Join us at Vaudeville Park, 26 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, on Saturday January 28th 9pm-late… we’ll play good music and drink delicious drinks. Dutty hombre Taliesin will be there. Long time internet/blog friend Dave Quam, now producing music for Kingdom’s Fade To Mind label as Massacooramaan will also DJ.
Death/Traitors is the work of Alex Heir and it is fucking sick. I went to his spot on Delphi last week to get inside the mind of the genius behind my favorite New York brand.
T: You grew up in Jersey going to Punk shows and talk about how you see band shirts as this kind of holy grail of authenticity for design- how did band shirts inform your work with D T.
A: My initial interest in wanting to learn screen print and make shirts was born from my love of record and t-shirt art, and I think my idea of what makes a good shirt design is still largely based off that. A good band shirt is not just a random t-shirt with an image on it, it shows your musical taste and interest in a larger subculture, almost like wearing gang colors.
T: Whether it’s Japanese/Kanji characters that say Fuck Pigs, or your iconic Endless War Posters- you seem to hit an angle that’s 50/50 gothic vibes and anti-authoritarian anarchy. Is there any particular message that defines the brand?
A: I guess, as you said, “anti-authoritarian” sums it up pretty well. I’m not trying to spread a political message or anything, but I feel pretty angry about the state of the country and the world right now, and that works it’s way into my designs. I use the Anarchy symbol in the same way I use 666, I’m not a card carrying Anarchist or Satanist, but their symbols are a way to show what I am not.
T: While the 80 dollar t-shirt kids are gonna be happy to cop your gear at Mishka- you don’t go to trade shows or play the street-wear game- who’s your ideal audience for this stuff?
A: An army of leather clad rockers wandering the wasteland in search of food and water.
T: Do you have any fashion inspiration in terms of brands? What music or other design is most inspiring?
A: Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren had a store in London in the 70s called a variety of things..Let It Rock/Sex/Seditionaries. They designed a lot of the clothes the first wave UK punks wore and it was the biggest influence to me when I first thought about designing clothing. Alexander McQueen, who’s work I also really admire, definitely took a lot from them.
Nowadays I get a lot of inspiration from old occult and religious art, Japanese woodcuts, horror movies posters. I saw a show of old CRASS zines and flyers from their personal collection a few months ago…that was really inspiring and contributed a lot to the way the most recent designs have looked.
T: Can you talk about your process a little bit- your screen are everywhere around the house and most of your gear is there well- can you talk about hand printing all of your own work.
A: Once I finish a design and am ready to release it, I will shoot the screen and print a few samples to shoot on a model for the website. I keep a stock of screens of all my current available designs, and for the most part custom print every order as I get it.
T: Since images can move so easily between mediums- from stickers, to shirts, to bags, to textiles to whatever- how do you think about not overwhelming your customers.
A: I design the graphics specifically for each piece…An image might look great on a shirt, but not necessarily work as a patch or sticker. I re use a lot of the same imagery…skulls, kanji, swords, etc…but will do a different composition depending on what I’m going to print on. Less is more very often…I prefer to only release a handful of shirts and a few other items every season The artwork is very personal to me, so I would rather have a smaller amount of consistent, quality work then a ton of mediocre items.
T: you started doing these amazing varsity jackets- can you talk about your more indepth approach on that process.
A: I was lucky enough to link up with a tailor here in NYC that helping me through the process of of getting these jackets made. I initially was getting them from China, but once I stumbled upon this opportunity to have the jackets made here I leaped on it. I get to choose all the materials myself, from the wool and sleeve fabric to the lining and snaps, and the overall quality is much higher. Of course the costs to produce the jackets is much more than if I had them made in China, but I think people will appreciate the quality and the fact that they are made in the USA.
T: Beyond the clothing line, can you talk about the label a little bit and your other screen printing work and how you manage the balance.
A: Besides Death/Traitors, I do commercial screen printing for other people under the name Funbot Press. The nice thing about working for yourself is you get to set your own hours and make your own schedule, but it also means you never really stop working. Unless I’m at a show or hanging out with friends outside my apartment, I’m always working on SOME thing, be it printing, designing for D/T, or making other artwork or music. Every day is different, but it usually is a combination of everything. I love what I do, at least most aspects of it, and I enjoy being constantly busy.
