PROFILE:BRUCE NAUMAN

[Bruce Nauman, 2007, Photographed by Sidney Felsen Courtesy Sperone Westwater, New York / © 2011 Bruce Nauman / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York]

POSITIVE DIFFERENCES- THE DYNAMIC WORKS OF BRUCE NAUMAN

At times, when pondering the works of new contemporary artists, with the acknowledgment that there are 35% more recognized working artists nowadays than in 1982, I get stumped upon the rationale on whether or not the visual image I observe is really ART. “Whom am I to judge,” I consider for a second, but I pause that segue of counter-reason with another idea, “Well as an observer, it’s my job to judge the images spawned from working creatives.” If it sits in a room curated and displayed in a fashion to be discovered and studied, then naturally we, urge to unveil the consciousness of the artist’s work.

Today, I’m at the MET with friends- one a filmmaker and the other a Columbia University AIDS research scientist. Both are under 30 years of age. We wanted to observe the new American works in the west wing of the museum as well as glance over recent adds to the Byzantine and 17th century snuff boxes. Richard Sera Had some paintings and drawing upstairs where suddenly has become the main focus of our direction.
Before making our way toward the elevator to observe the Sera works, my buddy Tenzin randomly injected, “Bruce Nauman. Now that’s a real artist. He’s one of my favorite. Sera’s good, but Nauman is doing something different all the time.”

I found his interest in Nauman’s work to be quite similar to my own sentiment. Bruce Nauman in my perspective has been able to present work interactively and stimulating since the early 70′s. The more obvious stuff, such as the 80′s neon works “Death” and “One Hundred Live and Die” (which was a part sound installation) come to mind. They were subjective but at the same time, contained an easier superficial quality that still remains fond with me. But why the Nauman sentiment? Why is he important to me and my peers? Why has my regard for his creative effort consequently resulted in this editorial “Run-On?” What can possibly be cool about this 70 year old artist in contrast to the Gazillion young, growling, high roller artists that are manufactured today?

There is no one answer.

With the surge of new young artist such as Richard Aldrich, Vivienne Sassen, Barry McGee, Brad Kahlhammer, Kenzo Minami, Eva Rothchild to name some one can help but to realize the influences from the earlier contemporaries Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg, Eva Loefdahl, Dan Flavin, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, and yep- Yours truly, Bruce Nauman. It’s obvious at times in recognizing the derivatives from which my younger artists derive their influences. In a 2004 interview with Robert Storr, Bruce recounts the earlier days as a younger artist in the 80′s in contrast to the very fast dynamic art scene of today.
“I think maybe it’s like the boom of painting in the 19080′s. There was a lot of bad stuff…it brought a lot of people into galleries and into museums. So that’s terrific. There might be crap and mistakes, but so what?! You need that. It’s great.”

The above reply is a great example of his positive honesty which is one of the many reasons why he is regarded highly amongst my peers and the younger modern creatives of today. He’s humble and very settling in nature, also very prevalent in his art. He admits to turning down more projects than he’d like to take on. And the reason behind it is to create work in the most accepting mindset so that it may be presented in a similar matter. He admits to misgivings in his career and has countered them with astonishing work such as the 1996, Fifteen Pairs of Hands, which featured offspring versions in Venice Biennale, where the Nauman collection seized the “Golden Lion” prize. When asked on whether or not there were differences in each pieces effectiveness, Bruce replied, “I don’t know. It’s just different. There’s immediate sensation in the large neon. People usually go ‘Whoa!! Look at that one’.”

I was once one of those people.

On the contrary, most people outside of the contemporary or modern art scope, barely recognize the Nauman staple. There lies a disconnect in information relay. With the global transit that the internet provides regarding information, there are endless recorded documents on Nauman and his body or work, but there has been a lack-luster appeal with the Generation Z. It is as if they are simply offline. A few moons ago, when I was in art school, I learned of Nauman’s video works where he produced and mastered sound art to stimulate environment taking precedent over the visual video itself. The ones that come to light’ are Sound Walls (1969), Mapping the Studio (2002), and Get out of my mind / Get out of this room 1967. Around the time of Get out of My Mind, Bruce Nauman had encountered an overwhelming amount of attention that led to him re-considering his involvement with the New York art scene. he didn’t want to considered a gimmick of time. A product of primary sale. He wanted to matter and wanted to present work so that it matters and served within the modern time.

