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.  

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.

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!  

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.  

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

M: What, Michael Alan, is your quest?

MA: Art is a quest, not a fad or a hobby. It’s a true test of passion. Who will put it all on the line to speak their truth? It’s a calling, yes, it has its business parts, like all human things…but what comes from the source is a special creative force-fueled and driven to get it into the world. What I know is that I will only physically exist for a certain amount of time and in that time I want to live and leave an immeasurable amount of echos, life and laughter within my work. Art, art, art fuck the devil. Up, up, up, and on, on, on and all over. 8 hours everyday in the studio working through everything. Catch me drawing everywhere. Let’s turn up the volume, wake up, be alive, thank you. I am a visual journalist of this fast, fast-paced time, embracing change, hugging fragility, speeding up and slowing down my line. I want to create a body of work that makes a lasting impact now and in the future.

Michael Alan, Head of Glo, Made for The Cosmic Cavern, 2011

M: Your work, though bandaged, often hellishly grotesque and complex, articulates a very special sensitivity. From where does this strange poetry originate?

MA: It comes from life, my view on life, harmonious opposites. I wouldn’t be able to understand and cope if I didn’t fade these facts in my work and life itself. Life is an abstract concept, Love can be grotesque and complex, beautifully hideous. This sensitivity is how I organize my army of marks. It’s not a diary but more of a buildup of energy, lines and motion; a language. Letting go and mustering up order in a system built to be bound by thin string. It’s how I arrange what I see and communicate. Just like any other person, we all arrange what we think we see, it’s what I think that is real.

Michael Alan, "Amusement Park", Courtesy of Marlborough Gallery, 2011

M: You have lived through quite a lot of intense, traumatic experiences in your early years with the passing of several loved ones. Have they and do they affect your work now?

MA: I was destroyed and left lost by the loss of my 3 childhood best friends; they all died at different points in my life. To be honest, in the beginning I didn’t do good at all. I separated from people and was negative. My first big loss was Kevin Maher, at 17, my closest friend in high school tragically died. It was horrific, he was very kind to me. I had a hard time making close friends and he was the best. In time I started writing music and incorporating him in my work, spending time in his old room looking for words, finding signs. He is still here with me as I type this, as I grew I realized they don’t leave, but they stay with you. The strongest form of inspiration. The 2nd death is to hard to speak about, and is still confusing. Two years ago I lost my childhood-through adult life best friend Odin, brother, art partner, everything. This really left me in a bad spot. I worked my ass off painting and trying to find the spiritual side. Somehow I survived. I have made good friends in my 20′s and meet great people all the time, but I don’t have anyone from my youth that I was close with anymore and its hard. The answer for me is to make the best work I can, no cheating, just go all out. I find so much strength through them. I say “if Kevin could, then come on”, and then I just do it. Perspective is all around me, it’s just a painting, a performance, a life, it’s also everything. Everything is love, fragile and beautiful, feel it, than let go. Feel something else and tell everyone.

Michael Alan, O My Head, 2006

M: The Living Installation performances that you pull off are mesmerizing, sort of like a schizophrenic art kabuki; crackling, inspired and free. Are these performances a necessary part to the whole of what you do?

MA: You inspire me as well, thank you for your kind words. I would say it’s a piece of the circle. It’s my public art experiment/ installation with a chance for me to work with people. Without direct contact and connection with people in my art, it wouldn’t feel complete. The studio can be extremely isolated. I have been lucky to meet so many cool people that I can incorporate into my work. With the live pieces I come full circle and turn people into living, drawing fairy tales. What better way for me who speaks fluent alien to communicate with X who is not an artist but wants to be involved. Turn X into a piece, act out concept. Then come back to the studio. Think, sleep, repeat. So, yes…

Michael Alan, "Wowtime" still from Bushwick Project For the Arts featuring Steev, Raquel and Modello, 2011

M: What was your first art project you ever pulled off?

