~FAKE OUT . . . JEFF GOMPERTZ at KCDC
‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – WHERE ARE WE NOW: JEFF GOMPERTZ
JEFF GOMPERTZ – ONE OF HIS HIS ART WORKS – BESIDE HIM . . . WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN. NYC. AUGUST 12, 2011.
PHOTO BY NANCY SMITH
JEFF GOMPERTZ is the artist who designed and built the (sleeping) pod hotel, wired for 24/7 surveillance and multi-channel live streaming feedback – sometimes referred to in the press, as “the underground bunker” – for ‘QUIET’ – the JOSH HARRIS/PSEUDO funded year 2000 Millennium week-long party – that is the foundation of ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’.
It was home to 99 artists, resident in-house crew, and associated heavy-duty partiers and hangers-on. including some paid professionals, another story. ok, it got more raunchy by the day. and yes, there was a (completely) open toilet facility and transparent ‘group’ shower at one end, and on the other – a toxic room.
The toxic room – built for ‘the end of the world’ and conceived by AIDAS BAREKIS and AARON BREWER is also a whole other story !! but suffice to say – it was just what you thought, or heard . . . a small tucked-in room full of toxic paint, open cans of chemicals, and god only knows what else. no ventilation. right next door to where 99 people slept, (and played). just another one of the no-holds barred, full-on aspects of the place, and maybe one of Josh’s little inside jokes . . . that gave QUIET, and then ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC” – it’s street-cred edge & hard-core reputation – not to mention a good reason for getting it shut down !!
Jeff’s pod hotel, surveillance-wired and camera-accessorized, took the form of a light-weight portable jerry-rigged grid of individual stacked box-like sleeping compartments, quickly termed the ‘pods’ by the QUIET in-house crew.
Originally inspired by traditional way cheapo Japanese journeymen sleeping ‘pod’ hotels – the 99 person transient pod home – became an accidental metaphor for the whole project: i.e. the “matrix”, the social network “grid”, the whole wired world, the wired city – the wired “hub” of the digital future. in short – the “web”.
. . . all this was way before you could even stream live video on the web, never mind FACEBOOK.
and it was way way !! funny for us, the original hard-core crew – who blew the roof off communication/public living norms – as they had been pre-2000 . . . knowing how rocking-wild the scene had been – to see how the film’s director/shaper/interpreter/storyteller: ONDI TIMONER – reduced, perhaps morphed is the better word – Jeff’s minimal, but wired !! pod grid – into the classic ‘social networking’ logo, a blue grid of clean-cut computer users in their pristine ‘preppy’ cubicles – that opens the film.
ha.
see: ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – the movie’s official website
KCDC skateshop founder/owner AMY GUNTHER – with JEFF GOMPERTZ . . . and two of his ‘shaped’ surf/skateboard canvases . . . photographed in the on-site skateboard bowl – that animates this Williamsburg, Brooklyn-located store.
now, here’s the funny part . . . catch this:
Jeff G. had just come back to lock in some business, this past August (2011) . . . he has lived and worked out of BANGKOK, THAILAND for the past several years, and was retrieving some of his older, but futuristic forever – !! art work – when Josh, as in Harris of course – who was with him, long story short – went zooming around the corner on Berry – and asked Amy, who shows cutting edge local art in her shop – if she would exhibit some of Jeff’s work.
to her credit, Amy said yes. right away. right on the dime, the gig’s in play. well, speedsters-r-us . . . that’s just how we like to play the game, in Pseudo-land !!
but that’s not the funny part. the funny part is:
the KCDC skateshop is located at 90 N. 11th St – the very location of the ALFREDO MARTINEZ – post 9/11 – ‘WELCOME TO THE PLAYGROUND OF THE FEARLESS’ group show – featured in the previous post. shut up !!
it was Jeff who kept shaking his head – at the irony. yeah, he had had work in that Alfredo show. for sure.
I mean does the truth always go round in circles – or what ?
FAKE OUT !!
so, does the principle of YIN YANG rule – because its a round – globe – of a planet – we walk on ?
just that simple.
or is there always some kind of intrinsic beauty in life, as there is in science. in math. art ?
big questions for a skateshop gig, or what.
AMY GUNTHER of KCDC – making the world go round . . . with a JEFF GOMPERTZ ‘board’.
KCDC Skateshop – 90 N. 11th St. Brooklyn, NY 11211/tel: 1-718-387-9906
the store’s ad hoc gallery is on the other side of the bowl . . .
Jeff installing the ‘board’ work . . .
the show was titled ‘FAKE OUT’ – by Josh, I think. and for many reasons. but also as a play of words on one of Jeff’s prize projects – his website: FAKE SHOP !! (more on that, later)
JEFF GOMPERTZ, ‘Listening For Distance’, m/m on canvas, 23 x 68 in.
the shaped ‘boards’ – stretched canvas on sono tubes, m/m – multi-media, as in paint and xerox copies, with appropriated images . . .
all these ‘boards’ date from 1989, and have only gained in perspective – as far as I can see – from the vantage point of time – past. to my mind what really sets them apart, apart from the imagery and shape – and puts them straight-up counter-intuitive to real skate/surf boards – is the mute, if not downright mutant !! matte surface – the result of an encaustic wax layer that coats and permeates the already dull textured canvas, making for one – very un-shiny, very un-slick ‘board’ surface.
un-slick: I so like that. so up against-the-grain and contrarian. so, east coast, Americano.
you can see the concave aspect of the work – better, from an angle.
Jeff’s gone back to Thailand, but the show’s still up, as of Sept 11, 2011.
KCDC Skateshop/ 90 N. 11th just west of Berry.
JEFF GOMPERTZ currently works and lives in BANGKOK, THAILAND – where his most recent studio is a converted storefront . . .
where he runs a project . . . an interactive local community art web-based gig – a very post-modern ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – called: CHATROOM – which is dialogued on facebook.
or, as Jeff himself says: “Chatroom is my studio and ‘lab’ in Bangkok, which has presented various collaborations with Bangkok artists, focusing on net and socio-political thematics.”
see: CHATROOM/facebook
and then of course . . .
there is his pet web project: FAKE SHOP
yep, check it out, or be a loser. the future is up to you.
ALL PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH.
EXCEPT FOR THE LAST 2 IMAGES – WHICH ARE SCREENGRABS/COURTESY OF JEFF GOMPERTZ: CHATROOM & FAKESHOP.
posted on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. NYC.
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