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| %$%$%$%$%$$$%$%$%$%$%%%$%$%$%: An Interview
With Kalx.com Work: "Untitled" 2003 [Exclusive to Turbulence] The website kalx.com is overrun by a bizarre sense of secrecy. The artist goes only by the name of Kalx, or by a series of aliases which have changed often since its inception in 1997- or 1999, depending on when you ask. The work is a descendant of the most visually-oriented net.art from the early days: think Redsmoke or Superbad.com. Kalx.com interprets the world wide web as a barrage of abstract images, bright colors vying for attention, and a very meaningless level of pure visual pleasure from the most unlikely of sources. It's an assemblage of vector graphics, map outlines, news photographs, pornography, advertising and video games. The site is the art project- there are no "pieces," just a mosaic dedicated to fulfilling the urge to blindly click and recieve data in response. This is the sort of site that can only exist on the web, because it is the web. This artist follows a lot of other artists I've looked at in this project, in that he also makes audio work. But he's also inspired it. A companion cd, "Music for Kalx.com" was created by electronic sound artist Jos Smolders. ES: Kalx.com seems to be saying a lot about the overvalued cult of design; we have a website that appears slick but says nothing explicitly; do you find a lot of your work being based in pop culture, such as advertising, tv news, and websites themselves? Its almost a website about a websites, in a sense. Kalx: Well, since I am ripping everyone off, then I guess it is a web site about a web site. Also, the work is deteriorating because I have an insatiable appetite for drugs. ES: What is it that got you interested in the internet as a way of making art? Kalx: I wanted to look at stuff that reminded me of dreams or hallucinating. I saw superbad for the first time and I started to believe in superficial web interpretations of dreams as being entirely possible. So I gave it a shot. So far I am very happy about how I am going about it. I feel like I am doing something entirely important as it seems to me a visual account that captures the desperate at their attempt to eternally preserve their historic imprint on the universe. ES: To you, whats the difference between design and art? Do you think of what you do as one or the other, or do you see them as interconnected? Kalx: One or the other I'd say. The difference between design and art is what will they let in the gallery? And I guess how much money does it make? Is the artist a public figure? Is their art a status symbol? Whatever. ES: Do you have a vision for what you want your site to become? It seems to be constantly changing and rewriting its own history, which helps break down any sort of storyline or "evolution" of the site itself. Is there an intentional resistance to the idea of a consistent theme in the work? Kalx: I want to work on cartoons a bit more. -Eryk Salvaggio
March 2003 |
Cory Arcangel. Geoff Lillemon. Kalx. Michael Mandiberg. Eryk Salvaggio. |
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