Some time ago, in the scope of Frieze 2011, (Yes I am not good at posting right after something happens. I kinds hold on to the hope it’s a personal style but maybe not.) I strolled to Kensington Gardens with Carri to see a performance that our friend and flatmate stylist Nicholas Royal had been working on. It happened to be an art piece by NY artist Carissa Rodriguezm styled by NY stylist Avena Gallagher! On the spot we bumped into our friend Gerlan and what could have been a quiet inspiring art afternoon became a delirious ravy evening of food and laughs. The piece was finished when we arrived anyway. Still I am )obviously= very interested by the crossovers/collaborations between fashion and contemporary art so I decided to make an interview with Avena on the piece. Here it is!

Avena Gallagher

Can you give us a brief background on your life?

I grew up near Seattle, WA. I first came to NY while in high school to dance in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, and became obsessed with returning as soon as possible to study fashion. I went to FIT but dropped out for a job in advertising that was paying well and more exciting than school at the time.

And styling career?

I quit the advertising job after a couple of years and was floating around, dancing a bit, playing keyboard in a band called The Redlights, and waitressing. I eventually got back into fashion assisting stylists. I assisted Patti Wilson, Lori Goldstein (for a short while) and Camilla Nickerson (for 3+ years) before starting on my own. I love photography, I love fashion, but I haven’t necessarily approached styling as a career… it’s more a part of a creative practice that I’m trying to figure out.

How did you meet Carissa Rodriguez?

All Filipinos know each other.
I can’t remember how we met…but our worlds have overlapped for a long time–since the mid-90′s.

How did the project come about?

Carissa and I collaborated in NY on a performance piece in NYC about a year ago. We had been wanting to collaborate on something for some time- though we didn’t know what. An impromptu invitation to participate in an group show/happening came up and we put the project together in about a day. We were wanting to reference our shared ethnicity so we ‘installed’ a Filipino girl under a chandelier made of coconuts by artist Wade Guyton. We also made a large flower arrangement to accompany her. I dressed her in a somehow very Pinoy Prada dress with a hazy photoprint of palm trees on it. The whole thing was more or less inspired by a pillow on Imelda Marcos’ couch which read “Nouveau Riche is better than no Riche at all”. We called the piece “Design within Riche”.

http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/the-scene/2010-04-08/avena-gallagher-carissa-rodriguez-burning-bridges/

This time, Carissa was invited to do something at the Serpentine Gallery for an event held during Frieze called the Garden Marathon. We decided to do something similar in form to the last project. Instead of using one person as the piece, we used 12 (including ourselves).

How did the collaboration work (concept, production)?

Well, I guess the idea was precipitated by the invitation to do something for the event, which was to do with the idea of the garden. Carissa was looking at these works:Le déjeuner sur l’herbe by Edouard Manet, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by George Seurat, and “the Storyteller” by Jeff Wall and how they related to the garden concept. I had just spent time in London last summer, when the Serpentine opened the season with the pavilion by architect Peter Zumthor. We started to think about what kinds of ‘garden’ scenes are really contemporary and might mean something to us and be consistent with our work together. Although the “Garden Marathon” activities were held in a geodesic dome erected for the event, the pavilion by architect Peter Zumthor was at the Serpentine and made a perfect setting for a collision of these referenced works and our hap-hazard cultural study. We were also inspired by the impromptu picnics of guestworkers on break one sees on highway medians and corporate gardens throughout “the developing world”, or the large gatherings of domestic worker-women in public spaces on Sundays in China…Transposing/transplanting these scenes into an ‘ideal garden’ by a ‘famous architect’ at a ‘respectable gallery’ at a ‘major art-world event’ seemed interesting…

What is your relation to contemporary art (what/who do you like, how important is it to you etc??
I live in a place of concentrated “contemporary art” activity–my boyfriend is an artist, our friends are artists and/or creative people…our neighborhood is becoming a new “contemporary art” zone (Chinatown) and working in fashion is continual effort of reflecting and translating what is happening in art-imagery for more commercially-driven fashion/music imagery. Having said that, what I really like or draw inspiration from is not necessarily art, but regular-life, like the Chinese people in my hood and the way they dress, working-class street style and I also have a passionate love for ethnographic imagery and how style is dictated by culture. I also love how potent style can be when the cultural ideals are strict like with the Polygamist mormons, or the Hassidic Jews, for example….
In the Serpentine project, I was trying to create “costumes” for the participants which were parodies of different style-characteristics that come from the Philippines or as expressed by Filipino people. My style references were a mix of pre-colonial ethnographic pictures of tribal Filipinos, traditional Spanish-colonial style, domesti-helper clothing (maid clothes, nurse clothes, street cleaner and industrial clothes), as well as low-price, high-street sportswear.

