VCO Co-op out now. Photo: Ian Campbell

Graffiti 365
by Jay Edlin (and Monica LoCascio)

page 306
SKULLPHONE

Unidentified to date, and pathologically wary of cameras and interviewers, the man behind the iconic Skullphone image remains a mystery. Skullphone is known to carry fake identification and allegedly uses up to three pseudonyms at any given time, never giving his real name at an event or on an art-show flyer.

Based in Southern California, Skullphone has been wheatpasting, stenciling, and stickering his stark image of a skull talking on a cellphone for almost a decade. Skullphone was also responsible for a series of stickers and posters that appeared around New York, advertising a gate-installation service and bearing an 800 number that delivered the caller to a mystifying voice recording. Skullphone moved into billboard liberation and high-stakes installation in 2008, when he hacked ten Clear Channel billboards in Los Angeles and placed his name into the series of ads that flashed on the screens.

A classically trained painter, Skullphone has recently been branching out into oil painting, spearheading a new labor-intensive style of imagery that utilizes the color pixels found in LCD screens to create the deceptive effect of an electronically glowing painting.

-Ed Koch photo by Jay Edlin,  2011

Pure Logo
Original Post: 10/23/2011

Pure Logo, a group show curated by Skullphone, opened on Saturday evening at New Image Art.   The show offers several takes on the concept of concise visual communication from Evan Gruzis, Curtis Kulig, Takeshi Murata, Cleon Peterson, Paul Wackers and Hugh Zeigler.

Pure Logo Press Release

AO On Site – New York: Skullphone and Curtis Kulig at Mallick Williams & Co. Through November 8, 2011
Daniel Crehan
Original Post 10/29/2011

photo: Tanley Wong

Over and over again, the two words, “Love Me,” are repeatedly scrawled on the canvasses of Curtis Kulig, the street artist best known for emblazoning this simple cursive ‘throw-up’ all over New York City. Viewed next to the faux-LED crosses and blatant consumerist imagery of his long-time friend and supporter Skullphone, they begin to take on a hint of desperation, a plaintive plea in a world inundated with brand-names and electronic simulacra. While the two artists have supported each other for over 7 years, Scripture, now showing at the Mallick Williams and Co. Gallery in Chelsea, is the first documented collaboration between the two artists. Regardless of the precedent, however, the installation sees Kulig and Skullphone pursuing techniques that the artists have explored in past work.

In the first room of the show, Skullphone pointillistically mimics the red, blue and green lighting arrays of LED screens is shown through a number of black aluminum crucifixes and circular discs, using the colors to create a mix of biblical and consumerist imagery (Prada, Mobil Oil, Smiley Faces, the Crucifiction, etc.) that devolve into a grid of dots as the viewer gets closer. Running in parallel, the images also interact with each other, with some pieces ominously reflecting the stark outline of crosses behind the viewer while foregrounding the skeletons and brand-names portrayed. A large end-piece reflects the viewers in the gallery, effectively reflecting the gallery on a large screen.

Similarly, Kulig continues his on-going use of the ‘Love Me’ tag, using his loopy handwriting and stylized, heart-shaped ‘M’s to create enormous, textured patterns on his canvases. This approach is repeated in a number of color combinations, with Kulig taking his commentary on mass-producible art to the next level, keeping the enormous canvases shrink-wrapped and piled in one corner of the room. The casual visitor is left to wonder if the works had arrived late, or if they perhaps were not supposed to be in the second room to begin with.

Taken as a whole, the dark, pleading nature of Kulig’s pieces, almost hidden away in the backroom, creates a dialogue between the clean, efficient advertising imagery Skullphone presents up front, exploring the nature of symbolism and identity in American consumerist culture.

Related Links:

A Preview of Skullphone + Curtis Kulig’s “Scripture” Exhibit at Mallick Williams & Co. [Paper Mag]
‘Scripture’: Skullphone and Curtis Kulig at Mallick Williams & Co. [Opening Ceremony]