In our modern times, Nauman’s creative force has unveiled a sustainable quality of sincerity and skillful complexity to rattle the thought of both young and old. I urge the young and modern purveyors of art to speak and tell about the compact depth of Bruce Nauman and his developed works.

In 2010, Nauman presented For Children/ For Beginners, where he assembled large projectioned hand Gestures and signal that corresponded to the artist’s instructional command. People that are familiar with his work considered the presentation of sorts somewhat primative. Although, if you’re new to the Nauman concept of minimal-modern art, then perhaps the reception was quite the contrary. With “For Beginners, Nauman simulated 31 hand and thumb signal featuring his age-weather hands combined with the contrasting Black to white background projected largely against the wall. Each hand movement is synchronized to it’s respective sound. His voice, calm and meditative, repeats on and again. In the primal project, Bruce’s idea was derived from a time where he spent teaching his son how to play the piano. In result, this effort of visual and sound performance readied new and younger art-enthusiast to see more. There lies a youthful quality of his work nowadays that wasn’t as apparent before and maybe it’s because he’s more efficient at getting to the point and within the timing of his effort, triggers a quality of nostalgia that the youth relate to. Maybe we regard him so highly because he’s honest and not so overt with the incredible brutality exemplified in modern art today. In my opinion, it is of great accord for the modern youth to appeal to his enigmatic process we’ve encountered in his art over the decades and appreciate this artistic trailblazer while he is amoung us.

PROFILE:JESSE HLEBO

[Jesse Hlebo, 2010, Photographed by Grant Willing, New York]

Hey Jesse, How are things? What are you up to these days?

Jesse Hlebo: I’ve been busy with a number of projects, a lot of them involve Swill Children, a small press and record label that I run. I just finished a publication of work by Peter Sutherland. It’s called “Work(ed)” and comes in an edition of 193. Inside the bag is a heart shaped jar opener and a poster. I have a solo show up at Printed Matter in Manhattan as well as a number of other projects in the works.

It sounds like you have a full plate and not only that but that you enjoy being occupied. In your process from project to project, idea to idea, what aspects are favoured the most?

Jesse Hlebo: I’m addicted to the notion of completion. The moment I start a new project I’m already looking forward to the attributes that will lead to its finitude. As a result I end up living and working pretty intensely, which can be debilitating at times. That said, I don’t separate living from working, whether it’s cooking or skateboarding or making a sculpture, they are all structurally the same in my mind. When I get nearer to completing a project, there is an element of destruction that is involved. Finishing an idea brings with it the destruction of the process of “making”.

I enjoy the friendly approach to your work. It doesn’t come off so personal to emanate caution to the observer. In some ways, I appreciate the familiar or nostalgic context of your work. Is there any rhyme or reason behind your approach?

Jesse Hlebo: It’s funny you find my work nostalgic. I’ve always perceived my work to be sort of ageless in the sense that it is not concerned with time. I’m very interested in working a manner that is simultaneously calculated and spontaneous. Structure and freedom. I think that nostalgia has a sentimental inference that I’m not interested in.

So are you saying that nostalgia doesn’t exist in your work?

Jesse Hlebo: No, I mean, I’m sure it might, but if it does it’d be more in the sense of “finishing” an idea that once existed. In that sense I find my work to be nostalgic in its reference to the past. A lot of those qualities are derived from my youth and skateboarding. Maybe not the act of skating itself, but the individuals and the environment I was surrounded in. Acts taking place in the present that contain a destructive element that is left behind. I made a piece entitled My All that utilized 25 thumb drives which contained high resolution image files and Word documents that were used in my show at Printed Matter. They were given away for donation and, in theory, anyone who had one of the drives could replicate my work without reference to my authorship. In a way I feel like that piece is sort of anti-nostalgic.

That’s an amazing run of thought! Very Passionate. Speaking of Passions, What are you Passionate about these days?

