The New Inspirational Movement

Hello everybody,
For the last few weeks, I’ve been unpacking boxes and reorganizing my studio. Since the remodel, most of my art supplies and books have been in storage. While I was unpacking, I rediscovered 3 boxes that contained my comic book collection! As I was putting them on my shelf, I realized how much I had missed them and how much they influenced my art back in the 90’s. I stopped and thumbed threw the graphic pages of several artist’s imaginations and decided to post my favorite ones.

Antonio Prohias creator of Spy vs Spy 1961-?

Antonia Prohías of Spy vs Spy was one of my favorite cartoon strips when I was an adolescent. Antonia left Cuba after Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1960 and in 1961 began the first strips of Spy vs Spy in MAD Magazine. According to the book, Spy vs Spy: The Complete Casebook, the strip was a commentary on the Cold War and each character represented two cold warring countries. I of course didn’t know this as a kid going to public school in Topeka Kansas in the 70’s when I first started reading comics. If anything, I think the two characters reminded me of the way kids picked on each other, obsessed with each other’s inadequacies.

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ISEA/Zero One Festival

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maybe i all comes down to language. but, i wouldn’t call street art pop. i prefer the term urban folk art. pop, for me, is cynical, capitalistic, ironic, and bourgeoise. very self-conscious, self-congratualory work. look-at-me stuff. totally makes sense in the ’60s. but, that was 40 years ago. does any one today call themselves an impressionist? i get called pop because i address issues concerning subcultures and everyday people, plus draw in an illustrative manner. but, it is the wrong label. dated. i’m not into village gossip—i don’t read any newspapers, listen to the radio (except KALX), or watch television. pop for me is hip-hop. not punk. punk is diy. look at vibe and then look at punk planet. there’s no bling in punk. and i get the term “urban folk art” from billy zoom, the guitarist of x. he stated that when john doe and xene started to play “folk” music (in the vain of woody gutherie), he didn’t get it. because to him, the ramones were folk music. and basically, x was a folk band.
p.s. i don’t mean to insinuate that anyone who defines themselves as a pop artist is shallow or corporate. (’cause nicole rocks!) i think we are all on the same page, but have different associations with the legacy and definition of pop. but, i must admit i want to divorce myself from that old boys club. irony’s dead…dillinger escape plan.

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WOW! it’s all on Richard Kamler’s cool web site… i guess he updated it. Geez the NET is a wonderful thing… if you want to listen to my interview/conversation try clicking on my link to his site… well to my radio show with him and a link to his home page. It is a half hour interview on KUSF “Art Talk” in which we discuss graffiti politics… taped last october.

Jocelyn Superstar on Art Talk with Richard Kamler on KUSF 10/2006

“>Richard Kamler, Cool Bay Area Artist

gee, hope that link worked! never tried copying a mp3 before. Ps. there’s lots of great past interviews he’s got on his site. he’s gonna keep me busy. A really neat and fun artist to work with! My best art all year by far… dynamic collaboration… no editing.

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“Contemplating” Detail of Charcoal Study w/Cartoon Isis Rodriguez 2007

“It requires the work of each and everyone, to unearth this desire to belong to the self in community as part of a radical project- not to be confused with the self-preoccupation on which individualism thrives. Self-determination is both an individual and collective project.”

M. Jacqui Alexander
From her essay: Remembering This Bridge, Remembering Ourselves: Yearning, Memory and Desire

Dear Artists of NIM,

The posting of my first attempt to define Anti Pop has hurt and offended some of you. This was not my intent. My intent was to provoke discussion so that me/we were able to define Anti Pop more clearly. Thanks for your comments and I hope that more artists will respond.

I realized that Anti Pop cannot be a “movement”…. yet? It’s an assumption that puts the cart before the horse. But it’s a dream….Fortunately, I will continue to call myself Anti Pop.

I picked on Pop Artists in order to distinguish myself from them. So far, I’ve decided on two reasons for not being a Pop Artist:

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Hey Isis, now we’ll see how separate our thinking really is under the gun. I am soooo… greatly saddened by the sudden death of Anna Nicole Smith. How do you feel about it? See my myspace blog…

Anna Nicole R.I.P. Blog

I have no idea how you feel about her. would you like to collaborate on 2 (it works when we do two, passing back and forth) Anna Nicole Tribute Pieces…Life size with glam guess jeans for the 80’s image and some super sexy dress for the 2000 piece!! (or better yet a sexy pregnancy shot)… i was thinking one from a guess ad mid eighties and one from anna recently… a flattering pic, no super fatty shots but no super skinny. i hated when she was skinny. i hope yer into this idea! my weekends are packed and sharon is usually wed and fri afternoon/early evening. starting march, i’m starting art therapy as a patient thurs afternoons. so it looks like my collaboration days could be mon or tueday if you wanna go for afternoon or early evenings. R.I.P. ANNA NICOLE, my teenage idol.

God, i hope those pics worked. i used photobucket this time…. an experiment. Hope yer into the Anna Nicole Art. Sounds fabulous to me!

