Wednesday, October 31, 2007

High Art - Affirming art’s secret history of substance abuse By DOUG HARVEY Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 12:00 am

One of the collateral victims of the U.S. government’s criminal and moronic War on Drugs has been public awareness of the degree to which American culture has been shaped by the widespread use of powerful psychoactive substances by its creative minds, particularly since the 1960s. Music, literature and film have been transformed, to greater or lesser degrees, in order to correspond to the unspoken and otherwise undocumented frontiers of consciousness whose ongoing exploration has fundamentally restructured our society’s individual and collective understandings of reality, not to mention attention spans.

For various reasons, visual art has had an even more pronounced association with pharmacologically induced altered states of consciousness. The history of modern art could easily be re-framed in terms of what poisons were being ingested by artists in each period: Cubism = Absinthism, Pop = Amphetaminism, etc. Further, many pioneering researchers in LSD and other major psychedelic drugs — Aldous Huxley, Stanislav Grof, Oscar Janiger, Masters and Houston — were particularly attentive to the responses of visual artists, who seemed to have a vocabulary more capable of describing the visionary realms into which they found themselves transported. Of course, all that went deep underground in 1966, when acid became suddenly and extremely illegal. Through the early ’70s, it was possible to openly acknowledge the influence of drugs on art, but with each subsequent decade, the need to be pharmacologically closeted grew and grew.

While gossipy cautionary tales like Jean-Michel Basquiat’s received wide play for their reinforcement of the party line, the overwhelming mass of positive drug-related artistic experiences, as well as the even deeper and broader social, psychological and spiritual issues they pointed up, have remained basically taboo. With its latest major exhibit, “Ecstasy: In and About Altered States,” MOCA has courageously confronted this taboo in a funny, celebratory manner, creating what amounts to a theme park on the topic of intoxication.


Chino Aoshima’s City Glow (2005)

As with any theme park, some attractions rock and some suck. In “Ecstasy” ’s case, I think this derives from an attempt to represent a wide swath of responses to altered states of consciousness (ASCs), ranging from Klaus Weber’s essentially political gesture of putting a trace amount of LSD in a crystal fountain to Ann Veronica Janssens’ colored-light projection Donut (2003), which uses strobing concentric rings to induce drug-analogous glitches in brainwave frequencies. Some works, like Elija-Liisa Ahtila’s rather dry 2002 triple-screen projection, Talo/The House, explore the more frightening ASCs that border on pathological dissociative realms, while the show’s ostensible pièce de résistance — Carsten Höller’s Upside-Down Mushroom Room (2000) — has the boneheaded literalism of stoner art made by a smart-ass high school kid who’s never actually been experienced. “Oh, wow, giant spinning upside-down amanitas! I must be high!”

A number of works share this unfortunate confusion of menu for meal — Roxy Paine and Takashi Murakami also seem to have been included solely on the basis of their verbatim ’shroom imagery, while Fred Tomaselli’s intricately composed resin-soaked collages of actual pot leaves, blotter hits, Valiums, etc. (now fleshed out with body-part magazine clippings), have lost their slight conceptual edge through more than a decade of repetition, though they’re still pretty pretty. Tom Friedman’s Play-Doh pharmacopoeia treads dangerously close to the same redundancy vibe, but is pulled clear by the inclusion of several other works that hint at the restless inventiveness of his oeuvre — though I’m not sure what a Styrofoam sculpture of a plane hitting the WTC has to do with altered perceptions. Yes, I do. I just don’t know what it has to do with drugs.

As the show’s title suggests, not all the works reference drug-induced ASCs — Matt Mullican shares a couple of videos documenting his long-running experimentation with hypnosis as a tool in painting and performance. Many of the works — Glenn Brown’s sumptuous seething oil portraits or Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s miniaturized movie-theater installation, for example — re-create perceptual divergences that most teetotalers know from fever dreams or grace. The most successful works in the show are, in fact, those that mimic the phenomenology of ASCs rather than displaying some not-so-secret symbol with a knowing wink.

Foremost among these are installations by Pierre Huyghe and Erwin Redl. Huyghe’s piece — centered in a darkened room on the upper mezzanine — consists of a miniature stage set equipped with elaborate computer-choreographed theatrical lighting in a range of reds and purples, which sweep across tiny clouds of smoke-machine fog to the strains of Debussy’s lush, sentimental orchestrations of Eric Satie’s Gnossiennes. Sitting on the provided floor cushions, the viewer is strangely transported by what could easily pass for an elaborate pitch to subcontract a Vegas figure-skating revue, yet the work achieves a transcendent level of cheesiness — breaking on through to the other side of kitsch.

Redl’s MATRIX II (2000/2005) installation is more clinical, but no less sublime. An entire blacked-out back corner of the cavernous Geffen Contemporary is given over to a three-dimensional grid of glowing green LEDs, immersing viewers in a Euclidian field that shifts and reconfigures into different patterns as they move around it, conjuring both a hyperawareness of human spatial perceptual hard-wiring and an intimation of the underlying geometric realities experienced by devotees of peyote and mescaline. A word of caution: Try to visit this show during off-hours, as many of the works — particularly these immersive contemplative environments — are completely sabotaged by crowding. I haven’t heard a single favorable report of the supercongested opening.



