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Robin Birdd GENTRIFRIED Interview

SKC: Who are you and what do you do? Robin Birdd: My name is Robin Birdd and I am an installation artist from the Bay Area.

SKC: Tell me a little about your installation at the luggage Store right now.. RB: My installation at the Luggage Store Gallery is called “Googoogagaaa”. This piece is associated with a larger series of work called “Babies Making Babies”. The installation is comprised of over 70 boobs of different shapes, textures and sizes made from various cotton fabrics. “Googoogagaaa” is inspired by a personal memory. 

As a child, I was afraid of the dark, but more specifically scared of the dark mysteries under my parents bathroom sink. Amongst the miscellaneous items tucked away, I discovered two objects that terrified me; one, a Halloween mask and two, a gigantic boob shaped mug that allowed you to drink out the nipple. My immediate reaction to the second discovery was “why would anyone want to drink out of a boob!!!?” 

My dad was a boob guy, and was the proud owner of the boob memorabilia. He would speak highly of Hollywood stars like Little Kim in her shell top bikini while making very different comments about how big his mama’s (my grandma’s) breast were because she had 12 kids and lived on a farm. As a young girl all I wanted was boobs. This desire became really complicated when I discovered for the first time that a woman’s body part could be objectified while having the capabilities of feeding a family of 12. I was confused.

SKC: What does Gentrifried mean to you? RB: Gentrification is nothing new to San Francisco and the Bay Area. South of Market for instance, has been repeatedly gentrified and still continues to be gentrified from redevelopers who want to build skyscraper apartments on top of communities that can’t afford to live in those skyscrapers. The term “gentrifried” to me is an exaggerated form of the word “gentrified”, symbolizing a sort of “fuck you” or rather a middle finger to gentrification. The “gentrifried” exhibition looks into our lives as young artist living in a generation where gentrification has become so relevant.

SKC: Have you always worked in fabric? RB: No, I have not always worked with fabric. I enjoy working with a variety of mediums from paint, paper and found objects. I’m more interested in transforming spaces with the use of whatever materials I can find.

SKC: Do you have any other mediums you work with? RB: I started off as a painter working with all types of paints & oils. Eventually, I got kind of bored from the repetitiveness involved in painting. One day, I was daydreaming about my childhood memories of creating cardboard forts and magic potions from expired shampoo. From this thought, I rediscovered my love for transforming spaces through the use of random objects. Installation art opened up a whole new world of possibilities. Although I still really love painting, I don’t want to limit myself to a canvas or wall as basis of my work.

SKC: How long have you been doing large scale installation work? RB: I’ve been working on large scale installations for over 6 years now.

SKC: Is there an underlying theme in your current works? RB: Yes, my overall series of work is called “Babies Making Babies”. This series explores the big question of “why adults are the way they are?” through the realization that everyone was once a strange baby. Think about it, the things we learned from those who’ve raised us were once babies. Our mamas were once babies and our daddy’s daddy’s were also once babies. “Babies Making Babies” is a sarcastic commentary on the forgotten childhood memories of play, discovery and trauma.

SKC: What is the connection to the feminine form in your body of work? RB: I have boobs.. and boobs are weird, beautiful and useful all at the same time.  (Refer to answer # 2 for more details)

SKC: Who are some of your influences? RB: I am really interested in the work of Ernesto Neto. He is an installation artist from Brazil who works on large-scale interactive pieces. His work is very minimal, yet has the power to evoke emotions through touch and play.

SKC: What draws you to installation based works? RB: I want to be able to transport people, take them away from their 9-5 job, for even a couple minutes of their routine lives. I have this desire to change mundane spaces into alternate realms through installation base work.

SKC: How was the Gentrifried install and exhibit ? RB: When the artist’s were finally done installing and the ladders were all put away I finally had the chance to step back and really feel the work in its entirety. I came to realize how much each artist’s work really reflects and transcends each other. Yarrow did an amazing job curating work that was both simultaneously playful and serious at the same time.  

SKC: Do you feel it was well received? RB: Yes, I definitely feel “Googoogaagaaa” was well received. I wanted people to be connected and conflicted at the same time. People felt uncomfortable around so many breasts but also comforted by the childlike environment of puzzle place mats, basketball court and toy blocks. It was awesome to see the faces of people walking up to a pile of boobs. I saw a lot of genuine smiles, the type of giggly faces kids have when they talk about boobs for the first time.

SKC: Whats next for Robin Birdd? RB:“Googoogagaa” is the first install to my adult play-structure series. My next installation will focus on expanding this notion of play and exploration. Unfortunately, I can’t give anything away, so you’ll just have to wait and see what this future piece will focus on… who knows maybe it’ll involve dicks or something LOL.

