range from professional BDSM crucifixions to homemade varieties of spinning machines. In Marie’s case, she oftentimes challenges her subs to complete humiliating sexual tasks, notably in public.

“Dildos, vibrators, and anal plugs are Nike basics on a sorority girl.” I unsettled in my seat.

4 + 2 does not equal 6. I couldn’t help but wonder. Was there a possibility that Marie, my friend, half-hippie, half-rocker, part-time tarot card reading Marie in her Johnny Cash tee and double nose piercing, was actually bamboozling me?

“Sometimes, people need experience, need help,“ she shifted. It’s an irony: “a sub trusts a dom to control his body to help him find himself. At one point in my life I didn’t think I was good enough…so I would pleasure instead of being pleasured.” She stood kindly, gave me her signature pat on the shoulder and left.

I almost felt something maternal from her transforming energy.

Doms prefer to pleasure instead of being pleasured. Most of the time it’s about a sense of control, and of darkness. Whips, chains, and leather straps are not necessarily included. Shedding light onto protocols in pleasure, pain, and punishment, Marie sharply lifted her gaze, “You wouldn’t know one without the other.” Her dangly gypsy earrings went mute and the turquoise in her hair ignited. I forgot this girl was even wearing Birkenstocks, she transformed like a waterspout from the sea, a crack in a pipe: into Mayhem.

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corset Dolce & Gabbana panty La Perla

blouse Theory panty La Perla

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opposite page: earcuff Carla Gonzalez harness Agent Provocateur

私たちは知らない知らない We dont know We dont know

い Photographed by Lorena Lavin Clothing by Brendan Combs Styled by ARKHAM Magazine

GENDERBLURS AND SUCH Ya s a m i n R a h m a n p a r a s t

Androgyny and homosexuality are no spring chickens. They were seen in Plato’s Symposium in a myth that Aristophanes tells the audience: People used to be spherical creatures, with two bodies attached back to back who cartwheeled around. There were three sexes: the male-male people who descended from the sun, the female-female people who descended from the earth, and the male-female people who came from the moon. This last pairing represented the androgynous couple. These moon people tried to take over the gods and failed. Zeus then decided to cut them in half and had Apollo stitch them back together leaving the navel as a reminder to not defy the gods again. If they did, he would cleave them in two again to hop around on one leg. Dang.

What later caused the obsolescence of androgyny was the prominent rise of Christianity, burying those notions underground. In the Old Testament, God created beings “in His own image.” According to fundamentalists, homosexuality and androgyny defy the purpose of God and the way “He intended Creation” to physically occur.

For humans, androgyne in terms of gender identity is a person who does not fit neatly into the typical masculine and feminine gender roles of their society. They may identify as ‘genderqueer,’ ‘pangender,’ or ‘gender-fluid,’ amongst other terms.

To say that a culture or relationship is androgynous is to say that it lacks rigid gender roles and that the people involved display characteristics or partake in activities traditionally associated with the other sex. In an effort to illustrate these points from the mild to the extreme, Barney’s New York released their Spring 2014 ad campaign “Brothers, Sisters, Sons & Daughters.” Transgender models, shot by iconic photographer Bruce Weber, depicted those human connections in relation to their gender identity. The campaign garnered tremendous media attention. Genuine activism or PR stunt?

One of the earliest celebrities to challenge gender stereotypes was Elvis Presley in the 1950s, whose wardrobe and use of eye makeup incited traditionalists to riot. Presley inspired extraordinary artists such as the Beatles (with long hair and androgynous performance clothes) to Jimi Hendrix (who wore women’s shirts, high-heeled boots) and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant who had an effeminate physical appearance and juxtaposed masculine sexuality. Traditional gender stereotypes have been challenged in recent years dating back to the 1960s hippie movement. Also, the women’s liberation movement of the 1970’s completely refuted the idea that women were ‘naturally’ passive, emotional, and weaker than men. Dr. Sandra Bem introduced the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) that classified four gender role orientations: masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated: revolutionary for the time. This discovery came along whilst musical superstars such as David Bowie, Boy George, Prince, and Annie Lennox challenged the norms in the 1970s with elaborate cross gender wardrobes by the 1980s. Marilyn Manson and the band Placebo have used clothing and makeup to create an androgynous culture throughout the industrial 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s.

