JAY “ONE” RAMIER – NOT TO LOSE MY HEAD
HVW8 BERLIN
25.10–24.11 2018
Exhibition Opening
Thursday, 25 October 2018
6:00pm – 10:00pm
HVW8 Berlin – Linienstraße 161, 10115 Berlin
Free admission – Warsteiner refreshments will be served
In this series of paintings and collages, Jay “One” Ramier retrieves and reinterprets the first hip hop song that was also a work of social criticism. “The Message” performed by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, feat. Belle Mel and Duke Bootee, describes social disarray, violence, decadence, alienation and self-harm. Released in 1982, it was widely recognized as one of the most iconic songs of late 20th century, and still speaks to the social reality of today.
In “The Message,” hip hop’s tone, formerly celebratory, becomes one of desperate urgency:
“Don’t push me ‘cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head
It’s like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin’ under”
By crystallizing elements of the song and its video into still images, Jay Ramier invites us to pause and consider in detail the harsh realities and evocative expressions of urban life. In this moment, hip hop’s mission changes. Jay Ramier has always stated his love for music, which he considers inspirational and the mightiest of all art forms: “I like the way music, like the holy spirit, can take possession of one’s soul, either by the power of the lyrics or the enchantment of hypnotic melodies or sounds.”
The video cuts between frenetic New York City streets, South Bronx residents strolling or playing, elderly people lying in the streets, and abandoned lots of rubble. The group raps on stoops and street corners, and the police make conspicuous appearances.
In translating imagery from the music video into the medium of static visual arts, NOT TO LOSE MY HEAD reveals the lives that Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five sought to bring attention to and their lasting impact on us in today’s world.
Almost 40 years later “The Message” still rings true, speaking to economic pressures and systemic racism that persist today. On the one hand, Jay Ramier´s focus on the song highlights the ongoing nature of social inequality, but on the other hand, he explores the roles of popular music and art for expressing and questioning social experience, highlighting the importance of struggle and resistance.
About Jay “One” Ramier
Jay Ramier is a multidisciplinary artist working in the media of painting, video, installation and music. His work is an ongoing investigation into his own Caribbean cultural roots and the representation of African diaspora people in cultural spaces.
The narrative he constructs extends into and draws from the plenum of Pan-African experience from West African coast to the Americas. His work fuses the iconography of struggle and resistance as well as popular culture with the styles of musical and linguistic expression of African descendant worldwide. The focus is on the establishment of a new global system of representation to undermine that of western mainstream hegemony.
Jay has been key actor in the building of the European Graffiti and “Urban-Art” scene, a cosmopolitan Afro-centric movement, for the better part of thirty years.
Jay Ramier is a co-creator and contributor to many local magazine projects such as Paris Zulu letters – Hip Hop´s first international Zine, Backjumps Berlin – Street-Art´s first magazine. Currently, Jay is the Artistic-Director of and regular contributor to Afrikadaa, a magazine and conceptual project created in 2010. He has also published the book MOUVEMENT. Du terrain vague au Dance-floor 1984—89, ed. Les mots et le reste 2017. His work has been featured in the 2015 Venice Biennale exhibit “BRIDGES OF GRAFFITI”.
His work is an ongoing fight for a better and more accurate representation of Minorities in cultural spaces (galleries, museums, institutions) and the recognition and importance of Africa’s influences on modern and contemporary culture.
Gallery & media contact
HVW8 Gallery Berlin, Linienstraße 161, 10115 Berlin
Jenny Ames
+49 (0)177–14 28 588
jenny@hvw8.com
Manuel Osterholt
manuel@hvw8.com
About HVW8
HVW8 Gallery Berlin was established in 2014 by HVW8 Gallery co-founders Tyler Gibney and Addison Liu. HVW8 Gallery was founded in 2006 in Los Angeles with a focus on supporting fine art and avant-garde graphic design. HVW8 fosters artistic visions at the intersection of art, music and design, and collaborates with an international community of artists. Emerging and established artists such as Brian Lotti, Jean Jullien, Cody Hudson, Jerry Hsu, Jean André, Atiba Jefferson, Brian Roettinger and Haw-lin Services have exhibited their works in Berlin at HVW8. More info at hvw8.com.
Olimpia Zagnoli takes us on an illustrated trip through 80s Italy at Nicer Tuesdays
“I don’t remember when I began drawing exactly but it was a long time ago”, explained illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli, opening the evening at Nicer Tuesdays September. Joining us from her home of Milan, the beloved illustrator spoke through the numerous forms her illustrative work can take, from illustrated plates and pillows to collaborations with fashion brands to children’s books.
