Montgomery Perry Smith

Could you tell me about yourself and your history in Chicago?

I came to Chicago from Dallas, TX in 2004 to get my BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  I originally planned on studying drawing and painting, but quickly moved to the Fiber and Material Studies department. When I graduated in 2008, I started to get involved with the Harold Arts Residency and have worked closely with them since.

Montgomery Perry Smith

You use a lot of found materials in your work – decorative flowers, glass domes, furniture parts, etc. Where do you hunt for these, and what attracts you to certain items? Do you generally set off knowing what you’re looking for, or do the pieces follow the objects you find?

I find most of my materials at thrift and craft stores. Sometimes I’ll have a specific object to find when I’m making a piece, but a couple pieces have been inspired by the random items I come across. These objects tend to be strange yet familiar, and carry their own loaded history.

Montgomery Perry Smith

Your pieces can be really confrontational, and some (like Soul Searcher or Bottom Feeder) sort of loom in space in a freaky way, but the materials you use and the internal parts also invite up-close interaction. How do you want viewers to engage with your work?

I want viewers to get up close and explore my pieces. Many of them have hidden pockets and crevices that require further inspection.  I like these different layers of exploring; there will always be the photographed image of the piece, but the viewer needs to have their face up in it to fully engage it.

Montgomery Perry Smith, oh honey baby (detail)

Could you describe a piece you’re working on now?

I’m finishing up a piece for the “pit worship” show right now. It has a baby blue pallet and a lot of lace and daisies. It’s very celebratory but sickening at the same time.

Montgomery Perry Smith

If you’d like to see more of Montgomery Perry Smith, check out his new show Pit Worship opening this Saturday, September 11th from 7-11 PM @ Johalla Projects, 1561 N Milwaukee Ave.

I recently interviewed artist Shawnee Barton for a short profile piece @ Newcity. Here’s the whole interview here.

Shawnee Barton, What Color Is My Parachute?

Lets talk about your new show Artist: Unemployed at LivingRoom gallery, which addresses your experience as an artist during the current recession. How has the function of your practice changed since day jobs started disappearing?

On a practical level the recession has helped my practice.  Because I can’t find employment, I have more time to make work.  I’ve also started thinking about the cost of materials more, which is an important consideration when you are making art about being unemployed.

Conceptually, the recession hasn’t changed my practice a lot either.  When I am spending a lot of time thinking and researching a certain problem, issue or idea, it usually works it’s way into my art.   If I am fully obsessed with an idea, I can make an installation full of pieces while trying to work through individual components of complex issues.  In the past I’ve made installations about consumption, relationship dynamics, the creation of self-identity, and this time around it is about the recession and my inability to get a job.

There are many artists out there making work about the economy on a macro level by doing things like taking photographs of foreclosed homes, writing narratives about failing industries, etc.   I chose to address it in a much more personal and therapeutic way because for me the easiest way to tackle big issues in life and art is to bring it down to a personal level and to keep a sense of humor.

I started thinking about the recession during the last election while was serving on Obama’s national arts policy committee.  I want to live in a culturally rich country and to help people understand why it is important to have art in their lives. I also worry about what is going to happen to the scores of unemployable art school grads who owe tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, and I passionately hope that the Obama administration will create an artists corps.  This will help both of the above issues.  When kids learn about and make art in school, they appreciate art as adults.  It is a very simple cause and effect relationship that is supported by research.  And when the American work force is filled with adults that have been trained to think creatively and to use innovation throughout their lives, our country will prosper.

Shawnee Barton, Pink Slip

A lot of your pieces are really funny, with a lot of clever comic timing elements alongside more serious issues. What role does humor play in your work?

I use humor in my work for a number of reasons.

In general, I don’t like art that takes itself too seriously.  Humor allows me to address serious topics without making work that feels heavy-handed or angst-y.

Humor also makes art accessible to a wider audience.   I loved that there were a couple kids playing with my art at the opening last Friday.  This kind of inclusiveness is important to me.  Just because art is fun or funny doesn’t mean it’s simple or dumb.  It can be complex and offer something different to different people.

Finally, I use humor as a coping mechanism.  As a kid, I was most attracted to the circus clowns with tears painted on their faces.   This contradiction still feels relevant because it reminds me that there is just a fine line between humor and tragedy.  Humor connects us, and it allows us to relate with one another.  It’s a tool that makes discussing difficult topics easier.  All of the work in this show was inspired by the genuine sentiment that if I stop laughing, even for just a moment, I will surely start crying.  On one level, my bike piece is just a funny and elaborate pun on the title of a cliche self-help book.  But creating a sculpture about pedaling a bike while never getting anywhere also provided me a metaphorical outlet to cope with my own frustrating, depressing, indulgent, and seemingly never-ending existential crisis.

Shawnee Barton, Embroidery

I always like learning about artists’ hobbies, and you’re rumored to be a pretty solid card player. Has your experience as a winsome poker player influenced your work or your practice, or do you consider them two entirely separate pursuits?

There are some cross-overs between art and poker in my life.   I learned a lot about the game while I was in art school.  My good friend Ross Moreno, who finished his MFA in sculpture, and I were at a game that got busted by the police while we were at SAIC.   The buy in was only $20, and I remember that feeling that it seemed pretty ridiculous for cops to spend their time on such trivial things.

