HUGFUCK THE WORLD

Please Welcome…HUNTER.

Stamps

The first time I heard of this nineteen year old artist was swimming through the cyber river of the web and I stumbled across his 4/8/2010 never forget photograph. After some casual web stalking I found Hunter’s website, Huntermadeit.com .This guy ‘s little patch of cyber property sure packs an awesome creative punch. You are soon to realise that Hunter cannot only draw, he is one of those scarily creative people who can put his mind to anything and produce something provocative. Your talking to someone who is really doing something interesting; I am not talking about the Anish Kapoor creative who is riding the gravy train of government commissions and commercial ventures with Belgravia Bankers. It’s all about the business of creating.

Share the world

An average day involves me waking up at 7:07am to the sounds of birds and windchimes and rustling trees and my neighbor verbally abusing her small puff-cloud of a dog named Bailey. That poor pup can't even take a piss without getting yelled at, although I'm sure it's deaf. Or pretends to be deaf. I enjoy breakfast with myself staring out the window, sometimes at the wall, whichever is more inclined to carry on with some sophisticated-according-to-who breakfast dialogue. … I'm stuck in this horrible rut of having to do whatever the fuck I please every day. Cycle to class? Stay home and draw? Work on a poster? Dumpster dive?

An ant

Hunter uses readily identifiable hallmarks of society; words, domestic objects, creatures reminiscent of a common animal and uses this base familiarity to create a thing which casually slaps you in the face. Yet, at the same time he makes you giggle and let’s you think that he has slapped the person next to you harder, and made them cry. Finally, you can both turn around and laugh at them together. Hunter coins it ‘hugfuck the world’. ‘The border between veneration and insubordination towards a subject is some place I tend to take casual strolls. My work stands up for the people who believe their reality is shaped by their perception. More specifically, the positive heads. And fuck the "ignorance is bliss" name attached to a positive attitude; we are a different breed’.

This attachment and glorification of the traditionally weird or outcast is resonant in all of his work. Hunter’s drawings create characters who take a quiet presence in the world, who could be easily passed by if not examined carefully. ‘There are new ways to address the unfavorable, the unfortunate, and the unbelievable and I'm on the prowl with my teeth out for those images that say it best’. For the viewer, we must really look to find the detail and irony in his works and yet, Hunter’s work can be contrastingly confrontational. Using literal dialogue, Hunter expresses the anger and annoyance of his subjects and perhaps their inability to connect to the reality of the everyman.

All it takes

Most of my drawings are kept company by a family of words, yes. I have fun with picking away at the mind's obsession with finding a correlation between the two, the mind's obsession with organizing and naming and applying contexts to those names. Getting too locked in to "how things are" is dangerous and will lead to stagnant waters. Really shitty stagnant waters like what's behind supermarkets in retention ponds. Sometimes the interaction between word and image is intentionally blatant in my work, sometimes not. Sometimes it should be blatant to some, but is not. Perhaps that's my friendly little stab at the viewers who choose to remain unconscious. I am aware of my audience and constantly ask if they are aware as well.

Get the fuck up wake the fuck up you stupid fuck get the fuck out of bed

Hunter’s practice at its very essence speaks loudly to this ideal; of craving a mundane or stable reality with no real means of achieving this . A desire which can be related to on one level or another for those who relate to his works. If you can’t you are probably looking at Hunter’s creations and not realising that there is a big fuck off finger pointing at you.

Sometimes I feel like I should just leave it all behind, you know? Everyone deserves to experience the liberation of having to show up to work the same time every day. Life is so damn short, I want some consistency. One day I'll take the leap…This is me talking at nineteen years, who knows where I'll end up. I just hope I never completely figure out anything, that would be boring.

Hustle

See more of Hunter at

HUNTERMADEIT.COM

All images are used with the permission of the artist. Copyright 2010

All text and quotes are copyright of somenewplace 2010

Leading drawing by Hunter Apple Debt

Four things I love in my flat

The house mate.

I cannot speak more highly of her. She boozes away most Saturday afternoon's with me and calls the ambulance when I tell her to.

Destroyed Tee by Pop Issue from the Black Heaven S/S 10 collection.

Pop Issue is everything I love about Australian fashion; simple, black and lightweight. Customs raped me with taxes when I got this to London and it end up costing me a fuckload. I still love it.

