Caveman City

Caveman City was an exhibition of Brooklyn artists at The Arm gallery.  Of the artists in Caveman City, some are also members of the Black Label Bike Club.

Here, we interview Doctor JPL and
Wolfgang Paperchase.

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Doctor JPL

Chief Magazine: What role does art play in the Black Label Bicycle Club?

Doctor JPL: Black Label, at least for me, has never been an art thing... For me it's about my brothers and sisters, friends and family getting each others backs. Having a good time, most of the time at other's expenses...  going on rides to cool spots chilling drinking some beers and enjoying each others company...

I guess the art aspect of the club is making interesting strange bikes and such. We are all interested in art somewhat so of course it also comes in to play. When theres a flyer or T-shirt to be made.

We are pretty good at the art of getting kicked out of the party or club.

Does Caveman City have plans for another show soon?

Sure, I would love to get another deadline set... I need that to get anything done. It is such a breath of fresh air to be in a gallery surrounded by my favorite artists and work I respect and relate to. I would hope to plan something for the fall.

Do you want to see your art in Chelsea, or in the mainstream, or do you want to keep it at more of a DIY level?

Chelsea is fine, so is DYI. Not much of a snob about Chelsea maybe in Chelsea someone can afford to buy my art.

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Can you describe the process of putting together the WOODGlue Devil?

I've always wanted to see my drawings and paintings get up and walk off the walls. So I guess I started with the idea to just make one of my dudes three-dimensional. I am so process orientated... 1/2" ply wood under-structure then chicken wire, then count how many teeth I have in my mouth, carve 'em out of old bed posts, carve some eyes out, dip hundreds of feet of rope into a bucket of black oil paint... Screaming, listening to ancient Japanese court music pacing around my room 'till 5am every night.

Almost lost my fingers a few times in the bandsaw making the WOODGlue Devil's fingers right infront of him. I'm glad he didn't take my fingers. I like them very much.

Eventually OniBaba the WOODGlue Devil came to life. ONiBaba is loosely based on Japanese folktale about these evil woman, whose husbands left to war, and were left to fend for themselves. They would lure in the lost samurai coming home from war and kill them for their armor and possessions ...

There's a lot of detail work. Anything you want to add to the piece or are you moving on to the next creation?

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I love detail... sure. I was still painting on the piece as people were walking in to the opening.

I can go on and on with that shit. But I also have so many things I wanna make I'll probably call that it and start on some new projects... like clouds shooting lightning and rain, flying octopuses and a three dimensional-man that you can walk threw the legs... a six-headed monster and a few more chickens, etc. etc. etc... I need some fucking interns! Anyone wanna be an intern!

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Wolfgang Paperchase

Chief Magazine: Where did all of the stuff in your art come from? I hear it is from an Uncle, or a relative...

Ian: That pertains to Greg’s shit, not mine... the materials from my pieces are discarded thingies from around the world, things that make sense to me that I respond to by taking them. And also porno. Lots and lots of porno. And bacon, perhaps my greatest inspiration!

Porno and bacon. Can't go wrong there. Around the world? How around are we talking?

I’ve traveled all over Asia. Thailand, Japan, India, Korea... the four of us, and also a good friend of mine in Japan took a trip to Thailand last year on tall bikes. Two months, 1000 miles, orange and black checkered spandex.

I remember a friend saying Greg was going to Thailand with tall bikes. Same trip? How was that?

Thailand is amazing! You can live like a king for ten dollars a day! We set off right after bike kill last year. We were all up for about three days straight building tallbikes that come apart and fit into one bike box. It’s quite a blur really. We got to the airport in Bangkok, stepped outside, put our bikes together right there and rode into town. It was pretty rough getting acclimatized and all that. We rode about 50 miles a day average in the middle of the afternoon, mid 90's temperature. I had tan lines for six months afterwards! Anyway, about halfway into the trip south, we got to an island called Ko Phanghan, which is a haven for silly party people worldwide. One evening, we were all hanging about at a night market, drinking buckets. Buckets are children’s beach type pails that they fill with an ass-pocket of whiskey, a red bull and a liter of coke with no less than six straws for maximum intake. We had a few of those and split up.

JPL and I headed down the way to a bar where there are hostesses you are expected to buy drinks for and conversate with. We took to drawing on them and visa versa, had a few beers, and then they served us with a big big bill. We paid for our beers but gave no currencies for theirs. We mounted up and were riding away and two guys on a moped came behind us and threw a bottle at me, hitting me in the arm. So we got to a crossroads where they would have to loop around and got ready to ambush them... they came round the corner and we gave chase, but we could not catch them in flip-flops. So we kept on down the road and got to a 7-11 to get some food to soak the alcohol up. The most wholesome thing they had was instant cup-o-noodles, so we filled our cups and went to the counter to pay, and we look outside and there's about ten Thai dudes outside waiting for us. JPL paid for his stuff and went outside, and I was paying for mine and I see one of the guys reach back and punch JPL, waving the bill in his face, so I come charging out and throw my hot steaming cup of noodles in the guys face and punch him with the other hand. JPL sees this happen and does the same, and then it was an all out brawl. Fists are flying, flip-flops everywhere, I don't know if I got punched or kicked, but I can't see out of my right eye until the next day. They finally took off after we tussled for a bit, and we rode off, me with one squinty eye, into the jungle.

