NEW OBSESSIVE ISSUE 13

This special 13th issue of New Obsessive was edited by White Trash Peg. The issue coincides with the inauguration of an exhibition entitled Eurotrash which is being organised at the White Trash Gallery in LaSalle, Illinois (information contained within). This issue of New Obsessive is also being distributed in a limited edition paper format (info via peg@whitetrashart.com).

RECOMMENDED READING

David A. Noebel, COMMUNISM, HYPNOTISM AND THE BEATLES (1965), A Christian Crusade Publication.


Larry-bob Roberts, The International homosexual Conspiracy (2010).

Red Channels. The report of COMMUNIST INFLUENCE IN RADIO AND TELEVISION (1950), A COUNTERATTACK publication.

Mo-Dettes - WHITE MICE - RARE VIDEO

O BROTHER!, SISTER IRENE O'CONNOR

WE NEED YOUR VOTE!

There is just three days remaining to show your support and vote for Gary Farrelly and Oisin Byrne's video: A radical Science Guide to Dublin City. If the boys win the €10000 prize money they vow to make a longer, better video portrait of the nations capital city after the style of Pink Flamingoes, Twin Peaks and Paris is burning. Voting closes April 25th, 2013: DO IT NOW! Click here to see the video and vote!

POSTAL OUTBOUNDS: DALLAS(2013)

(Mail Art) Gary Farrelly,  2013006(2013), RE Gallery, Dallas, Texas.

(Mail Art) Gary Farrelly, 2013012(2013), RE Gallery, Dallas, Texas.

(Mail Art) Gary Farrelly, 2013026(2013), RE Gallery, Dallas, Texas.

GALERIE MODONOV(2011) Photographed by Perry Ogden

(Above) Galerie Modonov(2011), photograph by Perry Ogden.

AIR MAIL: DISPATCHED WITH LOVE

(Above)  Mail Art 2013019(2013), en route to Dallas.

(Above)  Mail Art 2013018(2013), en route to London.

(Above)  Mail Art 2013020(2013), en route to Vancouver.

CONVERSATIONS IN THE VOID - Gary Farrelly / Hank Van Hawkins

(Above) Video courtesy of S.C.A.B Socialized Contemporary Artists Bureau, Dallas.

NOTEBOOK/ OPERATIONS MANUALS(2012)

(Above) Gary Farrelly,  Artist notebooks 1-6(2012), image courtesy of the artist.

RADICAL CLEANING

The fourth video vignette of the RADICAL SCIENCE series, directed by Oisin Byrne, starring Gary Farrelly in Pickering Forest, Ireland.

PORTABLE KUNSTBUREAU

(Above images) Gary Farrelly Portable Kunstbureau(2009), Galerie W, Paris.

COLD WAR HISTORIC: AIR HOSTESS DIPLOMACY

PAN AM and Aeroflot stewardess's embrace for the cover of Life Magazine in July 1968. The photograph was taken on the occasion of the inauguration direct scheduled flights between the New York  and the Soviet Union's capital city Moscow.

FIRST QUARTER ARTIST NOTEBOOKS (2012)

(Above) Gary Farrelly, ARTIST'S NOTEBOOKS 1-3(2012). Image courtesy of the artist.

INTERVIEW WITH THE QUEEN OF MAIL ART

(Above) Dame Mailarta, POSTAGE STAMP BARING THE ARTIST'S LIKENESS. Image courtesy of Studio J.

Gary Farrelly is granted an audience with Dame Mailarta - The Queen of Mail Art. From her headquarters at Studio J (The Dame's Portrait Palace) she is involved in the exchange of mail art with hundreds of artists in dozens of countries. Her Royal Highness (who has a postage stamp baring her likeness - see above) has agreed to answer some questions about her prolific and highly obsessive cultural practice.

Gary Farrelly: You call yourself the queen of mail art. Are you a monarchist?

Dame Mailarta: Indeed, a proud member of the Universal Queendom. Queens of the universe unite!! . . .

GF: What goes on in the Dames Portrait Palace?

DM: The Palace is an intoxicating place able to transport those that enter into a realm of play.  Where one can rediscover their inner child or perhaps take on their own Royal status - why not be Queen for a day.

