JUXTAPOZ Magazine
FLOWER POWER
A History of Cannibal Flower
by Greg Escalante, L.Croskey, Nathan Spoor
August 2006 #67
(Here's the
unabridged version of the Juxtapoz article...)
Three cool cats discuss the history of the LA underground art movement CANNIBAL
FLOWER.
Greg Escalante: Surfer extraordinaire, Ceramics Inspector, Curator for the
Juxtapoz Magazine, and Copro Nason Guru
L. Croskey: Co-Creator and Founder of Cannibal Flower Underground Art Movement,
Eroticollage Artist, and Mad Scientist Curator of Beats, co-owner of Thinkspace
Gallery
Nathan Spoor: Artist, Web lackey, Consultant to the above, and Transcriber
of the following:
..........................................
GE: So I think I’m conducting some interview. Ahem.
(official sounding voice) “I’m here with LC and Nathan Spoor…”
GE: LC, tell us a little about your background. How did you evolve into Cannibal
Flower?
LC: I’ve always done art. In the early days I was a graff cat. I did
graffiti in Alta Dena as Artists Born Supreme Team Kaoski and Crew IBM -
Images Beyond
Mentality
GE: Isn’t that where Liz (McGrath) is from?
LC: I don’t know, but check this out, when I first met Liz I was wearing
a tee of her first band, Tongue, and my friend Carlos did her first graphic
and she saw it and just bugged out. It was great. Liz is great.
GE: Was it a turtleneck?
LC: Hell no, it was a gray tee, you know I don’t wear turtlenecks.
GE: What year was that?
LC: High school age, maybe a little after that. Let’s just call it a
decade.
GE: Did you study art?
LC: No. I studied fashion design for 2 years at Studio 7. They hire people
from the industry to teach technique, short-cuts…
GE: What did you learn?
LC: Mostly Illustration.
GE: Did you do fashion design?
LC: Yeah, I did a couple great designs that got ripped off and I got a little
disillusioned. And the teachers even tell you that you’ll get ripped
off, teachers were really honest though. I did this design for a topsider with
a Velcro strap. It didn’t win the contest but the company still put the
shoe out. I designed it to be a quick fast shoe for a hip generation but it
turned out to be a great shoe for older men. There’s your silver lining!
GE: What did you do after that?
LC: I went into music after that (Illogical Sample Research Laboratory).
Illogical SRL was an opera group with 2 djs: DJ True 129 and Lockhart that
sang in four
languages. We recorded 58 songs in 9 years before trip-hop was out and happenin’.
GE: Where are they now? The songs.
LC: Out there, I don’t own much of it, but signed it to E records. The
cd’s still getting rotation out there somewhere.
GE: Do you spin those?
LC: Naw, I’m a Wax DJ
daddy-o! Here’s the way it went down: I stopped
doing art for a spell, and worked retail for a while. Retail’s something
I knew about, All-star Collectibles on CityWalk and Express. My opera group
was playing Spaceland and Jean-Paul was working at Wacko and checked us out
and Jean-Paul said “I heard you need a job” and I was like “yeah.” So
they needed another manager at Wacko, the one on Hollywood, so I ended up
being a manager at Wacko, where I learned what I liked about art.
GE: So you already knew about La Luz?
LC: Yeah, I used to go to the Low Brow Art openings when they had the store
on Melrose…that’s where I learned about the artists. I learned
the ins and outs of shows, how to hang, etc. I gathered as much info as I could,
and in the meantime I started CF.
GE: While you were still working there? Why’d you start it?
LC: I knew I wouldn’t be able to show my work there, which was heartbreaking,
and I wasn’t really grounded in my work at the time. And at the same
time. I noticed lots of really good artists getting rejected.
GE: Based on the merit of their work?
LC: No, just rejected!
GE: Was the work good?
LC: Yeah, they were good! You see, I’m coming from the place where I’m
not working within the politics of what it’s supposed to be like as an
established gallery, and for me it’s about Love. These young artists
were leaving heartbroken and I always felt like helping out. So I started meeting
these artists. Koran and Rick of E records opened up a little space in Mac
Arthur Park and offered us to do a show in this space and I asked the artists
coming through there if they wanted to do this show in this crazy wack neighborhood.
The spot was right down the street from a crazy crack hangout and was all dirty
and a little dark, sketchy at best. Ok, so in this little room was my other
band, Mindclinic, an S&M opera band. She would sing a song, and in between
songs the band would play an instrumental song and the lead singer, who was
a sexy siren in leather, was whipped and her dominatrix would then make her
sing another song when she was done being tortured. All bloody and bruised.
