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BEYOND THE ROID RAGE
It’s hard to go out in downtown New York and not get snapped by photographer Jeremy Kost’s Polaroid camera. And there he was Tuesday night shooting away at By New York, a new Piero Lissoni–designed SoHo event space that was formerly the home of André Balazs. CITY’s Renee Lucas caught up with Kost at the party and learned that the founder of www.roidrage.com has a busy weekend coming up. A selection of his candid Polaroids are being shown by the Conner Contemporary Fine Art gallery at the PULSE Art Fair in New York, and he is also anxiously awaiting the March 28 opening of a new, three-day exhibition "Not Yet Titled (Making Faces)" at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. This video installation is a change from his Polaroid pedigree, and we can’t wait to see what he’s done.
CITY: Video is different than what most of us in New York are used to seeing from you. What can we expect?
KOST: I'm a little nervous because I've never shown video in New York. I think it’s pretty ambitious, too, with four projections, each at 20 feet tall! Essentially, on a really basic level, it’s a video of boys making faces at each other from across the lobby. It looks at a few different things ... the self-deconstruction of beauty, child-like innocence with sex, vulnerability, social interaction, and how all of those different things can make us feel different emotions. Whether we're turned on by the beautiful boys in the piece, chuckle at some of the faces, or get lost in their interaction, I hope it makes people feel something.
CITY: So boys and sex? Sounds a little risqué for the lobby of a hotel. Was the Tribeca Grand open to your ideas?
KOST: It’s amazing; I know there was some nervousness about the content of the work—boys in undies is not the tamest thing in the world, but then again, look at where some of our public advertising is going. One could say that my work is essentially a moving billboard for underwear! It was also slightly surprising how easily it was approved. I think that management there believes in me and trusts that I understand the sensibility of what they've built and who they are.
CITY: So how did this all come about?
KOST: Tommy Saleh and Mandy Brooks at GrandLife have been such an incredible supporter of me. Through my show at Soho Grand called "Not a Play Area" in 2007, to our preview of new work called "FAME" in Miami during Art Basel, they've been incredible. This idea was conceived over a really drunken night at Sundance … well, the premise of doing a video installation in the hotel was. That said, without ZUNE Arts as a sponsor, this really could never happen because the production costs are well beyond what I could justify as a young artist.
CITY: So after the show this weekend, what’s up next for you?
KOST: My next big projects are a lot to handle. I’m working on two books with Sam Shahid, who is brilliance personified and I'm so fortunate. I'm on the fence, but I might pick up and go back to Thailand to continue a body of work that I've been making there, which will be a 10-channel video work and a huge series of new photographs, and likely be for my next show in D.C. with Conner Contemporary Art. |
