Last week I posted an interview with Ed Templeton, whose own career as an artist was partly put into spotlight thanks to Aaron and the Alleged Gallery. This week, the spotlights on Aaron himself.
Last week I posted an interview with Ed Templeton, whose own career as an artist was partly put into spotlight thanks to Aaron and the Alleged Gallery. This week, the spotlights on Aaron himself.
Aaron Rose is a lot more of an influence than you probably ever thought. He's responsible for the large-scale, traveling museum exhibition titled “Beautiful Losers” (there's a book too), he's a writer and independent curator who shows all over the world, and he was the owner/director of the highly influential Alleged Gallery in New York for 10 years. Lastly, he's the second person I've interviewed that's part of the ANP magazine team.
-Noah Hanson
So Aaron, could you introduce yourself with a short bio? Age, height, width?
IÂ’m 36 years OLD. IÂ’m six feet tall and wider at the waist since I just quit smoking.
You feel "OLD?"
It depends on the day really, and also who IÂ’m hanging out with.
You just put out the 3rd issue of ANP quarterly, and the 4th is just around the corner. What's the response your getting so far, and who are these people that are reading it?
So many different kinds of people are getting it. ThatÂ’s the great thing about doing a magazine for free. It ends up in the hands of all these people that might not have picked it up otherwise. Plus weÂ’re sending it out to art schools, museums, record stores, skate shops, clothing shops, so tons of different people get hold of it. We get letters everyday. ItÂ’s a great feeling to have such positive response.
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Is there a way some of those people writing in can contribute?
Well, our official policy is “no unsolicited contributions” but we have asked outside writers to do specific things for us. I think we would all be interested to hear story pitches from people. We can always be contacted through the website.
As far as I can tell, RVCA is putting their name on this thing. Isn't RVCA a clothing company that primarily appeals to skaters? How did they end up sponsoring ANP?
The owners of RVCA had the idea and approached myself, Brendan and Ed to put it together. RVCA has been doing this thing called Artist Network Project for quite a while now, where they sponsor artists, so doing a magazine isnÂ’t that far fetched. ItÂ’s not like Bad Boy Club is sponsoring it.
Where do you wanna take this thing?
I donÂ’t think any of us really have a definite plan right now. The main reason I was interested to do this project is that there werenÂ’t any magazines on the stands that were giving me what I wanted, so I thought it best to take matters into my (our) own hands. All I hope is that we are able to continue doing it in a pure way and finding interesting content to make people psyched!
Can you tell us what it's like in the ANP "office"? How do you guys make the mag?
We used to have editorial meetings in person, but since we’ve all been so busy recently and traveling all over the world on other projects we do most of the decision making by email. I call them “ping-pongs” cause we all weigh in on each other ideas and shoot them around like a ping pong match. We have a cool policy that if all three of us aren’t into an idea then we don’t do it. I think that’s cool. Very democratic. The week before we go to press is usually pretty stressful with us all huddled over print-outs going over layouts for mistakes, redesigning, etc. It’s actually really fun watching each issue take on its own unique personality.
What kinda ideas have you guys voted out?
IÂ’d rather not hurt any feelings.
Ed told me that you got to see the magazines during the printing process. What was that like?
ItÂ’s pretty boring actually...just watching sheets fly off the press over and over and really checking the colors to make sure they match the original photo as close as possible. The printer we work with is pretty ghetto and not used to anal retentive art dudes watching over their press. I didnÂ’t actually see this, our art director Casey did, but on our first issue, the guy running the press got so frustrated that he just up and quit right in the middle of printing it.
Besides doing the mag with Brendan and Ed, you're responsible for taking a huge part in the "contemporary art and street culture" that has been showcased over the last 15 years or so. You started the Alleged gallery, you've put out a few books, including Beautiful Losers, and you've been a freelance curator for some time now. What guided this huge coarse of events?
IÂ’ve kind of just stumbled into stuff. I guess I have ideas and then just try to follow through with them. It looks much more impressive from afar.
I pulled this image off of google when I searched for your name. Where does the picture come from?
How long was Alleged around, and what was it like to see artists you knew very personally, rise to where they are now? (i.e. Barry Mcgee selling stuff for $25K)
Alleged was around for ten years, from 1992 to 2002. In terms of some of the artistsÂ’ success, I think itÂ’s great. I mean doesnÂ’t everyone want their friends to succeed? ItÂ’s cool, because I look at the artists successes as my own really. I think they feel the same way.
I understand you were a producer for MTV for a while. How was that?
Funny. ThatÂ’s a crazy company. We did some cool things though. I made some commercials with Tobin Yelland, Harmony Korine, Thomas Campbell, Rita Ackermann and Thurston Moore. Most of them never showed though. Too edgy for their time.
Outside of putting together a magazine, how are you staying creative?
Beautiful Losers just opened in Milan. I’m working on an exhibition called Smoke Gets in Your Eyes that’s going to happen at Proyectos Monclova in Mexico City later this year, editing a film, doing books, painting a little and recording a personal musical project I call “The Sads”.
What books/comix/music/movies/people/foods/whatever are you into right now?
I’m currently pretty much obsessed with The Selecter and the whole 2-Tone movement from the UK in the late 1970s. Who knows why, but I’m trying to collect the entire Selecter back catalog on 7” right now. I’ve also started collecting African masks.
Where do you get your African Masks? How many do you have? Do you have any pic tures/stories of them?
Sometimes at stores, sometimes on ebay or other places. This film I’m working on now is being financed/produced with some guys that work with Robert Wilson. Wilson’s a theatre director who got really famous in the 70s –80s, but still does good stuff. I’ve been to his house and he has this huge loft in New York filled with contemporary art, mid-century modern furniture and African folk art. I think that’s what inspired me...seeing it over there. Masks are really not in fashion now, so they are really cheap (I rarely spend more than $5.00 on a mask) and they look really good with the kind of art I like. I have about six now. Here’s a photo of one I got recently from Bali.
Are you curating any spaces right now that we should mark on our calanders?
The documentary film IÂ’m doing is taking up most of my time right now, so nothing really on the horizon.
What's this documentary you working on?
It was originally started as the film component to the Beautiful Losers exhibition, but since we began filming it looks like itÂ’s not going to have too much to do with that actual show. We just didnÂ’t have the material to back that up. IÂ’m happy about it though because it still has interviews with tons of great artists, but I think weÂ’re telling a much more personal story now. It should be finished in September.
What can we expect from Aaron Rose in the future?
Hopefully just more fun stuff that gets people excited about creativity and doing their own thing. IÂ’m seriously considering opening a school in the next 10 years though, so maybe watch out for something like that.
Shoutouts?
Wow, too many to list. Pat, Casey, Brendan and Ed for making ANP Quarterly so damn fun to work on I guess.
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