It was so surreal, the background singer was doing a Goth. ballet and I was
DJ’ing…
GE: I can’t believe I didn’t know about this!
NS: No way!
LC: Yeah, that’s when
I knew Cannibal Flower was for real here. I always wanted to be in an art
show and DJ the music, and the I show we put together
was happening, 150 people at a spot right down the street from a crack park!
Art was on the wall, I was bringing the soundtrack and the numbers kept increasing
each month and we had to move. That’s actually when we decided whether
or not to keep going with the shows. Jean-Paul hooked up The Lab on Spring
Street and the numbers went to 300. Then The Lab closed and Spiral Gallery
on Washington was available to us and Nathan Cabrera was our Featured Artist.
It was great, because when I met Nathan, he had all his paintings in his
trunk and La Luz was showing him in the hallway and I thought he was just
amazing.
GE: That’s where Gary Pressman saw him.
LC: Yeah, that’s the gun installation that got him in Jux. Bert Green
of Circle Elephant gave me some advice around then and told me to follow my
heart and work from an art lover’s perspective. I didn’t have any
schooling on how to do art shows and set up the whole thing, and I didn’t
know of anyone who was doing that sort of thing. I wanted to create opportunity.
To be available to give advice when someone needs insight. It’s pretty
much a school of hard knocks before they get to a gallery like yours (Copro
Nason Gallery).
GE: That’s true.
LC:…and art schools are introducing new ways to present work and the
galleries aren’t accepting these new ideas, and I’ve seen some
crazy shit, but that’s how the kids are feeling. We just needed an environment
where anyone could show.
GE: You say anyone can show?
But from the Cannibal Flower shows that I’ve
seen, there’s such high quality work and a curator’s eye.
LC: The thing is, I hang the show so it’s balanced. Color vs. color,
stroke vs. stroke. I hang it so you like the whole show. And it’s a competition,
but a friendly competition. There’s a camraderie in that competitive
artistic spirit. We have our staple guys. Like my man Nathan Spoor here, our
staple artists that show up and rock each and every show. Man, your work is
incredible and the statement isn’t even affected by them not being framed,
there’s just such an acute attention to detail and balance and style.
GE: Since you mentioned Nathan Spoor, and he’s here, how did you guys
meet? How’d you guys start to work together?
LC: Well, we met through our mutual friend Alix Sloan. She saw some of my
paintings at the first show I did out here at my friend Flavio’s furniture store
in Venice called Loja Designs, and the conversation immediately switched to
how I should meet her friend LC and talk to him about showing with his new
Cannibal Flower thing he was doing.
GE: Wait, how long ago was
this?
NS: About five years ago. Four years at the 5 Year Anniversary mark, and
now then some. So after showing a piece at the first anniversary show we
got such
a great response from it that I did the next month’s Featured Artist
spot. I’d just moved out and it was perfect. The Cannibal crowd was great
and over the years LC and I became friends and I started taking on some responsibility
and helping to invest in our community and build something really incredible
by jumping into designing the website and other little necessary design things.
I just love the people and the community. I believe in LC and he believes in
me.
GE: So LC, you’ve got a wide range of talent at every show then. Beginners
to professionals. Gallery artists to unknowns. How do you decide what to show?
LC: I look at an artists body of work or what is presented, and I pick the
best piece.
GE: So, wait, let’s go back a minute, back to the progressions of showing
places. Where was it after the Lab?
LC: My one year anniversary was in an abandoned nunnery. Spencer Davis did
booty sculptures and paintings in the chapel. It was purely and outright
blasphemy, just classic underground trouble making and good clean fun. The
LA Times came
out and covered it and that’s where it started with Billy (Shire, La
Luz) dissing me. And for the record, I LOVE Billy and La Luz! None of this
would have happened without him. Everything I learned about L.A. art I learned
from La Luz. We’re cool and I respect my roots. But there was a dis in
the L.A. Times when the editor told the writer to ask another gallery in town
about what they felt. I was working at Wacko still and was on vacation at the
time when they went in to talk to him. He said that artists were gonna dent
their careers with these underground shows. And when I came back from vacation
there was this weird vibe and I decided I needed to quit, and I knew it wasn’t
a two week notice situation I needed to leave and do my thang.
GE: Ok back to the Billy Shire thing. How long ago was that?