T: Anything else you want to include?
A: I will be showing some new pieces in a group art show entitled Input/Output opening Sat, Jan. 28 at Booklyn, 37 Greenpoint Avenue 4th Floor. booklyn.org And I will be showing more work at the Mishka Store, 350 Broadway, BK, on Friday, April 6.
Low Income Tomorrowland, a project studio run by artist & musician Jace Clayton (DJ /rupture) seeks a bright and resourceful studio assistant to work closely with Clayton on a number of installation, performance, and software-based art projects for 2012.
For more info, check out the New York Foundation for the Arts listing.
In our world, “art project” is a code name for “crazy shit.” 2012 gonna be fun.
yesterday i made my first visit to the smithsonian’s museum in anacostia — across the anacostia river from the rest of the district and in many ways a pretty different place from The National Mall where the other smithsonian museums are.
The Walking Exhibit by BK Adams I Am Art
it was the final day of the “Exercise Your Mynd” exhibit by BK Adams I Am Art, a local artist whose work i had seen around. but this was the firs time i saw such a large body (over 50 pieces) of his art, and it really blew me away. he advocates “100% mynd use” to achieve our full creative potential and works with themes of flying, bicycles, scuptures from found stuff, and incredibly detailed colorful paintings.
Fascinating People by BK Adams I Am Art
the pieces are fantastic, so i’ll let them speak for themselves, and urge you to see BK Adams I Am Art if you’re ever able to do so. actually, here’s a somewhat old video of him talking about his work and collaboration with other artists in dc:
Commandeering the kitchen at Subsuelo/Gnawledge HQ in LA (thanks G-Notes!) ( foto x Farah Sosa)
8 tomatoes
1 Roasted Red Bell Pepper
1 Roasted Green Bell Pepper
15 Kalamato Olives
1 Tsp Italian Herb Tomato Paste
3-4 Sprigs Thyme
3 Garlic Cloves
2 Olive Oil Drizzles
6 Tilapia
Cilantro
Lime
I invited some friends to eat in exchange for a bread-breaking data swap. I’m definitely not on a culinary level with my dude DJ Rajah over at SoulCocina but this is really what meetings should be like. Exchanging in currencies that don’t depend as directly on the dollar really has an intrinsic value in making people connect. It leads to better less guarded conversation and reminds us that if we work together, there’s always more to eat on the table. Here’s my TOP 5 Things I won in the West Coast Data Swap
First up, G-Notes, the guitarist and beatsmith behind the hybrid flamenco act Granada Doaba and all around Gnawledge famalam hit me with a few remixes and edits
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and this touch up of Gotye’s anti-love jam caught me off guard…
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Now my homie, Santero in the Bay Area has been holding me down for a few years now. I was happy to crash at his this time around and spend some time getting to know what he’s been up to. I learned he has been working with our homie Boogat up in Montreal.. Notice how the cover art is Boogat with the fam all around at a BBQ or somn… home cooking how we do !
(Incidentally, since that convo I’ve been rocking Dos Cervesas (prod by Poirier) off the PURA VIDA EP like its my job)
Santero also just put out a brand new mixtape a couple days ago for Los Rakas’ homegirl FAVI called Flor de Azahar (orange blossom – really the best smelling flower in the world for my money)
Santero also put me on to this Goapelle/Los Rakas Remix I had admittedly been sleeping on. It was featured on Fader and Rcrd Lbl months ago. Be sure to check them out on November 19th with me and Dre Skull at SOBs
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Do you have an old boombox? The rectangular kind that is big, boxy, held together with real screws? With large dials and analog push-buttons? If YES, then I’m interested in it & will pay (non “vintage” prices) for it. If you’d like to donate your crappy old boombox to a very good cause (more on this later, I promise you will not be disappointed) well, that’s cool too.
Dutty Artz newcomer Sam is based in NYC and will help scoop it up, and if you live outside of NYC then we can talk about shipping it.
give us a shout: boombox @ duttyartz dot com
On behalf of myself, my crew, anyone who has ever sported a high-top fade, and the entirety of the 1980s & early 90s, I salute you.