Jesse Hlebo: I’ve been really overdosing on philosophical writings regarding history, power, and hierarchy. I’m fascinated with how history is created, and how all of these factors end up relating to one another. I’ve been playing with these ideas in my work as of late. My goal is to have people question things out of confusion, regardless of whether or not he/she arrives upon an answer. I want people to question what they are subjected to- whether or not my art or art in general is valid or if the history in which it’s derived is relevant. I feel the act of questioning is the most important thing you can do as a member of civilization.

Let’s talk influences. Whom are they and what aout them do you enjoy.

Jesse Hlebo: Whoa! I have so many influences. Lately Tom Waits and Louis Malle. I really relate to Tom Waits’ utilization of gospel music, both as a musical genre as well as a structural reference. Within gospel lies a dichotomy of being both jubilant and sorrowful. Tom has a certain quality that even though it’s a lonely tone there is still a strong sense of inspiration and faith. As far as Louis Malle goes, film has always been a major influence on me since I was a young kid. A couple years ago when I saw his film The Fire Within, I was pretty blown away at how subtly masochistic the film was. The protagonist, a writer, spends the film attempting to find a reason not to commit suicide. In the end, suicide is the most rational option he has. I’m fascinated by the films portrayal of self-destruction to find some state of peace. Overall, it’s something I find to be both realistic and honest.

PROFILE:AMOS POE

I recently had the pleasure to sit down with filmmaker Amos Poe in his new downtown apartment in NY to catch-up, talk shop and get the exclusive on his new film “La Commedia” an experimental film inspired and based on Dante’s Trilogy Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Amos started out in the NY underground film movement “No Wave” cinema. He pioneered and influenced a generation of filmmakers with his DIY aesthetic and documentation on the NY downtown scene during the No Wave era. His favorite ‘hobby’ is making music videos on Super 8. When he isn’t in NY, he’s coasting to Florence Italy. Amos teaches “Writing for the Screen” and “Experimental Production” at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. Amos has made many groundbreaking film works including titles such as “Alphabet City”, “Empire II”, “Blank Generation”, “Unmade Beds”, “The Foreigner”, “Subway Riders”, “Rocket Gibraltar”, “Triple Bogey”, “Frogs for Snakes” and “La Commedia” which recently premiered at Venice Film Festival 2010. Amos inspired me to finally complete Dante’s Inferno, and for that I thank him for opening up to me these fiery gates. />

So when did you move here? Did you do a U-Haul with paid guys?

AMOS POE:Saturday. U-Haul, assistant with a bunch of friends. It’s a big difference from Williamsburg. I like the neighborhood better, kind of, I think, I just walked around Chinatown and its great!

There’s a place nearby called Wo-Hop have you heard of it?

AMOS POE:There’s a place next to it, Hop-Ki, which is supposed to be better!

Is it downstairs too?

AMOS POE:Yes.

Are you close to Winnies? It’s a Chinatown karaoke bar. Or Chinatown park where the guys do Tai Chi in the morning?
Chinatown can be a hard neighborhood to break into.

AMOS POE:Last night I went to a friends Birthday party in Tribeca. I just walked over to it, which was nice, so well see.

So I wanted to interview you because I really wanted to talk about your Dante film “La Commedia” and what ever else you wanted to talk about.

AMOS POE: OK, Okay. What’s this magazine called?

ZAMANIG, its a word play on amazing, yea ZAMANIG. Do you want to talk about your film, Dante?

AMS POE: Yes, I need to finish that film. I’m still waiting to hear back from some people regarding La Commedia [Dante].

Dante is still being edited? What’s left?

AMOS POE: I’ve gotten the English subtitling done and the placement is complete. At the moment, I’m still waiting on the “master” from the editor. What we will do is make a DCP “Digital Cinema Package” Which allows you to have multiple subtitle tracks in one system.

Tell me about your Dante film “La Commedia” since there’s not much information publicly available. For example it premiered at Venice film festival last year.

AMOS POE: It premiered at Venice last September 2010, in it’s original language, Italian. You know, I’ve always had a hard time getting into reading Dante. Every poet or writer at some point has mentioned Dante as an influence, so I was compelled to understand it. It was like I had been reading it for years. I bought various translations over the years and finally upon a trip to Florence in 2004, while on the plane, suddenly for the first time, it was accessible. The first lines are – “In the middle of my life I was lost in the dark woods…” And realized right away it was about a midlife crisis. And I realized I was going through one too. The more I read the more I was blown away by the work.

