Lupercalia

In the spirit of the day that's in it and for your reading pleasure, below is one of my favourite interviews with Poision Ivy and Lux Interior of The Cramps detailing their first meeting and subsequent decades long romance. They spoke to Nicholas Barber for The Independent and the piece was published in May 1998

Image of Ivy: Kimigo

POISON IVY: We were both studying art at Sacramento State college in the early Seventies. It was a very strange art department in Sacramento at that time, too, because the whole student population was made up of hippies, and they were into witchcraft and metaphysics and everything else. We met up in a class called Art and Shamanism. The textbook for that class was called The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, and the subject of that book is how the real topic of the Bible is the Amanita muscaria mushroom and that Christ is a metaphor for this magic mushroom. The kind of instructors we'd have would say: "I haven't seen you in class for a while, what grade d'you want?" And we'd say, "Well, I guess an 'A' ", and they'd say, "Okay." So those were crazy times. It was just a very loose, very unique situation, and we met in that environment. We met in a very free way, and we fell in love very quickly.

I'd just started college, and one day I was hitchhiking back from the campus to my apartment, when Lux and a friend of his gave me a ride. I'd seen him around the campus, and I thought he was extremely exotic. He would have these pants and each leg of the pants was a different colour. That kind of thing fascinated me. Because it was the beginning of the new term, we had catalogues to see which classes we were going to take, so we were comparing to see if we'd be in any classes together. It turned out that we were, and that's where our real meeting began.

I was sitting in the Art and Shamanism class when I saw Lux walking in. It was a very large class, too, because everybody knew the teacher got high, and I was sending out psychic brainwaves of, like: "Sit by me! Sit by me! Sit by me!" And he did. He came straight to me and sat next to me. We were making small talk and I said, "It's my birthday", and he pulled a drawing out of his portfolio and gave it to me as a birthday gift right then. It was a female figure, but it was very abstract expressionist. It had a lot of physical energy that I can't describe in words.I don't know if it was past lives or what, but I felt like I'd known him all my life. It wasn't like we'd just met. We were just together constantly, and we were pretty much out of our minds constantly, to be honest. We didn't come to the surface for quite a long time.

In certain astrology, both regular astrology and Chinese astrology, there's some things that say that Lux and I, we shouldn't be together, and the reason is that the function of the astrology was to maintain social order. It had to do with arranged marriages and how a certain man would belong with a certain woman because it would fit in with the social order and they wouldn't cause trouble. And combinations that they said were bad, it didn't mean that they wouldn't get along or wouldn't enjoy each other's company; what it might mean is they'll start a revolution or that they'll cause trouble or that they'll set things on fire. I think we're definitely the kind of pair that they would have tried to keep apart, because together we cause a lot of upheaval. From our point of view, it's creation. We're creating things.

We're not married. I don't know what you'd call what we are. We're deeply in love and feel like we've been together for more than this lifetime, but we're not aware of any particular ritual that would consecrate it in a way that makes sense to us. We sure don't need to make it any kind of institutionalised situation. Nature upholds our bond.

There's not anything that we deny each other. I'll always hear somebody say, "Oh, I'd like to buy that but my wife would kill me", or vice versa, and I'm, like, "God, what is that?" We don't feel that either one of us has any right to say anything about the other's needs. We just have to trust that person and what that person is entitled to. Fortunately, we happen to like a lot of the same things, but even if we didn't, that shouldn't matter. We're both real free-thinkers. We're nice to each other. There's all those reasons why we're together, but I think it's also karmic. We're karmically entwined.

He's easy to love. He's someone I can get crazy with, I knew that about him right away. I thought: "Oh boy, what's gonna happen now? Something exciting!" It's still happening.

Image of Lux: Ray Stevenston

LUX INTERIOR: First time I saw her she was walking down the street, hitch- hiking, and she was wearing a halter top and short shorts with a big hole in the ass with red panties showing through. I was with this other guy, a friend of mine, and we both just went, "Who-o-o-oh!" We pulled over and I think I had a hard-on about three seconds after I saw her.