However, Olimpia’s talk explained the importance of personal work, explaining how crafting her own practice is always on her mind, particularly when she gets to consider how her work can infiltrate a space when exhibited,
Her most recent exhibition, Cuore di Panna in Los Angeles, saw Olimpia illustrate visuals that were close to home. Taking inspiration from her childhood in 80s Italy, Olimpia illustrated the popping high colour of it all, from fizzy drink packaging to cafe signs. The result was a series that jumps off the page, screen and in the exhibition context, the wall too. It’s a guilty pleasure series, and one that suits the illustrator’s work perfectly, both sensual and overly sweet at the same time.
Beloved Italian illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli talks us through one of her most recent projects, Cuore di Panna: a personal and cultural interpretation of 80s Italy.
Chi Modu’s Creative Class presented by HVW8 and adidas Originals in association with his incredible exhibit of legendary hip hop ‘Uncategorized’ photography at HVW8 Plana, 5416 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles.
Creative Class is an ongoing series by HVW8 with artists giving insight into their creative process and work.
Wednesday, August 22, HVW8 Gallery and adidas Originals hosted a first look at UNCATEGORIZED, an exhibition of photographs from hip-hop documentarian Chi Modu. The traveling show first opened in Berlin, but has made several global stops since. Still, this week’s Los Angeles preview had special significance for the Nigeria-born, New Jersey-raised Modu, who joked that despite his East Coast childhood, the West Coast had always shown him the most love.
Sitting amidst intimate portraits of Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Nas and more, Modu was joined by Snoop Dogg, whom he first worked with when the rapper turned business mogul and show host was only 19 years old. “I wasn’t there to experience it, I was there to document it. I wasn’t there to judge it, I was there to capture it,” Modu explained of his approach to photographing the young Doggy Style rapper and his associates.
This dedication to acting as a conduit of experiences and narrator of foreign realities is part of what makes Modu’s photos so resonant, even with the passing of decades. His portrait of a languid teenage Nas perched atop a twin bed in a spartan room inside of the imposing Queensbridge Housing projects has the same composition of a Renaissance era reclining nude. However Nas’ cuffed denim, collared Polo shirt and Timbs tell a different story — it’s the story of the genesis of hip-hop. On a worn wooden dresser centered in the frame sits a television, video game console and stuffed teddy bear. Above the 17-year-old Nas’ head, which rests contemplatively against a wall, is a bullet hole. The juxtaposition between the trappings of childhood and the imposed presence of gun violence, which is inescapable even within the sacred walls of a bedroom, is the sort of intentional tension Modu creates.
He calls upon these inconvenient truths to frame those who the world often looks at as violent and dangerous with the care and humanity they deserve. Modu’s unflinchingly honest photographs chronicle both the remarkable and unremarkable times of some of the most influential rappers of the ’90s, shedding light onto the relatable side of their larger-than-life legacies. Perhaps the irony is that for Modu what has always been a labor of love is now a living time capsule of a singular era in hip-hop that paved the way for future generations.
Following his panel with Snoop Dogg and radio host Anthony Valadez, PAPER briefly chatted with Modu about the inspiration behind the show and the challenges of good storytelling.
What’s the inspiration behind UNCATEGORIZED?
I obviously wanted to celebrate hip-hop and the culture, but I also wanted the show to be something that people couldn’t label. I wanted to create something that was the opposite of labeling everything to make a statement against stereotyping, which I think tends to happen to hip-hop artists quite a bit. My work does not fit into any stereotype. I don’t fit into any stereotype. My subjects don’t fit into any stereotype.
How do you ultimately want people to perceive the work?
I think the beauty of photography is that it doesn’t really matter how people perceive it because I have no control over that. I just have to document and let people read it for what it is visually without words. I think if you look at my photographs they should give you that idea — I think kids today are really awesome about that. You can see that in their work and one thing I do like is that a lot of young photographers reach out to me and I tell them to keep at it.
“It’s not glorifying — it’s documentation, it’s showing truth.”
You said that sometimes people would ask you why you’re glorifying violence by showing pictures of young men with guns. How, if at all, has that perception changed as hip-hop became more readily integrated part of popular culture?
I think the perception that hip-hop glorifies violence will always be there, but I think you also have to be honest about what you’re covering. The reality is no one judges a war photographer for photographing a war zone, so why are you judging a photographer for photographing the hood, which we know can also create the same PTSD issues we see in war because of the violence. In fact the hood can be a war zone, so people need to think in terms of, holy cow, this 17-year-old lives in a war zone, where did society go wrong? For me that’s the narrative, that’s the question we should be asking. It’s not glorifying — it’s documentation, it’s showing truth.
Is it a challenge to document without imposing a point of view?
