confrontational angel: an interview with butoh performance artist Vangeline

23 May

M: Hello dear, would you briefly explain the origin of Butoh for my readers?

V: Butoh is an Avant Garde performance art form born in the very tumultuous climate of post World War 2 Japan. It was developed by  the legendary Kazuo Ohno  and Tatsumi HijikataButoh is short for ANKOKU  BUTOH, which means ” Dance of Darkness”. Therefore it is the dance of everything dark, mysterious and taboo. By definition, it’s the quintessential “Forbidden Dance”.
M: I find it intriguing that your performance work explores the core darkness of the human experience-but that you seem in person almost like a hummingbird going peacefully about her business. Does that come from your Butoh meditation?
 
V: In Butoh we believe that are but mirrors to each other; so perhaps it is your own light-hearted nature which you see reflected back at you?!
 
M: You told me some time ago that you have psychic conversations with Klaus Nomi. What do you usually talk about?
 
V: The wonderful Empress Chi Chi Valenti introduced me to Klaus Nomi last year- in a posthumous kind of fashion. I have felt numerous inspiring visitations from the energy carrying Klaus Nomi’s spirit. I was humbled to honor him at last year’s LOW LIFE. My dancers and I felt his powerful  presence on stage with us. I think it is some kind of remarkable resonance.
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M: If I’m not incorrect, a large part of your performance seems to channel spirits in the otherworld-is this ever a difficult baggage to bare?
 
V: Tatsumi Hijikata was described by his followers as nothing short of a shaman. I work within a lineage which carries forth this shamanistic tradition. Butoh is also a dance with deals Death and the “au dela”, or the HEREAFTER. Death is a transformation for the living; and a living transformation. I think that there are multiple levels of realities and I consider Butoh as a bridge between these layers of reality. 
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M:  Can you tell me about your “Workshop for Incarcerated Women Project”? I think it’s really one of the most compassionate and worthwhile art projects I’ve ever heard of.
 
V: I have been teaching Butoh in a prison to female inmates since 2007.
In that difficult context, Butoh becomes a direct transformational tool which breaks down barriers and walls. Every year we invite civilians to come watch the inmates’ final performance. By the time they are finished there rarely is a dry eye in the audience. It is my favorite project and I hope to carry on for many years!
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M: Thank you so much for your time. As you know, I sincerely love what you do. For some reason I really want to see you on TV…just to take a sledgehammer to the mass media monocle. Do you ever want to do something totally insane, like go on “America’s Got Talent” and blow their hair back a bit?
 
V: Thank you! I am not a huge fan of TV shows which makes human beings compete in their respective art forms. I feel that our value as artists comes from our passion to share. There is too much emphasis on judging and judgement these days in our culture. It is as if people need permission from authority figures to exist or develop…of course we all need to be validated.
But this epidemic of TV shows is very “20th century” and a remnant of an outdated patriarchal model. I truly believe that as artists our goal should never be to seek approval or fame but to have the intention to share and offer instead- passionately so. Unfortunately, seeking approval places us directly on a path which tends to make us conform and if there is anything our culture needs it is not conformity. I think an artist who follows their own path with passion and integrity opens the doors to more and more exposure naturally. Butoh is slowly coming into popular culture through movies, magazines, shows….
 
For example, Vangeline Theater is thrilled to have an 8 page spread in Vanity Fair Italia this month, and the movie I did with James Franco is being released this summer. Slowly but surely, we are reaching out to new audiences, but from a grounded  place of integrity!
Thank you for having me perform at BANZAI!
 
I am so thrilled to be in such great company and thank you for nurturing all these unique voices in our community!
 
Vangeline performs at BANZAI!!!!! This Saturday at Red Lotus Room in Brooklyn, NY. Red Lotus Room
893 Bergen St. Brooklyn, NY 11238, Saturday, May 26th  9PM-3AM.
Performances begin at 10:30PM. Please visit www.muffinheadland.com for more information.
www.vangeline.com
(<3)

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schMACK! Muffinhead Ponders the Imponderables With 3D Effects Guru and BANZAI! Artist Kevin Mack!

16 May

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M: Your work tickles me, it’s just so blitzed out and goopy. Is it meant to be so fun?
 
KM: It is indeed meant to be fun! I’m into philosophical, spiritual and scientific imponderables.  My goal is to make psychoactive objects of contemplation that inspire a transcendent, entertaining experience of awe and mystery. For me anyway, humor and fun are a big part of that.  

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M: Beyond it’s insta-psychedelia, it’s also apparent that this is the work of a visual effects master. How did you break into 3D animation originally?