Where do you feel art and fashion cross?

They are both ruled by and rule an idea of the contemporary.

Is it exciting for a stylist to work in a non-fashion context?
Yes! “fashion” styling is mostly about beauty…it’s about ideas too but the ideas are just used to express the beauty. It’s something cosmetically driven., and also commercially driven. But sometimes the most inspiring and stylish people or things are not necessarily… sexy or cute. Styling outside the context of fashion allows for more varied information, or even confusion…which I am interested in. It can be less apparent or less relevant to popular fashion or culture but super expressive.

http://www.reenaspaulings.com/

Among the thumbnails, the first are by photos by Babak Radboy and the others are by Gerlan. Then a couple of reference images.

A post with no comment. Some art, dome don’t.

Dzine
People of the Nal (Sain)
2011
Resin, customized vintage jewellery, Swarovski crystals, leaf on wood panel 24kt gold
70 x 70 inches (177,8 x 177,8 cm)

This is the (almost) first post of a series on and about my visit to the Miami Art Basel fair. It took me a while to process all the images but even more time to process the experience to tell the truth. Do not expect a very coherent report, but more like a series of impressions. First of all I wish to thank the people I hung out with and who basically made this stay so f****n awesome. Among others and in no particular order: Dani Smith, Harif Guzman, Chad Muska, Angel, Lauren Devine, Mike Nouveau, Ashley, Nicole, Valissa, Adrienne, Mira, Adrien Sauvage, Jessica Silverman, Franklin, Fabiola Beracase, Hannah Warner, Jack Dononghue and obviously, the usual Liam Sparkes and Danny Fox.

Now let me start with an overall impression and I’ll get more specific as I keep posting: I arrived on the Wednesday. Went directly to the Salem show at the Delano (Hosted by the Hole). Caught up with Fabiola (first and last time I saw her of the week!), watched the show, then went to see Harif and Dani at the Soho house. I slept in a derelict room of the Shelborn Hotel and still made it to the fair on the next day though. Liam and Danny had not arrived yet. I saw a lot of very beautiful things things and basically from there onwards, everything is a big misty chaos of memories.

S♠LEM

A R T B A S E L

Olafur Eliasson
Your plural view
2011
mirror, stainless steel, aluminium
78 1/2 x 76 x 74 inches; 199.4 x 193 x 188 cm

Tomas Saraceno
As yet untitled (3+5 module makrolon cloud)
2011
acrylic, polyester rope, acylic hardware
cloud of 3/ 43 1/4 x 37 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches; 110x 95 x 65 cm
cloud of 5: 57 x 45 1/4 x 43 1/4 inches; 145 x 115 x 110 cm

Kumie Tsuda
Walking and memorizing (Echo Park)
2011
ceramic
176 x 173 x h. 19 cm
Tomio Koyama Gallery

more posts on the same topics soon!

Terrence Koh’s personal online presence has been continually synonymous with his artwork and personality. With the relaunch of his new website you will not be let down. Koh has created an artwork within an artwork for his new website, welcoming you into his world. Where his work is known for his d-i-y sensibilities and zine aesthetic, this feeling smoothly runs throughout.

With an area to personally ask Koh questions, a shop, a diary, a blog of his work as well as his CV. Perhaps the most satisfying aspect is the random and unexpected intercepts of midi music accompanied in his scrapbook cum blog. This set up serves the contemporary internet user in a most fulfilling way.

www.terencekoh.com

Excerpt from Une sale histoire by Jean Eustache (1977).

Sang Bleu: Peux-tu décrire ton activité actuelle?

Stan: J’ai beaucoup de demandes de tattoo en ce moment, donc ça laisse moins de temps pour le reste de mes activités. Mais je continue aussi a peindre dessiner et travaille sur un nouveau projet de livre.

SB: Quelles sont tes références artistiques?

S: Je n’ai pas de références artistiques, mais m’intéresse à tout et ouvre les yeux.

SB: A quel moment as-tu décidé, ou simplement compris, que tu étais fait pour l’art (au sens large)?

S: J’avais pleinement conscience il y a 20 ans, quand je défonçais ma ligne, que la démarche était artistique. Je ressentais instinctivement que l’ambivalence de mes actes était un acte créateur.

SB: Comment est né le projet “Ma Ligne”? Les images, à leurs manière représente une dimension dure, souvent violente de notre société. L’objet résultant est pourtant soigné et s’insère sans problème.

S: J’avais l’envie de témoigner de mon passé de “graffiteur de trains” autrement que par le biais du livre de graffiti lambda, qui bien souvent, me fait chier. Aller plus loin dans la représentation de tout ça, d’un mode de vie qui ne se résume pas qu’à un simple lettrage coloré à la bombe de peinture.
Les moyens utilisés, la sobriété du design étant un parti pris, pour suivre au plus prêt le modèle initial- qui était mon book de photos. Le but étant de laisser les photographies exprimer la force poétique qu’elles recelaient.