We all have a point of view, but I think that you can still document having a point of view without imposing your narrative too heavily. I want to show the truth. I want to show people as they are. If they’re beautiful I want to show them they’re beautiful and pull it out of them. Some people say, well, “Why are you showing someone who is so ‘gangster’ as beautiful?” It throws them off. In fact, when I show them as beautiful is when you actually see them as human, and then you’ll think a little more about their circumstances and not that they’re just violent or all of these bad things. I humanize people with my camera. I think that’s my skill.
HVW8 Gallery Los Angeles and adidas Originals proudly present UNCATEGORIZED, an exhibition of photography by Chi Modu. Alongside images of hip-hop royalty including Tupac, Biggie, Nas and ODB, UNCATEGORIZED also features previously unseen gems from Chi’s photographic archive. The show celebrates hip-hop’s creative energy and raw, unrivaled ambition in its prime, showcasing Chi’s documentation of the legends behind the sound. Custom Java Development Services. UNCATEGORIZED is an ode to a movement, honoring the impact that the early hip-hop icons inimitably maintain today.
UNCATEGORIZED stems from a wider exhibition series, the title of which marks Chi’s open-minded approach to his work. “I wanted to create something that is the opposite of putting labels on everything and make a statement against stereotyping,” he explains. “My work does not fit into any one stereotype and neither do I.”
Tupac Shakur
Atlanta, GA 1994
Digital Silver Gelatin Print
20×24 inches
1998, artist, curator, and gallerist Tyler Gibney was studying graphic design in Montreal and decided to start an art collective with his friends called HVW8. Influenced by Bauhaus and various design movements, Gibney envisioned integrating art, design, and music through performances, happenings, collaborative murals, and immersive installations.
Twenty years later, with galleries now in Los Angeles and Berlin, Gibney continues to bridge the gap between art and industry by fostering creative minds, challenging conventional practices of art making, and stimulating our senses through memorable exhibitions and inclusive programming.
We visited Tyler at HVW8 Gallery in Los Angeles to chat about the early days of HVW8, transitioning from artist to curator, youth culture, his connection to skateboarding, the gender gap, and authenticity.
How’d HVW8 start?
I’m Canadian and I was going to art school in Montreal and I just decided to start an art collective and name it HVW8. I got a space, there was a whole bunch of us, and we started doing stuff together. I was a graphic designer, studied graphic design in school, I was really into Bauhaus, and at the same time, we were all really into music as well, like hip-hop, soul, punk, reggae, and house. So we created this space and we started doing a lot of installations. We were originally, kind of like, an art band, but instead of making music, we were making art together. We would sample certain things like Malick Sidibé photographs, or classic imagery, and then work it the same way you’d play blues or jazz. You have composition but then there’s room for improvisation, as long as everyone is working in harmony. We were not graffiti, more like post-street art. We started touring, we traveled to Japan, Puerto Rico, and we’d do these performances. I ended up liking Los Angeles and eventually working at HVW8 here in 2006, and expanded to Berlin in 2014.
What was it like touring? How many people were traveling with you?
Primarily three of us. We’d spend three or four hours on each piece. We were creating physical pieces and eventually, we grew and started building environments and installations. So when I came to Los Angeles, there weren’t any galleries really tying in music, performance, and installation. That’s when I changed from being an artist to a curator.
What was your transition like from artist to curator?
I’ve always worked collaboratively so it wasn’t too much of a transition. I like fostering different artists and working on projects together. In a lot of ways, it’s like making an album.
Who are some artists HVW8 exhibits rather often?
Originally Parra, for sure. We did like five or six shows here with him. Geoff McFetridge. Right now, Ines Longevial, Jean André, Brian Lotti, Mark Gonzales, and Atiba Jefferson, of course. I try to connect the dots a little bit, like when you’re putting together a mixtape, you try to find those subtle or obvious commonalities between artists.
“If all you are is a sugar high, you’re not going to last.”
You mentioned Gonz and Atiba. What’s your connection to the skate industry?
I mean, it’s just how I grew up. I loved Thrasher Magazine, hip-hop culture, and I also loved graphic design. I always felt that there was a weird place that was not graffiti, but not traditional, fine art. I felt like a lot of artists, they’d be working on skate culture because it was a good outlet. Like all the boards need graphics. Also the culture itself, there’s like the rockers, the hardcore guys, guys that are into the reggae vibe, or the joy division type dudes. I don’t want to be a skate gallery, but for a lot of skateboarders I know, it’s a natural transition to go from skateboarding into art. Atiba, for example, some people look at his work and are like, “What, this isn’t art.” But to me, he is an artist because he’s a documentarian of all this culture.
Do you think there’s a single commonality that connects all the artists you work with?
Yeah, I think they all share a certain authenticity. I feel like all the artists I work with have a really honest perspective. I definitely exhibit a lot of youth artists, cross-cultural artists, and last year, I exhibited mostly female artists. I just felt like our programming needed more female voices.
