[Moshe]

KIM GORDON'S HIGHWAY TO YR. SKULL

Posted on: 2nd November 2007 | Posted by: John-Paul Pryor

 

 

 

 

As one quarter of the legendary avant garde rockers Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon has been spitting fire at the mainstream for nearly thirty years, producing genre-defining albums like Goo, Dirty and Daydream Nation. Less well known, however, is her prolific output as an artist. Her creative life began a decade before Sonic Youth even formed, when she studied art at UCLA in the 1970s. Over the years that followed, whether on the road, in the studio or at home with her husband Thurston Moore, she has continued to create and exhibit her singularly powerful work. We met her to talk about her latest collection of watercolours, a series of abstract portraits as seen from the stage that were recently exhibited at the Zoo Art Fair.
Dazed Digital: Are these portraits meditations on identity?
Kim Gordon: I guess so… I was just trying to paint something really ghostly and in some cases taking that out as far as I could, into abstraction. In a sense I was trying to place the audience on stage and turn the light on them.
DD: Do you think people in crowds lose their identity?
KG: Well, there’s a certain coming together in that moment, like you are all basically agreeing on one thing and that’s why you’re all there, but it is sort of momentary, as soon as you leave you’re all off to something else,. But I guess all those people project their own experiences on to a song, so in that sense, they retain their individuality.
DD: It's such a unique phenomena, that relationship with the audience.
KG: Yeah, I mean when somebody comes up to me and asks me for an autograph or something, I feel like it's really hard for me to feel like… maybe I’m supposed to feel? I don’t know, it feels like the person has more power than me. If I go up to someone and ask for an autograph I kind of feel more in control. It’s kind of like the person asking has more power.
DD: That must be quite uncomfortable…
KG: It is, because you can’t feel what they might think of you. I mean I’m not as excited about myself as they might appear to be.
DD: Is there something you get from the relative isolation of painting that you can’t get through music?
KG: Well, you do it by yourself, but if things are going well you still get really excited, there’s just nobody around to share it with and that’s kind of an odd feeling.
DD: Would you ever exhibit anonymously?
KG: That’s an interesting idea. It is kind of a hurdle to get over always being known more for one thing. Originally I always wanted to keep the two worlds separate but then I realised that I had a lot of material, I mean not about myself, but more from the point of view of the stuff I’m interested in, stuff that has to do with being in and around the music world and the audience/performer relationship. It’s kind of the same stuff I was writing about in the eighties. I mean that’s how I got into music. I was writing about male bonding and I wanted to be more than a voyeur because I felt like asshole writing about it from the outside.
DD: What was it about the male psyche that interested you at the time?
KG: That was kind of the only way that men could really come together, aside from in sports where they pat each other on the butt, The only way they could really show their female side was by being on stage. Now, of course, there is the odious emo thing that is taking it way too far! But, you know, before that there was Mick Jagger.
DD: Is there any more freedom today from ‘male white corporate oppression’?
KG: I don’t think things have really changed, I mean if you look at most mainstream female performers then women’s image in the mainstream has probably never been at a lower point. The only thing that is exciting out there is that there are a lot of women who are playing experimental noise music right now, a genre that is mostly known as a male-dominated record-collector genre. But in the workplace alpha males are being overtaken by alpha females.
DD: Maybe in a few decades we won’t even think in terms of male and female…
KG: I don’t know, I mean in music it’s still all about artificial brats, the Spice Girls are back! We haven’t gone that far…

[alyasa]

Enlightening piece... Thanks very much, Moshe...

[king_buzzo]

Thanks!

[nicfit]

Originally Posted by Choir of Boarders

Thanks!

yeah!

[Georgekrz]

The last picture I like the best. The bad part about meeting "famous" people is you sort of already know them, but they have no idea who you are. Which makes it a weird situation.

[val-holla-ing]

very interesting read. thanks, moshe!

[atari 2600]

