Blogger Sandy said...
You've given us a “dirty laundry list” of things that inform you and your work. I wanted to respond to your laundry list, ask you the questions that occurred to me on first reading:
The thing that stands out for me right of is that many of the items on your list are paired. Either oppositionally; history: distortion vs accuracy, or inclusively;
indifference and greed.
January 17, 2008 5:14 PM
Blogger Shelby said...
i will slowly expand on all the items in the laundry list at other times but i'll try to stick with your questions.
well, to be honest, there were a few paired items that were just paired because i thought to add them at the same time. but most pairs make sense for me just in a quick note taking sense. i'm big on paradoxes so opposing ideas play into my work (it is a little annoying for me to say that because probably every artist in the history of the planet has said that.) recently the pairing of opposites has been on my mind mostly in regards to scale. the tank and the tiny whittlings are the prominent example. i like to look at the intimacy of things close in set next to feelings i get when i zoom out on google earth and find that everything i know of is really fucking tiny. i do like trying to imagine the polarized versions of any issue for sake of being unbiased and thorough. sometimes i think of things as being somewhere on a line between two extremes. then sometimes that line is a circle. everything is some shade of grey. i wish i could draw a picture.
I did the laundry list quickly so i don't know if the pairing is a metaphor for anything in my work. in brainstorming i just find two words more clarifying than one.
SS Which brings me to another thing, I understand what you mean about every artist talking about paradoxes. But maybe there is a reason why..? The paradox (this is a word I have to look up over and over again, because the definition itself is a paradox!-it either means a statement that appears to be absurd or contradictory,but really is true, or something that is in fact self contradictory!! So that means what? It is no wonder that artists love it!
None the less, I had the opportunity to see another students laundry list in the mail room. I don't know who's it was, but they didn't pair things the way you did, each "item" was more of a phrase
or a thought. So your list is "idiosyncratic" or not, it is not the same as everyone else.
SS Shelby, do you have any thoughts about what you want to see, how you want the conversation to go?
SH The questions them selves are quite helpful. I mean think of, I like just being helped by the discussions and the writing I do on the blog, I don't feel like I need to come to some amazing realization based on how you compose the final pieces, I mean I'm sure that will happen, but...
SS Is there though some kind of product that we could end up with that might be kind of portably helpful to you?
Maybe just like Laurel was talking about categorizing. Chapter headings that don't exist yet?
RS Do you want more of like a DVD that you can walk away with?
SH I don't need to walk away with anything.
SS, as long as you can walk away eh?
SH I'll walk away with having hung out with you guys, that's pretty okay.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Process
SH My friend Melissa is going to help me make a book, hopefully it'll be ready, I don't know if it'll be ready for the opening cuz some of the pieces still have to be kind of installed and put together at the opening, but I would try to have a least a rough draft version of it done.
But I mean that's great but there is so much about the story telling side of it that has to be like.... You can read stories till your blue in the face, but some of them just come alive when the people read them or tell them.
SS That reminds me of what that linguist explained in that article we just read, about how it is the way that something is said, not just what they say that conveys meaning, and the Avalanche article showed how even though they are able to write in a very conversational style it is still not the same as hearing the voice.
SH and its like timing and shit is everything.. and I keep listening to different people, while i was doing some of these pieces I was listening to books on CD, and some people were ... I listened to Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama cds because i was tired of feeilng like the stuff you listen to on television with them campaigning was too scripted and thought this would be more “them” them reading their own books so and hillary was much more stiff and, i don't know, where as Barak Obama just felt more comfortable in his own skin. You know like all politics aside, he is a better orator and better storyteller. I mean like there's more adjectives more lists, and he's just better showing or at telling pictures.
Also, talking to Rita, she's like, you speak slow, (laughter) if you were in new york people would probably just think you're.... dumb. (lots of laughing) In new york man, if you don't talk fast people just aren't going to listen to ya. So there are obviously different ways to tell a story depending on where your from and thats interesting to me too, I wrote some in the blog about where I'm from trying to figure out what that means to me, how much of that is in me.
RS, The stairs that you built that are on the blog... can you tell me about that experience?
SH I finished undergrad and I was trying to find an interesting place to work, and there was this architect who was close friends with my dad and I had been to this wood shop he went to after he quit architecture to work with his brother ........19.3.. didn't write it can fill it in, is about charleston, history of high end wood shop,
2 years, jmo almost like father figures, an amaingly well put together business kind of perfectly put together shop, everything moved fluidly, it was really amazingly laid out,22.09.....
I worked my way up in that place.... Kind of like established trust...
SS so do you think that experience, you obviously have so much respect for the actual way the business was designed, the physical layout of the space and the organization, do you think that you have brought some of that with you, you have learned from that?
sh. very much
ss Looking comparatively your studio is pretty organized, I mean youv'e got everthing in a place and a place for everything,, and you're working with all these different mediums which makes that harder.
SH yeh, um, he , its funny, somebody told me you build work according to the size of your studio, I mean it you don't have a studio you figure out a way to make work, and if you have a studio and I do have one because it comes with your tuition , I'm not going to make an enormous piece in my studio because it won't fit... I guess I started working really small, not like because . I feel like I could have made some larger pieces in here but just because of the portability it fits with the project, I can go and talk with people and work. Go to them instead of making them come to me to do a portrait.
RS Your tank was really big though, do you feel like that was more Gordon's project?
SH No that's definitely our project. I guess that.. its weird, that ones this project that exists digitally first. I kind of drew the entire thing on the computer and it exists entirely in my head in digital space first. It wouldn't have happened at all if we didn't have the shop and a place to show it right after it got built. Right now were just stuck (laughs) putting it in somebody's way, its totally in the way at the place it got shown , cuz they have to move on to the next show. , its just like in the attic, until we move it.
SS Tell us about this over hear, this time line looking thing?
SH Thats a, its been a really weird totally awkward really, its just been my in studio sketch book, a lot of times I've been talking on the phone with some of the people I'm doing these projects with and they'll describe something, or tell me a story, and they'll help me try to depict it and I'll take notes.
SS There is some kind of ephemeral sensuality to anything drawn or written on tissue paper.
SH Thats the same thing (materials) I took one architecture class and I have this enormous roll of tissue paper, they call it bum wad.
SS Bum Wad?
SH that's what I heard.
Laughing,
SS bum wad..? there's a scale thing for you...
Laughing
RS How many People have you done so far?
SH They're all in different stages of completion, Completely done is maybe two or three, because most of them still have the faces to be carved, the f aces are the hardest part and I can do the gestures and the pose of with our them around because I have that in my head, but the faces.... I'm still new at subtractive carving so I'm still scared of accuracy and not doing things in the presence of the people.
RS How many do you have in a more completed stage, or have you started all 20 of them?
SH I have 6 more to start.
RS What I'm trying to get at is I feel like having 20 is just too much. If you just worked on the ones you have here you're going to be able to make the projects with the people more interesting. Like right now if you are focusing on getting these things done... these are really nice, and you want to make sure you can get that done, but it seems like I see more of this completed than your other projects.
SH What other projects?
RS Like if these are about the projects with the other people, you said all those projects are in the show too? It seems like a lot to try and make it all work together in the show.
SS So when you say the projects you mean like with Mandy's and what I just asked you about the coffee pot.