Do you find it difficult to find female artists fit for HVW8?
For sure. In all honesty, HVW8 was becoming a boys club. I’ve made a conscious effort to step out of that and give more opportunities to female artists because it doesn’t need to stay the way it was.
As a curator, how do you distinguish between sincere and authentic skill and craft, versus hype?
It’s a balance. I’ve probably designed around 250 shows so far and of course, you have hits and misses, but I think it’s important to stay true to the artists you respect and the work you know is deserving. At the same time, you can’t completely exist in a vacuum either.
The superficial stuff doesn’t last. If you really want to do art, and you want to have a fifty-year career, you don’t want to have something that’s only going to last because you’re beautiful between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-five, and then nobody cares anymore because there’s someone else, because it’s pop culture. If all you are is a sugar high, you’re not going to last.
What’s your main goal for HVW8, twenty years deep? Anything you’ve been itching to try?
Inclusivity. I feel like sometimes art stuff can be really exclusive and pretentious. I think you can still show stuff with integrity.
One thing I’m really enjoying right now is technology. Like with bitmapping, there’s so much stuff you can do. I really enjoy helping artists build installations and environments that are thought out and immersive, and still include an artist statement and present ideas that challenge the viewer. We don’t have a crazy budget, but through technology, we can create almost anything we want.
What shows are coming up?
Los Angeles: Steven Traylor – Brian Lotti – Alima Lee
Berlin: Chi Modu – Josep Maynou – Aurora Sander
For more from HVW8 Gallery follow them on Instagram: @hvw8gallery.
HVW8 Gallery and adidas Originals present :
Creative Class Featuring Atiba Jefferson An evening with Atiba Jefferson as he talks about his work and creative process for his ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ exhibition. To be eligible to attend, please post an original photograph of yours and tag #atibacreativeclass and he will reach out if you’re selected. All entries must be posted by Thursday, June 21st. The exhibit is located in Los Angeles, you must be in the area the weekend of June 23rd to attend if selected.
Creative Class is an ongoing series of artist talks and lectures fostering dialogue between established exhibiting artists and emerging artists and creatives.
OPENING MAY 25TH, 6 – 10PM
Music By Virgil Normal, Shirley Kurata and and DJ Pubes.
RSVP AT RSVP@HVW8.COM
661 N. Spaulding Ave, LA 90036
EXHIBITION RUNS MAY 25th – JULY 1st
Presented by adidas Originals
#adidasLosAngeles
About the Exhibit
Through a series of evocative still lifes, light installations and videos, the artist recalls her childhood memories lived in the era between the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s in a sunny Italian season, dazed from images from TV advertisements of ice cream and sodas. Italy was still unaware of the approaching dark years of Berlusconism, in which American magnetism, shaking booties and the cult of money would sabotage the cultural landscape that had characterized the country during the 70s. The artist remembers afternoons spent sitting on plastic chairs outside ice cream parlors, with Heather Parisi playing on the radio and her mother smoking cigarettes while reading Hemingway, blue popsicles and glow-in-dark bracelets. In the years when Barbie Totally Hair was replacing Sophia Loren, summers seemed endless and dashing bicycle races with a Walkman on one’s ears were the best cures for loneliness.
About Olimpia Zagnoli
Olimpia Zagnoli was born in Reggio Emilia on the leap day in 1984. As a child she moved to Milan, where she currently lives and works. Olimpia studied illustration at the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Milan and graduated in 2007. The following year, after a period of living in New York, she began publishing her illustrations in Italian and international newspapers. Olimpia draws on Futurism, as much as on The Beatles. Her unique style comprises essential images, curvy shapes and saturated colors, inspired equally by art history and pop culture.
Throughout the years she has collaborated with The New York Times, Taschen, Vanity Fair, New Yorker and Rolling Stone, to name a few. She illustrated three children’s books: “The World Belongs To You”, “Mister Horizontal & Miss Vertical” and created her version of the masterpiece “The Wonderful Wizard of OZ”. Her bright and ironic images have acted as a framework for advertisement campaigns for Google, Sephora, Air France, Clinique and Miller. She has worked with leading fashion brands, among them Fendi, Prada, Hermes and Marella (Max Mara group).
Along with commissioned works, Olimpia Zagnoli conducts her personal artistic research where she builds a dialogue between illustration and different artistic media. In particular, she experimented with the relationship between drawing and tridimensionality, as well as video: she crafted a series of design objects, kinetic sculptures and directed music videos. Her work has been showcased in numerous group shows around Italy and Europe, and in solo shows: “Parco Zagnoli” at the Ninasagt gallery in Düsseldorf (2014), “Cinetica Zagnoli Elettrica” at 121+ in Milan (2015), “La Grande Estate” at Mutty gallery in Castiglione delle Stiviere (2016) and “How To Eat Spaghetti Like a Lady” at Antonio Colombo Gallery in Milan (2017).
