Hot Breathy Screams

Christopher Ian Mcfarlane is a local artist that operates on an entirely different plane of consciousness and brings artists such as Joseph Beuys and Marcel Duchamp to mind because like them, Macfarlane is attempting to redefine “Art” (capital a) and what it means to be an artist. Flowing like a river between mediums (music, painting and sculpture), ‘found objects’ and illustration being combined into a 21st century version of animatronic Kinetic Art; Chris represents a new avant-gardism. About his work preferences he states: “Painting on a flat canvas is great, but there’s got to be more. I’ve been making large three dimensional cardboard sculptures” and about art in general “… art should jump into the audience, physically grabbing them by the collars and warming their faces with hot breathy screams.” He then spoke at length about his “ … disgust toward the mentality that many people have regarding migration to one place or the other to get ‘discovered’ or ‘noticed.’ If your art is good, then you should be able to draw crowds into a sewer to come see it.”  His personal art mythos: “I want to be as innovative as possible – not so people can marvel at me as a person. I don’t want to be in their minds. I want each person to feel like the only ones in the room are them and the particular piece.” More Duchamp-isms; Marcel was acutely aware of the critical relationship of what he considered to be the holy trinity of art (artist/object/viewer). I suspect we’re seeing the sum effect of marrying art with technology and it’s becoming a sort of new informal “Fluxus;” spreading like so many ripples… as movements in Art (capital a) are both inevitably and apt to do. It’s worth mentioning that some months ago Christopher made a sculpture for The Residents which still rides at the helm of their tour bus and that at the very least is pretty damn cool! In this months issue… “Roach Man”.

Check out his website:  crapbychris.com
Like his art page on FB: Haunted Mirror Forest

~ Gabriel Laszlo