Making pop in 2022
There are no ordinary faces in Joshe Kaufmann's work. Much less anonymous faces. His work is inhabited exclusively by characters from popular culture. Celebrities, artists, personalities, caricatures, inhabitants of the Western collective imagination. He draws equally from North American culture and from there jumps to Chile, capturing some icons, portraying certain references, such as Violeta Parra. The techniques he uses also respond to textbook pop: industrial reproductions, photography, silkscreen, collage, mass production. The status of the work of art as a commodity takes on a new dimension in pop art, a dimension where hanging a painting on the wall of any living room is a much more everyday gesture. The political dimension can be synthesized in the contrasting silhouette of a popular icon and thus offer the viewer the illusion of being able to participate in that ideological ritual. This is perhaps where the success that Kaufmann tells us his work achieves lies: We all want to possess a piece of culture that tells others what we are .
Why do you make art?
I make art because it comes naturally to me, because it is easy for me to do, it is easy for me in that sense to be able to live off of art, in the sense that it is not difficult for me to make a painting because I enjoy it. It is not that it is not actually something difficult to do, it is, but at the end of the day I do not wait for six o'clock to rush out of work, or that I end up exhausted and do not want to talk about my job on the weekend, on the contrary, I live off of art and I love it.
How do you define your art?
I think my thing is pop art 2022. I don't really know how to categorize it, to be honest, I make works that are meaningful to me in terms of message, colors, life. The truth is that I don't have much of a definition for that, I'm not very good at defining myself, but if I had to define myself in some way I would say that I am a pop artist.
Where do you place yourself, or what place in art would you like to occupy?
As Victor Jara said, one does not place oneself, but rather one is placed, people put you in a place and one has to be humble and accept that place and that position, both in terms of visibility and in commercial terms, which is something important when one is an artist and dedicates oneself to this, our salary is based on what we sell in art. Where I am located, I really don't know, I feel that I am in a very nice place, yes, a very pleasant place, a place where people congratulate me, greet me and show me many signs of affection, not only on social networks but also in the street and in the places where they find my work. What place would I like to occupy? Nobody's, but I would like to be in a place where my work can have some relevance and transcendence. I think that with "Violeta" a little was achieved, so far it continues to be a work that continues to give me a lot of satisfaction and a lot of affection. Obviously I want to continue moving forward with works like that that can achieve some importance.
What are your creative processes like?
The truth is that I don't really like artists who do something and who, in some way, because of the acceptance, start repeating themselves by calling it a language. So an artist who has a "language" is like the artist who did it and with that has the recognition of gallery owners or collectors. For me, language is an excuse to repeat oneself. What I want is to be in constant search. I have a camera and I take photos with a professional camera. I also have a camera from 20 years ago and I take photos with that camera too. Then I digitalize those images and when they are ready I print them on special paper, I edit them, I digitalize them again, I convert them to a larger format on fabric, paper or another support and then they are further edited. Some of them are photographs or digitalized and they become prints. Fortunately, the originals go quickly, and then other works emerge from those original works. I use the images as backgrounds or as a reference to do other things. I change colors or I change pieces, or I simply make a new print, I cut it out and I "collage" it again, so to speak. Then I move on from this format, which is the one I do the most, to painting, graffiti, paste-up, looking for different formats. Now I'm painting in acrylic on canvas. Last week I was painting with ink on canvas and paper, and so on. I don't get stuck with something. I'm very inquisitive and very restless, and I'm constantly modifying what they call "the language" precisely so as not to get stuck.
What have been your greatest quests as a creator?
I don't know, I think the diversification of techniques, mixing them, joining them, seeing which ones are compatible with each other, committing sacrileges, committing insolences, it doesn't matter how you do everything to get to a point where you feel that the final work has a message or has something useful. Sometimes people don't perceive it at first and you have to help them a little, but it's okay, because along the way people gave it their own interpretation and that's something very cool about this job. There are works where I know what I'm talking about, but because of the way I do it people give it many interpretations, so the audience expands and something very beautiful is achieved, something that is completely heterogeneous, the public is completely diverse, being able to reach many sectors, I love that.
What projects or works do you remember most fondly so far?
