the new heroes issue 2 (part 3)
DESCRIPTION
The New Heroes magazine, Issue #2 Part 3TRANSCRIPT
M I CHA E L R EA02
INTERVIEW BY THOMAS NICHOLAS AND ANDREW ZEITERP H O T O S B Y S A S H A F O R N A R I
ortressFSOLITUDEOF
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Walking into Michael Rea’s studio on
Chicago’s West Side is like discover-
ing a secret government warehouse
full of classified artifacts. It is hard to believe that
everything you see before you actually does exist.
The giant robotic walkers and fantastical futuristic
weaponry were things that you gave up believing in
decades ago, around the time that you accepted
the fact that “Ghostbuster” wasn’t a realistic career
choice. But here you stand before contraptions that
you have convinced yourself were impossible feats
of engineering. Well, they are near impossible feats
of engineering. Especially considering the fact that
Michael crafts each piece by hand, from memory,
without the use of blueprints or in most cases even
sketches to plan in the fabrication process. That’s
part of the beauty of their creation. They don’t rep-
resent exact replicas of the vehicles from Star Wars
or the proton packs worn by Ray, Egon and the rest.
They are recreations of an entire golden generation
of summer blockbusters, often blurring the line be-
tween what inspired them. Some works reference
more than one film; part Return of the Jedi, part
Robocop, part Ghost in the Darkness. Recreating
the machines in this way, and echoing the fallacy of
our own memories, breathes new life into the work.
One of the many wonderful things about
Michael Rea’s work is that it appeals to the inner ad-
olescent in us all - that part of our history that still re-
sides deep down, left over from the age when sum-
mers were one long waking dream of sleepovers,
visits to the multiplex, soft serve ice cream and mini
golf under the lights. Michael’s pieces stir up these
nostalgic feelings of a time in our lives before self-
consciousness took over. His sculptures encapsulate
the kind of youthful excitement that we often spend
the rest of our lives trying to recapture. This is pos-
sibly why his work elicits such a strong gut reaction
with his audience. It’s as if we are rediscovering old
friends who we had long forgotten - the heroes and
villains that filled the long golden summers of our
childhood.
62 Tsavo Manhunters, Part 1, 2009
Michael Rea is a craftsman first and foremost. This is a large
part of how he is able to achieve what he does with his work. The atten-
tion to detail and care that is taken with each miniscule component is
mind-boggling. As with most woodworking, Michael does employ large
mounted saws and drills, but a huge portion is crafted by hand, through
molding, sanding and joining. It is this tactility in both process and prod-
uct that adds to the appeal of the final work. A lot of his pieces are
meant to be held (or wielded) which extends the mythology that he is
creating. One piece entitled, A Prosthetic Suit For Stephen Hawking w/
Japanese Steel, can be mounted and worn just as its subject might. In
the end Michael Rea’s work is just
as real if not more authentic than
what inspired each piece. The
only difference is in the material.
Michael works almost exclusively
with unfinished wood.
Rather than fully com-
pleting the fabrication process
Michael stops just shy of the mark,
allowing the audience to fill in the
rest. What is preserved through
this choice is the audience’s
feeling of nostalgia. After all, this
period that Michael captures so
perfectly is different to each one
of us, and although our memories
may be fallible, the emotions as-
sociated with them are as real as
can be.
New Heroes members
Thomas Nicholas and Andrew
Zeiter were given access to Mi-
chael Rea’s studio this summer
and were allowed to pick his brain
about his work, all things fantastic
in cinema, art and summertime in
Chicago. Correspondant Sasha
Fornari captured the visit with his camera.
THOMAS : One of the things I noticed about your work was the detail that
is apparent when seeing your it in person as opposed to in photos. It’s
just so intricate. Do you have a background in woodworking?
MIcHAel ReA : No my undergrad was in painting and art education ac-
tually. When I first moved to Chicago I was teaching elementary school
in Rolling Meadows and living in Bucktown when you could still afford
to live in Bucktown, like about seven years ago. I was just doing paint-
ings and through stretcher building for canvases I got into woodworking.
Someone invited me over to use a table saw to do some inlays for a
frame and I was like, this is fun, but it’s taking a while spending all this
time on the back of the picture. It started by just learning to stick wood
together.
