September 2010 Archives

CK: You trace your talents in MC writing back to an interest in writing poetry, which you got into in the 6th grade. Thats pretty young. How do you feel now about the poems you wrote when you were 12 years old? What kind of things did you write about? Can you share one these poems or a line you remember from poems you wrote in 6th grade?
Chris Da Great: Poetry was an opportunity I took advantage of as a young middle school student. I would speak of topics such as girls, love, violence and the death of my stepfather. Poetry was my way of venting. I thought I knew what love was but being 20 years old now and looking at old poems, I had no idea. My favorite line from my early rhymes was "I cant believe one man can have three titles. Son, Brother, and Father to a boy now leaning to his mother."

CK: While you have spent a lot of time performing as a solo artist or as half of a team, you've also tried to hold together larger crews, functioning as a producer as well as a rapper. How did your experiences with B.E.O Entertainment and Chaos Co affect your vision for where you see yourself in the next ten years? Are you leaning towards the business or production side of music or have you fallen in love being on the stage?
Chris Da Great: B.E.O & Chaos Co taught me alot of things about music, commitment, and trust. B.E.O ended because I ended up moving to New York and the rest of the group ended up going solo. Chaos Co was where I learned trust in music. To do music with other people you need to trust and remember to keep business in the business and pleasure for later, but as a group we couldn't learn that early. We were 16-18 and girls were looking good and unfortunately some of us went for the same ones. Because of that (experience) I am a solo artist but I do have a partner, Pwn, who I basically do some music with but we just grind together and help each other. In ten years, my name will be around the world--but independently; the music industry is a joke these days. Independently you can get your music out and have a good living. People really don't need (major) labels any more, but I would like to sign to an independent label. When it comes to music, I am a rapper and performer. I love the stage. I love rocking the spot and getting the crowd crazy. I like making beats. I love rocking stages.

CK: Hows your upcoming mixtape "Tell Your Mom Cook For Me" coming along?
Chris Da Great: My mixtape "Tell Your Mom Cook For Me" is going very well. I have recorded about 90% of the material and I booked my mixtape release party at Jerky's for December 9th. I have collaborated with artists like: Plan B, Dirty Durdie, Jahpan of Fedd Hill, Flizz of  Who Dem, Fiyah of  Who Dem, Nick Pro, Pwn, J-Profane, YV, & Secret Weapon. It is honestly really good; I surprised myself with the lyrics I wrote for this mixtape and I feel that it's going to rise me in the ranks of Rhode Island's hip hop scene. The mixtape will be free; people can download it online or just ask me and I'll give out the official copies with the glossy case and all that.

CK: Are there any advantages to Providence's local hip hop scene?
Chris Da Great: The advantage of being an artist in Providence is that the city is small; every one knows everyone so the word-of-mouth marketing is a real big help in this city. Another thing is that all the artists, no matter what their sound is, support each other. Some of the "cocky" rappers don't, but the real rappers all show love for all and get love back.

CK: What's good on the radio these day?
Chris Da Great: The REAL question is whats good in Newbury Comics? I barely hear the radio because rap is a joke now--all the Auto-Tune and weird sounds. Forget all that. There are no real songs on the radio anymore. So when one of my favorite artists, like Nas for example, comes out with an album, I'm going to get it. CDs are my radio now.

CK: If you could have any animal as a pet and it would never turn around and maul you, which would you choose?
Chris Da Great: I would have a lion because lions are the kings of the jungle and I'm trying to be a king. Lions show power, and respect. That is what I work for, the money comes after.

CK: Cool, lions are rad, I wouldn't mind a pet wolverine or a bear myself....
Follow Chris At:

Myspace & Facebook

*Chris Da Great *performs tonight at AS220 with Big Rush, Skematics, and KrisKash. The show starts at 9pm! Just 6 bucks!

David Planka likes symbols. He likes ambiguity. He hates false realities, but he likes to ponder them. In his paintings, he catapults pictographs against the canvas, waiting to see what sticks, what sparks a dialogue. A yellow telephone sits contently next to a revolver and the caduceus. He lets us fill in the gaps. I recently asked Mr Planka a few questions about his process, his iconography, and his life beyond art in anticipation of his upcoming show at the AS220 Empire St Gallery, on view from October 3 to October 30 (and come to opening reception! October 3, 4PM-7PM!) 

(images courtesy of Mr Planka, from http://www.plankomatic.com; most have been cropped for space)

So maybe we can start out basically. Why are you an artist? 

Being an artist is a natural inclination for who I am as a human being. Growing up, my grandparents, both my parents, and my sister were always drawing. I always had that natural proclivity to draw, that need to draw. To express myself visually like that. I was always drawing. If I wanted to say something or I wanted to reflect, or make any type of comment or whatever. It's just who I am as a being. And then I got to the point in my life when I asked myself, "what do I want to be and what do I want to contribute to society?" What better way than something that comes naturally to me? It's something I derive pleasure from. It's kind of a selfish thing, but I enjoy making images and semantically that's how you label artists. It's just who I am.