Holy (Sh*t) Here’s a Prada Cross
By Kristian Laliberte
Original post 09/30/2011

We wouldn’t say no to raiding Madonna’s late ’90s closet for all those Galliano and Versace cross necklaces. Remember that trend? But when it comes to the real thing—crosses that is—we think that perhaps the best place for this religious symbol is a chapel, not the latest issue of Architectural Digest. Or, maybe not. Cutting-edge Chelsea gallery Mallick Williams & Co.’s newest exhibit, “Scripture,” (the first documented collaboration between Curtis Kulig and Skullphone) will feature Skullphone’s “Prada Fall/Winter 2011″ that’s basically a giant, three-foot-tall six-foot-tall Prada cross. Though it looks like it’s plugged into the wall, the piece is actually a Skullphone signature, a pointillist painting meant to resemble LED lights. The artist’s incorporation wasn’t random; Skullphone identifies Prada as “a brand that reaches the masses and yet still esoteric in concept….it’s at the seam of the vulgar and educated.” And, of course, Italian, especially fitting as the cross is a major symbol of Catholicism. We’re not sure how well this will go down in the Texas mega-churches, but we think the Pope will dig it—it’s been said that he wears Prada loafers, after all.

“Scripture,” Thursday, October 6, to Tuesday, November 8, 2011; Opening reception Thursday, October 6, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Malick Williams & Co., 150 11th Avenue (near 21st Street); 212-929-4137.

http://vimeo.com/30039653

(untranslated introduction)

Originally in about year 1999, you created the image “a skull holding a cell phone.” What was your consideration? Why was it a skull and a cell phone? What’s the relation between them?
I drew Skullphone as a self portrait. I drew an image of a skull holding a cellphone and I immediately felt I had captured how I felt at that time. I was communicating through a cellphone for the first time in my life, which was a relatively new technology for the American masses back in 1999.  Overall there was a major push with technology on a consumer level, with the internet really kicking in around 1995 and my first cellphone being purchased around 1998 as a young adult. I liked that showing the skull on a cellphone was fun, and yet somehow demystified the greatness of technology.  The image is very roughly drawn, not so much like outsider art but more like a cavepainting, and the skull’s slight smirk is a nod to Mona Lisa, all these things which were drawn quickly and subconsciously. It’s amazing that we still use cell phones and that this image is still somewhat relevant.

Then you placed the works on city streets. What initiated you to do this?
The same month I drew Skullphone I placed images of it on a dancefloor. When people left, they took the prints with them. But it was raining out, and when the prints got wet, they simply stuck them to the wet walls of buildings outside. When I saw this I had a new calling in life.

Tell us something about the process of making these works. And which materials or technique you use?
Making work for the street is usually begun by silkscreening or painting onto paper, or by cutting an image for stenciling outdoors. For posters that are over 12 feet tall, you definitely need to hand paint them since it would be much too expensive to silkscreen an image that large for the street. The largest silkscreen I make for the street is 6 feet tall.  Usually the pieces are made with a specific outdoor location in mind. For example, If I put an image on a run down car dealership or boarded up gas station I’ll twist skullphone into an image about car culture or gasoline or something about modern living like that.

Digital media is different from transitional arts. Can we include it into new media art? How would you definine it?
My new work is actually paintings of Outdoor Digital Media. The imagery is painted with Enamel on mirror polished black aluminum panels. The painting technique is painting with a dot pattern inspired by the LED dots on an outdoor digital billboard.  The painting technique is a form of pointillism.  These paintings follow a distinct personal linear path from my initial work on the streets, to placing imagery on the Digital Billboards that popped up along Los Angeles’ city streets back in 2008, and now painting in an outdoor digital media pattern. It is my way of documenting what is disposable and ephemeral with digital media, specifically with this work at this time outdoors. And perhaps not necessarily what is prolific with reprogrammable digital media currently, but what will possibly be. There is not a term set in stone yet for what I am doing since it is relatively new.  This work has roots in the street, and is optical, and is pop. But all those terms are used, abused, and dated. My new relativity has yet to be defined.

Now you have brought your works into gallery spaces? Why? As we all know, street digital work can be seen by many people where they cannot avoid it. But by going into a gallery to see the work could restrict people seeing it.  Don’t you think?
I have yet to think of a major artist that does not show work in a context of trying to generate money for the next work of art. It is somewhat inevitable if you want to continue to create on a daily basis that you need to figure out a way to survive. What this has meant for outdoor artists is the creation of an event where artwork is sold.  Regarding what I am doing now, I still work on city streets, The difference for now is that when I do an art show I’m not taking the artwork from the streets and directly illuminating it indoors. I am currently letting the art made for the streets stay outdoors, and if you want to see it up close you should hop a fence and go look at it. The art I make for the gallery is now made specifically to inspire on those indoor walls. This allows me to make a piece of art that takes a lot of time and patience to make, and show it as such. I am not opposed to showing the street art directly indoors, but currently I enjoy reworking it specifically for an indoor wall. It is appropriate for a museum to show a lineage of outdoor work indoors, but as a working artist I am pushing it further within the gallery.

