leslie kulesh to chris lux aka foxie
show details 5:24 AM (2 hours ago)
Reply
2:01 AM me: hey!
Chris: Hello. omg
me: you know it's going to be a good intrview when you have to close one eye to see the keybord
or the screen
y e s
chris is typing
2:02 AM Chris: so lets just say where we are right now, you just finished a wonderfull eduacation at SFAI and are living in SF for like what two more weeks, and I am having an earlly mid life crisis in Paris.
2:03 AM Where do we see each other in Art and life in the next year?
2:04 AM Are you able to read this?
me: y e s
just getting a smoke my dear
oh life
well imm off to new york to do a show with sarah foster and thn getting married in paris
and you?
2:05 AM or should i say
et toi?
chris is typing
Chris: I am going to keep traveling if the money holds out or I wil come back to SF and work for a while only to leave again
2:06 AM Either way I will be back here and will makeing alot more stuff.
What are your plans for the next show in NY?
2:07 AM me: oh a process oriented show where we just g ointo the space blindlyand start making work until we show it
we have been talking a lot about the slow apolocolypse coming so thatll be an underlying theme for sure
no more need to breed
water wars etc
you know the drill
what are you working on in paris?
2:08 AM Chris: Yeah for shure, I just asked to make a piece for a show at this gallery in the back of some art books store, the theme being Rawk.
2:09 AM me: always a four letter theme
Chris: Though I am over ideas for shows, like this, I happen to be painting a leather Jacket right now that should wourld well the skeme of things
2:10 AM Alos working on a Billboard project with John Fucher, and that will be put up later this year somtime, and I be back for that and try to a show somewhere at the same time.
me: painting leather jackets is pretty 80"s...what do you think about the 20 year turn aroundtheory?
2:11 AM i was just thinking about it the other night and i'm calling bullshit
it's onle 20 years for popular culture
its ten or thirty for everyone else
2:12 AM Chris: Yeah I think there is something there, like Paris really is ten years behind in many things to SF and NY, I think NY is behind SF sometimes too? and I have always been ten years early for SF, so there you go,
like a fish out of water here old PAris.
me: so youre right on time it seems?
or 20 years ahead marty mc fly...
2:13 AM the bookstore in belleville?
Chris: You would think, but no I dont realy belive that shit, so much, i dont know its strange?
2:14 AM me: i think that everything right now has to be on a case by case basis.
you can't project anything onto any group of peple anymore
its one to one now a days
Chris: yeah I agree it starts to add up though....
me: were abut to come full cirlce with the irony factor
and then
suddenly
everything will b literal!
2:15 AM Chris: So...... How have you gotten to this point in your work with all the references to culture, how would you describe what you do?
2:16 AM me: w e l l
Chris: I assume this will acompaniend by Images of our work or faces or something
me: an objective reflection of post post modern cultre
with a genuinre respect and sympathy
bc i am fully embedded in it
2:17 AM nd try to see the end for te means
this will be accompanied by both of our faces covvered in pie
your french pie and mine american respectively
2:18 AM chris aint typing shit!
oh there we go!
Chris: I am eating Pan Chocolate....
me: my imagery is still super sweet and genuine even when it comes across as sassy
it's a matter of understanding the artists
2:19 AM and i think at this point in the art world
hold on
thomas
2:20 AM Chris: So yeah I think those refernces are Important and would do really well here in Paris, (and evrywhere ) but especially here, there seems to be a newer need for this here where maybe in the past that was not okay, its finally really important where in the US its been iMportant since the late 70s
2:22 AM I agree, it does come across sometimes as sassy and Ironic at times but its a real path of reference that is pop for someone elese but to you its become a language or a least a time line of your own life...
2:24 AM Leslie tell tomas your a re busy doing artist things....
2:25 AM me: as girls working together it is important to have a level of provocation
a level of mis understanding
2:26 AM with art there is that moment and people sy 'do i just not know what's going on?' that is an interesting moment
mkind of a second level ofsuspension of disbelief
Chris: Yeah, thats tre, its exciting
me: they already know what they are expecting from art and then they want to know what is the inside story
2:27 AM hey hey hey
gotcha
its the same story!!!