Talk about some great reward! So, What was next?

AMOS POE: I did several things. I went back to Florence each year: 3 years and 3 books- Inferno, purgatorio, paradiso. Concurrently with my Dante enjoyments, I was making EMPIRE II. I moved to this apartment where I had this great view of Manhattan and setup a camera where I started to think more about our perception of time as in “What is our perception of time when we watch a film,” how does that work? Empire II was a meditation on New York and the cinematic perception of time, which is kind of what Warhol’s “Empire” was about too. Warhol’s thing in “Empire” was about how he sets up a camera and shoots the Empire State building, an inanimate thing for 5 hours. My “Empire II” was the digital version of that, essentially time-lapsed. Over a period of a year, Empire II was shot.
The question I posed to the viewer was, what happens to time when time is lapsed?

Time. From the sounds of things, Time is a significant topic. Why?

AMOS POE: Time is something that happens in sequence. If you take time out of time, you’re taking the nature of time away from itself. By taking time out of time and compressing time you are creating a new reality that is very different from what we’re used to.

Was that the first time you used that approach?

AMOS POE: Time is something that happens in sequence. If you take time out of time, you’re taking the nature of time away from itself. By taking time out of time and compressing time you are creating a new reality that is very different from what we’re used to.

Do you think that your approach to film is a very difficult thing to do, make something open and experiential yet at the same time be decisive, in order to let that openness come through and happen?

AMOS POE: Motion is such a primal human experience.

Are you familiar with Francis Bacon’s paintings? He references “motion/movement” in his work, as well as perspective. He was also very influenced by Muybridge.

AMOS POE: Yea it’s beautiful work; I was very influenced by him for Dante, also T.S. Elliot. What Dante did for his time interns of literature was immense. Dante as a person was a poet and politician. Once, when at that moment in his life were he lost everything, Both Florence and the Pope betrayed him. He found himself in the middle of his life, in the dark woods alone at night without any family, work, completely at a loss. What did he have left? A piece of parchment and a pen where he realized, to some level, all he had left was his poetry. It was at this time he wrote his first canto in the woods.

In conclusion, what portion of your work, while making La Commedia, remains affixed to you?

AMOS POE: Hmm. Well, In the Canto of Dante’s Inferno, Virgil Dante’s patron poet appears – someone who he had admired his whole life. Virgil comes to him as if in a dream and says, “You have been chosen, come with me…I will take you to paradise and you will write a poem about your experiences so that when you return people can read your poem and understand that this life here on earth, what you do here, will decide how your fate will be determined.”

[Amos Poe is a working Filmmaker in New York City. Find out more herewww.http://amospoe.com/ ]

PROFILE:DAN AU

Hi, Buddy, How are you? You’re in Seoul Now, right?

DAN AU: Yeah, I’m in Seoul working and being creative. I’m so inspired these days.

Oh, man! That sounds awesome. I’ve been seeing some new works from you. At first, it was the the Flash Text imagery and lately you’ve sort of embark upon organic imagery. What prompted you to initiate this project & Can you explain the premise behind it?

DAN AU: I’d been interested in how simple, minimal lines of text can encompass a lot of meaning or emotion. I was thinking of different phrases that embodied what I was feeling. When I recently moved out of NYC to a completely new city where I knew no one, I started leading a more hermit-like life. I think loneliness sometimes spurs thoughts of existentialism and my relation to time. So, I came up with the idea for 10 messages as a way to combine all these phrases I’d gone over in my head and emulate it in web form. The words pass by and repeat forever and become meditative. I think if you read a piece and try to understand the meaning of it, you’ll gradually come to a sense of what it means or at least get a feeling of it. It’s an elegy for the living.

How’s the art culture in Seoul and what’s your day-today like there?

DAN AU: I’m currently living in Seoul with my girlfriend who is creating an art and cultural magazine about korea called, Art + Seoul [artandseoulmag.com]. My day to day consists a lot of staying in and working on my laptop. I’m working on a new minimally interactive video piece called Click to Hear Sound, and I also maintain a photo blog- dausign.com/blog. It’s a portrayal of my outings. At night, we sometimes meet w friends for drinks, and if I’m fortunate enough, a night at noraebang. Karaoke.

