Instagram 2019, 2019-2021
Multimedia and performance
None Apparel was part of a performance piece called Instagram 2019. Instagram 2019 is also a catalog I published in an edition of 5 in 2019.
As someone who works in technology, I know that if there's a moment to capture in tech, you have to do it as quickly as possible.
By way of Instagram, whatever counts as contemporary art had become another consumer class signifier, a way of aligning taste and demographics. It was also around this time every working class artist was trying to hustle some sort of merch store, since the class divide to being included in the art market was insurmountable.
I decided if I was going to use this space to make art, I'd use it to "paint" with t-shirts, since the conflation of art and streetwear had reached a point of self-parody as it was, and I have a lot of experience making t-shirts from my childhood.
I wanted to make a cartoon version of my authentic self, and transfer the bombast of my old paintings into a more literal, commercial, visual exchange.
It was also a t-shirt store that did pretty well.
None Apparel was not a joke, but the commercials and ads were meant to be funny, part of the humor being that they were presented to the world deadpan.
The images posted online and on the book cover were shot by Elise Mesner, with models Lainey Chang and Jamie Simone. The commercials were shot by Jeff Davenport. The social media was run by my sister at some point (as were any facebook pages for music projects in the past).
The commercials are titled Still Life, Looper, and Chugging, all 2019. The soundtrack for Still Life was made using gear that was available in the store.
All of the music associated with this project was released on an ep, None Apparel: Music for Commercials.
The videos were filmed in the smoking area at KChung in Chinatown (LA), and the parking lot out front.
