Interview: Eimi Tagore, Curator of "Coastalvision: New York" at Maison Mono, Brooklyn (On view through December 8)
This article is an interview with Eimi Tagore, one of the curators of Coastalvision: New York, an exhibition of the contemporary Indonesian outsider artist Ardneks, (aka Kendra Ahimsa, b. 1989). Coastalvision is the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York, and the exhibition was conceived through the collaborative efforts of Eimi Tagore and TJ Perrin, a musician and founder of the artist-run record label PFR Records.
About the Curator & Interviewee
Eimi Tagore is a Brooklyn-based Art Historian, Curator, Researcher, and Artist with an interest in socio-political issues as explored in contemporary Transpacific and Asian art. Presently, she is a PhD candidate in the East Asian Studies program at New York University. Over the past five years, she has curated a series of successful exhibitions in New York, including: KANTEN: The Limits of History at apexart in Tribeca (2023) and Floating Monuments: Motoyuki Shitamichi at Alison Bradley Projects in Chelsea (2023); and, her most recent/current show (the subject of this article) Coastalvision: New York at Maison Mono in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (2024).
About the Exhibition & Artist:
Coastalvision: New York is the first-ever solo exhibition of Indonesian outsider artist Ardneks, aka Kendra Ahimsa, in the US with a focus on his work since 2013. Based in his home city of Jakarta, Ardneks is an illustrator whose medium-to-large scale compositions explode in a kaleidoscopic panoply of psychedelic imagery, coloristic details, and rhythmic expressions. The exhibition was originally scheduled to run through November 17, but due to popular demand, it has since been extended to December 8.
Interview:
Liam Otero: Hello, Eimi! Thank you very much for inviting me to come out and see this exciting exhibition. I’ve been following the hype on this show since I started seeing photos of it on Instagram.
Eimi Tagore: You’re very welcome! I really wanted you to come and see this show because of your interest in art and music.
LO: So let’s get down to it. Before we get into the specifics of the artist, I read ahead that this show came to fruition via a collaboration. Could you please elaborate on that?
ET: This show is a collaboration with my partner, TJ Perrin, who runs a record label here in Brooklyn called PFR Records. This is my first curatorial project in Brooklyn, and this is our first collab together in about 10 years. We actually did some curatorial work together in Japan and also in Sweden where we used to live. But since then, Coastalvision is the biggest project that we’ve done together. We love Ardneks’ work and we have been referring to him as a “cult illustrator” because he has a cult following in Indonesia and all over the world. In large part, this is because of his work with various bands, especially alt rock, indie, and psychrock bands—as you can see.
LO: Oh, Flamingods!
ET: Yes, exactly! He has this big following because his work is so—well, there’s so much in his work about music and musical ephemera.
LO: Oh, Japanese Breakfast! I’m sorry, I just noticed that one! I digress, there is so much to take in with these hyper-detailed pieces. Getting back on track, just who is Ardneks?
ET: Ardneks was born in 1989 and was raised in Jakarta. His family is very open-minded about spirituality and he was surrounded by different religions growing up such as Islam and Hinduism. He had an upbringing that was very cosmopolitan about spirituality and culture, which you can see manifests in his art. Ardneks first studied to be an engineer—
LO: I would have never guessed that based on the looseness and free-form flows of his art!
ET: Right? Then he actually moved to Australia to study graphic design there for a year, but ended up dropping out of the program and returning to Jakarta. He considers himself an outsider artist because he never formally graduated with an arts degree. But his career really took off after he and his friends formed a local music promotion group in Jakarta called Prasvana [the name can also be seen on the Neon Indian poster]. They started to throw live shows in Jakarta as part of the underground music scene, and Ardneks was designing the posters for them to promote the gigs. Then Mac DeMarco came to Jakarta for a show and wanted a local artist to create a gig poster. So he asked Ardneks—and that was where it all started.
LO: Wow, this is exciting! So when did this occur?