MATT SH∆DETEk
UPROOT ∆NDY
GEKO JONES
CHIEF BOIM∆
L∆MIN FOF∆N∆
∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆
LIVE VISUALS from NES.AVI
∆˚∆˚∆˚∆˚∆˚∆˚∆˚∆˚∆˚∆˚
FRIDAY, MARCH 18
10-2AM
∆˚∆˚∆˚∆˚∆˚∆
NES.AVI
Flamingo Cantina
515 East 6th Street
Austin, TX 78701
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˚˚˚˚FREE˚˚˚˚w/ wristband. Tickets available at the door for under $10, SXSW will tell us price tomorrow around 7PM, follow @mattshadetek and @duttyartz on twitter for final ticket price
Because it’s an official showcase there’s no guest list, sorry.
Questlove + I will be DJing at Pittsburgh’s Warhol Museum’s 15th anniversary gala party this Saturday. Big times! Free zombie facepainting! Big tunes! Seriously, I’m a huge Warhol fan and ?uestlove is a living legend who also embraces weird punctuation in his name and Halloween means you can dress extra crazy, so let’s end with a choice Andy quote:
I have to go out every night. If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs.
…followed by a picture of me and a video of Joanne watching some guy watch Andy Warhol eat a hamburger (there are a lot of these ):
So there’s this thing called the Internet but here at Dutty Artz we are mostly focused on bodies. Preferably sweaty ones. What moves them, what brings them together or forces them apart, trying to create spaces where we can melt our boundaries or learn useful ways of navigating each other and The World Around Us, which is part Mr + Mrs Internet but part walls and metal and dirt and apartments and streets and jet fuel and mostly plastic products which is why we’re doing a ZINE. To spread this talk into a physical format, the kind of thing you can leave behind or fold up and take with you, because everything circulates differently offline — call it distributional aesthetics — and nowadays it’s not knowledge so much as vectors of connection, context, and collapse, plus or minus corporate sponsorship and/or access to potable water. Like I tweeted: the future will be bad. but its music will be good. #CrisisManagement.
The zine will be out in time for Kwanzaa/Christmas/Reyes/Hanukka and if you’d like to submit a piece of “content” for it, email it to zine@duttyartz.com. If your “content” is, like, physical, email us and we’ll send a passenger pigeon to pick it up.
Guidelines? Nope. But there is a theme. And that theme is PIRACY. Or maybe it’s a method. There is a deadline for submissions: 4 weeks from now. End of November.
I am kinda occupying the editor position and Taliesin is kinda occupying the graphic designer position & that’s about all for now. The Dutty Artz Zine will be available as a PDF for our disembodied massive but the physical thing will come with an audio CD containing some of the best music you’ve ever heard. But this is not about the music. It’s about killing trees & inking up the world. Xerox sponsors, holler.
[Rocio Rodriguez Salceda - untitled 2010, courtesy of Caption Gallery]
Dutty Artz family member and general superstar Rocio Rodriguez Salceda has her debut solo show in New York City, opening this Thursday at Caption Gallery in DUMBO.
The show contains photographs and an animation. The photographs inhabit a provocative space between psychological portraiture, fashion, and creepyland. Powerful! “Though Rodríguez Salceda ultimately blacks out the individual faces of her models, a gesture that lends them both anonymity and universality, all of the women that she picks as subjects are close friends, often artists or performers themselves. Taking stereotypical ideas of femininity as her jumping off point, Rodríguez Salceda proposes a psychological alter ego for each model…”
Join us at the opening this Thursday! It’s open gallery night across DUMBO and in the building at Water St., so there’s much to see.
Caption Gallery is pleased to present Art Fight,
an exhibition of new work by Rocío Rodríguez Salceda.
September 30th- October 21st
Opening Reception October 7th, 6:00-8:00pm
Caption Gallery. 55 Washington St., suite 802, Brooklyn NY.
[Rocio Rodriguez Salceda - untitled 2010, courtesy of Caption Gallery]
Check out a little viral video I just made for the song Funny Cats off my album Flowers. It’s got a bunch of LOLcats images and funny cat videos from YouTube cut to my song.
There were two inspirations for this video. 1) I actually like these stupid cat videos on the internet and feel like the effervescent silliness of them fits the song well 2) they get 40 Million hits on YouTube. So the idea here is to see if combining my song with this kind of viral content can make it get more hits and more importantly reach people who aren’t blog-reading, social-networking music nerds but instead regular people who watch funny cat videos on YouTube. I’ll let you know how it works.
