Sauersazobomb / organized by Info-Punkt and Melbourneoffsiteindex
July 10, 2016
Grace Anderson, Burkhard Beschow, Rafael Delacruz, Hana Earles, Ida Ekblad, Jens Einhorn, Hamishi Farah, Anne Fellner, Parker Ito, Helen Johnson, Lukas Quietzsch, Zac Segbedzi, Alex Vivian
With text by Calum Lockey & Aurelia Guo
With text by Calum Lockey & Aurelia Guo
Ida Ekblad
Alex Vivian
Zac Segbedzi
Hamishi Farah
Burkhard Beschow
Burkhard Beschow
Burkhard Beschow
Grace Anderson
Jens Einhorn
Anne Fellner
Lukas Quietzsch
Lukas Quietzsch
Burkhard Beschow
Hana Earles
Hana Earles
Parker Ito
Rafael Delacruz
Calum Lockey & Aurelia Guo
Burkhard Beschow
Jens Einhorn
Writing
down the list of everything i was avoiding was so petty, i was embarrassed,
they weren’t even worth avoiding - replace door handle, phone case, reply to
emails and msgs. Ive been trying to Face Everything and no longer be
motivated by avoidance. Things i need to do sooner or later, that get harder
the longer i leave them. Avoidance is a big factor
I never felt like ‘subculture’
had any relevance/application to me growing up w chinese immigrant parents in suburban
sydney, 90s and 2000s. Maybe i had no way of avoiding adult responsibility - i
got it v young
Subculture is a retreat from
the ramifications of adult masculinity
A way of prolonging childhood
and adolescence
Not wanting to be an absent
father
Not wanting to be a distant
father. To be bald, to have a beer gut, nose hair, to disgust women
To have heart disease and skin
cancer
I’d rather hang out with the lost boys than the found men anyday
Dont u want to be a good dad like kanye west
Male youth and beauty are just
as interlinked as female youth and beauty since heroin chic AKA since the
aftermath of AIDS
Male beauty as to be thin,
white, waif-like, child like or teenage
Runaway. Oliver twist
How many
(black) graffiti writers did madonna, blondie and patti astor fuck, i wonder if
they paid them
Paul walker was a model of
white masculinity that was at home with black and Asian co-stars, his
credibility didnt completely evaporate alongside black and Asian co-stars. The
‘marginal’ ‘endangered’ identity of so many angry white men - punk, hardcore,
etc - just evaporates if put in the same frame as black men facing police
brutality and mass incarceration. Fear and hostility toward blackness by white
men who see their ‘underdog’ status under threat.
Somehow paul walker was more
solid than this, less brittle or fragile
I think this was part of the
sadness of his death
Fast and the Furious was
somehow important to me, i guess it was one of the only popular depictions that
i saw growing up where black, hispanic, asian characters were not whitewashed,
were not to prevailing white tastes, a prevailing white palette.
Also I was obsessed with
models, maybe models demonstrate the lie that is hegemonic whiteness
Eastern european models that
don’t conform to mandatory, monocultural, universal whiteness, prescribed in
Australian suburbs and cities that are suburbs
Also models are ‘mixed’ Black
and Asian models are celebrated for their beauty, their physical difference
from white models
Models meant that
sophisticated, chic and global did not mean all white all the time
That beach babes were a
specific and restricted subset
I was also thrilled by the
Cinderella stories of models plucked from humble and obscure origins
Also that a legible set of
criteria existed by which these girls were obviously excellent
Modelling may be nepotistic and
exploitative as everything else or worse but genetically the girls really are
freaks
Saying goodbye to the Greens
vote left humanism that combines concern about ‘the environment’ and ‘human
rights’ with overt anti-Chinese and anti-black racism like an inch from the
surface
People who wring their hands
about cheap, fake, toxic Chinese food and goods, Chinese developers buying
Australian real estate, people who think Kanye and Rihanna are ‘disgusting’
alienating and scary
Bye
Peoples attitudes to Kanye are
such a good indicator of who is racist
What year did subculture die? When did
the wall come down?