ET: This was in 2015. The next big artist was Neon Indian. You can tell the styles [of those posters] are a little different. Since then, Ardneks has really been formulating his own unique style. He doesn’t use a lot of white or black in his works anymore ...
LO: The undertones for these pieces are much lighter.
ET: Exactly.
LO: For the last ten or so years, this is the style that we’ve come to know, come to associate with Ardneks?
ET: It is.
LO: Ten years in the making for Ardneks. Now out of curiosity, is he inspired by the art of Stanley Mouse? It’s similar but very different from his style. I just can’t help but think of his album cover and poster designs for bands like The Grateful Dead, The Doors, and Jefferson Airplane.
ET: I’m sure he does because he takes a lot of his inspiration from music, film, and pop culture more broadly. He often puts his inspirations directly into the works themselves, especially in his personal works. If you look over at his personal works you can see how he’s dropping in so many little nuggets of pop culture.
LO: But just a little, not too much.
ET: Like here, I don’t know if you were ever an indie emo kid like me, but this piece has a reference to Neutral Milk Hotel.
LO: Oh my god, this is a real throwback to the early-2000s!
ET: I know, I love that one! It’s one of my favorites. He’s definitely working with some of the greats. Ardneks has such an interesting following because people often become a fan of his work through the music—seeing his posters at a gig for a band you love—and then when you see more, you realize that ‘Oh my gosh, every piece he makes is a masterpiece.’
LO: Ah, Bowie! Bowie! Aladdin Sane! I am a huge Bowie fan.
ET: See, when you start getting into his work the excitement never ends.
LO: No, it doesn’t! The cultural references in the details [of his personal work], let’s see, Ulysses [by James Joyce], Forbidden Colors [by Yukio Mishima], The Bell Jar [by Sylvia Plath], Charles Mingus … and, oh! Fantastic Planet! Have you ever seen Fantastic Planet? That is one of my favorite films.
ET: I haven’t!
LO: I highly recommend it, an early-70s animated French science fiction dystopian film with a killer experimental jazz fusion soundtrack.
ET: Everyone’s been vying for this particular piece from his new series since it features a radio host from outer space. This one actually sold on the first day, but people are still asking ‘Ooh, is that one available?’ and I have to tell them ‘I’m sorry, but it’s already been nabbed.’
LO: How did you find out about Ardneks? How did you connect with him? From whence did this exhibition concept originate?
ET: I came across his work in a way that many people do, which is either through the band Kikagaku Moyo or Khruangbin as he does so much work for them in particular. I am a Kikagaku Moyo fan, so I have been following Ardneks’s work for about five years now because of his poster design for them back in 2018. I’ve always loved the color, rhythm and the excitement of finding pop-cultural Easter Eggs in his work—and being a mixed race person myself, the cross-cultural elements of his work really drew me in. I went to see his Tokyo solo show in 2023 at Tsubame Studio, which is this amazing, small gallery that is run by the partner of the man who runs a recording studio where Kikagaku Moyo records their music. The music studio is on the third floor, and downstairs is the gallery. Not only did they organize his art show, they also incorporated elements of musical performance into the exhibition. So I talked to Hibiki-san—she runs the gallery and is so kind, so fantastic, and warm. I said to her, ‘You know, this is pretty amazing. Have you considered sending Ardneks’ show to New York?’ She said that I should do it. From there, I reached out to Ardneks directly and remarked that the show was incredible and asked if he would consider exhibiting in New York, and he said it had been a lifelong dream of his.
LO: A dream come true!
ET: And so I thought ‘Let’s do this!’ It was perfect timing—the show became the third stop of the international tour of Ardneks’ first artist monograph which was published last year. It’s called Coastalvision: Heavily-saturated Tropicália—a fitting title for his colorful oeuvre that became the title of the traveling exhibition which started in Jakarta, then Tokyo, and now New York! TJ’s record label [PFR Records] is sponsoring the show, and the three of us worked together to select all of the 60+ pieces for the show.
LO: For Ardneks’ pieces, from where did they come? His studio, a museum, private collector, a combination?
