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April 18, 2015

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Art Basel 2014 [or] "I'm in a Gallery, Bitch!"

December 19, 2014

Art Basel is an event I’ve always read about, but never gave much thought to attending until a few years back. I suppose I never really thought I belonged there…I’m not a billionaire and therefore don’t collect art. Also, the only artists I can name are the ones you typically learn about in high school or college 101 classes, but in December 2014 I was in for a real education.

When I first sat down to write this post, I wanted to simply talk about Miami - how I had never really been to Miami and how I was basically expecting to be walking amongst throngs of these tools. The fortunate reality is that Miami is really nothing like what Chicago, namely the “Chiami” crew would lead you to believe…yes, fuck you @ChiamiLifestyle you’re ruining not one, but two perfectly good cities.

I digress.

Art Basel is pretty gnarly; for one week in December people from all over the world descend upon the relatively small city of Miami - all in the name of 'art'. Some come to purchase, some to look, while others simply come for the party. Basel itself is held at the convention center and is difficult to describe without using words like ‘enormous’ or ‘overwhelming’. There is so much stimulus - paintings, sculptures, photography, interactive exhibits, film, etc that museum fatigue [yes that’s a thing] sets in within about 2 hours. It took me two days to navigate Basel itself and I still didn’t come close to seeing everything.

In addition to Basel there are other exhibitions that are held all over Miami during the same time frame such as: Pulse, Scope, Design Miami, NADA, and Aqua to name just a few. I was lucky enough to have procured a pass from my friends at Artsy that would allow me access to all of these exhibitions. For the next 4 days I shuttled [and UBER'd] around Miami trying to dedicate a ‘morning’ to one particular exhibition and an ‘afternoon’ to another. This method worked for a few days, but the deeper I went, the longer I stayed…I was on to something. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but every exhibition I went to was slightly more ‘underground’ than the last - if there isn’t a designated shuttle then that is ‘underground’.

"The Death of Love 2" by Katsutoshi Yuasa

After a few days of soaking it all in [including the aloe for my sunburn] I thought I should get some of these thoughts down. Art Basel is the 'Main Event' with famous people like Jay-Z, Leo D, Pharrell Williams, etc. looking at [and tweeting about] famous pieces from famous artists, but you never read about any famous person popping by the smaller exhibitions where in my humble, non-celebrity opinion the real art is. Is it because they haven’t heard of the artists that are showcasing at the smaller exhibitions or [more likely] is it because it's not 'The Main Event'? As much as I’d like to believe it’s the former, odds are it’s the latter and that’s totally fine. Each of the above mentioned celebs are artists in their own right and have earned the right to go to whatever they want.

The point here is not to say that one [exhibition] is better than the other and it certainly is not to position myself as an art critic. The point here is simple…OPEN YOUR EYES and find what you like. If you fancy yourself creative then DON’T BE LAZY and go with what you know or with what everyone "says" they know - there are so many beautiful, fascinating, intricate, creative things out there and while it’s so easy to simply go to ‘The Main Event’ the REAL tastemakers & trendsetters won’t be found there. And if they are, they're probably not the ones posting every single piece they pass by to their ‘insta’ [that’s Instagram, people] feed to show how cultured and cool they are. This is my challenge to you, creative industry. 2015 is around the corner. There is some really amazing stuff out there, but there's also a lot of bullshit so open your eyes, put down your 'insta' and let’s see what you’ve got.

Love.Matt.

ULTRA SPECIAL THANK YOU'S TO: Stas @ Artsy, Apollonia @ Gallery on Wade, Yuki @ Yuki-Sis Gallery and UPS

Here are a few SFW images from the event.

