* Make that money: Campbell at his opening in la Roma. Credit: Vice Mexico.
A prominent visual artist set fire to his already-sold art pieces at a gallery in Mexico City over a dispute with the gallerist, conjuring images of a heroic artmaker standing up to the evils of the market.
But not so fast.
When you tangle up the nasty aspects of the Vice empire with gallery politics and Mexican standards of "professionalism" -- that is, a paternalistic and abusive attitude that often characterizes business relationships -- you're already asking for trouble. The burning of the art in this case appears to have been a form of justified sacrifice.
Or an international art-profit conspiracy? First, read the accounts.
Here's the original post by Olivier Zahm breaking the news at Purple. Here's tattoo and visual artist Scott Campbell explaining to Interview the basis for his actions at Vice Gallery. The gallery is the art-venue arm of Vice Mexico, the Vice empire franchise run locally by Eduardo Valenzuela.
So what the hell happened?
Campbell tells Interview that he was in Mexico doing a project at the Santa Martha prison when Valenzuela approached him about doing a show at his new gallery. (Santa Martha is the most culturally active reclusorio in Mexico City's vast and terrifying system, with sports, industrial training, theater, art, even higher ed programs.) Campbell agreed, for the fun of it.
He explained to Interview: "It's not known for its pool of collectors or anything, but I love Mexico culturally. There's a feeling of lawlessness. It retains a bit of the Wild West." Campbell said he was uneasy about the idea of a Polish vodka brand sponsoring the show, but was told that it's "the way things worked in Mexico."
Scott arrived a day before the show went up, and didn't like what he saw: "On the invitation, the name of the company was at the top, printed larger than my name and the name of the show."
He expressed his dissatisfaction to "the main guy" and got shrugged off. The show was selling, and Vice was apparently seduced by the dollar signs: "The main guy I was dealing with started to get a little bit too pushy. All of a sudden took the position that I owed them." Things took a crappy turn. Campbell alleges Valenzuela devolved into "name-calling," turning it into a "competition of egos."
Vice has such a poor reputation internationally, both within "the scene" and in the broader culture, for often abusing its subjects and collaborators. Now smack that phenomenon in the Mexican context. So much in Mexico operates this way professionally and institutionally: coded power-plays, paternalism (bosses believing workers "owe" them and not the other way around), extreme nepotism and chumminess, to say nothing of all that blatant sexism and classism.
Throw that mocking Vice ethos into the mix, and ... ugh.
Scott, a New Yorker undoubtedly used to higher professional standards, began feeling he was dealing with people that he could no longer "trust." So the artist marched into Vice Gallery, took down his pieces with the help of friends, and started a fire. The works are mostly images laser-cut from stacks of $1US bills. Pure poetry.
The gesture obviously sparked a fast transformation in the gallerists, who frantically decided to take Scott's concerns more seriously. They managed to salvage the already-sold pieces and eventually negotiated to get them back in the space, back on view. In fact, Vice Mexico is still pumping up the show on its Twitter feed, referring to the charred Campbell pieces now as "intervened."
You can see one in the background here. Here are decent photos of the originals. It's not clear whether the "intervened" work is valued higher.
I asked Eduardo for the Vice side of the story, and this is what he told me:
Well, the only thing I would like to say is that we in VICE Mexico did everything to the best of our abilities to make the show a complete success and it is a shame we were not able to work out our personal differences and having this incident affect our gallery and Scott Campbell's artwork.
In addition, I will like to clarify that VICE Gallery Mexico's sole purpose is to bring the artwork of the best artists around the world and show them in our space to inspire a young Mexican generation hungry to see things with substance. It has never been about the money.
At the end, I guess it all worked out for everyone. Scott Campbell and the VICE Gallery got a lot of media attention, increasing the value of his pieces, and the visits to the gallery have already doubled. It's beautiful, it's sincere, it's punk-rock and that is what VICE is all about. It could have never happend in any other gallery or in any other country.
Valenzuela's spin is admirable, but it doesn't address the root of the conflict. What could have made a visiting U.S. artist take such extreme measures to resolve a dispute at a vulnerable young gallery in a country he supposedly loves? Why would a gallerist ever allow any business relationship to be reduced to "name-calling" or a "competition of egos," as Campbell alleges?
Then again, with the controversy now sizzling up online, Campbell and Vice both end up profiting and expanding their exposure. Only in the art-world can a burning bridge end up as money in someone's pocket. "It's a Catch-22," Scott said.
For more, Campbell provides an explanation directly to Vice Mexico, in Spanish, here. It repeats what he told Interview, but I couldn't find the statement on Viceland in English, so for an automated translation, here ya go.
In any case, if you're open to the idea that maybe this showdown was all one big misunderstanding, and Vice Mexico and its gallery really are concerned about bringing good international art to Mexican youth, the company is looking to hire interns who speak good English and are eager to hustle.
For no pay, of course.
** UPDATE: There was a lot more at stake for Scott and Vice, it turns out, than some wall pieces. Campbell designed a special limited-edition bottle of Wyborowa vodka exclusively for Vice, "inspired by Mexico and its traditions," the press release says. The bottle glows under black light, FYI.
