Scott Hug is the creator of K48, a collective and a magazine.  He’s also, quite possibly, the most unaffected, “insider outsider” artist ever.  Our Managing Editor, Jacque, got to sit down with Scott and talk about everything in the world- art, his solo show, how New York has changed in the last 14 years, celebrities (even outer space and the apocalypse!).  But first, they started with Missouri…

Chief Magazine: So, you grew up in a small town, “California, Missouri”, which totally stuck in my head because it’s simply the greatest name for any small town, ever…

Scott Hug: Yeah, California.

So, you’re from California.

Did you ever see the second issue of K48? I did a project on my hometown, it’s the “Out of Town” Issue.

No, I didn’t.

Do you want me to show it to you?

Yeah, yeah… [Scott brings over K48 #2]

 It’s like a pretty chunky issue, but pretty funny.  This is my hometown, right here. [Points to a picture of a billboard]

“Visit California, Missouri! Small Enough to Know You, Large Enough to Serve You!” Wow. So, how many people lived in California?

A little more than 3,000. And I grew up about four miles outside city limits, in the country.  So, this is my high school reunion [flips through pages of Issue #2] and it-

So, these are your friends or, errr, people you went to high school with [laughing] I guess that’s an important distinction to make-

[Laughing] Yeah, these are like the “Heathers” and-

And now they’re like … The Pregnant-ers. With children-ers.

Actually, Angela was 13 when she got pregnant in high school.  She was very much like Juno. But not that cool. But, yeah, she was super young and we dated when we were little kids-

Are you the father of her child?

[Laughing] No. I’m not.

That’d be something!

So this picture, [points to another picture] is from senior day, this guy John, and this is him now [points to a picture of a man wearing overalls with a child]… he’s a farmer.

Oh, so farmers like actually wear “farmers” clothes.

Yeah. Totally. My high school reunion took place at this place that’s called a “Shooters Club” and it was off this gravel road in the country and guys go there to shoot, you know, they have a shooting range. And when I got there my nephew dropped me off and I get out and the guys are playing horseshoes and they totally ignore me and the girls were all, “is that Scotty Hug?”

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Wait, so this brings me to a really important question, you’re last name is actually “Hug”, that’s not some self given bullshit name?

No, it’s real. My Grandfather was born in Switzerland and it’s actually a common name in parts of Switzerland.  There's a umlaut over the "u".  Of course, they don’t pronounce the “H”, they say Oog” (ed note: spelling that out phonetically is hard), but it’s been Americanized.  I don’t think there are that many here. Our uncle went to Switzerland and did our genealogy and, yeah, it’s a real name. Actually, when I was at undergrad in Chicago, I met this guy and his name is “Hug” and he has a gallery in L.A., kind of prominent in the art world, but so he’s Swiss and he goes by Hug (original Swiss version), but it’s spelled H-U-G like me.   People think we’re brothers, we might be distantly related.

I’m sure you are. We all are.

Yeah.

So, back in 2003, when I went to go see your show, Teenage Rebel: The Bedroom Show, I had heard a rumor, well first of all, that show was really great, really great-

Thank you.

So, I heard this rumor that you were living in the show. Like sleeping there?

Yeah, I moved in.   It was kind of, like, perfect because at the time I was living in this big loft in Williamsburg, east Williamsburg, which is really popular now. I was living there for six years and we had no water and we had rats and it was freezing cold, it was February.  I think it [the show] started in December and I lived in the gallery for almost three months.

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Wow.

Well, one of the reasons was because, conceptually, I mean, I started K48 in my bedroom, in this loft and when we put together the Teenage issue (K48 #3), I like how the bedroom is this safe haven for the teen aged.

Yeah, totally make your own cave of stuff-

Yeah, it’s your secret garden away from stuff. Like when your parents tell you to go to your room, it’s your safe haven. And teenage bedrooms are really rad, usually, and so we put up all kinds of stuff. Actually my bedroom (now) has a lot of stuff from it.  So, John Connelly, his space was like a project space and it wasn’t open full time and he was still working at Andrea Rosen Gallery, and I asked, “can I move in?” And he said it wasn’t a problem and it was kind of amazing. On that floor, these people called the Naftalis own the building and, he died recently, but, the husband and wife team built this sauna/gym, I don’t know who uses it now-

Wait, like in the building?

Yeah, in the building, on the floor, just around the corner from John Connelly’s space and they gave me a free membership. And I’d just go there to shower.

Wow. That was perfect.

Yeah, it was amazing. We’d have parties really late and one time, I remember people coming into the show and me and two other people were passed out on the bed. These girls were like giggling and-

“Oh my god, should we touch him? Is it part of the space? Should I join the space?” 

[Laughing] Yeah, it was cool, I had a PS2 and I was really into “Devil May Cry” and we’d just be playing it all day and people would come in and think I was doing a performance. But, yeah it was a lot of fun.