I just re-found this GI-Joe toy from my babyhood were I switched all it’s parts. I interchanged different legs, arms, hips etc from other toys with a screwdriver into this mish-mash. It really impressed me, the toy is tiny and the screws are so small. It looks like one of my living installations, I was 4. I’m not sure how I did it. I was always changing things around the house, chairs on the couch, cat in the box, tricks. Or in school I was tying kids shoes laces together in class, plopping bottles of glue on kids when they were sleeping. I was a pain. I wasn’t a bad kid, it’s just that my mom is not like an average mom, she is a penguin, a huge free spirit and I was raised to just have fun. It was a very loving and extremely silly household. She was a part of my first performances and music albums as well. I love you mom!

Michael Alan, "Monkey", Courtesy of Gasser Grunert Gallery, 2008

M: If an artist is born an artist, is a plumber born a plumber?

MA: A lot of artists are not artists, and a lot of plumbers are pumping and want to be a dentists.

M: What is your spirit animal? (Please feel free to cut and paste one into existence if you like.)

MA: Racoon-raindeer-penguin-blackcat-squiggle.

M: Often a revolutionary artist is said to “push the envelope.” But your work seems to supersede this by way of its’ inherently natural quality, possibly suggesting that there is no envelope to push at all. 

There’s always something to push. People say there is nothing to push because they don’t want to work hard. You always hear that it’s all been done…that’s lack of ambition, negative and a lie. There is always a way to make or reinvent the new, or to make a change . Rearrange everything. Life is meant to always breakdown and buildup. There is evolution. Art exists for this reason and it wants to expand. Get to work, it will take as long as it takes and turn down as many alleys as it will, but it/you will find the way. Make change, make change, make change.

M: You have a BFA from The School of Visual Arts and were asked to teach in the International Studies Program there. As a teacher of art, what would be the one golden rule, the one indispensable truth that you would impart to your students?

MA: I’m still shocked I was asked to do that, and honored at the same time. I would say to never trust a program or rely on a credit. Work hard and ask questions. Save your money on a Masters in fine art and get a studio; live in it. Shoot for a free education. Do all that you can while you’re young to be that genius! You are what you say you are.

M: There is something brittle/fragile/somewhat unraveling in the figures you express. Is this your state of mind as well?

Michael Alan, "Cleaning the Clouds" at Gasser Grunert Gallery, featuring Theresa Magario, 2010

MA: O yessssssss, Fragile beauty. I almost married her, I miss her. I live, I love it. You do too.

M: Indeed. Speaking of witch, what is the most insane and/or illegal thing that you’ve done in the name of art?

MA: I wouldn’t say I’m the best person to ask what is legal or sane, words like that escape me. I’ve performed in places I was not supposed to, I’ve used spaces I didn’t have permission for, I’ve painted on what was not mine, I’ve given what I haven’t had. My art has gone onto things and over things and into things. My judgment and moral compass is playful, devious. I like to joke. Do you like jokes? Is it all serious to your readers out there in readingland? My shows naturally push these limits, people ask is this dangerous..? Maybe, maybe not, I do the best I can.

M: Michael Alan, you are an art astronaut performing an art opera in a deep and vivid artspace. What is the most important thing that you’ve figured out along your travels?

Michael Alan, "Black and Blue", Courtesy of Gasser Grunert Gallery, 2008

MA: I am not who I think I am. I am a collection of dreamlike self-manipulated interpretations, mixed emotions, feelings and ideas of what I can only think is reality through the tools I have been given. I am love, living now, typing on a keyboard. Who wants to come over and make art and watch the Simpsons?

Check out Michael Alan’s Living Installation ”Where the Wild Things Are”@ Kenny Scharf’s Cosmic Cavern Space on Saturday, August 6th 9pm-2am.

M: I had no idea that Click + Drag was a weekly party originally, how inspiring! How and why did Click + Drag occur?

R: Yes, Click + Drag was a weekly party, every Saturday from 1996 – 2001 at the nightclub Mother in the pre-gentrified meat market. Click + Drag was born out of the work created at Jackie 60 with Chi Chi Valenti and Kitty Boots before the space became Mother. Previously, I had been collaborating on some of the Future/Cyberslut themed nights at Jackie 60. Kitty wanted to do a proper fetish ball, like the ones in London but Chi Chi and I wanted to continue our ideas with future/cyber fetish-themed events. Along with co-producer Abby Ehman, we had combined the two and it became this great spectacle that continuously morphed into several incarnations.

