Cantanker
Photography
Cantanker magazine is now accepting proposals from artists and writers for an issue gener-
EXCESS
Clarisse Noelle
ally themed “IDENTITY” that will be published in October, 2008. You may submit a proposal
Issue 5
Evan Prince
for a written project (interview, artist profile, opinion piece) or a proposal for the Project
Spring 2008
Suzanne Koett
Space, a special section of the magazine in which artists are given between two and three
Editors
Contributors
John Mulvany
David Pagel
Debra Broz
Joseph Phillips
Shea Little
Ben Pickle
spreads (4-6 pages) to explore the issue’s theme by creating artworks made specifically for the magazine.
Photography, conceptual projects, text-based work, or work dealing with the formal issues raised by the print medium (paper, printing, ink, etc.) are particularly well-suited for Cantanker. We encourage pushing the boundaries of the printed medium and welcome all proposals.
Michelle Mayer Art Direction & Design
Carter Cox
Submission Guidelines & Deadlines
Shea Little
Sean Ripple
-Proposals should be art-related
Paul McLean
-Proposals for the Fall issue, “IDENTITY” should be submitted as soon as possible, as we
Production Manager
Amelia Winger-Bearskin
are currently gathering content for this issue and will accept or reject proposals as they are
Laura Latimer
Rachel Haggerty
submitted.
Michelle Dewey
-Proposals MUST be submitted through e-mail at editor@cantanker.com. Please title your
Copy Editor
Santiago Forero
email “SUBMISSION”.
Ben Pickle
Debra Broz John Mulvany
Promotion & Advertising Sean Gaulager
Cover
-Please include your snail mail and e-mail addresses, phone number, website link and a very short biography at the beginning of your submission email.
Submission Specifics -No hard copy through the mail.
Shea Little
-You will only be contacted if we are interested in using your proposal. Due to the large vol-
Event Coordinator
Joseph Phillips
ume of e-mail we receive we cannot reply to everyone. If you have not heard from us within
Christina Hiett
Michelle Mayer
a month please assume we were unable to use your submission. -Texts should not exceed 1000 words and should minimize the use of jargon or art-speak.
Intern
Back Cover
Writing should be accessible to an intelligent general readership. Feel free to include related
Mark Rosen
Sculpture by Richie Budd
visual materials with article drafts or proposals.
Photo by Clarisse Noelle
-Texts should be submitted as an attachment in Microsoft Word (DOC or TXT file types).
Advisory Board Reza Shirazi Laura Latimer Christina Hiett
-We do not publish poetry or fiction. -Accepted image formats include TIFF, PDF, or JPG. Maximum image size for proposals is 2 MB. If we use your proposal we will request larger files.
Thank you in advance for your submissions. We truly appreciate your contribution and your continuing support for our publication. If you have questions about submissions please email editor@cantanker.com.
This project is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
De Kooning, De Koooooning!
In Painter, a 1995 video by Los Angeles artist Paul Mc-
the worst of it an art critic appears in the studio. The
drawings and sculptures have their own exuberant
painter drops his pants; the critic kneels down behind
quality. Paul McLean gives us the update from LA and
him and sticks his big rubber nose up his arse, declar-
there’s a $150 gift certificate up for grabs courtesy of
ing; “mmm, very nice!” It’s nauseating and brilliant.
Jerry’s Artarama and Amelia Winger-Bearskin’s Austin Artworld Scavenger Hunt. Carter Cox recalls his year-
Carthy, our protagonist, played by McCarthy himself, dressed up in blond fright-wig, painters smock, huge
It’s pretty funny too but you also can’t wait for it to be
long stint in Los Angeles fabricating Jeff Koons’ Bal-
rubber nose and comically large rubber hands, goes
over.
loon Dog sculpture and Michelle Dewey writes about the upside of excess through the art of Felix Gonzales
absolutely mental in his studio as he struggles to begin a large painting. “De Koooooning, De Koooooning” he repeatedly intones in a horrible high-pitched, nasally sing-song
Of course McCarthy is poking savage fun at the artist
Torres. We have also introduced a new section, Project
as tortured genius and Painter frequently cuts close to
Space, where artists can create their own magazine-
the bone; he is, after all, an art-world insider ridiculing
specific projects. Austin artists Michelle Mayer and
the culture that he’s very much a part of himself.
Joseph Philips are our first participants while regular contributor Ben Pickle offers oddments of absurdity
voice while mixing paint squeezed from huge paint McCarthy’s over-the-topness is echoed in a generation
on our theme throughout the issue. We also feature
of younger artists who do over-the-top as part of their
photographs by Columbian artist Santiago Forero with
The whole atmosphere of the video is woozy, hysterical
act too. The Chapman brothers with their sculptures
commentary by an assortment of art luminaries.
and crazed. The production values are sub-porn, the
of penis-faced children and their dioramas based on
acting broad and knowing, with all the actors wearing
Goya’s Disasters of War and the Holocaust, Thomas
the same large comic rubber noses as the painter of
Hirschhorn’s Superficial Engagement show on the
the title.
media and the horrors of modern war, and Matthew
tubes with labels that read BLUE, RED and SHIT.
All this and 12.088% extra free! Enjoy the issue
Barney’s Cremaster Cycle all turn things up to eleven in “I’m fuckin’ painting, I’m fuckin’ painting” squeals the
their own ways.
John Mulvany
painter spinning around in circles before launching into or. He then proceeds to mix up bottles of ketchup and
world, even when the art world functioned pretty much
mayonnaise to add to the paint all the while moaning,
as a branch of the religious world. From Bellini laying
screeching like a bird, muttering to himself and gener-
on the liquefied cash of lapis lazuli in quantities only
ally behaving like an unhinged, crack-addled muppet.
the Church could afford, to Damien Hirst’s For the Love
Things go on like this for a while with the painter get-
of God, a diamond-encrusted human skull that is the
ting more and more agitated and demented. He takes
most expensive piece of contemporary art in history,
a piss in the corner, tears up his gallery owners’ office
artists have embraced the opportunity to indulge at
and destroys some ‘priceless art’.
every turn.
“Oh these artists, I can’t stand it!” says the gallery
So with this issue of Cantanker we cast an eye over
owner as McCarthy runs amok in her office, demanding
Excess in all its forms. Debra Broz gets the ball rolling
money and crawling around on the floor.
with her interview with Stephanie Wagner who appears in 20 to Watch at AMOA. Sean Ripple’s excessively
“All the artists who get famous go through this ridicu-
long interview with LA artist Brian Cooper fills up loads
lous stage” she exclaims.
of space. We also feature two other artists who use materials in a variety of flamboyant ways; San Antonio
Later the painter produces a meat cleaver and begins
artist Richie Budd and his Rauschenbergian, smoke
to hack away at his big rubber hands spurting fake
and bubble-blowing machine sculptures, and Austin
blood everywhere. Just when you think you’ve seen
artist Sarah Stevens whose repetitive and obsessive
ar th y P au l M cC
Excess has always been a huge component of the art
P ai nt er , S ti ll fr o m
his canvas with a huge paintbrush loaded with shit-col-
The Silence is Deafening
Take, for example, writer Tom Robbins’ character Turn Around Norman. He comes to the same spot
Issue 5 Contents
every morning and begins to turn; his turn, though,
Dog Show: Behind the Costumed Canines of
When I was a kid I would watch my grandmother
is so slow it’s nearly imperceptible. He begins facing
Stephanie Wagner by Debra Broz
quilt for hours, poking the needle though the fabric,
east. At noon, he’s completed a semi-circle and is
her face so calm she seemed to be in a trance.
facing southwest. By dusk, he has completed a full
When she was finished with a quilt most of the time
circle and the performance is over. He transcends
she gave it away. You could say the thousands of
time, stretching this simple gesture to the point of,
stitches embodied her sense of selflessness, but I
well…excess.