HVW8 Gallery x adidas Originals
HVW8 Gallery and adidas Originals continue their long partnership in fostering emerging artists and creators from around the world. By supporting local artists and providing an inclusive environment for dialogue between artists from various cultures and mediums, the partnership provides an international platform for new and diverse artistic visions. Past artists include Kilo Kish, Brian Lotti, Inès Longevial, Gogy Esparza, Jey Perie, Lisa Leone, Mark Gonzales and Jean Jullien.
A Gallery Weekend group exhibition featuring four artists celebrating HVW8 Gallery’s fourth year in Berlin. Featuring Inès Longevial (Paris), Julian Smith (Mallorca), 44Flavours (Berlin) and HuskMitNavn (Copenhagen).
Opening: Friday, April 27, 6-10 pm
HVW8 Gallery’s mandate has always been to support and foster new and emerging artists as well as provide a platform for international artists. After expanding from Los Angeles to Berlin, HVW8 has continued to support local artists as well as provide an inclusive environment for dialogue and communication between artists from various cultures and mediums.
Over the past 4 years HVW8 Berlin has carried on this cultural exchange, from exhibitions about the early years of hip- hop in the Bronx (Lisa Leone – How You Like Me Now?) to Jamaican roots culture (Three the Hard Way featuring Wilfred Limonious and Maxine Walters) to clean California graphic design (Brian Roettinger – 8 Announcements) to showcasing Berlin based artists and collectives such as Haw-Lin Services, Sebastian Haslauer and Einhundert.
Four Conversations continues this ongoing dialogue with a diverse international group of emerging artists.
Opening: April 7th, 2018 Exhibition: April 11th–April 21st, 2018
For over a decade, Julio Rölle and Sebastian Bagge have been working collaboratively at the intersection of art and design. Their practice is rooted in graffiti and graphic design, which continues to inform their style, technique and light- hearted approach to making. Rölle and Bagge have an unshakeable DIY-attitude: they celebrate the ability to improvise and transform any piece of paper, wood or fabric into a work of art. Their ethos is keeping it analogue.
44flavours is a living dialogue. Not just existing between the creative duo themselves, but connecting them with all forms of visual culture that surround and inspire them. This dynamic enables Rölle and Bagge to incorporate traditional points of reference with a playful touch, informed by current visual phenomena.
HVW8 Gallery Berlin was established in 2014 by HVW8 Gallery co-founders Tyler Gibney and Addison Liu. HVW8 Gallery was founded in 2006 in Los Angeles with a focus on supporting fine art and avant- garde graphic design. HVW8 fosters artistic visions at the intersection of art, music and design, and collaborates with an international community of artists. Emerging and established artists such as Brian Lotti, Jean Jullien, Cody Hudson, Jerry Hsu, Jean André, Atiba Jefferson, Brian Roettinger and Haw-lin Services have exhibited their works in Berlin at HVW8.
Sternleuchter, 2018, dimensions variable
In-Line, 2016, 100 x 200 cm
Gallery; media contact
HVW8 Gallery Berlin , Linienstraße 161, 10115 Berlin
Jenny Ames
+49 (0) 177 – 142 8588
jenny@hvw8.com
Manuel Osterhold
+49 (0) 172 – 767 2718 manuel@hvw8
Supported by adidas Originals, Warsteiner and Vitamin Well (DE)
Proud to have Ines Longevial on the Cover of Juxtapoz featuring artwork from the HVW8 exhibit ‘Sous Le Soleil’. The next exhibit with Inès will be April 27th in Berlin for Gallery Art Week. Please email info@hvw8.com for inquiries.
Gogy Esparza. Beirut Youth (2017). Courtesy of the artist.
by Sahar Khraibani
I first met NYC-based, Ecuadorian-American artist Gogy Esparza through mutual friends, and the first time we hung out we ended up walking down Madison Avenue on a Thursday afternoon. On that walk, Gogy told me that he gets his inspiration from the shop windows on this street. This surprised me, because I never took him for an Upper East Side aficionado. My vision of Gogy was that of a warm-hearted individual, who spent the last ten years or so hustling in the gritty art scene, as far away as can be from Madison Avenue. I was living in Beirut in 2016 when he was there shooting for his Beirut Youth project (2017), and though we did not cross paths, the word of his visit spread like wildfire in such a small city. The project, initially tackled the globalization of subcultures, but ultimately showcased the juxtaposition of a diverse culture, where different religions, classes and opinions breed both its chaos and its charm. It later gained a sponsorship from Adidas Originals for the exhibition to tour worldwide. Gogy and I squeezed this conversation between two haircutting appointments at his Chinatown studio. I arrived right after he had finished giving his first haircut of the day. As he sat comfortably in his barber’s chair, we discussed his path as a barber and artist working across film, photography, and fashion.