The year i was born
Tiananmen massacre
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Was there subculture in the 90s
tho - like rave? Like The Face? Kids
AIDS killed subculture by
killing a generation of artists and people who made culture - fashion,
nightlife, music, people who were just….influential in how they lived, visible
and influential. Artists invented loft living. And killed the meatpacking district.
Or made it something else, something very different. Is Emo subculture? Emo
boys kissing. Is My Space subculture. Are school shooters ‘subculture’. Is
Reddit. Is Red pill. Are MRas subculture
Are drugs subculture. Feels now
that u can be into drugs and not fashion, nightlife, music -- just into the
social or cultural life u need to get the drugs
Is sex subculture or was it
before AIDS. Is it a form of social life that is ‘free’ in some ways, that
resists regulation in some ways, is it??? AIDS as a critique of sex, the hope
of sex
Heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine.
Xanax is the new heroin or
Prescription drugs are killing
us. And making it possible to live. In our conditions. Under our conditions
To me: culture is what is made
by people. Literally, culture is … the expression people make to communicate
with one another … to signify belonging, non-belonging, participation
non-participation, etc
Culture is made by people and
people…. Get sick and die
When they get … poisoned and killed. Think of who died
in the AIDS epidemic in the 80s in the states
But were not talking about
culture were talking about subculture
Cultures have different ways of
approaching death but subcultures administration of death is infamy, of living
through micro sociality, like in art its talking about Martin Kippenberger or
Colin De Land decades after their dead, like that component of subculture
within art is still operating, but will that still function when Isa Genzken dies,
Hm isnt our time more
micro-social than pre social media...our time is nano social! Famous for 15
people
Wont there always be
mythologising of the peple that made an impact w their work / force of
personality etc in ‘their time’
I guess that actually feeds into subcultural betrayal,
social media contains infamy, narrative, self mythology so much more
effectively that subculture ever did. Like matthew would never be able to self
mythologise as effectively without instagram, i mean all the comfortable artists
in berlin living and partying, what would it be without representation, it
would be a subculture but you dont need to constitute it like that because its
represented so effectively.
What happens in the translation
of … thoughts into words …. Or photos on iphone to photos on Instagram … i feel
like ive switched gears when i take personal iphone photos, that arent for
instagram. Arena of social contest. Gladiator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_HIV/AIDS
So did subculture die in 19??
Subculture relies on romance and a core component of
romance is naiviety, so now that that’s gone the suspension of belief required
to enter is too high to enter. So when the wall came down, did naivety come
down with it. Was the collapse of the wall the first act of mass mediatised
betrayal, if sex is a subculture then AIDS
betrayed/poisoned/destroyed/critiqued it.
Its funny for urgency to be
gone -- when everything is so -- instant, immediate, 4 hour shipping, jsut in
time production, 2 weeks from design to stores (ZARA), broadband as human right
-- but ur right, most art isnt urgent, its far from urgent. I feel like the
apocalypse happened and no one told us. I think urgency doesnt feel present.
Idk if it felt more present in the past.
I dont know if urgency is gone,
do u think it is? I mean confusion and complication is pretty urgent at the
moment theyre both increasing exponentially
baby d - ‘I want a bf that raps
and does graffiti’
Is graffiti bohemian?
Its more bohemian than
idk….gaming
Its more bohemian than skating
or surfing
Maybe bc its not a sport or the
sport aspect is like
Secondary
graffiti as a formal code was
started by young latina girls in NYC, the boys would copy the bubble letters
they did in their exercise books
one of the first graffiti writers was Cornbread from
philadelphia and he started writing graffiti so a girl he liked would notice
him, he would write his name along her bus line.
I think its so romantic its about the name, naming,
Girls that are like,
Write my name
Its so funny
Graffiti is about love,
subculture is about love, its about looking for love are we born too late for love?
Carrie
Sometimes i wonder if im born
too soon, not too late. Idk for what
Nostalgia for what
Conservation of what
Love 3016
--
There has been a swap between
affect and effect in subculture
Its codes have been turned
inside out
Graffiti is not a resistant
action against real estate and gentrification but a vital and effective tool in
gentrifications irresistability.