2:28 AM imagery is didactic though so it has to be smart and larger than the human size so it is read as 'larger than life' then it becomes 'powerful' etc etc
Chris: So yeah, its funny that we both came to the art world from graffiti, what are your takes on grafitti in the art worl dna dgive us some backround of how you arived at the work you are doing now...
me: ha ha
thats funny when i was walking home to do this inteview with you just now
i thought
2:29 AM what i want to say to chris is that i really wanted to be friends with you long before we became friends!
i remeber dane would go on and on about you and when i was super bummed on life when dave was in jail i called you
then i saw you a couple weeks later on 2th street and it jst wasnt going to happen
2:30 AM but in good time we became friends
sometimes timing isnt what you want it to be
story of my life lately good lessons in patience
2:31 AM but i remeber the whole thing vividly
Chris: Yeah it took the right moment for us, I think we were in some funny place for a while, we both have been through alot of shit, I think earlier I was so concered with keeping closed dorrs to that worl of graff that anyone in it got locked out...
me: that makes perfect sense
Chris: It has taken me along time to come ful circle and be comfortable with my past.
2:32 AM me: had i become friends with you when i called you, it would have been a different story for us i think. this is perfect now, i couldn't be happier with you!
2:33 AM Chris: Thats kinda of what the Murals are about, they have huge Graff reference but are something alot more, somthing where I am trying reconcile the past of graff with the Art education I got.
me: and i'm not even comfortable with mypast yet! but theres nothin doin about that
2:34 AM the murals are amazing. they make so much sense. they sit comfortably among grafitti and yet stadd tuff as something more
Chris: I think the world we lived in was really harsh, its funny to be here in Paris with so many writers around, the art sceen here has alot of them, it feels like really going back to the past for me...
me: maybe i cant do hem justice with typing right now
but there is a real marriage going on
2:35 AM and i think there is also an understandig of what graffitti and vandalism really is and how it works in society
that the murals embody
and that is some tuff shit
Chris: Yeah its really hard I can only think of a handfull of people whos work works well in both fields...
2:36 AM me: i foind an epic chris johanson mural on california street in palo alto the other day
i can include my pics in this interview
2:37 AM i'm sure its a standford spinoff
but still/1
so cutty!
on the side of a bar!
Chris: I saw that down there when I took TOmas there.
me: of course
!
2:38 AM cutty steezy in the 9 neezy!
so chrissss
your work is getting to loo likeone of those psychological charts from the 60's
where they ask you to look at an inblot and say what you see
2:39 AM but there is all this color
Chris: Thats true, I found a set of
me: t e l l the public
sweet public
more about this
2:40 AM Chris: orginal roschack test in the garbage along with hunderend of other psycological test a SF state when I was like 15 and they had a big influence on me...
2:41 AM I like how they refernce the crazy, like mandalas and ink blots, just this mirriored image that makes people think of crazyness.
2:42 AM me: its funny how once youre ina diferent space altogther you can get down to what you were really into into in your original space
2:43 AM when i was in paris i felt totally comfortable making compltetely new work tat came naturally to me
that back at home i would have questioned and pushed and over analyzed
Chris: What are some of the Art refference you feel that you acessing besides cultural refferneces, its interesting to me becauese pop art had like this certian language that has expanded to the entire cultural landscape I feel.
me: but there i could just let it be
maybe its nova radio
2:44 AM well its a globalized culture now
really
2:45 AM Chris: Thats true, It really global, so many thing that had dissipeared can now find an audiance, like with music or some shit..It every where all of it.
2:46 AM me: so really art gets coupled into the world of things that are deemed for entertainment value
then you have to thinkk of who is the audience that is being entertained
those luxury babies
oh artistic reference is a hard time
2:47 AM really process but smart garnage but smart lydia lunch and valie export?
i dont know!
people who went to good places and highlighted them
agents of culture
me highlighting you
2:48 AM that is creative to me
i want you to have more
that fulfills me
does that make sense?