SH This will help sort of clarify some things, the open ended part is, I don't know exactly how much stuff is going to be included in each project, and the project for mandy is just going to include her figure the coffee pot, maybe some photographs of the coffee pot actually out at alder flats, her and I are going to go camping there again, and take some photographs, and some plastic... that rubber thing on the wall right there, and that was use to patch...laughs ... that's another story about that same trip. The day before we went camping we went rafting, just her and I in this raft we borrowed from Prudence Roberts and Terry. There was a cut in the bottom, water coming in, too much water, at a certain point we pulled over and were flipping the raft over to get all the water out, and this guy came down from his truck and said (guy voice) “you got a cut in your raft you need some duct tape?” and we were like, Yeah that would be amazing. He runs up to his truck and he doesn't have duct tape he has electrical tape, and we didn't think it would hold but he was like “oh you just keep it”. So I fashioned this patch out of electrical tape.
But if you've seen Mandy's work, her work is collagy sort of stuff, all these components that don't really relate mixed in together and then she just places things around and composes it, so that's going to be very much present in her piece. And there will be some other form of the story that we'll have to tell too, so there will be an audio piece too.
SS So you're not only combining your stories, but your also kind of combining your aesthetics, and ways of working. Well at least with that story, it seems like a really tender approach.
But I mean that's great but there is so much about the story telling side of it that has to be like.... You can read stories till your blue in the face, but some of them just come alive when the people read them or tell them.
SS That reminds me of what that linguist explained in that article we just read, about how it is the way that something is said, not just what they say that conveys meaning, and the Avalanche article showed how even though they are able to write in a very conversational style it is still not the same as hearing the voice.
SH and its like timing and shit is everything.. and I keep listening to different people, while i was doing some of these pieces I was listening to books on CD, and some people were ... I listened to Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama cds because i was tired of feeilng like the stuff you listen to on television with them campaigning was too scripted and thought this would be more “them” them reading their own books so and hillary was much more stiff and, i don't know, where as Barak Obama just felt more comfortable in his own skin. You know like all politics aside, he is a better orator and better storyteller. I mean like there's more adjectives more lists, and he's just better showing or at telling pictures.
Also, talking to Rita, she's like, you speak slow, (laughter) if you were in new york people would probably just think you're.... dumb. (lots of laughing) In new york man, if you don't talk fast people just aren't going to listen to ya. So there are obviously different ways to tell a story depending on where your from and thats interesting to me too, I wrote some in the blog about where I'm from trying to figure out what that means to me, how much of that is in me.
RS, The stairs that you built that are on the blog... can you tell me about that experience?
SH I finished undergrad and I was trying to find an interesting place to work, and there was this architect who was close friends with my dad and I had been to this wood shop he went to after he quit architecture to work with his brother ........19.3.. didn't write it can fill it in, is about charleston, history of high end wood shop,
2 years, jmo almost like father figures, an amaingly well put together business kind of perfectly put together shop, everything moved fluidly, it was really amazingly laid out,22.09.....
I worked my way up in that place.... Kind of like established trust...
SS so do you think that experience, you obviously have so much respect for the actual way the business was designed, the physical layout of the space and the organization, do you think that you have brought some of that with you, you have learned from that?
sh. very much
ss Looking comparatively your studio is pretty organized, I mean youv'e got everthing in a place and a place for everything,, and you're working with all these different mediums which makes that harder.
SH yeh, um, he , its funny, somebody told me you build work according to the size of your studio, I mean it you don't have a studio you figure out a way to make work, and if you have a studio and I do have one because it comes with your tuition , I'm not going to make an enormous piece in my studio because it won't fit... I guess I started working really small, not like because . I feel like I could have made some larger pieces in here but just because of the portability it fits with the project, I can go and talk with people and work. Go to them instead of making them come to me to do a portrait.
RS Your tank was really big though, do you feel like that was more Gordon's project?
SH No that's definitely our project. I guess that.. its weird, that ones this project that exists digitally first. I kind of drew the entire thing on the computer and it exists entirely in my head in digital space first. It wouldn't have happened at all if we didn't have the shop and a place to show it right after it got built. Right now were just stuck (laughs) putting it in somebody's way, its totally in the way at the place it got shown , cuz they have to move on to the next show. , its just like in the attic, until we move it.
SS Tell us about this over hear, this time line looking thing?
SH Thats a, its been a really weird totally awkward really, its just been my in studio sketch book, a lot of times I've been talking on the phone with some of the people I'm doing these projects with and they'll describe something, or tell me a story, and they'll help me try to depict it and I'll take notes.
SS There is some kind of ephemeral sensuality to anything drawn or written on tissue paper.
SH Thats the same thing (materials) I took one architecture class and I have this enormous roll of tissue paper, they call it bum wad.
SS Bum Wad?
SH that's what I heard.
Laughing,
SS bum wad..? there's a scale thing for you...
Laughing
RS How many People have you done so far?
SH They're all in different stages of completion, Completely done is maybe two or three, because most of them still have the faces to be carved, the f aces are the hardest part and I can do the gestures and the pose of with our them around because I have that in my head, but the faces.... I'm still new at subtractive carving so I'm still scared of accuracy and not doing things in the presence of the people.
RS How many do you have in a more completed stage, or have you started all 20 of them?
SH I have 6 more to start.
RS What I'm trying to get at is I feel like having 20 is just too much. If you just worked on the ones you have here you're going to be able to make the projects with the people more interesting. Like right now if you are focusing on getting these things done... these are really nice, and you want to make sure you can get that done, but it seems like I see more of this completed than your other projects.
SH What other projects?
RS Like if these are about the projects with the other people, you said all those projects are in the show too? It seems like a lot to try and make it all work together in the show.
SS So when you say the projects you mean like with Mandy's and what I just asked you about the coffee pot.
SH This will help sort of clarify some things, the open ended part is, I don't know exactly how much stuff is going to be included in each project, and the project for mandy is just going to include her figure the coffee pot, maybe some photographs of the coffee pot actually out at alder flats, her and I are going to go camping there again, and take some photographs, and some plastic... that rubber thing on the wall right there, and that was use to patch...laughs ... that's another story about that same trip. The day before we went camping we went rafting, just her and I in this raft we borrowed from Prudence Roberts and Terry. There was a cut in the bottom, water coming in, too much water, at a certain point we pulled over and were flipping the raft over to get all the water out, and this guy came down from his truck and said (guy voice) “you got a cut in your raft you need some duct tape?” and we were like, Yeah that would be amazing. He runs up to his truck and he doesn't have duct tape he has electrical tape, and we didn't think it would hold but he was like “oh you just keep it”. So I fashioned this patch out of electrical tape.
But if you've seen Mandy's work, her work is collagy sort of stuff, all these components that don't really relate mixed in together and then she just places things around and composes it, so that's going to be very much present in her piece. And there will be some other form of the story that we'll have to tell too, so there will be an audio piece too.
SS So you're not only combining your stories, but your also kind of combining your aesthetics, and ways of working. Well at least with that story, it seems like a really tender approach.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Home
"...my parents home in pickens south carolina, and mine for my first eighteen years, will always be the one against all future ones will be measured. my most formative stories come from there. what each of those stories means to me changes often but there are visceral memories that shock the shit out of me with their clarity."-Shelby
Shelby shared some great photos to give us some background of where he is from. To see this slideshow, click here.