Greeting you as you enter the Palace is the Mail Art Archives - A collection of mail art and postal ephemera from all over the world. Many People come through for tours, (the word is out) Change is constant - the gallery is always in flux. The walls now display portraits from over a thousand artists representing 40 countries.

GF: How long have you been proliferating your work via the postal system?

DM: A stamp licker for ART . . perhaps there’s something in that glue, but I’ve been hooked since my teens before I knew I was even part of a network of others of like mind. I joined the IUOMA (International Union of Mail Artists) in 2000 when I returned to Canada from living in New York.

GF: How many pieces of mail art have you handled over the years: a. inbound b. outbound?

DM: Inbound: I’ve filled the rooms of galleries for the Mailmania exhibits for nearly 10 years. I’ve never (ever) discarded a letter. I even have an archive of mail in the attic of my old home in Newfoundland. So the numbers are quite staggering I expect. I would easily say tens of thousands.

Outbound: Without a doubt I must be one of the greatest supporters of the postal system. I expect I’ve the licked that Queens head (stamp) more times than should be permitted. My budget for postage far outweighs my fashion budget.

GF: When it comes to mail art, I fundamentally prefer sending things unenveloped. Having the work handled and marked by the postal system is an integral part of the process. Do you agree? Do you have a preference: enveloped or unenveloped?

DM: Its what I consider Naked ART . . Yes! I say . . unless you are creating such a costume for that envelope not even the postal workers have an idea how to approach it.

GF: Which is more satisfying: giving or receiving [mail art]?

DM: My box is in a state of continual flux . . In/OUT In/OUT  . . The multi directional vortex causes such overwhelming pleasure I cannot show any favouritism. Though it’s because of the “In-Box” that others who visit the Palace get to share in the magic.

GF: Is your artistic practice an exclusively mail art practice?

DM: Depending on the day

I have a true LOVE of all things postal. Some might consider my passion for the mail somewhat obsessive tending on the hoarding phenom. But there is much more going in the ArtSpaces of the Palace . .

GF:Tell me something about your wider art practice.

DM: With an alter ego character I’ve developed, I tend to be more of a multi disciplinary artist in that I have worked in such diverse materials as stone, fabric, wood and wool. One room of the studio is where the hats I wear are created. Felting wool, crocheting and revisioning found objects. I am very much a sculptor of materials in space.

GF: Are there any pieces that you have received over the years that you treasure above all others?

DM: There are certainly those works that have been eye candy for those that are not familiar with mail art. Ceramic postcards that came from a potter in New Brunswick, rubber portraits, paintings on cigar boxes, glass, drift wood, a paint tin cover . . to a large pop bottle filled with small objects from Ficus Strangulensis, even just the name of the artist alone is poetic.

GF: What makes a good piece of mail art?

DM: Imagination and creative ingenuity. I often like it when the system gets a bit of a test, things are not as they once were . . postal regulations have changed, but I enjoy taking risks and seeing what can get to it’s destination. I once received a framed oil painting with stamps attached to the frame.

GF: Is there such a thing as bad mail art?

DM: I have only had a few works that have not seen the light of the studio walls. (It is archived) Since I am a member of the universal “LOVE” Club when something clearly reflects a value of hate I feel I have the right to let it remain in the dark. As a critic I have seen some amateur works, but that is a delight to see  . . it means someone on the road to their own art expression.

GF: What’s your drink?

DM: Most often a Ceylon Tea . . In the evenings a Newfie Screech, cola and lime . . . or a fine port.

GF: Do you believe in god?

DM: Praise Goddess!!

GF: Are you political?

DM: How can you be in this world and not be political in some way. There are still so many issues that need voices heard and actions taken. Mail Artists often addresses many of these issues.

GF: Are you working on any interesting projects at the moment?

DM: The Diamond Jubilee Mail Art Call is underway, the Portrait Project is an ongoing quest that keeps me busy.

The Portrait Trading cards are now being printed and a new display of visitors to the space is being mounted in one section of the studio. (I photo document all those that have visited the Palace over the years).

GF: Where will Dame Mailarta be in five years?

DM: Sipping Sherry while working on my autobiography and planning my next mail art show . . perhaps traveling the continent sharing Love and Laughter.

Gary Farrelly, Pickering Forest.