Were you around for the N.Korean Missile strikes?

DAN AU: I was around though I didn’t find out about it until later on at a café when a friend just happened to read about it on his laptop. Every newspaper the next day had that ominous photo of the backs of onlookers peering into the layers of smoke left behind from the bombings. North Korea, for the most part, seems a lot more distant than it really is. There have been a few times where we’ll hear sirens going off and wondering if it’s an air raid!…but it always ends up just being a drill.

Shit, man- Air Raid Drills. I have no idea what that’s like and I hope I never do. From your immediate surroundings,what’s been a inspiration to you lately?

DAN AU: I’m living in a very neat and orderly minimal apt with wooden floors and a warm ondol. The sunlight through the frosted window emits a soft glow, and inspires through lack of distraction. Living in a new culture, language, food, & people, it all collectively and usually unconsciously awakens my senses. I also find that their design stores have many more quirky objects than I’d see in the states.

What does simplicity mean to you?

DAN AU: Simplicity is the heart of any matter. The core of any abstraction or structure of meaning. The things we were meant to enjoy.

With 10 Messages, there lies a minimal context. How is this project different in approach than seen ion your work at SAENAI?

DAN AU: In my last piece, “Entitled” for the opening of our Fashion Black Out event, I placed around 100 different pins in the shape of a placard you’d see in a museum with each title different from the other and each are ambiguous but full of context such as “Silent Screams” or “Crimson Rose”. Each person who picked one would find the title that most reflected them and interesting to see. The 10 Messages approach is different in that the medium is completely web based and less interactive though still engaging.

What does simplicity mean to you?

DAN AU: I would paint it in a solid black or white, and the text.. ART IS SM_ _ _

PROFILE:BEN RENOUX

Hi Ben, introducing you to our readers, I’d like to add, that before your very wonderful work with painting, you began as a photographer. How did you begin with Art + Photography? Was there a Particular incident that led to the realization that this is what you’d wind up pursuing?

Ben Renoux: I have always painted and taken pictures separately. Since I was a little boy. When I finished my studies in California, my host family gave me a large scale print on canvas of one of my New York shots. I had always had that artistic dream to paint on photography. I don’t know why. So as soon as I got that photo printed on canvas, I decided to paint on it. Since then I have never stopped working on painted photography (among other things).

With your recent to date effort, Human Light, Please explain the nature from which this series came about?

Ben Renoux: This series is about people that are lost, lonely, depressed, sometimes just bored. They keep living thanks to hope that is, most of the time, represented with a kind of holly light. But the thing is that it’s not the light of God. It is just an artificial light. Light made by humans… These people are trapped in their own world and there is this absurd dialogue between the light and themselves. In this series, my photos are only painted with black. These abstractions of black paintings bring the photography to another level that is more intimate, and inner. There is also a disappearing process, as I paint on the canvas. Those photographs, those people, are actually disappearing behind this black painting. as if the spectator was the last to witness their existence.

When you first began as an artist, what mediums or habbits were you excited about the most? How have these mediums or habbits evolved, if at all in contrast to your present ones?

Ben Renoux: I think my artistic work really began when I started working with photographs and painting simultaneously. That is when I started working a lot and creating everything I could have in mind.

On a different tone, what music are you interested in lately? In what ways have sound been of influence to you?

Ben Renoux: Music is very very important to me. A lot of my ideas come while I listen to music, in the middle of the night, when I’m in the dark. I would say that Pink Floyd is a very good catalyst for new ideas.

In your progress as an artists, what principals come to mind when trying to maintain stability. Or do you even believe in stability, balance, or entropy?

Ben Renoux: “Art is a guaranty of sanity” said Louise Bourgeois. That is exactly what I feel as an artist. I absolutely need art and I need to create to feel innerly a bit balanced. I really feel I could stop breathing if I didn’t have the opportunity to make art. This is what my life is about and will always be about.

- List (3) things you need to get you through the day.

Ben Renoux: Create, eat and sleep.