Charlie Becker: 2007

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Paymose

A little while ago I got the honor of seeing a piece that I helped bring to life (for another artist) get sold like real art gets sold. At Sotheby's. Alongside Warhol, Basquiat, Damien Hirst, and lots more. For a grip of cash, too. Man, I need to get that catalog. gives me something to aspire to.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Coincidence

I have been smacked in the head lately with an overwhelming level of creative coincidence. In some cases the "coincidence" is a little suspect, some cases I'm making up connections that aren't there, and some cases, i'm just floored at how connections are made in the same ways by different people.

example 1:

I walked into The future Perfect, a great store in Williamsburg that sells the bunnyboy I sculpted for my friends at FAILE. It's a little (5" high) figuine based on a graphic of theirs. It's boy sitting cross-legged, holding a stuffed rabbit to his mouth. What he's doing with it is up to the viewer's imagination. Well, one shelf away was a porcelain figurine (by the way, what the hell is up with this porcelain figurine obsession in the "high design" world?), similar size, of a human male sitting cross-legged, but with a chimp head. Weird. But even weirder considering the aspect of it that wasn't coincidental to MY piece - the chimp head - was coincidental to another FAILE piece, a graphic of a lady standing in a trenchcoat with a chimp's head in place of her own. Even weirder, in another section of the store was a figurine very similar in theme to one I am currently working on for them (subject matter withheld til the project is released). and it's not like we're dealing with spray cans and coke spoons. These are not common subject matter in the hipster universe.

example 2:
I went to LA recently, as I do these days, and called my friend, who I worked with on a pretty cool and important artist's show last year. (He's is awesome, the bomb dot com as one of his friends says) Coincidentally, he said he was working on another sculpture and could use my help with some last minute detailing. Different artist, but related in other ways. He showed me pics of the piece they had just finished. I was speechless. I had some of my work in my bag to show, so i pulled my piece out to show him. He was speechless. I can't say too much, since the show hasn't happened yet, but It's very crazy, the coincidence.

Example 3:
I was at some function in LA, where they have, as they always do, a photographer, and the guys from Hit & Run doing screen printing on site. they wee printing anti- corporate themed logo bites. I saw a girl wearing a pair of adidas Samba sneakers with a nike themed "fake" logo on the heel. I had to show her my picture in my camera of my sambas that i had applied the word "nike" to in the exact same spot! Ok, maybe the adi/nike irony is not such a big stretch, but sambas? Weird!