It was 1972, and we were at Sacramento State college, although saying it was a college is stretching it a bit. You'd get credit for going there and everything, but it was just a bunch of weirdoes. It was crazy. Half the teachers were just fucking the students and getting paid for it. It was really a great time, those days. Really a creative environment.

We had to register for our classes and we had this pamphlet in the car that told you what classes you could take, and one was called Art and Shamanism. I remember I said: "What is shamanism?" She explained it to me, and I thought, boy, that sounds pretty interesting, I think I'll take that. And then when I showed up for that class she was there.

I remember the first day of that class, the teacher had us all sit around in a circle on the floor and hold hands. It was some kind of weird exercise, some mumbo-jumbo crazy cult thing where there was supposed to be energy which would fly around clockwise, and then he made it go counter-clockwise. It was great, it really worked, but just holding hands with her I felt about a thousand times the energy that I was getting from him.

She's incredibly beautiful, that was the first thing I noticed. And then when I talked to her she was incredibly smart, too. We just had a bond. A week and a half, maybe two weeks later we started living together. We just couldn't hardly stand to be away from each other. People would even tell us: "That's not right, it's not healthy, you guys shouldn't be spending all your time together." And they tell us that to this day.

It was a while on before the group actually happened. All my life I'd been to see rock'n'roll bands, but I'd never quite been in one myself until I met her. I remember her saying, "Well, we should do that", and I'd say, "Well, yeah, I guess we could do that", and she'd go, "Of course we could do it!" I think we just talked each other into it. Sometimes you have friends and they'll talk you out of doing things. They'll say: "You? Oh yeah, sure." But the same thing can happen, you'll meet someone who'll talk you into doing things, too. If I hadn't met Ivy I might just still be going to rock'n'roll shows.

She's really courageous and she's really smart. At first, when we started out we just wanted to have fun and we didn't want to have anything to do with the business part of all this band stuff, but every time we've tried to have somebody manage us it's been some kind of a bad experience, so she's taken over managing the band and she really does it great. That's why the Cramps are still around after all this time, because she cares about it and she's capable of unbelievable acts.

This is our dreamchild or something, this is something that we make and we do together, and we're real protective of it. And we're also appreciative of the fact that we invented this thing called the Cramps, and from that has sprung a subculture of people all over the world, and we feel we're representative of them. We take that real seriously. We've thought about having children before, but we've always been so busy doing this, and this seems more important to us. We have three cats and we can't even stand to leave them to go on tour. So I don't know how we'd deal with a child.

We're different in a lot of ways. I tend to fly off the handle and go crazy and start screaming and she tends to be a bit wiser and calmer and more patient than I am - before she starts going wild, too. I think she's a lot classier than I am, but I think I've gained a lot of class from her. It's hard to figure out how we're different because we're together all the time and we always do everything together. In a way it's kind of one thing, me and her, but she's also very much an individual and very strong. She grows like a tree. She's faceted like a diamond. There's a million sides to Ivy and I just love all of them.

Commove: Interview with Emil Amos (of Holy Sons, Grails & Om)

To say i was delighted when Emil Amos agreed to speak with me would be an understatement. Amos is known to most as a member of both Grails and Om, some of the most influential underground bands in existence today and some of my favorite music. He is also the mastermind behind Holy Sons, a one man amalgamation of multi instrumentation, samples and hypnotic vocals.

Amos grew up in Chapel Hill, NC and went to college in Asheville, NC. Despite being an east coast kid, for the past decade he has been based in Portland, Oregon. If the truth be told, even thinking about Emil's work ethic makes me tired: Making music and touring in 3 different bands, music production, art and video art. In 2009 alone he released 6 records if you include a Grails DVD and a Jandek live show. He kindly agreed to take the time to answer some questions before he heads on another round of practicing, mixing and playing shows in the US, Canada and Europe.