THE RECEIVING HAND, PARIS

(Above)Antoine Gache [Detail] THE ATTIRE OF GARY FARRELLY (2012), Paris. Image courtesy of http://receivinghand.tumblr.com/

The picture was taken by Antoine Gache for his blog entitled Receiving Hand  which follows and contextualises the mail art kunst postal monologue of artist Gary Farrelly. He took the photograph during a recent research excursion by both men to Charles De Gaulle International Airport in Paris. 

EXHIBITION: CONTROL TOWER, TEHRAN

(Above) image by Amirali Ghasemi and Pegah Feizabadi, Tehran(2012)

Control Tower

Curated by Amirali Ghasemi/

Parking Projects

with

Mona Abbaspour

Mojtaba Adibi

Borna Ahmadi

Mojtaba Amini

Ghazaleh Bahiraie

Shilan Borhani

Anita Esfandiari

Gary Farrelly

Pegah Feizabadi

Amirali Ghasemi

Anahita Hekmat

Honmoz New Art Group

Yashar Lavaee

Mahta Saghafi

Hamed Sahihi

Parvin Shokri

Martin Shamounpoor

Tehran Carnival

and

John Mattavosian

+ Launch of Mehrabad Special in collaboration

with aksbazi.com and New-Bookz

Fravahr Art Gallery (in conjunction with Parking Gallery):

Opening:

11th April 2012, 15 - 20pm

Public Viewing:

12th - 24th April, 12 - 20pm

Thu 12 - 18pm

Gallery is closed on Saturdays

No2 Golestan Boulevard, Africa (Jordan) Boulevard, Tehran.

HIGH CULTURE ALPHABET

(Above) ALPHABET(1977), Amanda Lear.

This is the first installment in New Obsessive's regular new feature entitled my alphabet. Taking inspiration from Amanda Lear's seminal song Alphabet(1977): New Obsessive has commissioned a series of indispensable alphabetic dedications compiled by expert obsessives from around the world and across the cultural spectrum. Our first alphabet takes high culture as its theme and has been furnished by Dr Francis Moulinat a French academic educated at the Sorbonne in Paris. Moulinat's alphabet is proscribed reading, listening and viewing and should be learned off by heart immediately.

A for the bright Apollo
B like Pina Bausch and Maurice Béjart
C like Correggio
D like Marcel Duchamp
E for Umberto Eco
F like Firenze
G for Greco
H for Heraclitus
I like Imhotep
J for Carl Gustav Jung
K for Keats (A thing of beauty is a joy for ever)
L like Louise (Louise Bourgeois) rather than Leonardo da Vinci
M for Michelangelo, Monteverdi, Malevich
N like Nietszche
O for Odyssey by Homerus
P like Botticelli's Primavera
Q stands for Enguerrand Quarton
R for the Rite of the Spring by Stravinsky and Ninjinski
S like Sinan, the architect
T for Titian
U like Paolo Ucello
V like Victory of Samothrace and Vermeer may be
W for Ludwig Wittgenstein
X like Yannis Xenakis (What else?)
Y for Iseult
Z like Zeuxis

Piece commissioned by Gary Farrelly, Neustern.

Alphabet compiled by Francis Moulinat, Paris.

CHIC: PRIZE WINNING MANTLE DECORATION FROM IRELAND

(Above) PRIZE WINNING IRISH MANTLE DECORATION(2012), pictured by Oisin Byrne.

As part of our prize winning mantle decoration series: New Obsessive proudly presents the above arrangement as pictured in Celbridge by Oisin Byrne.

RECOMMENDED: JUDITH MOK AND ANTONIO PRAENA POETRY READING

(Above) Image courtesy of Judith Mok.

Red

by Judith Mok

The world burst out

Of its own maps

And gods changed their names

People talked till Babylon fell

While my heart grew

Into a bitter rose

That bled for you.

I handed you that flower

We did not feast on its perfume together.

It was given to me

By the winged Master of Muses

To celebrate a most terrible union

That is called separation

And is red torment to the

Hundredth power

That is purest and blackest of all

Judith Mok and Antonio Praena

Poetry Reading

March 13 at 6pm

Instituto Cervantes,

Lincoln House, Lincoln Place, Dublin 2.

email: cultdub@cervantes.es

tel 01 631153

SOPHIE IREMONGER INTERVIEW

(Above) Image courtesy of Sophie Iremonger(2012).