ET: Every work in the show was selected, sized, and printed specifically for this space. There’s a combination of types of works that we curated into the show—personal works and commissions (posters and editorials), split into UV prints and larger textile pieces. For the commissioned works (posters) Ardneks has his own artist copies that he can print in any format he wants, but they are very limited. Each piece in view was produced specifically for this exhibition and they are all limited editions.
LO: Thank you for clarifying that as I wasn’t sure if these were what we would normally categorize them as Prints & Multiples.
ET: They're prints, but these are all technically first editions from the initial run. These are produced with a much higher quality paper compared to the band posters you would get as merch at the actual gigs. With pieces like the poster for Japanese Breakfast, Andy Shauf, and Toro y Moi, there are certain colors he reformulated especially for this show—meaning you can only get these here because the ones from the actual gigs were different. Let me show you the vinyl albums we have in our collection! These are ones whose covers Ardneks designed.
LO: Crayola Eyes, Flamingods …
ET: These are some of the album jackets he’s done for bands. Pearl & the Oysters is one of them. In fact, they were just in here earlier today to see the show and sign the album—and they’re playing at Elsewhere tonight.
LO: Awesome, talk about perfect timing. Does he like Peter Blake as well?
ET: I’m sure there’s a good chance, but I can’t tell you for sure. Honestly, I don’t even know because his cultural influences are just that vast. If only you had met him at the opening! You would have had so much to talk about together.
LO: I saw the photos and videos from the opening, which I regret not being able to make.
ET: It was definitely action-packed. Maison Mono really let us throw an amazing party to celebrate Ardneks’ work.
LO: Maison Mono, this is a gallery space?
ET: It is a creative space and—ah, that’s Mona, right there!
LO: Ah, hello!
We stopped the interview for a moment to exchange greetings with Mona Kim, the founder of Maison Mono.
ET: Maison Mono is Mona’s space, which she renovated and then opened about a year ago.
LO: Wonderful, she’s reached a milestone.
ET: This is a tattoo and piercing parlor with a cafe in the front (they roast their own beans). They have amazing coffee, so if you want to grab one before you leave later, do so!
LO: I could always use a coffee, so perhaps I will.
ET: Mona wanted to have a gallery space as part of the studio because she intends to elevate the art of tattoo, and remind people that it is a fine art. The work that they [the tattoo artists] are doing back there is phenomenal.
LO: Good to know as I have been keen on getting some tattoos myself.
ET: You could say this has been a collaboration made in heaven. Ardneks’ “outsider” position and his incredible skill with linework and color taps into a kind of lowbrow aesthetic that feels extra playful in this space. I had been to another exhibition opening at Maison Mono in the past which featured my friend, Miwa Neishi, a fantastic ceramic artist. While I was there, I thought that this was an excellent space, especially with the monochromatic atmosphere. A great way to make color pop off. Mona was on board and we made Coastalvision: New York happen in a three-month span. TJ and I co-curated it, collaborating with Ardneks every step of the way. And with TJ’s curatorial direction with the label, it has all been very musically oriented. PFR has been hosting Sunday vinyl listening sessions throughout the duration of the exhibition and a big collaborative event with our friends at Back to Back Wines, our wine sponsor. It’s just been a really community-oriented undertaking.
LO: I was going to say that there is so much community outreach embedded into this show’s conceptualization. Turning back to Ardneks and his art, I know you mentioned film as one of his big influences, but where else did he acquire inspiration in terms of other artists, movements, styles? Or even education, cultural exposure?
ET: He is from Indonesia, in the capital city of Jakarta specifically, which is the biggest city in the country and one of the largest in the world. He’s been inundated with various global pop culture flows from a young age. He grew up watching anime and film, and reading manga and comic books from all over. I highly recommend you read his book, the monograph, because it explains so much of his influences in his own words.
LO: Jakarta is a very cosmopolitan city and so geographically it is not far from Japan and its cultural influence—the term “Gross Domestic Cool” exists for a reason. With works like these over here, the bolded forms, flat colors, and collage-like compositions remind me of the Japanese graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo. Was he an influence?