Gaming culture has destroyed
subculture It has effectively and
honestly embraced and dealt with late capital and the net and exists generally
harmoniously within these structures instead of attempting or affecting to
combat them If i was 16 would i find
love in the game or find love in the streets
Something happened to locality, it stopped being something you existed
within and started being something that was sought or constructed.
Perhaps we
discovered how little we actually have in common with each other, when
transparency and communication rises the lack of familiarity becomes more
distinct, theres nothing more isolating than tinder.
How did autism effect subculture, its one of the most influential
dynamics within art, does the autists mind and its reliance upon understanding
through networks and structures inherently destabilise subculture which was
perhaps not ready for a critique of its architecture from within. “if you dont
stop white knuckling relevance like that your going to crash”
I guess that it becomes
specifically about what u give or what u invest, and what u expect in return.
Betrayal is about expectations,
It also seems personal -- about promises. It seems
interpersonal. Like u dont just make up an expectation out of a vacuum, or even
purely based on ur own past experence. Its a promise made by a person to
another person
-
I think what confuses me when u
talk about ‘subculture and betrayal’ is that to me, ppl who wind up extremely
lost and damaged are….not even ‘betrayed’ but…..impacted, affected, maybe worn
out or fucked up….by…...life
Like life is fucked up no
matter what
Life will fuck u up
Even when u do everything
right, everything ur supposed to do, thats supposed to keep u safe
-
I wonder if subculture is meant
to protect you, i guess its definetely got a tribe thing going on, like in the
warriors, you find your tribe and you work together to find meaning, i guess
thats where the betrayal is the most distinct, theres no meaning to be found in
these sub cultures any more, you enter and you do your time and you pay your
dues and you join the hierarchy but at the end of it theres no answers, theres
no more clarity, and thats for sure emblamatic of a much larger condition but
it feels so succint in subculture because its so micro and frantic to begin
with, i felt so confused by the young crust punks covered in face tats on the
denmark-germany ferry the other day, like dont they know that this is
over? can t they feel whats coming,
Style Wars made a lot of
promises
Did u believe them. I mean: i
loved watching that. It was very romantic
How could you resist it, who wouldnt be seduced
Seduction and betrayal
Heartbreak
Faith
Does this come to this painful
thing where like, i watch Heat and im like ‘this is what guys THINK they are’
Like u dont want to KNOW what
guys actually are
U think u are Style Wars but u r ------
Perhaps this is betrayal. That it doesnt make u who u think u
r, who u want to be. Self determination is a scam :( yes
Everyone else decides who r u (allowed to be) within strict
limits before ur born. Everyone else + impersonal forces, history, etc
--
That your not allowed to choose who u r :<
It doesnt matter how mcuh faith you have god still hates you
Omg
Maybe the freedom and autonomy of white men is a trap
Like no one ultimately gets to decide who they want to be
Even the expanded freedom that white men have e.g. to break
laws and not go to jail, compared to non-white men
Is still a marginally expanded freedom in the scheme of …. Limitations of free will as the human
condition lmao
Like self knowledge is not achievable and knowledge of the
world, the future, other people, is not achievable, there is so much that we
don’t know, structurally its hidden from us, it cant be accessed by reason
Idk.
Signified is empty but signifier is very full
specificity and sign as capital
Specificity
as critique of/resitance to complication/confusion/vaguness/avoidance/deferal,
Something weve talked about before in regards to art is the
current condition having a distinct lack of energy/momentum etc
i guess that refers
back to the urgency thign, there is an urgent need for urgency
I remember you said to me the idea of “luxurising” something
of overloading it with itself, like how a hermes bag is the sign of itself,
metonymic or watvr, but also contains too much of itself? Like exists too
wholly as itself, is overflowing with its own signifier,
Thats kind of what happens with huge paintings, i was
laughing during the install because there are just a bunch of huge paintings
and there kind of ridiculous but also totally effective, like formally they
trounce the cliche and exist succesfully
State of emergency
Like men being so handsome i think its silly and not sexy
Huge
paintings are funny
- Aurelia Guo & Calum Lockey