We Are All Buddhas

Seen on the streets of Brooklyn.

(Daily photo provided by Dasco)

Bayeté Ross Smith: Laws of Attraction (Part IV)

After discussing what attracts him to an individual, Bayeté Ross Smith goes onto to explain what happens when the space those individuals inhabit becomes the focus. As our interview concludes, Bayeté shares that it is the similarities found in the various identities and aspects of the world that he truly finds inspiring. Bayeté Ross Smith truly knows how to seek out, hone in, and capture every day phenomenon.

With “Portraits of Vacancy”, which is still a working title, I was interested in making portraits of people and communities, devoid of the actual people. What captivated me about the various empty spaces were color, shapes, light and texture, foremost. I was approaching making photographs, by attempting to apply many of the aesthetics that painters use. However the objects and accoutrements were also a key element. I was moved by what these objects added to the story of these spaces and these people. In some cases these objects are clothing, bottles or tools. In other cases they are decorations that adorn the space. In other situations it is writing on a wall or some other symbol within the space. What drives these images are the beauty of the spaces combined with the objects and symbols, however the objects and symbols are suppose to engage the viewer in a subtle way.

People are fascinating because they are so dynamic. You hear this all the time, but it is actually true. There are certain basic attributes and behavior most people and cultures have in common, that are just expressed in somewhat different ways. Sense of humor is always a common thread with people. The specifics may differ a little, but it seems that there are always certain things illicit a humorous response. Regardless of their culture or background, people want to laugh. What I am most drawn to in my traveling are the ways people do similar things differently. I am also drawn to cultural appropriation; what aspects of other cultures people appropriate and re-interpret for their own use. An example of this was in Spain, in Catalonia, they have a festival every summer called Fiesta Mejor, which is celebration of Catalonian identity. They had parades fireworks and a variety of celebratory events. One of the things that stood out for me was they had these troops of drummers who performed in the parades and at the various events, and their style of drumming was this Brasilian, South American style of drumming. It definitely wasn’t Spanish. I had never heard of the drum playing that significant a role in the culture of that part of Europe. So it was fascinating to me that a particular percussion style, had somehow become such an integral aspect of this Spanish, Catalonian celebration.

The similarities between the various peoples of the world is an important part of my inspiration. It further proves that identity, while so important to how we see the world and how we choose to interact with other human beings, is quite fluid and arbitrary. But that is part of what makes like so dynamic and interesting. The proverbial “fun of the game” if you will.

Learn more about Bayeté Ross Smith.
Make sure to check out parts one through three leading up to this conclusion of our interview. part one and part two
part three

Bayeté Ross Smith: Laws of Attraction (Part III)

In continuing with our conversation about the conditions that attract an artist to his subject Bayeté Ross Smith sheds light on his process. In Bayeté’s concentration “Taking AIM” for example, once the subject has been found, Bayeté begins to draw socio political lines determining for instance, how the subject fits into a society that has so many various, contradictory takes on violence. And what better way to do this than to print a target over the person’s portrait and fire at it with a real gun? 

“The images with the targets are from a series called Taking AIM. With this work I am interested in that fine line that exists between acceptable, condoned and recreational violence, and deplorable criminalized violence. This dichotomy exists through out popular culture, from Hip Hop to action movies, to sports like boxing, mixed martial arts and football. It also exists through out history, in terms of what wars, massacres and assassinations are considered just, and who is considered a tyrant. Finally it exists in the news and in current events, in terms of what types of violence gets reported and how it is contextualized. What was most compelling for me here was putting an easily recognizable human face on the targets and the shooting them. I researched shooting range targets and realized that most of them, do not resemble actual people, even though when you practice shooting you are practicing to be able to kill a person. There is no scoring on shooting range targets for shots that wound. The primary scoring is for kill shots. Even the targets that do resemble human beings are images that portray caricatures from a “Cops and Robbers” scenario, and don’t look like someone you might know. When I created these images I wanted them to look like people we all might know, from various demographics. Therefore I used images of people from diverse ethnic backgrounds and dressed them in clothing ranging from casual to formal. I also wanted them to have a similar look, so that none of them stood out more than any of the others aside from how the viewer may feel about them. Finally I shot them with different guns, naming the pieces after the specific guns they were shot with.”

Learn more about Bayeté Ross Smith.
Check in tomorrow for the conclusion of this interview.
Peep part one and part two in the meantime.

Romain Laurent

Romain Laurent portrays tiny moments of surreal chaos as they leak into ordinary settings.

Learn more about Romain Laurent.

Bayeté Ross Smith: Laws of Attraction (Part II)

“Wether Playin’ Ball or Coolin in The Hall or Just Writing My Name in Graffiti On The Wall”

Prom students are no longer prom students once they have been photographed by Bayeté. Post photograph the kids are immediate personifications of their own desires as they emerge into adulthood as survivors, or warriors, in a rite of passage that is mundane from the perspective of adulthood, but nonetheless a grand celebration in the mind of many kids departing school. In part two of our conversation Bayeté Ross Smith discusses his interest in documenting American High School students in transition.

