EK: How
does the Samadhi tank work? Did anyone actually use it?
JL: This object is designed to isolate the
mind and body from all known forms of external stimulation; tactile,
auditory, visual and olfactory stimulants. Sound, light, touch and
pressure on the body are eliminated by the blackened out sound proof
chamber. The effects of gravity and pressure are negated by floating
horizontally in 800 lbs. of Epsom salts and water solution. The effects
of temperature to the body are eliminated by adjusting the salt solution
temperature to the that of the outside body temperature which is 94.5
degrees. As a result of total deprivation, one is induced into a deeply
relaxed state. Traditional art stimulates the mind through external
visual and auditory stimuli, i.e. painting, sculpture and music etc.
Conversely, as an art object, the sensory deprivation tank functions as
an instrument which creates an internal mental movie of one's memories
and hypnogogic thoughts in order to see them from the point of
awareness. It was a non-dual awareness creating machine in which
the participant would disappear and become one with it.
The point was to wipe out the existence of the person.
See New York Times
Review
Roberta Smith
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Samadhi Sensory Deprivation Tank
1988 - 1990
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Arabian harem 1988
Olfactory Objects ( Series consisted of incense from an Arabian harem,
cow manure, Lysol disinfectant and many scented objects.
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EM: What inspired the making of
these olfactory objects?
JL: I remember
reading a book on the brain and memory and associations. etc.
I was thinking of a way to conjure images and thoughts in people's
minds without pictures or having to use one vision. This led
to the sensory deprivation tank and tactile objects. I wanted
the piece to exist right inside the persons head. For them to
literally become one with it but not visually.
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EM: This Arm and Hammer piece is
very funny?
JL: Yes, I was thinking of ways
to make gallery goers feel self conscious about their own body
odors. I also did these pieces with electric negative ionizer
deodorizers.
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Odor Absorber. 1987
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Untitled. (Eternal Now Machine) 1988
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EM:
How does this piece work?
JL:
The reel to reel tape machine in a sound proof box with
an extension leading to a microphone, which is contained
inside of a soundproof plexiglass box, the tape machine
records the sound inside the plexiglass box onto a
perpetual tape loop of erasing the sound and then
recording the sound and vice versa.
There is a
point in which the erased recording and the new
recording meets. This point is where destruction and
creativity become one. I was also thinking about time.
How time is really man made and in the mind. I
wanted to capture this timelessness, this infinity, or
eternity, visually - Somehow. An eternal now machine.
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EK: This is
hilarious. Post miminalism
JL: Yes.
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Untitled. 1989.
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Negation of experience. Hypnosis chamber. 1990
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EM: How does this
piece work?
JL:
Inside is a reclining chair, headphones and tape machine with
written instructions to turn it on. Once the participant turns on
the tape machine, I induce them into a light state of hypnosis
and implant a post hypnotic suggestion that once they step outside
of the curtain, the entire experience of listening to my
voice, seeing the tape machine and sitting in the chair inside the
curtain will be erased from their memory - so they reenter again
and again, their experience would be wiped out. This was more of
a metaphor for reincarnation, rebirth and death.
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EM: How did you
discover the paradichlorobenzene?
JL: Through my
interests in ancient alchemy.
Auroleus Phillipus Theostratus Bombastus von Hohenheim,
known as Paracelcus also described this chemical that sounds
very similar. Kekule once had a dream about the benzene ring.
A snake devouring it's own tail, the Ouroborus is
a symbol of the eternal unity of all things, the cycle of birth
and death from which the alchemists sought release and
liberation
The six sided
hexagon ring of this carbon compound is also found in the
patterns of snowflakes and honeycombs. 6 is the number of perfection in
ancient numerology. Its also the 6 pointed star of David and is
known as the philosophers stone and the secret to creativity and immortality.
As well as the shaktona, shiva/shatkti union symbol of moksha.
This also inspired
another piece I made, but of a man devouring his own tail.