Ann Veronica Janssen's
Donut (2003)
As with many MOCA survey shows, there are an unusually high number of frustrating curatorial exclusions. Apart from the many obvious mainstream art-world figures, it would have been exciting to see some psychedelic art produced in the course of psychiatric research — there have been studies done since the show’s 1990 cutoff date. Many of the inclusions are equally puzzling. Franz Ackermann’s painting installation is swell (but somebody please give that dude a color wheel!) but says nothing about the topic of ASCs. At least, Paul Noble’s epic, lyrical graphite drawings scream “Pothead!”

One of the big conceptual problems with a show like “Ecstasy” is that it can document the impact of ASCs – drug-induced or otherwise — only up to the point that they continue to validate the museological presentation of precious material objects that fall into a special category we agree to call art. And while the amount of excellent work on view here makes “Ecstasy” a definite must-see, and MOCA is to be commended for its brave affirmation of the politically unsanctioned potentials of human consciousness, for most of the people I know who have actually seen “a world in a grain of sand,” the idea that experiences of visionary ecstasy can be mediated by any authority or institution is a joke. But hey — it’s good for a laugh.


ECSTASY: In and About Altered States | The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo | Through February 20, 2006

Trick Or Treat????


Happy Halloween

A little News

Artist rises and falls on cocaine

AN internationally acclaimed Brisbane artist yesterday paid a high price for getting too close to his subject matter.

Painter and stained-glass expert Mitchell Lee Foley – whose recent works includes a series entitled Cocaine, Cocaine 035 and Cocaine on a Rainy Day – yesterday pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court to nine counts of importing trafficable amounts of cocaine into Australia.

Justice Mackenzie sentenced the 50-year-old father of three to 10 years' jail with a non-parole period of 3½ years. The Courier-Mail reports.


Love conquers all, even drug addiction

Sunday April 24, 2005
Love conquers all, even drug addiction


KUALA LUMPUR: Love is one of the best weapons against drug addiction, said the co-authors of a book that underscores this view.

Malaysian Hamzah Sidang Mohamed and Indonesian Evodia A. Iswandi jointly wrote I Love You Darling.

The book is based on real stories provided by listeners of an Indonesian radio programme who are either former drug addicts or their parents, relatives and friends.

”Drug addiction is global in nature, be it in the United States, Indonesia or here, so there is no difference in looking for solutions, whether at the prevention or rehabilitation stage, “ said Evodia.

The premise of the book, she said, was that former addicts would revert to their old habits without genuine love and care.

“It is based on the belief that with love and affection, people can be protected from being sucked into addiction,” she said.


It was hoped that the feelings, perceptions and experiences portrayed in the book would allow readers to understand the power of love, added Evodia, who is with the Bersama drug abuse rehabilitation programme in Indonesia.

The book was launched by Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Zainal Abidin Zin, who is also Pemadam chairman, at the Putra World Trade Centre yesterday.

It is now available from Pemadam.

According to Hamzah, an official with the agency, Pemadam is looking for sponsorship to supply the book to schools or libraries.


Canada's tobacco warnings now considered modern art

Reuters and ABC News Online report that gruesome Canadian images of tobacco-damaged gums, lungs and hearts will form part of an exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Canada's health ministry said on Friday.

The graphic images appear as health warnings on Canadian cigarette packs, and they will now be part of a MoMA exhibition on objects designed to protect the mind and body from dangerous or stressful influences.

"I am very proud that these labels have been recognized as being among some of the most innovative contemporary designs in the world," Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said in a statement.

Art, Dope & Saving the World: with artist Kris Hoglund

In my personal opinion, i would have to says this is by far one of the most creative, expressive biography i have ever read on an artist.

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In 1993 I was Vincent Van Gogh. In 1995, I was Kurt Cobain. In 1997, I was Keith Haring. I studied these people. Everything I could find on them, by them, I owned. I looked at their work for clues, wisdom, an answer. Art by Kris HoglundThrough their work I felt their pain, their dreams, their joys, and their despair. I studied them not just because I wanted to be "like" them, or even "be" them. I studied them because I was them.

Through their art I experienced their life, through my eyes. I felt the joy of discovery, the rush of productivity and creativity, the search for meaning, the anguish of never finding. I understood the addictions, the self-destructiveness, the whole messy business. And I loved them all the more because I understood it. I felt it. I was it.

There was just one problem with me being them. They all destroyed themselves. Would I have to do the same?

When I discovered that I was Van Gogh in 1993 and started painting, I found a door in myself that had been closed since childhood. When I discovered that I was Kurt Cobain, the silent anger and rage of a shitty childhood started kicking it down. When I became Keith Haring, I found my voice, manic and unstoppable as it poured out my story.