...Or Die

April 8, 2014

Once a skater, always a skater. It’s a mentality just as much as it is the actual act of skateboarding. I’ve been skating since I was about 12 years old…on and off as I got older [and more prone to injuries]. Skateboarders, though perceived as counterculture social outcasts, see the world through a different lens- where one person may see 6 stairs leading up to a library or school, a skateboarder immediately wonders if they can kick flip that stair set or if there’s enough clearance to boardslide that ledge to the left. The whole world becomes a secret playground accessible only to those who know where to look and what to look for. Growing up, I absolutely idolized Rodney Mullen. I wanted to be this dude so bad, but his skating was on another level, a place reserved for gods.

I would highly recommend watching this interview with Rodney Mullen. He is much older now than he was in the above clip, but listening to him speak is just as interesting as watching him skate.

I always had respect for Rodney because he could some of the most incredible things with a piece of wood on wheels. Things that I would never be able to do even with all the practice time in the world. It’s easy to write it off by saying “he’s a gifted skateboarder” or “he’s professional and that’s all he does”. Both are true statements, but there is something else and it’s even more simple of an explanation: he gets up after he falls. Again and again and again. It’s something more than persistence that gets him back on that skateboard - watch the clip of him skating again or even the TED clip [below] and listen to him even speak about skateboarding and tell me that there is anything less than sheer joy on his face. He skates to live, and he expresses himself through the innovation and invention of tricks. If you watch the interview piece above, you’ll see an emotion that can’t be faked when he talks about skateboarding and what it means to him. It’s almost as if he needs it to live…skate or die - that was what really struck me most.

What would it look like, and more importantly feel like, if we as creators had this connection to our creations? Not just the successful projects, but the myriad failures that lead up to that one success? If we looked at each failure as an opportunity to get up, adjust, and try it again. When innovation or creation is our life then we better feel and speak the way about these lives the way that Rodney Mullen speaks about skateboarding. One of my favorite parts of this interview was the anecdote about the professors after TED talk. These were MIT faculty coming up to Rodney and expressing their inability to teach this exact intangible to their students. These decorated, highly educated professors can understand and teach some of the most complex subjects on the planet, but they cannot teach their students drive. This drive comes from within and you either have it or you don’t. The question is, do you have what it takes inside to overcome what happens on the outside?

The creative industry is gnarly, no doubt. We’re not Blunt sliding 30-stair railings or boosting 30’ out of a vert ramp, but we’re putting everything we have on the line every day - our names, our reputations, our ideas - things that could just as easily be kept safe and sound inside our minds. So why subject ourselves to the torture of critiques and potential rejection? Because we BELIEVE in our idea, design, application, screenplay, etc. We believe in our idea so much that putting it out there is the only option. We want to innovate, and in a way, give back not just to the creative community, but also improve lives outside of our immediate community. Nobody gets innovation right on the first try just as a skate rarely stomps a trick the first time they try it. Here’s the best part - even if a skater stomps the trick on their first try, what do they do next? You guessed it, they try and use that trick in combination with another. This drive is internal and they do it [innovate] not because they like the sound of the word ‘innovator’ [or entrepreneur], but because they simply wonder if it can be done. Obsidian wants to encourage everyone to push themselves creatively, professionally, and personally. Just make sure that you remember why you are pushing yourself in the first place. That is all.

Additional TED Talks w/ Rodney Mullen

"On Getting Up Again"

Rodney Mullen is widely considered to be the most influential skateboarder in skateboarding history. He shares with humility and passion how the constant search for improvement has led to outstanding innovations and how we can all learn from lessons of great skateboarders.

"Pop an Ollie and Innovate"

The last thing Rodney Mullen, the godfather of street skating, wanted were competitive victories. In this exuberant talk he shares his love of the open skateboarding community and how the unique environments it plays in drive the creation of new tricks -- fostering prolific ingenuity purely for passion's sake.

Razor Report: Q3.Y13

January 17, 2014

The Razor Report is back! This issue covers all of the activities from 4th quarter of 2013. Though Obsidian always strives to look forward, sometimes we like to reflect on accomplishments as well...

Click HERE to read the report

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