ANDRew : The detail is unbelievable though. The fact that you’re mostly
self-taught is just astounding.
MIcHAel : Well I did go to grad school for it. I got in and did a series of
rock and roll instruments as the first kind of project. I actually just rebuilt
those for a show, which was interesting to kind of cap that, like déjà vu,
I was like “God I didn’t even know
what I was doing the first time”.
But yeah I went to Madison for
Grad school and they were pretty
sophisticated out there as far as
fabrication. I worked with a guy
named Aris Giorgiadis who was
originally from Chicago and was
this big sculpture guy who makes
these mammoth metal sculptures
for public consumption that kids
can just beat the hell out of and
that will stay together. And the
other guy was named Tom Loeser
who was a furniture maker and
would measure his joints with a
piece of paper to see if they were
tight enough. So I got a lot of tips
and learned a lot from just watch-
ing other grad students and hit
the ground running. I think the
painting I used to do is pretty im-
portant in terms of how I build the
sculptures and everything.
THOMAS : It’s great to be in here.
I think its kind of a fantasyland for
our generation. There is stuff in
here from all of the movies that our generation grew up loving. To be
honest these movies are in some way responsible for me getting into art.
I mean the Indiana Jones and Star Wars movies.
MIcHAel : Yeah I kind of think that Indiana Jones was like the quintessen-
tial one. When Jaws came out I was a little too young, but as an adult I
kind of went back and just drooled over how cool it was.
ANDRew : So what would be your top movies growing up?
MIcHAel : Well you know of course Star Wars. I was in second grade and
my mom took me. The release of the movie kind of coincided with our
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last day of school. She took us over to Ford City Mall on the south side
of Chicago. Also, Return of the Jedi and of course Indiana Jones were
really important. Aliens, and Alien. I mean I was kind of a junkie for all
that stuff. Then Tarantino started to come out with movies and now you
have T.V. shows like Family Guy – and these things are actually so com-
plex. They reference so many things from that period of time. I mean you
have to have seen eight million things from that time to get the jokes.
THOMAS : But I wonder if that will play itself out in future generations.
Generations that won’t be as familiar with those specific references. I
mean it’s hilarious to us but it seems that the nature of that type of humor
might be too generational.
MIcHAel : Yeah. This younger generation seems kind of different. You
watch things like Avatar where now it’s a different kind of experience
than it used to be. I mean I argued for Avatar. But it’s kind of like going
to an amusement park in a way. So maybe that won’t necessarily have
a presence, an imprint on culture.
THOMAS : Well I think it’s extraordinary because it’s the first real leap in
the technology of motion pictures in quite some time. I mean you have
sound, color and now 3-D.
MIcHAel : I kind of miss the drive-ins. You put a mattress and two buck-
ets in the back of a flat bed. But now you also have the ability to sort of
watch whatever you want, whenever you want. VHS was kind of invent-
ed when I was in second or third grade. So before that you used to have
to go to the theater whenever something was playing that you wanted
to see because you never knew when it would come out again.
THOMAS : we used rent a VcR sometimes on the weekend and it was
this huge deal.
MIcHAel : Yeah, or someone you knew would get cable and you’d all
kind of congregate at that house. That’s how I saw Alien for the first time.
It was on HBO at my uncle’s house, and I saw it way too young. John
Carpenter’s The Thing was another one.
THOMAS : I love The Thing! (To Andrew) didn’t we just watch that a little
while ago?
ANDRew: Yeah I love The Thing. we rented it a few weeks ago but you
fell asleep right away.
MIcHAel : Yeah, Kurt Russell is so good in it. I just went back and watched
Deathproof, that Tarintino movie that has Kurt Russell in it. He’s so awe-
some. I was watching it, and it was kind of a nerdville kind of thing, I
noticed that one of scenes has a reference to Big Trouble In Little China
{another Kurt Russell 80’s movie}
THOMAS : I have vivid memories of seeing that when I was five.
MIcHAel : I like what Tarantino has done with film. He has like appropri-
ated this stuff and now he utilizes a common language.
THOMAS : So when you recreate these pieces do you use any type of
images from these movies you mentioned or are they just strictly from
memory?