I Sell The Dead - An Interview With Director Glenn McQuaid

I Sell the Dead tells the tale of 18th century partners in crime Arthur Blake (Dominic Monaghan) and Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden). After years of profitable grave robbing, events take a strange turn and justice finally catches up with the duo. As Arthur is imprisoned and waiting to be beheaded he’s visited by a Irish priest named Father Duffy (Ron Perlman). In exchange for a share in a bottle of whiskey Arthur tells the story of his life and explains how grave robbery isn't always straightforward. It's a quirky horror comedy that keeps pace through the 90 minutes with a nod to old hammer horror movies and i think it has the makings of a cult classic.

I Sell the Dead is the first full length feature film from director Glenn McQuaid. Glenn, who hails from Dublin, Ireland took the time to speak with me recently.



GOE: There’s a strong sense of enthusiasm and love for the horror genre from ‘I Sell the Dead’. What were your favourite films (horror and non horror) when you were growing up?

GMCQ: I've always been impressed with what British horror from the sixties and seventies. Terry Fisher and Freddie Francis being two directors in particular that struck a cord with me. Religion was always at the heart of a lot of those movies and I was quite religious as a kid. The Wicker Man had a profound effect on me because it spoke very elegantly about religion and sexuality. I probably saw that film too young but the themes really resonated with me. There was something about the pagan world that Edward Woodward entered, that to me was very unspoiled and innocent; you could argue that he was the intruder, the antagonist to that world. So I would say that The Wicker Man has long been a favorite and Young Frankenstein really threw me when I saw it and I still love it, what an amazing cast.


Why do you think horror is usually the genre picked when it comes to remakes these days?

Horror has become a giant cash cow for producers and most of them couldn't care less about originality. It's easier to get something familiar off the ground rather than trying to come up with something original which may not be tried and tested. When you look at people like Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper, and what they were up to in the 70s, it was shocking, it was vital to their times. And now, their work is getting the big buck Hollywood make over treatment and something is missing. The soul is gone, the original intent is missing; what's left is just some grotesque empty spectacle but it sells.


You worked as an extra on several film productions in Ireland when you were in your teens. How did this experience open your eye with regards to film making? Was there any experience in particular that ignited your interest in film making?

I was obsessed with cinema as a kid but was always quite nervous about speaking up about it, cinema was a million miles away from what I felt was my place in the universe. I literally ran away from home to be on the set of The Field, I got there towards the end of filming but spent about two weeks in Leenane. I got to meet some really great people, even watched a game of rugby with Richard Harris. One of the PAs or maybe one of the ADs was a prick, always hassling me, belittling me and one time the costume designer stood up for me and told him to fuck off, it was great!


Working as a visual effects artist before moving into directing. How do you think this has changed the way you direct?

I suppose it gives me an edge that I take for granted. I have a very graphic eye, composition and color are very important to me. On set I tried to collaborate with the actors as much as possible because that was new to me and I sort of relied on my eye for setting up comps. I story boarded and made a few animatics but I was very eager to roll with the punches and scrap what I had planned in favor of something looser.


‘I Sell the Dead’ is based on your 2005 short film 'The Resurrection Apprentice'. Had the story line or idea been around for long prior to production?


I first conceived the story about five years ago. I was doing a bit of research on cemeteries in Ireland and was reading a book by Sarah Wise called The Italian Boy. It was about the murder of a street urchin by body snatchers who sold his body to surgeons. I had a renewed interested in grave robbing stories and started watching films like The Body Snatcher and Flesh for the Fiends. Finally I read a book on Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. So I threw all that into the short film. Tonally it was quite different from I Sell The Dead. My goal was to make a somber little drama set in the world of The Wolf Man and The Mummy but nothing really happens. By the time I came around to writing I Sell The Dead, I wanted to let loose a little and have some fun with the genre. I though it was a good idea to immerse the grave robber into a full on horror situation.

As you were going through this research process, what was the most interesting bit of knowledge that you gained about grave robbing?