ET: Yes, a huge influence! Ardneks also loves Japanese vintage typography and views kanji (Chinese characters) as beautiful forms and patterns. But I also learned that his biggest musical and visual influence is Tropicália, which is a Brazilian musical movement from the 1960s and 1970s. It manifested musically but had roots in leftist resistance movements in Brazil back then, and it’s been incorporated into other areas of culture around the world such as interior design, art, fashion, etc. It’s very colorful, symmetrical but not at the same time, intensely vibrant.
LO: Talk about a global artist from whence he acquired his influences! Asia, Latin America, Europe …
ET: The music of Tropicália mixes genre a lot, including folk and psychedelic influences, which you can definitely see in Ardneks’ visual approach. But for me as a curator, I’m digging in and asking him ‘Kendra, Kendra! Is it politically inspired?’ And he says ‘Ah, I don’t think so.’
LO: Which makes the show a bit of a departure for you regarding your interests in socio-political subjects?
ET: It is in a way, but I can still find it in his work.
LO: Well, it does still relate to the idea of Transpacific, trans-cultural processes or cultural exchanges.
ET: Absolutely. For me, learning about Tropicália meant contextualizing it as a social movement that was very much about pushing back against highbrow elitism, nationalism and governmental censorship during the 1960s and 1970s. It was as much a leftist political movement as it was all about democratization of art and music, a celebration of mixing cultures, mixing religions, mixing the high and low—and those are things Ardneks is 100% doing in his work. I think it translates over into his Indonesian identity because in Indonesia there are so many different cultures and religions mixing or existing in the same spaces. There’s also a lot of governmental oppression, top-down hierarchies—let’s just say, a lot of political difficulties and complexities.
LO: Oh, yes. There was that big, I believe it was a coup, in the late-1990s involving Suharto. About ‘98 or ‘99?
ET: There were intense and violent riots in the late 1990s and there’ve been multiple economic crashes since then, and much political unrest. I didn’t really talk to the artist much about the politics back home, but he describes his art as a departure from that kind of political madness. He thinks of his compositions as an escape. His art is kind of like a future—a sort of utopia that he’s imagining, dreaming. Future Shores [the title of an artwork], where everything can be a paradise, all tropical. He’s thinking of questions like ‘Where can we go where everyone can speak their own language, have their own religion, and continue to enjoy music together?’
LO: It reminds me of how certain musicians have that mentality of ‘music and art, these things bring us together. We’re all people, one human race,’ that sort of cultural universality that people like Richard Ashcroft of The Verve have espoused. Hearing all of this makes sense in explaining the overall appearances of Ardneks’ images. We are looking at both idealized landscapes and cityscapes. It’s not just a pastoral or urban utopia, but a scenario where you can have both. The marriage of the two kinds of paradises. I feel like this has given us insight into his personality, no?
ET: He’s the most chill, easy-going guy.
LO: I had a feeling. That was the general vibe that I got when looking at his pieces.
ET: He’s just like ‘I want to eat a bento.’ We took him around the city when he visited, and when we hung out with him in Bushwick to see Ulrika Spacek at the Market Hotel he said ‘I love it. I feel very at home here.’
LO: For the exhibition opening, this was his first time physically being in New York?
ET: It was, and he had always wanted to come since he was a little kid. I think the only place he had been to in America was Florida to visit Disney World with his family. And so this was his first time as an adult being back in the US. This work here, Celestial Broadcast, encompasses the story of Ardneks becoming an artist, finding his unique style before he became such a cult illustrator. He made it in 2013. This series is called Marquees Tropica. They are all analog (colored pencil and gouache on paper) and he created all seven pieces while listening to one particular song on repeat until the pieces were completed.
LO: Do you know what song inspired Celestial Broadcast? Considering his musical tastes, it makes me wonder.
ET: “Just Like Honey” by The Jesus and Mary Chain.