My nipple sticks out of this top and not in an attractive, muscled way as seen on the website. Think flaccid. Think hairy.

I still maintain this top will get me some sexy time this summer.

The vintage eighties-shoulder pad-faux snake print-extravaganza of cool jacket.

This puppy belongs to the house mate. When she wears this out on the town she projects a strange image.

It is a cross between a sex goddess, 'my milkshake brings all the boys to the bar' type of look which, at the same time says 'I will fucking castrate you for even looking at me and my amazing vintage eighties-shoulder pad-faux snake print-extravaganza of cool jacket.

Lanvin S/S 10 mirror necklace.

This necklace is pure FASHION PORN.

Everything about this collection was amazing and this was about the only thing I could afford. I am still paying it off. I don't care though, such is my love for this obscenely overpriced piece of perspex.

Here is the runway show...thank fuck the TASH IS BACK.

Baby Alpaca Vodka Lemonade

THE PROBLEM WITH A LABEL

Anthony Gayton Beautiful Freaks

Another Saturday, another boozy party in London. After six cans of Stella at five quid from the off licence, one’s conversation with fellow reveller inevitably, turns ‘arty’.

‘So who are you writing about at the moment?’

‘Oh, actually I am really interested in Robert Mapplethorpe right now…’

‘Well, chuh, of course, yeah, you ARE gay, but like, who else?’

This little exchange keeps chafing away at my brain like wet soul sand. Why is it that an interest in a certain artist is indicative of the tastes of a queer guy? It begs that rather annoying and extremely hard to answer question; does gay art exist and if it does what defines a gay artist from your average garden variety creative?

Undeniably; if one was to attach an artist and his work to this tricky classification Robert Mapplethorpe would come immediately to mind. Mapplethorpe is consistently referenced for his works (notably the thirteen images included in X portfolio, 1978) which displayed erect penises, acts of homosexual sex with more than a gentle spank towards fetish and masochism. In the rapidly evolving world of the early 1970’s contemporary art world, this was unchartered territory and created such an impact that it is now, what Mapplethorpe is most remembered for. The lamentable aspect of this, is the rest of Mapplethorpes’s impressive body of work remains constantly in the shadows. Meanwhile, discussions of his more controversial works take centre stage in academic rhetoric bogged in eroticsm and censorship.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Patrice, 1977. Gelatin silver print. Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, New York. Photo © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

This tendancy within queer culture and the wider community ( if such a divide still exists) to select the sexually charged and fabulously controversial highway, is one of the problems with defining a body of work or artist with a term as absoloute as gay art or a gay artist. There is always more to an artists body of work than a stiff penis or pumped pectorals.

Anthony Gayton, a new photographic force in the art world has exhibited widely throughout Europe, with representation at MITO contemporary art gallery in Barcelona. Gayton’s collection of works straddle a blurred line between erotica, pornography, commerical photography and contemporary art.Through a series of email conversations I was able to pick Gayton’s mind on ‘gay art’ and those rather delish model muses in his work.

Anthony Gayton Behold The Man

SNP: Hi Anthony, you have recently finished your solo exhibition Behold The Man at MITO, Barcelona and have just finished exhibiting in a group exhibition De Pictura - En Defensa De La Belleza at the Espai Metropolità de Torrent in Valencia. How’s everything going?

AG: It was probably on the strength of this show (Behold the Man) that I was asked to participate in Valencia, and there is another museum group exhibition coming up in Italy in September.

Over the last few years my work has advanced creatively and also in terms of credibility, though I still have a long way to go to gain both increased recognition and financial solvency. My work is so borderline, that it is rarely able to please all the people all the time, and I have been accused of being both 'too gay' and 'not gay enough'.

SNP: Gay art’, what is your opinion of the classification? Do you think it’s valid to brand an artist and his practice with such a label?

AG: I’ve been asked similar questions, and my problem with labels is that are both limiting and vague at the same time. ‘Photographer’, ‘Art’, ‘Gay’ are all words that mean everything and nothing. At best ‘Gay Art’ is a term that suggests something politically worthy yet peripheral or even exclusive; it somehow seems to define its audience as much as itself. I produce work which reflects my passions, my upbringing and my experience, yet I would say I do this as a gay man rather than specifically for gay men. Of course it would be naive of me to hope that producing work with the subject matter I do that I can avoid such labelling, but I hope at least that my work can speak to anyone in some way, whether on an emotional, aesthetic or even technical level.