The lengths people would go to protect their dearly departed from being resurrected were pretty intense. Some graves were guarded until the body was surly spoiled. Wealthier corpses went down in mortsafes which were made from lead to protect from pilfering.


What music were you listening to at the time?

I'm always careful about what music I listen to while writing as it becomes such an influence on whatever it is I'm up to. At the time of writing the short I was listening to an album called Murder Ballads by Mick Harris and Martyn Bates. The mood of that really seeped into the short, very dark minimalist ambient folk tunes. Really beautiful. I even collaborated with Martyn Bates for the score, I've always been a fan of his band Eyeless in Gaza and his solo work. As we got into doing the feature I was listening to a lot of John Williams and Ennio Morricone, two of my favorite composers.


Story telling is something the Irish have done well for thousands of years, albeit aided with Guinness/whiskey and a tongue in cheek attitude :) There is a real balance of humour and dramatics in the way you immerse the viewer in the story. Who have been your favourite story tellers? (film/literature/art /graphic novels etc)

Some of my friends and family are my favorite story tellers. My mum, my mates from college, aunts, drinking buddies. I just take bits and pieces of what they are saying and put them in my stories. I love Alan Moore, there's a pub in I Sell The Dead called The Sinister Duck which is named after a band he was in with a few of the Bauhaus crew.

Hitchcock is probably my favorite cinematic story teller because his work is so calculated, so technical, yet it's all about the audience and feels effortless. Shirley Jackson, James Joyce and Brahm Stoker have crafted some of my favorite stories. Shirley Jackson has a two page story called The Witch about a little boy, his mother and an old gentleman and in those two pages she conveys everything I love about horror. How some people get it and others never will, it's really moving.


The film features some fantastic set design. I was amazed to learn that a huge portion of the movie was filmed on Staten Island in New York. Why did you end up filming there specifically? Did you face any challenges whilst shooting a period film there?

Not really, we had a great art team that got behind what we were trying to achieve. We were also very lucky to find some great locations that we managed to get for reasonable prices. Staten Island was very good to us, over half the movie was shot there, the vampire story, all the cell stuff with Ron and Dom and the cemetery scenes.

Just a taster of what the critics think of the film:

Dennis Harvey of Variety described it as"...droll performances, diverting f/x and handsome B-pic atmospherics ensure a good time for horror fans with a memory past last weekend’s slasher remake."

“Smart, gruesome and inventive enough to more than please niche genre fans who are likely to spread the word to fellow admirers of gallows humor." Jason Coffman - FILM MONTHLY

"A cult hit in the making."R. Emmet Sweeney - IFC

How do you feel about the overwhelmingly positive reception to the film so far?

The reception has been very warm and that's a huge bonus. To be honest, I don't read most of the reviews, if people like it then I am genuinely happy but if they hate it, then fair enough, you know? I love it, warts 'n all. It's my first stab at film making and I think there is much to be improved upon, but as I say, I stand by it and enjoy feeling the love. There have been some really badly written, bitingly critical responses to the film but those people can kiss my arse, I went to the trouble of making the film, you can at least use a spell check.



Larry Fessenden starred in and also produced the film. How did you end up collaborating with him?

Larry and I go back a long way at this stage and I love working with him, especially in the director/actor capacity. We really collaborated on the Willie Grimes character, he's close to both of us, we're like Willie's Dads! I met Larry at the wrap party for a movie he produced called The Office Season and we became friends. He's a hugely generous talent, a great person to have on set because he still has that wide-eyed child like fascination with all aspects of the industry.


Who would you like to collaborate/work with in future?

I'm eager to work with more Irish actors, I think there's a rich history of the arts in Ireland that is somewhat forgotten. Even on the soaps, like Fair City, where you know those actors are getting maybe one take if they are lucky! But the talent is there and the passion is there. I hope to collaborate with Fessenden again, I'd love to develop some more characters with him.


Can you tell readers about the 'I Sell the Dead' Comic /graphic novel collaboration with Brahm Revel?

