“Yeah. I was an emotional manipulator of fighters . . . You have to know how to be cold, you know? Just have no -emotions, no feelings. It takes time, though, to develop that. I’d been working on that since I was 12 years old. It doesn’t happen overnight. My objective was to hurt the other fighters. I wanted to hurt them. I wanted to be merciless. Man, I was a wild thing. . . It’s kind of a drug, a rush. But that’s just how I was as a kid . . . It’s funny, because Cus was always saying that Ali was better than anybody because he controlled his emotions and his fears. Ali was just an emotional juggernaut.”
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I did a little Q&A in March with Artist/Sculptor A.J. Fosik about his awesome Beer Sweater Collection. Now that we’re in Sweater weather, I felt it was the appropriate time to unleash it.
“It’s true, my beer sweater collection has reared it’s ugly head.” ~ A.J. Fosik
TWBE: How did this collection begin?
AJ:I’ve always liked breweriana and was always interested in the history of beer in america, it’s crazy how every city used to have it’s own beer identity before these were just considered national brands.
I found the yellow Coors sweater first and I really thought that somebody had hand made it and it was just a one of a kind thing. Then I noticed the Budweiser sweaters which there are definitely a ton of out there, and then I sort of pieced it together that at one time all the major breweries were making these things.
TWBE:Are there any holy grails you’re looking for? Or is it just a matter whatever you come across on your day-to-day?
AJ:Holy Grails? I don’t know the Pabst sweater was a pretty good score for me, it’s never been worn and still has all the tags on it, it’s the closest I’ve ever been to understanding the mind of the obsessive sneaker collector nerds.
I’m not usually into that sort of obsessive collecting thing but when I discovered these sweaters I felt like I was putting together the pieces of a weird cultural phenomenon that nobody knew existed. It’s a really trivial phenomenon for sure but the pop culture archaeology aspect of it is the most intriguing part to me.
I also don’t really know what sweaters are out there, I’ve never been able to find any information on which beer companies made these. I tried to contact the manufacturer on the label of Pabst sweater but they’ve been long out of business. Hopefully there are more out there.
TWBE: We hope so too, thank A.J.!
See his entire collection here
Apparently he’s got a new book coming out called My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholic.
via, fecalface
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Steve Powers takes a moment to talk with Art Observed about ‘A Love Letter For You.’
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Ekosystem gets an interview and a look inside the book, which you can buy here.
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Creative Review has an interview with South Manchester artist Helen Musselwhite, who creates amazing work using paper as the medium.
Read the interview with Helen Musselwhite at Creative Review and see more of her work.
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Check the interview with Henry Gunderson, first year SFAI student is making waves on the West Coast. If you’re in SF, make sure to check out his opening at Fecal Face Dot Gallery on the 23rd.
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In lieu of a traditional interview, I got permission from Elbow Toe to go back through his Twitter and paint a portrait of his life while he was preparing for the Ways of Seeing Show at Black Rat Press in London. His work is all collage but it looks more like paintings than anything else. Standing ovation for that.
He can be found on twitter here
and ultimately on his website here
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An interview on Interview. Entertaining for sure.
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Our friend Michael Slenske got a couple moments of Vhils’ time and sent this interview over our way. Enjoy.
In his new 25-piece show at Lazarides, Scratching The Surface, Vhils (aka Alexandre Farto) deftly explores the historical decay of the Lisbon streetscape (from post Carnation Revolution political hotbed to modern day ad repository) via demo’d walls, chiseled wooden reliefs, and acid-and-bleach-etched billboards . We talked to the Portuguese street star about the show on a break from his next conquest: Grottaglie, Italy for the Fame Festival.
MS: So did you alter the gallery walls in anyway (pneumatic drill, etc) like you did at the Outsiders show?
AF: Yes, I did several site specific installations in the gallery. I went to a building site in London and just took some wooden reliefs and walls and worked on them.
MS: What’s the inspiration behind Scratching The Surface?
AF: In this act of excavating, it’s the process itself which is expressive, more than the final result. It’s a process of trying
to reflect upon our own layers. Its aim is not to come up with solutions but to conduct research, to confront systems, materials, processes, elements, to create friction and confront the individual with the process, with the system: an active critical
process that stems from the same environment upon which it aims to reflect.
MS: And that is?
AF: After the [Carnation] Revolution you had political paintings on the street walls, but after five years everyone forgot about them. There was a big boom of advertising. It’s all about digging through these layers of history. I never know what layer I’m going to find.
MS: And these are the pieces you worked on with acid and bleach?
AF: Yeah, I ripped up billboards from the streets [of Lisbon].
MS: Where do those faces on the portraits come from?
AF: They’re street people from London and Lisbon. I had friends take pictures in the tubes or at train stations, and I saved photos from old newspapers. The idea is why shouldn’t everyone be icon? It wasn’t about the people, it’s about the confrontation, the juxtaposition between our consumption culture — all the needs advertisers create — and our individuality. Growing up in Lisbon, that becomes part of you somehow.
MS: Which do you prefer, street art or gallery pieces?
AF: I like to do both, I don´t discriminate between them. You have to adapt your work to its environment. On the street, people pass by quickly every day and you need to be more direct, and play with the idea of creation something unexpected. But if you just take something from the street and put it inside, it´s going to lose its context. You have to have a reason to go inside – a subject or something you want to question. It has to be about more than just making the work sellable.
More images from the show here
~Michael Slenske
photo via WallKandy
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A pearl of wisdom in this interview from Material Interest
“You know, it’s him getting all “man in black,” trying to put on this rock-star attitude, that sets him back. The moment he got so consumed with this image of himself as a famous person, Mr. Not-To-Be-Fucked-With, that was when he lost his fastball. I think you see that a lot—when a person stops focusing on whatever it was that made him famous and starts thinking too much about just being famous, it’s all downhill. Kenny’s definitely absorbed in all the trappings.”
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Mike Ferraro telling stories… Check out DoubleCross for a “back-in-the-day story” from Mike Ferraro from Judge. Very cool site, you can get your straight edge fix.
credit: Mike and Jimmy with Judge at CBGB’s, Photo: Jeff Ladd
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For their Expatriate Issue, Stop Smiling magazine asked Geoff McFetridge “to offer his impressions on the differences between living in California and his native Calgary.” Everything is drawn and there are some great responses, above is the answer to “WHAT ONE IMAGE SUMS UP THE WEST COASTS OF CANADA AND CALIFORNIA?”
via, the scout
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