M: Why cyber-fetish?

R: We had been experimenting with the ideas of what was coming in the future. Chi Chi was already creating themes within the cyberslut (a term she coined herself) and sexy robot fetish at Jackie 60 . I had been working at AT&T and R/Greenburg on these very early large scale interactive trial projects for TV and online media, so I was fully aware of what was coming. It was a time right before the internet exploded so it all seemed very new.

M: Do you ever feel that all of the wonderful technology that Click + Drag helped perpetuate has been ironically destructive to modern culture?

R: Like any new technology you take the good with the bad. Unfortunately, there is usually a lot more bad than good.  This happens when the powers that be take it mainly for profit. I got rid of my TV 2 years ago for this very reason. I find most of it a screaming cesspool of waste. 

M: Your fantastic SCREEN TEST seemed to me like a hallucination of the apocalypse seen through the eyes of an amusingly profound cracked actress. What inspired her?

R: Screen Test was inspired by many things, frustration with the reelection of George W. Bush and the wars perpetuated by that administration, the modern death of glamor, my love of old Hollywood screen goddesses, the function of fear as a manipulation, my love of music and of course, Theo Kogan.

M: The glam/torture images projected in SCREEN TEST make for a strange aesthetic turn-on. Do you have a fetish for the apocalypse?

R: I’m not sure if it’s a fetish, however I tend to be very pessimistic when it comes to humanity. I’ve always felt strangely comfortable with the idea of destruction; somehow I find it very romantic. I’ve become a bit less pessimistic as time has gone on, mostly because eventually you find a certain tribe of people who show you a much better view. People will always be a disappointment, however when you surround yourself with the ones who have a bit more evolvement or new ideas it brings glimmers of hope and influence. 

M: You were one of the super lucky fellows ordained with the high pleasure of reimagining David Bowie for the new ”Life on Mars Revisited” video art installation with Mick Rock…WOW. Yeah, uhm…so you totally got to remix God. Can you dish about the process a bit? (Rob screened a portion of the piece for me personally, I had an eyegasm.)

R: The Mill NYC approached me about working on this piece for The Creators Project.  I really liked Barney Clay, the director, when we first met and he liked a lot of my initial ideas.   Mick Rock is also such a character, listening to all his stories about Bowie and the shoots they did together in the 70′s was a trip. The entire project was a few weeks of long days and weekends, my eyes were like raisins toward the end,  but I think it came out great. We got the thumbs up from Mr. Bowie himself.

M: Your ongoing Wolfboy character-project began with a 5-hour installation piece titled “Synaptic Efficacy Refreshment” that you had performed with Sequinette for the very first BANZAI!!!! in 2010. It reminded me of my grandparents on a really depressing date, but more importantly, it had a definite, grinding sort of psychological impact. Can you explain your initial intention for the project and how it has evolved since?

R: LOL, where your grandparents really hairy??? That installation was one of the first incarnations of the wolf character that is now part of the NIGHTVISION show that I’m doing with Marti Domination. He was something I had been dreaming/seeing for years. Images that would flash through my head of these animal people in different situations, like a dark fairytale world.  The always-amazing Sequinette had been doing some animal/people looks that were similar to the images in my head so I asked her to perform in it with me.  One of the things I’ve been interested in lately are these ambient, durational performance installations. I wanted to see how long I could stay in character or how long I could keep my stamina. The ‘Ascension No1′ installation I did with Darrell Thorne for your MANIFESTO group show was similar. It had gone on even longer and it was hot as hell in that room.  Funny, the ‘Synaptic’ installation was freezing…it’s always some extreme. 

M: There is a haunted, romantic quality to your work including the cello-accompanied, crooning Wolfboy character you portray in the upcoming NIGHTVISION. Could you tell me a bit more about the character?

R: The character is still in development. It was something I had in my head for years but never had the right moment to bring it to life. It’s an experiment and also a sort of exorcism for me personally.  I’m working with the cellist Chad Hammer on taking New Wave songs and turning them into requiems. I plan to create more of these animal characters that are part of a much bigger piece that will probably take me years to create because of the way that I develop my work.  