Yes! Image Comics release it on Wednesday October 7th so you'll be able to pick it up in most comic shops. I just got a box of them and they are beautiful! Brahm did a great job. It's also available as an iphone app from a great crowd called Comixology.



Distribution plans? When will people in Ireland/worldwide be able to watch it?

Anchor Bay are releasing the R2 DVD and Bluray in November, it's a cool package with two commentaries and a couple of Making-ofs.

Future plans?

I am writing up a storm right now and I'm beginning to get excited and passionate about a few things. The next project has to be worthwhile, I will not spend two years working on something I'm not sure about. Hopefully there'll be something on the horizon for me in the new year, we'll see.

http://www.isellthedead.com/

http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/i-sell-the-dead

http://www.glennmcquaid.com/

Ex Tenebris Lux

© Aideen Barry 2009

Aideen Barry is a Visual Artist, working in the media of performance, film, musical composition, drawings and animation. She was awarded funding from the Arts Council of Ireland’s Projects: New Work Award towards the creation of a new work filmed in Zero Gravity whilst on a residency at Kennedy Space Centre, NASA. In September 2008 Barry was invited to partake in the collaboration project ‘Sound design for future films’ initiated by the artists Melissa Dubbin and Aaron S.Davidsson with four other participating artists Pierre Huyghe, Christine Rebet, Kate Gilmore & Klaus Schafler. In 2008 this showed at Moderna Museet, Sweden, and later traveled to The Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio.

Sean Kissane, Head of Exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art selected Barry to represent Ireland at FRA GIL in Barcelona, Spain in May 2008. Barry was the Irish Artist in Residence at the Banff Centre in Canada in 2007. She also undertook a residency for Convoy, in Seydisfjourder, in Iceland, which was funded by The Skaftfell Centre, Iceland and Culture Ireland. She curated Subversion and the Domestic: House Projects, which has been published into a book on the 7-curated projects in Ireland, New York and London. She co-curated a number of exhibitions including TULCA: City of Strangers (Galway) and ‘Terms & Conditions’ with another artist Pauline Cummins at the Mermaid Arts Centre (Bray, Ireland.)

Barry teaches part-time in Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, The Galway Film Centre and also has lectured in several art institutions in the west including NUIG Galway, Limerick School of Art and Design, Sligo Institute of Technology and The Burren College of Art on their MFA programme. Barry lives and works in Galway in the West of Ireland. She recently spoke with me about her work and her residency experience at the NASA Kennedy Space Centre.

© Aideen Barry 2009

GOE: Are there any artists in particular that have influenced you?

AB: Lots, and lots and lots....
I don't really know where to begin.

I cant say there is any one main artist. There are certainly a lot of writers and thinkers: Beckett, Foucault, Heirdegger, then sci fi writers like Arthur C. Clarke, Neal Stephenson and of course the gothic horror writers...especially our Irish ones, Sheridan La Fanu and Bram Stoker.

In film there have been so many, I don’t really know where to begin: Lynch, Cronenburg, and Kubrick have had a massive impact on me. Contemporary film makers such as Vivienne Dick, Lars Laumann, and Eija-Liisa Ahtila have been making such interesting works delving into the notion of the third space; both in the making of their film and video works but also how the work is sited between the cinema theatre and the Gallery while also addressing the in-between spaces of our minds, I find this extremely exciting and at this point this has had a major impact on the way I have made film and video works.


What was the 1st piece of art that provoked a strong response in you?

I am not sure exactly what the first one was...
I think, to be honest some of the most important pieces of art I saw as a child were some of the eastern European animations that RTE used to screen on the telly. RTE ( Radio Telefis Eireann) must have got them cheap at the time, and probably didn't realise what gems they were. I remember seeing some of Jan Lenica's films like Ubu and the Great Gidouille (clip) and being blown away.

Also RTE occasionally would show something out of the ordinary, like Calder's Circus (clip), and that had such an amazing impact on me as a child. Calder's ingenuity was mesmerising, and I remember trying to replicate his inventions with elastic bands and bits of wire; to try to make his circus creatures and characters, performing them to myself, building stages out of old shoe boxes...