Turner’s Turn by David Pagel [Mr. O’Malley] by Ben Pickle Cantanker Project Space:
like to think that she had a more selfish reason for making quilts: the process of quilting was a bit of
In this issue we’ve devoted a lot of time to exploring
The Luxmall Catalog
stolen time where the whole world was reduced to
the overdone and the extreme, the massively quanti-
by Joseph Phillips
only her and the push and pull of the needle and
fied, consumerism-influenced, blaringly tremendous
thread. That action had the power to make the world
side of excess, but there is the other side - the side
Enhanced Interrogation of Brian Cooper
fall away.
of the excessively, brilliantly simple. Donald Judd
by Sean Ripple
and his perfect, gleaming boxes, Ellsworth Kelley’s There is nothing like being able to lose yourself in
giant monochrome canvases without a single visible
something; having the ability to shed the skin of the
brushstroke, Andy Goldsworthy’s stacks of various
world and exist, even for just a moment, without all
sizes of rocks - the results are so pure, yet these
Cantanker Project Space:
the “stuff” that normally penetrates everyday life.
ideal results often require a phenomenal effort.
REAL/ QUALITY TIME SPENT/ TOGETHER
The devotion of the self to a simple action can often
For those of you who don’t believe that statement,
GREAT/ OUTDOORS/ LIKE MOTHS TO A LIGHT
be more powerful than all the frivolities we desire.
I leave you with a quote from the third season of
by Michelle Mayer
REDACTED by Ben Pickle
the television show Futurama, said by the most excessive being in the universe, God: “When you
Year of the Dog by Carter Cox
do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.” And that is what I love about art.
Richie Budd: Performance & Work in Progress Text by Debra Broz, photos by Clarisse Noelle
Enjoy the issue- and if you’d like to argue about the validity of minimalism, or virtually anything else send
Caligula by Paul McLean
me an email at debra@cantanker.com.
The Gentleman by Ben Pickle
Debra Broz
Sensory Overload: the Vivid World of Sarah Stevens by Rachel Haggerty Austin Artworld Scavenger Hunt by Amelia Winger-Bearskin After the Party’s Over Photos by Santiago Forero Quotes compiled by Amelia Winger-Bearskin The Sweet Smell of Excess by Michelle Dewey
Dog Show: Behind the Costumed Canines of Stephanie Wagner by Debra Broz With its every piece an intricately frosted confection, Divinity Series, Stephanie Wagner’s collection of elaborately dressed and decorated canines is not as innocent as its cascading superfluities would have you believe. A lavender poodle is entombed in lace, a featureless, peach Lhasa-Apso is hidden by pulled-taffy hair, a pale red schnauzer has bulging eyes and a clown-like grimace. “Did the candy colors fool you?” they ask. Wagner’s dogs are humorous yet disconcerting in their unrestrained extravagance. The head of an elated Pekingese protrudes from a knitted puddle, a button rose moonlights as the bulging eye of a Dreamsicle-orange Chihuahua. The animals are absorbed by their decoration until they become it, a confusion of subject and object that is, at once, gratifying and eerily false. Wagner’s experimental casting-slip technique enables her to create the dense yet delicate forms. Hair, lace, silk flowers, grass, and knitted accessories are dipped into clay slurry; when the original material burns out in the firing process, a ceramic “fossil” is left. These adornments build atop one another, some spiraling into highly crafted towers. After installing a large group of 25 or so dogs at the Austin Museum of Art’s 20 to Watch in February, Wagner’s studio still had the air of the triumph and relief that comes with the completion of a huge project. We talked crafting, success and the Californian invasion of Austin.
How does your work relate to the theme
ing out these materials—pom-poms, lace,
of Excess?
trim, things from Hobby Lobby and Michaels. So I literally grew up with the mate-
I think if you were going to describe my
rials I’m using now. I had and I still do have
work, “excess” would be one of the first
a love-hate relationship with wanting to
three words. Instead of obsessive compul-
have this clean environment, this order, but
sive disorder I have obsessive-excessive
not being able to get away from the…stuff.
disorder. Someone accused me once of mocking My mother was a crafter. We were always
Middle America, crafters, the bourgeoisie—
making stuff on the dining room table. It
but I’m not mocking it. I AM the bourgeoi-
was just covered with crafting supplies so
sie. (Laughs.) That’s where I’m from. These
we could never eat there. My mother would
things are made with love. I am making fun
keep all of the debris, the trash, from the
but I’m making fun of myself as much as
projects; we’d organize it all and keep pull-
anyone else.
How did your current body of work develop?
I also thought dogs were a good platform. The idea
I think a lot of people are moving to Austin because of
seemed funny to me. I wanted there to be some way
the lifestyle. I love living here, and I want to stay here,
In my earlier work, I was using the same craft-oriented
to enter the piece, something recognizable. Before I
but so does everyone else. I heard some statistic that
materials that I use now in 3-dimensional sculptures
was making these sculptures that didn’t have clearly
said there were more people with PhDs working in
with wire structures and paper-mache, pasting and
defined imagery, and I wanted something really spe-
coffee houses here than any other city. People come
gluing. But I could never get the kind of harmony that
cific because I’d never worked like that before.
here and get their graduate degrees and they don’t want to leave.
I wanted using the materials as they are. Then, Janet Kastner, one of the ceramics professors at UT, told me
They are definitely engaging. Maybe that’s because
about casting slip which became my magic potion. I
they have a face.
Do you feel like being in 20 to Watch is really going to give your career a big boost?
dip all the materials in slip, then when I attach them to the form and fire it, it all gets reduced to one common
Some of them do. Some of them have assholes in-
denominator. The materials are transformed instead of
stead!
I sure as hell hope so! If this doesn’t do it?! (Laughs). I think there’s a lot of initial energy that comes from
just being glued on. Do you work on several pieces simultaneously? I know you started out as a printmaker. Do you still
the show, and I’ve just acknowledged “I have to work this!” I put my website up right before the show, and
make prints? How do they relate to your three-di-
I do. I work out a process where I usually have three
I’ve been getting a really good response. The exhibit
mensional work?
or four going at a time because the slip has to set up.
will be traveling for over a year, so I’m really interest-
Otherwise there’s a lot of waiting. When I was working
ed to see what happens.
I still do make prints. I’ve used a certain material to
on the museum show I had about nine pieces going.
dress a ceramic dog, then I’ve inked the same mate-
That caused me to lose a piece because I just pushed
rial and run it through the press. Since I just finished
it too hard, but I wanted to get as many finished as
making all these dogs, I’m ready to make more prints
possible. I wanted it to look like a store, as if you
You can see Stephanie’s installation at the
now. The prints are almost like sketches or ideas, but
were going to register for your wedding and pick out
Austin Museum of Art until May 11, 2008
they’re after the fact, they’re almost like documenta-
awful crystal glasses or something like that. I think
www.amoainteractive.org/newartinaustin2008
tion. They are more ambiguous, more atmospheric.
the installation is kind of alluring and repulsive at the
www.stephaniewagner.com
Usually, the 2-D work comes after the 3-D work. I
same time.
think for a lot of people it’s the other way around. I
Photos by Suzanne Koett
never really make sketches of the dogs. I’ll have an
Do you think it is difficult to be a successful artist
idea and start researching a breed, like the Yorkshire
in Austin? Do you feel successful?
terrier. I’ll look at a lot of pictures online or I’ll look at dog books. Then I build forms of the dogs intuitively.
I don’t know if you ever feel completely successful. Having said that, I do feel successful, but I think it is
How did you start using the animal theme?
very hard. Houston and Dallas are so close. Houston is the fourth or fifth largest art market, and I think
It’s funny because everyone always asks if I have a
you really have to tap into one of those. I hate talking
dog and I don’t. I loved the film Marie Antoinette.
about money but you really can’t sell work in Austin
When I started researching the Rococo period I found
for as much as you could in Houston or Dallas or
that that’s when they really started breeding those
Los Angeles or New York. But I think it is changing
dogs specifically for show. A lot of the dogs that are
and it is getting better. Things are getting a lot more
bred today are almost bred in our image; they some-
interesting here. Austin’s growing. I moved here from
times refer to it as “eugenics”. Now we’re dressing
California, it seems like now I’m talking to people all
them, and it’s just becoming crazy.
the time that have moved here from California, and now I’m hearing “Those damn Californians!”.
