The Thousands

If you are going to Sugar Mountain on Saturday you will see many things. But none will bend your synapses quite as thoroughly as SUN ARAW‘s live collaboration with Perth artist Ben Baretto. Sharing the stage with LA’s one-man psyche machine (aka Cameron Stallones), Ben will make one of his large-scale painting installations – “a crudely constructed large wooden frame through which paint will be poured. After passing over several materials, the paint will ultimately reach a canvas where it will be blended with fabric being rotated by mirror ball motors.” All of this will be lit by spots linked to Cameron’s laid-back sound collage. Because it wouldn’t really be enough to publish only one side of this story, we asked SUN ARAW and Ben Baretto to interview each other. Here is what happened.

Ben Baretto: SUN ARAW seems like a fairly spiritual project, do you find yourself getting into a similar zone making the artwork or film clips as you do making the music?

Cameron Stallones: There are moments that it’s reached for. Music has that immediacy that can just rip you right into the conduit. Making films/videos, or doing photoshop layouts or whatever always sort of feels like peering in at the fire from behind glass – but there’s pleasure in the long slow moves towards whatever is in the driving seat. Funny enough, I think I had to really learn the immediacy of music more than I had to learn that patience. That was the quality that was more alien and therefore more alluring/addictive.

BB: From what I can see the project in Jamaica was pretty amazing, did that setting inspire any new visuals or sounds for SUN ARAW?

CS: Man it was truly a transformative experience in every sense of the word. It inspired new angles on everything. I’m not sure if there is anything in particular that has made its way into the music, but it has helped primarily to provide light-hearted channels for moment to moment reverence. Rastas have an incredible agility with understanding the power it grants you. Attitude of gratitude, as a friend of mine would say.

BB: SUN ARAW has a pretty strong following here. So far, what have have your experiences in Australia been like? Do you have any thoughts on the music scene here or generally on Australian culture?

CS: Last time was a blast and a half, really can’t wait to get back down there and see old friends, make new, etc. We played with a lot of fantastic bands last time. I’m down with any country where people still fly the Flying Nun flag, haphazard and heartfelt. Lots of amazing psychedelic stuff too. Last time we flew everywhere, but this time we’re driving most of the time, so I’m stoked to see more of the country.

BB: I’m super excited about the collaboration. I feel I can really relate to what you do with a similar interest in those drawn-out, ongoing, mantric-like processes. How do you feel about what Sugar Mountain is doing by pairing visual art and music on the one stage?

CS: Impressed and blessed. Such a simple idea, but so powerful, more festivals should put their energy into these sorts of considerations.  Hopefully it can be an alchemical sort of thing, 1 + 1 = Ω 3 Ω

[Cameron switches to the interviewer's seat]

Cameron Stallones: Do you feel the essence of your assisted work is based mostly on mechanical (man-made motor) or physical (gravitational) forces? Do you feel structure or chance is dominant to the finished work?

Ben Baretto: The essence of the assisted work is a blend of both mechanical and physical forces, but saying that it’s definitely not a man vs machine scenario. The mechanical side of the works are things I think of simply as tools, providing assistance to a lonely process. But while I don’t think about the mechanics as dominating the work they have been chosen consciously, a mirror ball motor as an object holds a certain value as does the low-fi structure and the colours I choose, I guess they all work  together as a collage of materials, colour and movement but the practical side of using the motor means I can hand over some constant control which will do things I can then react to. It kind of sets up a backing beat which repeats itself and from there I can become more of a composer or director in the situation.

CS: What have you learned if anything about the nature of human systems from relying on mechanical assistance, “natural” and otherwise?

BB: I definitely use the failed aspects of these systems to my advantage. Failure is natural in all systems. What I’ve learnt is that it’s not exciting unless you push it, making things do what they aren’t supposed to do, forcing mechanics to the edge of functionality. I am always open with exposing the flaws in my structure and its mechanics. It’s the inherent flaws that make it more beautiful when it is working and more exciting when it’s not, because at that point when the system breaks down I have to react. Failure provides forced intuition which then provides new ideas.

CS: Seeing those ideas translated into music like Fan Band is nuts. Seems like automatic writing of a real mixed bag. What are your thoughts on automatic music?

BB: Thanks, it’s funny but I’m not usually drawn to automatic music as such, I guess it’s like most things – it can be done well and then you can see really bad examples of it too. I don’t actually like many kinetic artworks with sound, I often find them too tech and gadget-y. I think that like with most things it comes down to the intention.

CS: Self Wrapping Sculpture is super generous. Providing a force by which the piece adorns itself. What about transferring consciousness to unconscious systems? When does a system become conscious?

BB: I guess a system becomes conscious once it’s activated. By activating these otherwise still objects, the work has an ability to be endless, to wrap itself up and then unveil itself again in a slow moving, ongoing cycle. I’m denying the object the status of being a ‘resolved’ artwork, and the longer it goes on the more of a medatitive feeling I experience, adding things when I feel necessary. It also poses a lot of questions, which are relevant to all of my works, is it a performance or a sculpture? Is the documentation the work? I like that it sits in those uncomfortable grey-areas.

CS: What do the weaves/textile pieces feel like to you? Is it approachable? Would you wrap yourself in it? Or is it an image?

BB: The weaves are probably more of an object than an image, though the image and pattern is important to the concept. The materials used in these works are typical, generic hardware store supplies – all purpose rope and brick layers line. So materials with fairly masculine uses like tying down timber onto the back of a ute – that I’ve then woven into something more reminiscent of feminine craft, exposing those qualities in the materials and those trades. It’s an observation of Western Australia’s current cultural state. The weaves are then named the personalized number plates that I’ve seen on what are most probably 18 year old P-platers in $70,000 utes that dominate the roads of my home town. But having said that, there is a meditative quality of the actual weaving of those materials that I find a necessary break from my other work. And the result has led to an aesthetic that I’m happy with, they are something people seem to want to touch, making them important as objects.

CS: The Greens Pool thing is beautiful. So how about mosaix-ing the work like that. What piece is the piece? What is the part to the whole? What about fragmented distribution of a single image?

BB: Thanks, this work is pretty metaphoric of my practice as a whole. A lot of the time the work isn’t fully realised post-performance, the work ends up being viewed as a disjointed representation of what happened, people usually only seeing one part to the whole. Working with the fragmented pieces is quite symbolic of that process, so many layers of thought come together to make that performance or moment happen, but after that moment it never really sits as a whole again. Being an editioned album cover I was happy that this meant the work was really accessible for people, everyone having a part to that one paiting.

Sugar Mountain happens at the Forum on Sat Jan 14. A small number of tickets are still available here. Check the Sugar Mountain site for information on artists and the satellite arts program.