Pharrell Williams Interviews David Salle & KAWS | ARTST TLK Ep. 2 Full | Reserve Channel

you are you serious I'm sitting here with David Sally and cos and this is artists talk have you ever gotten into any legal problems nothing that was uncontrollable but everybody likes to play every creative person likes to play it to spice your studio we know that you won't be the one stuck outside of the party sometimes the septum edit chooses you I would take the pattern for world trade and work one avenue up to 36 Street and back down to world trade we're gonna put on a pretty bitchin show right now what's up so um so where you from I'm up not far from here Jersey City what what is that like that like that environment push you to become you know it kind of drove me to explore and I think just even that just taking that path train to get to Manhattan for a dollar to go skate at the Brooklyn bank to escape buy it some score park it got me thinking of like oh you can just kind of extend yourself and and go a little ways and figure out a new scene it's the journey and speaking of journeys you've got a long one I mean a Norman Oklahoma obviously I was born in Oklahoma okay but grew up in Wichita Kansas right which is about as flat as his tabletop so that it was a horizontal existence and coming to New York which was a vertical kind of plane that was a it was a thrilling shift of perspective but it was always clear in those days that to pursue a serious career as a painter one had to be in New York City it was an article of faith in the years when I was just starting out that no one would have any money that the survival would be hardscrabble at best and that there was I'm sure still is a community and network of peers and colleagues that sort of supported one another and that's what got people through which is that's important you need a crew right yeah I think it's impossible to navigate without who were some of the people from your old crew I'm I mean when that when the cement was hardening like and in terms of like your character like when you were becoming going from Brian to becoming cause like early sort of early access to to working with other artists would be through graffiti and you know I was fortunate to be able to paint with guys a bit older than I like Zephyr and revolt and then also younger guys like West and Crashdown month Aubry when you started it was the first entry point on teens like really and in high school and would you come in the city and go out at night I would take the path turn to world trade and work one Avenue up to 36th Street and back down to world trade and go another night and pick a different Avenue and one of the guys I used to paint with this guy TD he was a few years older and he drove and we used to go up to the Cross Bronx and they major Deegan and just get out and bombed the highways and you know eventually you're meeting kids and you're painting different boroughs and you know I was in high school I was trading photos with kids in Spain kids in Germany and my first trip out of the country was to Germany and I went and crashed at a kid's house painted walls got taken around it was just like instant family just because you know the person's work and they know your work uh-huh interesting but did you also have already in mind the idea that this would have a another life or gallery no not at all even you know even as I was sort of getting less interested in doing lettering and piecing and getting into a Bertot like painting over the advertisements and stuff I never you know I always assumed that oh this is great like I love doing this and I have to find a way to support doing this you know mmm like I thought there'd be like two parallels like a work in parallel I know what I like to do parallel but isn't that where the best art comes from is from like the purity of a statement and actually the artistic part is the style in which you know you do something isn't that your identity the way in which you hold the brush well style for sure is your identity or your handwriting or the way you put things together the way you juxtaposed things which is part of my vocabulary yeah and everyone will do differently if you if we passed around a Polaroid X I'm dating myself any kind of camera a digital camera and we all photograph something the same thing but all we'd all do it differently and that's just there's something innate that we bring to it that comes out in the specific phrasing or framing of that image so those things are always with us and style is the kind of accumulation the all the additive bits of specific personality expressed through visual language that adds up to a style when you recognize that about art and recognize that that's what you were doing was that your validation or was the validation a moment where you where everyone's around and people are talking under their breath I mean the two things are true which are both really interesting one is seemingly contradictory things what is it's amazing when you reach that moment at a pivotal moment whether it's with a gallery show or with a street involvement with with with you know advertising signs and symbols that people actually do see things that in a way that's congruent with the way you see them and that there is a resonance and that there's an echo coming back and when you have that moment it's something incredible at the same time it's also incredible when you realize you can do something in people don't get it at all I had a show in New York and at a gallery and at that time the lead critic for the New York Times was a guy named Hilton Cramer he's to since left the scene but he was a famous hard-ass kind of reactionary critic and he said about my work oh he's the worst painter in the world for Spain in America and I thought well that's kind of great because it's at least it's an emphatic and a couple of years later I met Roy Lichtenstein and I told him that story and where I said oh he said the same thing about me 20 years before mm-hmm yeah that's that's actually it's when