Turner’s Turn by David Pagel
I liked the Turner exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art a whole lot more than I thought I would. Going in, I was happily anticipating a half afternoon among works I could enjoy without having to explain the peculiarities of my pleasures or trying to come up with words to convince readers they should share my enthusiasm for the many masterpieces – and loads of ambitious missteps – that filled gallery after gallery with the longdead painter’s land-, sea-, and sky-scapes. Coming out of the show, I was flat-out bowled over by Turner’s relentless inventiveness, and, even more so, by the way he looked out at the world with such ferocious, soak-it-all-in intensity that he actually transformed the way we see it today, in the midst of the digitally littered image glut of modern life. I haven’t done my homework, so I don’t know how many works were on view, their dimensions, the years
That’s how the Turner show worked for me, taking
Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army
they were painted, or even how many galleries they
something utterly familiar – a sunset as well as my
Crossing the Alps, 1812.
filled. But more than a month after the show I am still
understanding of a particular strand of art history
very clear on how fresh it felt, how lively and inspiring
– and turning it upside-down and inside-out: into an
its individual and series of paintings were, especially
absolutely satisfying thrill ride that leaves me amazed
for being made up of so many that are included in
at one guy’s capacity to see so much, to record it so
so many textbooks and slide lectures. A colleague of
faithfully, and to share it so generously. Makes you
mine, who, as an artist, is a much tougher critic than
want to go back for more, everywhere, all the time.
me, had a similar experience. He came away from the show beaming, positively effusive about the churning radiance of Turner’s light and the furious tumult of space the painter engineered with nothing fancier than brush and canvas. “The first Light and Space artist,” my colleague said, hitting the nail on the head and claiming Turner as his own, a fellow connoisseur of those ravishing moments when perception and cognition give bodily consciousness far more than it bargained for.
Oil on canvas, 57 ½ x 93 ½ in. Tate, London, Bequeathed by the Artist, 1856.
Image courtesy of the Dallas Museum of Art
David Pagel writes about art for the LA Times
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Enhanced Interrogation Austin artist Sean Ripple asks Los Angeles artist Brian Cooper too many questions.
9. How long has it taken you to arrive at your cur-
15 .Do you think that you could dedicate yourself
18. How do you define success as an artist?
rent image making theme?
to so few images a year if you lacked the ability
I see financial success as a way for one to continue
Since 1994.
to realize such formally capable work?
to make art with fewer distractions. Plus, being
I love the idea of a focused “big event”. I want each
accepted by the art establishment doesn’t seem
10. Do you find image making themes to be some-
painting to feel like a full meal rather than a tasty
to do it because, as we know, some times it’s who
thing like gimmicks?
snack.
you know rather than what you know. So, perhaps
No. 1. For the purposes of our interview, do you pre-
artistic success is an introverted idea. My art is a 16. What’s the worst advice you’ve been given as
response to my consciousness of this world and all
fer the phrase “art making” or “image making” or
11. Do you believe in such a heroic notion as the
an artist?
that inhabits it. It feels exciting to do this. As long
both or neither?
singular artistic vision?
I was always told that I should never be romantically
as one feels this drive and “rush” for creating art,
Neither.
No. “Singular”? Definitely not.
involved with another artist because of problems of
then it is a success. A passionate artistic process is
competitiveness. I met my wife in undergrad in ’94
a very wonderful psychic space to be in.
2. Do you consider art making/image making to
12. Do you think art making is displaced religious
and we’ve happily been together ever since. Over
be your life’s work?
impulse as has been suggested by a website
the years we’ve learned that it can work, but you
Yes.
19. Do such concepts as success really have any place within the realm of art? No.
3. Do you have a MFA? Yes.
20. Is there such a thing as objectivity when evaluating artistic merit?
4. What does the phrase “academized art mak-
No.
ing/image making” mean to you? When a rationalized argument for one’s art work
21. Is it important for an artist to have historical
and its art historical context is more valued than the
awareness of past artistic figures/movements/theo-
esthetics of art making.
ries? Yes. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel.
5. Do you think artists with MFAs dominate the art market, or is the market so large that such a
22. Do you feel that there is a deficiency in the
notion has no gravity?
amount of cultural importance/artistic appre-
MFAs dominate the most valued and the most insti-
ciation awarded to artistic practice and those
tutionally respected art markets.
who devote themselves to its pursuit by people outside the realm of art? No.
6. Does this imply something inherent about the art market? It implies that the art market is very unsure of how
23. Why do you think popularity often lessens an
to judge art and feels more comfortable with cre-
artist’s critical reception?
dentials to decide whether an artist is worthy to be
Criticism thrives on negativity. To dislike something
taken seriously or not.
is a way to question authorities and assumptions. “Serious” intellectuals use negativity to guard the truth from the allure of trendiness and hype.
7. What do you think the academic approach to art making/image making adds to/subtracts from artistic output? Going through the process of getting an M.F.A. forced me to learn about a wide range of different approaches in a concentrated and focused environment. Learning how to think critically and rationally to justify my work was very good for me at that time in that environment. Now all that stuff has soaked into my intuition, I don’t need to consciously follow it any more. My “gut feelings” are now simply sharper and more experienced. Some of my friends who did not get MFAs seem to have ended up making art that is closed off some how. They seem to be making art in a vacuum. 8. Would you say that you have a consistent theme with your art making? Yes, but it’s very vague and subtle.
24. Does art criticism solely function as a mouthfor an MIT OpenCourseWare course for Modern
need to be able to really trust each other. We each
piece for an elitist perspective even in such cases
Poetry?
see each other’s success as our own.
where the critic offering the criticism is unrecognized by the elite as being a voice of the elite?
I haven’t been to the site, but I think being emotionally moved by art is one of the best feelings there
17. What’s the best?
is and I’m willing to bet that it’s the same plane of
Barbara Kruger in a late 90s interview in Art in
experience that the devout strive for.
America talked about the benefits of living in L.A. as
25. Do you think there is an excessive amount
an artist. She talked about the large number of grad
of negativity directed towards art and artists by
13. How many images do you make a year?
schools, the relatively inexpensive cost of living (as
critics of art?
About ten paintings and hundreds of sketches per
compared to S.F. or N.Y.), the growing gallery scene
Yes.
year.
and the freedom artists have. I remember she said,
No.
“N.Y. is a great place to show art and L.A. is a great
26. What is the most money you’ve ever asked for
14. How is it that you are able to dedicate your-
place to make art.” Eight years later, I can’t say she
a single piece of your artwork?
self to so few images each year?
was wrong.
$5000
Each piece is usually the result of many quick drawings that are generated in an improvised manner
27. What is the most money you’ve paid for a
in my sketchbook. I wish I could make more but
piece of artwork?
the craft involved takes a lot of time and I love the
$100
results.
28. What is the most money you’ve made in a
41. Given the current self-marketing climate and
47. Have many interviews have you done as an
54. If you had to make your own paints, would you
single year selling your art?
its associated virtual tools (MySpace, Flickr, You-
artist?
be able to?
$14,000
Tube, and personal websites) do you think gallery
Four.
Maybe, if I had access to the right minerals.
representation and institutional validation have 29. Do you think the democratizing force that is
become deemphasized or are they no more/no
48. Do you listen to music while working on a
55. Do you build your own stretcher bars?
the Internet allows more crap to fly as art?
less relevant than they have ever been?
piece?
No. Collectors seem to care about that stuff.
No.
They are no more or no less relevant than they have
All the time. 56. Is there an artist that you find yourself steal-
ever been 30. If there was a television show similar to Proj-
49. Is there an artist/artistic movement that you
ing ideas from? Stealing? No.
ect Runway for artists, would you audition for it?
42. Have you ever injured yourself while making a
despise? If so, please name the artist/artistic
No.
piece of art?
movement.
Yes.
The Pattern and Textile movement in L.A. in the 70’s.
All the projects would have to be made quickly. I
43. Have you destroyed any of your pieces of
50. Do you think most artistic statements are
from other artists?
prefer to make work that takes a long time to finish.
artwork out of frustration with the outcome?
nonsense?
Yes.
Yes.
No.
31. Why not?
57. Do you think that art is just language and that in this sense there is no such thing as “stealing”
32. If you were asked to design an art car for
58. Do you think that there is too much focus on
BMW, would you accept?
finding the new or trying to reinvent the wheel
Yes.
in art? No. A unique approach to a standard genre can be
33. Why?
really great.
I would get paid to realize my ideas on their product. 59. Do you have more of an affinity for the Art
It could work.
Brut School or the Photorealist School of art34. What are your influences as an artist?
making/image making?
That’s too big a question.