SKC: Is there anything else you would like to say? RB: Have a TITacular day.. and fuck gentrification! 

Interviewed by SKC  Saturday, Feb 20th 2016

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Jaque Fragua, an acclaimed multi-media artist from New Mexico

Tell me a little bit about your background, where you grew up, and what inspired you to become an artist?

I am from Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico. This is a little reservation about 45 minutes northwest of Albuquerque. I was born in the Santa Fe Indian hospital. I grew up mostly on-reservation, although I have moved on and off to places like Houston, Denver, and Albuquerque.

When I was just a young child growing up on the reservation, I guess there were arts and crafts. I don’t know what you would have considered it, perhaps traditional (Pueblo) art work. And at that point, I really didn’t know what “art” was. I really didn’t know what art was until I was in college. Although, I knew that what I was doing was a cultural practice more than anything.

As a kid, I grew up farming and where I come from traditional farming is a big thing in the community. I would get into the other things you might find on any reservation… hunting, fighting with other neighborhood kids, laughs

I was just going to say…every reservation is kind of rough. These are rural areas, there isn’t much entertainment, so you have to kind of build it yourself. I was up for all the physical stuff, farming, hunting and what not, but I found a creative side too. I got tired of beating up my neighbors and being beat up. I would just hang out, draw, and at some point I picked up the guitar and started learning how to play all kinds of music. Music was my first passion. And art was sort of secondary, I suppose.

Inspiration wise, I was stimulated just by things I witnessed growing up. For example, there were a lot of different signs, folk art, southwestern textiles, and the kinds of things you would find in a tourist shop on highway 66 or any reservation highway. All this folk art or road art was for the tourists and it makes sense because tourism is the biggest economy in New Mexico today. The whole state is full of Native American culture. The state government exploits Native culture to the umpteenth degree.

Growing up within the actual culture definitely inspired me, but I didn’t realize how much it would fuel the content for what I do now. It just sort of naturally happened. I would visit my ancestral homelands and visit sacred sites. There are miles and miles of wild art, etchings and carvings–marks that really got me inspired to do graffiti. And when I moved to Denver for high school, I continually had flashbacks to the wall art in my ancestral homelands. I like to believe I’m continuing a tradition. It’s not using the same materials but it is definitely in the same spirit.

In Denver I started running around with the rebellious crowd of kids and I was into the graffiti scene, but like I said, music was my passion. I took an art elective my senior year, and that’s where I learned art basics, like history, different mediums, etc. I’ve since gotten a hang of photography, printmaking and other types of contemporary art mediums. I’ve always been interested in burgeoning mediums, such as digital media. This sparked my path in using film, the internet, graphic design, gifs, etc. I really enjoyed conceptual art as well, I still do. In retrospect, I felt graffiti could evolve into something more conceptual. I started bombing in ‘99 and during that time, there was a big movement in street art. Traditional graffiti had been around for a long time already, but stencil art and wheatpasting gained popularity in the late 90s. It was an interesting time. There was the San Francisco Mission School art movement, with Margaret Kilgallen, Juxtapoz magazine, OBEY, and other forces of underground inspiration that I stumbled upon.

So fast forward to now, all of that underground material is popular, very hip, and mainstream. But back then, it was just sort of this… really crazy sub-culture. I was viewed as crazy for liking it or knowing about it.

After high school, I moved to Seattle and that didn’t work out. I decided to go to the Institute of the American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.

What made you take that decision?

I moved to Seattle for music school, but the scholarship fell through in the last minute and the only college that would accept me was IAIA– unlike other colleges you can apply a month before it starts. I don’t know if they still do that though. So I applied and I got in. That was 2004. And then the Indian art world opened up to me. I was just so perplexed at how there was this whole other genre of art that existed alongside contemporary art, complete with it’s own rules, social hierarchy, heroes, and money. At this time graffiti was also a whole other category. But now graffiti is considered “art” and is within the genre of contemporary. But as far as Indian art, it’s still on the fringe of what you may consider legitimate art by Western standards. I feel like it’s more of a curio or it’s just decorative.

Tell me about that a little bit more. In terms of defining native art and this constant struggle between the traditional versus the more contemporary native art?

There is always that tension between tradition and contemporary or modern. And that is not only with the art work itself, but with the culture, the people. There is this ebb and flow, this push and pull between what is considered, I guess, right and wrong.