you know that you're onto something because when when people can't sort of you know sort out or make out what it is that you're trying to say it's because you're speaking in a different language it's almost as if you're speaking in English but you're deciding that you want to use the phonetics of a word versus what man's popular place definition on the word is to make your own sentence the way you take something from popular culture of a fashion photograph or whatever there's things you did with David Simms and interject your shape your image vocabulary on top of it you know something friendly about it and deadly subversive at the same time and also just plain graphically appealing and so that's kind of the trifecta that's all that's it you can do that in a simple image that's a lot what does it feel like to hear David Sallee saying about your work it's it's you know it's an honor it's judging your personality haha at the time advertiser was dominating Manhattan we're always big building side you know murals and taking over a lot of spots that were you know graphs watched for ages you know a lot of the art that I kind of came into when I was younger was through magazines and stuff and I always wanted to like take this work and sort of filter it and communicate back through it in a way that like you said wasn't really a defacement there's more of like a coexistence what did you do to support yourself before your art began to support you you mean now as a job yeah oh it's a little bit of everything carpentry cooking in restaurants studio assistant that's the common path had a I had a job and of the lowest rung of the ladder of higher education I was teaching drawing at the Community College in South Jersey all of those students remember you I don't know about that but oh yeah and you I mean I was mostly I was fortunate enough that you know growing up with friends who had companies like James jabya was supreme and stache and future and when I was in school I was already starting to do work and doing design work for them and you know I got to meet a lot of people and work you know on things I was just sort of interested in I never really I worked in animation that's one thing I really wasn't interested in but out of college there was just a check but it was great I met the paint that I still use to this day coming from the guy that everyone would die to have an animation I know it's so silly it doesn't interests you do that I don't well the reason being is that I appreciate a long time like I like to work in my studio I don't like a crew of 60 people or 30 people that I have to like have meetings and know I know what I want to do and it's not be I don't want to have a lot of meetings right now you know I want to make paintings and if I do toys it's whatever I want to do you know they come out every other month or every year it doesn't there's no rhyme or reason and when was your first piece sold I think it was 1979 and I remember it because I really was broke and it was from those windfalls that just happened out of the blue that sort of solved a lot of problems at the time and what about your first piece you remember that my first trip to Japan this guy paid for my flight and put me up as an exchange for a small painting and it's a great thing about being an artist is that you can barter I mean that is listen and I feel like not a lot of people know that like we should give more light to the bartering aspect of because you know what it also does it likes it like it promotes like fellowship and community a sense of community and Mike you know you guys there's so many you know I say it all the time there's strength in numbers like could you imagine if the art community actually loved each other and supported each other and I mean I'm not gonna say you guys could save the economy but you could put a nice interesting spin on it what's your most meaningful piece and of course why it's such a hard question it's like it's like saying who's your favorite child I I know that but I think um I don't know I would say probably the first time I made a toy was the first time I got to see my work in three dimensional form mmm and which one what was they it was called companion yeah there's a companion Swift in 99 and before that I always imagined like sculptures being this thing like oh you have this like sort of patron to commissioned you or so it's like unaccessible thing and then I met these guys in Tokyo who were making toys for they were making them themselves and so I just I could just click like all right instead of that monumental thing that has been in my head since I was little I was going to make you know a thousand little ones and then that opened up like seeing my work like that it was like before that day I had like a pencil and a pen and then it was like after that day somebody was like oh there's paint you know like there's also paint like it just sort of gave me a whole nother world to kind of work within sort of so maybe that can be considered it but yeah I think that that's it and you well I think there's a it's a self-protective mechanism but I think the thing I did most recently is the best thing or the most interesting thing which is probably not true but it's it's a kind I say it's something that keeps keeps you from being too nostalgic or too wrapped up in the past at any unproductive way as far as painting those what I'm what I'm doing now is what when I what I think is you know where the juice is that's awesome doesn't mean other people see it that way and do you guys feel the pressure to produce I mean so I feel for me I'm at the stage that I'm at you know it's like I went no not that was definitely not comfortable you know you go outside in your stride sorry Matt comfortable with your achievement but comfortable in your rhythm like your everyday really I don't even know if I'd agree with that is okay yeah I feel like um he's open to things yeah I know definitely open to things and there's you know you go from having all these years of no opportunity and