I grew up in the 80's in Ireland in working class Cork city. We had nothing and in a way that was a blessing as I spent every single minute making something, comic books, paper dress dolls, catapults! You name it, and seeing that kind of stuff on the telly was just awesome to my little brain!

© Aideen Barry 2009

You mentioned in a statement that your current work deals with the notion of the “Uncanny”; and that this work has been informed by a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Most artists that I have known seem to have a slightly obsessive streak or drive about their work that seems to feed the creative process. What drives you to make art?

In 2006 I was diagnosed with a mild form of OCD. This manifests itself with nervous fits, panic attacks and compulsions; I stay up all night cleaning and cleaning and cleaning, organising and re-organising the studio. I don't get enough sleep and I cant stop working. I am not sure exactly why I am the way I am, but I feel quite normal in comparison to most of the neighbours in our housing estate in County Galway. Some times I look out the window on a Sunday and I see the neighbour from number 43 cleaning the inside of the hubcaps of her 08 Lexus hybrid 4x4 monster car and think "Bloody Hell, she is definitely more OCD than me!".

Its crazy what Celtic Tiger Ireland has done to this country. Everyone has been racing around striving for perfection in some way, trying to be better than the family next door, and somehow, there is a slippage, the mania is just beneath this bizarre veneer, and we may have lost something... perhaps our minds! At the moment its Holy Communion Season in our housing estate. For the past 4 days the road has turned into Inflatable land, with bouncy castles in every second garden. Each one trying to out do each other with the size and colour of their inflatable "Bouncy-Manor". We may be on the verge of bankruptcy as a country but by god we are going to have that bouncy castle for the little one on his or her "big day for god".

In a way I think not just every artist has a form of a disorder, I think we all do. Perhaps we are the ones that are saying, " You know, its ok, I'm an artist and I can be mad" in a kind of Van Gogh kinda way, but in reality, we are all a little unhinged.

I find this all rather fascinating....

For me this is the new Gothic. We always seemed to regard the ones with the long black hair, and painted pale faces as the ones to be feared, in terms of "The Goths", but in reality, the Irish Housewife is a far far scarier person, in a Bree Van de kamp ( Desperate Housewives/HBO) kinda way! I mean you only have to look around at the new Ireland with the thousands of cloned housing estates, and the 'stepfordzombiness' that has settled in to what were Irish Villages and market towns up and down the country and wonder, what kind of nightmare have we woken up to in our country?

This is what drives me to make art, I like to hold up a mirror to our reality and say "Is this what we are now? Is this where we should be? And what next horror is around the corner?"

© Aideen Barry 2009

Most inspiring place or space you’ve been?

My Housing Estate. NASA is a close second.


You were awarded funding from the Arts Council of Ireland for a New Work Award towards the creation of new work filmed in Zero Gravity. This was done whilst you were on a residency at the Kennedy Space Centre with NASA. That sounds like a dream come true for most people. Can you tell me about the experience?

Long story: I have always wanted to go into space!

Partly because my baby sitter as a child was my first cousin Breda O'Callaghan-Hay. She was attending UCC at the time studying experimental physics. After she got her doctorate, she went ofF to the states and joined the US Air Core, and started flying fighter jets. It has been her dream to get into the NASA Astronaut Programme. She has actually gotten shortlisted for NASA fifteen times or something like that. So her chances of being the first Irish person in space are extremely high! But I want to beat her.

I made a pitch to the Arts Council of Ireland to Help me Beat my Cousin in the Race for Space. Partially because the training to be an astronaut is an endurance performance in itself, partly I wanted to make some work in zero gravity and purely on a selfish reason, I really want to see space. So they funded me, and in December 2008 myself and my camera man Chris Hurley went off to Kennedy Space Centre to do a residency; and to experience zero gravity in parabolic flights, with other astronaut hopefuls. It was an amazing experience and I am still trying to process everything that happened out there.