Here Come The Girls

“With the prom images, I am interested in the prom as a rite of passage and how the prom portrait fits into the historical tradition of portraiture, commemorating important people and events. I am examining the expression of identity, at a moment that can be seen as the start of adulthood. Visually I am drawn to students who are expressive, in terms of their outfits and poses. With some of them it is a certain vibe they give off when you are in their presence. Though what I am drawn to visually fluctuates between the very unique to the very common. I am primarily drawn to the creative, self expressive outfits, but also to those outfits with a specific cultural reference. For example, for several years Zoot Suites and hats were really popular in northern california. When I photographed students in this attire, I was drawn to the re-appropriation of 30’s and 40’s iconography with a contemporary Hip Hop twist placed on it. There was another photo from last year’s proms of a girl who appeared to be first generation, Indian or Pakistani. All her friends had on these short, tight little dresses, while her dress was more modest, with Black tights on to cover her legs and a shawl to cover her bare shoulders. She actually returned to the dinning area before the picture to retrieve the shall before being photographed. So how different communities incorporate themselves into this ritual, and express their cultural identities fascinates me as well.

“Thizzle”

One time I had a this east asian couple tell me they were going to imitate Japanese tourists in their photo. So with this series it becomes a combination of poses and outfits, and also how the kids interact with each other, whether they are in couples or larger groups. I am always drawn to the outfits that match each other or go together in some way and any special symbols or adornments the students have that are unique. All of these things point to who they feel they are, at this point in their lives and how they want to commemorate that in this moment. On a side note, I have become fascinated with the fact that these students are portraying adult archetypes with their prom outfits and poses. So on some level this is what they think adults are and what adults do and they are attempting to live that out to the best of their ability.”

Learn more about Bayeté Ross Smith.
Stay tuned this week to catch the remainder of this interview.
Peep part one in the meantime.

Bayeté Ross Smith: Laws of Attraction

“Tahira at Gleasons”

Boasting a portfolio that spans the globe, Bayeté Ross Smith has gradually documented the subtle niches or the world, bringing to light the profound in what most of us take for granite. As Bayeté sets his scope on a figure, the person is no longer just a female boxer or a prom student, they are living beings faced with passing moments. Photographs of abandoned rooms are about the negative space, the abandonment of bodies and the replacement of air, rather than the furniture and décor. It is because of the artist’s knack for exploiting phenomena in mundanity that I was tempted to ask for his formula. What is it that attracts him to an object? What catches his eye? Here is part one of our conversation.

“It is hard to say what attracts me to an individual subject or scene. It is usually a combination of the story a scene tells; the information in the scene, in combination with the aesthetic. Color, range of tones, light, and shapes etc. In terms of the concepts related to my subject matter, much of my work deals with identity and how it affects human interaction. With the female boxers I was intrigued by women who fight; who participate in a very male dominated, testosterone filled environment. Women who participate in overt violence, which most of the times is shuned by females in our society, yet still retain many aspects of their femininity. The individuals and the scenes that point to this, are what grab my attention. The combination of masculine attributes with a touch of femininity, the interaction between them and their male counter parts as well as the similarities and contrasts between them and male boxers.”

Learn more about Bayeté Ross Smith.
Stay tuned this week to catch the remainder of this interview.

Electric Picnic

Learn more about Aaron Geiser!
Learn more about Electric Picnic too!

Hank Willis Thomas: A Conversation About Awareness

I recently had a chance to ask Hank Willis Thomas about his B(r)anded series. In the artist’s own words, the series is a “result of an exploration, and subsequent appropriation of the language of advertising.” It is the artist’s goal to “provoke conversations about issues and histories that are often forgotten or avoided in our commerce-infused daily lives.” Though the B(r)anded series focuses on the use of the African American body in advertisement, I wanted to learn about the implications of the work. What is Hank Willis Thomas implying in this narrative? Furthermore, I really wanted to know how the election of our first black president affected the implications by the artist in the B(r)anded series.

I am really interested in knowing about “Branded.” Works such as “Basketball and Chain,” “Hang Time (Circa 1923), and “Branded Head” evoke a sense of indoctrination of black men into not necessarily basketball culture, but into the trap in thinking that the great hope of young African-American men is in sports. Am I completely off base with this assessment? However, if I am correct, (knowing the works were created in a pre-Obama world) how does the election of Barack Obama change the critique evoked by “Branded”?

“I think that that will be a question for time to come. But I think that I would be the last person to be able to talk authoritatively about how the critique of my past work has changed in this political context. In anticipation of future critiques I see that my work has many layers of complexity and challenges. The singular greatest challenge of trying to create new work for my upcoming solo show at Jack Shainman gallery is the awareness that it will be first viewed 3 weeks after the inauguration of the first black president.”

I encourage you to learn more about Hank Willis Thomas.
Please also visit Jack Shainman Gallery.

Aaron Geiser Launches New Website

My buddy Aaron Geiser just launched a new website. If you like learning about verticle farming and clean coal technology while looking at photography full of brilliant color and character then you’ll dig Aaron’s site. If you like photographs of performance and portraits from the artistic nooks of the world then I highly recommend checking out Aaron’s work.

 

You may remember Aaron’s old website. He spent last year traveling around the U.S. on a motorcycle taking photos of various art scenes. I should note that by “art scene” I do not mean the hipster kind. He spent a couple of months with a group of kids living in a forest putting on a play somewhere in Texas. I’d call Aaron up on the phone and we’d have to pause for a few minutes while a cross country train went by. The last time I saw Aaron was when we met up at Alex Grey’s Gallery while Aaron was here in the city. He told me he was heading to Europe (the photos here are from Dublin, Ireland) and then something about North African and riding a camel across a desert. Now, I think he is back in L.A.. Just check out the site… you’ll be in for a treat. 

 

Learn more about Aaron Geiser

Classic Heidi Greenwood…

I first saw this photo by Heidi Greenwood when it was included in our Angel Headed Hipsters of the East exhibition at Resolution Studio in Manhattan last year curated by our buddy Greg Siff. Check out more Heidi Greenwood amazingness at The Official Heidi Greenwood Website of Amazingness.