suddenly you're getting these opportunities and you want it for you want it fulfilled these sort of things you know these different projects and so there's a pressure but for me that it's been like an inspiring pressure so I like teasing them by the way cuz II just I break you know it's very teachable yeah what do you guys think about like the venture capitalist like the hedge fund guys that get in the art business I think it's a good thing because where there's money there's attention yeah I mean I feel like things like that are adding to the amount of attention that's on art nowadays I mean even you hear doing this program it's there's I think artists coming up have a tremendous amount of outlets and a lot of exposure and able to do shows you know all over the place and there's a support system from it and that has to do with a lot of different different elements and I think people investing in art is one of them sure I think I think all the greater good I think it's probably fair to say that if art didn't appreciate in value and wasn't monetized and wasn't didn't bring high prices that there would be far less interest in art it just sort of goes together whether the interest is healthy or not I don't know who's to say that's right I think what makes art art some of the things which are the most popular are also the best so the things which are the least popular are also the best and everything in every possible variation in between have you ever gotten into any legal problems you know with the graffiti um no I mean not nothing - nothing that wasn't controllable you know I mean actually the only time I ever was arrest it was for something ridiculous it was for putting up stickers which is the joke and you some especially with one of the most you know profoundly stimulating and credible ingenious schools of thought pornography being a pornographer is not necessarily against the law so I haven't been I've been arrested for that I've been accused of it but not in a legal sense I mean I've always said to the people who accused me of being a photographer that hey I wouldn't mind I don't even have any objection to it I don't think it's true then it's accurate if you look at my work side by side with something that also graphically tlie not true and by the way I bet I wouldn't care but I don't think it is that but I'm not confusing you with like a you know one who shoots pornography at all I'm just asking hedge you know you've got into any run-ins because of the nature of your work well the human body is a beautiful thing yeah and it's part of the job of our to to show that yeah I think that the the having walked input into the propeller blades of a certain political issue what I did good thank you was huh that's really great sometimes it's not that you choose the subject matter it's that it's the subject matter chooses you and I might have chosen something differently but I kind of got stuck with it it's what I I'm just glad I had something that interested me I don't even have that much control over what what it is that makes sense at all yeah now critics do they matter we hate to give value in to those who were trying to be negative but clearly that person was wrong if they bet against you right so it kind of like the last laugh it's sort of pay you know or their otherwise but they were right by their own lights they just you know they're there in their universe now your art looks different yeah but you don't want to be known as the person who said that David sally's work was a mess well I think there are plenty people who would happily go to their grave having said that because that's no Leicester they want to make that point but there's an entire like art world and says completely different that's that's it that's sunny but let's just face it we know you won't be the one stuck outside of the party there was one actually time I did a show at this this weird little gallery of town and it was it was in 2000 I never really did any shows I'm I got it was like let's do a shot I was like okay like next like literally like two weeks later or something and they really criticized that and like the taking the work and how it didn't work in the gallery and I was just like assuming I was never out of that world I bet that show if you look back was probably super awesome yeah as a cool show I mean I met actually Jeff Koons came to the opening and got doctors to buy two paintings and I was just at that time I was like oh I made it and then then I realized no I didn't we'll see that so you made it yeah but do you understand the story you just told ya that you made it but you just touched on the thing which is the thing in the art world that the critical blahblah is it what it's what the subject is is art as a set of cultural signs not art as our not as the painting as painting not as painting as color and form and shape and and beauty what not but art as system of cultural signs and those cultural signs usually extend to the gallery the context the space the why is he showing they're not there what so that's the subject of the the most critical writing and that's just just not that interesting what other artists have you collaborated with I've collaborated a lot with the choreographer doing sets and costumes for ballets yeah and also for for the theatre I've done I've done several operas and probably 20 ballets and last last 20 years maybe maybe more than that and lost count but that's intensely collaborative and I'm by no means the the person who determines the final form the thing I threw out ideas and they get used or not used and I really love that process I feel they learn a lot from them were inspired by it also Scorsese with the end search-and-destroy I did make a little film number years ago and which I was lucky enough to have Marty as the executive producer of an actually Marty's an actor in the film as well yeah behind and that collaborating with actors in that way was certainly one of the most profound magical experiences of my life it felt to me like the movie version