Blogger rshelly said..
do you see these images as a "piece" or are they used to give us an idea of where you are coming from?
January 22, 2008 8:31 PM
Blogger sanone trombone said...
I just assumed that these photos are about where you came from Shelby. And I have a lot to learn about that, and what that means to you.
But the first photo of a stairway you built, makes me realize that there has been an "elephant in the room" I hadn't thought about.
You are such a craftsman, or at least it seems to me you are, and this staircase fairly screams that!
So I guess my question is..., no are, is a care for craft just a given for you... is care for craft basic something you bring to everything you do in the same way the fact that I tend to extrapolate comes with me. Or is it instead/also a fundamental component of what you do conceptually? How much do you think about this?
January 24, 2008 7:57 PM
Blogger Shelby said...
well the photo's are just to show you some background i suppose. a piece? sure. i compiled it. its a piece in the same sense that this interview is a piece. composed for that purpose of inspection.
i don't think i've had anything traumatic in my life that would make me want to forget my past. i wasn't abused or anything like that so i just sit here sometimes wondering what makes me me. definately not the only thing i think about but it crosses my mind a bunch. my science background makes me think of the nature and nurture side of my development pretty often.
i dont think i've been particularly hiding my abilities as a craftsman since i got here but i do know i wanted to look at other things. to answer the question, yeah, i suppose craft is a bit of a given at this point. i've woked and lived and grew up knowing so many and different kinds of them that it is just there for me. now i'm looking for other things to add to my stew i guess. i do care for craft but it is really because i enjoy a process. it is the same reason i like puzzles. and sports maybe. it is a series of very direct problems to figure out. and it requires a hands on, live-in-the-now kind of mind frame that i find soothing and meditative. but now i have this strong desire to add depth. and to figure out what the fuck that even means for me. i think on that a good bit.
January 25, 2008 9:39 PM
One of the pairings on that list is “heritage and hillbillies”, can you expand on that (a lot) for us?
honestly the heritage and hillbillies part is inspired by joel. living with someone with such an obvious grasp on his culture has made me consider what mine might be. i don't exactly have a ton of traditions that trace back that far that i can recognize in my past. i came from artist parents and all their artsy friends, not really hillbillies in the old sense. but i did grow up with them (it is an endearing term for me) as school mates and friends and friend's parents. after closer inspection i came up with myself being a hybrid of liberal, ex hippie artist and introspective woodsy mountain folk. living in south carolina for 25 years has to do something to someone and i'm looking into what that might be. i guess i'll let you in on that as developments come.
I moved to portland oregon from south carolina for a shift in view. i applied to graduate school and got in. that sealed the deal. there is a ton of stuff that i miss about south carolina. including the dogwoods, the heat, my kin, and words like "kin". i like it in portland and have no interest in puting a length to my stay here. i've made some friends quickly, (i joke about it being like i bought them by going to grad school) the land is breathtaking, and there is an endless amount to do even when money is scarce.
still my parents home in pickens south carolina, and mine for my first eighteen years, will always be the one against all future ones will be measured. my most formative stories come from there. what each of those stories means to me changes often but there are visceral memories that shock the shit out of me with their clarity. the creek i played in as a kid can at times seem real and like i can even hear it a little. all its bends and falls are ones i can walk along in my mind almost like you can move through google earth.
what is it that occurs when you go back to places like that? some kind of endorphin thing? like a nostalgia hormone or something? is it a comfort zone thing? familiarity?
right now i have a sick nana. that is the toughest thing for me to be so distant from. with everything else the absence is making the heart grow fonder. i'll always go back and i will always look for the rocks to be in the same place. the roads will lead to the same places and anything that has changed will undergo a thorough investigation. my stories change a little as memories blur and the stories i invent to explain the changes that occur while i'm gone will probably mix in with them.
i don't think this story is all that amazing or anything. there are tons of kids that grow up like this in the country. my parents are a little unusual for the area but other than that i was a regular dirty kid there. and is back woods south carolina really all that different than back woods Vermont or Wyoming other than different fruit trees grow there and a few variations on how you pronounce things like 'racecar'? the thing i get a little kick out of is the combinations of places i think of as homes. Pickens, Charleston, and Southeast Portland. I might just be one of a hand full of people ever with those places under their belt. Doubt that anyone can tell me if that means anything but its one of the few things that can make me feel a little special. Not in the short bus sense or the 'my president cares about me' sense but more in the vein of 'i am an artist and i am a snowflake.' But still I think Dan Attoe said it well when he wrote "You're vulnerable just like the rest of us. Get some Balls. Better get your shit together." in bright neon.
Posted by Shelby
February 6, 2008 10:18 PM
Blogger rshelly said...
thats great that you are including your gradmother in on this. for a little while i was swapping recipies with my grandmother just for something to write to her about.
you seem very close to your family. are you going to be able to do a project with them for your thesis?
February 5, 2008 10:41 AM
Blogger sanone trombone said...
Yea Shelby! thanks for the recipe, and your grandmothers number.
And good question from Rebecca, you might have said, but I don't remember if you are going to do a project with them.... I think we got off talking about how so many family friends are like family, and a little upset that you are not doing a project with them.... I need to down load the tape, then I'll know exactly what was said!
February 6, 2008 9:56 PM
Blogger Shelby said...
i am going to include a bunch of family. my two grandmothers each get a project and as do my parents. my family is important and i have recently had a cancer scare with my nana. so i guess it is something i have had to come to terms with. living out here and 3000 miles from many people i hold tight is tough.
(This is part of one of his collaborations with one of his grandmothers)
Shelby shared some great photos to give us some background of where he is from. To see this slideshow, click here.
Blogger rshelly said..
do you see these images as a "piece" or are they used to give us an idea of where you are coming from?
January 22, 2008 8:31 PM
Blogger sanone trombone said...
I just assumed that these photos are about where you came from Shelby. And I have a lot to learn about that, and what that means to you.
But the first photo of a stairway you built, makes me realize that there has been an "elephant in the room" I hadn't thought about.
You are such a craftsman, or at least it seems to me you are, and this staircase fairly screams that!
So I guess my question is..., no are, is a care for craft just a given for you... is care for craft basic something you bring to everything you do in the same way the fact that I tend to extrapolate comes with me. Or is it instead/also a fundamental component of what you do conceptually? How much do you think about this?
January 24, 2008 7:57 PM
Blogger Shelby said...
well the photo's are just to show you some background i suppose. a piece? sure. i compiled it. its a piece in the same sense that this interview is a piece. composed for that purpose of inspection.
i don't think i've had anything traumatic in my life that would make me want to forget my past. i wasn't abused or anything like that so i just sit here sometimes wondering what makes me me. definately not the only thing i think about but it crosses my mind a bunch. my science background makes me think of the nature and nurture side of my development pretty often.
i dont think i've been particularly hiding my abilities as a craftsman since i got here but i do know i wanted to look at other things. to answer the question, yeah, i suppose craft is a bit of a given at this point. i've woked and lived and grew up knowing so many and different kinds of them that it is just there for me. now i'm looking for other things to add to my stew i guess. i do care for craft but it is really because i enjoy a process. it is the same reason i like puzzles. and sports maybe. it is a series of very direct problems to figure out. and it requires a hands on, live-in-the-now kind of mind frame that i find soothing and meditative. but now i have this strong desire to add depth. and to figure out what the fuck that even means for me. i think on that a good bit.