MIcHAel : Well most of them are just from memory. I mean once in a
while I’ll Google search something just to remember what it looks like
and get a vague idea. Or I’ll just go back and watch the movie. For
these two Lions I watched Ghost in the Darkness. These were part of this
big Walker {from Star Wars/Robocop}. They kind of hang on the sides -
these two lifeless, captive lions. They were a pain in the ass to make.
ANDRew : And it’s a purposeful choice to leave it all unfinished?
MIcHAel : Yeah it’s just kind of raw. And also it leaves it open to make
adjustments if I don’t quite finish them. Also not making a copy of some-
thing, they’re raw, so that its not just an exact copy. If you start doing
that you get into a John Henry scenario of – I’m going to beat the train.
I mean it’s hard to beat digital recreations, and machine recreations.
And well, he died in that story. But you’ve got to kind of start thinking - ,
“what’s the point of making a copy? You could just buy the thing. What
makes it unique?” I kind of wanted it to be about the frailty of the hu-
man condition. So when I’m working and its starts to go awry you just
have to go with it and present those little embarrassments with the final
product.
THOMAS : I like that. You’re kind of leaving room for error.
MIcHAel : Yeah allowing it to be not perfect. There’s kind of a balance
of beauty there. I mean you can’t make something too shitty or you’ll
be up the creek. But there is kind of something poetic about leaving it
unfinished. Stopping short. Not killing the joke.
THOMAS : So are there any movies that you haven’t gotten around to
referencing?
MIcHAel : I’ve been wanting to do a piece about The Exorcist for years.
I just can’t figure out how to do it! Ughh! I was thinking I wanted to make
it kind of interactive, like with this gun {from Robocop/Star Wars} you can
put it on your arm. I was thinking maybe the bed would just face you so it
was like you were getting the above view. Or you could stick your head
in the face so you were kind of possessing the possessed. Also I’ve been
thinking about making like a Strawberry Shortcake car.
THOMAS : My wife would love that.
MIcHAel : Yeah when I look at all this stuff it’s all kind of boyish and I think
maybe I should do something more feminine, you know. That’s maybe
the one that I have to start building soon or think of something else – I
have a show coming up in November. I try not to think about it too much
– I just have to get in there and start doing it.
ANDRew : How long do these pieces take?
MIcHAel : About 6 months. Its hard to travel this large stuff too - that’s
kind of the tricky part.
THOMAS : Yeah I can’t imagine. The shipping must be insane. How has
your work evolved over the years?
MIcHAel : I guess it’s been about getting a narrative more involved.
Like Edward Kienholz or Charles Ray, where it is a little bit more about a
scene, or the sets, like your looking at the stage from a side view. So it’s a
A Prosthetic Suit For Stephen Hawking w/ Japanese Steel, 2007
67
conversation about the suspension of belief through viewing
them in the round. Some of the first {pieces} were just perfor-
mative, like the rock band series. And then when I went to
grad school I thought I would just build something static that
would work, so people could have a similar experience with-
out me having to jump around in the exhibit like a jackass. To
see if the object could do the work without actors. And the
first couple were just solemn objects that sat quietly and then
I began trying to make them a little more dynamic. So there is
a story arc in the piece. And also to try and make the sources
a little more jumbled and fractured and create a jigsaw of like
six movies. Like what happens when I stick six movies together
– a little bit more cryptic. A little more ridiculous.
ANDRew : Is there ever a huge discrepancy between the final
project and where you start?
MIcHAel : Yeah sometimes. I don’t do a lot of sketching. So
they change around a lot. You have six months to do it so you
come in and think. ”Oh no, I have six months to work on this
thing.” I mean taking six months to fabricate something is….
horrible. You lose it.
ANDRew : But it also seems really mathematic.
MIcHAel : Well a lot of times the necessity for something to
hold more weight or balance something else will inform the
aesthetic. So I end up making changes as I get into it. You
have to kind of react to the actual object. If I was smarter I
guess I could visualize exactly what it would look like in my
head. It just turns in to such a marathon – I can’t quite pull the
trigger on this Strawberry Shortcake car though.
THOMAS : Do you have anybody to assist you with the work?