Which new elements or materials have you brought into these new works?
The new works are very clean since they are aluminum panels which are mostly black and polished to be very reflective. They look like mirrors. I paint on top of that with my dots.  These pieces are nearly impossible to photograph without a reflection of yourself in and a reflection of the indoor surroundings in them. In person the pieces have a life force upclose that the outdoor pieces have viewing from far away.  It is all relative to where you are.

interview by Toff de Venecia

For our readers who aren’t familiar with you, describe yourself and what it is you do
I make art tailored to outdoor spaces, a practice whose line dots into the gallery. I sign my work as “Skullphone.”

How did the name Skullphone come about?
The first image I started placing on city streets in 1999 was an image of a human skull holding a cellphone. It’s a cellphone circa then, which is chunky. In conversing, the phrase “this is the guy who does that Skull holding a cellphone image you see posted around town” condensed to “that’s Skullphone.” It worked well since I was evading the law and appreciated the anonymity. Now I like the moniker at a time when we, as a people, enjoy all information at our fingertips at any given second.

Where or how do you draw inspiration for your art?
I am inspired by Los Angeles slash Calfifornia at the moment. I was raised in Southern California, so the landscape and the people are deeply rooted (yes that is possible in So Cal). There was a decade when I was in New York months out of every year, but I now have a fully functioning compound in California and less disposable cash due to that, so I can not travel as much. And appropriately so. There is lots to do and say here, as we are consolidated globally. Saying something here is saying something here and there.

Though it was proven later on that the “hijacked” ads were paid for, what was the supposed intention behind your 2008 initiative in L.A. that spurred conversation and controversy? In short, why the “hack” did you do it?
I’m somewhat distracted by what blog you received your information from. But I never claimed to have hacked anything, nor have I claimed I didn’t. The process of getting Skullphone on the digital billboards was indeed shady and involves a brick of laughter, but whose details were never meant to map out. Online it became a “how” rather than “why”. This is understandable since we are conditioned to street artists saying “here I am .” How about “here we are.” It was shocking to see a handful of digital billboards in fall 2007, and I took a leap as to how our landscapes might change and what it means for outdoor artists, and what it means for Los Angelenos as a whole. With the Digital Billboards, Skullphone was placed as an anchor, or what I described then as a Stigma or Stigmata. It was meant to be seen outdoors, with a broad viewpoint. The closer you get the less it all makes sense. You have to stand back to get it. This is true with my painting process as well I suppose.

You’ve transitioned from street art to a more polished form of art in your recent Digital Media exhibition in L.A. Where do you see your craft going in the next five or so years?
I work outdoors, and I do so as art. Moving into my compound is logical, and yet making art for indoors doesn’t strictly translate from the street. That’s cool for me as a museum lineage, but as a working artist it must be something more. How do I inspire within a room indoors?

Have you touched based with the likes of Ron English? What can you say about this brewing art “liberation” movement happening in various pockets of Corporate America?
Cool.

What is it that you hope to achieve with your art?
I am painting a mirage

Finally, any projects coming up soon? What can we look forward to?
Dots

Connecting the dots in a digital world
Samantha Page

Good Morning America
interview by Curtis Kulig (unabridged)

We’ve seen Skullphone on the streets for what seems like ages, but really it all began in 1999 – Wheatpasted on the streets, up high on the back of billboards, or staring back at you from a gas pump or a restroom mirror. It’s not in every corner, but just when you think Skullphone’s gone into hibernation he hits you again. It’s a steady signal that, at a somewhat low base frequency, keeps thumping. I touched base with skullphone to see the world through his eyes.

They say in London you are photographed over 300 times per day. Do you think Los Angeles will ever get to this point?
Hell yes. Anyone who lives here knows how extremely different it is here than London. We’re somewhat backward. It’s a hick town with horses, only set in the year 2008. We’ve heard it all before – LA’s more spread out, urban sprawl, the city population’s gonna double in the next 10 years, yada yada.. yes, this city will catch up to where London is on surveillance because all the land is getting re-zoned for stacking as many people on top of eachother. and I’m sure when we catch up, London will be beyond local cameras and simply have one huge telescope satellite camera pointing down, recording in real-time video with zooming capabilities down to your identification number.