Neither. My representational images are imagined rather than trying to deal with the photograph. Also,
35. Did you dislike the previous question?
the “art brut school”…is that like a macho Ab Ex
Yes.
thing or Brutalist architecture? Is it raw slacker art? Is it like Jean Dubuffet? I’m not sure? I love expres-
36. Do you consider questions to be inherently
sive mark making. I just have never been able to feel
editorial?
confident with it. Something in me always wants to
Yes.
clean things up.
37. Have you ever worked on one of your paint-
60. Is there a critic for a major art publication
ings while drunk/under the influence of some sort
whose criticism you enjoy?
of intoxicating substance?
Peter Schjeldahl.
No. 61. Is there a critic for a major art publication
38. How many crises of faith have you suffered as an artist? All the time. 39. How have you overcome your insecurities as an artist? I rely on my love for creating stuff. I can’t imagine not doing it all the time. When I think of it like this all of my career insecurities fade away. 40. Are you represented by a gallery? Yes.
whose criticism you think is seriously misguided? I can’t think of any right now. 62. Is there a well-known critic (now deceased) whose criticism you find to be exceptional? Mikhail Bakhtin. His essay, “Rabelais and his World” permanently changed how I made art. 44. If so, how old were you?
51. Do you know of an example of an artistic
63. Is there a well-known critic (now deceased)
Early twenties.
statement that you feel is very well written?
whose criticism you find to be dreadful?
No.
Like many artists, the rigidity of Greenberg bored
45. Is there a fictional movie about an artist that
52. If so, could you provide an excerpt?
me.
you like?
No. 64. Are you familiar with the paintings of Peter
No. 53. Do you have an art-related question that you’d
Saul?
46. Is there a fictional movie about an artist that
like to ask me?
Yes.
you absolutely do not like? If so, please name it
No, not now. I will at some point in the future
and describe why you dislike it.
though.
65. Are you familiar with the sculpture of Matthew
“Basquiat”. The heroism and romanticism is too
Ronay?
overblown.
Yes.
66. Are you familiar with the video work of Aero-
78. What are some of the most important ideas/
85. If your answer to the previous question is not
89. What do you think would be a worse gig as
naut Mik?
techniques you gained from your art school
Basquiat or if it is and you’d still like to answer
an artist: a greeting card designer or a window
No.
experience?
the question: Do you think Basquiat is an over-
dresser?
In undergrad, at the San Francisco Art Institute, I
rated artist?
Greeting card designer. I’d imagine you’d have to
67. Have you ever seen the paintings of Grace
learned what the day to day lifestyle of an artist really
Yes. But I still think his work is good.
tone it down a lot more than a window dresser. I love
Slick?
was. They taught me that if I was serious, I’d have to
No.
really dedicate myself to making stuff and work hard. It
86. Do you think Matthew Barney is an overrated
was up to me.
artist?
68. If not, will you please look them up online? Yes. 69. What do you think of her paintings? Grace
Alison Jackson’s celeb look-a-likes taking a sauna
Yes. But I still like his work. 79. Have you ever shown your artwork in a coffee
together in a London window display. 90. How long have you known that you wanted painting to be your focus as an artist?
shop?
87. As an artist with mass commercial ap-
Yes. In Austin we showed our work several times.
peal, who do you prefer…William Wegman, the
Since I was in high school.
Slick’s?
91. Are you currently or have you ever been
Boring.
tempted to work in another medium besides painting?
70. Is there a well-known musician turned visual
Yes. I stopped painting and made sculpture for five
artist that you think makes exceptional work?
years.
There’s this guy in L.A. named Dani Tull. I love the way he’s blended both worlds of art and music. His
92. You mentioned that you think that some of
website has a lot of info.
your friends that did not receive MFA’s seem to have ended up making art that is closed off…that
71. Have you ever or do you currently work in
they seem to be making art in a vacuum…will you
portraiture?
please elaborate on this statement?
I have in the past. It’s still part of my curriculum. So
Their practice was never really challenged they way
as a teacher, so I’m forced to do a lot of demos.
grad school challenges an artist. They seem to be too comfortable in their practice and don’t seem to
72. If asked, would you do a portrait painting of a
grow and evolve in a virile and positive way. Ques-
municipal figure?
tioning one’s practice is very important.
Yes. 93. What sort of place do mistakes have in your 73. Have you ever done a painting of a pet of
artistic practice…essentially, how much do you
yours or someone else’s?
strive to avoid them…how much do you embrace
No.
them? Mistakes are essential. Being playful and loose
74. Have you ever painted a mural?
generates new creativity. This is what I do when I
Yes, in Oakland, California.
sketch. Even when I paint, I make mistakes. Underneath all of my paintings there are at least two other
75. Do you think the current paintings featured on
versions of the image. When I begin a painting, it is
your website would make good murals?
usually about 50% planned.
Yes. But I enjoy them as paintings in a white gal-
80. Have you ever shown your artwork in a res-
multimedia artist most famous for his anthropo-
lery because some of the ideas behind my work
taurant?
morphic photographs of Weimaraners or George
94. Can you approximate how many different
are about a certain tension between elitism and
Yup, Austin.
Rodrigue, the multimedia artist most famous for
tools you use when translating a sketch into a
his blue dog series?
painting?
William Wegman.
I use a brush. I don’t use opaque projectors or a
populism. 81. Have you ever shown your artwork in a book76. Is there anyone else in your family that is or
store?
was a practicing artist?
Yes.
grid. I just usually hang some sketches around my 88. Do you think the position of generative art
canvas as I work. I usually start with a big brush and
at the beginning of this century is similar to the
a simple color and block it in. Then, I refine it to a
82. Have you ever shown your artwork in a mu-
position of photography at the beginning of the
medium stage. Then I usually battle to find the right
nicipal building?
20th century in terms of it being accepted/not
palette or make big formal changes and edits. Then I
77. Was there one or many classes at any point
No.
being accepted as a truly artistic by museum/gal-
block in the new edited forms and then refine it all to
in your art school experience that you absolutely
83. Have you ever thought to hang your art on the
lery systems?
a crisp detailed level.
could not stand?
street?
I don’t know that much about generative art except
Lithography. I don’t get off on complicated steps. My
Yes.
for maybe John Cage. I’d love to find out more about
No. My family doesn’t really understand what I’m doing.
contemporary artists working this way. Would Mat-
95. Of the tools you use to make an image, which
84. Is there a graffiti artist that transitioned into
thew Ritchie be considered “generative”? I like his
is the one that you have the most trouble control-
the gallery circuit that you like?
stuff a lot.
ling?
painting process is direct. I need instant gratification while I’m spending 120 hours on a painting.
Barry McGee.
Deciding color is the most difficult.
96. To your knowledge, do any of your paint-
106. Do you remember the first piece of art that
111. Can you list names of artists from Texas that
118. Forgive me, this is a vague one, but I would
ings that have been purchased hang in an office
made you laugh…if so, please name the piece
you admire?
still like to ask…Where does impulse end and
environment?
and describe what qualities it possessed that you
Eric Neibuhr, Darrin Little, Jody Hughes.
purpose begin in your practice?
Yes.
thought made it funny?
Many times I create purpose to then play with impul-
Claes Oldenburg’s soft toilet and soft drum set.
112. Can you list names of artists from Texas that
sively. But sometimes the impulsiveness inspires a
97. Is there a location/context that you would not
The deflated look made them seem awkward and
you dislike?
purpose. It’s tough to describe.
like you art to hang in?
vulnerable. The fantasy of his vision seemed fun and
Rauschenberg
No.
playful like a silly old cartoon.
119. Is there a place in the most valued and the 113. Can you list names of artists from California
most institutionally respected art markets for an
98. Jerry Saltz or Clement Greenberg?
107. What qualities do you think you most lack as
that you admire?
artist that lacks a refined perspective?
I guess Jerry because he’s more contemporary?
an artist?
Yes. Too many.
Yes. Look at Robert Williams. He’s respected with
I won’t let myself make a quick piece. I’m so jealous
in those circles. He was the original and the best in
99. In a previous conversation you and I had
of another artist I know, Ry Rocklin. He can put to-
114. Can you list names of artists from California
that genre. These types are ultimately respected.
via email, you mentioned something about how
gether something brilliant in a few minutes. I always
that you dislike?
Also, look at Mark Ryden and Robert Crumb.
the modernist impulse to simply create is not
need to really work a piece.
Yes. Too many.
enough for an artist working today (forgive the
120. Do you find yourself envying other artists
paraphrase)…can you explain the modernist im-
because of their abilities or success?
pulse…its concerns/aims... as you understand it?