MIcHAel : Sometimes, yeah like the last time I had a couple
friends come in. It was January or December and I was still
trying to finish these wooden chain links that I was working
on for the Lions, and it just took forever and it was getting to
the point where I just couldn’t do it anymore, my hands were
getting arthritis. Like, “Awww shit I can only do ten of these a
day!” so if I had to do seventy or something… Some friends
would come in and be like, “What are you working on?” and
I’d show them and they’d say, ” Aww I want to try that can
I come in and do it?” And I’d say “Suuuure, you know, sand
away here you go”… Sometimes I need help lifting things too.
Also its kind if lonely… just sitting here with music, alone.
THOMAS : well thank you so much for letting us visit. It’s really
wonderful to get to be in an artist’s creative space.
MIcHAel : Yeah no problem, come by anytime, like I said it
gets lonely.
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KELSEY BROOKES MAKES HIGH VOLUME ART I don’t mean that he is especially prolific but rather that his paintings are a cacaphony of intense colors and imagery that threaten to burn the retina. His style is a mash-up of global cultures that incorporate elements of Hindu-ism, African textiles and graffiti. Many of his works seem to be cellular in form, which may be a residual of his previous occupation as a biochemist. Kelsey Brookes is an ultra-aesthet-ic artist, to be sure. But what he presents in his work doesn’t exist for this purpose alone. In-
Opposite Page:
Felix
(2009)
stead, it is intended to initiate a conversation about what we are drawn to visually as human beings and what that says about our nature. Recently Kelsey’s paintings have been explor-ing Eastern ideas of beauty as represented in pop culture. Many of his new pieces share the cartoonishly-large eyes that are common in Japanese Manga. The New Heroes spoke to Kelsey while in his studio about microbiol-ogy, cellular engineering, Mozart and a little bit about art.
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THOMAS : One of the most amazing things about
your whole story is that you went to school to be-
come a biologist. what motivated you to go into
that in the first place and then what made you start
a new journey into art?
KelSeY : To be honest I feel like a lot of my own self-
direction led me to science. I wasn’t too decisive
and it just seemed to be the path that opened up
in front of me. In school if you do well in science
then that’s the place you’re encouraged to go so
I followed science and math because that’s what
I did well in school and that’s what interested me.
To be honest that still interests me. Just from a differ-
ent perspective, I guess. So it was just kind of going
through life doing what I was told and that got me
into science. It wasn’t until I matured a little bit and
started practicing in my career as a scientist that
I realized, ‘You know, this is really no fun. Let’s do
something else.’
THOMAS : Do you feel that you always had artistic
tendencies growing up, or was that something you
began to discover once you were a little older?
KelSeY : I think as a child everyone does have ar-
tistic tendancies - it’s just whether or not they are
encouraged as you develop. I remember drawing
and stuff, of course, but then that was all left behind
in elementary school. I remember my buddy in third
grade was able to draw a plane in perspective.
Back then everyone was very interested in draw-
ing planes and he all of a sudden drew a plane in
perspective. I remember it kind of being a big deal.
I was like, ‘great I can’t do that’, and then I kind
of told myself, ‘okay, well you’re not an artist.’ So I
didn’t even really take the idea of art seriously until
probably a couple years after I graduated from col-
lege, maybe 6 or 7 years ago. Then I started finding
it to be a really interesting thing. I wanted to learn
more about it and in the process of trying to learn
more about it, I ended up actually doing it to un-
derstand it. I think to really try and learn about any-
thing you have to just do it. And I got hooked. It was
pretty simple.
THOMAS : It seems like biology is still something
that is reflected in your work. The circular and the
Hindu type paintings also have this cellular element
Above: Kelsey in his Natural HabitiatPhotos by Ross Morrison
79
to them. like microorganisms. Is that a conscious
choice or is it something that is now just part of you
that comes out in your work?
KelSeY : I guess people do try to make that con-
nection. I don’t really see too much of that in there.
Whether it is conscious or not I don’t know. I really
appreciate detai - really small minute little details
in things and in parts of larger paintings, so I can
see how certain paintings can look like microscopic
organisms. But realistically what I am aesthetically
interested in is what goes with the composition of
a painting or what finishes off a certain painting.