M: You strike me as an endlessly inspired person though making good or even great art in this city is a tough business both personally and financially. What drives such persistence?

R: Insanity, survival and the nagging voice within…;)

Rob Roth performs NIGHTVISION this Tuesday, June 14^th at The Wild Project, NYC.  For showtime and ticket information, please visit www.thewildproject.com

Muffinhead & Eric Schmalenberger Present:
BANZAI!!!!!
Art and Performance Blitz
Saturday, May 28th 8PM-3AM
Memorial Day Weekend

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

DJ SCOTT EWALT
Special Guest DJ LADY MISS KIERPerformance:

Big Art Group
Penny Arcade
The Illuminator (AlieNation)
enSUBTITLES
Soigné Deluxe
Darlinda Just Darlinda
Celso & Father Julian of Casa De La Blanca
Jonathan Nosan

Art:

Hope Bowers, Ryan Brennan, Wren Britton, Worm Carneval, Bianca Cassidy, Samson Contomposis, Cameron Daily, Soigné Deluxe, Michael D. E. Pope, Josuha Dreisacker, Raphael Fuchs, Kathy Grayson, Scott Hug, Stephan Keating, Jeremy Kost, Charlie Ledbetter, Lindsey Lowe, Snow Mack, Kevin Mack, Caden Manson, Chason Matthams, Muffinhead, Jemma Nelson, Wonderpuss Octopus, Sean Peirce, Jean Marc Ruellan, Darrell Thorne, IO Tillett Wright, Gerry Visco, Jaimie Warren and the Whoop Dee Doo

Video Art Provided By:

Ashley Connor and Wonderpuss Octopus

Installation:

“Cabinet of Humanstrocities”
Jeff Silverman, Poison Eve, Zazoo + Satori

Zhenesse Staniec Heinemann

Special Appearance:

Fritz Donnelly and Christina Ewald of HiChristina

$10 Presale Tickets Available at www.muffinheadland.com
$15 at the door

Mz. Gerry Visco

Hi Gerry, who are you fucking lately?

I am fucking MYSELF. Why? Because I do it better than anyone else. I’ve had my heart broken too many times and put my own work onhold because of various dysfunctional boyfriends and a husband. So, NOW it’s Gerry Time. Right now I’m focusing on my work; pleasuring myself is safer. One of the platforms of Gerrification means up with dildos, down with sex. That’s a joke, but I’ve always been very sensual and eroticized, open to exploring all fantasies and mad passionate sex even if it ends in a disaster and it usually does. I have doubts about whether sex and love are compatible on a long-term basis. Like Warren Beatty, Wilt Chamberlain, Charlie Sheen and Geraldo Rivera, I’ve had thousands of sex partners so I don’t feel bad about being celibate for now. Of course, I would love to fall in love again, so hang onto your hats, this could all change in a nanosecond.

I almost fell out of my chair when I heard that you are a yoga instructor. YOU HAVE A BAD TEMPER AND ADHD! How does that work exactly?

You haven’t seen the half of it! Yoga is for everyone – stiff or flexible, people who eat meat and drink booze, and people who are human and have strong emotions. Yoga is not merely about relaxing and being passive. The word “yoga” means union and that requires energy and movement, not lying around passively. Focus is the other benefit of yoga. The Hindu concept of Ahimsa means to do no harm to others and achieving equanimity is a goal but even if I let it all out in a burst of rage; it’s over with in a few minutes and I’m cleansed. Believe it or not, I’m amazingly easy to get along with as long as you can get beyond a short spate of yelling, screaming and cursing. I’ve been doing yoga since I was sixteen and I believe in it as a lifestyle wholeheartedly. Starting in the early 1990s, I chose the Iyengar yoga path, which is very beneficial to the body and mind because it deconstructs our complacency. You can always do more and be better so get up off your ass and do it. At the same time, you need to let your body breathe and relax but if you don’t use strength and energy, the muscles are slack and will become injured. Yoga helps people with all sorts of personalities and there is no one type. There’s nothing worse than those passive aggressive yoga people who pretend to be nice but who make you feel bad. If anything, I’m aggressive aggressive but I believe in fun and I hope to start a midnight disco yoga class where everyone dresses up in fabulous clothing, dancing and doing yoga until the dawn.