Chris: I think our work does really similar things but in oposit ways like you take ideas and images from culture and present them in artistic context where I feel my own work takes images from art histories and presents them in pop context, with variying degrees of coures...
me: yes
2:49 AM i try to get so literal it gets to the basic concpt
with out ever fortaying into the art world's 'conceptual'
just pointing things out
fun things nice things harsh things
2:50 AM in a way that maybe does something
there are different ways to make a point
and visual art has the power to get in the back door!
Chris: I like to think so.
me: we tell ourselves!
2:51 AM Chris: I wonder if we can go back to telling us about how you got to this point, where you came from.
2:52 AM me: but it things really do operate on a case by case basis human to human basis aren't we doig the best we can by doing what we love and what excites us and contributing that to a cycle instead of desperation?
im getting to deep!
toooooo d e e p
2:53 AM Chris: Maybe, write something about how you came to this point in your work....
me: welllllllllllll
2:54 AM i dropped ot of highschool the day i turned 18
i moved to san francisco because i was in love
Chris: sounds familiar
2:55 AM me: we went t o san francisco art institute a lot]
used their resources
fast forrd 8 years of city livin
no
my dad conserved art
2:56 AM Chris: oh yeah?
me: he worked at the hearst castle
he worled for a second on the sistine (sp?) chapel
he did a lot
it was kind of a given
so i rebeled!
and what does a rebelious kid do?
2:57 AM graffiti!
yes!!!!!
and what happens to the graffiti kid? they get reeled back in by society
and so i decided i wanted a degree
and this onei knew i could get
and do well!
2:58 AM and silver asked me to be ina show at luggage store
i said okay
and then i enrolled in school and voila
2:59 AM a way to ener back into scoiety n society;s terms with termsi can sometimes agree with
Chris: I agree, it was eally differnet from me because i went to arts high school.
me: no way!
3:00 AM i was meant to go to standford!
3:01 AM do you think were talking about anything erik wanted/
?
Chris: Probably.
me: i wanted to interview you about fruit cupsand how to sneak into concerts
or punk in s.f.
3:02 AM god!
Chris: Well lets go there...
me: would you g to notre dame tommorrow and pray for me?
Chris: No.
me: today i guess1
really?
Chris: of look at this email from dane...
3:03 AM me: i guess we arent kindred spirits!
Chris: I AM INSANELY BUSY. I
JUST GOT A JOB FOR A MONTH WORKING FOR MATTHEW BARNEY ON A NEW FILM HE
IS DOING. THAT GUY IS MELL-O. HOPE YOU ARE WELL.
DANE
me: word
3:04 AM did you see the keith haring preaching ting at that church with theorgan?
ting?
Chris: DID you see erics videos on you tube, look for Mr California.
me: i only write ting now
i be jamaica styleee
i will i still hvent seen it
Chris: you will fit in well here
me: soooo
i know!!!
3:05 AM god why do you think im moving there i love reggggggae ight!
Chris: you are in the right place rap and reggae...
me: well u should see k haring ting bfore you go
i know!
i am always on time!!!!
3:06 AM Chris: K harring ting, Im on it.
me: marty mc fly!
ask tomas he took me
Chris: seriousl a white ghost from the future....
me: so what is the giant mural you have on oberkamph?
3:07 AM Chris: Oh its a big billboard, ill get a picture, like the other murals except like really really big.
me: go to la defense
then tell me about the future
and u are having a big opening for it??/
(im trying to be barbara walters here!)
3:08 AM chris im really tired
i miss you
Chris: The mural goes up in the next year and there is exhibition and they are flying me back for and I am trying to set up a show to go along with it...
me: so much
tyoull do that i am sure
Chris: I miss you too, You should go to sleep this is long enough...
3:09 AM me: can we have a part 3 interview/
i like chatting
Chris: Okay sounds good, I will be drunk for the next one and will wake you up all sober
me: i need to be able to talk to you about your work dynamicallly
yes i mean oui
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
3:10 AM s.f. sucks stick to your guns and their money
10-4
Chris: LAter
3:11 AM me: lateski
--
leslie kulesh
www.weed-dawg.com
www.lesliekulesh.com leslie kulesh to me
show details 5:24 AM (2 hours ago)
Reply
2:01 AM me: hey!