I have always been fascinated by this material. I think I even
tried to eat it once as a kid. It's not just the odor I
find interesting, but the look of it and more importantly the
alchemistry of it,
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Untitled.
(Vanishing Object) Paradichlorobenzene and plexi glass. 1990
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Tactile objects. 1988
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EM: What do
these tactile objects contain?
JL: One
contains cow manure, one mink fur.
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EK: These pieces
depict intangible realities. What are inside of these?
JL: These two
contain baby bottles. Others contained other objects.
EK: What is
metagnomic perception?
JL: It is perception
that is
obtained from a source outside the five normal human senses.
It is seeing through the veil of maya. illusion, seeing reality
for how it really is through gnosis. At this time was heavily
into Gnosticism.
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Metagnomic
perception boxes. 1988.
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Cryonic Suspension Dewar, Liquid Nitrogen 1990
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EM:
How does this piece function?
JL: The cryonic suspension dewar, which I exhibited
in 1991 at the New Museum of Contemporary Art was kind of like a camera. A
cryonic suspension dewar is used to freeze something or someone in time.
The difference is that a photographic image deteriorates through time and so
does the paper it's on. The great thing about cryonic suspension is that
in liquid nitrogen, everything stops; there is no deterioration and no decay.
Time stands still in there. At 196° C, 320° F
below zero, all metabolic and biochemical activity is brought to a halt. At the opening,
the dewar was accompanied by a video showing the cryogenic procedure. Also
present were members of a cryonics organization (including scientists with
clipboards) available
to answer questions and sign up interested individuals. My intention was
for an art collector to buy the dewar so that when he/she died, they would be
frozen it it. The collector would become a part of the piece, "kept in
storage" for a while, and then resurrected in the future; kind of like a time
machine. Again this was also about immortality and the soul.
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EM: Where did you get this
twin modal from?
JL: From the same medical
catalogue where I got the testicles and the tongue and other
things. I
cut off the bottom parts and glued it together. I like loops and circles and the figure 8. Where the
intestines meet is the Tan Tien, or lower Chakra, symbol of
infinity.
EM: What is that?
JL:
In
Taoist internal Alchemy the lower Tan Tien or "Elixar
Field" is known as the Cauldren, because it is the place where
the practicioner "gathers, blends, and cooks" his or her sexual,
vital, and spiritual energies: the first stage in the generation
of an immortal spirit being. This is perhaps equivalent to the
Western Alchemical "Philosopher's Stone" or "Elixar of
Youth". Also known as non dual awareness.
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Yin
& Yang Study for conjoined medical modals. 1990
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EM: How did you make these soap
pieces?
JL: In the kitchen sink with
Ivory soap. I grated bars of it and then steamed it, to make it
malleable.
I had left them out in my studio one night and in
the morning, discovered that rats had gnawed at the face,
so I made about 15 more and left them out. The first ones
had fake crystals in the eye sockets and ear holes and also stuck
some into the head
with pins.
This also led to my interest in flesh eating viruses found
in the feces of rodents I was looking into at the time. This
was the link to my para work.
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Exorcism by
Gormandizal Expurgation. Soap. 1991
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(Left
out in the studio to be gnawed at by rats) One of 24 heads.
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Untitled, 1987
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EM: Did you
make these crutches?
JL: No, I
actually injured my knee carrying this heavy object back to my
studio and used these for walking.
EM: Is this a
metaphor for something else.
JL: Could be,
yes.
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EM: Can you tell
me about this piece?
JL: Elizabeth
Kubler Ross wrote a great book about death and dying and the
different stages of it. I think this could be one of the stages.
You can't see it
in the black and white photo but the colour of
the sewer pipe is a really beautiful rusty golden brown.
In contrast to the pure white starched linen sheets, it's quite
stunning.
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Wind pipe.
Varnished sewer pipe in bed. 1987.
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Displaced
habitat, Procyon Lotor . 1987
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EK: Tell me about
this caged raccoon coat?
JL: I
rescued a family of raccoons once that were trapped in an empty
dumpster. They climbed in but could not climb out.
