‘Confrontational, transgressive, provocative, and poetic, Tessa Hughes-Freeland approaches filmmaking from a multiplicity of styles. Her work includes underground films, classic narrative, expanded cinematic performances, experimental “automatic” films assembled entirely from found footage, and delicate fans made from film of all gauges.

‘In live-action films, as well as collaged films from found footage, Hughes-Freeland taps into the sophisticated emotional filters we erect to deal with uncomfortable feelings. Images crash into one another in disorienting ways. Drawing upon the mind-altering potential of spontaneous transformation and the power of myth, her films are essentially “psychedelic”—conjuring ineffable experiences beyond the commonplace.

‘“My films are ritualistic and atavistic—inspired by dreams, visions, and imagination. Sometimes the nucleus of an idea for a film starts with an object. The original idea for Hireath came from the top of the Christmas cake, which my mother made every year,” the artist says.

‘Tessa Hughes-Freeland is a crucial downtown denizen by way of England, a scintillating vestige from the heady days of Danceteria and Club 57, and still one of the best we’ve got. Landing in the city in 1980 and beginning her film work with a super-8 camera gifted from David Wojnarowicz, her work spans four decades, tracing a unique arc that rubs elbows with many of the canonical figures and movements of NYC underground film culture. No Wave Cinema turns to Cinema of Transgression; expanded cinema bleeds into ‘multimedia’; the East Village descends and the underground breaks—Hughes-Freeland was there, camera in hand. Shifting in style and sensibility, ranging from 8mm scuzz to experimental documentary to elegiac film-portrait, her work in aggregate is difficult to summarize, better seen than described. Certain themes run through—sexuality, voyeurism, ritual, dream, and decay.

‘“Found footage is the basis of much of my films. Similarly, a found object can inspire an entire film. I see these as signifiers or emotional triggers that become a part of my own symbolic language. The fans consist of found film in all gauges—home movies; Hollywood studio films; pornographic films; or random footage found in thrift stores, yard sales, or just lying on the street,” Hughes-Freeland explains.

‘Tessa Hughes-Freeland’s films have been screened internationally in museums, galleries, and seedy bars, including MoMA, MOCA, Whitney Museum of American Art, New Museum, and KW Institute for Contemporary Art. Currently, five of her films are featured in an exhibition touring museums throughout Asia, including Seoul, South Korea. She has been a juror for numerous festivals and programmed extensively, most recently for the Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978-1983 exhibition at MoMA, and for Punk Lust: Raw Provocation 1971-85 at the Museum of Sex. Hughes-Freeland was president of the board of directors of the New York-based Film–Makers‘ Cooperative for several years.’ — Howl!

 

___
Stills

 

___
Further

Tessa Hughes-Freeland Site
TH-F @ instagram
TH-F @ Panel of Experts
TH-F @ The Film-makers Cooperative
Tessa Hughes-Freeland: Passed and Present
Watch Online: Cinema of Transgression
TH-F @ Letterboxd
Scrapbook: Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Raha Raissnia
Podcast: The Film Cult Podcast w/ TH-F
Trigger Warning: Films of Tessa Hughes-Freeland
TH-F @ MUBI
TH-F @ PARISLA
TESSA HUGHES-FREELAND: Selected Video And Film Works, 1981-2013

 

____
Extras

Tessa Hughes-Freeland: Selected Video & Film Works 1981-2013

Ela Troyano & Tessa Hughes-Freeland ‘Godard/Contempt’

Mekas tributes: Charlemagne Palestine, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Ken Jacobs

 

_____
Interview

 

Danielle de Picciotto: Tessa, what is it you want to express in your films? Is it a general theme or always a different one?

Tessa Hughes Freeland: I believe that everybody sees and perceives the world differently, so there are all these different realities existing simultaneously, including those below the level of consciousness or outside of it. People are sensitive to all kinds of sensory information to a greater or lesser degree. There is so much going on simultaneously and it spreads across time, so many people have developed sophisticated emotional filters to deal with any sentiments that may be uncomfortable. I’m interested in penetrating those filters and getting beyond them and exploring areas of discomfort. I an also interested in channeling a stream of lateral unconscious thought. I sometimes plan and sometimes I work spontaneously. Even the plans give way to spontaneity and that’s usually the best because it acquires a magical life of it’s own and then it’s the most exciting and inspiring to work with.

