Work from your current project "Domestic Excavation Series" is currently up at Amigos through January. Can you talk a little about the installation?
The installation is a point of departure that stems from the discovery of found photographs that were taken of my family while we were living in Jamaica. These images were destroyed due to a flood. After inspecting the stack, each photo was bound to the next. Pulling apart each photograph carefully, trying to salvage what I could as I lifted each image, a colorful film residue stained each side of the paper. Left behind was a fantastical syrupy formation that destroyed the image yet had profound resonance in my current immigrant situation. The mixture of colors that bled onto the photographic surface took on a mystical dispersion across the physical photograph that seemed to reconstitute my past space by creating an expanse caught in the midst of transformation. It is from this foundation that I began to examine land and its connection to the Caribbean household. The installation serves as a venue that house these multimedia photographic objects and the varying states of entropy - decay/metamorphosis they embody. The collection of relic- like images present a framework that investigates the history of family and cultural identity.
Part of the installation includes the book "Afro-Creole" by Richard D. E. Burton. What significance does this book have to the rest of the pieces?
Well Richard Burton’s book, Afro Creole serves as the basis for the “Domestic Excavation Series”. As I was flipping through its pages, learning more about the Jamaican culture than I ever understood while living there, I read a small section that spoke about the ideas of “family land”. The author describes “the yard (land) space as an “institution capable of binding together nuclear family units and an extended family network in a single social space and physical space…The yard is an extension of the house, just as the house is the living core of the yard; the outer limits of the yard came to represent the outer walls of the house itself”…land is to be handed down to children and children’s children, till every generation “dead out” …family land is the spatial dimension of the family line, reflecting its continuity and identity”. This excerpt became a transformative piece of textual information that allowed me to grasp ideas of identity that dwelled outside of my own individuality. My lineage was apparent and where that lineage was born became blaring. This experience coupled with the happenstance destruction of my family photographs began the formulation of the project.
This work is far removed from traditional photographic techniques - is this a departure from your earlier photo work or has your work always been more rooted in abstraction?
Hmmm that’s interesting to think about, well the work can maybe function in both ways I feel. Though the modes of display that I am experimenting with throughout the installation may seem divorced from traditional photography it really is rooted in nostalgic darkroom executions. Some prints are made in the color darkroom, while others are digital replications of family photographs made in a color lab. The resulting collages begin to layer these archaic techniques, one onto the other in the hopes of creating create a binding photographic space based on the Caribbean family institution.
On the note of abstraction, I have never fully immersed myself in the process until this project. My previous work was purely about representation, and my attempts to subvert the realities I depicted. In my previous project, I was really interested in showcasing Jamaican folk tales that I grew up listening to. I would go out into my neighborhood setting off smoke bombs in an attempt to capture the unseen; I would photograph at night in the hopes of gathering the essence of another dimension. It was fun. I never felt fully confident to create a project that was just about line or forms until I was presented with the opportunity to make this project.
Now that you are finished with school, do you have any plans for the future?
Other than the occasional panic attack, starting immediately I will be applying to a bunch of residency programs geared towards emerging artists. I think I still yearn for discourse around my work that I may no longer have now. Maybe get a job but that is plan z.
What are some artists or things that have inspired you lately?
Kate Steciw. School Girl Crushes. Yamini Nayar. Sister.
Yolene's work will be on display throughout January. You can purchase her double-sided 13x19 poster from AMIGOS here or by adding to your cart below.
The party pics have been stacking up. Here's some from Yolene's opening/release party and from our Holiday Fair! Check them out after the jump! We will be open today 12-7 and tomorrow 12-4ish? If you want to come by after 4, get in touch! We will accommodate.
Our good friend Brian McDonough put together some awesome photos for our new 2012 Calendar, Walking The Dog. Perfect for weed and music enthusiasts alike, Walking The Dog is a 12 month collection of carefully selected record covers with some clever disguises. The calendar is 8x8, full color, and comes with a mix featuring one track from each of the albums photographed. You can pick one up here or by adding it to your cart below.
Friday, December 16, 2011
You guys!
We are having a holiday sale this Sunday, December 18, from 12-5pm!
Everyone's got it "going on" and they wanna share their wares!
Zines, prints, art, crafts, more, more, more!
There will be refreshments!
(On that note I was at Narin Asian Market 2 hours ago getting glutinous rice flour to make exotic mochi cake if this sounds up your alley!)
Come out for last minute gift shopping/socializing/loitering!
Ann Woo's Sunsets & Other Colour Photographs looks like just what it sounds like and it's totally sick. It takes the form of a glossy, rectangular fold-out. Dreamy, pastel gradients are arranged in the middle and to top it off striking cave and ocean landscape photos are printed on the front and back. I bet it'll make you feel warm and summery in contrast to the real weather feeling cold and wintery here on the north hemisphere side.