Fashion designers including Helmut Lang and Giorgio Armani began to adopt this element of androgyny, still seen in their clothing today. The rise of the metrosexual in the first decade of the 2000s has also been described as a related phenomenon associated with this trend. With these new fashions, men had become more interested in “feminine subjects” of clothing, hair styles, accessories, and visual kei (especially in Asia). Japanese and Korean cultures have featured the androgynous look as a positive attribute in society, as depicted in both K-Pop and J-Pop music and in Anime and Manga – as well as in the fashion industry. The street style of these countries, especially in Japan, adopted these gender-bending trends in in everyday dress as the plebs emulated their famous idols.

As of today, Rad Hourani is the only designer recognized by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture as a “unisex” designer. In his words: “Androgyny is a style…Unisex is erasing all limitations.” Although Hourani explicitly creates unisex garments, classic elements of mens and womenswear are more so infiltrating the opposite gender’s collections. Lace, sheers, bold colours and florals sprinkle the runways of Katie Eary, Prada, and Astrid Anderson. On the other hand, brands including Skingraft, Phillip Lim, and Alexander Wang embrace elements of sport, the urban jungle, and classic suiting in womenswear.

From the lips of menswear designer Astrid Anderson: “There’s no real relevance in gender…when girls and boys dress the same, it’s not unisex, either. It’s this new understanding of the feminine and masculine within every human being.” Agree?

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handbags Ellia Wang photography Matt Slade collage Reese Riley

INTERVIEW WITH REESE RILEY Hayley Larson What are your main inspirations?

My main inspirations are always books and stock images, things that haven’t been re-contextualized. Very stable imagery that hasn’t been destabilized yet from being moved around. I look at very banal books about hospitals or technology or labs, things like that. Things that are completely sterile and have no aesthetic necessity to them but by moving them around, I am inspired by the ability to find a new orientation of something.

What is your favorite medium?

I could say an urban environment. There can’t really be a medium for me, the medium is things around me, like a book or product photography, signage, objects with meaning attached to them.

I would be no where if I lived in a forest because all the objects would be solidified. There is nothing I can do with a tree because there is nothing happening with it until you move it somewhere else.

Have any life events inspired your work?

My parents divorced when I was five years old so there was a lot of shifting and moving around.

There wasn’t any stability with objects that I had, they were always in a backpack moving from house to house. Every night was quite different so I’m very comfortable with a jarring array of imagery and disheveling of objects and finding new context for things in my life, it’s been entirely about that.

What about living in Savannah inspires you?

I grew up in a rural area with woods surrounding me so everything was innocent, the trees were innocent they didn’t mean anything. When I came to Savannah all I saw were signs for streets or things that were identifiable that had meaning attached to them. Trees are placed in a spot where people can easily walk by them; everything is signified and everything has so much depth because everything was carved out by human experience and human interaction. The urban environment became much easier to contemplate because everything around me was contemplation in a sense.

In this way my artwork started to be about different things – it stopped being about just paintings and started being about these objects around me, and I had certain convictions about them.

What was your ritual to creating these pieces featured on these pages?

Accessories are always like a mathematical formula: you have one integer and then there is another integer added on to it, with those two you get to see the value of both. The body is measured with the accessory because the accessory shows the balance of the body; this is the limit of the body. The excess is ornamented, the excess is the accessory; the excess means measuring yourself. The predator in the wild is always measuring himself against the prey and survival in an environment with different hierarchies of animals is always about measuring. The predator looks to measure himself against something that is smaller than him, a situation that he can come in and out of. The prey is always variable and the predator has desires – they are never singular and they are always radiating. You could say the predator is always the center that the prey revolves around and inhabits.

Has your style changed at all since you began doing your artwork?