When I was a kid I worked in the Ramona Parra Brigade, where I made murals that I still find incredible today. I started out as a kid tracing, they would hand me a piece of charcoal and I would trace with that, or with colored earth, or with acrylic when there was more money. We usually worked with colored earth. It is a quick job, which has to be effective and we had to finish before we got to the police force. I have several war wounds from that time. I am not talking about a specific mural but several that were made, especially in the O Higgins Park, at the subway exit, that was one of my favorite places to paint with the brigade. I remember another mural that we painted in high school, we did Picasso's Guernica outside the Liceo 7 when we were students, and it also remained as a work that many students admired, many classmates that I didn't know, people from other courses came up to congratulate me for having been part of that work, which we did with several students. There is also the work I did as a Roadie. I have also worked in music, I have been a manager for artists, I continue to be a manager for some, I have a booking agency. At this time there was a very strong need on the part of the music artists' guild and especially the technicians, who are grouped in an association called AGTAE, to make their problems visible. They got together and did a march of "fallen cases" so to speak, and they went down the Alameda with the cases from the GAM to La Moneda, and all the technicians with whom I had worked with another artist were there: lighting technicians, sound technicians, roadies, etc., and all with the same problem, that there was no work, the venues were not opening, there was no possibility of generating income. So that sensitized me and perhaps I wanted to make Violeta a rocker, for that I used the image of Jorge González taking his bass so that she could appear as Jorge González's roadie. That's where that image was born that has helped me gain greater visibility in recent years.
What is your view on the state of the art today?
The truth is that my vision today is quite positive, auspicious. I think it has a lot to do with personal processes, with how artists are professionalizing their work, from knowing how to sign or sell their works and give them the value they deserve. I think that many are on that path, they are progressing and moving towards professionalizing this work of making art, but I also feel that there are many who have a rather precarious school, where the resources are not there, nor the spaces to be able to develop their work or to show it, I think that much more of that is needed, I am talking about territory, I am talking about all of Chile. Through music I have been able to visit a lot of places and I know casinos for example that have exhibition halls that are permanently closed, and that is because local people do not come to propose projects. You have to bring things from outside. So I see on one hand - on my hand - that it is very good and that there are artists who are doing very nice things in personal and commercial terms, like Payo Schotin, Felipe Zegers or Dorian Pinta, to name a few. There are also those who complain that they don't earn a grant and will always be there. I think that Chilean artists need to be convinced that they are capable, and if they are good, they have to move forward. I think that the tools are there, they just have to be found.
What art does the world we live in need?
I believe that the world needs art that is open to dialogue, critical art, thinking art, colorful art, non-egoistic art, shared art, that is circular, that is convivial. I believe that one of the most powerful tools that art has is precisely the visibility of what is happening in the environment. If you look at the news, they have a guideline and specific content that responds to certain interests, but as artists we can, through our work, bring other issues to the streets, generate dialogues around that. There is a lack of artists who dare to use that language, with a resounding, direct and necessary message. I believe that is needed, and I also see that there are many artists who are making the effort and it is going well, we must be optimistic. I believe that artists are working so that it happens today, it is something that is happening now.
How do you see Chilean art?
I find Chilean art in general to be rather boring. I mean art in general terms, historical art. I find that there are very few things worth saving. I think that a generation like the one in the 80s did very good things and they were very brave. I think that the current generation is also very brave and has dared to do things. By the current generation I mean people between 29 and 45 years old, including myself, who are doing things today for future generations, taking the paste up to the street, taking our work to different places in Chile and other countries, making works that are easily accessible in economic terms for people who normally cannot afford to buy a work. I think that the messages are becoming more and more direct and I think that this generation is going to leave a very nice legacy in terms of love and affection from society towards them, as has happened with other generations. I think there are several names that go around in people's heads, I've seen it with myself when they contact me to buy my works, I see a lot of admiration and a lot of affection, many words of gratitude when I go to drop off a painting, they invite me to have a snack, they invite me to their house, they introduce me to their family, they feel proud to have access to one of your works and that's really cool, so I think a lot of people are doing their job really well for that to happen. Society woke up at some point and is changing, and it's nice that they approach art not only to decorate as it used to be, but also to carry a message and for it to be art with meaning in every home, that's really cool and I love that it's happening.