What is a Gerrification and why?

The world is often a cold hard place and I’m amazed we’re able to survive and function as much as we do, but let’s not forget about the plagues of war, poverty, illness, death, impotence, constipation, depression, and ugliness. Gerrification is the philosophy I’ve developed to save the world and bring joy and beauty to everyone by having them look like ME. Some of the demands in the manifesto of The Gerry Party include: down with yuppies up with Gerrys; up with parties down with work; the workday will be 2 to 9, not 9 to 5; the water system will be filled with gin; free plastic surgery upon demand; and free makeup will be distributed on every street corner. There will be parties going on everywhere at all times of the day and night. Looking like Gerry will make you look better, feel better, improve your day, your mood and your life. It’s cheaper than Prozac without all the side effects. Let’s face it, we could all use a makeover.

Stephan Keating Photo by Gerry Visco

Your work is like a blunt object to the head. Do you enjoy tearing off the veils of your subjects? 

Darling, I don’t look at it that way at all. I don’t hit anyone over the head other than the viewer who has an epiphany after they see my work. Yes, I’m Italian American and we’re a brutal people albeit generally sneaky. I firmly believe in being direct, no sugarcoating. In my photographs, writing, and performing, I approach the audience and subjects head on and capture their souls. Tribal cultures fear photographers because they are afraid of having their souls captured and that’s precisely what I do; but it doesn’t harm anyone. We need to define who we are as people and understand why we are here on this earth.

There is a big bang of some sort behind every artists’ creation. What is the big bang (no pun intended) that brought about Gerry Visco?

Was I spawned in a womb or did I arise out of the ocean, like Venus? The big bang could’ve been my father banging my mother. I’ve always looked at the life I was handed by whatever bigger powers out there with skepticism and rarely believe the truisms that have been imposed upon me by my parents, school, and drone jobs. We all need systems to survive and thrive, but someone needs to be minding the store and show us all what’s really going on. I guess that’s me. I’m not sure if the term bipolar is just a synonym for being sane but ideas come to me in a rush every day all day. If only I could slow down and create them. I barely sleep because I must do my life’s work.

You are, like a lot of my favorite New Yorkers, at the helm of your own private creative rage. What art-war are you waging and why?

I believe art is for expression, pleasure, and comprehension of who we are and our world. I want to change people with my art and everything I do. As for art wars, I believe the museums of New York City should stop charging admission. They should display art from more people and not just the artists who’ve become accepted by art critics and scholars. We should also be paid just as much as lawyers, doctors, and hedge fund corporate criminals. But as for art aesthetics, I like art that is beautiful or ugly, that changes the way I think, not just pretty pictures. A lot of artists out there have become desensitized to the world, especially the successful ones, and the patrons often do not recognize interesting art until it is verified by some so-called authority. However, if you believe in your work and you stick with it, eventually it will pay off, maybe posthumously.

Have you ever gotten into a fistfight while shooting photos? You seem like you piss people off a lot.

I’ve been hit, cursed at, spit upon, pissed upon and threatened. I would love to have been a photographer on the battlefront and taken photos in dangerous situations. Someone’s got to do it. Being a middle aged woman in club kid clothing means people trust me. I get results from people by confronting them and making them relax. Many people despise being photographed and tense their faces and as a result they are usually not photogenic due to their negative self-image. I’ve learned so much about faces and how they reveal the inner soul. I believe in outer beauty because it is molded by inner beauty and we can all make our outsides look better with our minds. That’s what the Chinese art of face-reading is all about. Anyway, your assertion that I piss a lot of people off is an exaggeration. I’m a charmer and you know it.

Matthew HerraC Photo by Gerry Visco

Have you ever beaten a man senseless?