Yeah, it’s always changing; at first the artist thinks of himself as a very rigid identity; “I am a painter,” or something. At first I was just a painter and I didn’t allow myself to do much else except for some graffiti. Through doing digital painting and creating digital imagery, it opened up the possibility for me to gauge real environments in that way. It took me treating flat imagery and found imagery to be able to treat real objects the way I do for installations. It took me seeing things in a two-dimensional way to being able to take that and do it for a three-dimensional environment.

So it was painting to digital imagery to installations – it took all of that to get where I am.

What’s your dream job? There is a big difference between your paintings and your digital work.

My dream job would be creative director at a magazine, where I can choose imagery and write as well and not have any limitations. Like I said my past has always been about shifting and reorienting myself to things. My job would have to be something like that.

When have you been most satisfied?

Satisfaction is something that’s what you expect from something else, so I suppose I have been most satisfied when I have expected the least from something. So, my internet pages [Archival Aesthetics; Desert Aesthetics; Homecare Aesthetics on Facebook] started as a joke between me and a few friends, just to post weird images, and it flourished and became a massive phenomenon online…and that I would say was the most surprising satisfaction. Otherwise the most satisfying thing hasn’t happened. And I think that’s healthy; you shouldn’t be satisfied. I think of myself as a 5 out of 10 so I gauge good or bad from the central point. I don’t trust myself to be unbiased.

What are you trying to communicate with your artwork?

I am trying to communicate the impossibility of restricting content to particular forms because we tend to formalize things through content relationships. I have an idea about something out in space and these ideas and convictions are how we formalize things around us so perhaps my artwork is about showing the infinite currents. Maybe the artwork has stopped for a second to show one conviction. In showing these content form issues I can prove that these images shouldn’t be considered so rigid, and should be considered fluid bodies that are only singularized once they are institutionalized or someone has a conviction about it or restricts it. The artwork is all about restrictions – the restrictions are what make communications possible. It leads to idealisms in images, about an object being itself and actually, it’s constantly shifting and it isn’t stable.

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object Karen Kriegel

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God, Say Yes to Me Photographed by Haley Varacallo Photographer Assistance by Reuben Kim & Matt Slade Styled by ARKHAM Magazine 42

god say yes

coat Sean Junghyun Won shoes Timberland

harnesses & hood Victoria Camila shirt Michael Mann jackets vintage

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coat vintage boots Frye

sports jacket Nigel Prude

chestpiece Victoria Camila

crown Jacqueline Rose

IN CONVERSATION WITH JO NOBILE Hayley Larson If you could be any animal what would you be and why?

Does it have to be an animal?

No, if you want to pick something else you may.

As far as a living entity I would have to say, a tree. Trees live for so long and they are around so much history – a tree in a snowy area. I grew up with [the snow] in New York and I always loved it. I think a tree’s lack of consciousness would resolve a lot of the human condition that makes life such a hard struggle. Life is pretty easy for a tree. A tree is not self-conscious of these new fungi growing on them or anything.

What are some main themes in your artwork?

Well for a while I suppose, I self-diagnosed myself as clinically depressed – which maybe is not so wise. I was really in a bad place, but [it became] my transition into fine art. I found art to be a coping mechanism. It was more free: this lethargic experience of being able to make an object. So, depression and suicidal thoughts were a theme for me, and atmosphere became very important to me. When it comes to art ideas these things are kind of ebb and flow; they mean the world to you one week the next week it’s a bad idea.

What are some life events that have inspired your work?

I have a tendency to wear only black. And it’s not out of any trend or anything like that, I just truly feel uncomfortable with any type of color. For a while I forced myself to work with color and I decided that if I could not even wear color and feel comfortable, I shouldn’t try to put that on a page. So I’ve really stopped using color for maybe two or three years now – it’s been mostly achromatic paintings. As far as installations go, there are colors that I am not really responsible for. I’ve used old televisions with brown on them, and installation boxes that were gray. This chromo-phobic area of my life has transcended into my artwork.

Has your style changed at all since you started creating art? I know you said you sort of experimented with color and now you don’t do that so much.

