JANUARY : word : PATRICIA MALONEY : art : NICK GRAHAM

The Silence of History

A medley of art stars, political figures and fast food icons beam out from an imaginary history - a backwards-looking future moment that pay tributes to the visionaries of 21st Century American capitalism. Here are the leaders who brought us into a golden age of consumption, one that - according to Nick Graham - culminates in no less that the wholesale acquisition of our sovereign nation. From the holy trinity of Pop Art - Father Warhol with Hirst the Son, and Koons off to the side, jester or Holy Ghost - to Father and Son Bush staring vacantly or squinting blindly at the havoc surrounding them, we are presented with the protectors of American culture who freed us from the burden of production and guided our great nation into excess and debt. While our children grew bountiful and complacent licking the lead off their Happy Meal™ toys, these innovators beckoned us toward greater heights of acquisition and convenience, all the while selling our franchises and our self-interests out from under us.

In Graham's Popaganda, the commercial and political actors currently colliding into each other (as the line between news and corporate interests grows ever more blurred) are further juxtaposed against the propagandist paintings of Maoist China. While he is trafficking in ready icons and tropes - the symbols of prosperity and free expression commingled with those of oppression and the party line - Graham is not simply substituting capitalism for communism. Nor is he scolding us with a morality tale, warning against the giddy embrace between the two. In mixing icons and ideologies, he recognizes that all myths and fables possess the same elements; the intrepid hunter and the big bad wolf can easily exchange places depending on the story told and who is doing the telling.

For example, an outsized vision of Al Gore looms above the frozen tundra, arm raised in salute, mouth open, commanding the fleet of Hummers below, and either halting them to stop or urging them onward. Does he really want to save the world, or does he want to be the one who gets to say “I told you so.”? It is an almost immaterial question; Gore's bases are covered; he will be the Great Prophet if the world comes to an end and the Great Savior if it doesn't.

Perhaps it is still too early to poke fun at the Oscar-winning Nobel Laureate. We have shared his pain for the past seven years and are still a bit tender. However, while Graham is reminding us to view the world with a bit of brevity, he is also wondering what do we care of history if we do not remember it? There is the silence of the past: after the clamor of the parades and the rallies, the speeches and the campaigning dies down, what are the words that linger? Perhaps for that reason, Graham retains the faces of the anonymous workers, who somehow become more eternal than the politicians and art stars juxtaposed amongst them. In our age of consumer convenience and immediate obsolescence, the voices of the latter become trapped in a particular moment; they begin to speak from a distance too far away to heed.

It is the same distance occupied by a future looking back into the present, the point at which optimism becomes naiveté. These images are the artifacts of our current moment, seen from a perspective that appears wiser only because it knows what remains relevant and who has faded to obscurity. They successfully operate as such because our cultural icons have become so apparent to be rendered mute. We do not need to linger with them to understand what they are telling us - a passing glance is enough. But caught in that glance and refusing to be overlooked is the golden beaver; the ultimate anomaly, a symbol of industry in an age of drive-thru delivery. Is he taunting us or imploring us? It remains too soon to tell.
PATRICIA MALONEY 2008

JANUARY : word : NEIL O'ROURKE : art : ALBERT REYES

Shit Happens
The Art of Albert Reyes

if exposure is the measure of success, Albert Reyes is doing pretty damn well for himself.
After his spit art was featured in the New York Times ‘ Year in Ideas Review , a self-published YouTube clip of him in full spitting act has attracted some 1,542.950 viewers.

Assuming each of them watched all 3 minutes 27 seconds of his oral artistry, by Warhol calculations he’s snaffled some 336,363 people’s 15 minutes of fame from right under their noses. Some detractors may try to write off his spit art as a novelty act , but you can’t argue with those figures -- especially when Mr. Reyes is far from being a one trick pony. “To me the spit art is just another weapon in my arsenal”, Albert explains.” I want to do a lot of different art . I want to do idea art. I want to make drawings. I want to paint... do etchings. Make video. Make film. Act. Direct.


“My spit art is just part of all this. Just some performance art that happened to become really popular. Here in the US it got me on television, on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. I never thought that spitting water out of my mouth could get me that kind of exposure.”

But exposure it gave him, and with his approach to art, the bigger the audience the better. To all intents, Albert is a reporter. A visual documenter of, and a commentator on, our times. His socially-charged aesthetic couldn’t have found a more exciting era to chronicle either.

Politically-fuelled wars -- or is that just political fuel wars?
Global warming. The ever-growing gulf between the rich and the poor. It’s all there for him to assimilate into his work and L.A. seems to be the perfect vantage point from which to observe the world as we know it. “Everything that happens in the world affects me and what I do. That I’m American , everything I do touches lots of other people too. The reason we can have so much in America is because other people have so little and I’m aware of that”

“I am aware of the impact of our foreign policies. How corrupt my government is. Being from L.A. , I’m also aware how materialist we are. People here are kind of shallow, superficial. They are obsessed with what is on the outside not the inside”

Balancing the political and materialistic shortcomings of our culture with scenes of everyday folks leading everyday lives, Albert’s work makes those shortcomings even more apparent. However, while he challenges the viewer to make a difference to the world we live in, his work is as pessimistic as it is optimistic. Such is the polarity of life, the two outlooks are inextricably linked. “You can’t have good without bad. That’s the yin and yang of life. We are all negative. We are all positive. It’s about the choices we make. Are we going to do what’s right or what’s wrong?”.

There is no doubting Albert has taken the path of light. Not just in terms of his art’s call to action with regards to tackling the ills of the world. Since graduating high school he’s been involved in various programmes teaching art to the young. It’s always been a two-way learning process though. “the kids I have worked with have really influenced me. They come at art from a different approach. they are untainted . They are not doing art for money. They are not doing it to be topical. They are doing it out of love. That’s how i try to approach my work. Trouble is , as an adult that is not easy. I’m trying to produce a diverse range of art. Trying to make a living... trying to put my religious and political beliefs out there. It’s very complicated now. I strive to be true to my artwork, but as an adult I have to function in the world we live in. A world that’s corrupt”

It’s ironic it was a symptom of that corruption that brought Albert’s work to much of the world’s attention. While it has its use , YouTube is in many ways a prime example of today’s fame obsessed cult of celebrity.
The Z-list Warholian nightmare we live in . At least Albert has the substance to back up his style. His 15 minutes won’t be ending any time soon.
NEIL O'ROURKE 2007
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