November 18, 2014

Scenes from an Art Fair, Trying Not to Be An Art Fair

By Julie Baumgardner

Photo: Stefan Bruggemann

When Independent Projects swept into town (it only ended this past Saturday), many expected the same kind of fatigue that comes with attending yet another art fair. In fact, the new extension of Independent seemed less like a “cash ‘n’ carry” convention, where galleries switch up their wares as they sell, and more like an actual show of sorts — you can look to Jerry to see what deserved stage time of the solo-booth format of the fair.

In that vein, at Parra & Romero, the artist Stefan Brüggemann, who, in his words, “makes work about existentialism, and how that incorporates into society,” was given space to create a 22-panel mural on-site, prior to the ten days that the fair ran. SEEN asked Brüggemann, who, in between palling around with his friend, fellow artist Adam McEwen (who just moved to a huge Long Island City studio) and dandy-intellectual Glenn O’Brien (slated to write the intro to Brüggemann’s forthcoming book), to give us the shot-by-shot of realizing his Headlines & Last Line in the Movies (Fluorescent) piece. Watching paint dry has never been more enticing.

“I came several days before to take care of the work so I could totally be integrated to that moment.”

"The idea of this piece is I use the last lines of traumatic movies, from Citizen Kane to Wolf of Wall Street, and then recent headlines from the moment I’m doing the work — I research them the same day or the day before. The idea is that I mix them together and spray-paint the text."

“Lots of the headlines were about the current situation in America and its problems. This work is about how the world is shaped, so I tried to be as universal as possible, but obviously, in this case, it was more focused on America. America represents the world, in some sense, and it’s a powerful nation, it influences everybody.”

“The idea of having my handwriting — called the third paint — is kind of to make the text large, how these internal voices subliminally shape you. When you’re walking down the street or hearing the news, or hear the dialogue from the words that speak to you and shape you as a person.”

“I never make the distinction between the colors, I just try to use the colors to create contrast, and in this specific installation, I liked the fluorescent orange because it’s what you see on the streets of New York, on the construction sites, or the motor signs, on the pavement. You encounter this color all the time."

“I live between London and Mexico City. I really like big cities, they become the expression of civilization. I believe New York is expressive of how the world is trying to be.”

“I found the orange emblematic of New York — very loud — but it's about transformation all the time. If you see the orange, you know they’re going to do something there.”

“For this location, I wanted to use linen — for the context of an art fair, it’s more a material that fits the commodity of an art fair.”

“The piece is made of difference canvases, of different sections, and then the sections are sold individually.”

“I like that the work will be impossible to see again — it can be done because we can find all of the collectors, but I like [that] it’s going to different parts of the world. Some stayed in New York, some went to Paris, others to Turkey. Eighty percent were sold.”

“It’s a comment on contemporary society, and how fiction and reality and drama and the media [are] shaping contemporary society. I don’t have a political position of whether the situation is good or bad — I just want to give a fingerprint of life.”

“I like to create doubts about the world because that makes you an individual. You have the freedom to decide.”

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Scenes from an Art Fair, Trying Not to Be An Art Fair

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