Anna Banana - Vile Magazine

2016

Anna Banana – Vile MagazineAnna Banana – Vile Magazine …

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vile was a response to

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um letters in file magazine now file

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magazine i should just give a bit of

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background for file magazine was where

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the

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image bank request list went into

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file magazine which then expanded

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because file was printing out of toronto

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by general idea

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um printing

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like runs of 5 000 copies and then went

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up to 10 000 copies and i don’t know

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where they got their mailing lists from

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i never did here but they had more and

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more people with their image

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requests things in the in the magazine

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so

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i was quite hooked on file because i

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thought wow this is really great they’re

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acknowledging all of this activity but

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then they’ve started coming in the

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the derisive comments by some people in

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particular about

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how vile how how mail art is just

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junk mail and it’s so lame it can hardly

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limp out of the envelope and into the

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jar the garbage can and so on so i i

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viewed that as a very elitist remark and

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from elitist artists

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so i decided that i thought that the

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male art was incredible networking

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process

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and very much a community of artists who

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simply were sharing their work rather

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than making work that was going to be

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offered for sale so

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so i came up with the idea of

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doing a parody of file calling it vile

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and

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giving back a little bit of their push

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and shove and also documenting the the

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network and the people that i felt were

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really interesting artists and

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participating in this whole other way of

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creating art and exchanging art which is

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much more community based

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and

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acknowledging

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each other rather than being competitive

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i mean obviously there’s always some

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kind of little levels of competition and

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you know people want their work to be

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shown some get shown some doesn’t get

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shown that sort of thing but

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but it was

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a way of celebrating that network that i

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had found

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was so rewarding to me and so responsive

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and it also

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gave me the opportunity aside from the

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banana rack to have a different kind of

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presence presence in the network and

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also to feature

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the work and letters and so on of the

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artists themselves rather than

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just being about bananas because you

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know bananas are great and they’re you

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know i have no problems with that aspect

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but i did want to

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feature

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the community

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and acknowledge this whole process that

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was going on that

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was otherwise not being really

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documented not not file i mean they

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continued to publish lists of people but

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they were definitely moving towards a

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more mainstream

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attack on

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what you know people think of as art

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file magazine which was what i was

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reacting to also

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was a more adult kind of publication

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in terms of the content and the the

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imagery and so on that they presented in

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that magazine so vial is completely

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another

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view maybe 180 degrees from the

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bananology

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and was

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responding to you know i mean there’s

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things in our culture that i find

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repulsive and

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upsetting

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and i think that within media we need to

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be able to represent

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those

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those events or those actions or so on

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and so there are images in

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vial that are upsetting including some

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of the covers

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so

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it needs to be known that it it is that

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my work

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also reflects you know sort of my

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perception of the the dark side as well

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as encouraging i mean i’m encouraging

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the light side with the ban analogy but

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i’m also acknowledging that this is

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something that upsets me and that i

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i think we need to see and look at and

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not just pretend that it doesn’t exist

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so that’s where the vile vileness in

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vial comes from

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aside from the inspiration that i got

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from file magazine’s uh snide remarks

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about mail art there was also the fact

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that i was working at the time at an

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instant print shop called speed print

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and i

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realized that

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this technology

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was

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affordable

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and

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that i was able through the speed print

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to print the cover which was actually

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done on the big press with two colors

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woo

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and the rest of it was done with the

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instant printing which is just paper

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plates but i was only at the beginning

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started with 100 copies

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so it it was affordable

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and

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got me started i think the next issues

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moved on to a higher grade of paper and

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a different method of

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of actually the second one was also

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photocopy it was wasn’t also photocopy

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it was just instant print

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and then

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and stapled and then the third copy we

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had i had printed at

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west coast print shop in berkeley and it

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was done

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on

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white paper that was stapled in the

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center and the cover was glossy and two

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colors

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so it gradually

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you know

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improved in the technology that i was

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able to use and i think i actually had a

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grant from the coordinating council of

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literary magazines

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that funded that third issue

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so it went from there and then bill my

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partner at the time wanted to do an

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issue so

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he did the fourth issue i did the fifth

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issue he did the sixth issue i did the

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seventh issue and so on we alternated

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but

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it’s always been

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an issue for me that he was credited

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from the beginning as being

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the editor or one of the editors which

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was not true but i unfortunately

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gave in to his appeal to put him on the

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letterhead saying or the masthead saying

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that you know it’s much more

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important if there’s two people involved

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and not just one person and so on so

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that was one of my regrets but

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nonetheless he did edit

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three of the issues and had a very

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different approach than i did and

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i tolerated it but

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it ended up not well

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and i had enough of you know i mean it

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was the game the same thing that i did

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with what happened later on with the

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artist stamp news

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it just got to be too much

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and i didn’t want to keep continue on

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with it

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