Chris: Hello. omg
me: you know it's going to be a good intrview when you have to close one eye to see the keybord
or the screen
y e s
chris is typing
2:02 AM Chris: so lets just say where we are right now, you just finished a wonderfull eduacation at SFAI and are living in SF for like what two more weeks, and I am having an earlly mid life crisis in Paris.
2:03 AM Where do we see each other in Art and life in the next year?
2:04 AM Are you able to read this?
me: y e s
just getting a smoke my dear
oh life
well imm off to new york to do a show with sarah foster and thn getting married in paris
and you?
2:05 AM or should i say
et toi?
chris is typing
Chris: I am going to keep traveling if the money holds out or I wil come back to SF and work for a while only to leave again
2:06 AM Either way I will be back here and will makeing alot more stuff.
What are your plans for the next show in NY?
2:07 AM me: oh a process oriented show where we just g ointo the space blindlyand start making work until we show it
we have been talking a lot about the slow apolocolypse coming so thatll be an underlying theme for sure
no more need to breed
water wars etc
you know the drill
what are you working on in paris?
2:08 AM Chris: Yeah for shure, I just asked to make a piece for a show at this gallery in the back of some art books store, the theme being Rawk.
2:09 AM me: always a four letter theme
Chris: Though I am over ideas for shows, like this, I happen to be painting a leather Jacket right now that should wourld well the skeme of things
2:10 AM Alos working on a Billboard project with John Fucher, and that will be put up later this year somtime, and I be back for that and try to a show somewhere at the same time.
me: painting leather jackets is pretty 80"s...what do you think about the 20 year turn aroundtheory?
2:11 AM i was just thinking about it the other night and i'm calling bullshit
it's onle 20 years for popular culture
its ten or thirty for everyone else
2:12 AM Chris: Yeah I think there is something there, like Paris really is ten years behind in many things to SF and NY, I think NY is behind SF sometimes too? and I have always been ten years early for SF, so there you go,
like a fish out of water here old PAris.
me: so youre right on time it seems?
or 20 years ahead marty mc fly...
2:13 AM the bookstore in belleville?
Chris: You would think, but no I dont realy belive that shit, so much, i dont know its strange?
2:14 AM me: i think that everything right now has to be on a case by case basis.
you can't project anything onto any group of peple anymore
its one to one now a days
Chris: yeah I agree it starts to add up though....
me: were abut to come full cirlce with the irony factor
and then
suddenly
everything will b literal!
2:15 AM Chris: So...... How have you gotten to this point in your work with all the references to culture, how would you describe what you do?
2:16 AM me: w e l l
Chris: I assume this will acompaniend by Images of our work or faces or something
me: an objective reflection of post post modern cultre
with a genuinre respect and sympathy
bc i am fully embedded in it
2:17 AM nd try to see the end for te means
this will be accompanied by both of our faces covvered in pie
your french pie and mine american respectively
2:18 AM chris aint typing shit!
oh there we go!
Chris: I am eating Pan Chocolate....
me: my imagery is still super sweet and genuine even when it comes across as sassy
it's a matter of understanding the artists
2:19 AM and i think at this point in the art world
hold on
thomas
2:20 AM Chris: So yeah I think those refernces are Important and would do really well here in Paris, (and evrywhere ) but especially here, there seems to be a newer need for this here where maybe in the past that was not okay, its finally really important where in the US its been iMportant since the late 70s
2:22 AM I agree, it does come across sometimes as sassy and Ironic at times but its a real path of reference that is pop for someone elese but to you its become a language or a least a time line of your own life...
2:24 AM Leslie tell tomas your a re busy doing artist things....
2:25 AM me: as girls working together it is important to have a level of provocation
a level of mis understanding
2:26 AM with art there is that moment and people sy 'do i just not know what's going on?' that is an interesting moment
mkind of a second level ofsuspension of disbelief
Chris: Yeah, thats tre, its exciting
me: they already know what they are expecting from art and then they want to know what is the inside story
2:27 AM hey hey hey
gotcha
its the same story!!!