Gary Farrelly interviews Berlin based visual artist Sophie Iremonger. Iremonger is visiting the autonomous coastal city state of Neustern for the inauguration of a public square baring her name. She is being so commemorated by the Neusterner authorities for her beautiful,radical and profoundly unique cultural practice. Old friends Farrelly and Iremonger meet for drinks and quick fire questioning at a specially arranged cocktail affair in Neustern Public Zoo [The interviewee requested the location]. The two are lubricating their truth glads this evening with Enola Gaye cocktails: Gin mixed with a little water and a fizzing vitimin c tablet that must be bright orange in colour.

(Above) SOPHIE IREMONGER(2012), photographer : Scott Elliott

GARY FARRELLY: What do you do?

SOPHIE IREMONGER: At the moment,I make paintings of erotic landscapes.

GF: Why should New Obsessive's readers care?

SI: Three reasons. 1:In a world where it seems most art is there to belittle you and make you feel stupid, I am open to sharing a pictorial,sensual and understandable story with the viewer using COLOUR,SEX and MEANING. 2: I am engaged with the process of making and selling art in a way that removes my arrogance and egotism from the process. I do this by making my work affordable. I do this by approaching my art making as if it is any other job. 3: I have disengaged myself from the heavy brown junk of old-man oil painting- it has no meaning to me, my neon outsider veiwpoint has not been seen before and presents a truly original voice.

GF: You socialize and collaborate with other artists and performers in Berlin, your tribe! Among tribesmen are musicians Mary Ocher and Alexander as well as visual artists Stevie Handley and Christina Sunbeam Lobotomy. Other than personality and friendship – what unifies this group?

SI: There is no unity to the group. There is no group. there is love and mutual support, and alot of cookery.

GF: You have featured in several Mary Ocher videos. Is there a growing performative aspect of your practice?

SI: There is a shrinking performative aspect. I have no interest in it except when it helps my friends.

GF: Your paintings are characterized by images of the animal kindom, sexuality and the erotic. The latter two can be observed at close quarters in Berlin. Where do you go to source images of wild beasts?

SI: The internet, books,wild life videos, from wastelands, from collecting plants, the images of beasts seem burned on my brain from birth.

GF: I see your paintings as advocating an alternative moral framework that lies somewhere between degeneracy and pack animal dynamics. Do you agree? How does this manifest in your daily operations?

SI: I think everything is basically Amoral and that we just pretend to be moral for various reasons. Moral is just what works within the framework of a particular situation at a particular time. The mountain does not care. The fang does not care.This not caring excites me.

(Above) Image courtesy of Sophie Iremonger(2012).

Professionally: When will you know you are successful? Is the destination as important as the journey?

SI: Success and failiure are 2 faces on the same coin. I will not have other peoples views on whether I am a success or failiure inflicted on me.The journey has prescedence. I just want to keep making and keep getting paid. I just want to keep growing like a rapacious weed. I am developing. I will always be a work in progress.

GF: Dublin did not have much to offer you. Berlin seems to work. Are you encamped there forever?

SI: there is no forever.

GF: A certain type of person is drawn to my work: allot of architects, engineers, libertarians and old school eccentrics. Who gravitates to the work of Sophie Iremonger?

SI: Enviromental engineers and perverts. No not really, those who GET it!

GF: Describe Sophie Iremonger aged 80?

SI: Rotting away wearing a helmet with a paintbrush attached to it, shouting at interns. Being wheeled to lectures I do not understand by well meaning homosexuals. Just like now really.

GF: Do you believe in god?

SI: Yes.

GF: Are you political?

SI: One cant help but have a point of view.

GF: Do you have faith in mankind?

SI: In a few specimens.

GF: Fashion is important to Sophie Iremonger. Your style is somewhere between power dressing, tranny sensibility and classic elegance. What do you wear when you scrub the floor? How will you be dressed when layed our in your coffin on end day?

SI: I spend most of the day wearing hideous snakeskin trousers and a painty jumper, I assume I will be buried in hideous snakeskin trousers and a painty jumper.