Ok, so you’re digging right into the grit aren’t you
Why hold back? It’s all about Wireless technology – the wave of the future. I think Apple for example has 40 something patents on what the iphone will eventually become. For starters it’ll be your remote control for your t.v, which is great for America because we’re addicted to media. And we know all about that first hand since media is Los Angeles’ biggest export. The next apple phenomenon is obviously iTouch. But with touch technology, do you really want your fingerprint recorded every fucking place you go? It’s simply crazy to me that people get off on this shit. You know, you can go for a jog and get a water at 7-11 without ever having to carry your wallet! Out with the printed cash, or even debit cards for that matter. You must wave your hand to function in America. But I’m not deep thinking this shit. Where’s my beer?

Skullphone was allover the new electronics billboards in LA not too long ago. Is that where it’s going?
I’ve always had my hands in new technology, only I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. If there are any brainiacs out there, please call me. These electronic billboards went up in Los Angeles literally overnight. There were the video jumbotrons before, on the sunset strip for example, but then bam, these electronic billboards went up that are omnipresent even on the brightest day. And what a nightmare to live near one at nighttime. Its like a strobe light in your periferal 24 hours a day.

Ya you had hacked into the Sunset Jumbotron before hadn’t you?
Hahaha, no, Curtis, that is your imagination working overtime.

Why digital billboards?
I’m walking this tightrope. I’m so set on this tightrope that I actually decided to start learning to literally walk a tight rope. I’m not kidding, at some circus. It’s a scene straight out of a felini movie. Of course im learning to walk the rope above only 6 inches of grass, but the rope gets raised higher every couple weeks. Dylan went electric, so does skullphone.

Well obviously getting up on billboards is nothing new for you. How did you first start climbing high and pasting bangers?
I dove in, and for the record it’s not that monumental. I’m not in a secluded back lot figuring it out. It goes up with flikr right behind you. Some of my first 10 foot posters went up in SF. One of the first spots was a rooftop when Neckface was in town and, man, did he suffer. First he skated around a small parking lot for hours while I cut and pieced art together into pieces way too large, then he had to fill in the eyes and mouth when it went up since the the poster turned to soup on the wall from falling off and going back up again and again. From the street we looked up and I said “that’s….embarassing.” He said, “no, that’s punk rock.” If you don’t live this way I can give you a book that says “this book’s got more spine than you do.”

You are labeled as a “street artist.” How do you feel about straight up graffiti?
It’s like I always say “People look at an oil painting and admire the use of brushstrokes to convey meaning. People look at a graffiti painting and admire the use of a drainpipe to gain access.” Oh wait, that’s banksy.

Wow, you’re really name dropping aren’t you?
Hey its hard to do a pre-tape recorded interview.

Why not hack the internet or phone services? Why not go REALLY BIG man?
Shit. I do have dreams to make some crazy shit, or “bring down” some crazy shit I should say. Like, CNN reporting “the internet was temporary put on hold by skullphone today”. But in reality I am an artist, not an art terrorist. We are pushing the boundaries of what artists can do and get away with. It’s all a bit of luck, but I choose my battles with tons of thought. I choose my spots as wise as possible on the street. Im not down for fucking up private property in reality. The gallery owners are real supportive, but its really funny to see the “don’t tag on this premises” signs at openings – ya know? I’m not into adding another woe to the struggling shop owner. They’ve got enough problems. But if what I do can squeek by without getting noticed by them, or even better if its bold and looks dope and they leave it, that’s the jam.

You seem to have been really busy over the last 6 months. what the hell have you been doing?
I’ve been moving around a lot. As you may notice, couch surfing, not really having a place to live. My studio was taken over with glitter literally for months because of “the project” which was overseen by a plastic santa and 12 reindeer.

Ya, what the hell is up with Greetings from Finland posters
Uh, I don’t really want to go into that. Those waters are so fucking deep in my head and filled with boring rhetoric, someone will have to throw me a blanket and a pacifier after my brain hurts for hours talking about the city with the highest per capita cell phone use and all the artsharks out there.

Well you always seem to have a trick or two up your sleeve. What’s on the DL that you can leak out, something we can watch out for?
Ah really? I sortof live day to day at the moment. Get up, wrestle with my addictions, press on through the day, get on with it. You know I am human.