Conceptually, I hope to incorperate biology one
day. I think there is a general curiosity that led me
into science about the world and larger questions
about life and what we’re doing here. Not only
what we’re doing here but what’s happening to us
and ideas about consciousness and stuff like that.
Those things kind of get put into my work; they’re
kind of a conceptual base for a lot of these paint-
ings. So I can see a parallel in the sense that science
is basically just questioning and looking for answers
and my art is sort of reflecting that questioning. In
that sense I can see a direct relation to science, but
not in the actual technique yet, maybe one day.
For right now I haven’t been able to put it together
yet.
THOMAS : I was looking at your work all day on my
computer and then I logged into another site and
saw that there is a scientist who was just able to
synthesize life in cellular form and kind of bypass
evolution by controlling the compounds of life. Did
you see that in the news?
KELSEY : No that’s crazy I haven’t looked into that
research at all. I still try and keep in touch with what
is happening in a larger perspective; I mean in the
field I was in it was so so specific I kind of left that
behind. That’s crazy though.
Above:Goofball Gobbeldy Gook (2009)
80
and symobols and things they use to communicate are all very childlike
– that has always interested me. I have also always liked that in other
people’s work - when they reference that goofy kind of imagery. But it’s
looked at as a lesser form of communication in our society because it’s
used in children’s books and cartoons. In eastern society it’s everywhere.
It’s ubiquitous in the way they communicate. So when I came back from
Japan I thought, ‘ok that’s a legitimate way to communicate.’ I wanted
to utilize these cartoony, exaggerated caricatures of the human figure
and try to use that to communicate my ideas. So a lot of the new stuff
that I have been doing incorporates those ideas. A lot of the figures now
have these big cartoonish eyes or goofy looking hands.
THOMAS : That’s interesting. I have always felt that all human beings are
kind of attracted to that super-colorful aesthetic based work. I feel like
everyone deep down gravitates toward that and yet it seems like a lot of
highbrow art is about denying that impulse that we have in us anyway.
It seems as if there are two art camps; the aesthetic based visceral art
camp and the conceptual camp and they are always at war with each
other and refuse to merge and become something. whether or not you
want to incorporate aesthetics, they should still be acknowledged for
their importance.
THOMAS : Yeah I will forward you the link. It kind of blew my mind. The
ethics involved are staggering.
KelSeY : Yeah definitely forward that. That’ll be awesome.
THOMAS : If you don’t necessarily feel that science has a direct repre-
sentation in your work what influences would you credit? I see a lot of
eastern religion. Is that something you’re exploring?
KelSeY : Definitely. It was more so in the past. It’s not so much a direct
influence now. At this point I’m trying to combine this idea of pure aes-
thetic and concept in my art - trying to tie those things together. I’m
trying to come up with things that I like to paint and things that look
beautiful and painting them in ways that are pleasing to the eye. I’m
trying to take those things and add a conceptual basis to them - like
what are my thoughts on this world or what purpose do we have here
or just larger meditations and trying to put that into these canvases. Lots
of philosophical things, sort of poetic verses and things like that. So in the
new paintings that I am working on right now the Eastern religious influ-
ences have kind of fallen away. I went to Japan about a year ago and
I was really amazed by the way they communicate – many of the figures
Explosion Blue(2009)
81
KelSeY : Yeah, a lot of what I am trying to do is
about reconciling those ideas. This might be totally
creating the wrong analogy or extending a meta-
phor too far but it’s as if you play a beautiful Mozart
sonata to a bunch of inner city kids anywhere in the
world. Maybe they wouldn’t really connect with it
too much because they’re in a different place or
have a different mindset. But if you give them a re-
ally great, visceral sort of drum music they
will connect with it right away. If you take
those same kids and you pile on the artistic
education they will eventually start appreci-
ating other types of art. The more time you
take with something or the more allowance
you give to it the greater your appreciation
can grow.
THOMAS : Its kind of the difference between
what exists on the most basic level and then
what we can grow to appreciate in our life-
times as we evolve as people.
KELSEY : You can appreciate anything if you
give it enough time. But then again you
don’t want to go too far because then you
just get into bullshitting… you have to draw
the line at something. For me its about ap-
preciating more and being open to more.
Above: The Storm
(2009)