KM:  Thank you. I was kind of born into it. My Father was a background painter and writer for Walt Disney from the late ’30s to the ’50s and went on to be a producer and director. My mother was also a Disney artist and the character model for Tinkerbell. Yes, it’s true. I am the son of Tinkerbell.  I started out while I was still in school doing various jobs for my Dad. Everything from storyboards and painting backgrounds to set decoration and prop making.  I also did 60 abstract paintings for a condo complex that my mom was the decorator on.  After college I got a job at Coast Special Effects.  My first task was to paint their giant stage black.  They told me it would build my character.   Later I got to do stop motion animation, miniatures, scenic painting, etc for a number of VFX companies.  I’d been experimenting with computers for making my fine art since the mid ’80s so when computer graphics took over VFX in the early ’90s I was in the right place at the right time, since I had both traditional VFX experience and computer graphics experience. I got totally swept up in the digital revolution during the pioneering years.

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M: In 98’ you won an Oscar for your digital effects work on “What Dreams May Come”…if you don’t mind me asking, did it blow your mind at all?

KM:  Yes. It totally blew my mind. When I accepted the award in front of hundreds of movie stars and a billion TV viewers, it was like an out of body experience. I think that with that many eyes on you, you become a kind of collective conscious entity. It was utterly surreal and great fun!  

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M:  What about working in the film industry still has the ability to inspire you? Do remakes bum you out too?

KM:  Cool projects and working with cool people inspire me. Remakes aren’t the only source of bad movie ideas floating around out there.  So many movies are cornball, cliche and unoriginal.   I’ve been lucky to have worked on some really cool projects. The fact is that it’s really hard to tell which projects will turn out great and which ones will stink.  

M: Is God in the computer?

KM: Yes. God is in the computer. God is everywhere. In fact you’re soaking in it. I’m big on the idea that God is the infinite and thus there is nothing which is not God. (See non-dualism) If God were separate from anything, then God would not be infinite. A finite, limited God, doesn’t seem like much of a God to me. I like the non-dualistic notion of God because it reconciles theism with atheism in a way. It allows for a deeply spiritual relationship to the universe without having to join or subscribe to the beliefs of any religious group.  

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M: I’m a big fan of both your work and your Mrs., Snow Mack. You have an upcoming duo exhibit “Mack & Mack” opening May 20th at The Barbara Mendes Gallery in LA-was it a party collaborating together or was it like pulling teeth?

KM: It’s a bit of work for sure, but it’s been really fun getting work ready. Snow and I did three collaborative paintings for the show. Our first together in about 30 years. It was really fun and amazing how we just started painting and both got right into a non-verbal/intuitive zone.  We’ve always gotten along well.  See the thing is, we’re totally in love and that’s a real powerful thing if you’re into it.  And we’re WAY into it. I think the abstract paintings we made together reflect that.

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Snow Mack, “Cheater” 12×9, Oil on Canvas

M: Can you guys adopt me?

KM:  It was my understanding that we had all already adopted each other. I don’t know how to tell you this man, but you’re part of, and one with an ever expanding, joyful, harmonious, infinite universe. I think that’s what Dennis Hopper said in “The Trip”. I’ve always loved that.  

M: Any plans to produce a mega awesome epic Mack movie at any point? It feels slightly imminent, no?

KM: Yes! I have determined that my movie is indeed necessary. It has been gestating and forming my entire life. I am ready to begin.

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The Barbara Mendes Gallery Presents: “Mack & Mack” The Works of Kevin and Snow Mack
2701 S. Robertson Blvd. Los Angeles, CA. 90034. May 20 – June 25, 2012

Opening Reception: Sunday May 20th, 3pm – 7pm

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BANZAI!!!!!!!!!!Returns! May 26th @ Red Lotus Room in Brooklyn / Memorial Day Weekend

3 May

Muffinhead & Eric Schmalenberger Present:

BANZAI!!!!!!!!!!
Art Circus and Kaleidosafari
Memorial Day Weekend
Saturday, May 26th 
9PM-3AM

Red Lotus Room
893 Bergen St. Brooklyn, NY 11238
(Between Classon & Franklin)

DJ SCOTT EWALT

Performance:
Joey Arias
The Pixie Harlots
Trixie Little and The Evil Hate Monkey
Soigne Deluxe
Stormy Leather
The Rachel Klein Dance Ensemble
Vangeline

