In the wake of Kalup Linzy initiating Tempus Project's newly established artist-in-residence program, Mike Stasny has come to the scene to fill the gallery space with his wonderful creatures.
Using scraps of wood, upcycled furniture, raw building supplies, and other unconventional found materials, the Atlanta-based artist is creating his own “natural history museum” made of an assemblage of odds and ends for his show “I WOULDN'T GO THERE UNLESS I COULD FIT EVERYTHING SHE OWNS IN MY MOUTH,” with the opening reception on Sept. 17.
“I’ve had a love affair with insulation board [large sheets of foam used to insulate houses] for about four years now," Stasny says. "It’s an easy material to work with and comes in beautiful colors just the way it is — usually very synthetic-looking pink, green, or blue. I’ve been using this material to create large-scale creatures and some 2D wall pieces at Tempus.”
His creatures reference a bit of sci-fi, but are developed from his childhood memories of his taxidermist grandfather, who let the artist play with the numerous dead things lying around the basement. In addition to these works, Stasny has started working on inflatable sculpture.
“I’ve had a love affair with inflatables for about a month. Using plastic tablecloths and an impulse sealer to ‘weld’ them together, I create huge organic-looking forms that seem to come out of Dr. Seuss books,” he says. “I’ll have a couple of these on display as well as some large-scale drawings I made while designing them.”
Initially starting out with a graphic design background, he started making large objects as a way to get away from sitting in front of the computer all day and creating something using his body. The scale of his work is usually as large as the space that houses it. As for the ideas behind his work, he’s still working it out.
“I’ve been obsessing about boyish escapism over the past few years and how it relates to me personally. Over and over I find myself working in a visual and emotional language that seem to be coming from a version of myself between six and 17 but are being manifested through the lens of my 35-year-old self,” Stasny explains. "As far as my work at Tempus, I’m getting lost more in the making of these objects than the ideas behind them. I feel there are some big developments being made in me as a person and as an artist, but I predict those ideas won't be available until I’m done here.”
Since the beginning of his residency, he’s been able to both work and talk with local artists about the work.
“The art community here is very loving and has treated me with a lot of respect. There have been a few nights of collaborative art making but most of my experience has been hanging out and talking. I’ve made a great deal of friends here and I look forward to how we will work with each other in the future on shows or conjoined projects,” he says.
Stasny is most known for his role in the popular viral video “What What (In the Butt)” (What, what? You say you’ve never heard of it? You must watch).
“I used to produce and co-write queer party music with some interesting personalities. Samwell and I used to perform at a Theatre in Milwaukee called Darling Hall. We would do these short wacky skits together that we made for fun. One night we performed ‘What What (In the Butt),’ a song I produced and co-wrote with Samwell. It was a smash,” he says. “Two filmmakers (Brownmark a.k.a. Special Entertainment) wanted to turn it into a short film. Sadly, and might I say fortunately for Samwell, I wasn't able to attend the shoot as his back up dancers. They came up with the idea of having three Samwells and it caught on. It was a very interesting time in my life.”
And if you’re wondering why they call him "Extremely Michael":
“I’m not sure how I was designed this way, but I've started to own my 'extreme' extroversion. I tend to excite really easy and when I am around other people at parties or art openings, I feel like I perform an over-the-top version of myself,” Stasny says. “In hopefully the sweetest way possible, I end up becoming somewhat of a party-dude parody: I’m EXTREMELY MICHAEL. It's also somewhat of an apology. It’s like saying, ‘Well, what did you expect? That's what he does.’”
I was hoping to get a little hint about the IFLY performance during the opening night, but the response I got was:
“We party hard, we cut loose, and we get wild,” Stasny says.
Not giving up the surprise, there’s a healthy dose of mystery to entice you to come out to the opening.
Mike Stasny: I WOULDN'T GO THERE UNLESS I COULD FIT EVERYTHING SHE OWNS IN MY MOUTH
Opening reception Saturday Sept. 17 from 7-9 p.m. Tempus Projects, 4636 N. Florida Ave., Tampa.