LC: Two, three years ago maybe. Back then I had three faves: Copro Nason,
La Luz, and Merry Karnowski. Then Cannibal Flower popped and all kinds of
one-night
shows started popping up. Artists weren’t waiting around for galleries
to show their work and created their own exposure. I feel like were at the
dawn of a more intelligent nightlife. Check it out: you can spend your money
at these expensive Hollywood clubs or you can spend that hard earned money
investing in these up-and-coming artists and still get your drink on for a
fraction of the price and see much more.
GE: Good point. So tell me, did you guys get out to the Robert Williams show?
NS: Are you kidding? It was sick! I was blown away by the art and man, the
people are just as interesting in their own right. Wait, you’ve got a
great Robert Williams story don’t you?
LC: Yeah, MOCA had an exhibit called Helter Skelter and Robert had a whole
room. It was amazing! I walked in and freaked out! I mean, I realized that
I own his comics and been a fan for a while and didn’t even know it!
Yo, the show at OTIS was AMAZING!
GE: Sounds like that was very influential for you both then?
LC: Man, that fucked me up! It changed everything.
NS: Yeah, Robt. Wms. and the Juxtapoz concept have both been an incredible
influence and inspiration. So if I may, Greg, what do YOU think of all this?
The Cannibal Flower thing. The one-night show and party that’s going
down?
GE: Well, my take on Cannibal Flower seemed like to me that someone had finally
figured out the best parts of art and clubs together in LA. And there was
a different crowd too, not like what I’d see at the La Luz openings or
wherever. And you guys had your own thing going on! Somehow there was like
800 people at the show that I came out to and most were younger.
LC: This is the thing. Get ‘em out there, have fun. Simple. Get the underground
artists to show their art and sell low, to cultivate new art buyers. Art is
the common denominator. Art is something we all have in common. They see a
painting and it’s $200 and we know it should be $400, but who the hell
is he? This scenario builds a basic art buying environment where the rules
are written by the new consumer. But because it’s so cool and so low
in price, it hits that nerve that gets it the red dot. Aha! And then the other
guys that were thinking about buying that piece have to think faster the next
time. It’s all the glitz and glam of LA and if you don’t get it
now it’s gone!
GE: Well, I come from OC and see what you have and see the essence of cool
LA and you can’t get that anywhere else but right here with that cool
music and performance that I never saw anywhere else. When I saw the meat hooks
thing I was floored. I didn’t expect to see anything like that ever.
Well, not in person., And the other people were looking at it with disgust
and horror and had enough and I found myself in a position outside with a crowd
of viewers and art lovers that I’d never met and we were having a great
time being grossed out!
LC: Man, in order for me, you, and Nate to see that we have to go to a Goth.
club and then we’re the freaks.
GE: Yeah, I’d have to go there, and at an art show I can’t believe
it’s real because it’s there. Right in front of me live and bleeding
on my shoes!
LC: Check this out: Lace Gallery years ago had this show called The Slut
and Goddess Video Workshop. Annie Sprinkle was teaching girls what kind of
whore
you want to be: whore, slut, goddess, etc. It was insane! There just wasn’t
much of it. If it’s weird and strange, I’m in! Being from Delaware
I wanted to see the dirt and glam that I’d always wanted from LA, and
you had to really look for it. The most fun I had was surfing the underbelly
of the town and finding all these great fetish and crazy dark experiences.
LACMA and MOCA have provided me with a lot of that, like the Broad Collection
and Helter Skelter.
GE: So tell me a little about how you started working with Michele.
LC: At first it was me and Jean-Paul Garnier, doing it and Michele Waterman
helped. I was 35, he was 19, he was a punk rocker. I was hip-hop. Between
the two of us, something was going to happen Jean-Paul kept me in tune and
we did
that our thing. Over the years the politics kicked in and spaces needed insurance
and security” and all of it just too much for Jean-Paul. He was down
with the renegade factor and needed to keep movin’ the punk rock blood
in his veins yo. Man, every space has its own rules too. Like one place you
bring your own lights and can do whatever and the next one’s got great
lighting but you have to get all this insurance to cover everyone’s asses.
Man, it just got to where I needed another head in the game. Michele was working
the door but got more and more involved showing her art and she ended up being
more of a partner but wasn’t officially a partner. And when Jean-Paul
stepped off I asked her to step up. I trust her. I love her. So why shouldn’t
she be a partner? So over the years she’s picked up more responsibilities,
and now I can actually take time to meet the artists and she does the internet.