Please join us for an opening reception of new work by Manhattan-based artist Yolene Grant this Saturday, 12/10/11 from 6-9PM. Yolene's work began as flood-destroyed photographs of her family in Jamaica prior to their move to the United States. The artist uses these images with a juxtaposition of rock formations to highlight a connection between land and family, specifically to a Caribbean household. In addition to this new exhibition, we will also be releasing Amigos 007, a double-sided print by the artist.
There will be music by Kaleb Durocher and Lou Kishfy and refreshments. Come party!
This new arrival in the shop is a thick, drawing compilation zine. It is printed all in black and white by Exhumed Editions in Brooklyn. The pages are densely filled with messy paint, pencils, computer, markers, collage, etc. There are patterns, figures, shapes, scary stuff, weird stuff, lots of stuff. Total mental overload.
46 pages, B&W, perfect bound. $10
Artists within:
Mark Roseglass
Shane Butler
Daren Ho
Tessa Perutz
Brian Willmont
Antonia Kuo
Connor Camburn
Dylan Goettlich
Anjuli Rathod
Cody Defranco
Cody Hoyt
Nic Buffon
Maggie Lee
Kevin Clancy
Kevin Burney
Michael Collins
Alexander Demaria
Simone Fujimoto
Lieven Lahaye
Travis England
Owen Rundquist
Cassandra Baker
You mentioned that you liked to talk about your work in relation to music. Can you elaborate on this connection?
I care a lot about music, and I think in general that musicians are much cooler than artists. A lot of musicians have been recording their own stuff and distributing it for a while now and obviously as technology has made home recording easier, musicians are less and less beholden to some kind of production model that keeps them from controlling all of their ideas. I think that in the last 10 years or so, hearing a lot of diverse music, and being exposed to certain labels/musicians especially; Mike Rep, Ron House, Jim Shepard & Vertical Slit, Dead C, etc... has really energized me (the title of the show 'Rocket to Nowhere', actually comes from my favorite punk classic by Mike Rep and the Quotas). Listening to this music, I just came to realize that I can make the kind of work I want to see and not really worry about who is going to appreciate it... Maybe that helps me explain why I think the institutional side of showing art might lame out things a bit. I also find that when people have a hard time with artwork, it is helpful to equate things to music, a lot more people have strong opinions about music than art and, in general, they are less literal in their expectations/interpretations of meaning or a songs expression.
You and Lila are a couple who also share a studio, how does this environment have an effect on your work?
Working in the same studio with Lila is really inspiring! I love her a lot, I really trust her judgment and she's helped me get better at making things. We have always had a strong affinity for one another and it started with our artwork (we met in art grad school on our first day there). Over time our artistic concerns have dovetailed and have diverged. But, we take a lot of inspiration from each other and even sometimes unconsciously copy each other. Friends and family who are supportive and pay attention to our work sometimes have trouble telling it apart. It isn't really a concern of mine at all that it can look similar. Some people put too high a price on developing a kind of signature style. I have always felt like Lila and I would do installations together at some point - work in a way where our two voices kinda came together. I plan to make paintings and drawings, etc. for a long time, and I am not too worried about developing a singular voice.
I was recently reading an article on new abstract painting and something they talked about was how the paintings become this filter of everyday life, would you say that describes your work?
You made a zine, Snuffed Out, specifically for Rocket To Nowhere. Could you describe it for everyone a little? Also, do you have any favorite zines or artists' books that you've seen lately?
Yes I did. It was the first time I have made something like that since making ninja comic books when I was a kid. I wanted to try something for the show and it was an experiment. I freelance as a graphic designer and I troll around a lot on the web during those working periods - I keep images in some labeled folders, like a virtual atlas. So I took a bunch of those, and manipulated them a bit, and then randomly copied them back to back on 11 X 17 sheets and randomly assembled them. Some of the image juxtapositions were pretty interesting. I know I wanted it to have a tone of menace. But someone said it made them feel sort of fortified when they looked at it - which I guess is at least as good as feeling menaced. It turned out okay, but I'd like to try another approach next time I make one.
Lately, I have recently purchased some zines from Printed Matter that are cool, Z-Art by Martin Zet, another by Louise Neaderland called Where is Home? It is really beautiful and printed beautifully. At Ada books I have picked up a couple I like a lot; RAV #3 by a Providence artist who is really good named Mickey Zacchilli, and a Punchline from SF called Cop that is really funny and eerie. And at Amigos, I bought the awesome Deadbeat Daughters by sweet and feral Daniella Ben-Bassat & Hannah Abelow as well as Holeshot #9 which is an compilation of zines you put together and that is super cool and features zines by Vinny Martin and Jake Honesto.
And finally, what are some local things in Providence that are inspiring or have interested you lately?
I think RK Projects is really cool and a very smart way to deal with the lack of opportunities for artists to show in Providence and it puts people into strange spaces around town. I read Mothers News every month and I think it is great. I like Amigos, Armageddon shop, Analog Underground, Load records, Pork Fiend, and I enjoy walking my dog in the North Burial Grounds (the cemetery off of North Main St.) it is a great place to watch the sun set!
Rocket To Nowhere will be up until December 8th. You can purchase Snuffed Out here.
