0:00

vile was a response to

0:02

um letters in file magazine now file

0:05

magazine i should just give a bit of

0:07

background for file magazine was where

0:09

the

0:11

image bank request list went into

0:14

file magazine which then expanded

0:17

because file was printing out of toronto

0:20

by general idea

0:22

um printing

0:24

like runs of 5 000 copies and then went

0:27

up to 10 000 copies and i don’t know

0:29

where they got their mailing lists from

0:31

i never did here but they had more and

0:33

more people with their image

0:35

requests things in the in the magazine

0:38

so

0:40

i was quite hooked on file because i

0:42

thought wow this is really great they’re

0:44

acknowledging all of this activity but

0:46

then they’ve started coming in the

0:48

the derisive comments by some people in

0:51

particular about

0:53

how vile how how mail art is just

0:56

junk mail and it’s so lame it can hardly

0:58

limp out of the envelope and into the

1:00

jar the garbage can and so on so i i

1:03

viewed that as a very elitist remark and

1:06

from elitist artists

1:09

so i decided that i thought that the

1:12

male art was incredible networking

1:15

process

1:17

and very much a community of artists who

1:20

simply were sharing their work rather

1:21

than making work that was going to be

1:23

offered for sale so

1:27

so i came up with the idea of

1:30

doing a parody of file calling it vile

1:34

and

1:36

giving back a little bit of their push

1:38

and shove and also documenting the the

1:41

network and the people that i felt were

1:43

really interesting artists and

1:46

participating in this whole other way of

1:49

creating art and exchanging art which is

1:52

much more community based

1:54

and

1:55

acknowledging

1:57

each other rather than being competitive

2:00

i mean obviously there’s always some

2:02

kind of little levels of competition and

2:04

you know people want their work to be

2:06

shown some get shown some doesn’t get

2:08

shown that sort of thing but

2:10

but it was

2:11

a way of celebrating that network that i

2:14

had found

2:16

was so rewarding to me and so responsive

2:20

and it also

2:22

gave me the opportunity aside from the

2:24

banana rack to have a different kind of

2:26

presence presence in the network and

2:28

also to feature

2:30

the work and letters and so on of the

2:32

artists themselves rather than

2:36

just being about bananas because you

2:38

know bananas are great and they’re you

2:40

know i have no problems with that aspect

2:43

but i did want to

2:44

feature

2:46

the community

2:47

and acknowledge this whole process that

2:50

was going on that

2:53

was otherwise not being really

2:55

documented not not file i mean they

2:58

continued to publish lists of people but

3:01

they were definitely moving towards a

3:04

more mainstream

3:06

attack on

3:07

what you know people think of as art

3:10

file magazine which was what i was

3:12

reacting to also

3:14

was a more adult kind of publication

3:18

in terms of the content and the the

3:22

imagery and so on that they presented in

3:24

that magazine so vial is completely

3:26

another

3:28

view maybe 180 degrees from the

3:31

bananology

3:32

and was

3:34

responding to you know i mean there’s

3:36

things in our culture that i find

3:39

repulsive and

3:41

upsetting

3:42

and i think that within media we need to

3:46

be able to represent

3:48

those

3:49

those events or those actions or so on

3:53

and so there are images in

3:55

vial that are upsetting including some

3:58

of the covers

4:01

so

4:02

it needs to be known that it it is that

4:05

my work

4:06

also reflects you know sort of my

4:08

perception of the the dark side as well

4:11

as encouraging i mean i’m encouraging

4:13

the light side with the ban analogy but

4:16

i’m also acknowledging that this is

4:18

something that upsets me and that i

4:21

i think we need to see and look at and

4:23

not just pretend that it doesn’t exist

4:26

so that’s where the vile vileness in

4:28

vial comes from

4:30

aside from the inspiration that i got

4:32

from file magazine’s uh snide remarks

4:36

about mail art there was also the fact

4:38

that i was working at the time at an

4:40

instant print shop called speed print

4:43

and i

4:44

realized that

4:46

this technology

4:48

was

4:49

affordable

4:50

and

4:51

that i was able through the speed print

4:54

to print the cover which was actually

4:56

done on the big press with two colors

4:58

woo

5:00

and the rest of it was done with the

5:01

instant printing which is just paper

5:03

plates but i was only at the beginning

5:06

started with 100 copies

5:08

so it it was affordable

5:11

and

5:12

got me started i think the next issues

5:15

moved on to a higher grade of paper and

5:18

a different method of

5:20

of actually the second one was also

5:22

photocopy it was wasn’t also photocopy

5:25

it was just instant print

5:27

and then

5:28

and stapled and then the third copy we

5:31

had i had printed at

5:34

west coast print shop in berkeley and it

5:37

was done

5:38

on

5:39

white paper that was stapled in the

5:41

center and the cover was glossy and two

5:44

colors

5:45

so it gradually

5:47

you know

5:47

improved in the technology that i was

5:49

able to use and i think i actually had a

5:52

grant from the coordinating council of

5:55

literary magazines

5:57

that funded that third issue

6:00

so it went from there and then bill my

6:02

partner at the time wanted to do an

6:05

issue so

6:06

he did the fourth issue i did the fifth

6:08

issue he did the sixth issue i did the

6:11

seventh issue and so on we alternated

6:14

but

6:16

it’s always been

6:18

an issue for me that he was credited

6:22

from the beginning as being

6:23

the editor or one of the editors which

6:26

was not true but i unfortunately

6:30

gave in to his appeal to put him on the

6:32

letterhead saying or the masthead saying

6:34

that you know it’s much more

6:36

important if there’s two people involved

6:38

and not just one person and so on so

6:40

that was one of my regrets but

6:42

nonetheless he did edit

6:44

three of the issues and had a very

6:47

different approach than i did and

6:50

i tolerated it but

6:51

it ended up not well

6:56

and i had enough of you know i mean it

6:58

was the game the same thing that i did

7:00

with what happened later on with the

7:02

artist stamp news

7:04

it just got to be too much

7:06

and i didn’t want to keep continue on

7:08

with it

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