She picks the artists from the e-mails and I we work out the rest. We’ve
worked together long enough to know what works. My job is to look through these
artists’ body of work to see what works for my show. Hopefully this helps
the artist with direction.
GE: So how do you see where it’s at now?
LC: It’s at the halfway point now. I realize we’re still in the
School of Hard Knocks and we’re still learning how to do things bigger.
It’s been five years and still going strong. In August will be our six
year anniversary.
GE: Copro Nason’s credits show Cannibal Flower as the curator for the
opening at Bergamot Station AND a second invasion this year…what’s
that been like?
LC: Man, it’s everything I expected daddy-o! I was down with Gary for
a long time (lowbrowartworld.com) and he got me XNO and Dave Burke for my underground
shows and then Gary worked with you guys and came to Cannibal Flower and was
a fan…
GE: That’s where I heard of you from.
LC: Yeah. So I promised that I can’t make you famous or rich, but I can
cross you over if the work is ready. Work out a little bit of that Hollywood
Dream. You got your portfolio and you want someone to say “Yes.” I
put the artists in that I thought would cross over and let the audience decide.
My mission was to let you guys, both as an established gallery presence and
as art lovers, to see, and if one person crosses over – then it’s
a success. And you guys moved to Bergamot Station and want it jumpstarted -
We came and rocked the spot. It was hot!
GE: Now you’re putting this book together?
LC: Yeah, it’s a book about L.A. artists for cats around the world to
check out.
GE: What’s it called?
LC: Cannibal Flower.
NS: Yes! Hey I had my hand up, I knew that one!
GE: Hey. How did you come up with the name? I mean, not for the book, but
the shows. You know!
LC: I was reading an art show book that happened in Italy and they described
one of the artists as having … art that bites… I was like, “yeah,
something beautiful that bites!” I wanted the shows to be edgy. Something
beautiful like a Nathan Spoor painting but across from that is something shocking.
GE: So do you, LC, see this as a fulfillment of a promise to a next-step
gallery?
LC: Yes, that is the plan.
GE: And so the Cannibal Flower book is about Cannibal Flower?
LC: I guess it’s somewhat of a history up to now. But the next one is
more of a showcase.
GE: How often would this happen?
LC: I would like once a year. Hopefully it would turn into an annual thing
that comes out as a reference for underground artists. Cuz there’s lots
of artists that have crossed over from Cannibal Flower, the unknown to the
very well known. My thing is to show a reference of actual progress to show
other artists that there is hope, there are artists crossing over.
GE: What’s the Thinkspace Gallery?
LC: Thinkspace is our little gallery at 4210 Santa Monica that showcases
these underground and established artists in a hip and high-traffic environment.
We joined forces with husband/wife team Andrew and Shawn Hosner of SourHarvest.com
to bring the underground and fledgling artists into a new kind of space.
It’s
getting a space in the mainstream and selling the artwork to the disposable
income
crowd. It’s underground artists creating the trends showing their art
in the places where the tastemakers and the trendsetters shop and search
for something that grabs their eyes. We just need more galleries in LA!
GE: So tell me about the shows, what are your favorite performances?
LC: Aesthetic Meat Foundation, a very serious piercing performance.. And
Slymenstra, she did the circus sideshow thing and shoots electricity from
her hands.
GE: Ok, so I walk in to Cannibal Flower and see this cute girl whip her top
off…
NS: (My eyes were glazing a bit until Greg’s very welcome subject change)
We should definitely talk all about this!
LC: Yeah.
GE:…and she’s nude and a guy is painting her…
LC: Gear? Yeah, he did live body painting!
GE: Have you ever turned any artists or acts down?
LC: I’ve only turned down two: live crucifixion, live hanging.
GE: Oh!
NS: No way, are you serious? They what?
LC: Yeah, there was this one cat that had this live hanging act where he
would hang his accomplice until just the right moment, and well, he knew
just how
to not kill someone is all I know. And the crucifixion, not happening. So
we just didn’t do it. But we did show the torture king and he stuck knitting
needles through his jaw and arms.
NS: Oh that guy. He swallowed a string and then pulled the string out of
his stomach through a small incision he’d made on his belly and hung a Christmas
ball on it!
GE: What’s the one with the hottest girls?
LC: There was one at the old bank space with this nearly naked girl on stilts
that painted herself gold and walked through the show.
