I met James Taylor (who goes by Gook) several years back when I was working for The Hype Weekly. His unique medium for his paintings is somewhat of an urban legend around Manhattan and K-state and I never really had a chance to check it out for myself. Gook only did it on his birthday and Christmas which just hadn't fallen into line with my schedule in the past. then I got an invitation to attend one of his sessions that he was doing out of his normal set dates, and it actually worked out for me to be there for once (with some rearranging of course).
So what exactly is it that he does that's so much different from all of the other artists I have shot in the past? What made it so attractive to me to move my crazy week around to not miss this one? Well in a nutshell, Gook paints with his own blood. That in itself was captivating. Then when I learned that this portly Korean man (I don't know why I always try to call him Vietnamese) was going to be wearing a dress. And a Mask. On top of the whole blood painting thing. As odd and intriguing as it all sounded, the first thing I had always thought to myself was that it had to be some uber attention seeking plea. It just doing something so different and disturbing that it instantly separated him from other painters. Then he sent out a message describing his inspiration for this particular painting and my rushed instinct was put away. I have said it many times, I am not a writer. But I will do my best to do this some justice. I'm going to be quoting a bit from an interview that was going on while I was there by Charles McVey, as well as adding my own observations. So this should be a bloody mess, no pun intended. Rather than quote the whole interview though, I will sum up the parts that I can.
Gook has been making art pretty much as long as he can remember, drawing inspiration from all over and working through various mediums over the years. He mentions his "bar art", which is pretty famous as well, just simple drawings on a coaster or napkin. He says very profoundly that the medium is always secondary to the idea.
The inspiration for this painting...
"I'm doing this painting based off the story of Tyler Clementi, a young gay kid who came out before he went to college, his dorm roommate video cast him with a guy and he jumped off the George Washington Bridge to kill himself."
His explanation was way more elaborate and defined than I am skilled enough to transcribe accurately so I will include the video I made during the interview itself.
A message that comes across in both the interview and just from knowing and talking with Gook is that his art is a direct interpretation of his life and mind. I relate so well with that, in that my own art is very cathartic and connected to my mood and state of mind. My own struggles with depression and thoughts of suicide have always affected my work. If only I had the depth to be so affected by outside forces, but I am not. He talks about how his art is a reflection of his own battles with depression and suicide, and why he chooses blood as the medium versus the things he himself has experienced.
"When I talk about depression and suicide, on a personal note for me it was always about me overdosing on pills. So it never made sense, if I did a painting about pills on a painting it would be about me being a druggie. That's how the majority of the public would interpret it."
The slitting of his wrists was a much more distinctive and obvious metaphor. That's basically how the blood painting evolved for him. As time went on, the performance aspect became an important part of the process itself, and this was my chance to help by documenting it. So here it is, my brief documentation of the most moving (and strangest) interview with an artist that I have attended to date. Enjoy.
(Side note: when I'm shooting I get very into what I'm doing and I'm not really affected by the subject. After we had finished, I actually got a little queasy!)
Here is the link to the video of the interview:
interview with gook