GF: You adore animals but have no pets. Why? And what would make an ideal domestic animal for Sophie Iremonger?

SI: I do not adore animals. I do not adore people. I am simply engaged with their BEINGNESS. I would like to be the pet of a very rich old lady.

Gary Farrelly, Neustern.

CHIC: PRIZE WINNING MANTLE DECORATION FROM TEXAS.

(Above) Michael Malone, A PRIZE WINNING TEXAN MANTLE IN A DOMESTIC SETTING(2012), private collection, Dallas. The composotion includes a fine art sovereign debt bond issued by Gary Farrelly.

INTERVIEW WITH A B-52

(Above)Peggy Clydesdale/ White Trash Art, INTERVIEW WITH A B-52(2012), courtesy of the artist.

White Trash Peg poses three questions to Cindy Wilson of The B-52's. They meet after a concert by the group in Athens, Georgia where they formed over three decades ago. Can White Trash Peg find out everything we need to know about the weird and wonderful B-52's in just three questions?

White Trash Peg: What brand of hairspray do you prefer?

Cindy Wilson: Non aerosol preferably.

WTP: Grits or hash browns?

CW: Grits! Of course! With cheese and jalapenos.

WTP: As a world traveler, can you identify any similarities between Athens, Georgia and Athens, Greece?

CW: They are both hot with beautiful people and I could definitely live there.

Conducted by White Trash Peg with Cindy Wilson at Club Max, Athens, GA on Friday 10th February, 2012.

EXCLUSIVE VISUAL ANNOUNCEMENT BY DAVID TURPIN

(Above) EXCLUSIVE VISUAL ANNOUNCEMENT(2012), Dublin.

There follows an EXCLUSIVE VISUAL ANNOUNCEMENT for publication only in the New Obsessive. The views expressed in the visual announcement do not reflect those harbored by New Obsessive. Find out more about David Turpin.

RADICAL SCIENCE - EMOTIONS

RTSN1 (Radio Tele-Service Neustern) is proud to introduce the second video vignette directed by Oisin Byrne and starring Gary Farrelly. Entitled Radical Science - Emotions, the material was written by Farrelly and Byrne. The piece was commissioned by RTSN on behalf of the government of Neustern as part of national mental health week.

Renate Muller, Riga.

SONGS FOR END DAYS: I EAT CANNIBALS

As we approach the Apocalypse expect wide spread food shortages and inflation driven price spikes. As the situation progresses: all the air borne debris, smoke and sulphur will make the cultivation of crops and raising of live stock impossible. Constant harassment by the beast as well as widespread lava flows will further exasperate the situation. One food stuff widely available to anyone still around will be human flesh (both dead and alive). Cannibalism will become acceptable and perhaps fashionable during the end of days. This wonderful song I Eat Cannibals by Toto Coelo is recommended listening for those who wish to be prepared. Not alone is it toe tapping wonderful, it contains important serving suggestions, nutritional information and recipes for the preparation of human flesh.
Gary Farrelly, Neustern

NEW FEATURE - SONGS FOR THE END OF DAYS

The first song in New Obsessives latest feature songs for the end of days. As we approach rapture it is important to have a play list that simultaneously distracts the listener and infuses the ambiance with a sense of urgency and apocalypse chic. Our first nomination is from the German new wave/opera/pop singer Klaus Nomi(1944-1983). [The song is Total Eclipse: Lyrics below/ recording above].
Gary Farrelly, Neustern

Big shots argue about what they've got
making the planet so hot, hot as a holocaust.
Blow up, everything's gonna go up
even if you don't show up in your Chemise Lacoste.

Total eclipse, it's a total eclipse,
it's a total eclipse of the sun.
Can't come to grips with the total eclipse
Just a slip of the lips and you're done.

Fall out, nobody left to crawl out
If someone calls, we're all out, turning in to French fries
Last dance, let the entire cast dance, do the dismembered blast dance
as we get atomized!

NEUSTERN OFFERS WHITE TRASH ART TO MOURNING NORTH KOREANS

(Above) PORTRAIT OF KIM JONG IL(2011), National Museum of Art, Pyongyang, North Korea.

