Interview with

Elizabeth McKenzie

2005

Elizabeth McKenzie:  What material is the red levitating skull made from?

JL: Wax electricity, magnets, a mini computerized system and Swarovski crystals. This was one of the first ones after Sangulipe  that I did in the early 90s with para crystals.

This piece also has something dangling off it.

EM: What is that?

JL: Testicles made out of wax with half a dozen Swarovski crystals implanted in them. I did that for a couple of reasons. One was for balance and weight. Like a plumb bob. (You can see them clearly in the video) To make these levitate they have to be level. Weight is crucial. This is all a part of the science of it.

In the late 80s I did some synthetic red dangling testicles with cancer tumors for palpation purposes on filament wire 

See video Levitation pieces

 

 

Sangulipe II (Bloody gobbet) 2002- 5 

Naljorpa. 2002 - 2004 (Levitating)

 

 

EM: What it is this blue head made out of?

JL:  This is also made out of wax , electricity , magnets, a mini computerized system and Swarovski crystals. Its based on these Tibetan magicians that levitate.  I actually wanted to levitate a para piece but its too complicated , so I used the Swarovski crystals instead implanted in the heads. I also made some levitating Sadhu's. Zen monks and a couple of geisha girls and a skull with a reversed jaw .

EM: When did you begin making these and using Swarovski crystals,

JL: 2000 - 01. I got them from my friend who is a fashion designer.  She was using them on bathing suits and dress's at the time.

 

EM: How does this Buddha piece work?

JL: The chemical crystal Buddha head is evaporating as the fans suck and blow the gas through the tubes and into the empty vitrine.  The gas will eventually solidify and attach itself to the armature in the empty vitrine. Like slow alchemical teleportation. 

Drinking Clouds (Para Buddha) 2003 - Present

JL; The head will eventually end up on this side.

 

EM: How did you make this piece?

JL: With a blow torch.

 

Abyss.  2002

EM: Is this from the same mold as the white angel?

JL: Yes, I made another one of these and added the gas mask.

EM: What inspired this piece.

JL: Nuclear war, acid rain, uranium bombs and the depletion of the ozone. All those lovely things.

It was also about cancer , AIDS, Ebola, bubonic plague and other exotic diseases. This  went right over most peoples heads. You would have to be alchemist or a mathematician to see the connection. Paradichlorobenzene is used to disinfect dwellings with the Ebola virus in Africa.  Also linked to cancer and that led to my interest in flesh eating viruses. This sculptures are devouring themselves and some of them look like Pac- men. Find it interesting how Pac-men are used in creative visualization proposes for children with Leukemia and AIDS, cancer etc. The Pac men gobble up the virus. It works in some cases. 

 

Sun-Kissed Adrenaline Sonata .1987- reworked in June 2000

EM:  The wild pig, deer and ram have been conjoined into a three headed monster, covered in barbed wire and hypodermic syringes - like some insane scientific lab experiment.

JL: These are taxidermied re-salvaged animals I got from a dumpster. The piece is scored with a distorted William Orbit soundtrack and the ladder is balanced on a bed frame.   The microphone is aimed at the screaming pig's mouth.  I used Christmas tree lights to make a haloish barbed wire crown of thorns round the deer's head as if it were caught in the headlights. The mike is picking up the silent pigs scream.

Abhayakaragupta 1996

Abhayakaragupta 1996

EM: Is this the Elephant man?

JL: Yes, it's a plastic skull covered in clay and wax. The hair is made from a floor mop; the walking stick is made from a piece of pipe.  The cloth around his neck is a rag I used to clean an oil tank.  I placed a rock under one corner of the pedestal to create a limp.

John Merrick.  Skull, wax, mop, walking stick. 1995

Delires de L'Ange Neutre   1993

(Delirium of the Neutral Angel)

 Shown at the Cohen Gallery, New York, in 1993

 

EM: What is this skull based on?

JL: This is the very first one that was inspired by an ancient Mayan crystal skull. The Mitchell Hedges one and some others.  This was the second  one I did. I showed this paradichlorobenzene crystal skull with in the project room at the Cohen Gallery in 1993.

This is a para-skull with a nose added to it. Got the idea for the nose from looking at a Giacometti sculpture. This is from an interview in 93.

 

"Right now the shapes of the heads are kind of grotesque, skull like and demonic; but the dazzling material makes them look like enormous diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds"  Interview with Kenny Schachter 1993  more

 

Spiritus Callidus # 1  (Crystal skull)   Paradichlorobenzene. 1993

Sangulipe 1993

Spiritus Callidus # 2

 

EM: Where did you find these objects to make the assemblage pieces?

JL; Different places; mostly on the street, but also at antique shops. I also made some others from this body of work entitled -

Stations of The Double Crossed, Desperado, Last Celestial Waltz in the Tropic of Cancer and Percodan Purgatory

See interview with Damien Hirst  

See Flash Art Review

See Art In America Review

Lazyboy Jesus

These colours don't run

EM: Do they all have sound tracks?

JL: Yes. This one has Jimmy Hendrix music. It also had jumping jack fire crackers at one point that I would set off on studio visits.