I wouldn’t say so much experimented so much as being forced. I think it was this pressure of seeing everyone’s work around me. Color might spell out a bit more than people understand.

When you wear a blue shirt someone gets a different sort of energy from you than if you wear something that is vacant and void. I suppose I don’t like to give the viewer too much to make opinions off of.

In 5 years where do you see yourself?

I think I would like to come back as an MFA. In my Professional Practices class we had some frightening statistics being thrown around: only 3 out of 500 BFA art students continue making art after seven years. Most of them either give up or get an MFA. In the art scene there is just a flood of MFA’s that already know what they are doing; they have refined themselves so much.

There’s not much room for BFA to make art for an extended amount of time. A kid in my class is a grad student and he said only 4 of the students he graduated with are still making art. It’s a shame.

photography Hannah Kik

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Who are some people or other artists that inspire or influence your work?

Gerhard Richter, a German painter. He is sort of an anomaly in the art world because he has such a variety, something that isn’t specifically accepted. But he’s made a career out of his work and essentially is able to create whatever he’d like. That’s something that I think is pretty inspirational: not having to stick to what the public wants you to make, but what you would want to make. I think I am actually more inspired by filmmakers than fine artists. I suppose fine art filmmakers art house films. I think film is just this awesome realm of giving the viewer a very sensual experience; it taps into more senses than just visual. That is something I would like to do in my work: leave the audience with some type of experience – not just a viewing of a flat image but something they can leave with. Some directors who inspire me are Ingmar Bergman, Swedish director, David Lynch, surrealist American director, Lars Von Trier, melancholic films and anyone that questions social conventions. You need some idols in your field, someone that you look up to and say “I want to be like them.” Otherwise you remain sort of lost.

What is your scariest life experience?

Maybe two years ago when I was experiencing suicidal thoughts and I was unsure if it was worth it…if life was worth continuing. It seemed like such a struggle then. Those thoughts taint any thought you may have that day; even if you find something beautiful, you hate yourself for thinking it’s beautiful. That was probably the scariest time of my life. Feeling so lost and unsure about what the future held. It’s sort of what forced me to make artwork.

What is the best piece of advice you have received? Either as an artist or life in general.

I am not sure if I came to this realization on my own or if a professor shared this, but it’s the idea that you shouldn’t make objects that already exist. You see artists in my field that are making tributes to these movements that have already happened, maybe 100 years ago and there’s no progress in that. If you want to make progress you really have to be aware of what is out there… To really recognize art history and sort of weed out certain ideas because they have been done before or are maybe a cliché in this moment. What you’re showing by replicating a time period that already existed is that you like it, but you didn’t exactly understand or learn anything from it. And maybe there is this sort of nostalgic longing for wanting to recreate that time period, but I don’t think the modern world really has time for us going backwards…unless you can present that in a new light.

What about Savannah inspires you?

The high contrast environment of this place – there’s such variety between ourselves and everyone else around us. I think that maybe inspires me to be greater than what’s happening around me. I see images of faith in this place all around me and it’s sort of inspiring to transcend that.

When have you been most satisfied in your life?

I don’t think I have reached that point yet. I think that comfort and satisfaction isn’t exactly a good thing in my career path. You want to be constantly unsatisfied so you are motivated to keep going.

Who is your biggest role model?

I don’t think I ever really had role models to be honest. I’ve sort of glorified artists of the past and their lifestyles but everyone is flawed in their own way. I think I looked up more to ideas than I did to people.

What is your favorite piece of art that you have created?

I felt a bit strange doing this piece from last year when I did a performance piece in the classroom. I wanted to push the classroom setting, what’s allowed in an academic school, what’s accepted, what they’d let me do in respecting art making. It was a piece where I was in one of the installation rooms and I closed the door and asked the class to count to 30 before coming in. They joyously counted down and were sort of cheering. When they came into the room I was standing on a stool with a noose around my neck. How long would they let me stand up there and say, “It’s just art?” When would they be willing to throw their ideas to the curb to tell me I couldn’t do this? It was important to me to question the classroom setting.

What are you trying to communicate with your art?