The following text has been edited for clarity.
Sahar Khraibani: You just came back from showing Beirut Youths in Tokyo. Did that trip change your perspective of the project? How was it perceived there?
Gogy Esparza: Really well. I mean, I don’t want to generalize, but the creative culture in Japan is very curious and anything they find exotic they want to know about. They tend to explore outside cultures and they go all the way: they do all their homework, they ask a lot of questions, and I think they’re very respectful and genuinely curious. That’s why I love it there. And it was great to see their reactions cause they were like “wow, the conditions in the [refugee] camps are really crazy, the history is so complex.” They were willing to ask the right questions, and eager to educate themselves.
SK: I was watching the Beirut Youths videos again, and I was thinking about their content. You know, it’s home for me, and I was thinking of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp especially because I’ve been there so many times for different reasons. So I have a different relationship to the camp in a way, but I normally don’t like it when people other-ize and exoticize it. Your video didn’t do that. You know, it’s a very specific culture they have in the camp: it’s their own little world, kind of like Chinatown on a smaller and more condensed scale. So I was curious, as someone who had never been to Beirut before, what was your perception of Beirut before going and after going, especially visiting the camps and then areas like Raouche, which is really a mishmash of people from all classes.
GE: Before going to Lebanon you try to cover the history. I’m Latino and I grew up Catholic, so this culture is very different from mine on the surface—at least that’s what I thought. I mean, yeah, the country is 47% Christian, but the Muslim and French influences are felt just as much, if not more. The mash-up of everything over the years—you want to be privy to that before you walk in there. I think a lot of people sensationalize war and conflict and I’m not going to say that I didn’t do that.
SK: But you didn’t.
GE: But I was really naturally attracted to that. I was there when Trump was about to be elected and then there were a couple of documentaries that came out that talked about U.S. relationships with the Middle East. One of our big goals was visiting Mlita in the South and the Hizbollah Museum. There you see the other side, because in the U.S. you only get the U.S.-Israeli side. So a lot of my focus was initially on the history of war. As you know, I’m an immigrant from Ecuador who came to the U.S. with my family. We grew up in the inner city, in the hood, so naturally I kind of gravitate towards these stories of conflict and displacement because I relate to that.
Gogy Esparza. Beirut Youth (2017). Courtesy of the artist.
SK: So you’ve been through a form of displacement?
GE: Exactly. And also assimilation, right? Palestinians here are refugees but in Lebanon they somewhat have no identity. And in Lebanon I think they remind you of that.
SK: Definitely. As a Palestinian, you don’t have a passport or a citizenship. You only have a refugee card, and you’re not allowed to work in certain places or even buy a house. You’re constantly reminded that you don’t belong. I mean unless you’re very rich, there are a lot of class rules that play into this game as well. What was interesting to me was that you went to Beirut at a very specific time: the garbage crisis was at its peak, and the summer was rough, politically and culturally.
GE: I guess initially that was my concept. Beirut is a very progressive place in the Middle East, so there was going to be more free spirited energy there than obviously in Saudi or even Dubai, but what I found there was very different. Inevitably I started realizing that I couldn’t tell people that I was from New York. I couldn’t tell them I was American. I preferred telling them that I’m Ecuadorian because there was a big wall put up, rightfully so, toward the United States. But once you get through that wall with people in Lebanon, it felt just like Latin culture to me: very warm, very giving, inviting. The hosting culture is really beautiful. And also, the Mediterranean Sea. I think the sea had the biggest impact on me. It felt cleansing, calming, almost omnipresent.
Gogy Esparza. Beirut Youth (2017). Courtesy of the artist.
SK: The sea has always been the biggest mystery and inspiration for Beirut. Ultimately, being here in New York and now so far from it, I’m starting to realize why it has such a hold on people. I mean it’s the only place where you can breathe: an open space in a city with no public spaces. It’s the only escape, really. And then people lost their lives in the Mediterranean while trying to migrate and we carry that shame around.
GE: I didn’t think about that…
SK: I mean you see it everyday. What I appreciated in your videos, especially the one about the private beach club Sporting (Raouché, 2017), was that you showed the public beach right next to it. I think you hit on a specific synthesis of Beirut, a non-cliché way of showing what the city is and what it means to live there.
GE: I just tried to be honest because of course I got love at the cliffs of Raouché, but I wasn’t fully down with everybody there. They knew I was an outsider. Like “hey, I went to Sporting too, I was at that private beach,” and I think I showed that. I wasn’t trying to lie. I was eating fish at Sporting and also looking across the bay. I think I was trying to be very objective and factual and just to tell the truth. I wasn’t lying about the conditions in the camp, I wasn’t lying about Raouché. And for me, I always go in both worlds. Even in New York, I like to see every scope of every place. You can come from two different worlds and exist in both at once. Some people can only exist in one world and that’s very sad, but it’s real.
