Gary Baseman, an artist who has released swarms of scary-cute figures in the form of fine art, television and toys, brought his singularly twisted vision to South by Southwest on Sunday night with an onstage action painting inspired by a roots-rocking band.
[eventbug id="sxsw2011"]While Nightmare & the Cat played, self-described "art jockey" Baseman set up his easel and produced a surreal tableau populated by a fang-toothed cat, baby devils and zombie girls in concert with the band's alt-country stylings.
"At first I was supposed to draw on a Wacom tablet," Baseman said in a pre-show interview, "but we decided to revert to old-school art-making."
SXSW 2011's HP Graphics Sounds gig is just the latest experiment for Baseman, who draws from fairy tales, folklore and occasional dollops of sci-fi to create pudgy ghouls that manage to be creepy, beautiful and hilarious all at once.
"My own fanciful world could be called science fiction in a way," Baseman told Wired.com by e-mail. "As a child, I loved and still love the original Twilight Zone, and I always watched Star Trek. When I did my Giggle and Pop! performance piece at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, some people thought my ChouChous were aliens."
Baseman also created Data Head, a one-eyed, rocket-booster-propelled alien, for the Cranium game. "My first illustrated story, Gary and the Monsters was more like horror fiction, but if you changed the landscape, voila, it's sci-fi," he said.
For his solo exhibition Walking Through Walls, running through April 2 at New York City's Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Baseman put a psycho-robot spin on Jewish folklore.
"I was inspired partly by the character called Golem," Baseman said. "When he's activated by writing emet on his head, the Golem performs whatever tasks he's told. He might get out of hand, though, so to deactivate him, the Hebrew aleph letter is removed to leave met. These two words translate into truth and death, which are two subjects I explore in the series."
Though Baseman works largely with antique media including paper, ink, paint and canvas, he relies on digital tools to market his work. "Carrying my iPod Touch in my pocket, I can immediately show people images of my art, photographs and videos so it's really changed the dynamics of conversation," he said.
Upcoming projects include a collaboration with Israel fashion designer Frau Blau, Venice Biennale-related sideshow and an exhibition to be hosted at Tapei's Museum of Contemporary Art.
For a guy who created the 2000-2001 Saturday morning TV show Teacher's Pet using hand-drawn backdrops, catching up with computer-based art represents a big change.
"Now all my animator friends do everything digitally," he said. "It's not the same feel drawing or painting on a tablet, but I think I'll be making some interesting art."
See Also:- Olly Moss Reimagines Original Star Wars Trilogy for Mondo