GE: What about celebrities?
NS: I met Billy Zane at one of my first CFs, and the guys from Linkin Park.
LC: Yeah, Linkin Park was checkin’ us out at the old bank spot.
GE: Well it’s all fun and exciting and you make it all work. Like an
occasional night club art thing?
LC: Yeah but different, you charge admission and there’s booths and you
get your money’s worth…Clubs…people are going to clubs already,
we have dj’s, security, etc. come here spend that money and get cheaper
drinks and an unpredictably great show. And we make donations. Everyone has
to participate.
GE: But you have a day job right?
LC: Nah, I’m a full-time DJ, I’m in a band named BitterSweet, and
we just got signed to Quango Records, and gallery operator with the Hosners,
and Cannibal Flower strategist.
GE: So how are the sales?
LC: Personally, before CF, I sold no artwork, but when I figured out what
I really liked I sold 62 pieces.
NS: What? All together or just recently?
LC: IN the last two years! It’s like a secret third income.
GE: So what do you think of the Jux?
LC: I dig that thing yo! It’s one of my favorite mags! It’s brought
so much to our attention, and to so many people it's basically the Lowbrow
Bible.
GE: Would you say that Jux is your fave mag?
LC: Probably. I mean, it speaks to me more than the rest of you really want
to get into it.
NS: Well, it’s the only art-driven rag that I actually subscribe to,
if that counts for anything.
GE: Would you say it represents
your culture more than any other?
LC: Yeah yo, I have every issue!
NS: Every issue? Lucky! I don’t have them all or even know what number
it’s on, but I remember when it hit me. I mean really, I’d been
painting a couple years and my fellow Art Director brought one in and I literally
saw it from across the room. It was the Todd Schorr one a while back. Adam
never saw his Jux ish again and he eventually gave me the five issues he had
since I was apparently way more into it than he was. Besides I wasn’t
giving them back and he didn’t want to make a thief out of me. Then his
subscription ran out and I got on The Plan. And I think it must be my favorite.
I get excited whenever it’s “Juxtapoz-in-the-Mail-Day” and
have to devour the whole thing in one gulp, then graze through it for a few
days. And as far as representing my culture? Yeah, especially for what I’m
into and my friends are interested in. Jux offers a wide spectrum of thoughts
and merch and ideas and possibilities that I wouldn’t have even been
aware of. Internationally even.
LC: Yeah, it has taught me a lot.
GE: Well, it’s better staff than the others, let’s say. It started
off as a subculture mag and kicked it off in a realm of a specific flavor.
LC: Yeah, you see new ideas, some you don’t like, some you do…kinda
like a CF show. But how’d you get involved in Jux? Were you in on that
other one? Art Alternatives, or was that a knock-off?
GE: I stepped in to help start Jux with Robert Williams after Art Alternatives.
As that mag was a little troublesome with some areas, like that we didn’t
have ownership of it. So, Michelle DiLeo, who put out Outlaw Biker tat mags,
said she wanted to pitch a new art mag to publishers, something like Minotaur
from the 30’s and they pitched it and the publishers said “yes.” So
after Robert put a name on it, and put all his friends in it, I came in and
put more in, and then Fausto came in, of Thrasher, and tried to buy it and
the owners wanted more like a million…so we turned around and we started
Juxtapoz. So what other mags do you like?
LC: I also like beautiful decay. It’s more urban, graffiti kids gone
gallery with the trendy generation.
GE: Wow this whole idea is so great! When I saw Cannibal Flower I wanted
to know the story of what was going on. How did all of this happen? What’s
this all about? I’m glad you guys were here, I just thought that since
I’d found out that more people would want to know what I’d found.
Your shows have that feel. That feeling of presence. Like it’s definitely
done by necessity.
It’s a great time for art in L.A. right now. For more info about
Cannibal Flower and the 6 year anniversary check out www.cannibalflower.com.
Above: August 2006 ish coverboy and Cannibal Flower
alumnus
Blaine Fontana and CF feature spreads
Below: Article images
Ekundayo "title"
Luke Chueh "The Alchemist"
lukechueh.com
Lola "Hastings Declined the Tea Time Truce"
lolastrangeart.com
Joshua Clay "Save Me"
jclayart.com
Joe Ledbetter "Cease & Desist"
joeledbetter.com
Nathan Spoor "The Pleasant Plunder"
nathanspoor.com
Nathan Spoor "Cannibal Flower"
nathanspoor.com