Like I was saying, there is always this argument between what works, what we can progress with and what we want to hold on to. And I think that’s why Native art as a whole is relevant��it is not moving so fast, it’s eternal. We don’t adopt new technology and test it blindly. A lot is at stake for Native culture because of our sensitive history. A lot of Native communities don’t want to jump the gun and try out a new method without the proper due diligence. But this is also a flaw because it inhibits our creativity, and the possibilities of solutions. I feel that healing involves letting go and making mistakes and understanding the strength in failing. Healing really is a faith based action and most Native communities lack the confidence to take risks and make mistakes, even if there is a bright future at stake. Native communities rather be ignorant of perpetuating the suffering and continue to just get by. It is a regression or a de-evolution of our own progress. Although, I do believe we have to be careful of what we get ourselves into. We are still super sensitive.

Do you make it back to Pueblo very often? Do you have family back there?

Yeah. I live most of the time on the road, so if I’m not home I’m somewhere else doing a mural or project. But it’s my community; it is naturally where I feel most comfortable. But it’s discomforting when I realize that the community isn’t doing as well as I would like it to be. It is pretty demoralizing to hear about the abusive environments, murders and DUIs. So sometimes it is hard to be there, but these challenges give me energy to continue my work, keep doing something that changes that environment. I always have something in the works. I am always keeping the balance between staying on the reservation and staying active externally. And of course, I have a lot of family in Jemez and others who have migrated to start new tribes in other parts of the world.

How many people live on the reservation?

There are around 3400 members, and about 2000 live on the land.

If you could just tell me a little bit about the specific things you are working on right now.

Right now, I just finished a show in Phoenix called #NATIVEAMERICA. Simply, it’s about imagery that continues to colonize us. By creating fine art out of these visuals and emphasizing the images ad nauseum, it creates the opposite effect. Sort of like Warhol’s soup cans. This is a big project. It is actually the first installment of the larger project. I had only 20 or so paintings for this show. But I want to increase it to 60 art works. It’s imagery that I have been wanting to share with the world for a long time. I’m trying to bring the show to different cities and see how it’s received. I’m always trying to push the idea of what Native America is and who is a part of it and who wants to contribute. I want to make it more interactive and engaging.

- April 2, 2013 native X interview

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A YOUNG ARTIST LEAVES HIS MARK ON THE TENDERLOIN

An Interview of Artist Erlin Geffrard

Surrounded by tattered cardboard stapled to the walls and piled on the floor, Erlin Geffrard uses donated and recycled goods from the Tenderloin for his art. He finds beauty and motivation where others see defeat.

“The Tenderloin is such a giving place, (there’s) so much trash it’s relatively easy getting materials. It just works out in your favor and I like using recycled materials,” Geffrard said.

He jokes with his friends who keep him company as he prepares for his exhibition, Belly of the Beast, at Gallery Heist on Saturday. This is the gallery’s first solo exhibition; however it isn’t for Geffrard. He is no stranger to art and has been drawing since he was a child.

Geffrard grew up in Riviera Beach, Fla. but moved to San Francisco to attend the San Francisco Art Institute on a scholarship. Geffrard said art has been always been part of his life.

“I’m having fun with art right now,” he said. “Being in the moment of what I’m doing is the most amazing feeling.”

He grew up going to art schools beginning with middle school and later being accepted to one of the finest art high school in West Palm Beach, Fla. “I tried to get into the same art school,”said Geffrard’s brother, Lordins Geffrard. “I didn’t get in, but he did. I remember he won an art contest for a drawing in the first grade.”

Erlin Geffrard said he grew up as a middle child, number three in a family of six children and two cousins.

“There’s never a dull moment, always hear voices. I like my family a lot,” he said.

He said when his aunts and uncles faced economic hardships they would often drop off their children for his mother to watch.

“My mom and dad were just like we gotta get bigger pots. She’s raised kids that aren’t even her own,” Erlin Geffrard said.

His family has been very influential in his life, particularly his older brother Lordins Geffrard.

“You have no choice but to be influenced by people you’re around,” he said. “I have some mannerisms of my older brother. He’s fun, charismatic and outgoing.”

However, they weren’t always so close. In fact, Lordins Geffrard said they used to fight all the time.

“I hated his guts when I was little. I was an evil brother. I used to give him the silent treatment and he (Erlin) would say‘please talk,’” Lordins Geffrard said. Lordins Geffrard said it all changed after they were on a fishing trip but got into a car accident along the way.

“The first thing I thought was, where is Erlin? I was giving him the silent treatment at the time. After that I realized how much I liked him and that was the last time I ever gave him the silent treatment,” he said.