SK: I really appreciated the honesty. I’m very wary of someone coming in from the outside and wanting to apply their own vision to what the place is.
GE: Being a Catholic Latino for me changed how I saw things. We hide behind this veil of conservatism and prayer. People have this fascination with the virgin or the whore, It’s very prevalent throughout the Bible and the years of culture that have come from it, but at the end of the day this strict idea of “right and wrong” creates so much infidelity and so much distrust. You know, I talk about that in my work. I show you the ugly side. I show you the truth, and then I also show you this idealistic vision. I don’t lie. My personal work is very crude and very raw, and you know, it’s not for everybody. I think if you pay attention to the nuances of what I’m trying to say, you understand that I’m very honest about it, and anywhere I’m going to go, I’m going to do that ‘cause that’s who I am. We need to have a dialogue about the truth and our perceived notion of what we feel should be true.
SK: Do you feel like you have a duality in your perception of things? In your art?
GE: Definitely. Being in Japan was amazing and beautiful. It’s like: okay, it’s very clean and pristine and everything is incredibly orderly. All the trains are on time, but at night—or if you go to Shinjuku, the party district—essentially they sell sex dreams there. You as a foreigner cannot go into these places. You cannot document these places, because the Japanese government wants the outside world to only see the pristine side of Japan, to perceive it in a specific light. But Shinjuku is the underbelly of the city, completely run by Yakuza (members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan). This is the contrast I like to show. In Lebanon, it’s more out there, but the tradition of Arab culture is still very conservative.
SK: Depends where you are geographically in Lebanon.
GE: For sure. And I can’t assume this American standard is the same everywhere else. I can’t. It’s arrogant.
SK: But you also come from a dual identity, I mean you’re from Ecuador, then you moved to Massachusetts, and then to New York. You saw different sides of the world and had an interesting trajectory, and that’s why I think you even see New York in a different way. I mean the first time we hung out, we walked down Madison Avenue, which is an uncomfortable place for me cause I always felt it was for the rich. But you didn’t feel that way.
Gogy Esparza. Photo: Ari Marcopoulos.
GE: The thing is, my father was a doctor in Ecuador, and he fought and earned his education coming from nothing. And then he came to the States and his title wasn’t recognized, the only work he could find was in a factory assembly line. He was reduced to that kind of labor. But this guy was a doctor in his culture. Every immigrant has this story. To withstand and remain yourself and assimilate only to a certain degree is respectable and admirable. In Ecuador, he’s able to walk in the poor neighborhoods that he’s from, but he’s an educated person that willfully fought for an education, and he should be entitled to the same levels of consideration as every other person. In New York, or anywhere I go, I feel the same way. I always go to the hood wherever I am travelling, but then I will go to the more expensive neighborhoods and have a drink. I will go to the Louvre and appreciate art. I will challenge myself like that, and I will challenge the environment that is in place. I’m willing to take that risk. I have to dress like them. I’m fair skinned, but I have a shaved head. I have tattoos. I have my mannerisms and a character that let them know I’m not bourgeois. and if you’re unable to accept me, then I will challenge you. Because these people, they tend to stay in their world. They don’t come to my world, or if they do they consume it, from hip-hop to street art.
SK: Or sensationalize it in a way?
GE: Absolutely.
SK: They want to put you in that category and don’t expect of you more levels of culture or integration.
GE: For me, it’s like cutting hair. I know how to give you a fade or a tape up, a line up, a shape up; these are like cuts you get in the hood. But I know how to cut all different types of hair, and also you need different types of techniques to do that and there is a cadence, a layering process. There’s an understanding of how things fall into place in the act of cutting hair. I know how to give a good haircut because I’ve been giving them for so long, but I’ve challenged myself to learn what I don’t know. I should be entitled to appreciate the complexities of any type of world that I choose. You have these creatives challenging themselves by the exposition to a whole new culture, and assimilating the traditions of the pre-existing culture. That’s what New York is, that’s what the infrastructure is. The city was built on a grid system from the very beginning, and it was meant for ease and flow of commerce and culture. That’s embedded in the design of the city, so who am I not to take advantage of that, you know what I mean? In Lebanon, it was important for me to go to Mlita, to go to Dahieh, to Shatila and then yes I was at the trendy Decks On The Beach, and yes I was eating at Restaurant Casablanca, because I wanted to see it all.
SK: It’s part of the culture somehow.