2:28 AM imagery is didactic though so it has to be smart and larger than the human size so it is read as 'larger than life' then it becomes 'powerful' etc etc
Chris: So yeah, its funny that we both came to the art world from graffiti, what are your takes on grafitti in the art worl dna dgive us some backround of how you arived at the work you are doing now...
me: ha ha
thats funny when i was walking home to do this inteview with you just now
i thought
2:29 AM what i want to say to chris is that i really wanted to be friends with you long before we became friends!
i remeber dane would go on and on about you and when i was super bummed on life when dave was in jail i called you
then i saw you a couple weeks later on 2th street and it jst wasnt going to happen
2:30 AM but in good time we became friends
sometimes timing isnt what you want it to be
story of my life lately good lessons in patience
2:31 AM but i remeber the whole thing vividly
Chris: Yeah it took the right moment for us, I think we were in some funny place for a while, we both have been through alot of shit, I think earlier I was so concered with keeping closed dorrs to that worl of graff that anyone in it got locked out...
me: that makes perfect sense
Chris: It has taken me along time to come ful circle and be comfortable with my past.
2:32 AM me: had i become friends with you when i called you, it would have been a different story for us i think. this is perfect now, i couldn't be happier with you!
2:33 AM Chris: Thats kinda of what the Murals are about, they have huge Graff reference but are something alot more, somthing where I am trying reconcile the past of graff with the Art education I got.
me: and i'm not even comfortable with mypast yet! but theres nothin doin about that
2:34 AM the murals are amazing. they make so much sense. they sit comfortably among grafitti and yet stadd tuff as something more
Chris: I think the world we lived in was really harsh, its funny to be here in Paris with so many writers around, the art sceen here has alot of them, it feels like really going back to the past for me...
me: maybe i cant do hem justice with typing right now
but there is a real marriage going on
2:35 AM and i think there is also an understandig of what graffitti and vandalism really is and how it works in society
that the murals embody
and that is some tuff shit
Chris: Yeah its really hard I can only think of a handfull of people whos work works well in both fields...
2:36 AM me: i foind an epic chris johanson mural on california street in palo alto the other day
i can include my pics in this interview
2:37 AM i'm sure its a standford spinoff
but still/1
so cutty!
on the side of a bar!
Chris: I saw that down there when I took TOmas there.
me: of course
!
2:38 AM cutty steezy in the 9 neezy!
so chrissss
your work is getting to loo likeone of those psychological charts from the 60's
where they ask you to look at an inblot and say what you see
2:39 AM but there is all this color
Chris: Thats true, I found a set of
me: t e l l the public
sweet public
more about this
2:40 AM Chris: orginal roschack test in the garbage along with hunderend of other psycological test a SF state when I was like 15 and they had a big influence on me...
2:41 AM I like how they refernce the crazy, like mandalas and ink blots, just this mirriored image that makes people think of crazyness.
2:42 AM me: its funny how once youre ina diferent space altogther you can get down to what you were really into into in your original space
2:43 AM when i was in paris i felt totally comfortable making compltetely new work tat came naturally to me
that back at home i would have questioned and pushed and over analyzed
Chris: What are some of the Art refference you feel that you acessing besides cultural refferneces, its interesting to me becauese pop art had like this certian language that has expanded to the entire cultural landscape I feel.
me: but there i could just let it be
maybe its nova radio
2:44 AM well its a globalized culture now
really
2:45 AM Chris: Thats true, It really global, so many thing that had dissipeared can now find an audiance, like with music or some shit..It every where all of it.
2:46 AM me: so really art gets coupled into the world of things that are deemed for entertainment value
then you have to thinkk of who is the audience that is being entertained
those luxury babies
oh artistic reference is a hard time
2:47 AM really process but smart garnage but smart lydia lunch and valie export?
i dont know!
people who went to good places and highlighted them
agents of culture
me highlighting you
2:48 AM that is creative to me
i want you to have more
that fulfills me
does that make sense?
