Great Success

So a couple of weeks ago on a particular uninspiring night after having a late dinner at a noodle place with my friend Chris, we decided to check out a local tattoo shop. It was a small shop, glowing with neon purple "OPEN" and lights - this was a really obscure shop that was was tucked away behind a large food mall, pretty much exiled to the corner.

We walked in when the store was closed (yes, the neon "OPEN" signs were rather deceiving). There were other similar aged people and we somehow got engaged in their discussion. (Or rather, it was more like a lecture by this one tattooist named Andy.) He was medium built, medium height, medium age, etc. But this Andy didn't have as average thoughts about art. He had big ideas to share. He showed us a youtube video called Art Fusion Experiment.

The premise of Art Fusion is pretty simple:

"...to help each other, work together, get to know each other more." - taken from the video.

It started out as a tattooist experimenting with a group other tattooists. They wanted to break from the mean and try something completely unheard of - working collaboratively and freehandedly on a full body tattoo. They were met with great success, so great that Borat would approve. This group then decided to take the ideas to the gallery walls. They again were met with success and gained the approval of institutional art critics.

This method of working collaboratively to create art is innovative in many ways:

(1.) communication in the art process - typically unheard of because traditionally, an artist would work alone

(2.) new styles/forms of art - by combining two artists styles, you get a nice fusion style that the world has never seen. I guess a comparison would be like watching the chef Ming Tsai cook a fusion of Asian-European cuisine on "East meets West" on FoodTV.

(3.) collapse of the ego - I may have phrased that incorrectly because it sounds more negative than positive. But anyway, it basically breaks down the external pressures on an artist to create a magnificent piece of art that completely puts other artists work in the dust. In collaborative art, every artist contributing to the work is not pressured to compete with other artists - thus, makes for an enriching experience. According to Wikipedia, who can say this more eloquently:

"Any one artist could spend an hour detailing an element of a canvas and in the blink of an eye, another artist may step in and change it entirely. Though this presents the most frustrating element of the exercise, it is an integral part of the ego-cleansing process that is so inherent of ArtFusion Camp. As a result, a newfound unity develops between the artists. Through the chaos that is the ArtFusion Experiment, many harmonies reveal themselves."



This video really inspired me to think a lot about collaborative arts It is also why I created this blog. I wanted to both explore concepts behind working together and communicating for art and also to share whatever insights or fun facts I come across.

"Great Success!"