In terms of themes I like to explore emotional states such as Hell-bent self destruction, frenzied disorientation, crushing beauty, gentle contemplation, scorching desire, explosive joy, lighthearted fancy, deep sorrow, transporting or uncontrollable love and intense passion. Otherwise they are mysterious dreamlike adventures. My films are really personal rituals.

What do you look for in films in general? What are your favorite ones?

I like films that are a little peculiar, to make me think, as well as films that are beautiful to look at or give me space to get lost in, or a mood to envelop me. I’m looking for a place to escape to. I’m looking for beauty and depth. I do like them to be slightly eerie or involve a mystical element. For that reason I love Andrei Tarkovsky, particularly “The Stalker”. I like fantasy action films, for instance the Hong Kong film “Green Snake”, I really appreciate the way that sound can be sculpted in the way that Michelangelo Antonioni does. He allows it to totally dominate or just disappear. Other than “Zabriskie Point”, “The Oberwald Mystery” is one of my favorites. I’m always delighted when I come across a film I know dubbed in a foreign language with subtitles in different one. The overload creates a confusion of meaning and I love that. It’s subtle psychedelic. I love the bleakness of humanity in Lars Von Trier films and that it is matched with emotional pathos, or the mysterious psychopathology of Dario Argento, which is so intense. Of course I love experimental and underground films, especially Harry Smith, Kenneth Anger and Storm de Hirsch. I also have an affection for old Hammer Horror films, which I grew up on. In general, I like black and white films, especially those by Jean Cocteau. This is a really hard question to answer because I like so many films.

You have been directing and producing films for over 30 years . Has anything changed for you over the time in what you are trying to convey?

Yes, definitely, many things have definitely changed. I have always made live action films as well as collage films, which include found footag as I used to think that I could find most of the images I needed. That the images existed already as signifiers and emotional triggers, which I could assemble to create combinations that would work for me as a symbolic language. With respect to the collage films, I wasn’t so attached to creating my own images. I like it when images can crash into one and other in an incomprehensible way yet are recognizable. To me spontaneous transformation is essentially psychedelic. Of course, where the live action films are concerned the imagery was a product of my imagination combined with the dictates of the immediate environment and circumstance during the shoot. There is only so much one can control and less that I actually wanted to. As time has progressed, I have gravitated towards shooting outside more and adhere to the dictates of nature. One cannot argue with that. I have found myself becoming more interested in landscape and along with that, I have become more attached to creating my own visual language. It’s mostly informed by ancient mythology and mystical occurrences, yet incorporates more elements of the intellect. Even though my films are figurative, I’m usually thinking about abstract concepts within a romantic framework. I really see them as visual poems.

Tessa, what are you working on at the moment?

I’m working on a new film about memory and loss. It focuses on varying stages of femininity, our collective unconscious and the mythology of female archetypes as seers. It also draws on pagan roots. Marrying ancient mythology with the irony of nostalgia. I am also working with film material directly. Making hand made slides from plants and animals and hand made film, which I may possibly integrate into the film one way or another. If not then they may end up as different film, which will be more abstract.

What are your plans for the future?

I‘ll just keep working and see where that takes me. I’ll follow the ideas that come to me, some turn into something and others don’t. I’m going to have a show in an art space called Howl! in New York next year, which will be an installation implementing a variety of cinematic elements. I have also been invited to be in a museum show in Seoul, Korea this winter. So I will start thinking about that. I have more respect for the unplanned than the planned. I think that actually is the plan. Otherwise, I‘ll just keep flowing down the river to the sea.

 

__________
13 of Tessa Hughes-Freeland’s 26 films

__________
Baby Doll (1982)
‘Tessa Hughes-Freeland’s “Baby Doll” is a tiny slice of cinéma vérité from 1982 about the girls working the now defunct Baby Doll Lounge on Church and White St. in downtown Manhattan. It captures a moment before NYC got sanitized.’ — Letterboxd

Trailer

 

__________
Joker (1983)
‘“Joker” is a 1983 non-narrative experimental ode to masks, fire, and Bette Davis, which marks Hughes-Freeland’s move into incorporating classic Hollywood footage into her films.’ — screenslate

Watch an excerpt here

 