Art by Kris HoglundNow wait a minute you might say, where was "I" during all of this? I mean, it was "MY" story that was being told, not theirs. Well, I suppose "I" was there too. Leaning on the great ones, feeling their feelings, until I could learn to feel my own. That's kind of what artists contribute to humanity, eh? They feel and record their feelings, leaving the non-artists and the emerging artists a trail of emotional breadcrumbs to follow on their way to self-awareness, to enlightenment. I don't think there is a more noble purpose (it's too bad it generally doesn't pay well).

Art by Kris HoglundOk, but if these guys are so great, why did they all self-destruct in their prime? A valid question, and one of particular importance to me, since I "was" them. I was very afraid to ask that question of myself because it would have interfered with my ability to continue doing the answer. Although I had gained a lot of self/emotional awareness, and I found I could express my feelings in a powerful way, it was still very unpleasant to FEEL them. If I could dull them, then I didn't have to deal with them. For me, marijuana did the job better than anything else. Though I have engaged in all manner of compulsive activity, from work, to computer games, to pornography, the consistent fall back when the other things weren't working was pot. The first time I got high in the 7th grade, I forgot myself. I'd been chasing that feeling ever since.

After years of hiding my use, I decided in 2001 that I was going to be out in the open with it. There's a long story here, and out of respect to my wife and my family, who put up with a lot of shit from me, I won't go into all of it. Suffice it to say I had myself convinced that smoking pot from morning till night was making me a better person. I felt it was key to my artistic creativity, my spirituality, and my peace of mind. I believed these things, almost wholeheartedly.

Art by Kris HoglundIt was the peace of mind thing that eventually tripped me up. Like a lot of artists, I have a tendency to swing pretty widely through my mood cycles, with both intense lows and highs. In times of emotional stress, be it a high or a low, the pot would always intensify it, a lot. Prozac took away the problems with the lows, but the highs would be crazy. Unable to sleep much, always in a dream state, I would push my sanity to the edge.

Art by Kris HoglundAlthough at the time I felt like these frenzied states of mind were gold mines of creative ore, mostly they just kept me in a state of constant crisis, with my work, my family and my self. The art I was doing toward the end, while indeed visionary in its way, was pretty much only appreciable by me, and by a hand full of the addicted or near insane.

Art by Kris HoglundThe events of 9/11 were really sort of the catalyst for me to clean up my act. It triggered a kind of posttraumatic state for me where, in my druggy-haze, I knew I had the plan that would save the world. Not only that, but also that I had an obligation to share it with others. I was way over-the-top on this and I knew that I was in a fantasyland, yet, I still believed it. It created an obvious contradiction for me. I knew then that I had to get straight or I would go insane, or worse, lose my family. And still, this was a difficult decision for me, as it is for all addicts. I had a whole list of reasons why not to get sober, top of the list being that I didn't see how I was going to function as an artist.

Art by Kris HoglundI have been clean and sober for about a year and a half as of this writing (4/03). This last year has been like starting over in a lot of ways, and starting to feel things without medicating has been every bit as unpleasant as I ever might have thought it would be. The bill was due, so to speak, for years worth of things I had neglected and which needed to be made right. I have to say though, that my life IS better in every way and that, although I am far from the model of mental health and happiness, I feel like I'm moving in a good direction.

It is not my intention to sound preachy about substances. Everyone needs to find their own path, and I know that there are more people out there than not who can use drugs and alcohol in a responsible manner. It just stopped working for me. I don't have regrets about this. I learned things from it that I needed to learn, and likely wouldn't have learned any other way. I am grateful that I'm still alive and sane enough to say that, because, I do believe that one way or another, sooner or later, you either stop, go insane or die from it.

Art by Kris HoglundI am also happy to report that my creativity was NOT in fact dependent on pot, which is very satisfying to me. I have done some really good work in the last year, on themes and ideas that never would have occurred to me wasted, and, in having to deal with my emotions sober, opened up all kinds of artistic vistas hereto unexplored by me.

Art by Kris HoglundSpeaking of trying to save the world, in the fall of 2002, I was John Lennon. On a whim I had picked up his "Plastic Ono Band" album, and felt his feelings through my eyes. This was painful music and I was devastated. I was he. But I started listening to his later work, "Double Fantasy" and "Milk and Honey", and much to my great surprise, I had finally found somebody "to be" who was happy. Here was someone who was learning to live with his wounds and still find what there was to enjoy in life, someone who was no longer trying to save the world and someone who was no longer killing himself in the process. I felt very comforted in seeing "me" find a way to be happy. It's very sad that he didn't get a chance to enjoy it for very long. I guess it's just the way life is.

In the end, an artist can only take you so far along in the journey and the rest you have to learn for yourself. In spite of my grandiose plans to save the world (it was a good plan actually), as an artist, my highest function in society is probably to be a sower of breadcrumbs. Maybe someday I'll help someone find their way toward saving themselves, someone who looks at my art and says "he is me". That would make me feel like I've accomplished something as an artist. After all, even John Lennon didn't save the world.

Peace,
Kris Hoglund
April 2003
For more about Kris Hoglund Please Visit WeepingCherry.Com
What is Surreal Pop Art by Kris Hoglund
re: the Ant/Not Terminal Gallery