January 25, 2008 9:39 PM
One of the pairings on that list is “heritage and hillbillies”, can you expand on that (a lot) for us?
honestly the heritage and hillbillies part is inspired by joel. living with someone with such an obvious grasp on his culture has made me consider what mine might be. i don't exactly have a ton of traditions that trace back that far that i can recognize in my past. i came from artist parents and all their artsy friends, not really hillbillies in the old sense. but i did grow up with them (it is an endearing term for me) as school mates and friends and friend's parents. after closer inspection i came up with myself being a hybrid of liberal, ex hippie artist and introspective woodsy mountain folk. living in south carolina for 25 years has to do something to someone and i'm looking into what that might be. i guess i'll let you in on that as developments come.
I moved to portland oregon from south carolina for a shift in view. i applied to graduate school and got in. that sealed the deal. there is a ton of stuff that i miss about south carolina. including the dogwoods, the heat, my kin, and words like "kin". i like it in portland and have no interest in puting a length to my stay here. i've made some friends quickly, (i joke about it being like i bought them by going to grad school) the land is breathtaking, and there is an endless amount to do even when money is scarce.
still my parents home in pickens south carolina, and mine for my first eighteen years, will always be the one against all future ones will be measured. my most formative stories come from there. what each of those stories means to me changes often but there are visceral memories that shock the shit out of me with their clarity. the creek i played in as a kid can at times seem real and like i can even hear it a little. all its bends and falls are ones i can walk along in my mind almost like you can move through google earth.
what is it that occurs when you go back to places like that? some kind of endorphin thing? like a nostalgia hormone or something? is it a comfort zone thing? familiarity?
right now i have a sick nana. that is the toughest thing for me to be so distant from. with everything else the absence is making the heart grow fonder. i'll always go back and i will always look for the rocks to be in the same place. the roads will lead to the same places and anything that has changed will undergo a thorough investigation. my stories change a little as memories blur and the stories i invent to explain the changes that occur while i'm gone will probably mix in with them.
i don't think this story is all that amazing or anything. there are tons of kids that grow up like this in the country. my parents are a little unusual for the area but other than that i was a regular dirty kid there. and is back woods south carolina really all that different than back woods Vermont or Wyoming other than different fruit trees grow there and a few variations on how you pronounce things like 'racecar'? the thing i get a little kick out of is the combinations of places i think of as homes. Pickens, Charleston, and Southeast Portland. I might just be one of a hand full of people ever with those places under their belt. Doubt that anyone can tell me if that means anything but its one of the few things that can make me feel a little special. Not in the short bus sense or the 'my president cares about me' sense but more in the vein of 'i am an artist and i am a snowflake.' But still I think Dan Attoe said it well when he wrote "You're vulnerable just like the rest of us. Get some Balls. Better get your shit together." in bright neon.
Posted by Shelby
February 6, 2008 10:18 PM
Blogger rshelly said...
thats great that you are including your gradmother in on this. for a little while i was swapping recipies with my grandmother just for something to write to her about.
you seem very close to your family. are you going to be able to do a project with them for your thesis?
February 5, 2008 10:41 AM
Blogger sanone trombone said...
Yea Shelby! thanks for the recipe, and your grandmothers number.
And good question from Rebecca, you might have said, but I don't remember if you are going to do a project with them.... I think we got off talking about how so many family friends are like family, and a little upset that you are not doing a project with them.... I need to down load the tape, then I'll know exactly what was said!
February 6, 2008 9:56 PM
Blogger Shelby said...
i am going to include a bunch of family. my two grandmothers each get a project and as do my parents. my family is important and i have recently had a cancer scare with my nana. so i guess it is something i have had to come to terms with. living out here and 3000 miles from many people i hold tight is tough.
(This is part of one of his collaborations with one of his grandmothers)
Scale
The issue of scale is recurrent in much of your work, the google maps, the plaster landscapes, and most clearly in your current thesis work, this is really a two part question, first how do you see you work contributing to a dialogue about scale, or what do you want us to know about your relationship to scale?
January 21, 2008 6:32 PM
Blogger sanone trombone said...
thanks for the great response. I'm glad you brought up scale here, as this was one of the issues that seemed relevant to the Laurie Anderson interview you posted. I can totally/and viscerally respond to the shift of scale you describe, and there are several conversations I would like to engage you with about that. First, you say that it is a way of being more objective.. this seems really similar to what Anderson is saying, but I cant help thinking that this is really saying that what we do is so small that any objective scale we apply to it becomes calculated in units so small as to be functionally meaningless! I am not against this way of thinking, and I think it is pretty damn sane/true, but is this what you mean, is this what you think she means?
(I posed that as a question to you, but it is more of a real (lets have a conversation) question to you than it is an interview question. I do have a tendency to extrapolate....)
Also when I said I viscerally respond to your description of scale, I can back that up by explaining that a thing I have done since I was a wee girl, is to shut my eyes (not only in bed) and make things shrink and grow in my minds eye. The reason I mention this is that even though it is a really familiar thing to me, yet I don't address it directly in my art and you do! So I'm thinking that it is a really fundamental issue for your art.
How (or do) your molds relate to scale? I can see them as an almost more nuanced comment about the portability (or the futileness of trying to port) landscape.
SS Behind you here is this a landscape or a topographical map? (image?)
SH Yeah, its in the works, the drill holes are just to get at a certain depth, and eventually I'll carve them away. This isn't necessarily for the show.
SS There is something really exciting and kind of ticklish about a landscape carved out of wood, the lines in the wood are similar to strata, but they way they are going here is different and... when we think of the gorge as being carved out by water, ... so it is that scale thing again, except this time you are REALLY BIG. Its like you're god carving out the earth... SHELBY (in low god voice).
Laughng
SH Yeah, do you think its a criteria that all artists have somewhat of a god complex in some form?
SS um.... I don't.... well you have to believe in god for that to be a relevant question..
Laughing
SH Touche'
SS so Iguess I'd say no.
But I do have some sympathy for that argument,...but
SH They're levels of modesty but, I don't know, (laughs) I don't feel like God when I'm carving. HAA HAAA (in god voice).
SS But there is this, we say god, I don't know why it needs to be attached to god, but there is this joy of creation that is, its like play. Productive play, like when you are a kid and you are building a fort, or you're making something and you totally go to that change of scale place when you are a kid too, its joyful, I don't think that means “ownership of creation.”
SH I like that thing you were telling me that you used to close your eyes and think about things being different sizes and you being smaller or something.
SS Yeah I could do it right now.
SH Yeah, me too.
SS and you can stretch them too!
SH My whole first year, if I had to sum it up in one medium, I would say google earth. I was obsessed with that last lear, because of that reason, the change of scale and you can go in and out so fast. It made everything so different depending on the scale or the elevation you were viewing at. It was really cool, it still is, I haven't done it in a while but I get a massive kick out of playing around with google earth.
