This week’s East Village Boy of the Week is Alex, from Toronto, Canada
Photographed for EVB by Franco Deleo
People have often asked me to shoot them nude, but for the first time, I asked someone to pose nude for me. For this project I pushed away many of my comfort zones in order to tap into the emotions needed to make it a success. Concentrating on the fragility and beauty of the model, this shoot felt very personal because it was all about my ability to make Alex feel comfortable in front of me. His vulnerability and desire to collaborate allowed me to tap into the spontaneity of photography, which I now realize is the most satisfying place to be. - Franco Deleo
Russell Dean Stone makes great music, he’s unsigned, unforgiving and quite possibly a gay witch. We caught up with him one afternoon on the banks of ‘Old Father Thames’.
Richard Welch: You have described your music as “a portal, or a glass elevator, or a megabus to another dimension”. What do you mean? And why a megabus rather than a shortbus?
Russell Dean Stone: I think the only way to answer this is by listening to Willy Wonka/Gene Wilder’s rendition of ‘Pure Imagination’ .
Richard: You live in East London, how has its vibrant club and music scene influenced you and your music?
Russell: That’s a difficult question to answer. East London is going through an invasion as it gets rapidly redeveloped as the trendy part of London. Undoubtedly, growing up in London generally has been an incredible influence on me, working for magazines like Sleazenation fulfilled my teenage dreams growing up reading The Face and wanting to be part of that world. Then being part of the Kash Point club scene, meeting people like Richard LaRue, Nobra, Matthew Stone, etc. I don’t want to be pigeonholed as an East London musician though, that wouldn’t feel right. I’m not part of any scene. I’m in love with London, but in terms of my music I don’t feel like that comes from geography, it comes from inside me and the people I work with. I want to build my own world with my work. Richard: Like many musicians collaboration is central to your ethos, can you explain why it is so important to you?
Russell: I don’t want to do everything myself, or I should say by myself. Collaborating is a way to combat being alone. Besides, I’ve been lucky enough in my life to be acquainted with some very talented individuals. My dream is to work with them all and build my own Haus of Stone.
Russell Dean Stone (feat. Rat Scabies) – ‘Leather’
A reimagining of ‘Mack the Knife’, inspired by Al Pacino in Cruising
Russell Dean Stone – ‘Summer Song’
Richard: Does your fashion background inform what you do or have you exorcised those demons?
Russell: I have never been interested in fashion, I am interested in style. Style doesn’t require money it requires taste. This New Year I threw out all the color from my wardrobe and gave it away in an act of teenage rebellion. That I think was definitely exorcising past demons. Now there is only black. Richard: You recently recorded a track, ‘Leather’, with Rat Scabies of The Damned on drums - do you think we need more musicians who use a stage name?
Russell: No! That’s partly why I decided to use my real name to perform under. I was tired of the endless ludicrous band names. My work is me and it’s my life and it’s all the time. It’s not a stage persona. I don’t relate to other musicians or artists who need to pretend to be someone else. I don’t want an alter ego. Rat, however, is a living legend and in my opinion a true contender for the title of Greatest Living Drummer. If anyone has the pleasure of meeting him I suggest they swiftly buy him a Guinness.
Richard: What are some of the more obscure tools you’re using to make music?
Russell: I don’t think that in terms of what my band and I have been playing, that we’ve been doing anything particularly exotic. I think the obscure tools maybe come in the form of the inspiration for the music, which I would say, for me at least, are film and poetry. I’m a complete cinema junky and it’s a real source of inspiration for me. Dario Argento and British ‘Kitchen Sink’ films are flavor of the month: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Taste of Honey, Made in Britain. As for poetry, I go to bed with Billy Childish and Sylvia Plath regularly.
Richard: Jeff, who shot you for this interview, said you were lovely and down-to-earth, yet your photos look like you’re not one to mess with. Which is more true?
Russell: Merci beaucoup! It is a little known fact that I’m actually a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
Richard: It would seem you’re very interested in the occult. Where did your interest start, and do you practice witchcraft?
Russell: It’s more of a spiritual and aesthetic affiliation. In London right now there is definitely a scene that is, stylistically speaking, into the occult, mysticism, science fiction, goth. I’m turned on by Kenneth Anger’s work, Egyptian legends and I read New Scientist magazine religiously. Spiritually speaking, the occult and the writing of Aleister Crowley definitely interests me. A lot of what he said makes sense. On a really basic level it’s about empowerment, change, free will. But it’s a fascination for me - I’m not a witch.
