Mixed Media

This guy GAJIN FUJITA had some of the coolest work that I remember seeing during Prospect.1. Like everyone, I couldn't make it out to see every exhibiting sight but I did manage to swing thru the Contemporary Arts Center a couple times where one of his canvases was on display (it was actually on panels but I refer to anything hanging in a gallery as a 'canvas'). That one (titled The Saints) was massive and awesome. He had me at hello when I walked thru the doors and saw it right up front. He combines gold leaf and spray paint! what more could an autodidactic student of Boy Art ask for? His is the dopeness.

The above picture came from one of the P.1 brochures they handed out at the CAC. The title is 'RIDE OR DIE' from 2005 and he used gold and white gold leaf, paint marker, spray paint and mean streak on six panels. Overall it is 83 x 126 inches, each 83 x 21 in. I got all that from the little side bar there. This is another thing I like about Gajin Fujita: he listed all his materials. He's not a lazy prick who thinks he's too clever to reveal how he made his artwork. 'Mixed Media' is what most people will put next to their work if it involves the combination of anything much more than two kinds of paint and some paper collage. Artists shouldn't even bother pretending to list the materials used if they will settle for such a lame label as 'mixed media.'

"Oh really, Jackass? You used a mixture of different materials on your canvas? I couldn't tell that at first glance and assumed it must be some kind of super paint that squeezes layers upon layers of textures straight from the tube. When I went to check the information on the label next to your work I was hoping to find out the brand name of said paint so I might buy a tube and copy your style exactly..." If an artist doesn't want people to know how he did it, that's fine, he doesn't have to list anything. But to put 'mixed media' next to it as if that's relevant information is stupid and insulting. Its as enlightening as mentioning that the work is made up of 'physical matter' or better yet 'different stuff.'

The last show I was in, the gallery called me while I was talking to a friend and asked to know the materials used for my one painting that was being shown. I was proud of all the work done by hand it took in that one and I wanted that to be known while the work was displayed. So I listed it all out over the phone while my friend patiently listened. When I was done he looked at me and said "Dude, you can just say mixed media." Nah. No thanks. I'll take an extra ten seconds to let people know why my work rocks on different levels and list all the myriad materials so that people might recognize it as stuff which they themselves have no proficiency. (That way I can feel better about myself when I think "I'm an artist. I make cool looking stuff out of other stuff")

So here is that canvas- Its titled THHBBT!! To pronounce it properly stick your tongue between your lips and blow out air hard enough to send some spit flying onto the face of whoever just asked you how to pronounce the title. Its not actually on canvas but this weird thick absorbent paper Teresa Cole had in her print studio she called blotter paper that she used to blot her paper. I actually displayed it once before in December in a much more lame and incomplete stage (you can see it behind this girl here) Its about 22 x 30something inches

I used spray paint, paint markers, colored pencils, regular pencils, a carpenter pencil, acrylic paint, and woodcuts. I hope you dig