______________
Play Boy (1984)
‘An experimental film spliced together from the detritus of early 1980s Times Square’s porn and pawn shops, Tessa Hughes-Freeland’s ‘Play Boy’ (1984) feels gritty, sensorial, and hypnotic. A figurative and psychedelic experimentation with film language and voyeurism, the film offers a unique take on transgressive cinema. Born out of Hughes-Freeland’s lack of liquid cash for new celluloid at the time, ‘Play Boy‘ combines found footage Super 8 film footage from westerns, stag films, to boxing matches to create new meaning. Her film places visual clichés common to cinema in conflict – a shot of a judge in a white wig is double-exposed with a pornographic tribal sacrificing. A naked woman tied in restraints meets a shot of two nuns. Just as a sentence combines pre-existing words to create new meaning, Play Boy combines pre-existing images to create moral transgression. The recycled images are textured and worn, and in its peepshow-like looped format, looking feels both seedy and pleasurable.‘ — boilerroom.tv

Watch the entirety here

 

_____________
The Virginia Tripping Film (1985)
‘Filmic evidence of the infamous 1985 Richmond, Virginia exhibition that featured downtown artists Wojnarowicz, Marilyn Minter, Luis Frangella, and more painting naughty murals while on acid.’ — Letterboxd

Watch an excerpt here

 

______________
The Butthole Surfers Film (1986)
‘A document of a performance by the Butthole Surfers in the 1980s.’ — Letterboxd

Watch an excerpt here

 

_______________
w/ Tommy Turner Rat Trap (1986)
‘Tommy Turner and Hughes-Freeland’s Rat Trap is an equivocal but indelible depiction of drug taking.’ — MoMA

Watch an excerpt here

 

_____
Dirty (1993)
‘Inspired by and loosely based on the introduction to Blue Of Noon by Georges Bataiile, the title was taken from the name of the main character. It is a short prtrayal of one person’s descent into a state of degradation. In spite f her affluence, Dirty is rendered helpless in the hands of those she sought to patronize.The shifting points of view of this film allow the viewer to experience the protagonist as she is seen by herself, and how the world sees her.’ — collaged

Watch an excerpt here

 

________________
Nymphomania (1993)
‘NYMPHOMANIA deptics the archetypal personification of female sexuality via the motif if a beautiful, graceful, dancing Nymph. Against the nymph, Hughes-Freeland & Adams present a massively phallicised Pan who is aroused by the nymph’s neauty and watches her. The film is a parody of myths of an ‘ancient/pagan’ essential plentitude and is thus a blackly Comedic critique of attitudes toward the dialectic of male/female sexuality. It locates a sexual mythology specific to Western Culture and deconstructs it via a depiction of its inherent power relationships and by pursuing this trajectory to its logical conclusion.’ — Jack Sargeant

the entirety

 

____________
Instinct (2007)
‘Originally one side of a live multiple projection, INSTINCT mixes irrationally convergent imagery. An iconography of the intangible and intuitive, time lapses as elemental aspects of the female psyche. Psychedelic disorder and repetition, visual collage suggests a alternative syncretism.’ — Letterboxd

Watch an excerpt here

 

_______
Gift (2010)
‘A surrealistic narrative is created which collapses different realities into one, by means of both similarities and juxtapositions There is a certain irony in creating such a narrative which revels in the popular romanticism of a sleep state, as a means to open the door to an interior world of alternative realities and parallel universes.’ — TH-F

Watch an excerpt here

 

_______________
Hippie Home Movie (2013)
‘This film was made for an exhibition entitled “Ghosts of the Catskills”. The history of the Catskills had made an impression on me was that of the alchemy of landscape and the influence of Woodstock hippie culture.’ — TH-F

Watch the entirety here

 

_________
Kind (2013)
‘This film was made for an exhibition entitled “My Icon” Jumping off the springboard of the popular religious iconography of mother and child, as a mother I took my child as the subject. Not only is this logical visually, my child being a dominant subject in my life on a daily basis, but also for a gentle and contemplative state which is so innate. By witnessing the development of emotion one becomes connected to the essence of humanity. KIND is one of those moments.’ — TH-F

Watch the entirety here

 

_____________
Untitled (AFA50) (2021)
‘To celebrate Anthology Film Archives’ 50th Anniversary, we’ve been reaching out to filmmakers, artists, scholars, and others to bear witness to Anthology’s value – to the influence AFA has had on their own work, its significance within the history of avant-garde cinema and art, and its place in the sphere of contemporary culture in NYC and beyond. These testimonials have taken the form of short videos – some comprising newly produced short films in their own right – which we’re sharing on Vimeo and elsewhere.’ — ATA

Watch the entirety here

 

 