© Aideen Barry 2009

What do you do when the going gets tough and creativity isn’t flowing?

I clean.
Seriously.

When viewing your work I get the feeling that it is at times humorous but mixed with hints of dark undertones; and you’ve created some truly beautiful imagery that can be slightly unsettling simultaneously. You mention that “Through playful manipulation of materials, objects and scenarios, a productive dialogue emerges between object and body. I use these notions as a tool in expressing human behaviour in the strange area between amusement, madness and discomfort; creating balance and tension. “. How did you become interested in using optical illusions, endurance performance and the challenges presented to us in our everyday reality in your work?

I think one of the things that enables me to make work, is that I am never at ease, I never feel I am at home and I am rarely comfortable where I am. This causes me to constantly question why that is, why do I not belong and how can I address these feelings.

Perhaps its because I am never really sure if what I am seeing is real or imagined, or that perhaps it is an untruth. There is definitely a humour involved in the work I make and I enjoy incorporating that into the work; but a larger element for me as a person is fear and insecurity. These are like the vowels to my words: my works. They shape where I am going to go next with each project.

In your question about how I began to work in endurance performance, I guess it was like a testing of my self in this reality. I was very much interested in how the body pushes itself beyond its limitations in a ritualistic performance. How after a while you don't feel pain and you don't notice time passing. Again this for me questions what is real and what is perceived to be possible. Though this is only a part of the larger body of my practice.

© Aideen Barry 2009

The optical illusions were also a test of this reality. In the film Levitating 2007 (above) I spent 7 days jumping and doing my domestic chores around the housing estate I lived in at the time. I set up the shot to take a photograph when I was exactly 6 inches of the ground. Then I turned these photographs into an animated film. If you can image that film works at a frame rate of 25 frames or photographs a second, well you can just imagine how many jumps I had to do to create an illusion of levitating above the ground. This was what I now call a Performative film,
made out of an endurance performance work on camera to create an effortless ( looking) illusion of hoovering.

The every day reality is definitely presented in this film, as it is my house, my local supermarket, my neighbourhood where the film was shot; to everyone who watches it, there is a familiarity to this uncanny scene.


Do you find art cathartic?

Em, yes and no.
Yes because I would go mad if I didn't create,
but then sometimes it's hard because you are constantly looking at yourself and questioning every single decision. I would say I have a love/hate relationship with art.

Oh classic, I am the tortured artist...how did that happen?

Can you give an example of how a piece comes to life; can you talk me through your process?

I am not sure exactly because its very different for each work.
I can tell you about these new objects I am making at the moment.
I am interested to see how the contemporary mania will manifest itself in the future. In particular I am interested to see how the Irish House wife will evolve in the future and how the "War on Germs' will manifest.

© Aideen Barry 2009

Having been to NASA and been informed by the materials that are used in creating objects to send into space; such as aluminum and alastics, I have started to create what I call "Weapons of Mass Consumption". These include Spray Grenades, where are cast aluminum grenades but with domestic spray cleaner handles on top (See www.aideenbarry.com for more images).

The objects are extremely seductive, funny and yet terrifying. I try to incorporate a humour and a familiarity into them. Like you can look at them and recognise certain aspects of their structure from your own Cif cleaning product in your kitchen or bathroom.....They are rather funny objects...I do like them!

How would your life change if art was no longer a focus, if you were no longer allowed to create art?

Well I just don't know. The obvious answer is that I just wouldn't be able to function anymore. I would be a vegetable.


What is your ultimate goal as an artist?

To make the best possible work that I can, and to enjoy doing so along the way. To be true to myself and my convictions.

For more information on Aideen's work: www.aideenbarry.com

Sparkle

Starfucker is an American indie electronica band that emerged from Portland, Oregon in 2007. Their self-titled debut came out in September 2008 via the Badman Recording Company. Drummer Keli Mitchell has also joined the line up of Josh Hodges, Ryan Biornstad and Shawn Glassford.