of your paintings well thank you that's a nice compliment and that's a very simple thing but I mean just like using you know Christopher Walken in a way that no one really use them before like the way that you had the camera angles is just everything about it was just so you know in a very weird way and I hope this is not an insult I hope you find it as much of a compliment as I do towards you is that it was like watching a more even though it was loose it was just a little bit heavier than the scripts of like a Harmony Korine oh yeah interesting it was like a lot between not too big help like take that as a huge compliment yeah it's just that you had like a less actors doing what he would have everyday errors in the middle of America do well everybody likes to play every creative person likes to play make create an environment where people can play in a serious way have fun and do things they don't get to do all the time something interesting comes out of it and you artists that you've collaborated with as far as curating I may have only I did a show last summer with Eric Parker another friend of mine and I was called pretty on the inside and it was just sort of bringing some of the artists that that I'd like and enjoy like I mentioned called war some earlier and Joyce Masato and just sort of like putting putting these different artists that always kind of made sense in my head and just putting them in a room together just to see what it you know well what happened what I was like ah see that's that's like fun you know many people would sign up to see that yeah no I mean climb right for me doing collaborate you know I've done a lot of collaborations product-wise and it's always a good experience to kind of jump into another person's shoes and see how they make stuff and just kind of how people operate their business or just like get things done and you can kind of like either discard that or take it back and apply it to what you do and it's good sort of like cross pollenization I think collaboration is really the future really do this there's a there's a multiplier effect that comes from collaborating that it's not just two or three or whatever it's something exponential that grows when you when people do or step outside the comfort zone and all that stuff and then it's also the nature of contemporary culture you want to be able to what's the what's the most common phrase in the world right now like add your comments here that's the that's modern life and there's a way in which there must be expressing something really basic to humanity because that's become you know the the commonality behind almost every experience now add your comments here that wasn't didn't exist fifteen years ago ten years ago it was like keep your comments to yourself yourself that was more the phrase back then yeah you watch and now it's something changed yeah and I think what changes that is just acknowledging yeah the way culture actually works that it's you know you would do this so then someone else adds that some well says that we're all kind of the stew is a to spice your studio okay well I guess this is what happens when artists talk right it's wrong thank you Cool J Cuba Cheers [Music] when we used to go up to the cross browse and the major Deegan and just get out and bomb the highways but I've always said to the people who accused me of being a pornographer I wouldn't mind I don't even have any objection to it I don't think it's true isn't that where the best art comes from is from like the purity of a statement it's amazing when you reach that moment that a pivotal moment people actually do see things that it when it's congruent with the way you see them was it feel like their David Sally saying about your work it's it's you know it's an honor I was judging your personality yeah how's that feel are you serious I'm sitting here with David Sally and cos and this is artists talk [Music] have you ever gotten into any legal problems nothing that was in control you know there's that fine line between creativity and just mania I think if I wasn't a writer I would be a neurotic strange person that people want to stay away from like harnessing your OCD harnessing my OCD that's a genius hey I'm joy Bryant and I am a board sport enthusiast I like to shred and on my new show across the board I'm gonna be shredding with the best of them shred yeah I want to shine yeah well let's do it my favorite friends celebrities athletes artists we're gonna snowboard we're gonna surf we're gonna skate for we're gonna have a great time well we both you know we won't game over you know went over some hurdles yeah I'll say yeah you break through shyness and Yee Tom how's it going - hey hon good to see you they I don't know if you hear make it a nut no I mean five name is tough we got right in shark I see it right there the first one here yeah Kevin yeah your reputation pissing people off like your blog this is people it pisses people off I'm looking this face pisses people off you know but yeah it sometimes sometimes I get along did your dad you know was he on you constantly telling you how to do it since he was in the business my dad was such a dick because he always tell me I suck and then when he's in front of you that that's my son that's my son he's real good [Music] Oh [Music] you

Channel: Reserve Channel

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Rating: 4.7276525 out of 5

Keywords: Reserve, Channel, Reserve Channel, Uncommon, Content, UCP, extraordinary people, culture, celebrities, doctors, chefs, non-fiction, non fiction, original, david salle, kaws, pharrell, Pharrell Williams (Rapper), phare, street art, postmodern, neoexpressionism, toys, sculpture, painting, pornography, art show, ART002

Id: ynZmqEJ9JLU

Length: 26min 33sec (1593 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 29 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Hehe she is naked... David is amazingly talented.

[u/fingaz77]

its a little nerdy, but kinda dope. Kevin Lyons did the Logo and animations