*

p.s. RIP Dan Graham, Leo Bersani. ** Ian, Hi, Ian. I’m good, thanks. And thanks in retrospect about ‘Pills’. Fantastic news about your book! Really look forward to it, and thanks for offering to share it. Do you need my coordinates? Here’s my email if you don’t have it: [email protected]. Great, big congrats!!! ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yes, I’m going to start reading the John Waters novel this week. So curious, and I’ll let you know. It comes out officially in early May. I have a very clear memory of your mom being an awesome ceramicist. That will look great chiseled on love’s tombstone. Love starting a virulent worldwide trend of all humans under the age of 30 wearing black stovepipe top hats even when they sleep or take a shower, G. ** David Ehrenstein, Ah, interesting, thank you for the ‘Diogenes’ fill-in. I think the last time I took an actual recreational drug was in 2002. Ecstasy plus a toot of coke. ** David, Yikes. I’ve never taken antidepressants or that kind of thing strangely. My fucked up-ness has always been a ship I could right with distractions. I’m from LA where we don’t have big storms, just earthquakes and fires and droughts. Ah, you sprung for ‘LCTG’, the early work. Thank you. ** Misanthrope, Oh, well, thank you, sir. You on drugs is a little bit of a scary thought, it’s true. I don’t really lose control when drunk or on drugs, except a couple of times via LSD,. My insides just get more complicated or, in the case of alcohol, sluggish. Good, about my religious outlook being okay. It’s all Greek to me. So … is your weekend fulfilling its promise so far? ** Bill, Cool. Right, I blurbed that Joel Lane book, I forgot. Any, uh, trouble? ** Maria, Isabella, Camila, Malaria, Gabriela, Howdy, pal. Shrooms, yum. Well, yes, they can lead one astray a la your circling. I’m glad you’re in one piece, or, wait, five! ** Steve Erickson, Oops! I hope the symptoms stay blah, and … how long are they asking people to quarantine for these days? Briefly-ish, I hope. ** _Black_Acrylic, That famous storm you went through seems to have made a beeline around Paris because we’ve been dead still. As in a previous week, I left CNN on last night after the only show I watch on there, and they announced Leeds’ loss to Manchester, and I thought of you. Sorry, man, but, yeah, stay hopeful. What else is there? ** Shane, I envy that high, that’s for sure. My highs are, or, were so prosaic, i.e. ‘Wow, dead leaves are so cool’, and shit like that. ** T, Happy Monday, T. Pathetic is only an interesting word when it exits the mouth of some lazy brained teenager. But I am easily charmed by such people. My weekend was ok. Did my zoom book club, hung out with friends, worked, saw a movie (‘Moonfall’), shit like that. Not as good a weekend as yours! You sorted the voice/guitar conundrum! That’s really exciting! Hooray! I’m obviously super into the future experience of hearing the consequent stuff. That is a nice sound. We didn’t get that here in the 8th, weird, or I was asleep or something. Dare I wish you a Monday that sounds like what I’m hearing, which is pretty much silence outside interfered with by a very low kind of ringing tone that has beset my ears ever since I attended a Melt Banana concert in the early 00s and which I’ve strangely come to appreciate? xo. ** Verity Pawloski, Me give up smoking?! Perish the thought! Thank you about the post, and even thank you for the Duran Duran input. ** Brian, Hey, Brian. Thanks, bud. Oh, right, of course, that is the moment in ‘Salo’ I was thinking of and, yeah, of course it was on purpose. Or at the very least a mistake Pasolini loved. Whew, glad you got your package with no accompanying humiliation. Ha ha, well, surely no surprise: I thought ‘Moonfall’ was totally ludicrous, and I totally loved it! Huge fun! I think a world where ‘Power of the Dog’ and ‘Belfast’ get nominated for Best Picture and ‘Moonfall’ tanks is a world that does not understand pleasure. There isn’t much to say about ‘Moonfall’, is there? The awful aspects were just twinkling aspects to me. I’m a disaster movie slut. There, I said it aloud. How did you use Presidents’ Day? I hope it was highly respectful to their memories. ** Corey Heiferman, Hi, Corey! Yeah, I’ve been thinking about you and wondering what was going on with you. Eek, get through the Covid post-haste. Dude, congrats on the upcoming new pad and hood. I’ll take the youtube tour as soon as I punch ‘publish’. Stuff good? What’s going on generally? ** Brandon, Hi, Brandon, welcome, and very nice to meet you! Yeah, that’s interesting: the comparison to 90s Mekas. There’s a Mekas retrospective coming up here in Paris ultra-soon, and, obviously, I’m excited for that. I’m really happy to have occasioned your hookup with ‘Homeo’. Experimental filmmaking is a massive interest and love of mine, and I cover it here on the blog as often I can. Suggestions … there’s a wealth, I think, and it’s hard to sort into a short list at the moment. I did this post here a few months ago where I put links to all the film-related posts I’ve made, and it’s all over the place, but you confined some pretty interesting work in there if you fish around. Here. And I’ll keep covering that turf. And if I think of anything that I think might be of particular relevance, I’ll try to remember to say so. Thanks again, and, yeah, please do come in here and hang out any time and as much as you want. ** Okay. I’m thinking that maybe most of you might not know the films of Tessa Hughes-Freeland. Her early work is associated with the Cinema of Transgression, and her later work is quite different. Interesting body of work if you’re interested in knowing about it. See you tomorrow.
.