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EM: When I look
at this weighted piece, it reminds me of Joseph Beuy's fat and
felt work with a regressive Freudian twist. It is
immediately funny yet quickly becomes menacing. Is that real manure in the
pants?
JL: Yes, I had
bought bags of it for some experiments I was doing. I had made a
bunch of heads out of it by boiling the manure and adding
adhesives.
I was actually
wearing those trousers in my studio one night while reading
about Hamlet defecating in his pants. I took them off and tied the
bottoms into knots and poured the manure into them.
I
liked the use and the combination of the weighty manure and the
lightness of the balloons. Also the universal triggers and
complimentary colors of the red and green balloons, like
flashing traffic lights, STOP and GO. Becoming one with the
excrement.
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Untitled.
Trousers, cow manure,
balloons. 1985
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Divided
Self. Bowler hats, antique church bench, earth, 1987
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EK: Are those real bowler hats
on the bench?
JL: Yes.
I think the bench is an antique Shaker. I let this bench sit to
gather dust in my studio these last 19 years. This was one of my
first pieces on non duality awareness.
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Non terrestrial Black Bird of
Paradise 1983-86 School chairs and black board, chicken wire, taxidermied crow,
glasses, photos
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Elizabeth
McKenzie: John, this is one of your earliest assemblage pieces -
it is more, how shall I say this "tidy" then some of your later
works. Can you tell me about the selection of the various
elements (the pictures in the background, the black crow,
the academic's glasses, the caged atmosphere)? It
feels both critical and poetic at the same time. Please
tell me a bit more about this piece, especially the crow
John LeKay: I cut those
images out of an old art book on paintings. The chairs and blackboard came from an old school in the Bronx. The chairs are
hanging on a fashion clothes rack I painted with gold leaf and
the bird is a crow which is taxidermied. The glasses are
broken and the entire piece is caged in with chicken wire.
Yes it's much
more tidier than later pieces. Much more formal and elegant. It took me awhile to loosen up and break away from
being so ridged and clean.
I find crows really interesting. They have
been used in many cultures and in divination, rituals, art and
storytelling. They are also the totem animal for some native
Americans. The spiritual importance of the raven to Native
peoples is still recognized. Many view the raven as the creator
of the world and bringer of daylight. The myths of the raven are
a strong social and religious element of their culture. In many
myths, Raven is a wise guy, trickster and practical joker who
instilled his mischievous spirit in everything he touched.
The Raven in these myths was no ordinary bird. He had remarkable
powers and could change into whatever form he wished. He could
change from a bird to a man, could fly and walk, and swim
underwater as fast as any fish. Ravens themselves are still
thought of as birds of balance between man and nature.
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EM: Where did you
exhibit
this
Taxidermy Crow piece?
JL.I
showed the taxidermy crow piece at the Bronx Museum. The
bird was later used in another piece I did.
The Separation of Church and State. The broken glasses are a literal Freudian reference. I was
really into him at the time, especially his book Totem
and Taboo. I placed them in from of a Lucian Freud photo
glued to the blackboard.
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EM:
There is a long tradition of artists painting slaughtered
animals. This piece reminds of Francis Bacon.
JL;
I really love Bacon's earlier work. Also Rembrandt's slaughtered
ox. They both inspired and influenced this lamb piece and
meat series in 86 - 87.
I made a more sculptures using animal carcasses such as the cut
open decapitated lamb nailed to a piece of plywood. In his
particular piece, This is my Body this is my Blood
I like the way the grain of the wood matches the colour of the lamb and blends in like camouflage.
I find all these patterns like grains in wood, meat,
fascinating. Especially superimposed, one on top of another.
However see this about gnosticism and the Gospel of
Thomas. When the outer becomes the inner and finding heaven
within.
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This is my
body, This is my blood. 1987 Lamb on wood.
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EM:
Is this a sculpture or photography?
JL:
Photography
on sculpture.
Vik Muniz helped me take the photos. We shared a studio at
the time.
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