Yes. But it fades quickly. More acclaim and more
Pure form is just boring today. It used to be an avant
money would be great, but my day to day lifestyle is
garde idea. But today art that is only about making
really nice. I teach some drawing classes and I have
cool looking shapes and colors is like someone telling
lots of time to paint with my wonderful wife, Susan.
you about a dream they had. They go on about the
It’s perfect.
details but you don’t seem to care. Formalism needs a context for it to live within. We want to see formal-
121. If so, can you list some of these artists?
ism that is in reaction to something in our world and
No. I don’t have anyone specific in mind.
culture. 122. Have you ever given a painting away as a 100. Can you name five pieces of art that you
gift?
consider to be your favorites?
Yes
There are too many works of art to choose from. I like so much out there. But here are some old favor-
123. Can you list some of the negative criticism
ites: Anish Kapoor’s voids, Tim Hawkinson’s circular
your work has received?
model ships, Lari Pitman’s “Transfigurative and
It’s just illustration. It’s too neat and polite.
Needy”, Robert Williams’ “The Hindu Priestess of the 124. How important is discussion with other art-
Somme” and “Expulsion” by Fred Tomaselli.
ists for you? 101. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made as
Very important. I love figuring out art with others.
an artist?
To comment on other’s work helps me grow with my
Waiting for opportunities to come to me rather than
own stuff. Also, I really enjoy the camaraderie.
going out there and asking for things. Images courtesy of Brian Cooper
102. Have you sold paintings that you are now
www.briancooperart.com
embarrassed of? No. 103. Have you ever shipped a painting of yours
108. Do you think Duchamp’s legacy is overesti-
115. Do you submit to calls to artists?
via USPS?
mated?
Rarely.
Yes.
Yes.
104. Have you ever collaborated on a piece of art
109. Do you think Warhol’s legacy is overesti-
with your wife?
mated?
Yes. A mural.
Yes.
105. If so, how was the experience?
110. How indebted is Warhol to Duchamp?
Great. We really liked it and we’d love to collaborate
Lots.
116. Have you ever participated in an art fair? Yes. 117. If so, can you describe the experience? No.
again in the future.
PROJECT SPACE Cantanker’s Project Space gives guest artists the opportunity to explore the theme of the issue by creating artworks made specifically for the magazine. The objective of Project Space is to introduce artists to the public by giving them an open venue to create innovative and experimental work. To submit a proposal to Project Space please see the submission guidelines in front of magazine.
Multi-media artist Michelle Mayer’s work ranges from painting to video installation. For this issue’s theme of “excess” Michelle created digital c-prints REAL/QUALITY TIME SPENT/TOGETHER and GREAT/ OUTDOORS/ LIKE MOTHS TO A LIGHT (following pages). You can see Michelle’s work in a one night only preview of paintings from her new series, Tuning Through, at Austin Figurative Gallery on April 26. For more information about her work visit www.michellemayer.com.
Year of the Dog by Carter Cox
handful of CDs and a large thermos of coffee. Climbing into my car, I waste no time in getting moving. A few turns later, I enter the I-10 on ramp and stomp on the gas. It is now 5:35 AM. I have exactly 25 min-
It is 5:29 AM, and I am hustling down the steep
utes to traverse 25 miles of Los Angeles freeway to
driveway of the small postwar apartment building in
arrive on time at my work in the San Fernando Valley.
the “West of Lincoln” neighborhood of Santa Monica
I relax a bit now, made confident by the knowledge
where I have lived for a year and a half with my
that I am able to pull this off just about every time.
girlfriend of several years. I carry a packed lunch, a
Still, I am riding the edge of punctuality, so I push the needle to 90 mph as I complete the transition to the vaunted 405. Anyone vaguely familiar with the megalopolis called “LA” reflexively groans at the mere mention of this six to twelve lane vehicular nightmare, but at this time of the morning, traffic is heavy, but moving. Hauling up the southern slope of the Santa Monica Mountains in the pre-dawn light, I pass many cars with smaller displacement, and not infrequently am passed by drivers pushing 100 mph. The whiteknuckle intensity of my commute is tempered by the familiar and sonorous tones of National Public Radio, as well as my ritual first cup of coffee. Stepping lively into the cavernous and drab industrial facilities of Charleston and Co., I try to appear unhurried as I jockey with other time-challenged members
Entering the forest of gantries, chain hoists and really
of the workforce for access to the punch clock. 5:59!
nice welders that is my workspace, I am greeted by
My small victory invariably comes with a price, how-
salutations of “Presidente!” Five out of six of the other
ever, and I gird myself against what I know is coming.
members of my fabrication team are first generation
Just above the clock is a buzzer that produces a soul-
Mexican immigrants, and they took to calling me this
wilting, possibly illegally loud screech at 6:00 AM that
because I share a name with former President Carter.
once again both validates and punishes my arrival.
All are invariably already settled in by the time I show,
Steeped in the noxious reverberations of this unholy
and all can work circles around me. Their wide-awake
sound, which take several minutes to fully dampen in
cheerfulness is endearing and grating.
the human body, I shuffle towards the northwestern corner of the hangar-like fabrication floor, where it
Fabricating the Dog will cost approximately one mil-
waits. This portion of my journey is only some 150
lion dollars.
feet, but by the time I have completed it the scale of time has been utterly transformed; from the frenzied
I start the workday by pouring the second of many
blur of my morning drive, to the excruciatingly slow
more cups of coffee, and loading a CD into the boom
and deliberate pace of the Dog.
box that is half buried in tools atop the service cart that is my caboose for the next ten hours. Skip James
I have never laid eyes upon the artist for whom we are
at 6:05 AM under metal halide floodlights lulls me into
making the Dog.
my work trance.
We are six months into a process that is projected to take 10,000 man-hours to complete. My task today, as it has been and will continue to be for weeks, is to remove every single perceptible imperfection from a four hundred pound section of hollow cast stainless steel that will eventually comprise the left leg of the Dog. At this point it still looks like an abandoned metal garbage can. By the end of the day I can reasonably expect to have roughed-out an area the size of a grapefruit. This is accomplished by manipulating a c-frame mounted hydraulic ram that weighs several hundred pounds. It was invented and made in-house for this very purpose. Once positioned, the ram is used to apply up to 10,000 pounds of pinpoint force upon a dime-sized area in order to raise it a couple millimeters. After lunch, and a hundred or so repetitions of this act, I decide to switch to fill welding some of the thousands of voids the size of small grains of sand that pepper the surface of the casting. The heating of the surface that results invariably causes the stainless steel to shrink a little, so further rounds of ramming follow. As the workday nears its end, I heft a four-foot long custom made slackbelt sander and grind the shit out of my grapefruit. Descending the southern slope of the Santa Monica Mountains, I am exhausted but buoyant. Being Thursday, I am a free man for three days; the upside of the ten hour workday. I have a pretty decent paycheck in my pocket, and the thermometer on my rear-view mirror is shedding a degree fahrenheit about every quarter-mile. In a couple of months I will marry my girlfriend, and the timing of this means I will be on my honeymoon in Cabo during most of the hellish final polishing process. But today is Thursday, and my foreseeable future consists of walking the six hilly blocks to the beach and beyond with my soon-to-be wife in the cool velvet sunshine to buy tamales. In dive bars and five star hotels we will drink and rub shoulders with producers, sunburned kooks and perhaps the ghost of Jim Morrison. Someday, when this job and this city are far behind me, the Dog and I will meet again. There will be no hard feelings.
Photos of Jeff Koon’s Balloon Dog in production by Carter Cox
Carter Cox is a sculptor originally from Tuscan, AZ. He currently lives and works in Austin. www.cartercox.com
Bon Voyage Emoting Skillformational Rememories de Pileon is a popcorn-making, George Foreman-grilling, smoke-discharging, sound-emitting, fake-snow-producing, air- circulating, colored-light-swirling, possibly epileptic-seizure-inducing, multi-sensory media installation machine. And it is the conception of San Antonio artist Richie Budd. Budd’s work is giddily overwhelming; it encapsulates the sensory-overload of modern life, eventually subduing the viewer through its seemingly never-ending distractions. These photos are from Richie Budd’s performance, Bon Voyage Emoting Skillformational Rememories de Pileon, at the Triangle Arts Association 25th Anniversary Exhibition during the DUMBO Arts Festival in New York.