_____________
Jeremy Shaw DMT, 2003
‘Jeremy Shaw’s new video installation, DMT, is an intense octagonal space that highlights the disjunctions of social communication. While watching the subjects high on the hallucinogenic drug, DMT, and reading their attempts to describe the out-of-body experience, we become both seduced and repelled by these hyper-real portraits.’

Watch an excerpt here

 

_______________
Nan Goldin Drugs on the Rug. New York City, USA, 2016
Digital print on Fuji Crystal Archive Matte paper

 

_______________
Matthew Brandt Astronomers on Boat, 2013
cocaine dust on photographer’s velvet

 

_______________
Etienne O’Leary Homeo, 1967
‘Despite an entire filmography of only three experimental short films, Étienne O’Leary’s work is a vibrant, majestic reflection of late 60s drug culture and avant-garde film techniques, including some pioneering editing tricks that still seem fresh and invigorating today. A 60s French dandy by way of Montreal, O’Leary became intoxicated by the sights and sounds of bohemia and formed an alliance with the Zanzibar Group (his films are populated by French underground luminaries like Pierre Clementi, Jean-Pierre Bouyxou, and Michel Auder). A student of the New York underground and surrealism, O’Leary uses a variety of notebook-style shooting, image layering, and fast cutting to capture the era’s heady decadence and political possibilities. Adding to the trippy visuals, O’Leary composed his own singular soundtracks with a myriad of found instruments and tape recorders, a new music genre in and of themselves.’

 

_______________
Duane Hanson Drug Addict, 1974
‘Hanson’s super lifelike sculpture portrays a male person sitting down and leaning against a wall. His right hand is holding a syringe and just above the left elbow his left arm is tied with a belt. His eyes are shut as he leans against the wall suggesting that he just injected himself with drugs.’

 

_______________
Carsten Höller Upside Down Mushroom Room, 2000
room with giant, rotating, upside down, imitation fly agaric mushrooms lit from underneath

 

________________
Pae White Bugz + Drugs, Command-B, 2017
Cotton, polyester, bugs, drugs, lurex

 

_______________
Judith Schaechter The Florist, 2015
Stained glass

 

_______________
Tim Shaw Ketamine, 2011
‘Ketamine recounts a festival scene in which two individuals dressed as elves dance wildly whilst on the powerful mind altering chemical.’

 

_______________
Bentley Meeker Bongolier, 2015
‘A chandelier made out hand-blown glass marijuana pipes entitled the “Bongolier.”‘

 

_______________
Nikita Shalennyi Where is your brother?, 2013
photograph

 

_______________
Joey Robinson Me me me me me, 2016
camera, ketamine, aftereffects

 

_______________
Fred Tomaselli 15 mg. of Meth Times 2000 Plus, 1998
aquatint photo etching

 

_______________
Su Hui-Yu Stilnox Stroller, 2011
‘In 2011, Su Hui-Yu, a Taiwanese artist based in Taipei, held an exhibition called Stilnox Stroller. The performance consisted on a party-like setting with music and people acting as if they were really at a party. During the performance, the artist would give the audience some pills (allegedly Stilnox) and talk about the principles of the drug. Then he would encourage them to talk about the side-effects of the pill. All this with the finality of showing the full experience of consuming this drug without a medical purpose. The name of the exhibition, which is a reference to sleepwalking, shows what it’s like to be “awake” and under the effects of a drug that is supposed to numb your brain and force you into sleep mode. This sleep deprivation causes feelings of numbness, which may lead to hallucinations. So, at the end of the day, the exhibition’s aim was to make people experience what it feels like to be in a group of sleepwalkers attending an art opening. So, here’s the video projected at the performance. While it is hard to untangle its meaning, in my opinion it portrays hallucinations and the use of prescribed drugs.’