January 21, 2008 6:32 PM
Blogger sanone trombone said...
thanks for the great response. I'm glad you brought up scale here, as this was one of the issues that seemed relevant to the Laurie Anderson interview you posted. I can totally/and viscerally respond to the shift of scale you describe, and there are several conversations I would like to engage you with about that. First, you say that it is a way of being more objective.. this seems really similar to what Anderson is saying, but I cant help thinking that this is really saying that what we do is so small that any objective scale we apply to it becomes calculated in units so small as to be functionally meaningless! I am not against this way of thinking, and I think it is pretty damn sane/true, but is this what you mean, is this what you think she means?
(I posed that as a question to you, but it is more of a real (lets have a conversation) question to you than it is an interview question. I do have a tendency to extrapolate....)
Also when I said I viscerally respond to your description of scale, I can back that up by explaining that a thing I have done since I was a wee girl, is to shut my eyes (not only in bed) and make things shrink and grow in my minds eye. The reason I mention this is that even though it is a really familiar thing to me, yet I don't address it directly in my art and you do! So I'm thinking that it is a really fundamental issue for your art.
How (or do) your molds relate to scale? I can see them as an almost more nuanced comment about the portability (or the futileness of trying to port) landscape.
SS Behind you here is this a landscape or a topographical map? (image?)
SH Yeah, its in the works, the drill holes are just to get at a certain depth, and eventually I'll carve them away. This isn't necessarily for the show.
SS There is something really exciting and kind of ticklish about a landscape carved out of wood, the lines in the wood are similar to strata, but they way they are going here is different and... when we think of the gorge as being carved out by water, ... so it is that scale thing again, except this time you are REALLY BIG. Its like you're god carving out the earth... SHELBY (in low god voice).
Laughng
SH Yeah, do you think its a criteria that all artists have somewhat of a god complex in some form?
SS um.... I don't.... well you have to believe in god for that to be a relevant question..
Laughing
SH Touche'
SS so Iguess I'd say no.
But I do have some sympathy for that argument,...but
SH They're levels of modesty but, I don't know, (laughs) I don't feel like God when I'm carving. HAA HAAA (in god voice).
SS But there is this, we say god, I don't know why it needs to be attached to god, but there is this joy of creation that is, its like play. Productive play, like when you are a kid and you are building a fort, or you're making something and you totally go to that change of scale place when you are a kid too, its joyful, I don't think that means “ownership of creation.”
SH I like that thing you were telling me that you used to close your eyes and think about things being different sizes and you being smaller or something.
SS Yeah I could do it right now.
SH Yeah, me too.
SS and you can stretch them too!
SH My whole first year, if I had to sum it up in one medium, I would say google earth. I was obsessed with that last lear, because of that reason, the change of scale and you can go in and out so fast. It made everything so different depending on the scale or the elevation you were viewing at. It was really cool, it still is, I haven't done it in a while but I get a massive kick out of playing around with google earth.
Collaboration
"Exposing the experience is going to be important to the final display of the project. I want there to be small bits of evidence that bonding can happen over small stuff."- Shelby (blog response)
Collaboration
RS Do you have a list of those 20 projects?
SH There is the list of people up there, yes.
RS What do you mean by people?
SH The people involved.
RS so you are doing a bunch of collaborative projects?
SH Um hm (affirmative)
RS I figured it was just these little carvings.
SH No, each of these (small carvings) is a portrait of a person who is helping me with the work.
RS, Oooh ok.. I assumed these were one project.
SH Each one is its own project and each one gets its own elements.
Each portrait is in a different spot in the gallery... I THINK.... It might end up to where they all interact as a metaphor for my community. I don't know about that, I kind of want to give each one its own separate justice.
RS So you're not going to have all 20 projects in there.
SH Yes, all 20 will be there.
RS, so your tank is going to be there?
SH Not that was for a different show..
SS so for instance, who is that for, (gesturing to a carving) the coffee pot.
SH This is Mandy.
SS What is Mandy helping you with , what will we see...maybe?
SH I approached Mandy with ... here's your portrait, what should we do. and Mandy (some people have taken a similar approach) said automatically, I remember when we did this... A while ago we went camping up on the Clackamas river and found this cool spot called Alder flats. You hike in past this amazing beaver pond and bird houses, and get down to the river and there is this totally vacant and awesome campsite with this cute little rapid above. We hung out and had a fire and wondered around, the next morning we got up and she had this espresso maker (points to his carving of it) she loves this thing, she always takes it camping with her. If there is one thing you need to take care of when you're camping its having good food and coffee. So she takes this thing every where. She got it in Spain for two Euros a while ago. So as she's telling me this she is making coffee, or thinks she is, with my little whisperlite camping stove that burns really hot. And then its been going a little to long, and I'm like, Mandy did you put water in that? She'd forgotten to put water in it and it started melting the gasket and the handle, so I tried to lift it off the stove and the handle just melts right off. So we set it aside and the coffee in side is smoldering and stinks really bad...Laughs. For some reason I just had to keep that artifact, they are amazing shapes and you never find those around here.
She wanted to do something in regard to Alder flats because it was such a beautiful spot, and I had kept this, and it was kind of a symbol and we'll do something on that and make a story.
RS How are you making 20 projects possible in time for your show?
SH The story hopefully is something that gets developed between me and the people who are helping me as we get closer.
RS So you don't really care about the end product its more the story?
SH Its not that I don't care about them it is just that.. I mean each one of these... I've had a couple of studio visits where someone comes in and says “so what, each one of these took you an hour?” And I'm like.. hu uh, they took a long time, and that might come across to people and it might not. In the end these are also gifts for the people helping me. So they get to keep them.
SS It seems to me like the stories are important end products as much as these tangible objects.
SH Right
SS Also you talked about this a little bit in your critique, do you remember, how the whittling is a traditional way to sit around and keep your hands busy while you are talking and telling storyies?
SH Yeah, the male form of knitting
(laughing)
SS I like that, it kind of makes the object more ephemeral than the story.
SH, Yeah, it is the product of what happened when I went to hang out with the people.
RS I'm just still wondering why you want so many, whats 20?
SH Laughing, This is hard for me too. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this, I've tried to curate some shows with friends of mine, one was at a non profit I worked at, and another was at my parents house, and you run across similar issues. How do you have these best friends, and people in the community, and how do you cut, how do you choose, you have moral dilemmas in the back of your head, it is difficult to say, why these people and not these other people?
SS Would it be good to get started on us (sandy and rebecca) right now while were here?
SH Laughing loudly....SEE Like this crap!
SH I've already had people...My parents got really excited about this project and, I was even trying to hold off on telling them until the project got a little more developed so that I could be a little more directive, cuz they'll take it somewhere and run with it.
RS This your thesis show YOUR show.
SH laughing MINE!
SH Right, and putting your foot down on certain things in tough in these situations. But my parents already got excited and told some of their friends that are also like pseudo parents to me, and their feelings got hurt because I haven't added them in a project, or at least that's what my mom told me, (probably just to guilt me out, laughs) but i do know that often it seems like doing projects with those that are close to you can pose different challenges than working with srangers. both seem valuable and i would like to do my next project with people i don't know. There is more editing freedom, room to expand your community, and an adventurous spirit involved.
Its a good problem to have, too many people are excited about the project. You have to choose at some point.
Shelby spoke a little bit about what happens when he interacts with people on a regular bases. He calls it a chameleon effect. To read about this conversation, click here.