I personally think that any image you look at doesn’t have any meaning at all inherently; it takes a viewer’s perception to create a narrative when they look at it. In that sense everything is subjective that you put out there. I think I like to recognize the idea that none of these works actually have meaning – you must suppose the artist’s intention. I directly recognized that idea with a painting I made about nothing that paradoxically meant a lot more than nothing. It wasn’t as simple as, say, a landscape about nothing but a landscape. My painting was a flat black painting. People were trying to ask about the meaning and they came up with their own ideas for what it meant. The truth was that it meant something different to everyone else. That really goes for anything.

Is there anything you want to leave us with?

I guess I’ll just say, I think that people should constantly question their reality…their idea of reality. It is constantly shifting and I think people will find that even reality is unstable.

Because of the human condition, we can’t really perceive the truth as much as we think we can.

Visit jonobileartist.com for more

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Photographed by Matt Slade

If you get there before I do

bodysuit For Love & Lemons

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shirt Vince. stockings Free People

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shirt Topshop panty American Apparel

SKEMONGO: UNDERGROUND, 12PM Hayley Larson

What are your main themes in your artwork?

There are three main topics in my artwork: graffiti and typography on canvas, human figures, and traditional graffiti/murals and bombing. I am very interested in traditional graffiti and the layering that occurs by banners and posters put up over walls. Even when they’re painted with more graffiti and the city comes in and then paints over that…after all these stages you can still see the graffiti layer underneath: that is very interesting and inspiring to me.

Is there anything that you specifically write about when you are tagging or doing your graffiti work?

I write ‘SKEM’ basically over and over again on all of my canvases and graffiti work.

‘SKEM’ is my name, my brand. Sometimes I will alter the word to ‘SKEMO’ or ‘SKEMONGO.’ Sometimes people tell me, “Oh you’re not a graffiti artist, you’re not writing graffiti on the walls.” I understand that, but I try to communicate the themes of graffiti. When you think about it, graffiti is basically promoting yourself so I can’t say there is much that I am communicating to people; I sound like a narcissist.

Sometimes people think that there is no process to this type of artwork I do: that I just arrive at a canvas and start painting and pick cool colors. Just even studying how the typography works together, the tagging, the graffiti, the letters – how they work together is a really complicated process of how those letters work with the background and foreground as a composition. Having positive space and negative space and knowing there is a part that I can’t really control. I do try to control the dripping as much as I can. I’m working with gravity here. If I mess up I have to start all over again.

What would you say are your main inspirations?

Well I would have to actually say typography. I started painting graffiti about seven years ago at home in Puerto Rico. I would see the graffiti on the streets on my way to school or driving around with my parents, and that’s what I would try to imitate.

That’s how you start: you take things from the street and you try to make them better.

A couple of years before I came to Savannah I was doing work and it was a lot of, I would say, murals in Puerto Rico. A couple of times I would go and do illegal graffiti – bombing is what they called it. When I came to Savannah to study, obviously the laws were stricter so I had to change my medium to canvas and other things. I prefer canvas to other objects but now I have started using others. Last week was Fashion Week in Puerto Rico and I did some prints for a really famous fashion designer there named Gustavo Arango.

photography Hannah Kik

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I saw the prints you did for a SCAD 2014 Fashion Show designer, Leah Michelle Smith. One of my friends walked the designs done with your print in the show.

Oh yeah, those were printed directly onto the garment. She cut the garments and brought them with an airbrush machine and I painted directly onto them (with a tool I had never used before). It was very challenging because that was a really, really difficult tool to use. I’m used to spray paint, but the pressure of this pen-airbrush tool was different. Going back to your previous question, most of my work is presented on canvases and when I find another medium where I can paint, like these skulls [presents], or maybe the fashion clothes , I go and do that, too.

What are some general, overall themes besides obviously your graffiti? You’ve got paintings, too, like the image of the girl looking over her shoulder.

I like to include human figures, portraits – I use oil pastels for the figures. I think I’ve never really worked with hm, how do you call it, paintbrushes [laughs]. I usually like to have markers, pencils, and oil pastels and obviously spray paint; I really layer.