 

_______________
Richard Prince Katz + Dogg, 2019
‘Artist Richard Prince has launched a new cannabis line called Katz + Dogg, produced in collaboration with 710 Labs. Prince is the first artist to have his own line of marijuana. The line includes flowers, pre-rolled joints, and vape pens, and will be available at high-end dispensaries around the US. 710 Labs’ Shire, Ice Cream Cake, and OG strains are available. Prince’s famous Hippie Drawings and High Times paintings feature on the packaging.’

 

_______________
Tom Sachs Bong Hit Station, 2013
‘Tom Sachs’s 2013 video Bong Hit Station provides potential newbies a detailed (and unnecessarily complex) guide to getting stoned.’

 

_______________
Beejoir A Pill a Day, 2011
Plaster, paint

 

______________
Zefrey Throwell Various, 2013
‘Throwell’s father was a lifelong drug addict who died of a meth overdose seven years ago. As part of the original incarnation of his project, Throwell used his father’s ashes and meth, the drug that killed him, to make eight portraits of his dad that spanned the entirety of his life. Sadly, the original portraits were destroyed during last fall’s Hurricane Sandy, along with almost all the art Throwell made in the previous two years. For his current show, Throwell’s mother offered her son her share of his father’s ashes which he combined with a new supply of meth.’

“Douglas Throwell #9, 7 Years Old”

“Douglas Throwell #10, 20 Years Old”

“Douglas Throwell #12, 32 Years Old”

“Douglas Throwell #13, 44 Years Old”

“Douglas Throwell #16, 59 Years Old”

 

______________
Steven Shearer David’s Hollow Body, 2020
Ink and acrylic on poly canvas

 

______________
InsaneTop10 Tripping Balls, 2019
‘Leeds Fest, defqon 1, mysteryland, Rate My Gurn, Creamfields, Parklife, Gurn, MDMA, leeds fest spotted, Gurn Face, Ugly Gurn, psychedsubstance, drugslab, cocaine, amphetamine, dmt, ayahuasca, tripping balls, rolling mdma, rave, techno, creamfields 2017, creamfields 2018, creamfields 2019, defqon 1 2018, defqon 1 2019’

 

______________
Simon Blackmore LSD Drive, 2006
‘Blackmore’s custom-built LSD Drive is able to interpret lost data on apparently useless CDs, and process it using a program written in the Open Source software, SuperCollider. Light Sensitive Disk Drive is a fully functioning prototype hardware/software product that explores ideas of technological progress, technological waste and its environmental impact. CDs in various states of degradation can be played on the drive to produce different sounds from the lost areas of data.’

 

______________
Julie Favreau Anomalies, 2012
‘For her 2012 installation, Anomalies, Julie Favreau took as inspiration a Soviet-era novella about science gone awry, but then utterly transformed it into a series of hallucinogenic scenarios with enigmatic objects, to “suggest parables about the judicious use of knowledge and technology, and about personal discipline and mindfulness”.’

 

______________
Arturo Ramirez Space Cocaine Nudes #R56, 2019
Painting – Oil On Velvet

 

______________
Chris Burden Coals to Newcastle, 1978
‘Calexico, California and Mexicali, Mexico are actually the same city separated by a tall steel and barbed wire fence demarcating the international border between the U.S.A. and Mexico. On the morning of December 17, standing on the American side of the border, I flew a small rubber band powered model airplane over the fence into Mexicali, Mexico. From each wing of the plane, like a miniature bomb, hung a cigarette of the finest seedless marijuana, ‘sinsemilla’ grown in California.The plane bore the following inscriptions: Hecho en U.S.A. (‘Made in U.S.A.’), Fumenlos Muchachos (‘Smoke it, kids’) and Topanga Typica (‘typical Topanga’).’

 

________________
Haroon Mirza ããã, 2016
‘Developed during a two-month residency in São Paulo, captured images and sounds from the city combine as four videos and eight channels of electric signal visualised through strips of LED light and heard via an array of speakers all in synchronization. The videos reflect on a heady mix of entheogens (plants that have psychedelic properties like the ones used in Ayahuasca) and developments in physics and cosmology, while the overall experience of the work collectively creates a mesmerizing visual and aural effect.’