GE: To be honest with you, I understand classism because it exists in Ecuador as well. It’s very classist, and it’s based on the color of your skin. But I don’t agree with that, and I don’t partake in it at all. I’m very vocal about that, and I show that in my work. I chill with all different types of people because I truly believe in that spirit. I believe in the human race. I want this universal prevailing message of struggle and of acceptance.
Beirut Youth will be on view in Los Angeles at HVW8 Gallery on February 22, 2018. It will be the fourth installment of the exhibition. The exhibition was shown in New York City, Dubai, and Tokyo thus far, and planning to close out the tour with an exhibition in Beirut this coming Summer.
Miami Art Week had a lot of parties, a lot of looks and a lot of corporate sponsors trying to get in on the art scene.
That’s why HVW8 Gallery’s Creative Class stood out to our team. Held outside of the Miami Beach vicinity, they presented five artists Atiba Jefferson, Kilo Kish, Lisa Leone, Ines Longevial and Brian Lotti at their three day exhibition at Miami’s historic, Jewel Box. The standout feature all five artists: all five had their first shows with HVW8.
Second to that, the team worked with adidas and Sonos, in a way that was subtle, including the brand as patron of the arts and not some culture vulture (which we witnessed plenty of throughout our time in Miami).
We talked with Tyler Gibney, one of HVW8’s founders, about Miami and about their mission with HVW8.
Kilo Kish may be better known for wearing oversize suits than frilly dresses, but her new interactive video project for “Fulfillment,” a standout from last year’s Reflections in Real Time, proves that the rapper can pull off menswear staples and full-on gowns equally well.
Kish shared a new website designed by Empire Taste that allows the viewer to flip between four different security camera feeds of HVW8 gallery in Los Angeles. Each one depicts a different angle of Kish dancing and singing in a vintage pink gown, belted with a black ribbon that matches her long satiny gloves. HVW8 is currently housing an installation by Kish, who is also a visual artist. Of the video’s voyeuristic framing, Kish says that “watching security footage of someone alone in a big white box asks the question, ‘How do we find and define fulfillment in our digital society?’ ” So ponder the social behaviors of our current technological moment and admire Kish’s vintage pink gown by watching the clip below, or head to the website to take it in from every point of view.
BERLIN — HVW8 Gallery Berlin in collaboration with One Love Books presents
THREE THE HARD WAY
WILFRED LIMONIOUS: IN FINE STYLE ALEX BARTSCH: COVERS MAXINE WALTERS: SERIOUS THINGS A GO HAPPEN
September 8th – October 14th, 2017
Opening Reception September 8th 18:00 – 22:00
In Fine Style: The Dancehall Art of Wilfred Limonious, is the first solo exhibition of work by prolific Jamaican illustrator Wilfred Limonious (1949–99) in Germany, and includes reproductions of work from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s, spanning three key phases in his career: his comic strips for the Jamaican newspapers, his illustrations for the publications of JAMAL (the Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy), and his distinctive artwork for the burgeoning dancehall scene coming out of 1980s Jamaica. The exhibition is curated by Al “Fingers” Newman and Christopher Bateman and is produced by One Love Books with the support of the Limonious Estate, to accompany their book, In Fine Style: The Dancehall Art of Wilfred Limonious, the first study into the artist’s life and work.
London-based photographer Alex Bartsch makes his debut at HVW8 Gallery Berlin with photographs from his book, Covers: Retracing Reggae Record Sleeves in London, forthcoming on One Love Books. After researching various reggae LPs and twelve-inches from his record collection, Bartsch has re-photographed fifty sleeves in their original London locations, holding them up at arm’s-length so that they blend in with their surroundings, decades later. Presented in this way, the photographs document the transition of time, with the album cover serving as a window into the past, juxtaposed against today’s backdrop. From an ethnomusicological perspective the photographs also provide a fascinating insight into the history of reggae music in London, inviting the viewer to rethink the relationship between the city and its musical heritage. The exhibition includes ten select prints from the project, featuring records by artists such as John Holt, Carroll Thompson, Peter Tosh, Moodie, Jah Woosh, Pat Kelly and Smiley Culture.
Serious Things a Go Happen features various original signs and posters from the early 1980s through today, drawn from the collection of Jamaican film and television producer and director Maxine Walters. Jamaican dancehall emerged out of reggae in the late 1970s and brought with it a new visual style characterized by bright colors and bold, hand-drawn lettering. One-of-a-kind, hand-painted posters advertising local parties and concerts have become a ubiquitous part of Jamaica’s landscape, nailed to poles and trees across the island. The exhibition in conjunction with Walters’ book Serious Things A Go Happen: Three Decades of Jamaican Dancehall Signs (Hat & Beard Press) presents an unofficial history of Jamaican dancehall music told through its graphic design.
Gallery & media contact HVW8 Gallery Berlin , Linienstraße 161, 10115 Berlin