What do you think of other street artists?
Shit, there are so many out there now I can’t keep up. I’m talking all around the world, Daniel Johnston style. My mind is immediately splintered into fragments. You’ve jogged me. Uh, aren’t there soccer moms now who put an aerosol can in their kid’s hands and drive them to back allys? Don’t ask me who told me that one. And what about these advertisers who now get inspiration from street artists for their campaigns? And with their budgets going beyond, all in the name of making sure we know to watch the season premiere on channel 1 Monday night at 8. And just because we go to the same haircutter does that mean we’re bro’s? I like artists on and off the street, and dislike artists on and off the street. I guess I have questions too.

So you don’t have anything to say about street art then?
Intent is everything. Please don’t forget the intel inside logo at the bottom of this interview (laughter)…You could have the exact same person in front of you and you cringe inside for what they’re doing. I could shave a Mohawk because of watching taxi driver and then have some dude with a Mohawk from watching jack osbourne. We’d be coming form two different places. I don’t have a Mohawk tho, im too uncool for that.

You’ve been putting skullphone up for over 8 years now. Are you slowing down, changing it up? What? What’s the deal?
I put it down all the time, and then it rings true again. Who’d have thought we’d still have cell phones 8 years later? I thought it would be an 8-track 3 years ago. It’s currently a static game of what your hand can hold. Ergonomics. We did the zoolander phone and it was too small. Now they’re big again to have a nice big screen and nice keypads for zinging your friends all day on IM. The next step Is no phone at all – literally skullphone,

I know you are called skullphone, but you do have different images out there . You have the Pegasus on gas stations. And, of course, you have skullphone incarnations. It’s really clean and simple, yet just when I think I’ve pinned down what you’re about, it all rotates. Why is that?
Skullphone is a catalyst. You have to bring the resin. Or on the other hand, it’s the cheese and you bring the heat. Or it’s vice versa. It’s sometimes a bit cryptic, and hopefully sometimes so subtle that it goes right by the common viewer. Shepard once told me something like “people are driving down the street thinking about their laundry they have to wash and then what they are cooking for dinner and they drive right past a poster only noticing it subconsciously.” If I can do that while they are standing at the gas pump I am a happy man. But then there are times you want to hit people over the head. I’m trying to do both. But not so successfully at times because I too have laundry and dinner to make.

Um, name dropping again?
(laughter) Ya, lets call this the name dropping issue. After all, I may not ever get interviewed again. Lets put it on the record I actually lived and breathed in this era because god knows, I’ve never been asked to be in any group show that was fitting… wait that entirely isn’t true because the BAST and FAILE “rediculousnessofitallshow” at New Image was dope, and I was the rookie in the lineup. Hahaha, can I fit in Saber, Revok, ESPO, Twist, who else, hhaha, anyone else in this 1000 word count? Let’s pack in one big list of heads so skullphone will actually come up on a google search. .. But I’m not going to edit. and I have respect and give respect where respect is due. Respect yo. That’s in reference to the question.

But back to your work though, do you mean to make it minimal and, uh?
Boring? Well, I like it minimal. But Sometimes it’s a broken cell phone message. Sortof like telling someone you made something in Poland and they understood it as finland. So it’s still clean. It’s mixed up in my head, and clean on paper. It’s all personal preference too. If I was to really push the mirror on advertising I would adopt more one liners. But I’d prefer to take all the verbage out and let the viewer make up the text. The “ads” I do normally have tons of text that equates to nothing so you are left at ground zero again.

But You actually make products too, so your “subvertisements”, as you call them, really are “ads”, right?
Ya, I make products as a way to open a larger dialogue about the product. You know, Skullphone Beef Jerky.

I’ve rolled out with you so many times before when random, hectic, or funny stuff has gone down. That one time in Silverlake that homeless guy walked up and got all into holding the posters up for you, started rubbing down corners, and started to tell you spots up and down Sunset that he’d like to see you get up on. What’s been the most memorable situations you can think of?
Downtown LA I’ve had a handful of fucked up things happen. You can always tell troubles coming by the way someone walks. And if you see someone walking with a regular stagger at 4am instead of someone fumbling or pushing a shopping cart, get it together. And watchout for Robocop now too. But a funny story is I once climbed this 20 ft steel baracade to get into an alley to then get onto a fire escape. But halfway up the fire escape I realized that directly across from me was what seemed to be a homicide and it was sketchy. I laid flat for hours while dudes entered and exited different rooms on several floors. And then got all the way up to find out I was on the wrong building altogether.

Well, overall I can see how one might have to read between lines on what you’re doing. Isn’t that what art is supposed to be about though?
Ya, I’m kicking it into high gear and have attached a side buggy for mans best friend to come along.

You know, you really are the all-american kid.
Thank you.