Cropped Will Cardini artwork

October 12th, 2010

Review of Hypermorph on The Great God Pan Is Dead

Robert Boyd reviewed my show Hypermorph at Domy Books Houston on his blog The Great God Pan Is Dead. I appreciate his thoughtful review, you can read it here.

In his review, Boyd quotes my description of the Hyperverse from the press release and then says that his “first reaction to this is that it seems pretty dumb.” Ha! I can dig that. Boyd goes on to say that, what makes my approach to genre dumb is that, unlike the Fort Thunder artists that I am (all-too clearly, I know) influenced by, my work lacks does not take genre ironically or satirically. Well, that’s true. I definitely take genre, even the most ridiculous parts of it, extremely seriously. If you want me to get all metaphorical on you, I feel like I do live in, to quote my description of the Hyperverse, “a realm filled with immensely powerful inhuman beings who battle over worlds with strange geologies and hoard advanced technologies” where “mountains shift from molten to crystal between moments and clumps of rock are inhabited by malevolent intelligences ready to hurl face-melting spells,” a cosmos of constant flux, “of constant magical warfare.”

I mean, look at these photos by Edward Burtynsky:

I’m just reflecting the world as I see it.

And I have a response to Boyd’s final question:

So, if creating boyish sci-fi worlds is an aspect of the whole Fort Thunder aesthetic, can we say that aesthetic is inherently male? And if we accept that, is there a female counterpart? And if so, are plush frog heads a part of it?

I definitely wanted Glade to be a part of my show. I’m well aware of how much of a “boy’s club” all of the collectives that I am a part of (Totally Wreck, The Gold County Paper Mill) slash admire (Okaymountain, Fort Thunder), with some exceptions, are, and it’s something that I don’t like about them. All I can say is, I am going to make sure that my first long-form comics narrative passes the Bechdel Test.

March 23rd, 2010

SXSW Recap

This past week was South by Southwest here in Austin which is always hectic.

I didn’t do too much, just hung out at various spots on the east side. I went to Domy Books for 20 Zines in 2 Days, put on by my buddy Rand Renfrow of Test Everything and the folks at Winners! Press. Unfortunately (for me) it was so crowded that I never got a chance to draw, but I did get to check out Katy Horan’s awesome art show there.

I also went to Okaymountain. In the main room they had a totally dope show called Temple of Booom, a collaborative installation by the artist-run alternative space Cinders Gallery that will be open til April 17th. Then, in the project space, they had drawings by a group of dope-ass artists from Lawrence, KS who call themselves the Asteroid Head Art Club. They were all wearing maroon Asteroid Head jumpsuits with wigs and tiny little flags, here’s a pic of me posing with one of ’em:


via

The bands at Okaymountain were the best that I heard all South By (not that I heard that many):

  • Silent Diane, an electro/new wave band from Austin who just put out a marbled blue 7″
  • White Mice, a noise band from Providence who wear crazy mice costumes emblazoned with Satanist slogans and play cymbals topped with saw blades
  • Chica Vas, a seventeen-piece all-woman, mostly percussion band from Austin, Brooklyn, and Osaka who got the whole room dancing on Saturday nite
  • These Are Powers, a kewl electronic band from Brooklyn