I was also the teaching assistant for Jim McManus’s Literature of Poker class during both years of my MFA program.   As graduation present to myself, I entered a World Series of poker event and ended up finishing second out of 1200 players.   Jim was in Vegas then, and he also made a final table that year.  It was really special to share such an exciting moment with him.   He has been such a great mentor to me—even though he doesn’t cut me any slack at the poker table.  He recently included an interesting anecdote about a bluff I made during that 2006 WSOP tournament in Cowboys Full. It meant a lot to me to be included in that book because it is very special to those of us in the poker community since it is the most complete written history of the game we love.

I haven’t made any art about poker. They feel like pretty separate endeavors, and I am not the best at balancing both in my life at the same time.   During the summers, when I play the most poker, I don’t make any art.  And in the weeks before a show goes up, I don’t play cards for big money.   Mentally, I don’t think I can do both well at the same time.  They both take a lot of focus and encourage obsession. I don’t really know how to do things half way, and when I am playing cards regularly, the first things I think about when I wake up are hands that I have recently played.  And when I am making a lot of art, I am trying to reconcile issues in pieces I am working on right up until the moment I fall asleep in bed each night.

I do write a lot about poker though.  I am currently working on “Roaming Blog” project where I keep a blog on other people’s blogs.   I have a post on feminism and poker in a new blog at Bad at Sports called “Off Topic”.  I wrote this story when I was living in Chicago and playing professionally.

There is a new casino near Chicago with a thriving poker room, but in most parts of the country, the bad economy has hurt the games.  Less people are entering tournaments and fewer people have extra money to throw around.  These things make it a much harder way to make a living. Because of this, I am not playing as much now.  I have had to spend a lot of my bankroll on art and living expenses.  But hopefully when the economy turns around, I will be able to find a job in the arts or get back to the tables full-time again.

Shawnee Barton

Shawnee Barton’s Artist: Unemployed shows until Saturday, January 9^th at LivingRoom Gallery, 1530 West Superior Street.

Brennan McGaffey quietly maintains one of the most interesting art practices in the city of Chicago, creating interactive, mysterious urban interjections with his Intermod Series. Enjoy the interview, a Chicago Art Review first.

Tell me a little about yourself and the history and goals of the Intermod Series. What other projects were involved?

Around 1999 I realized that a shift had occurred in the way I was working and in the way it was realized and presented. It no longer had any relationship to galleries or gallery spaces but was focused instead on methods of propagation outward with unknown results. At the time I was listening to a lot of shortwave radio and began to think that the best audience imaginable was the devoted shortwave enthusiast who spends their nights glued to their kit with headphones on and a pot of coffee, listening and drawing out faint signals.

Also, around that time the Conet Project was released, which is an intense 4-disc compilation of samples of the now well-known shortwave number stations and I remember listening to it all in one sitting. Someone had to be out there listening for these, ready to record them. These were the people I wanted to interact with. Hobbyists who really cared or the similarly obsessed. Even if it meant no one else would be interested.

The resulting activities I named the Intermod Series. Intermodulation occurs when two or more signals mix generating a new or modified signal. The Intermod Series engages through creative interference. Some examples include altering the electromagnetic field surrounding the electric-power grid, FM radio and boosted CB radio transmissions, and launching rockets in the city to alter the atmosphere. Developed to have the potential for interaction, the projects are free and distributed with 1-800 numbers, embroidered patches and stickers, radio monitoring frequencies, or online forums and journals.

Brennan Mcgaffey, Utility-intertied Signal Generation & Transfer

Your next event involves your KC-135 Ground Tracking Network. Could you give me a brief description of what the project is and where it came from?

The KC-135 Ground Tracking Network is a skywatch program to recruit KC-135 Stratotanker airplane spotters. Earlier this week I sent out a Spotters’ Guide in the mail to carefully selected addresses. This guide was inspired by the Airplane Spotters’ Handbooks that were distributed to the public during the Second World War and is designed to give you an introduction to spotting and show you the specific characteristics of the KC-135 airplane. Once you receive this, and decide to participate, there is an online forum where you sign-up to become a member. This forum will generate a constantly updating database that can be studied online at anytime. As a spotter, this is where you go to to discuss your findings, ask questions, post photos, and so on. Members have unlimited access to the forum and are eligible to receive an embroidered patch. The Ground Tracking Network puts eyes to the sky, monitoring and recording when others won’t. You should join!

KC-135 Spotters Guide

Last year you showed a scale model of the KC-135 at VONZWECK, and you’ve got another event coming up as part of the KC-135 project titled Fire & Judgment which also involves a fabricated model among other things. What can we expect to see at this next event?

The members will determine how the network progresses by their participation. That’s the most important part. But in addition, there will be a one-time purging event & gathering where the activated model will be presented ‘live’ with an indeterminate outcome. This will begin at midnight on December 2nd and end permanently at 1:00 a.m. If you’re considering becoming a member or are sympathetic, this might be something worth attending. But don’t come expecting an art show. Or an art space.

Brennan McGaffey, Fire & Judgment

What do you mean by “activated”? You also used the words, purging, and indeterminate outcome – should we be worried?

What you saw at the VONZWECK space was a preview. On December 2nd, it will no longer be a preview. Personally, I’m a little worried having never participated in something like this but it should reflect how you approach the event. If you engage passively to observe, you should have nothing to worry about. If you come with a more focused awareness then you should already know the risks and prepare yourself accordingly.

Brennan McGaffey, Fire & Judgment

More information on Brennan McGaffey, the Intermod Series, the KC-135 Ground Tracking Network, and Fire & Judgment can be found at the Intermod Series website. You can read more about his radio projects here and here.