Richie Budd is represented by Priska C. Juschka Fine Art. www.priskajuschkafineart.com/artists/Ritchie__Budd www.myspace.com/richiebudd
Photos by Sarah Walko and Gabriela Vainsencher
Richie Budd - Works in Progress It is possible that Richie Budd’s studio could be mistaken for the headquarters of a college party DJ. A smoke machine continually makes its presence known by shooting hissing puffs of fine, white mist. There are beer bottles, pork rinds, speakers and a banner that promotes Budd’s MySpace site in scrawled red spray paint. Spinning colored and white lights reflect off of the stainless steel frames of a row of…medical walkers and wheelchairs(?)! Walkers and wheelchairs: This is where it gets interesting. This - the battle between age and youth, between the endless waste of consumerism and the inevitability of human deterioration - is where Budd makes the jump from party guy to bizarre-artist-inventor-wizard. His works in progress are masses of consumer culture held together with globs and strings of black hot glue atop geriatric devices. Many of the works come alive with electricity; Lights, speakers, and the ubiquitous smoke machine become the living organs inside the melted, complex bodies.
Photos by Clarisse Noelle, shot at Richie Budd’s San Antonio studio.
Caligula by Paul McLean “When one considers excess in a historical context, one considers in awe the Babylon of the Bible—sultans like Achaemenes with hundreds of wives, Chinese emperors with 20,000 concubines... If all you do is watch TV today, you think of Britney Spears. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips. I’m a god, so I only think of myself and anything else I want to think about! Haha! “You have to be a romantic to appreciate the truly overdoing of things, for without an ideal how could righteous outrage blossom? This was Byron’s key, and the Marquis’ as well! Guilt and gilt are the double helix by which religions are born, the elevation and descent of fame’s boomerang. Right now, they cover for enslavement, as they always have. Haha!”
you can’t do it all anymore—after all, I’m almost two thousand years old and made of less than dust —Viagra will not be curing my ED anytime soon... At least you can SEE it all.” Sometimes that’s even naughtier (and certainly less sticky!) Being a voyeur and a god are similar in mode, if not style.
“Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’m the ghost of Caligula. After the inevitable treachery and assassination, my hastily buried bones were, contrary to the legends, not properly disposed of at length by my sisters, and so yet I roam, the great specter of ancient excess. I assume you’ve seen my cinema? Don’t you adore my bio-pics? Last year I was in Venice again for the Biennale! HaHa!”
“A perfect muse, an associate who happens to remind me of dear Drusilla, looked me up after Jason Rhoades took his last boat ride (I kept him company and the dogs off). As an afterthought, and practically everything this muse thinks of is one of those, she asked that I cameo in an artist’s dream – and Hera we are! Sorry. Old joke and no good if you can’t punctuate with a thrust or slice, or a dramatic thumbs-down. I did a goddish scan of the artist’s brain, spoke to the moon and Jupiter, and am ready to comment on the art of excess. For my money (Drusilla is on the coins I love best), I favor Dave Hickey’s Laguna Art Museum show Las Vegas Diaspora: Emergence of Contemporary Art from the Neon Homeland as the best example of excessively beautiful art in recent memory. If you can’t visit the museum before the show closes in June, buy the catalog. Hickey almost singlehandedly re-introduced beauty to the fine art discourse, and this is a curatorial collection of works by students who migrated through Hickey’s car cultureloving miasma of populist art thoughts. Have your sunglasses at the ready, which you will, because it’s Laguna—talk about ’excess!’ Haha!”
“Let me tell you—they don’t compare to the reality show. I’m hanging out here in Vegas at the Monte Carlo, which is burning, an homage to a fiddle-sawing pal of mine, in the most Roman of all today’s great Roman cities. From someone who’s done it all, to you, who haven’t, I can say that I feel right at home, and if
“Let’s get something straight, shall we? Art is not excessive, just expensive, whether you’re dealing with obelisks or odalisques, relative to the cost of wine and war. America knows this better than anybody since the Roma of my day! The artist McLean, a damned north Briton—walls could not
“Your paparazzi are garish clowns standing in for the wealthiest among you, the ones who despise the downward spirals of the poor from pinnacles of false success! The media spoon-feed the mob their gossip and filth and the drug-addled citizenry revel in the entertainment. Meanwhile your US Senate gives the Emperor god George Bush and his minions anything he asks for and they demand, be it blood, flesh, treasure or tragedy. Senators – HAHAHAHA! I preferred the carnage of the Coliseum, myself! Fair and balanced? I mandated the Senators’ wives serve Rome as whores!”
stop their plunder—was concerned with ©Murakami and a show called Some Paintings put together by one of Los Angeles’ A-list art critics, a scribe by the name of Doug Harvey, when I scanned his brain for research dreams in March.
“These two exhibits point at the horizontal influence of excess, namely the erasure of the individual under the brand of the State’s protection (of free expression cum profit), the conquest of public space for personal
gain, conflict of interest promoted as standard operating procedure in the commons, the entrenchment of the uglyloving wag over the beauty-loving wage-earner and so on. As a countermeasure, McLean would offer you a little show like the Claremont Museum’s First Genera-
you don’t live in LA you won’t hear about the Claremont show, or the show at Margo’s, or probably even the big show of Harvey’s picks at Track 16 Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. As Dick Cheney, in all his excessive glory, intoned, ’So?’” “If you were in LA, you would just mosey down to Bergamot, if you want to see excess age well, then visit Larry Bell at Frank Lloyd’s gallery. But shows like these always come and go, like expectant virgins! One thing you’ll discover about excess by visiting shows like these is how devoid of blood they are. If you want to revel in excess, visit the aftermath of a bomb blast in Baghdad, like I did last night. Ah, now that is sweet excess that wipes away all the truth across the horizon, Whitman-like. Where’s the artworld equivalent of Tom Joad now? So, in this moment of excess in an age after ages of excess, go watch There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men, both filmed in the illusion of a Texas that gave you this President of yours, a man-god after my own heart, even if he proclaims himself only an elevated servant . As a Roman ghost god, I can look beyond his speech and witness the scenes of heart and mind that provide pleasures, smiles in one suspended between worlds. Sometime he’ll be like me, after practicing on the likes of foes like Putin for a few ages.”
tion: Art in Claremont, 1907 – 1957, showcasing Millard Sheets, Walter Mix and Karl Benjamin, or another little show of David Smith and Jeffrey Vallance (the latter also loves Senators!) at Margo Leavin Gallery in LA. If
“Excess expresses in the world of power, treasure and sex. You will hear about this ©Murakami show, if not the others. It is by far the most excessively empty of blood. Some will whisper that it expresses nothing more than that reality of excess. As one who died under the blades of those assigned to protect me, taking a shortcut home, I would suggest another reading. This is art that we speak of, and I am also speaking as the world’s first great performance artist. Did you ever hear of my watery horse ride (I couldn’t swim)? If commerce enslaves the artist, who morphs, or transanimates into a
purse-maker and cartoonist and caricaturist, a factory producer, but really a factory worker in the robes of a genius savant, then is this attraction or entertainment? I am a slave to both! I knew Andy Warhol, and you, ©, are not Andy Warhol (but then, neither was he!). You are a traditional Japanese artist, forging copies of hybrids of worlds of no more depth than the parades on your scrolls. You are more Disney than Barney, though you certainly are both. At least your performance mimics the happy.” “On the other hand, there is hate, which you shouldn’t mimic, because it should never be coupled with reason, and writing is always more reasonable than blood. The critic’s show was Hell, of which I also know much. Harvey hung too many bodies in too strong a tree. This shouldn’t be permitted—it’s something a Senator would do, whenever it’s time to punish the Senate in just that way. Now they call it ’tossing someone under the bus.’ I prefer crosses. Harvey put the worst thing he could find by a beautiful artist next to an artwork that makes the ones around it ugly, again and again, seventy times in all, each murder in turn diagnosed and autopsied by the critic, in the manner of biography of the artist so impaled. Fantastically hateful work... I always appreciate when the System elevates someone who hates his fate to the public stage to celebrate failure or to hide worse ones or to oppress the Good Better or Best Choice from the weakened mob. I appreciate this tactic most, of course, because it was my greatest gift and skill. You’ll not hear about Harvey’s show, likely, because the better excess happened across town at the new Broad Center for Contemporary Art! Exactly the same curatorial approach and presentation (check out the Cindy Sherman debacle)—just more of everything at stake and expended! Haha! Broad and Gago: now that’s excessive! Google ‘em, Americans , you’ll get it! Until we meet on the far shore, may your excess be free of consequence, or better yet, make someone else pay! Like Bear Sterns! Haha!”