Chris: I think our work does really similar things but in oposit ways like you take ideas and images from culture and present them in artistic context where I feel my own work takes images from art histories and presents them in pop context, with variying degrees of coures...
me: yes
2:49 AM i try to get so literal it gets to the basic concpt
with out ever fortaying into the art world's 'conceptual'
just pointing things out
fun things nice things harsh things
2:50 AM in a way that maybe does something
there are different ways to make a point
and visual art has the power to get in the back door!
Chris: I like to think so.
me: we tell ourselves!
2:51 AM Chris: I wonder if we can go back to telling us about how you got to this point, where you came from.
2:52 AM me: but it things really do operate on a case by case basis human to human basis aren't we doig the best we can by doing what we love and what excites us and contributing that to a cycle instead of desperation?
im getting to deep!
toooooo d e e p
2:53 AM Chris: Maybe, write something about how you came to this point in your work....
me: welllllllllllll
2:54 AM i dropped ot of highschool the day i turned 18
i moved to san francisco because i was in love
Chris: sounds familiar
2:55 AM me: we went t o san francisco art institute a lot]
used their resources
fast forrd 8 years of city livin
no
my dad conserved art
2:56 AM Chris: oh yeah?
me: he worked at the hearst castle
he worled for a second on the sistine (sp?) chapel
he did a lot
it was kind of a given
so i rebeled!
and what does a rebelious kid do?
2:57 AM graffiti!
yes!!!!!
and what happens to the graffiti kid? they get reeled back in by society
and so i decided i wanted a degree
and this onei knew i could get
and do well!
2:58 AM and silver asked me to be ina show at luggage store
i said okay
and then i enrolled in school and voila
2:59 AM a way to ener back into scoiety n society;s terms with termsi can sometimes agree with
Chris: I agree, it was eally differnet from me because i went to arts high school.
me: no way!
3:00 AM i was meant to go to standford!
3:01 AM do you think were talking about anything erik wanted/
?
Chris: Probably.
me: i wanted to interview you about fruit cupsand how to sneak into concerts
or punk in s.f.
3:02 AM god!
Chris: Well lets go there...
me: would you g to notre dame tommorrow and pray for me?
Chris: No.
me: today i guess1
really?
Chris: of look at this email from dane...
3:03 AM me: i guess we arent kindred spirits!
Chris: I AM INSANELY BUSY. I
JUST GOT A JOB FOR A MONTH WORKING FOR MATTHEW BARNEY ON A NEW FILM HE
IS DOING. THAT GUY IS MELL-O. HOPE YOU ARE WELL.
DANE
me: word
3:04 AM did you see the keith haring preaching ting at that church with theorgan?
ting?
Chris: DID you see erics videos on you tube, look for Mr California.
me: i only write ting now
i be jamaica styleee
i will i still hvent seen it
Chris: you will fit in well here
me: soooo
i know!!!
3:05 AM god why do you think im moving there i love reggggggae ight!
Chris: you are in the right place rap and reggae...
me: well u should see k haring ting bfore you go
i know!
i am always on time!!!!
3:06 AM Chris: K harring ting, Im on it.
me: marty mc fly!
ask tomas he took me
Chris: seriousl a white ghost from the future....
me: so what is the giant mural you have on oberkamph?
3:07 AM Chris: Oh its a big billboard, ill get a picture, like the other murals except like really really big.
me: go to la defense
then tell me about the future
and u are having a big opening for it??/
(im trying to be barbara walters here!)
3:08 AM chris im really tired
i miss you
Chris: The mural goes up in the next year and there is exhibition and they are flying me back for and I am trying to set up a show to go along with it...
me: so much
tyoull do that i am sure
Chris: I miss you too, You should go to sleep this is long enough...
3:09 AM me: can we have a part 3 interview/
i like chatting
Chris: Okay sounds good, I will be drunk for the next one and will wake you up all sober
me: i need to be able to talk to you about your work dynamicallly
yes i mean oui
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
3:10 AM s.f. sucks stick to your guns and their money
10-4
Chris: LAter
3:11 AM me: lateski
--
leslie kulesh
www.weed-dawg.com
www.lesliekulesh.com