Collaboration
RS Do you have a list of those 20 projects?
SH There is the list of people up there, yes.
RS What do you mean by people?
SH The people involved.
RS so you are doing a bunch of collaborative projects?
SH Um hm (affirmative)
RS I figured it was just these little carvings.
SH No, each of these (small carvings) is a portrait of a person who is helping me with the work.
RS, Oooh ok.. I assumed these were one project.
SH Each one is its own project and each one gets its own elements.
Each portrait is in a different spot in the gallery... I THINK.... It might end up to where they all interact as a metaphor for my community. I don't know about that, I kind of want to give each one its own separate justice.
RS So you're not going to have all 20 projects in there.
SH Yes, all 20 will be there.
RS, so your tank is going to be there?
SH Not that was for a different show..
SS so for instance, who is that for, (gesturing to a carving) the coffee pot.
SH This is Mandy.
SS What is Mandy helping you with , what will we see...maybe?
SH I approached Mandy with ... here's your portrait, what should we do. and Mandy (some people have taken a similar approach) said automatically, I remember when we did this... A while ago we went camping up on the Clackamas river and found this cool spot called Alder flats. You hike in past this amazing beaver pond and bird houses, and get down to the river and there is this totally vacant and awesome campsite with this cute little rapid above. We hung out and had a fire and wondered around, the next morning we got up and she had this espresso maker (points to his carving of it) she loves this thing, she always takes it camping with her. If there is one thing you need to take care of when you're camping its having good food and coffee. So she takes this thing every where. She got it in Spain for two Euros a while ago. So as she's telling me this she is making coffee, or thinks she is, with my little whisperlite camping stove that burns really hot. And then its been going a little to long, and I'm like, Mandy did you put water in that? She'd forgotten to put water in it and it started melting the gasket and the handle, so I tried to lift it off the stove and the handle just melts right off. So we set it aside and the coffee in side is smoldering and stinks really bad...Laughs. For some reason I just had to keep that artifact, they are amazing shapes and you never find those around here.
She wanted to do something in regard to Alder flats because it was such a beautiful spot, and I had kept this, and it was kind of a symbol and we'll do something on that and make a story.
RS How are you making 20 projects possible in time for your show?
SH The story hopefully is something that gets developed between me and the people who are helping me as we get closer.
RS So you don't really care about the end product its more the story?
SH Its not that I don't care about them it is just that.. I mean each one of these... I've had a couple of studio visits where someone comes in and says “so what, each one of these took you an hour?” And I'm like.. hu uh, they took a long time, and that might come across to people and it might not. In the end these are also gifts for the people helping me. So they get to keep them.
SS It seems to me like the stories are important end products as much as these tangible objects.
SH Right
SS Also you talked about this a little bit in your critique, do you remember, how the whittling is a traditional way to sit around and keep your hands busy while you are talking and telling storyies?
SH Yeah, the male form of knitting
(laughing)
SS I like that, it kind of makes the object more ephemeral than the story.
SH, Yeah, it is the product of what happened when I went to hang out with the people.
RS I'm just still wondering why you want so many, whats 20?
SH Laughing, This is hard for me too. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this, I've tried to curate some shows with friends of mine, one was at a non profit I worked at, and another was at my parents house, and you run across similar issues. How do you have these best friends, and people in the community, and how do you cut, how do you choose, you have moral dilemmas in the back of your head, it is difficult to say, why these people and not these other people?
SS Would it be good to get started on us (sandy and rebecca) right now while were here?
SH Laughing loudly....SEE Like this crap!
SH I've already had people...My parents got really excited about this project and, I was even trying to hold off on telling them until the project got a little more developed so that I could be a little more directive, cuz they'll take it somewhere and run with it.
RS This your thesis show YOUR show.
SH laughing MINE!
SH Right, and putting your foot down on certain things in tough in these situations. But my parents already got excited and told some of their friends that are also like pseudo parents to me, and their feelings got hurt because I haven't added them in a project, or at least that's what my mom told me, (probably just to guilt me out, laughs) but i do know that often it seems like doing projects with those that are close to you can pose different challenges than working with srangers. both seem valuable and i would like to do my next project with people i don't know. There is more editing freedom, room to expand your community, and an adventurous spirit involved.
Its a good problem to have, too many people are excited about the project. You have to choose at some point.
Shelby spoke a little bit about what happens when he interacts with people on a regular bases. He calls it a chameleon effect. To read about this conversation, click here.
Materials Transition-Experimentation
SH I guess all the stuff I've ever made has been out of...I've found a place usually to get free materials somewhere, so I've recycled stuff. I covered this tree in carpet, just because I found this massive amount of carpet in this warehouse and it was all destined for a land fill, and I was like, thats great material, I need to do something with that.
a lot of my pieces have come from having some of the material that kind of fell upon me. The museum was getting rid of a bunch of plywood and I said “I'll” take it and ended up making these slotted figures That's how they came about, I have this plywood and I need to do something with it, and thats how I came up with them probably.
RS What have you bought for your art? Recycling is that a big deal to you along with the storytelling , or is it just for convenience sake?
SH there's been some times when,,, we bought the cardboard for the tank, and after I made the first slotted figures I got commissioned to make some like them out of metal, and so those are pretty permanent, that was kind of a new generation of the pieces. But I guess I am pretty inspired by using stuff thats going to get thrown away.
SS When you see something in a dumpster or something that's obviously free for the taking... obviously you don't pick up everything you see.
SH I'm pretty selective yes
SS So when you see something and it speaks to you, you don't know what you're going to do with it.
SH Yeah the nice thing is, I live right next door to to a wedding photography place. They have this dumpster that every time I walk past it I poke my head in and, I haven't started collecting it but I figure its ripe for collecting, that shitty green foam stuff that is really awe some.
SS the kind you can press your thumbs into?
SH Yeah ever since I was a kid and I would go to my nana's house and she'd yell at me cause I'd be over poking holes in this green foam. Its got a really cool feel to it, so its probably going to be next.
SS You know I'm in the social practice deal, and oddly, or even ironically its very much about the medium, which is often the public at large or collaborating with what exists, and it seem seems like what you are doing is really very similar, because it is about the medium, but the medium is already there and is speaking to you, so its more a live collaboration? Is that too airy fairy?
SH No, I'll never be abel to deny my initial , instinctual attraction to certain materials..
SS Do you want to?
SH No no not at all.. I feel that's what's really natural, its made all of my previous work its why I 'm whittling, but, this is one of the few materials I went out and bought
and I had in my head that I wanted to by cherry wood because of all the woods it has this warm nostalgic feeling to me. It probably would have been more fitting for this project to just pick up a stick and start whittling it, but for me it is just comforting to have cherry-wood.
Beyond it just being about the materials I've been having this drive to make it.... Inevitably just choosing the materials based on my my gut reaction or instinctual attraction towards it, instead of that I wanted to endow it with a sense of story. This is an experiment to do that, I felt like it needed more content than just the chance of having something here and knowing I need to do something with it and doing it. Because of a dead line. I'm trying to give it a new translation.
a lot of my pieces have come from having some of the material that kind of fell upon me. The museum was getting rid of a bunch of plywood and I said “I'll” take it and ended up making these slotted figures That's how they came about, I have this plywood and I need to do something with it, and thats how I came up with them probably.