Originally Posted by Moshe

KIM GORDON'S HIGHWAY TO YR. SKULL

Posted on: 2nd November 2007 | Posted by: John-Paul Pryor





As one quarter of the legendary avant garde rockers Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon has been spitting fire at the mainstream for nearly thirty years, producing genre-defining albums like Goo, Dirty and Daydream Nation. Less well known, however, is her prolific output as an artist. Her creative life began a decade before Sonic Youth even formed, when she studied art at UCLA in the 1970s. Over the years that followed, whether on the road, in the studio or at home with her husband Thurston Moore, she has continued to create and exhibit her singularly powerful work. We met her to talk about her latest collection of watercolours, a series of abstract portraits as seen from the stage that were recently exhibited at the Zoo Art Fair.
Dazed Digital: Are these portraits meditations on identity?
Kim Gordon: I guess so… I was just trying to paint something really ghostly and in some cases taking that out as far as I could, into abstraction. In a sense I was trying to place the audience on stage and turn the light on them.
DD: Do you think people in crowds lose their identity?
KG: Well, there’s a certain coming together in that moment, like you are all basically agreeing on one thing and that’s why you’re all there, but it is sort of momentary, as soon as you leave you’re all off to something else,. But I guess all those people project their own experiences on to a song, so in that sense, they retain their individuality.
DD: It's such a unique phenomena, that relationship with the audience.
KG: Yeah, I mean when somebody comes up to me and asks me for an autograph or something, I feel like it's really hard for me to feel like… maybe I’m supposed to feel? I don’t know, it feels like the person has more power than me. If I go up to someone and ask for an autograph I kind of feel more in control. It’s kind of like the person asking has more power.
DD: That must be quite uncomfortable…
KG: It is, because you can’t feel what they might think of you. I mean I’m not as excited about myself as they might appear to be.
DD: Is there something you get from the relative isolation of painting that you can’t get through music?
KG: Well, you do it by yourself, but if things are going well you still get really excited, there’s just nobody around to share it with and that’s kind of an odd feeling.
DD: Would you ever exhibit anonymously?
KG: That’s an interesting idea. It is kind of a hurdle to get over always being known more for one thing. Originally I always wanted to keep the two worlds separate but then I realised that I had a lot of material, I mean not about myself, but more from the point of view of the stuff I’m interested in, stuff that has to do with being in and around the music world and the audience/performer relationship. It’s kind of the same stuff I was writing about in the eighties. I mean that’s how I got into music. I was writing about male bonding and I wanted to be more than a voyeur because I felt like asshole writing about it from the outside.
DD: What was it about the male psyche that interested you at the time?
KG: That was kind of the only way that men could really come together, aside from in sports where they pat each other on the butt, The only way they could really show their female side was by being on stage. Now, of course, there is the odious emo thing that is taking it way too far! But, you know, before that there was Mick Jagger.
DD: Is there any more freedom today from ‘male white corporate oppression’?
KG: I don’t think things have really changed, I mean if you look at most mainstream female performers then women’s image in the mainstream has probably never been at a lower point. The only thing that is exciting out there is that there are a lot of women who are playing experimental noise music right now, a genre that is mostly known as a male-dominated record-collector genre. But in the workplace alpha males are being overtaken by alpha females.
DD: Maybe in a few decades we won’t even think in terms of male and female…
KG: I don’t know, I mean in music it’s still all about artificial brats, the Spice Girls are back! We haven’t gone that far…

 

[atari 2600]

 

 

 

 

[RanaldoNecro]

I really like the Flipped Out bride art.

[avantgarde1]

lol, "...odious emo thing...". preach it sister.

[atari 2600]

 

 

[pecking order]

Kim is honest as always with her opinion.

Thanks Moshe.

[avantgarde1]

Originally Posted by atari 2600

 

 

not that i really pay attention...... but i've never seen kim's boob so big. i felt the need to comment.

[greenlight]

thanks.

[jon boy]

and lo the man came into the arena with all the knowledge at his hands and his name was...moshe!

thanks a lot.

[Moshe]

KIM PORTRAITS #17-37 IN BARCELONA
'Looking out into the audience light comes from the projector at the back of the hall. It makes the back of peoples' heads look illuminated, like saints. The projector changes and some of the faces disappear into the dark. The ones further back I can't see at all. Towards the front of the hall half cheeks appear dappled with swirling colors from the light show. I'm trying not to look directly at anyone in the front so the spell of concentration won't be broken. Instead they appear as a collective mood. Suddenly something whirrs by my head and smashes onto the stage. It's a cassette. I�m spinning around in a circle trying not to get dizzy but liking the dizziness of the blurry images. It looks like a flicker camera in 360 degrees. I wish I had a camera to record what it looks like.' Kim has an exhibition of portraits at the Iguapop Gallery in Barcelona Nov. 29- Jan 12.

[lalie]

Nice! That's a good opportunity for europeans to see one of her exhibition!
I was waiting for it. I guess there will be more info on Iguapop website on the 29th when it starts.

[█████████]

kim gordon's exhibition at iguapop is divided in two parts. the first one with portraits from key figures of the “noise” scene and a second one with absctract paintings, named by kim “noise paintings”, inspired in the work of the 70's french artist and performer malval.

 

 

http://www.iguapop.net/artists/gordon/gordon.pdf

http://www.arte10.com/noticias/propuesta-384.html

[atari 2600]

 

[█████████]

Originally Posted by █████████

kim gordon's exhibition at iguapop is divided in two parts. the first one with portraits from key figures of the “noise” scene and a second one with absctract paintings, named by kim “noise paintings”, inspired in the work of the 70's french artist and performer malval.

 

 

http://www.iguapop.net/artists/gordon/gordon.pdf

http://www.arte10.com/noticias/propuesta-384.html

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1332210362