Image courtesy of Paul McLean
Sensory Overload: the Vivid World of Sarah Stevens by Rachel Haggerty
of proliferating off the page, and her hand-cut embellished vellum spawn cakes resemble a spreading colony of fungi. In Sarah Stevens’ studio, one feels as if
Sarah Stevens is “that girl.” You know, the one that
consumerism itself has spawned
has hand-drawn day glow circles in the margins of
a new septic life form.
her planner, which happen to match the laces in her sneakers. You know, the one who scavenges through
Humans share with many spe-
the scrap fabric at Wal-Mart, Goodwill and garage
cies the natural instinct to nest
sales looking for mustard yellow felt, hot pink taffeta
and procreate. The weaverbird,
and ‘70s floral bed sheets. She’s the type of girl who
for example, creates elaborate
even painted an entire staircase high-gloss Barbie
hanging nests of grass and
pink to go with her Easter-cake-dollhouse studio dé-
straw embellished with extra
cor, complete with coordinating hand towels.
sprigs of vegetation and flowers. We humans, however, gather
Stevens’ compulsive collecting is obvious as you
trellises and slipcovers from
enter her east-side studio; a pile of fabric waist high,
catalogs and department stores
tubs full of plastic beads, and an entire 25x20 foot
instead of gathering grass stems
wall obsessively worked over. Sarah explains, “When
and straw. The natural process
I moved into my studio a little over a year ago, one
of nesting has evolved and been
of the first things I did was spray the breaker boxes
exploited by the abundance of
candy colors. After that, I began stapling pages ripped
consumerism we see today. Ste-
from fashion magazines to the wall and painting over
vens’ materials and processes
parts of it, along with bits of wrapping paper and
speak directly to the excess of
various accoutrements that I had been collecting that
this consumerist interpretation of
I didn’t otherwise know what to do with. I’m a messy
nesting. “Shopping is our entire
person by nature, so I decided that if I didn’t know
culture; it is how we are condi-
where something belonged, I just nailed it directly
tioned to understand the world…
to the wall. I even piled up all of the magazines and
one part of this I find particularly
clothing catalogs that I had in my life, and spray
interesting is how this has creat-
painted the inserts and stapled them all to the wall...
ed a perpetually growing resale
I was really pretty obsessed with that for a while.”
market, ” expresses Stevens. Wal-mart and Goodwill are the
Stevens surrounds herself with an excess of artificial
cultural core samples from which
materiality. However, her treatment of these materi-
Stevens compulsively gathers
als creates its own sense of organic life, becoming
her materials.
something more than just Kitsch. Her hand-sewn and
stretched in victory, has been spray painted key-lime green and cemented to the floor with a massive pour
wrapped fabric scrap sculptures take on an anthropo-
The materials Stevens’ collects are of a certain
of cracked and dried house paint, making the figure’s
morphic quality—these masses of dayglo orange twine
tongue-in-cheek aesthetic where kitsch becomes
action appear more desperate than victorious. Piled
and cottage chic vintage fabric can become physi-
camp—grossly consumer products that have an
against a corner by her stack of magazines—just be-
cally intimidating. Her intimate, gestural drawings of
unknowing humorous quality. A marathon trophy from
low a collage of “yes” and “maybe” sticker tabs out of
pen and marker circles seem to offer the possibility
Goodwill, a small statuette of a runner with arms out-
Domino Magazine and dollar-store playing cards in the
shape of a red white and blue popsicle—are rolls and rolls of lime green, hot pink and periwinkle duct tape. Her aesthetic is saccharine, like candy, with color choices addictively entertaining to the eye. These artificial colors imply a movement and tactility that is hard to resist, just like the artificial flavoring of Skittles and Kool-aid. We just want to consume them, even though better judgment may tell us otherwise. Submerged in all of this, Stevens nests. Her creations take on a life-like quality evolving through an infinite repetitive process of gestural marks, stitches, wraps, and weaves. There is no sense of an end, but rather of a concentric search and inquisition into the idea of organic infinity. Looking at Stevens’ drawings, fabric sculptures and wall installations, one cannot help but think about the natural geometry of the patterning. The use of empty space in both her two and threedimensional work creates a gestalt, allowing the mind to continue the implied proliferation of these forms, bringing her pieces to life. Her meticulous drawings multiply like polypore fungi and her sculptures seem at the brink of movement under the power of their unique anatomy. Stevens’ world and her creations are a fascinating reflection of our environment, from the natural to the excessively commercial. There is a disciplined inquiry as well as a playful, even snarky, sense of wonderment. She observes, collects, and processes her materials in a manner that may be slightly over the top, but could allow you to see your grandmother’s sweater or a ball of yarn in a whole new light.
Photos by Evan Prince
After the Party is Over by Amelia Winger-Bearskin We asked artists/curators/gallerists/directors/writers/ podcasters/collectors from around the globe for their opinions on our theme of “excess”. The internet is a wonderful and horrible place to find all things excessive. Dive in and explore it for too long and you’ll find so much like the terribly misquoted Friedrich Nietzsche: “If you stare into the Abyss long enough the Abyss stares back at you”. The Internet spoke back to us here at Cantanker Magazine, and here are some responses collected from artists and luminaries, via Myspace, Gmail and AIM presented here as comments to photos by Santiago Forero. (Forero is from Columbia, currently an MFA candidate in studio art student at UT in Austin, Texas.)
“I’m an artist that deals with managing and formatting excess. One way that I feed my project is by collecting objects, mostly toys and pop culture oddities. Over the years I have accumulated quite the trove of source material. Although excess can be a helpful tool, it can become detrimental when it clouds your priorities or provides too much stimuli to be manageable. One day, I went to my favorite toy store in New York which has every manner of toy from the past 50 years. Toys are stuffed in corners, hanging from the ceiling, and filling bins on the floor. I looked around the store and was no longer impressed, because I had actually reached that point where “I” had more stuff. Something felt really wrong with that picture.“ Trenton Doyle Hancock Artist—Houston, Texas “I was going to do a piece for the [Cantanker’s Excess Art] show and call it everything must have an ending, except my love for you: talk about excess” Xochi Solis Artist—Austin, Texas “I just thought of the foreword from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It says: the one who makes an animal of
himself frees himself from the burden of being a human, or something along these lines.” Tobi Bergmann Artist and founder/fashion designer for Rollo— Berlin, Germany
and eventually you will come back to the beginning.” Miguel Cortez Artist—Chicago, Illinois “Excess is certainly not a Swedish word”
“Excess is product of a lack of discipline. The practice of excess will destroy our planet.”
Per E. Riksson Artist—Stockholm, Sweden
Regina Vater Artist, Guggenheim Fellow—Austin, Texas and Brazil
“excess could be misleading and deceiving. excess could be achieving and completing. excess is too fleeting in character that is needing.”
“All my excess is in Texas” Sol Waters Director of the TV show for the Arts “Sacrebleu! *LIVE*”—Austin, Texas “If you go past your limit then continue on your path
Robin Bagley Marketing and Public Relations Assistant AMOA— Austin, Texas “Last week I put too much coffee in my sugar. The sugar became a bit lame. I thought of pouring it down
the sink, but I remembered how my mother used to remind me of all the starv-
Heavy-handed, Spare, Overindulgence, Intemperance, etc.”
ing people who can’t even afford sugar. I decided to drink my lame sugar and after a while I got used to it. Later, I made myself two more cups of sugar with too much coffee. The truth is, I don’t really like sugar or coffee. I just try to pass the time.” Basim Magdy
Jade Walker Artist, Director of the Creative Research Laboratory and the Visual Art Center at UT—Austin, Texas “Excess is the opposite of spare: I like my surroundings spare and strangely I live life excessively. Either pushed to its limit becomes interesting.”