 

________________
Sergio Garcia Various, 2014 – 2017
‘Garcia has created a large body of work examining the way weed is perceived in pop culture. At international street art festival POW! WOW! Hawaii, Garcia created a series of wall-mounted ashtrays replete with burning joints adhered to their insides. His latest is a model of Action Bronson’s tattooed forearms dabbing. Bronson’s arms join Garcia’s repertoire of celebrity replicas that also includes Future counting cash and pouring lean out of a Sprite bottle. Garcia is a self-taught artist who came into the contemporary art world from the street art scene and painting motorcycles. He mostly smokes socially, but admits, “it helps a lot with my creative process.” He went from smoking every day in high school to indulging in an edible at the occasional concert in a curve that seems to correlate with his success in the contemporary art scene. That growth is reflected in his plans for 4/20 this year. “I’m not sure yet,” he tells Creators. “I was planning on going to LA. But I may have to just stay in the studio.”‘

 

_______________
Ann Veronica Janssens Donut, 2003
‘The viewer is assaulted with a succession of vividly colored, concentric circles that flash up on a large screen and trigger weirdly long-lived retinal afterimages.’

 

_______________
Karpo Godina The Gratinated Brains of Pupilia Ferkeverk, 1970
‘The Gratinated Brains of Pupilia Ferkeverk features the Slovenian poets who constituted a collective called Pupilia Ferkeverk. The movie opens with a shot of a woman on a swing, shot at different times of day and night, and in different weather. When we think, after a minute or two, that we are going to see nothing else, other characters suddenly interject themselves, standing naked or nearly naked in the water, miming different stages of life and politics, using symbolism so abstract as to be meaningless were it not for the captions that are in Slovene and are not translated into English. The characters all conclude that the universal solution is to take LSD.’

 

_________________
Chantal Joffe My 11 year old son high on heroin at his birthday party, 2017
Painting

 

_________________
Ghislaine Leung Shrooms, 2016
‘Every visible unused socket within an exhibition to be filled with a mushroom nightlight and plug adapter.’

 

_______________
!Mediengruppe Bitnik Random Darknet Shopper, 2015
‘The “automated online shopping bot” was set up in October last year by Swiss art group, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, as an art installation to explore the “dark web”—the hidden, un-indexed part of the Internet. Each week, the robot was given $100 worth of Bitcoin— the major hard-to-trace cryptocurrency—and programmed to randomly purchase one item from Agora, an online marketplace on the dark web where shoppers can buy drugs and other illegal items. The items were automatically delivered to a Swiss art gallery called Kunst Halle St Gallen to form an exhibition.

‘The robot was christened “Random Darknet Shopper” and its purchases included a Hungarian passport, Ecstasy pills, fake Diesel jeans, a Sprite can with a hole cut out in order to stash cash, Nike trainers, a baseball cap with a hidden camera, cigarettes and the “Lord of the Rings” e-book collection.

‘Perhaps unsurprisingly, the robot and his artistic creators had a run in with the law. In January 2015, the Swiss police confiscated the robot and its illegal purchases. However, three months later, the Random Darknet Shopper was returned to the artists, along with all its purchases except the Ecstasy (also known as MDMA) tablets, which were destroyed by the Swiss authorities.’

 

_________________
Elke Andreas Boon Train, 2000
‘Point of view of a train passenger. Looking through the window of the train you can see the landscape. A teenaged boy dressed as a girl jumps away from the rails, runs towards the train and rants and raves with large gestures. You can’t hear him. As the train moves on the scolding boy-girl disappears out of sight.’

 

________________
Hugo Badger Nose Roomba, 2009
sculpture, motor, white powder

 

________________
Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe Bright White Underground, 2010
‘For “Bright White Underground,” Freeman and Lowe imagined the Buck House, Rudolf Schindler’s architectural landmark which is situated a few blocks from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as a sort of LSD safe house of the variety that the C.I.A. maintained when covertly testing the hallucinogenic substance in the 1950s. In Freeman and Lowe’s constructed narrative, Marasa, a drug modeled after LSD, was being developed by a certain Dr. Arthur Cook through the Vortice Institute, his psychoanalytic practice. Marasa, Haitian for the sacred twins of voodoo, alludes to the doubling effect of their novel hallucinogen: being high on the drug resulted in seeing your alter ego. Bright White Underground builds upon the artists’ dimensional narrative universe, which involves a wide variety of social and historical environments such as secret uptown societies, clandestine meth labs, and abandoned hippie communes, among others. The themes central to their work are specifically alchemy in a modern context and community, ritual and psychosis.’