No, I was raised by my parents to be an Italian American dishrag wife who caters to a man’s every wish. Although I seem very outspoken, in reality I have a 50’s sensibility that collides with my belief in independence and alternative gender roles. I have not beaten a man senseless, though I have punched a few in the face. They deserved it. I’ve screamed at them, pulled their hair and spat on them. I’m an avenger who likes to save defenseless people and animals. The reality is men have beaten ME. Most of the men I’ve lived with (and there’ve been a lot) have smacked me, broken my things and been verbally abusive. The neighbors called the police on my last live-in boyfriend and he was brought down to the Tombs for the weekend but I dropped the charges. I’ve been raped three times by men. In general, I’m easy to live with and a very giving person but I will fight back and I yell a lot. I have to act tough because otherwise I’ll wind up supporting a whole family of twinks and have them living on my living room floor.

Pretend you get hit by a bus. All of your readers, all of your photo-subjects and everyone you know are gathered together staring down at you in the final waning seconds of your life and with your last breath you say to us…

Well, there’d be a helluva lot of people gathered since I’ve met a shitload over the years. What I’d say with my last breath is, “Fuck you motherfucker!” to the bus driver who had the nerve and bad driving skills to run me over. I’d urge my friends to hire a good accident lawyer. Then I’d say as a finale, “make sure to get me all dolled up for the funeral – no ashes, I want a proper burial – and have a fabulous party for my funeral!”

“I Check You” exhibition at Munch Gallery
New works by Rauha Mäkilä and Geraldine Visco
April 21 – May 22, 2011
Opening reception April 21, 2011, 6-9 pm
Contact: Lillan Munch, 212.228.1600

http://www.munchgallery.com/

M:What are you hiding?

P: Oh, only just about everything.

M: Oscar Wilde once said, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth.” What truth are you expressing to us?

P: That’s an interesting quote of Oscar’s. In my experience, I find people will say all kinds of stuff anomalously. You know, even if I wore a mask I think everyone would recognize me right away. I recently started doing the big sunglasses thing to avoid the attention of the paparazzi and it just made things worse…so what am I expressing? I am an artist exploring the usual humanist themes: Who we are and how we represent the modern world. You talk of truth; for me truth implies absolutes. My work is continually evolving.

M: You have such a great penchant for serving sleek, even precious surfaces in your work. Are you not particularly interested in taking your audience beyond the immediate facade?

P: Life is full of facades-sleek, shiny and perfect; I’m simply dishing up what they all want. I can’t take people beyond the immediate but I can offer them a mystery.

Pandemonia Photo by Marcus T, www.marcust.com

M: Most artists are Machiavellian in their pursuit of fame; it is often the artists’ equivalent to power. If fame does matter, why does it matter and does it matter that you become famous?

P: I guess that depends on the individual artists’ motive.

For me, fame is a device. Our culture is obsessed with celebrity. If you want to communicate something, it’s best to be endorsed by one or, better still, to be one. Celebs wield a lot of influence through image and role model.

My work is a parody. It questions our role models. I’m a fake celebrity; you could even say a false idol. Glossy magazines are the purveyors of myths and dreams-this is the most appropriate place to show my work. It communicates my ideas directly with a receptive audience. My artwork is being exhibited in situ and it functions within the media.

M: What is more truthful: that the fake is chic or that reality is so brutal that anything else will do?

P: It’s neither, we are just compelled to follow our nature. Fake chic can be brutal and we are driven to improve on reality. The West has always been interested in going beyond reality. Look at ancient Greece, they were doing it then and we are still doing it now. In sculpture, they exaggerated the body to make it more beautiful, even removing some bones. We just do the same now though surgery and digital imaging. Our culture and aesthetics may be different now, but we still have the same motivation.

M: Tell me the most beautiful daydream or vision you’ve ever had…

P: I say, ‘Why dream when you can make it reality?’ Dreams are your aspirations. If you follow them, they might come true. You’re seeing mine slowly revealed.

M: Please come to visit New York soon, will you? You can stay in my apartment if you like and we could go spend countless hours at Dylans’ Candy Bar…

P: I would love to visit the Big Apple. If we went to Dylans’ I might never step off that roundabout. Thank you for your generous offer. Watch out for that knock on your door.

For more Pandemonia, please visit  www.Pandemonia99.com or browse her blog at www.Pandemonia99.blogspot.com