SB: Dans le cadre de la collaboration avec Maximage et Patrick Frey, quelles ont été tes préoccupations principales lorsqu’il a fallu faire une sélection d’image et les ordonner?

S: Que cela soit représentatif de la réalité du moment.
Que ça suive une logique technique que je mettais fixée.
Pas de triche sur les dates, les endroits.
Après, beaucoup de discussions et de débats.
Le but étant pour moi de traduire une réalite visuelle et sensorielle.

SB: Qu’aimerais-tu que des “lecteurs non-initiés” du livre s’imaginent, se souviennent à la lecture du livre?

S: Qu’ils s’en souviennent prouvera déjà qu’ils ont été touchés par le contenu, ça me va. Même si c’est pour dire: “c’est dégueulasse”. C’est un témoignage et un acte artistique. Si tu réagis, j’ai gagné.

SB: Cela fait un moment que tu tatoues. Comment s’est passé la passage?
Y a-t-il eu un moment où tu t’es rendu compte que tu avais envie d’essayer la peau comme support ou alors était-ce un concours de circonstance?

S: Un peu des deux. Après avoir stoppé le graffiti, qui prenait tout mon temps, il fallait s’exprimer. Le tattoo restait un art subversif a mes yeux. J’ai testé seul, ça m’a plu. Je me suis imposé des règles. Tatouer un motif, toujours et seulement le mien. Après, avec de la persévérance et de la détermination, ça avance.

SB: Publier un ouvrage qui s’appelle “Tattoo Flash”, éditer une livre de photo avec une maison d’édition spécialisée dans l’art montre que tu maitrises les codes des pratiques dans les quelles tu t’inscris. Et pourtant ton style, peu importe le support, tant au niveau de sa forme que dans ta démarche et même ta vie restent délibérément indépendantes, transgressives, parfois violentes. Comment gères-tu le passage de l’un à l’autre?

S: Je pense que l’”honnêteté”de ma démarche me sauve des faux pas. Je respecte la discipline que j’utilise, lis beaucoup sur le sujet, m’intéresse, apprends qui en sont les maitres, l’histoire, la base. Si tu veux transgresser les règles, il faut les connaître. Ca me permet ensuite de créer comme je l’entends, sans compromis. Et puis je ne suis pas un ado. J’ai 36 ans j’ai vécu des choses, je n’ai pas attendu que l’on vienne me chercher. Je fais mon chemin, si tu aimes, tu me suis, sinon salut, je continuerai quand même. La passion me pousse, pas l’argent ni la gloire. Mon école a été le graffiti vandale, il n’y avait rien à y gagner si ce n’est de s’exprimer sans contraintes et de gagner le respect de tes pairs. Après j’ai la prétention de croire que j’ai du talent. Je présente aux gens des projets qui tiennent la route et ils me suivent car il sentent que ma démarche est vraie.

SB: Au fil des années, tu as rencontrés pas mal de gens de la “communauté” tattoo, tu voyages maintenant pour tatouer dans divers studios à travers le monde. Tu as donc du progressivement te familiariser avec cette pratique, ses codes et son histoire. Quel est ton rapport à celle-ci?

S: Je n’ai jamais admiré ou courtisé le monde du tatouage, seulement respecté la démarche. Se faire encrer a vie. J’utilise donc le tatouage pour ce qu’il  est, un outil. Mais de plus en plus, je me tourne vers la mise en valeur de l’acte. Tatouant dans des galeries d’art, mettant cela en scène, comme une performance. Je pense que l’acte compte autant voir plus que le résultat, quelque soit le niveau artistique du tattoo. Je me rapproche ainsi de mon vécu dans le graffiti. Quand tu peins un métro dans un tunnel crasseux, il te reste les sensations, l’adrénaline, la peur plus que la couleur de ton panel. Je me penche sur cette vision des choses dans ma représentation du tattoo et de mon art en général.
 
SB: Depuis les premières fois que nous avons discuté/collaboré, tu as énormément avancé dans ta pratique de la peinture, tattoo, illustration etc. As-tu l’impression de circonscrire peu à peu un domaine qui t’es propre?

Stan: Je pense que je reste dans une démarche cohérente. Je développe mon style naturellement, aucun medium ne prenant le dessus sur l’autre, ils se complètent, me permettent aussi de ne pas me lasser. L’important pour moi étant de toujours prendre du plaisir a faire ça.

SB: Comment envisages-tu “la suite”?
Les projets font boule de neige et sont de plus en plus importants et intéressants. Je laisse faire les choses et continue a travailler.