Matthew Porter

  • Left: Cover of Ian Svenonius’s Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ’n’ Roll Group (2013). Right: The Nation of Ulysses performing in 1989. Ian Svenonius (center). (Photo: Don Lewis)
    interviews January 31, 2013

    Ian Svenonius

    Ian Svenonius has been a lead vocalist and songwriter in bands for over twenty-four years, including the Nation of Ulysses, the Make-Up, and Chain & the Gang. Based in Washington, DC, he published The Psychic Soviet (Drag City) in 2006, and hosted a talk show for VBS.tv titled Soft Focus from 2007 to 2010. His new book, Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock’n’Roll Group, was published by Akashic this month, and serves as part warning, part manual, and part spiritual dérive for anyone looking to take up musical instruments in the interest of forming a rock ’n’ roll group.

    THE APPROACH FOR THE

  • Left: Robert Buck, Through the Night That, 2011, dyed US flag, barbed wire spoil, metal pole, and metal plate, 95 x 40 1/2 x 24“. Right: Robert Buck, the crossing over and/or the crossing out, 2011, cinder blocks, rusted corrugated metal panel, lechuguilla pods, Plexiglas face-mounted photograph, 18 3/4 x 93 1/2 x 47”.
    interviews February 07, 2012

    Robert Buck

    In 2008, Robert Beck changed his artistic signature to Robert Buck. The artist’s latest exhibition, “Kahpenakwu” (Comanche for “west”), at CRG Gallery features sculptures, paintings, assemblages, and drawings inspired by the landscape of the American Southwest. Here Buck discusses the exhibition as well as issues of authorship and identity. The show is on view until February 18.

    MY AIM was to handle the object head-on, explicitly, which is why I built things around detritus from the desert––a rusted metal husk, a wooden palette, road “gators,” yucca leaves. Transported to the white cube, the