His father is also a constant reminder of his background. His father immigrated to Florida from Haiti and works as a landscaper.

“He worked for rich people, got to see lavish lifestyles though an immigrant,” Erlin Geffrard said. “I grew up seeing people yell at him. I saw him walk away from jobs and it always makes me want to stand up for myself.”

Erlin Geffrard said he got his positive outlook on life through his father. “My father said riches aren’t in cars. Real riches are in the soil and what’s around you,” he said.

He said he remembers going to work with his dad at the age of 7 and it wasn’t easy.

“I really had to work. Everyone has to carry their weight,” he said. As a result, Erlin Geffrard said he inherited his father’s work ethic and can appreciate things more than most people.

“He doesn’t believe in a free meal,” Erlin Geffrard said about his father. “He’s obsessive about work I feel like I have that as well. Not a lot of people be into, like, working towards something that isn’t immediately gratifying, especially with art.”

Erlin Geffrard said his strong work ethic has gotten him out of bed at 6 a.m. on his days off so he can work on projects.

“I feel good about myself when I’m involved and getting something done. The ability to create, it’s like art is a gift that people don’t realize they have. It’s amazing, it’s really awesome,” Erlin Geffrard said.

His passion and excitement are evident when he begins to talk about art. He pauses from using his staple gun so he can clearly express what he thinks and how he feels. In the middle of the interview his phone rings; it’s an offer to do another gallery showing.

“I’ve been expressing everything that comes into my mind. I think it’s cool I can still speak my mind,” he said. “Less people express what they have to say and make more videos of how stupid they act.”

He said art has become an outlet since he grew up in a low-income community with lots of violence.

“Young death, gun violence, babies walking on glass and pregnant ladies fighting in a KFC parking lot. “You focus on what you want. If I focused on the fighting I’d be into fighting,” he said.

Lordins Geffrard said he remembers what it was like growing up in a community with high crime and gangs.

“My dad was a landscaper, there were countless times where they stole his equipment. All you can do is be resilient. It makes you so much tougher and appreciate things people take for granted,” Lordins Geffrard said.

Erlin Geffrard said there was a lot of negativity in his community but a lot of positivity too. In fact he started showing his work in community galleries “All the kids in the neighborhood got together and would draw. We’d have drawing wars of who would have the best batman. We didn’t have basketball courts or anything so we just drew,” he said.

His childhood still influences him through all of the different people and diversity he experienced.

“I kind of grew up in a mixed neighborhood, multiracial community. I see it as a rainbow, maybe just a dirtier rainbow. A dirty rainbow of the underclass, it was filthy, but it was still our neighborhood,” he said.

He said he sees himself as an exception to growing up in a low-income and gang infested neighborhood.

“You’re in shit condition and you’re going to be stuck in it. If you can take that bull shit and turn it into fertilizer, and grow a garden,” Erlin Geffrard said. Erlin Geffrard’s positive outlook never ceased, even when he heard his peers talking about vacations and luxuries he didn’t have.

“I got to be with kids from upper class. At first they told me about weekends on yachts,” he said. “My dad doesn’t have a yacht but I’m rich with patience, perseverance. I’m rich in a different way, rich with love. My parents believed in rich morals and values.”
He went to school in hand me downs that were sometimes too big for him but he didn’t mind.

“I wore baggy clothes and people thought it was cool. Sometimes kids would say random things but I never let it get to me. I would just, you know, say thank you for your opinion and walk away. I was always peaceful, never violent because it wasn’t worth it. I’d just be adding to what I see,” he said. However, he said he isn’t an exception to his family since four of his family members have graduated college and the rest are too young. They’ve all had positive role models to rely on and motivate them.

He said he misses his family but it can be hard going back. “I see a lot, pit bulls fighting in parking lots, people setting places on fire. I could easily go back to that,” he said.

In the meantime Erlin Geffrard is enjoying San Francisco and creating art in such a diverse city.

“It was crazy. San Francisco is a wild place. The first time I came I was a hermit, just wanted to draw, paint and I would be covered in paint. I guess one night I went out with friends and one night became a semester,” he said.

Erlin Geffrard is taking a semester off from school to focus on his artistic endeavors and discover what other opportunities lay ahead for him. “Things are kind of good. Make art in the real art world not in a bubble,” he said. “You meet people, that’s a plus. I’ve met people that have changed my life.”

Erlin Geffrard’s friend, Mario Ayala, also agrees that he knows how to keep a balance of fun.

“It’s exciting, never a dull moment,” Ayala said. “The best way to describe him is youthful and wise, it’s what makes a grown up. He’s in a middle place which is hard, but an amazing quality for sure,” Ayala said.