After hearing their music in January I was hooked on the fun and slightly tongue in cheek vibe. It's an upbeat and addictive mix of sparkling beats, hypnotic loops and samples that fuse together to create some damn catchy music. The new mini album 'Jupiter' consists of eight infectious songs pasted side by side. It also includes a magical cover of Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun'.

Jupiter Track list:
1 Medicine
2 Boy Toy
3 Dance Face 2000
4 Bed-Stuy (Super Cop)
5 Biggie Smalls
6 Girls Just Want to Have Fun
7 Jupiter
8 Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second (Strategy Remix)
9 Boy Toy (Fake Drugs Remix)*
10 Medicine (Copy Remix)*

*Only on the vinyl edition of the album

Shawn Glassford took some time out of a hectic tour schedule to answer questions via email recently:

Green Of Eye: You played SXSW 09 in late march. Can you tell me a bit about that experience?

Shawn Glassford: It was really fun! we saw 69 bands and stayed at a house with really nice people with an amazing dog named Paddington. I bought new shoes and got blisters walking around all day, then lost one somewhere in Austin. It was really overwhelming and tiring, we played a lot but it was worth it. The girls also had a wizard bong and a crystal wolf statue that talked in the night.


GOE: I guess you've been asked this loads but I’m curious as to where the name of the band came from? It's the sort of name that can conjures different images; and each person may have a different take on what it means.

SG: It’s not from the Nine Inch Nails song or the Rolling Stones song. To us it’s just a hilarious concept, sleeping with famous people to gain power or credit.

GOE: The Portland music scene is thriving at the moment and producing some great music. Some of you were in other bands prior to Starfucker, how did you all meet?

SG: We met applying for food stamps.

GOE: What inspired you to make music together and has your music evolved since you first began playing music together? What’s your song writing process as the group?

SG: It started off as a solo project. Now there are four of us and the live show has evolved with that. The sound is the same. Wizard bong - we burn sage and channel the wizard.

GOE: Starfucker are building a strong reputation when it comes to live shows and your music really seems to engage the audience.

SG: We like to have as much fun as possible, even if people don't like the music they can still dance and get down.

GOE: You seem to have a fairly busy/complex set up when playing live, is it a loop station that you use?

Shawn: A loop station, lots of keyboards, pedals, turntable, and the standard set up with drums and guitars.


GOE: Do you find having Keil on drums brings a different energy to the songs?

SG: Keil is a robot and forces us to drink energy drinks! It’s much more hyped and we get to play more instruments to fill it all out.

GOE: I really like the imagery and cover for the new album ‘Jupiter’. Who created it?

SG: Sohale Kevin Darouian of 333 empire. He's rad and our favorite artist in Portland. He did both of our album covers.

GOE: What do you think about downloading music online?

SG: It’s fantastic, we do it all the time.

GOE: Do you find you’re asked the same questions repeatedly in interviews? What would you really like to talk about?

SG: Yes, it would be awesome to talk about basketball, wizards, recess time and Longmont potion castle.

GOE: Who did you listen to when you were young ?

SG: The Muppets take Manhattan album, trashy hardcore, Prince, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna.

GOE: What do you do in your spare time?

SG: Basketball, skateboard, relax, Xbox 360, longmont potion castle, sleep and squat thrusts.

GOE: Who would you like to collaborate/work with musically?

SG: Three 6 Mafia, Recess Time, Guidance Counselor, Dykeritz, Lil Wayne.

GOE: Influences outside of music?

SG: Death, sex, technology

GOE: What does the next 12 months hold for Starfucker?

SG: Hopefully Europe, Japan and new songs.

The new mini album 'Jupiter' is due for release on May 5th. Currently touring with Guidance Counselor, Starfucker will be bringing the The Media Club, Vancouver on April 9th. For full details on the North American tour check out the following links.These guys deserve to be

http://www.myspace.com/starfuckerss
http://fourpawsmedia.com/starfucker/

Artwork: Sohale Kevin Darouian
Band Photo: Sarah Cass