Can you tell us a little bit about your process as an artist? Where does your iconography come from and how do you choose what to incorporate? 

I really like Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, anybody who's making comments on mainstream culture or making commentary on something. I think that affects them personally, somehow making comments on what they think is important. So I am very into counterculture, conspiracy ideas. I work towards choosing separate ideas and juxtaposing them and thinking about how I can bring them together to derive meaning. It's based on stuff that I'm into, that I read, that I'm exposed to in day-to-day life. 

We live in the twenty first century here and we're bombarded with imagery. Even in the last fifty years, we're bombarded with some sort of visual information at a steady rate. Some of those things that I look at, I kind of combine all those ideas together. A lot of the things that I make are based on a single idea or thought. How can I convey that thought in a way that makes sense to me? My paintings have a main theme or idea and I'll transform things and adjust to help me convey that information visually, whether it's through swapping out words or the actual iconography I'm using to suggest an idea. You know, it's basically social political commentary, no different than Basquiat, any of those guys. I'm just commenting on what I see, what I think someone should pay attention to. 

I was interested in you talking about Guy Debord and Jean Baudrillard in your artist statement [for your upcoming show at AS220]. In your paintings you use these little dotted lines to connect all the disparate symbols, and it really reminded me of Debord's Pyschogeographic map of Paris. What's the relationship between your work and the idea of Spectacle and Simulacra that those guys were getting at? Do you feel like you're trying to subvert it? Document it? What's that relationship? 

I don't know about subvert...I guess there's a little subversion going on there. The main idea of those guys is almost a sort of nihilism, in a way. Whatever you're looking at is not even what it is; it's the representation of the idea of what it is. A lot of that stuff gets pretty far out when you're reading some of it, but it's a lot like Joseph Kosuth when he presents that chair. He has a definition of a chair, a real chair, and a picture of a chair. What is the chair? It's been told to me that that's what it is. 

In the bigger scheme of society and the social systems and how it all interacts in a big kind of microcosm/macrocosm sort of semiosis, it's about how all these things relate. And there is a connection between everything. Looking into transcendental meditation or quantum physics - I'm not a quantum physicist, but I've read a lot and learned a lot - you see that at the subatomic level everything is connected. There is no difference. So what I get from these books here is that everything is intertwined. At the same time, it's label this or label that, but it's all based on historical information, this Hegelian kind of idea where I only understand these things based on my previous experiences. So I mean, without getting too in depth, I'm picking an image that I think best represents the idea that I'm trying to say, but that idea that I'm representing is already iconography, it's already a symbol that has been pre-made, it's already there. It's a way that I think people can relate to that idea or that thought. 

In some images I had weapons. What do weapons signify? What do they mean? They mean aggression, protection, it all depends on you. But regardless, the symbol of the weapon, of the gun, of violence or control, is a bunch of those things and it's up to you when you look at it to decide what meanings best suit you. I'm focusing you on one of those meanings. I'm contriving the information on the board based on symbols that I think relate to everybody. 

Image is everything, and image is nothing. Image is a Sprite commercial. Reading Baudrillard and Debord and those guys, you come away with despair, despair that it really means nothing. I like what those guys talk about, and it makes sense with what I do and it fits the mold of what I'm trying to talk about. It's something that relates to my work. The way I place the stuff on the actual surface, I'm looking towards advertisements and how they put symbols down. I'm looking towards hieroglyphics. The way I compose the piece is dependent on how I think about it. Some of the pictures look random, but it's a specific randomness. It looks chaotic, but there is a place for everything. Everything is in an order. It mirrors our society: it's chaos, but it's ordered chaos. 

Are you an artist who goes through phases? If so, where are you now? Where have you come from? 

It's interesting you ask. When I went to school, I went for illustration, because I knew I wanted to focus in on rendering and being able to be the best draftsman and the best at capturing likenesses. I grew up on sugary cereals and Mad Magazine and the Smurfs, and that's what I relate to. A lot of this stuff is very influenced by that. The other day I was looking over drawings that I had done as a kid, in high school, and the composition is very similar to what I do now. It's kind of arranged and placed in a kind of space, but they're all placed so that each image has a separate little area for itself, even while they're all intertwined and connected. 

I think that I've stayed the same, but I've also developed in how I do arrange the images and the way that I look at the space. Now I'm more informed, and more specific as far as what goes in. And it fits the kind of drawings I'm doing. If I was doing a landscape, the compositions would change. Even with the Fucked Series that I'm working on now, the composition of each drawing is individual and organized, but I arrange them on the wall almost like I arrange a painting, except I'm putting it on the surface of the wall. The idea of arrangement is there. I've been developing that idea since I've been a kid.

What are some of your interests outside painting? 