LO: Oh, nice! One of my favorite bands! And there’s even a reference to them right here. Ah! He used the ELO [Electric Light Orchestra] logo! It’s one of the most iconic music logos and was created by John Kosh, although I know that the Japanese artist Shusei Nagaoka also contributed some designs for the band. I think it’s great that you mixed together the commissioned work with his personal pieces to paint a complete picture of Ardneks. Does he work with models for his figures?
ET: I asked him the same question and he told me sometimes they're models or real people, but mostly they’re just people he remembers or doesn’t know and are in his imagination. But from what I can tell, especially after talking with him, his main muse is his wife. She’s also an amazing artist, called Phantasien. Even though I haven’t dived as deeply into her works yet, she did just have a solo show very recently.
We stopped the interview again for a few minutes as a gallery patron stopped to inquire Tagore about purchasing one of Ardneks’ pieces. While they conversed, I walked around to absorb the rest of the show.
ET: So sorry about that!
LO: All good! You had to do your thing. This is perfect.
ET: I can’t let any client go unattended (laughs).
LO: Celestial Broadcast is the earliest iteration of his pieces with which we now associate him.
ET: The moment he came into his present style. If you look at the book …
Tagore pulls up the Ardneks Coastalvision monograph and flips through its pages.
LO: These colors and the grid-formatting is perfect. It reminds me of the aesthetics of a zine, but obviously in book-form.
ET: His earliest works overall are these black-and-white charcoal drawings, and so these are analog—early, early, pieces. When are these from? 2011. So he was in his early 20s at this point and very much inspired by Hindu epics.
LO: Is this a chronological approach to the monograph?
ET: The book is actually divided up into chapters organized by fictional radio interviews, each set in a different city from around the globe—and one from outer space. I mean, I guess it’s kind of chronological as it goes through his works in different sections. There’s one interview for each series like this one here … so you get the background scoop about his upbringing, band posters, editorials, personal works, etc. It’s a really beautifully produced book, and so creative ...
LO: What are these pieces right here? These are different from all the others.
ET: The editorials! We specifically picked these out when preparing for this exhibition. I mean, there are so many works to pick from.
LO: Well, with a monograph that size, no wonder!
ET: So much, too much! He’s a highly productive and creative person. TJ and I selected about 35 works that we just could not do without.
LO: How many pieces are there total in the show?
ET: 69 pieces, not including the neon sign out front, but I made that one myself.
LO: It counts!
ET: It does, as it’s inspired by Ardneks. But, of course, we did want even more.
LO: For an artist like him, god, you just want to get as much as you can, especially with all of this wall space here. You know you’re working with a great artist when you have that insatiable desire to get more pieces installed.
ET: He was looking over our selection and when he saw that we selected the editorials he was like ‘Really? These ones?’ I think he was surprised because these are digital commissions he did for The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, and perhaps he didn’t expect to print them and show them in a gallery setting. The New York one in particular right here was for an editorial about money leaving the city. But I just thought of it as an epic art piece, especially for his first show here in the city. It was perfect. Even without the article, the piece on its own is really interesting. These other eight prints were for an LA Times article about the 50 best dance clubs in LA. This whole exhibition has been inspired by music and collaborations. Even Back to Back Wines’ branding is also inspired by dance music, and they’re a connection we’ve made that came about through music as well. We got to know each other over the years because we’ve gone to festivals and clubs together with mutual friends. And two of our best friends had a DJ residency at Gold Diggers in LA, so we just had to have that piece in the show. Even though Ardneks had never been to LA, he captured the essence of the city so well in these more minimal, chilled out yet sexy compositions—they always remind me of Hockney’s paintings.
LO: This is a really beautiful example of how different modes of creative expression can be merged together, art and music specifically. And now I really understand why you asked me to come and write about this show!
ET: I know, I was like ‘Liam’s going to freak out over this show.’
LO: Ah, here we go, Hokusai’s Great Wave. So he’s really looking at other, older elements of Asian Art History.