Lately I’ve been doing these canvases that have a circle on them as a really simple and minimalistic approach to this type of artwork. I also have really been influenced by architecture and going from architecture to this type of art has been very inspirational. You can see my old work and my new work – very different.

Where do you want to be in five years? It’s sort of hard to think past SCAD. I was thinking about this the other day because I have to admit that I put the same amount of work in my architecture [his BFA major] as I do my graffiti work. For me they both have the same amount of importance, and I would love to work as an architect when I graduate, but I will never stop painting graffiti at the same time.

It is my hobby, and it is what defines me as a creative artist. So one thing I’ve always thought is how I can combine graffiti and architecture at the same time, maybe through contemporary architecture now. At the same time I say maybe my artwork can be my future but I wouldn’t want to leave architecture and put it away. A year ago I wanted to be in New York City and last summer I did an internship there and didn’t end up liking New York. It wasn’t my city. I definitely want to be in a spot where there are a lot of young people who inspire each other…maybe somewhere in Europe. Berlin has a great art scene right now. I went to Hong Kong with SCAD about 8 weeks ago for 3 weeks and I love that place. In terms of design they’re really high tech and minimalist and that is something that I like about Hong Kong. I’m never in one place very long. You need traveling to help your inspiration…going around meeting new people, new cultures; a person who doesn’t travel doesn’t learn.

Do you have any specific artists that influence your work?

Yes. There’s a French-Tunisian street artist, Elseed, and he does Arabic calligraphy.

He does a lot of murals and canvases. I’m also inspired by an artist called Revok. He is from Detroit and now he has started a new edition of his canvases where he basically goes through Detroit’s abandoned houses and collects debris, colorful pieces that have patterns and he then puts them together into canvases. Now he’s working really geometric shapes from these pieces of wood that he finds and sometimes retouches. He’s definitely one of the main people that influence and inspires me.

What would you say is the best piece of advice you’ve received?

I would say as an artist just being told to believe in myself. I think that in terms of advice I have to admit my mother gives me advice in terms of never stopping when you think you have done enough, to keep going and try to exceed your limits. Also, “don’t be last.” For young people I think that’s important: if you party, you wake up.

It doesn’t have to be early, but when you wake you must do work.

What about Savannah inspires you?

I call Savannah “Alice in Wonderland.” It’s what this town reminds me of, especially with the trees and its charm. What I like about SCAD is you have all these students from different disciplines who are really creative and who are as motivated as you – those are the people you should get together with if you are motivated to do anything. When you’re with people who want to do as much as you do and you want to impress them, they want to impress you. It’s a lot about egos. It pushes you to be a better artist.

When have you been most satisfied in your life?

I don’t want to sound like a prick but I am never satisfied. I always want to do it better. For example, those prints I did for the fashion student got onto the cover of a SCAD brochure and were published online in Vogue magazine, Elle – and that was great. Obviously she was the one that did the designs, but I put all of my artwork onto the pieces. When I then collaborated with the Puerto Rican designer I thought, “Wow, this is really great,” and I could have been satisfied at that second but for the next one I will say I want to go for the biggest. Obviously I’m satisfied and I’m happy and I’m glad I am doing these things but I never think that I am going to stop there.

I always want to keep going for more and more. The path towards something great.

Visit jeanpierreskem.com for more

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a film by John Tuccillo Jr. creative direction ARKHAM Magazine photography Blake Crosby actors Mario Matthews, Samantha Binkerd, Luke Dressler

SPOTLIGHT

Written and directed by recent SCAD Film graduate John Tuccillo Jr., The Dinner Guest is a short film about the complexities of family dynamic. A winner of the Hudson Comedy Festival award for Best Comedic Short Film, as well as an Official Selection of the East Coast X Film Festival, the film stars Luke Dressler as Nick: a stoner/slacker art school graduate who still lives with his parents. After Nick grows exceedingly suspicious of his sister’s boyfriend Derek, the dinner guest, played by Mario Matthews, things get...a little out of hand. Like its director, the cast has a wealthy variety of personality. The film’s relatability spans audiences as it continues to win accolades nationwide. John Tuccillo Jr. is currently living in Los Angeles, California.