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** David, We had a 10 minute storm the other night, but otherwise it’s still as Evian outside (but without the water). Glad you liked the Cornell. Hope your weekend is fortuitous. ** Maria, Isabella, Camila, Malaria, Gabriela, My pleasure! ** Verity Pawloski, Hi. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Understood about the Play Therapy skip, of course. Thank you for the track, which I will listen to with fondness. I love that ‘Naked City’ record. ** David Ehrenstein, I will celebrate your b’day a little late by seeing what ‘Oh Diogenes!’ is all about. Everyone, Mr. Ehrenstein points us at the film ‘East of Borneo’ which was an inspiration for Joseph Cornell’s great film ‘Rose Hobart’ as seen here yesterday. Check it. ** Misanthrope, Always happy to be a fount. Autocorrect just changed ‘fount’ to ‘font’, which I’m happy to be too. Being a lifelong atheist, Hell and God and all those types of things are just fuzzy metaphors to me. Right, Presidents’ Day. I wonder if there’s anyone in the USA who actually thinks about them on that day? I guess no. My weekend has potential. Yours? ** Dominik, Hi, pal!!! Mm, I just read handful of books that’ll show up in a ‘book I loved’ post very soon. I’m just about to start reading John Waters’ novel. And the new issue of a lit. magazine called ‘Logue’ that someone sent to me. I’ve never read Augusten Burroughs, I don’t know why. I know of the book, and, yeah, the title does portend darkness, so … huh. I’ll try to check it out. Right, I forgot your mom is a ceramicist, and a very good one if I remember your share of her work correctly. Ha ha, please thank your love for his serenade, and especially thank him that it sounded like Eiffel 65’s ‘Blue’ and not Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ since just hearing even a few seconds of her miserable songs and singing makes me want to tear my ears off. My love being chased through the streets by thousands of hysterical, fanatical, pitchfork wielding Joni Mitchell fans who read my blog today and blame my love for my Joni Mitchell besmirching until your love suddenly opens a street-level door and says ‘psst’ and then waves me inside to safety, G. ** Bill, Yes, thank you, Matthew Suss, wherever you may be. I might be remembering wrong, but I think Matthew Suss is the brother of Matmos’s Drew Daniel. Weekend away from the assigned work swamp, I hope, sir? ** JM, Hi, J! Mm, I definitely see the blog as a complicated and layered construction, but I don’t think about it in terms of my work or myself other than me being the obvious resource. Heck, I don’t even think about my fiction that way. I’m a pretty unselfconscious person, I guess. The blog is more a curatorial art project or something to me. My world? Waiting to be able to make the new film, starting to work on developing/ finishing the Haunt/videogame project, working on some fiction, trying to enjoy good old life. I know you’re headlong into some impending theater thing unless I misread your recent FB post. Oh, great, I’m so happy you like ‘Eat When You Feel Sad’! I love that book. I really wanted to publish it in my Little House on the Bowery series, but Melville House wanted it, and I couldn’t compete with that. Sorry you’re feeling in the doldrums, man. At least you have a couple of big publications on the immediate horizon. But, yeah, the stuck inbetween times are the ultimate worst. Great to see you! ** Steve Erickson, God fucking knows what Anger would have done with ‘Closer’, which was the excitement, although, yeah, I think there’s almost nothing in his post-‘Lucifer Rising’ work that isn’t truly awful. He seemed to just completely lose it after that. ** l@rst, Hey, L! Yep, yep, I’m there. Although I don’t know that bio. Although I’ll endeavour to change that. Did you have a heck of a weekend? ** Brian, Hey, Brian. Oh, that wasn’t the moment in ‘Salo’ I was thinking of. Interesting. I think I was thinking of that moment just before they gouge one boy’s eye out. I think I was misremembering his grimace as a grin. Fine line there sometimes. I haven’t seen ‘The Blues Brothers’ since it came out, but I was extremely not charmed by it. I’m more of a ‘Young Frankenstein’ kind of guy. Surely your neighbor isn’t nosey enough to have opened a package addressed to someone else or else is secretly into S&M if they did. I hope you’re in the clear. I’m finally going to see ‘Moonfall’ in a couple of hours, whoo hoo (maybe)! Steer clear of falling moons this weekend, man. ** Right. I made you one of my thematic things for the weekend, and there you go. See you on Monday.