ET: Ardneks is like an encyclopedia of references. He knows and sees so much.
LO: Considering his upbringing, it doesn’t surprise me in that way.
ET: Over here many people don’t know a lot about Jakarta, myself included I admit. I think Americans tend to make assumptions about island countries in the Pacific region being isolated, rural, or only about what you get when you get trapped by clickbait tourism ads. Jakarta is a huge city, incredibly cosmopolitan, with access to everything at once and more.
LO: It is at a crossroads.
ET: Absolutely, close to Australia, and India, close to Southeast and East Asia—Indonesia is like its own Pacific island region. The filter through which he receives pop culture is much more than what we get over here in New York. He is bringing together things that really aren’t often brought together and I love it.
LO: You know, it reminds me of those things where people say, ‘Huh. You never expect to see or hear those names in the same sentence’ sort of idea. I mean, look, there’s a piece that features David Bowie, Charles Mingus, Joyce’s Ulysses, The Velvet Underground, etc. And I am only talking about one piece, not his oeuvre. Also, I noticed that the incorporation of text is important to his work. What’s this? Sanskrit, I see.
ET: There’s a lot of Sanskrit, Arabic, Japanese, English, Hindi, etc. Translating all of them is a huge task, but there’s a lot of references to song lyrics.
LO: In terms of a movement or a style, does he identify as a psychedelic artist—I mean, it seems very obvious—but I wasn’t sure if he had his own self-identifying system?
ET: I don’t think he necessarily identifies himself in that way—or under any one label in particular. But his style can be viewed as very surreal or psychedelic, kind of reminiscent of Tadanori Yokoo or even Peter Max. He is inspired by posters and album covers created by other artists—a reminder that those print ephemera are also detailed art compositions. I love this wall of his commissioned poster work because here we have 10 years, a snippet of a decade of indie music culture. It’s like viewing a record of the bands and venues that were big in this ten-year period. It’s incredible to see it like this, and it’s so accessible.
LO: These are underground bands, so it’s giving you a perspective into the bands that were up-and-coming or where they toured like in Austin, Texas or Tokyo. Here’s what people were listening to circa 2015 or 2016, essentially. And it doesn’t seem like he’s going to be changing his style anytime soon, he’s just going to run with it.
ET: That’s a really good point to bring up. In fact, we asked him what was coming next. He said that he’s going to return to painting on canvas. He said he wants to go back to analog as he hasn’t worked with paint in a long time. Plus, he got a new place outside of Jakarta where it’s a bit more quiet. He'll be refining his style but with a different medium. He recently turned 35, published a monograph, and is doing his first solo shows in New York, so I think he thought that this was the perfect time to do something different. I’m really excited about whatever he has next.
LO: The moving image work at the end over there, how did that materialize? Did he create it? I mean, I know he created the image, but the motion aspects? Was that a collaborative effort?
ET: I think Kendra originally created Paraiso as a GIF [Graphics Interchange Format], and the still you see in the textile version of it came after.
LO: And then look at the textile over here, there’s almost a surrealist quality. You have a cat jumping through a hula hoop!
ET: There’s so much humor in a lot of his pieces. It’s like he’s playing and having a great time. And with this textile piece here, this was for the final show of Kikagaku Moyo, one of the biggest psychedelic rock bands he works with. It’s such an epic poster, but just look at that cute little frog!
LO: As an artist from Indonesia, his art is reflective of how the country is a giant cultural melting pot. With these works over here, you are getting a taste of each kind of culture that is present in Jakarta. The woman over here is wearing the bindi and the sari, but then you have the Japanese influences. How else would he have had access to all of these references? Music, art, literature, film, so on and so forth. That’s why I described it as a crossroads, not just geographically, but politically, culturally, you name it.
ET: Totally, I agree. Being a fan of so much of this music is what brought TJ and I to his artwork.
LO: Which is an interesting point, because as a curator, you would think that the art would have drawn you in first.
ET: A little bit of a reversal.