Visual Artists:
Michael Bilsborough, Wren Britton, Walter Cassidy, David Commander, Soigne Deluxe, Mark DeMaio, Natalie Eichengreen, Santiago Felipe, Beryl Fine, Anka Lavriv-Fragomeni, Jenna Gribbon, Kevin Mack, Maripol, Joshua David McKenney, Apryl Miller, Muffinhead, Gio Black Peter, Andriana Santiago, Jeff Silverman, Blair Spieler, Max Steiner, Darren Wallace, Eugene Welsh, Wonderpuss Octopus Ink

Video Art Provided By:
Dan Baker
Ry Russo Young

Installation:
Raul De Nieves
Steve Grise
Michael Potvin

Interactive Performance:
Fritz Donnelly of HI CHRISTINA
Gypsy Trans Temporalis

Theremin in the Gallery Space:
Cornelius Loy

BANZAI is installed by the fantastic folk at:
Arch Production & Design NYC Inc
http://www.arch-nyc.com/

$10 Presale tickets available online May 1st-May 12th

$15 Presale tickets from May 12th until May 26th

$20 at the door

Purchase tickets online at:
http://www.muffinheadland.com/events.html

under the camera skin with san francisco photographer beryl fine~

31 Aug

M: Hello Beryl Fine! Tell me, why do you take photographs?

B: I take photos to remind the world of the beauty that surrounds us. Life can get so intense, it’s nice to be reminded of that.

M : Anyone and everyone can take a picture, what, in your opinion, makes a photograph a work of art?

B: It varies on the intent of the photographer. Art is at a point where nonconformity and working within a space, without boundaries, is customary. If the photographer has intent and takes on a concept or an idea that they are trying to communicate, than that effort in itself makes the photo a work of art.

M: Some of your work and some of the subjects you depict might be considered ugly (trash heaps, urinals, Billy Bob Thornton) by the average person. Is it your intention to redefine what is beautiful and what is grotesque through these images?

B: Yes, I think that narcissism and vanity are rather grotesque. While much of our culture praises beauty in taking on one traditionally accepted shape- I hope that my photos bring to light the idea that beauty, no matter its’ shape, can be just as appreciated. My world growing up was very much influenced by media-driven notions of beauty. I had to completely step out of that way of that thinking to challenge it.

M: Curiosity seems to be the hallmark of a good or a great photographer. What secrets do you wish to unfold in regards to your work?

B: Usually that comes down to the people I’m shooting. Most of what I think people find so curious about my subjects is that they are “abnormal” and that they live a typically atypical existence. The truth is that they are abnormal and atypical and that is what’s truly intriguing about them. Their reality is what keeps people fascinated. When people look at my subjects they see the stuff fiction is made of but actually these individuals just simply live in reality. The only secret that I want to share is their reality.

M: I love that you do not particularly glamorize your subject matter; your work tells the truth straight up and often sans gloss. Is there a statement on modern beauty that you’re making or is it simply an aesthetic preference?

B: Modern beauty has mutated into this pretense of surgically, digitally exaggerated features. It’s a bit intense… I just wanna explore imperfection and reality for a moment.

M: Why bike messengers?

B:  Bike messengers are icons; completely independent, ruthless street rogues. I thought that it would be interesting to take them out of their urban city backdrop, juxtaposed with a stark white, seamless backdrop (much like Avadon) so that we can see them as they actually are.

M: Is beauty ordinary?

B: I think so.

M: Many Native American cultures believed that a photograph can imprison the soul. What if they’re right and you have unknowingly condemned legions of innocent people to wallow in an eternally frozen afterlife!?!

B: Damn, well that would be a bummer but meh…

M: Name one image in your memory, if you will, a transcendant or romantic flash in time that you do not have a photograph of but wish that you did…

B: Dude, that shit haunts me. Those moments constantly appear and than I just let them fade away…

http://berylfine.com

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“Art, Art, Art, Fuck the Devil…” Q & A with NY Artonaut Michael Alan

16 Jul

Still From Michael Alan's Living Installation at Kenny Scharfs' Cosmic Cavern

M: What, Michael Alan, is your quest? Continue reading 

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Deconstructing the Director’s Chair, an Interview with Rob Roth~

13 Jun

Rob Roth is an art animal. He is a cross-media, cross-disciplined, genderbent visionary engaged in his own perpetual renaissance that is simultaneously personal, profound and professional. I caught him by the tail in between a flight from Paris and just prior to his upcoming Wolfboy performance of NIGHTVISION at The Wild Project in The East Village, NYC.

Continue reading 

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Shoe Party!!!!!!!!!!!!Muffinhead Takes You Kicky Kamikazee Shoe Shopping…

3 Jun 1ice cream shoes

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