SNP: Do you ever get frustrated when people view your work and cannot look beyond an (admittedly beautiful) naked male torso?

AG: As I actually use various forms of pin-up and porn quite obviously in my work, I don’t have a problem with this, as in a lot of cases it is exactly this desire in the eye of beholder that is the whole point of image. Saying this, I think that with the huge amount of male nude and male erotic photography was has been produced since the dawn of digital photography, my work is seen less and less in these purely ‘superficial’ sexual terms. Which of course has meant for me a huge falling away of interest from mainstream gay culture, and a fresh interest in my work from the art world.

Anthony Gayton Home Alone

SNP: On the subject of your ‘muses’ why do you choose the men that you do, is your relationship with these men forged through a need for a certain look or body or is it founded on an emotional connection?

AG: I have photographed many attractive men over the years, but have only three I would describe as muses (see my blog site: www.anthonygayton.blogspot.com). The one quality they had was the ability to inspire me to create works specifically for them. I’m sure every photographer of people has a type of model which most closely embodies his particular aesthetic, and these three boys were simply the personification of mine. I certainly wouldn’t say it has anything to do with an emotional connection, or if it does it’s very subliminal.

SNP: It seems that you are able to identify with many of the labels discussed ( photographer, artist, gay artist, erotica ). Do you see yourself in your future practice trying to develop one aspect more than another? In both artistic and commercial terms?

AG: I can identify with each of those labels, but still find it very difficult to reduce myself or my work to any one of them. Almost all the work I produce has some connection to the experience of being homosexual and I think, if anything, that is the one theme that I will continue to pursue. This is partly because I can only really write or take pictures about things from my life experience, and also because we are at a point in history where such open expression of same-sex relationships is possible and this opportunity should be exploited.

Anthony Gayton Le Baiser Interdit

An Anthony Gayton glossy, semi clad male model or an exquisite Mapplethorpe photograph will of course cause a reaction in any gay man. This does not mean to say that these works will not cause a reaction of the same or stronger emotion for a heterosexual person. If we took the idea of ‘gay art’ as an absoloute it would be on par to saying that a queer guy could not truly appreciate

Botticelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’ because naked women would not be of interest. Although many gay artists are influenced by their sexuality it is not the definition of art practice simillarily; being a gay man is just one of the thousands of parts which make a whole being. Mapplethorpe brought much needed exposure to the AIDS cause when he was diagnosed in 1986 and for the rest of his life was unabashedly open about AIDS and the turbulent lifestyle of the gay scene in the 1980‘s. This is what makes him a gay icon; not a gay artist.

So take that, my deep and meaningful conversation buddy of a Saturday night past.

All images are courtesy of the artist. All images used in this article are copyrighted.

This article is copyright 2010 and all images, quotes and text cannot be re produced without permission.

The first post, no minutes silence here.

Welcome, welcome.

This started out as a lame attempt as a street fashion blog back when I was living in coastal obscurity in Australia. Was put off by two events:

1. Alex works up enough courage to ask some scenestar hoe if I can take her picture for this blog I am doing.

"Do you have a card?"

"Um , no, you can have my number if you want, not in a sleazy way I am pretty sure I am at least 90% homo."

"No, thanks."

"So can I take your picture?"

"No, you don't even use a decent camera, what is that?"

" I don't know a camera... it's a Canon"

"Right, well can you fuck off now."

"Ok."

Nice.

2. I moved to another country, yay.

So now this is just a blog of things, some of them are shit and some not so shit. Like this band I found on eastvillageboys.com a very nice blog, it combines skinny, semi clad, tattooed boys with other good things, like liquor and art. nice. they are called Baby Alpaca and this video clip and song and everything about it made me smile and want to get sloshed in a field too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIUS6p-t6L8

I am pretty sure I may keep this up as a regular thing, so watch out because I recently interviewed Anthony Gayton who is an amazing artist and I am going to write an amazing article and post it on here...mainly because magazines are bitches and will not get back to me. So WATCH OUT.