Ayala said Erlin Geffrard takes his art very seriously but still youthful by finding an intellectual concept and aesthetically making it playful.

“It was 3 a.m. and I came into the studio. He was playing this sick hip hop and there was shit all over the place, paper cut outs, glitter. He was hyped, the hype that makes you hype, kind of like going to a show,” Ayala said.

Lordins Geffrard said he is proud of his brother and appreciates his creativity. “Its unorthodox, it’s innovative, his work is nothing like I’ve ever seen,” he said. Erlin Geffrard said his art mostly deals with immigration, indigenous and human rights, which he became aware of at a very young age.

“My dad made us watch crazy documentaries, I mean graphic. Travesties, genocides, I knew about Rwanda, the holocaust, about all the wars. Geography and history were really big,” he said. “Things tend to repeat themselves.” His exhibit, Belly of the Beast, will showcase his views on the American education system and what he believes is the American dream.

“It’s going to be an installation with found objects of the Tenderloin. I’m going to transform the gallery into a fish. People can walk into the mouth of a fish, walk through the intestines. Like they’re being processed by the school system,” he said.

He said he disagrees with the way the school system creates people like it’s an assembly line. He hopes the show will start a dialogue of how we view our education.

“We’re born into the world, go to elementary school, high school, college, get married, have kids, then die. The American dream, what is it really? Is it my dream or someone else pushing it on me?” he said. He said he hopes to inspire people and create something for the San Francisco community to look into.

“I feel like there is no one American dream for everyone one. It’s working with what you got,” Erlin Geffrard said.

Erlin Geffrard also goes by his artist name Kool Kid Kreyola, which he got from a community activist in Florida. He took on the name as a project but has kept it since.

“I was 18, he couldn’t’ remember my name. He would remember me as the cool creole kid,” he said.

He decided to use k’s instead of c’s because its initials were kkk like the Klu Klux Klan, but he wanted to turn something negative and make it positive. His friends and family are all extraordinarily proud of him.

“He is so passionate about his art. We discussed what success means to us. If he accomplishes that, then I’ll be ecstatic for my brother,” Lordins Geffrard said.

-may 2012 tenderlines

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Brazillian brothers/artists Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo aka Os Gemeos just finished this piece titled "Giants" a couple days ago on Granville Island in Vancouver bc, Canada. This is the Largest scale work they've done thus far in their career.   The twins painted this piece in correlation with the Vancouver Biennale founded by Barry Mowatt. 

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Aaron Glasson Painting at night in Mexico City

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Aaron Glasson, A New Zealand born artist, has been painting murals throughout mexico for months now. Pictured are 2 recent murals in Mexico City and Cholula, Mexico.

The first being a solo mural of a multi-dimentional horse figure that seems to be galloping into space.  Below the horse is a landscape of psychedelic flora and fauna. A cactus with an eye and a little blue fox peer out at the massive horse figure.  Embodied within the Caballo is a landscape of a moon above a mountainous terrain amongst other patterns.

A blue bird seems to be flying off with a snake representing Glasson's take on the Eagle messenger between the "great spirit" and human world.  Or maybe he is referencing specifically the ancient Aztec prophecy, where it was known that the people of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) originally would settle where there was an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its talon. The passing of the 2013, Year of the Snake, comes to mind.  This painting, according to Aaron, represents our current year we are living in now. The Year of the Horse. 

The second painting is a collaboration with artist, Cinzah Seekayem in Cholula, Mexcio. In Aaron's words "This painting is a tribute to the nearby Popocatepetl volcano, the local kind characters, cacti, and plants, the daily parades, processions, and parties. Muchas gracias to the legendary Milamores and El Flaco!" August 2014

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An Introduction to SEAWALLS Part I

Photos and Story by Matthew Marino

Significant storms that form over the Oceans are increasing in their rate of occurrence and the intensity at which they impact local communities. A Seawall is a cement wall that has been built historically and currently to stop the natural process of coastal erosion. Seawalls are seemingly futile and in most cases an example of a poorly planned response to our ocean doing what its been doing since time immemorial.

Seawalls don't take into account future generations and in turn help privatize our public beaches and coastal communities.  Seawalls are a metaphoric representation of social stratification within select real estate markets, and question the value and democracy of capitalism. Wealth and status are cemented into a seemingly permanent state without regard for the tireless forces of nature. Enduring rhythms grind the coastline to dust. Oceans are a force that is inherently unusual. The oceans are built on the collapse of everything. 

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NOSEGO Portland, Oregon

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NOSEGO in PORTLAND OREGON