RS What have you bought for your art? Recycling is that a big deal to you along with the storytelling , or is it just for convenience sake?
SH there's been some times when,,, we bought the cardboard for the tank, and after I made the first slotted figures I got commissioned to make some like them out of metal, and so those are pretty permanent, that was kind of a new generation of the pieces. But I guess I am pretty inspired by using stuff thats going to get thrown away.
SS When you see something in a dumpster or something that's obviously free for the taking... obviously you don't pick up everything you see.
SH I'm pretty selective yes
SS So when you see something and it speaks to you, you don't know what you're going to do with it.
SH Yeah the nice thing is, I live right next door to to a wedding photography place. They have this dumpster that every time I walk past it I poke my head in and, I haven't started collecting it but I figure its ripe for collecting, that shitty green foam stuff that is really awe some.
SS the kind you can press your thumbs into?
SH Yeah ever since I was a kid and I would go to my nana's house and she'd yell at me cause I'd be over poking holes in this green foam. Its got a really cool feel to it, so its probably going to be next.
SS You know I'm in the social practice deal, and oddly, or even ironically its very much about the medium, which is often the public at large or collaborating with what exists, and it seem seems like what you are doing is really very similar, because it is about the medium, but the medium is already there and is speaking to you, so its more a live collaboration? Is that too airy fairy?
SH No, I'll never be abel to deny my initial , instinctual attraction to certain materials..
SS Do you want to?
SH No no not at all.. I feel that's what's really natural, its made all of my previous work its why I 'm whittling, but, this is one of the few materials I went out and bought
and I had in my head that I wanted to by cherry wood because of all the woods it has this warm nostalgic feeling to me. It probably would have been more fitting for this project to just pick up a stick and start whittling it, but for me it is just comforting to have cherry-wood.
Beyond it just being about the materials I've been having this drive to make it.... Inevitably just choosing the materials based on my my gut reaction or instinctual attraction towards it, instead of that I wanted to endow it with a sense of story. This is an experiment to do that, I felt like it needed more content than just the chance of having something here and knowing I need to do something with it and doing it. Because of a dead line. I'm trying to give it a new translation.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Thesis Show- Graduate School
SH it was mainly like The theme around this this project is story telling,and it took me my whole graduate two years to realize thats what it out to have been, so there is going to be a story telling part to my opening,
But that changes a lot of how I'm orchestrating the whole thing, a couple of days ago I came up with ... how I needed an audio element for telling the stories of each of the pieces, and I was thinking of that museum technique where you can dial up or call a number instead of like one of those hand held audio guides, you can call a number and just press an extension number that relates to what ever the piece is, and it'll tell you the whole thing. Just a minute ago I called up one of the companies who does that, and the minimum is $500...
RS Have you got a back up plan?
SH (giggle) Pretty much the only thing I can think of is like all the people who are working on this project with me would have to pretty much sacrifice their answering machine on their phone, and I would just have their phone number on the sculpture. Which is actually I think kind of cool.
All they would do is not answer incoming calls they woudn't recognize and you would heard their aswering machine message, but the message would be a a story.
SH Is there some, are there like ethical issues if you put peoples phone numbers on art work?
Like if they start getting hassled or something?
SS I saw on CSI or something where they couldn't trace a call because the perp had used a disposable cell phone or something, maybe you could get some of those, I bet that wouldn't cost 500 bucks,
RS There are also phones where you can have different extensions..
SH yeah, I've thought about like a lot of the different options around this, like you call different people and get there answering machines or, you do a small business sort of thing where you get the message (in a “message voice”) please dial the extension for the person you would like to talk to... and you get their desk and their answering machine message. It would be bad ass cuz you could leave a comment at the end and it would be really rad, but there is no place... you would have to set up a contract, and there is a fee to set up for each mail box, its really expensive its not like the internet where you can set up countless pages and .... i don't know, its a little dilemma I'm working on.
Maybe the phone numbers on pieces is cool, I know a few people that if I brought it up to them would be like, fuck no, (laughs), like Gordon would be like, no its my private number ... UM
But...........
SS How many stories do you want to have?
SH Well there's 20 different projects going so , its kind of a lot, I don't even know, people are not.. generally when people go to a gallery they are not going to sit through 20 stories, but....
SS What if you were to invest in just a few little cd players and make tracks for each of the story's ..
SH Oh I mean if I was to do each.... I don't know there is something cool about, I don't know, you have this relationship with your phone, its kind of like you're comfortable with it and you can manipulate it, people feel like, I think people feel kind of alienated ... I know a lot of people who don't like the head phones on a piece. ... I just like the newness of the idea of the cell phone.
SS yeah, I like that too, also because even if it is a recording there is this expectation that somebody might pick up so it is more interactive.
SH.. And there is the comforting voice at the other end, the way they have these things set up is I set up the content, kind of like a website, and they walk you though, kind of hold you hand through setting it up, and then they answer the phone and not a real person but a recording that you can record or you could use a standard greeting thing, its really flexible and and comfortable which sounds really great.
SS and responses could generate material for new thoughts,
SH yea the responses, and please leave your own story.
SH the other thing Andrew Dickson talked about. was that I should probably do an opening night performance thing, where people tell their stories, that would be a really fun thing for me to facilitate, especially because there are a lot of people going to come out from S Carolina, Just to make some sort of event for them to join in on would be really fun.
But I'm terrified of that kind of thing,
SS what if everyone were just sitting around whittling and talking, telling stories and taking turns? Is that terrifying?
SH Um um, (no) thats much more comfortable.
SS, so tell me about this, (picking up a mold of a crayfish)
Maybe instert video of this in stead of text here? Gordon fish story
SH this is right here is a lobster, well its actually a crayfish, this is the model, and it goes with gordon here, in the spirit of fish stories and (rs and ss laugh) so it went from a crayfish like crayfish which is the actual size of the Lobster that gordon killed, and there is going to be a sword sticking out of its head because Gordon gave me this thing (shows a mold for a toy sword) and its been sitting over here for ever, so this is the model of the sword. Isn't it cool, (laughing) So thats like, but, so Gordon and his girlfriend Katlin and I uh we all went down to Kalamyth river and caught like, 40, 50... um (loud and proud) 300! (laughter) crayfish and went back and boiled them and ate them and they were delicious.
it was a fun afternoon.
SS so are you creating some.. like a narrative world for each of your characters or, and so this is where the scale thing comes in, I just noticed you espresso pot (a life sized carving of an espresso pot).
SH Yeah, thats actually like...(laughs) a story is like, i mean, you can look at these things as much as you want I just feel like i don't want i don't have the energy or feel like I need to make each of these stories clear by just the sculptural elements in them and adding new stuff, it starts to be just like this diorama and no matter how many elements I added the story still wouldn't be that clear.
So at some point you just need to hear the story i think.
RS One of the things that I like about temporary services is like their idea of a booklet. With all these projects you could potentially make a booklet about your work, having an image of each piece and then the story that goes along with it so that people if they wanted to could interact with it later if they wanted to. and have a visual, but I guess you still want to do the more immediate ..
SH Yeah there's like, like Gordon he's almost done.. Picks up a small whittled Gordon figure and hands it to us..