I'm into living life. I like music a lot. I'm big on family, that's important. Just experiencing life. Going out there and dealing with day to day things while trying to stay positive. I like coffee a lot. I like hanging out with buddies and having coffee. I like to read a lot. I like to pay attention to what's going on. It helps influence me. I teach too. I'm a teacher, so I like to think about how to better articulate and better convey ideas. Just like everyone else, I'm just trying to find happiness and trying to find a way through the daily grind, you know what I mean?

--

David Planka's new works will be on view at the AS220 Empire St. Gallery from October 3 through October 30 alongside Abby Test's Portraits. Please join us for the opening reception on Sunday October 3, 4-7PM.

Brief words and interview by Gan Uyeda.

One of the best places in the world to make photographic portraits has to be the Kennedy Plaza transportation hub here in Providence. This summer Scott Lapham and AS220 Youth photography students have taken a portrait of the state of RI, in the form of 27 16x20" portraits printed by the talented Youth Studio AmeriCorps VISTA Miguel Rosario. Please join us for their first public viewing at the Moses Brown School's Krause Gallery this evening, Monday September 27th from 6-8pm. The exhibit runs from September 27th to October 1st.

The Krause Gallery Hours are: M-F 8am-4pm (school holidays & evenings by appointment) The Moses Brown School is located at at 250 Lloyd Ave Providence, RI 02906

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25TH
TIME: 7-10 pm
LOCATION: AS220 Gallery & Performance Space
115 Empire Street

EVERYONE IS A WINNER! We're asking you to show your support for the Printshop with the purchase of Lottery Ticket for $100. In thanks, you receive one of 200 prints or works on paper by artists from all over the world. In keeping with AS220's mission of accessibility and equality, and for the purpose of having fun, all artwork in the show is won by a blind lottery system. Keep you fingers crossed and wear your lucky charms, this is a lottery folks. All proceeds directly support the Printshop equipment, staff, supplies and programming.

*You do not need to buy a lottery ticket to attend! All events are free and open to the public! Come for the fun!

This passed Tuesday we had our first ever electronics class in The Fabratory. AS220 Lab's Coordinator, James Rutter introduced the first project... the Drawdio Pen! This super cool, super fresh, super fun gadget that allows you to draw sound by connecting an electrical circuit between your finger and a lead pencil. You can turn simple piece of paper into an instant theremin! We thought it was totally cool.

Dearest supporters, fans and admirers of AS220 and the Printshop,

Thank you enduring our many requests, through email, and in person about the 2nd Biennial Print Lottery. Miraculously we still have a handful of tickets left, act now to ensure your winnings! You can purchase your ticket in advance online of event tomorrow night to be sure you walk away with a piece of art by visiting our online shop here.

Or try your luck at the door to purchase a ticket with cash or check.

If you can't attend the event, we can ship or deliver your print to you, just select the ticket option with shipping!

Our next Lottery will be happening in September of 2012, don't miss your chance on Saturday night.

No Joke, it doesn't get any better than this. This Monday Sept 27th from 6-8pm please join us at Moses Brown's Krause Gallery to see the amazing portraits taken this past summer and last at Kennedy Plaza in downtown Providence. Photo Mem ( AS220's youth photography program ) spent hours photographing the strangers they encountered in the state capitals transportation hub. If you are a fan of still photography this is not to be missed. The Krause Gallery is located at 250 Lloyd Avenue on Providence's East Side.

Here are a few words, from one of our newest Printshop Members, Lois Harada...

Hello All,

My name is Lois Harada and I am writing on behalf of the AS220 Community Printshop. I graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design earlier this year from the Printmaking Department and have returned to Providence to work at the Printshop. As a printmaker, I was worried about losing access to studio facilities and presses when I graduated but am lucky to have the resource of AS220 available to me. But more important than the space to work is the community of artists at AS220 who have been incredibly welcoming and receptive to my place in the shop. The greatest fear I had upon graduation was the loss of an artistic community that was both supportive but also critical and that is what I have found at AS220.

The shop has also given me the chance to work with members of the greater Providence community through projects of printmaking and allowed me to share my skill set with groups that may have not experienced printmaking before. I still find it hard to believe that I have found a space that allows me to teach some of what I learned at RISD and support myself doing something that I studied for and am passionate about. Your support of the Printshop will help attract other graduates and young artists like myself who need a place to make prints and a family of printmakers.

Thank You, Lois loisharada.com

You can win Lois's print at the Lottery Saturday. To purchase a ticket visit our online shop!

Lois headed up the Everybody Prints! Walk in workshop on September 11th. Here she is with one of the newest and youngest printmakers in Providence.

Lilli Carre´, silkscreen, Untitled

Daniel Luedtke, silkscreen

Angee Lennard, mezzotint

Cannonball Press, Mike Houston

To Purchase a ticket visit the online shop, here!