Last weekend I went to Art Brussels for a casual stroll amongst the art works. Every time I find myself there I realise that the omnipresence of art is tiring to me, no matter how much I appreciate the works, it becomes too much at one point. So I just walk in circles until something sticks... you may say that it is a very perverse way of looking at art, but having finished an art school and having somewhat seen the flipside of it, I cannot immerse myself into concepts and philosophies of art. in other words, I just look at pretty pictures, as crude as it may sound.
But when I came across the small solo presentation of a French-born American-resident artist who goes under the name of The Old Boy's Club, my eyes were just riveted to not one, but complex arrangement of works where painting and drawing coincided with film projections in the way it was hard to tell where one ended and another began. You should see some videos I posted on Instagram to get the full picture. I felt like I could spend hours examining each and every image. So I had a little chat with the artist, who was constantly being torn apart by numerous visitors and their compliments, and when someone wore a print or colour she liked, she took a picture of it. I was amazed at how open and talkative she is, just like her works.
And her works are a blend of intercultural imagery. The characters are Japanese, Indonesian, Mexican (with the fighting masks), Native American, wearing American football helmets and burkas, there's Hello Kitty too, eastern and western all at once, contemporary and historical, and they all go through some sort of a struggle or a fight, they wage war against commodity culture and empty existence, yet with humour, whimsy, and lightheadedness of mood.
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