Creative of the Month

Edward Giles Southgate

 

Location: South Bay Los Angeles, originally from Queens, New York

 

Creative Vocation: Noise Artist, which includes graphic design, textual content, some acting when possible.

 

-How did you become interested in becoming a creative person?
 

 My creative inspiration came from an institution called PS-1 museum in Long Island City, Queens NY. 

This was in 1976 when I was ten year old. At first, it was the curiosity of this large old building that was the first public school in Queens in my neighborhood.

I used to play stickball in the parking lot, and noticed all of these interesting people always entering the rear delivery bays with large objects.

On July 4th 1976, I entered the building to get away from the chaos of fireworks and danger of the neighborhood yokels throwing "blockbuster" explosives off the rooftops!

It was there I saw new, and different uses for industrial and textiles that were usually used as a building material for structures like bridges or buildings.

There were also audio and video installations in raw spaces, not the pristine white painted walls of most art galleries.

In 1979, I was fortunate to see a band called SUICIDE at Max's Kansas City. The duo of Martin Rev, and Alan Vega completely changed my mind about rock-n-roll, art, performance and style. 

-How would you describe your work?

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My work is "budget conceptualism."

 I didn't attend art school, or any higher education institution. I was reared in a humble working-class household where the "city job" was the key to financial stability, union, health benefits, and the works.

I used, and continue to use gear, both musical and industrial test equipment to create sound that is usually called "noise."

Much of the gear I use is discarded, slightly damaged throw-offs I cobbled together from TRW swap meets, yard sales, pawn shops and friends.

 Which is fine, because that's what it is.

But, I usually try to place it into a meta contextual context so it reveals something that was ignored, omitted or not considered in other sectors or a larger macro system. Be it industry, politics, society or even art itself.

The efficiency and economic aspect of my art, and work is the inverse of how art is transformed into a commodity that fits comfortably into the financial and value systems of the art industry.  

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-Who, or even what, would you say is your main influence in an artistic sense?
 

 My recent work for the last two decades has really been informed by the social, and economic stratification occuring in the United States.

We are living in a bizzare transitioning period in society, and it challenges all and any preconditioned notion of the power of wealth and technology in the 21st century.

The "gap" not only between the well-off, and everyone else, but our very behavior and psychological space is now being exploited by social media, marketing and I would say well paid, and protected "social engineers" that use fear, ignorance and manipulation to CONTROL most of the population.

It is dystopic in nature, where everyday life goes on as usual, but the false sense of value, worth, and ego are spun to a point of aggression and violence.

"Art," for what it's worth, is plaything for the wealthy. It's driven more by financial and narcissistic motivational drives than any REAL utility. 

The whole circle of influence and very strictly organized dyad is power in the raw. Its tentacles reach into many aspects of power including heads of state, organized crime, and of course wealth and power.  

I, "play' with these elements to create an art that is forced into the lowest sub-stratas of lower income and dangerous latent functions of how the powerful and rich affect and surpass the less status populations of America, and really the entire global economy.

But, I can only speak about my home turf of Southern California, the rest of the world is like a deep-fake AI generated fraud designed to distract us from how dystopic and horrid society has become.

But, at least it's cute to the point of absurdity.

 

-What inspires you and brings you the most satisfaction in doing your creative endeavors?
 

Collaborating with other like-minded friends and artists. I like to bring people that have no interest or involvement in the "harsh noise" community into the loop.

There's a refreshing feeling to break the proverbial "4th wall" of the so-called art world and blow the myth that only the few trained, educated and accepted artists are superior to somebody walking by off the streets of Anytown, USA.

I don't spend time trying to convince the art world, or the noise scene, that what I'm doing is valuable, meaningful or pragmatically essential to a larger whole. However, by DEFAULT, it MUST be ACCEPTED AS ART, or at least an attempt to create art.

The satisfaction comes from getting over on the gatekeepers and virtue signaling class that decide through definition what's cool, and what passes or how they feel about the artist, or their art.

 

Upcoming Events:

I've been invited to play the Fargo Noise Fest this coming June, and a possible show in Austin Texas. Los Angeles has a BIG problem with supporting edgy, unpopular independent art. 

Whether it's a ingroup dynamic that favors some artists over others, or the pressure to provide "ART AS ENTERTAINMENT," Los Angeles has great resources, so long as the artist falls in lock-step with those with a little bit of "juice" (power). 

So, favoritism and cherry picking event promoters and organizers have deliberately passed over WALLMART, CAVEAT EMPTOR, UNKNOWN HIERARCHY, THE WHOLE SICK CREW, and several other projects that I've created, or collaborated on.

I hope the reader is inspired to create. But, to create from a REAL SENSE OF CRISIS. The situation in LA, and the rest of the country is dire. The very last thing anyone needs is namby-pamby "cute art" that looks falsely aloofly hip, or sexy. So, don't sugar coat the ugly, celebrate it!

 

I'd like to thank my wife, Dr. Darby Southgate for her love and wisdom. She is a professor of Sociology and a co-author of a very popular book called 'Inequality.' Her professional insight and companionship has been my main source of love and inspiration! 

 

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