Artist—Basel, Switzerland “Recently I was commenting to my friend
Joan Davidow Director of the Dallas Contemporary
‘You know we live in a hyper-capitalist society when...’ you pick up Vogue Magazine and see a Louis Vuitton ad featuring
All Images courtesy of Santiago Forero. The im-
Mikhail Gorbachev in the backseat of a
ages on this page were created in collaboration
limo gazing pensively out the window at
with the Visual Arts Mafia of Colombia under the
the Berlin Wall (next to him FAB Louis
direction of Mr. Forero.
Vuitton luggage of course !).
www.santiagoforero.com
And THAT didn’t even come courtesy of the art world!” Regine Basha Curator—Austin, Texas “You know it’s really hard to say something short and pithy about it because it’s all too relative. One person’s excess is another person’s minimalism however, I will say that excess for excess’ sake tends to be depressing and uninspiring.” Marie B Host of The PostmodernGeek’s Guide to Sex podcast— Dallas, Texas “Surplus, Extra, Remaining, Superfluous, Over, Not needed, Glut, Flood, Overabundance, Accumulation, Overload, Overkill, Loaded, Burden, Strained,Taxed, Surfeit, Overkill, Too much, Overstatement,
The Sweet Smell of Excess by Michelle Dewey
a museum purchases an “original” stack or pile they are obliged to replenish them as long as there is a demand for them. The looming absence
Driving around town lately I’ve realized that our land-
and reappearance of these objects
scape is riddled with walking, side-show advertise-
reminds us of our own fleeting nature.
ments. We are daily perused and shuffled by singing mattresses, dancing gorillas and clownish uncle sams
The piece I chose had an empty white
all beckoning us from the roadside to take advantage
center with a double black border. It
of their limited time offer. It’s no wonder our collective
looked like an old-style church funeral
attention span is so short. There’s nothing reciprocal
announcement. Its title was, Untitled
about these encounters. The barrage of images is mean-
(The Republican Years). Enough said.
ingless and a moment of your time is stolen. The only
By making a gift of his art, Gonza-
effective purpose they serve is to momentarily anchor
lez- Torres’ hope was that those who
you in the present.
participate would contemplate and possibly act on the social issues
If we’re always looking to the future, the present be-
quietly embedded in it. The hope that
comes a wasteland. Some of the most moving art I’ve
art can incite action is highly relevant
experienced engaged me in the here and now. Such was
to the world we find ourselves living
the case with the first piece of art I ever collected, and
in today.
it was free. Back in art school in the 90’s I encountered the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres at a local museum.
The paper the print was made on was
Gonzalez-Torres uses mundane materials to create
of good quality and it taunted me for
works with emotional resonance that are socially pro-
weeks until I finally put pencil to it. I
vocative. Excess takes the form of minimalist sculpture
showed that drawing with a series of
that is offered as a gift. In the center of the first gallery
others in the student gallery and with-
a pile of brightly colored foil-wrapped candies was
in a week the first piece of art I ever
laid out for the taking. The candy pile represented the
collected became the first piece ever
combined weight of the artist and his deceased lover, a
stolen from me. I hope the perpetra-
victim of the AIDS epidemic. An epidemic without a cure
tors learned as much from it as I did.
or proper care for those afflicted. It’s a bittersweet act of generosity. The viewer is left with conflicting choices. As you allow yourself the pleasure of a sweet you are implicated in the slow deterioration of a shared life. The disintegration of the candy pile is a metaphor for the fragility of human life. Gonzalez-Torres wishes to please while educating. In the next gallery I found the stacks, reams of paper, unlimited art prints that were free to anyone who desired one. These I could not resist. Art you can touch AND leave the museum with was too good to be true. As with the candy piles, the stacks are always replenished. Once
ARTIST REGISTRY Ben Aqua www.okfresh.com Frances Bagley www.francesbagley.com Jarrod Beck www.jarrodcbeck.com Roberto Bellini www.robertobellini.com William Betts www.williambetts.com Lance Bradley www.clumsypiddler.com Candace Briceno www.candacebriceno.com Debra Broz www.debrabroz.com Richie Budd www.youtube.com/RichieBudd Shawn Camp www.shawncamp.net Tiffany Carbonneau artaxis.org/tiffany_carbonneau Jak Cardini stores.lulu.com/gcpapermill Salvador Castillo salvadorcastillo.wordpress.com David Chien www.nakedgremlin.com Ian Cion www.iancion.com Mark Collop www.markcollop.com Brain Cooper www.briancooperart.com Mike Cotter www.mikecotterart.com Carter Cox www.cartercox.com Jeffrey Dell www.jeffreydell.com Peat Duggins www.38andahalf.com Emilie Duval www.emilieduval.com
Charles Ferraro
Suzanne Lewis
Michael Schliefke
www.gat5art.com
www.thedalimamas.com
www.schliefkevision.com
Ali Fitzgerald
Shea Little
Nathan Schnell
www.calamityjaneish.blogspot.com
www.littleswec.com
www.nateschnell.com
Virginia Fleck
Theresa Marchetta
Soody Sharifi
www.virginiafleck.com
www.tmarchetta.com
www.soody-sharifi.com
Heyd Fontenot
Natasha Marin
Keith Sharp
www.heydfontenot.com
www.blackenese.com
www.keithsharp.net
Santiago Forero
Michelle Mayer
Noah Simblist
www.santiagoforero.com
www.michellemayer.com
www.noahsimblist.com
Angela Fraleigh
Paul McLean
Xochi Solis
www.angelafraleigh.com
www.artforhumans.com
www.xochisolis.com
Michael Garcia
Sybil Miller
Andy St. Martin
www.mrmichaelme.com
www.millerprojects.com
www.andystmartin.com
Sean Gaulager
Paul Moncus
Stephanie Strange
www.seangaulager.com
www.pmonk.com
www.stephaniestrange.com
Eric Gibbons
Claire Moore
Caprice Taniguchi
www.ericgibbons.com
www.stellarplanet.com/claire
www.capricepierucci.com
Aryn Glazier
John Mulvany
Michelle Gonzales Valdez
www.aryndg.com
www.johnmulvany.com
bunnyphonic.com
Ryan Granzow
Travis Nichols
Claude van Lingen
www.loveoliver.com
www.ilikeapplejuice.com
www.claudevanlingen.com
Devon Grey
Clarisse Noelle
Michael Velliquette
www.devongrey.com
www.cnp123.org
www.velliquette.com
Michelle Grinstead
Nancy O’Connor
Jason Villegas
www.grinstead-oconnor.com
www.grinstead-oconnor.com
www.jasonvillegas.com
J Haley
Ted Ollier
Hank Waddell
www.jhaleyarts.com
www.isostandardstudio.com
www.chronicart.net
Hector Hernandez
Tom Orr
Stephanie Wagner
www.hernandezarts.com
www.tomorr.net
www.stephaniewagner.com
Margot Herster
Joseph Phillips
Rebecca Ward
www.margotherster.com
www.josephphillipsart.com
www.rebeccasward.com
Hana Hillerova
Marguerite Phillips
Amelia Winger-Bearskin
cm.aces.utexas.edu/grad/hhillerova
www.margueritephillips.com
www.studioamelia.com
Tamara Hoover
Angel Quesada
tamara.j.h.googlepages.com/t.a.m.a.r.a
www.angelquesada.com
William Hundley
Sean Ripple
www.williamhundley.com
flickr.com/photos/FlatLife
Roi James
Matthew Rodriguez
www.roijames.com
flickr.com/photos/rodriguez
Mimi Kato
Sam Sanford
www.mimikato.com
www.samsanford.com
Brett Kaufman bandnamesfrommyspamfolder.blogspot.com Germaine Keller www.germainekeller.com Baseera Khan www.baseerakhan.com
ARTIST LISTINGS Mid-century modern style abstract paintings and sculpture. Large canvases to 15+ feet, altered wheel-thrown ceramic sculpture. Influences: Pollock and Voulkos at taylorwinnart.com . 40+ canvases in the studio. taylorwinn16@ yahoo.com or 512-971-1540 for appt.
Claude van Lingen 1000 YEARS FROM NOW Drawings Paintings Mixed media www.claudevanlingen.com
Modern, abstract, intensely-colored oil and resin on panels series at walkerwinnart.com 50+ works in the studio. walkerwinn@yahoo.com or 512-6891495 for appt.
Jim McKinnis contemporary handcolored photography www.jamesmckinnis. com 512 924 0166
L. P. ZIMMERMANN Large format Abstractionist 512.694.1198 www.lpzimmermann.com Call to visit the studio