Richard: You like to use the word magick over magic. What’s the difference for you?
Russell:Magick is essentially defined as an act of intentional change, no matter how small or mundane that might be, and I am all for change!
Richard: S or M?
Russell: Sha Man
Richard: What are you currently working on?
Russell: Today I finished my first video, directed by Rory DCS and shot by Balthazar Klarwein, to accompany my song ‘Lucifer Rising’. The song itself is an obvious reference to Kenneth Anger’s film of the same name, and the video is a sort of dream/love letter to Anger, as well as 70s horror movies, and the inspiration his work has been to me.
2010 is the year that the legendary Glastonbury festival came out. As a way of celebrating their 40th year they created Block 9 a whole field of gay party nonsense. It housed club installations The NYC Downlow and London Underground, both by radical set designers Gideon Berger and Stephen Gallagher of Block 9. The weather and moods of the revelers were stunning. A perfect English summer, no rain, no mud. The festival had a great sense of warmth, energy and love about itself. At night Horse Meat Disco rocked it in the NYC Downlow tent. GutterSlut and Hot Boy Dancing Spot heated up the Vogue Fabrics tent. Horny trannies, performance artists, club kids, bears, geeks and freaks of all sexual perversions mixed and matched and partied! Some dropped like flies in the morning heat, a field of ‘trannies unplugged’ was a unique sight I never witnessed but wish I had. Lovebox Festival in London was equally special. It has become a must do event on the bristling summer calendar. Set in Victoria Park, London’s oldest public park (and one of its most beautiful, too), it felt like back at Block 9 in Glastonbury, this time ‘London edition’. The Festival was extended by an extra day, the first time since its interception seven years ago. Sunday was ‘gay day’, and just like in Glastonbury’s Block 9, the crowd was a mix of all of the above.
For all of our friends in London, here’s a group show that promises to be really good. Most of the artists you may know about from the pages of EVB - Ignacio Lozano, Florent Routoulp, Ryan Pfluger, Stuart Sandford and Jeff Hahn - and some have yet to find their way to us - Eiki Mori, Sakiko Nomura and Daniel Karlsson. So if you’re around, get over to Brick Lane (skip the curry) and check them out.
From the press release: Boy BANG Boy is a provocative exhibition celebrating the image of the boy. The exhibition brings together selected artists, from around the world, who work predominantly with the photographic image. The artworks presented are prevalent, whether intentional or not, of narcissism, egoism, voyeurism and the romanticism found or achieved in everyday life.
In both artistic and commercial photography there is a well established genre of the image of the boy; a fashion magazine’s staged snapshot of a lean young man - he is Narcissus, the unobtainable beauty. Whether the artist strives for reality or has created an alternative world of fantasy, photography’s ability to deceive is one of its most intrinsic values and the medium’s inherent voyeuristic nature cannot be denied.
The internet age allows an entire generation to willingly broadcast its most personal moments to the world. Gone are the manufactured idols of Saturday morning television the broadcasted images of selected perfection - where the cool kid is the most lusted after. Today, anyone can be the star of the show. The short clips of overtly sexualized posturing or the half-naked bathroom snap shots are a dominant form of self-expression. The rise in access to all areas of what was once someone’s private life can be compared to the works in this exhibition - self portraiture, found image and the set piece snapshot. Quiet moments made suddenly very loud with the attitude and opinion of what it means to be a young male in an impossibly diverse world. Boy BANG Boy is co-curated by artists Stuart Sandford and Sichi
and is presented by EASTGALLERY, 214 Brick Lane, London E1 6SA.
The exhibition launches on Thursday August 5th 2010 with a preview evening from 7pm.
Open until August 18th, Tuesday - Sunday, 1pm - 7pm.
This week’s East Village Boy of the Week is Mody, from New York, via Amsterdam
Photographed for EVB by Bobby Collins
I met my good friend Mody about eight or nine years ago while living in Amsterdam. As an Arab guy, we were always skeptical that he’d get a visa to come to New York City with me, but he got lucky and was able to, so we went around the city together and this is what I shot. Unfortunately, all of the “see something say something” propaganda was a bit gloomy, but we always have fun anyway! - Bobby Collins
All clothing by Walter Van Beirendonck, Spring/Summer 2010 collection and archive.
Special thanks to Walter Van Beirendonck, Ben Ospital at M.A.C. Modern Appealing Clothing, Andrea Cammarosano, and Franklin Melendez
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