Keeling fantastically uses glitter in many of his recent handwritten text paintings. The words are drippy and difficult like quotes that get stuck in your head, snippets of contemporary wisdom that were snippets of other cultures before that. He appropriates from every piece of work he knows – every piece he saw in books, read on the walls, or heard in the streets. “Sometimes it’s about appropriating images; but a lot of times what I try to do is the appropriation of aura, and the appropriation of a feeling.” There are so many themes in his work that it might get confusing if there weren’t such continuity in the objects of his past and present.
Detail “The Kingdom of Heaven is Within” / Keeling with new work
I walked through bedstuy, by the Carribean hair salons and black power bookstores of Nostrand Avenue, up the stairs to Keeling’s second floor studio home. Passing through the first room, sunlight bounced off the glitter canvas, which leaned from the floor to the wall. The next room was small, full of photographs, scraps of paper, and sculptures hanging in the incandescent light. Through a clear plastic cabinet I saw the cover of a record, the 1983 single “D’ya like scratchin’” by Malcom Mclaren and The World Famous Supreme Team Radio Show. Keeling reached to the top of the cabinet and pulled down a glamorized boombox, much like the one drawn on the record cover. Removing it’s clear dustcover he rubbed it off, and told me it was meant to be worn around the neck. The boombox appeared as part of a sculpture called “Jah Nuh Dead God is Alive”, and Keeling displayed it in his most recent show as a still life photograph entitled “T.V. Savage.”
the clear plastic cabinet / Keeling with Boombox
Keeling is a man who constantly reinterprets his environment. He addresses life and ritual, sex and love, power and exploration. After attending art highschool and Saturday drawing classes at Cooper Union, Keeling finished two years at the Fashion Institute and attended a few classes at Central Saint Martins in London. He then began a commercial career in photography and worked in the industries of fashion, porn, and film. I first met Keeling when I approached him at Strand Books. “I’m sorry,” I said “but I assist commercial photographers and I couldn’t help but overhear you talking about a photoshoot, do you have any work you could use help on?”. He appologized too, saying he no longer uses assistants as he has become more of a Fine Art Photographer. Keeling the artist is represented by the 3rd Streaming Gallery in New York City, he lives amongst his inspirations (like the sculpture by John Ahearn that Keeling holds in the photo below) and his work. He is a product of his culture and community, but his pieces show that with a little individual re-interpretation, culture can help us understand ourselves.
Keeling contemplating / Keeling with gift of John Ahearn
More sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/go-wild-with-jayson-keeling_n_1292243.html
http://thirdstreaming.com/artists/6-keeling
http://momaps1.org/studio-visit/artist/jayson-keeling
