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Lex Vaughn PB writes to a sweetheart in Huntsville. He swings his feet when he’s in love. 2006 |
GM: Your WEZY installation and performance incorporates several anachronistic cultural forms (such as copies of LIFE magazine, or your dandy-inspired wardrobe) and technologies (like vinyl LPs, ham radios or a hot plate) and you mention in your artist statement that nostalgia plays a key role in the viewer's experience of the project. Why do you think we respond so strongly to these older forms?
LV: While installing today, I was tacking up about 400 of these QSL cards (handmade postcards that confirm contact between radio operators) that make up Peanut’s station, and every single one of them is so beautiful! These cards are such a lost art form. I cannot think of anything like this that is made today, by hand, that gives out such personalized information. The operators sent these things by mail, religiously! And why? To make contact with people in other places that they had no idea even existed and could only dream about, or had to go to the library to look up in books. These cards symbolized the freedom of a world outside of their own. How liberating! I miss the mail system because of that sense of freedom. I don’t think it is necessarily “progress” to stop making things with your hands, or to forget how it feels to run to the mailbox. I think I was born an old man.
I think a lot of people feel this way: that things have moved too fast, especially in the last 10 to 15 years. People don’t care about aesthetics as much as they used to. And if they do, it’s often packaged as a “vintage item” and sold at ridiculous prices. I think that Peanut’s lair offers up a brief reprieve from the outside world that yammers on about consumption and speed.
GM: What are some of the challenges in working in long-form performance as an artist?
LV: I usually sit the gallery as Peanut for the entire length of the show and by the end of it, my back really hurts because Peanut is such a sloucher. It can also be exhausting to field other people’s energies. There are those who are really enthusiastic about the interactions, and then there’s the handful of jerks who are non-believers, and then my friends who want me “to talk normal for a second.” I think the biggest challenge at the AKA Gallery is going to be creating Peanut’s presence after I am gone, as I am only performing the character for two days before going home. I’ve made some audio and video elements that have never been tried before, so I’ll have to keep my fingers crossed that he can still inhabit the space and that it doesn’t turn into some Henry Darger exhibition.
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Lex Vaughn Shhh!!! I’m on the air! 2006 |
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