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the theme of tonight’s party has been changed

Photographed by Haley Varacallo Photographer Assistance by Reuben Kim

shirt Gage Daughdrill

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skirt Gage Daughdrill shirt Topshop

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dress Torn by Ronny Kobo shoes Brian Atwood

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CONTRIBUTORS ARKHAM Yasamin Rahmanparast, Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Miller, Creative Director Nik Hakanson, Stylist /Asst. Art Directior Ashley Lo, Producer Hayley Larson, Interviewer Photography Finn Schult // He Thinks We’re Braiding Our Hair Lorena Lavin // We Don’t Know We Don’t Know Matt Slade // Interview with Reese Riley & If You Get There Before I Do Haley Varacallo // God Say Yes To Me & The Theme Of Tonight’s Party Has Been Changed Hannah Kik // In Conversation with Jo Nobile & Skemongo: Underground, 12pm Blake Crosby // The Dinner Guest Reuben Kim, Photographer Assistance // God Say Yes To Me & The Theme of Tonight’s Party Has Been Changed SCAD Designers Carla Gonzalez // He Thinks We’re Braiding Our Hair Brendan Combs // We Don’t Know We Don’t Know Ellia Wang // Interview with Reese Riley Karen Kriegel // Interview with Reese Riley Sean Junghyun Won // God Say Yes To Me Victoria Camila // God Say Yes To Me Michael Mann // God Say Yes To Me Nigel Prude // God Say Yes To Me Jacqueline Rose // God Say Yes To Me Gage Daughdrill // The Theme Of Tonight’s Party Has Been Changed

Other Contributers Ashley Lo // Makeup // He Thinks We’re Braiding Our Hair & The Theme Of Tonight’s Party Has Been Changed Alley Renee // Makeup // The Dinner Guest Sara Aleyce Roma // The Theme Of Tonight’s Party Has Been Changed Coastal Empire Fair // The Theme Of Tonight’s Party Has Been Changed Traveling Freak Sideshow // The Theme Of Tonight’s Party Has Been Changed

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He Thinks We’re Braiding Our Hair: Erin Kelly Alex Filipowski Anna Ko Jaz Solana We Don’t Know We Don’t Know: Shane Redding Rose Van God Say Yes To Me: Angus Gore Jeffrey Tindi Chase Feus Jo Nobile If You Get There Before I Do: Erin Kelly The Theme Of Tonight’s Party Has Been Changed: Heather Byler Max Solomon Bruce Sampson Jon Taylor Rachael Spivey LaZanya Ontré Riley Schillaci The Human Paradox

A special thank you to Bill Gardner, Billy Covington, and staff at the Coastal Empire Fair.

DISCLAIMER: ARKHAM Magazine is not responsible for any atypical/irregular thoughts/feelings after contact with this issue.

ARKHAM Magazine is an independent quarterly publication headquartered in the U. S. All rights to images and content reserved.

Keep it freaky, folks.

Note fr om the Cr eative Dir ector

We as humans are animals. We try and deny it, but our instincts are animalistic and raw. Our tendencies in our conquests for love and sex are subtle at times, but real and from the heart -- from our insides. It’s as if there is an animal inside that needs to be fed; it’s aggressive and angry, beastly almost when it’s left unfed, starved.

Through this issue we sought to feed your inner beast. We -- her & I -- created atmospheres that will feed your insides. Taming your beast is hard, a timely task for sure. For ARKHAM, feeding your inner beast is our specialty. Our origin is tending to the beasts that live within your inner asylum. Our muse is our prey, and we are constantly hunting it. Whether our prey be a person, place, or thing, we are always watching, stalking. Stalking you stalking us.

Jacqueline Miller Creative Director

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Contact

@ARKHAMmag Facebook ARKHAM Magazine Issuu issuu.com/ARKHAMmagazine Instagram

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‫راب كي نويش راب كي كرم‬