Traditional American tattoo parlors are fascinating places where artists work and mingle with the public in an atmosphere of creative frenetic energy in private and semi-private cubicles, with loud music and activity going on at all hours. Tattoo artists hold a unique position in our culture as one of the only groups of contemporary artists who work under the public eye in studios that get a lot of traffic. The tattoo studio can be seen as an ongoing living performance piece where tradition, art, therapy, psychology, fashion, medicine and commerce mingle.
Inspired by that idea, this exhibition will consist of my 10’x15’ studio being moved to Paia Tattoo Parlor for the duration of the exhibition, while I will work on yet to be determined new projects involving woodcut printing, photography, and other media. Working tables, portable walls, print drying boards, computer, art, books, a refrigerator, desk, chairs, sound system, and all the ephemera associated with the working studio will be set up, creating a four-week installation/performance/exhibition of new and ongoing works in progress.
All work will be created during the four weeks of the exhibition, therefore the traditional exhibition opening will be made superfluous—we will have an exhibition closing, Saturday, August 21, when the public will be invited to come and see what went on for four weeks. There may be a new body of interesting work if it goes well, or there might just be a mess—the culmination of four weeks of trying to come up with an idea.
Throughout the exhibition, daily work will be going on behind a shoji screen partition--at times opened up when the public will be allowed and encouraged to come and see how an artist lives and works in his studio, at other times closed off so that only the apparition of a working artist is seen, with the muffled sounds audible.
StudioWalls2 from Paul Mullowney on Vimeo.
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via Work In(g)Studio Blog
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