The government of Neustern has presented the people of North Korea with a portrait of their recently deceased leader Kim Jong Il(1941-2011). The Neustern department of foreign affairs commissioned artist White Trash Peg(aka Peggy Clydesdale) to render a 'sympathetic likeness of the dictator'. White Trash Peg herself travelled to Pyongyang as part of an official Neustern funeral delegation and personally presented her artwork to Kim Jong Il's son and successor Kim Jong Un. Clydesdale became a citizen of Neustern in 2010 after emigrating from her native USA. Since arriving in the autonomous coastal city state White Trash Peg has proved herself an impressive and passionate nationalist prompting the authorities to send her to North Korea in an official gift giving capacity. Kim Jong Un is said to be delighted and sincerely grateful for the portrait and has ordered it hung in the National Art Museum in Pyongyang.
Gary Farrelly, Neustern.

FACEBOOK BANS NEWS FROM FICTIONAL COUNTRY

(Above)Gary Farrelly, IMPORTANT STATEMENT REDACTED, (2008, private collection, Morocco.)

An 84 hour ban on news from the [fictional] autonomous coastal city state of Neustern has been lifted by the social networking website facebook. An additional separate ban on all New Obsessive postings via the site has also been withdrawn. The bizarre occurrence started on December 31st with the publication of a short piece entitled Neustern extends sympathy to North Korea in New Obsessive. The article described the dispatch of a diplomatic delegation from Neustern to Pyongyang to attend the funeral of the deceased dictator Kim Jung Il. After linking the post to facebook it was immediately reported to the censors as offensive! by an unknown party. Post haste the freedom to link via facebook was curtailed without explanation. Strange to ban a news report from Neustern which is a completely fictional country . The adventures of the autonomous coastal city state were invented by artist Gary Farrelly to occompany his maps of the imaginary micro state. The banning party mistook for fact the article's detailing that Neustern's diplomatic closeness to DPRK had been initiated when Kim Jung Il personally directed a tourism video for Neustern's state run television channel RTSN1*.

The bans appear to have been lifted early this morning after the artist lodged a complaint with with the social networking site. "I told them that the piece was about diplomatic gestures to North Korea by a country I made up. I argued that the fictional status of Neustern makes it impossible to censor under the constitutional right to freedom of expression [guaranteed in most countries]. I told them that if they didn't lift the ban I would kick up one hell of a fuss. The freedom of expression gives us the right to say controversial things, that's the reason it's there. This whole episode strongly evidences that the right to freedom of the press, expression and speech are shrill shrieking fraud".

Meanwhile, New Obsessive has reported an 8 fold increase in it's readership in 2011. The combined increase in the last two quarters of the year was 85% making the publication the fastest growing on the planet.

Vladimir Laggode, Tashkent.

NEUSTERN EXTENDS SYMPATHIES TO NORTH KOREA

The embassy of the autonomous coastal city state of Neustern has dispatched a high ranking delegation to attend the funeral of North Korea's supreme commander Kim Jung Il (1941-2011) who died on November 17th. The delegation, which will include senior officials from the foreign affairs and trade ministry's will join the staff of Neustern's DPRK embassy in attending the 3 day long funeral. Kim Jung Il personally directed a Pyongyang tourism video aimed at attracting Neusterners to North Korea's capital city. The video entitled Pyongyang Paradise was televised on RTSN 1 in November.

Gary Farrelly, Neustern.

FARRELLY AND BYRNE COLLABORATE ON NEW TELEVISION SHOW FOR BROADCAST IN NEUSTERN

(Above) Dinner Party Etiquette - A Radical Science(2011)

Artists Gary Farrelly and Oisin Byrne have been commissioned by Neustern's state broadcaster RTSN to create a time television series to be televised early in 2012. RTSN (Radio Television Service Neustern) has committed itself to an initial seven episode dispensation of the show entitled Radical Science which will fuse social etiquette, new sciences, cultural suggestion and decontaminated news information(s). The show will star Farrelly with Byrne working in an art direction and production capacity. The shows content is being written collaboratively. A pilot episode called APOCALYPSE Make-up tutorial aired on RTSN1 on November first this year and received extremely positive reviews in the domestic press. A second test episode entitled Dinner Party Etiquette - A radical Science is currently being shown on RTSN.

Gary Farrelly, Neustern.