The Fluff Constructivists (will end your universe)
Back in my art school daze I loved attending visiting artists lectures because they would always motivate me to work harder, whether the art was something I thought was great or something I thought was… well, bad.
The Fluff Constructivists, a loosely unified artmaking league begun by core members Mikel Bisbee-Durlam and Ethan Kruszka (both former classmates of mine at the University of Northern Iowa who migrated to Florida and graduated from the USF MFA program), fall under the category of artists who motivate me to work and think harder. Now, I consider myself a learned man of letters, yet I do not claim to know what the Fluff’s art projects are really about, even after reading their explainatory nomenclature. But their huge output and creative courageousness alone are enough to make me re-evaluate my entire existence as an artist. And that is nothing to sneeze at.
Animals made of latex and (what else?) fluff, lumber, gore, social interaction, video and sound elements permeate the Fluff’s installations, which have been exhibited far and wide. Recently, both Fluffs have been overseas, no doubt working on their next project-oriented low-fi art spectacle. Check out he link above and see what I mean. Not too shabby for a couple Iowa boys.
5 Comments
Byron King
November 12, 2008amazing work. love it in such an odd way. like a dirty little secret. but I don’t have secrets. more like a reoccurring dream kind of way.
valuistics
November 12, 2008Recurring dreams, dirty secrets, ambiguity, even a lot of sexual innuendo. I admire Mikel and Ethan’s courage in dealing with the shameful, the secreted and the absurd in such a deeply human yet visceral way. Even now as I try to put my finger on what they do, I find myself sounding more and more like a fool. They definitely rely on good documentation and swell photography. If their photography was bad, the whole thing would be shot. This no dobut comes from Ethan’s skillz with the camera. I knew him primarily as someone who was a photo student who saw an opportunity in performace art. If you’re making and doing curious or striing things, you have excellent subject matter for well-made photographs. Ethan and I were lucky in undergraduate school to have one photo teacher, Jeff Byrd, who was also a perfromance artist and an old timer photo teacher, Dick Colburn, who was a technical god, a chemical color-photography wizard who took no prisoners. We learned different things from both of them. Looking at the Fluff’s work, I get chills. I find myself going back to Iowa in my mind and man, maybe I’m due.
valuistics
November 12, 2008Oh and Ethan is an inspiration too because like me he dropped out of FSU’s dysfunctional MFA program in 2002 (both he and I and my wife Amanda were in the incoming MFA class in 2001) and before he could get started again at USF in Tampa he and his wife had a baby. He’s managing to be a globe-trotting contemporary artist who is also a parent. Guess I should quit whining?
Byron King
November 13, 2008Can you interview them? I’d love to learn more about their work.
Byron King
November 15, 2008No worries. I’ll shoot them an email and see if they are interested in an interview. I’d love to know more about their work. Only takes about ten minutes to write interview questions and it’s kind of fun