SS Oooh he's so manly!
SH He is wearing a wet suit actually
RS. Do you have a sketch out of your plan for your thesis show?
SH Like how it will be laid out?
RS Yeah.
SH laughs, every single studio visit I've had so far has ended with that question, and ....... NO
I don't have the answer for that, because it keeps altering in my head. I haven't made that many attempts to sketch it out, I'm trying to.. . Its not really fair for some of my teachers, but I'm trying to leave certain aspects of the show loose. Leave room for certain things to be added or taken away.
Its been hard, I have 20 different projects, I'm trying to keep track of them in an organized fashion somewhat in my sketch books and on this thing (time line) but it is just a lot and most of it is in my head.
RS So your thesis show is going to be more like a showing of the process of you interacting with these people?
SH Its like, this sculpture teacher, we'd make molds in a class and you'd end up with the mold and you can't really see what's inside until you pour the metal into it, but he'd always say, “something is going to happen, something is going to come out of it and somebody's going to learn something. “ This is just I guess part of my strong need to learn something in grad school. But you're right, there are certain parts of this project that I wish I could pay more homage to, just one of these you could spend a lot of time on, and make a whole show just out of one of these.
Something will happen.
But that changes a lot of how I'm orchestrating the whole thing, a couple of days ago I came up with ... how I needed an audio element for telling the stories of each of the pieces, and I was thinking of that museum technique where you can dial up or call a number instead of like one of those hand held audio guides, you can call a number and just press an extension number that relates to what ever the piece is, and it'll tell you the whole thing. Just a minute ago I called up one of the companies who does that, and the minimum is $500...
RS Have you got a back up plan?
SH (giggle) Pretty much the only thing I can think of is like all the people who are working on this project with me would have to pretty much sacrifice their answering machine on their phone, and I would just have their phone number on the sculpture. Which is actually I think kind of cool.
All they would do is not answer incoming calls they woudn't recognize and you would heard their aswering machine message, but the message would be a a story.
SH Is there some, are there like ethical issues if you put peoples phone numbers on art work?
Like if they start getting hassled or something?
SS I saw on CSI or something where they couldn't trace a call because the perp had used a disposable cell phone or something, maybe you could get some of those, I bet that wouldn't cost 500 bucks,
RS There are also phones where you can have different extensions..
SH yeah, I've thought about like a lot of the different options around this, like you call different people and get there answering machines or, you do a small business sort of thing where you get the message (in a “message voice”) please dial the extension for the person you would like to talk to... and you get their desk and their answering machine message. It would be bad ass cuz you could leave a comment at the end and it would be really rad, but there is no place... you would have to set up a contract, and there is a fee to set up for each mail box, its really expensive its not like the internet where you can set up countless pages and .... i don't know, its a little dilemma I'm working on.
Maybe the phone numbers on pieces is cool, I know a few people that if I brought it up to them would be like, fuck no, (laughs), like Gordon would be like, no its my private number ... UM
But...........
SS How many stories do you want to have?
SH Well there's 20 different projects going so , its kind of a lot, I don't even know, people are not.. generally when people go to a gallery they are not going to sit through 20 stories, but....
SS What if you were to invest in just a few little cd players and make tracks for each of the story's ..
SH Oh I mean if I was to do each.... I don't know there is something cool about, I don't know, you have this relationship with your phone, its kind of like you're comfortable with it and you can manipulate it, people feel like, I think people feel kind of alienated ... I know a lot of people who don't like the head phones on a piece. ... I just like the newness of the idea of the cell phone.
SS yeah, I like that too, also because even if it is a recording there is this expectation that somebody might pick up so it is more interactive.
SH.. And there is the comforting voice at the other end, the way they have these things set up is I set up the content, kind of like a website, and they walk you though, kind of hold you hand through setting it up, and then they answer the phone and not a real person but a recording that you can record or you could use a standard greeting thing, its really flexible and and comfortable which sounds really great.
SS and responses could generate material for new thoughts,
SH yea the responses, and please leave your own story.
SH the other thing Andrew Dickson talked about. was that I should probably do an opening night performance thing, where people tell their stories, that would be a really fun thing for me to facilitate, especially because there are a lot of people going to come out from S Carolina, Just to make some sort of event for them to join in on would be really fun.
But I'm terrified of that kind of thing,
SS what if everyone were just sitting around whittling and talking, telling stories and taking turns? Is that terrifying?
SH Um um, (no) thats much more comfortable.
SS, so tell me about this, (picking up a mold of a crayfish)
Maybe instert video of this in stead of text here? Gordon fish story
SH this is right here is a lobster, well its actually a crayfish, this is the model, and it goes with gordon here, in the spirit of fish stories and (rs and ss laugh) so it went from a crayfish like crayfish which is the actual size of the Lobster that gordon killed, and there is going to be a sword sticking out of its head because Gordon gave me this thing (shows a mold for a toy sword) and its been sitting over here for ever, so this is the model of the sword. Isn't it cool, (laughing) So thats like, but, so Gordon and his girlfriend Katlin and I uh we all went down to Kalamyth river and caught like, 40, 50... um (loud and proud) 300! (laughter) crayfish and went back and boiled them and ate them and they were delicious.
it was a fun afternoon.
SS so are you creating some.. like a narrative world for each of your characters or, and so this is where the scale thing comes in, I just noticed you espresso pot (a life sized carving of an espresso pot).
SH Yeah, thats actually like...(laughs) a story is like, i mean, you can look at these things as much as you want I just feel like i don't want i don't have the energy or feel like I need to make each of these stories clear by just the sculptural elements in them and adding new stuff, it starts to be just like this diorama and no matter how many elements I added the story still wouldn't be that clear.
So at some point you just need to hear the story i think.
RS One of the things that I like about temporary services is like their idea of a booklet. With all these projects you could potentially make a booklet about your work, having an image of each piece and then the story that goes along with it so that people if they wanted to could interact with it later if they wanted to. and have a visual, but I guess you still want to do the more immediate ..
SH Yeah there's like, like Gordon he's almost done.. Picks up a small whittled Gordon figure and hands it to us..
SS Oooh he's so manly!
SH He is wearing a wet suit actually
RS. Do you have a sketch out of your plan for your thesis show?
SH Like how it will be laid out?
RS Yeah.
SH laughs, every single studio visit I've had so far has ended with that question, and ....... NO
I don't have the answer for that, because it keeps altering in my head. I haven't made that many attempts to sketch it out, I'm trying to.. . Its not really fair for some of my teachers, but I'm trying to leave certain aspects of the show loose. Leave room for certain things to be added or taken away.
Its been hard, I have 20 different projects, I'm trying to keep track of them in an organized fashion somewhat in my sketch books and on this thing (time line) but it is just a lot and most of it is in my head.
RS So your thesis show is going to be more like a showing of the process of you interacting with these people?
SH Its like, this sculpture teacher, we'd make molds in a class and you'd end up with the mold and you can't really see what's inside until you pour the metal into it, but he'd always say, “something is going to happen, something is going to come out of it and somebody's going to learn something. “ This is just I guess part of my strong need to learn something in grad school. But you're right, there are certain parts of this project that I wish I could pay more homage to, just one of these you could spend a lot of time on, and make a whole show just out of one of these.
Something will happen.
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