LO: I just find it amusing that music was what led you to him as opposed to art - again, with you being a curator! An unusual path, no doubt, but for all the right reasons.
ET: It started out that way, but then his work really jumped out at me. He is an artist with whom I wanted to work because of this cross-cultural exchange and elements of nostalgia in his works. I come from such a cultural mix. I’m Japanese-Bengali-American, so his work really spoke to me not only on the aesthetic level, but also on an emotional level.
LO: And how could it not?
ET: Right—it reminds me of my upbringing, the merging together of Japanese and Indian influences. Like at my grandparents house in Osaka—my Japanese grandma married my grandpa, an Indian artist and sitar player, and their house had a lot of the books that you see in Ardneks’ works.
LO: Art is inherently personal, and that’s the beauty of those experiences—it’s why I work in this field! Which reminds me, your last name is Tagore? Are you by any chance related to Rabindranath Tagore?
ET: Yes, I am. A distant relation, but yes. We are part of the same family and actually we were just in India this past Christmas to go to the family house. My grandfather recently passed away so there was a really big reason to make the trip back to India.
LO: Oh, I’m so sorry.
ET: Thank you. My husband had never been to India and so it was also time for him to meet the rest of the family. It’s a big Bengali family over there.
LO: Still, I’m so sorry about your grandfather’s passing.
ET: Thank you, but of course, he lives on. But that’s the beauty of family, the lineages, right?
LO: And speaking of your husband, I’d love to hear more about TJ’s involvement in the exhibition!
ET: TJ’s been running the label, PFR Records, for about 8 years. He is also a musician and visual artist, and this exhibition with Ardneks is one of the first big projects he’s been involved in that brings the two together definitively. PFR Records did a large compilation album in 2020 to fundraise for racial justice nonprofits which was also a big feat. Since then PFR’s been organizing live shows and putting out vinyls and tapes—it’s an artist-run label that was originally made so they could produce and put out their own music.
LO: Not having your music at the mercy of someone else.
ET: Yes, and it’s become so much about community in music, making connections across genres—even overseas and in the digital space as well. Coastalvision is a testament to how far the label has come.
LO: The way I understand it is musicians supporting a visual artist. Hence TJ’s partnership with you in the formation of this exhibition. Which now leads me to extend my congratulations to you both! This was an excellent, excellent curation.
ET: I read your recent article and I was worried, ‘I hope this is a successful show!’
LO: Oh, are you talking about the Opinion Piece I wrote on what makes a great art exhibition?
ET: Yes exactly. I was thinking, the pressure is on!
LO: Oh, no, no, no. Don’t worry at all. It fulfilled all four of my criteria, including that point about ‘being an artist, it makes me want to create more.’ Trust me, this show succeeded with flying colors (literally)!
ET: Thanks! But TJ’s involvement in making this exhibition come to fruition was essential. We really couldn’t have done it without PFR Records. TJ’s musical programming for the show has been really fun. Every Sunday, we hang out in the gallery and DJs spin records here in the big vinyl setup—which was co-opted from our living room at home. It’s been a great way to expand our community and introduce more people to Ardneks’ work.
LO: How about this upcoming Saturday [October 19th]? I received a text invite from Partiful for an event here.
ET: Oh, yes! We do love to party here. Our buddies from Back to Back Wines are flying in from LA to pour their wines. They just got engaged, too.
LO: Ah, congrats to them, too! This sounds really fun, I will definitely be there for that.
ET: Yeah, it’s been so special to see the community come out and support. TJ and our buddy Eli Arata will be DJing. Eli also DJed the opening, he’s really great. Kiitsu, a Japanese DJ who’s based here in Brooklyn, is also going to close out the party. You can’t miss it! It’s going to be a ton of fun. It’s the community of art and music that just keeps growing.
LO: Well, Eimi, this has been a phenomenal experience and I am so grateful for the personalized tour of this fantastic exhibition! I just wish I had met Ardneks!
ET: You’re welcome! But I agree, the two of you would have been nerding out over all the music, film, and art references!