The first beach we got to was about a week into the trip, a town called Hua Hin. A one day trip we took was to this mountain top shrine completely overrun with monkeys, the most vile creatures next to man. All these monkeys wanted to do was steal the food or drink out of your hands, raise hell and jack off. They are not the fun, loveable, adorable things you see in cartoons! These are debased and demonic little freaks possessed by Satan! So we hike up the mountain half way to the shrine, hang out for a bit, and our friend Travis is fucking with the monkeys a little, giving one his empty can, and the little bugger gets pissed and jumps him! Bit right into his arm, so Travis grabs it and throws it, and we hop the fence to get the rest of the way up the mountain. It’s almost sunset now, so the whole tribe of the monkeys moves to the top of the mountain for the remaining hour or so of sunlight. We’re hangin around, enjoying the view and the place is slowly filling with monkeys of all ages and sizes: Cute from a distance, but also completely outnumbering us 300 to 5. Some of them start getting real close and climbing around on us playfully, getting more and more confident. Then one climbs up Greg’s back and takes off his hat and starts gnawing on the top of his head! All the rest of us and the monkeys are getting a kick out of this, but I have had enough, we were no longer at the top of the food chain, I’m out of there.

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So Thailand is a lot of fun, but you’re bound to get your ass kicked by man or monkey... alright. Back to your art, you're a fan of Bart Simpson?

Bert Simpkins's likeness to any character, licensed or not is purely incidental, coincidentally.

Do you plan on seeing The Simpsons movie?

Simpsons the movie? I watch the trailer on internet and get a slight mental erection...

If not the Simpsons movie, what upcoming events, shows, releases, anything are you looking forward to?

The apocalypse, the fall of the current government, nuclear explosions, the invention of the time machine, Snakes On a Plane 2, the re-release of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack...

You're in Black Label Nowhere? Where is that? Are you settled in New York now?

I am not a member of Black Label Nowhere, but from what I can tell, they are a roving pack of drunken miscreants to be avoided at any and all costs. They eat babies! Black Label New York is like a collective of individuals who know what they like and do what they want. It’s a close-knit group of kids that get stuff done as a force because of the plague of procrastination preventing them to do things solo, with some exceptions. I guess a good metaphor would be we're all teeth on a zipper, and when you zip up the zipper, one side stays down and one goes up, or a pube or a nut gets stuck in the zipper and it's all the way closed, kinda, it's not perfect, but everyone's too drunk to remember anyway so ultimately it doesn't matter, we win!

Not sure why I thought you were Black Label Nowhere. Were you wearing a Black Label Nowhere vest at one point or am I remembering something that never happened?

I have a doppelganger from Nowhere chapter, The Mossman!

In Utah, I hung out with the Reno chapter. My memory is saying someone named Dustin from Reno was wearing Minneapolis colors because he and someone else had traded temporarily. Maybe that is what I am remembering. I think the Reno bunch fits the zipper metaphor, too...How's Brooklyn feeling to you these days?

New York seems to get more whack by the second. It’s getting harder and harder to do what I want. More buildings going higher and higher, quality of life decreasing as yuppies infiltrate the zone, man. I’m outta here! RASTITUTES UNITE! FUCK THE MAN! OFFENDERS ASSEMBLE!

Rastitutes?

Yeah, Tallbikes Nippon Tour (TNT) 2008, hide your children, Japan! We want to do the entire island of Honshu top to bottom!

How did you get in to art? Was it classroom born or did it come out of traveling and painting?

Art... hmmmm... I kind of just have to do it at this point to cope with this shared hallucination called reality. I started making stuff in high school. I never drank or did drugs, I would just eat chocolate and make drawings of Barbara Streisand and play noise with two or three good friends.

Do you still make noise with anyone, in any bands?

Not in any bands right now, I make a joyful noise alone in drug-induced trances.

Do you still make drawings of Barbara Streisand?

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Nah, I’m so over Streisand, man!

Where do you want to see the Caveman City go? Do you want it in Chelsea or do you want it to travel or what?

Caveman City is over now. It was just a couple of words we thought sounded accurate enough to describe the mess we made. New incarnations to come!

12 Foot Tall Duct Tape Tall Bike...You got forties, bottle caps, duct tape, bike lights...What am I missing? How did you make this guy?

Bike Sculpture is Not For Sale... I just wanted to kind of do a self-portrait type of thing using materials I could relate to. Drunkenness. Duct tape. Flashing lights. Crashing.

Bike Sculpture is Not For Sale...The similarity to some past event is striking...

Isn't it.

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