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MAIZ
Cybertotemic instrument
Guillermo Galindo (2004-2005)

MAIZ is a cinetic sonic structure made from hybrid recycled industrial materials and found objects, controlled by computerized means. A syncretic cyber sonic talisman, MAIZ is a hyper-folkloric object of reconnection.

Aesthetically, MAIZ, weds contradictory Western and Mesoamerican concepts such as myth and science, faith and reason, technology and animism. Conceptually, MAIZ explores the meaning of sound in relation to the generating source.

An alternative approach to qualitative listening or “Reduced Listening”, proposed by French concrete music composer Pierre Schaffer which suggests to mentally remove the sound from the originating source, stripping it from any meaning associated with it, the idea behind MAIZ focuses solely on the sound and its relationship with the sound object.

In search for post-colonial and post-global hybrid art, MAIZ explores Pre-Colombian ideas present in language, art and religion. In Nahuatl (the language spoken by the Aztecs) the meaning of a word could not be separated from a constellation of concepts associated with it. In Mesoamerican languages, both semantically and phonologically the word was linked to a universe of concepts inseparable from the object described. In the case of names used for musical instruments, there was an inseparable connection between the phonetics of the word and the sound the instrument made. Further more, for the inhabitants of pre-Colombian Mesoamerica, a “sound object”, was more of an entity in itself than an actual producer of musical sounds. The object itself contained the essence of the material it was built with.

While most electronic analog or digital instruments and sonic objects generate sound through speakers, MAIZ is a computer controlled sonic object that produces physical and mechanical sounds.

Every element used in the construction of MAIZ has a personal meaning to me. The process of construction became as important as the realization of the concept. MAIZ grew inside out from found recycled objects. Its construction resembled artist Joseph Beuys“ enlarged conception of art” which includes “every human action” in the process.

A heavy metal disk became the center an starting point of the construction.
The rotating metal disk lies over a powerful servo motor. The disk was remodeled to fit the shaft since both parts belong to completely different machinery. The disk lies over a set of bearings thus taking direct weight away from the shaft. MAIZ is built over a box of wine, metal parts from a mechanical street cleaner (which became the tongues of a kalimba), a cigar box, and my wife’s credit card which plays three strings (tied to a guitar neck). MAIZ’ can be alternately triggered by light sensors, motion sensors, controllers or even the human voice.
The enlargeable sprockets and aluminum removable arms around the plate rotate and strike optional series of metallic tongues at different speeds. One of the arms excites a potentiometer which sends data back to the computer. Each part of the instrument can be amplified independently. MAIZ can be used as an interactive independent instrument or as a live performance device.

The piece Post-Colonial Discontinuum written for MAIZ and chamber ensemble commissioned by Earplay Ensemble was premiered in San Francisco Herbst Theater on May 2006.

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I just posted these on myspace in my blog, but i thought the artists of NIM would like to see also. I’m really excited.

“AMERICAN SLOT SERIES: Lucky Horse Shoe and Four Leaf Clover”, Acrylic Enamel, Acrylic Ink, Acrylic Gouache, Glass and Plastic Rhinestones, Glass Beads, Nail Polish, Rhinestone/Tacky Glue, and Fake Fur on Recycled Wood. 16″ x 23″. 2007.

“AMERICAN SLOT SERIES: Dollar Sign with Stars”, Acrylic Enamel, Acrylic Ink, Acrylic Gouache, Glass and Plastic Rhinestones, Glass Beads, Nail Polish, Rhinestone/Tacky Glue, and Fake Fur on Recycled Wood. 16″ x 23″. 2007.

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I’ve been biting my tongue for the last few days in regards to the recent posts here at NIM but no more. I am an activist but I cannot in good moral and creative faith be a part of the Anti-Pop Art movement. Nor do I think my artwork lives up to the standards of the movement.

Philosophically and stylistically I consider myself a pop artist as well as many other labels. Like the Anit-Pop Art mural at the Juvenile Justice Center, my pop art confronts oppression. Visually, much of it is derived from cartoons and comic books, two mediums of art that have often been accused of being “art for meaningless consumption”. If my artwork as contributed to our society as a whole being “thoughtless machines” then I truly apologize

I personally believe it is dangerous to assert that art has a moral obligation to address social and political  issues. I consider myself a political artist (as well as a pop artist) but I don’t understand how I can use “my own lived experiences as my own authority of my own artmaking” with those expectations placed upon me. I relish expressing my beliefs and being politically active with my artwork but when I am expected or demanded to create work with that content it offends me.

I invite anyone from the Anti-Pop Art movement to take a walking tour of the Mission District. You will see guerilla art pasted and painted on walls throughout the neighborhood that is political and created for popular consumption. Many of these pieces of subversive political pop art are very obviously visually influenced by Warhol and Litchenstein. Their “corny reproductions” have inspired a new generation of young activists and artists to use familiar images in new contexts. This is how I often make my art and that’s, as they say on the streets, how I get down.

Peace,

Rio

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