This one had the sound of birds singing in the woods

 

EM: Was Pig like Heyoka magazine.

JL: No, it was much more subversive.

EM: Who else worked on it?

JL: Erik Oppenheim, Gavin Brown, Gretchen Faust and Damien Hirst. Lisa Spellman, Kenny Schachter, Tanya Bonakdar, Colin Deland , Pat Hearn and Georg Kargl from Austria were also involved as art dealers selling it.

EK: How did you come up with the name?

JL. Nostradamous has an apocalyptic quatrain about men in flying machines with pig snouts.  It means Politically Incorrect Geniuses.

EM.  Where and how did Pig Magazine originate and what were your intentions with it?

JL:  Pig Magazine was an experiment and exercise on risk taking. It served as a "third eye" monitor and critique of the press and other magazines. It was an open forum; somewhat like "Speaker's Corner" in Hyde Park.  There was a section where artists could respond to reviews and where critics could review other critic's reviews; also drawings, photographs, poetry, essays and cartoons. I wanted to point out paradoxes by satirizing and decoding subliminal messages in advertising, fashion, the film industry and the art world.

EM:.  Where did you come up with the name John Decay?

JL:. There is a condition in Erik Fromms book (The Heart of Man) called "The Syndrome of Decay". John Decay is an exaggerated caricature.  Decay is a kind of a post-modern-day social critic; a punk version of Erasmus, Aristophanes, Rabelais. To satirize something, one has to exaggerate a little. The reason I chose Decay was to add some vitriolic spice and of course humor. It was not just a question of using a pseudonym as a coat of armor. It was more allegorical than that.

 

EM:  Was pig a reaction to the New York early 90s PC movement?

JL: Yes, I wanted to show a fresher perspective and shake things up a bit.

EK: Who contributed to pig?

 

JL: Mainly artists. This is part of the list below.

 

 

Dan Asher, Ashley King, Howard McNeil, Robert Mahoney, Joel Holub, Anna de Portella, Eric Oppenheim, Colin DeLand, Pat Hearn, Rachel Harrison, Kenny Schachter, Gavin Brown, Lyn LeKay, Kristin Oppenhiem, Cary Liebowitz, Chuck Nanny, John Trembly, Stefan Stux, Pruit and Early, Peter Seidler, Dennis Oppenheim, Chandra Oppenehim, Jutta Koelter, Robyn Glazer, Hal Hirschorn, Kevin Landers, Richard Phillips, Charles Graff, Sean Landers, Kenny Goldsmith, Rikrit Tiravaneja, David Kelleran, Lisa Spellman, Charlotte Harvey, Kevin Warren, Gretchen Faust, Sivia Nassar, Joshua Dextor, G. Roger Dawson, Fred Tomaselli, Henry Tom, John Erwinaka,  Eric O, Paula Hayes, Chris Borrok, Lois Nesbit, Jerry Saltz, Howard Haley, Benjamin Weil, Conceptual Clearing House Ltd., Derrick Armor, Elke Kruystofek, Kim Jones, Ron Roschelieu, Jocko, Monique Safford, Alexander David Neel, Lama Anagonka Govinda, George Brecht, Henry Michaux, Marcia Tucker, Keith Downman, Melvin C. Goldstein, Adrienne Rich, Chwang Tzu, Laura Miller, Italo Colvino, Sarah Schwartz, Ivan Roman Jimenez, Maria Vaitez, Kabir, Francesco Bonami, Simon Cerigo, G. Gilmore, Skowman Hastanan, Damien Hirst, Karl Holmquist, Sue Williams, Andy Yoder, Jan Mardian, Marilyn Minter, Daniel Moynihan, Nancy Smith, John Tower, Susanne Trimble, Marcus Harvey, Angus Fairhurst    

EM: What are these paintings made out of  and how did you make them?

JL. Acrylic lacquer.  Metallic car paint. I did some experiments on the smaller ones with an electric hair dryer.  The larger ones with a electric fan. I also set them up on a kind of see-saw swivel table made out of plywood and swiveled and tilted them to get the various shapes, Each one was done extremely slowly and very carefully, because it was very easy for the paint to run over the edges. Which I did not want.

EM: What inspired these.

JL:  Looking at viruses, bacteria, mycoplasma, bubonic plague, AIDS,  cancer in microscopic slides in a science catalogue. Quite beautiful under a microscope.

The process by Taoist concept of Wu -Wei. I had been reading The Watercourse way by Alan Watts at the time and wanted to use the least amount of effort as possible.  I showed these at the Cohen Gallery project room In New York with my first crystal scull in 1993.

The native navigated his canoe by the stars and peacefully disappeared into the Bermuda triangle. # 1. 16 x 20 1992

Vampire bat with hypoglycemic complications. 1992

EM: When did you make these.

JL: Around 1990-94

Average Constitution of Agent Orange Contamination

1992

Neutral angel 1992

The native navigated his canoe by the stars and peacefully disappeared into the Bermuda triangle. # 2  Acrylic lacquer on canvas.  5ft x7ft. 1993

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