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INTERVIEWS from Postmodern Aficionado
- Shaun Partridge Interviewed in PANIK Magazine, 2001 PA: It seems to me that a lot of the stuff you do could be dismissed by critics as being 'just' having to do with shock value. How would you respond to such allegations? SP: Well, I would respond in a truthful, kind way. Much like Shirley Partridge would respond. To do art, just to be obnoxious or for only shock value is like is like eating at Burger King when you know that there's a McDonald's right around the corner. Now, the one thing that you must understand about my royal art, and everything I'm involved in, be it the Partridge Family Temple or the UNPOP Movement, is that everything I do is of a spiritual nature. Everything I do, I do for the glory of the eternal Godhead quarters. When I die, I want to stand proudly before the Kingdom of Albuquerque. Where nay Sayers see sick porn in a JonBenet Ramsey painting, I see a little, precious Lamb of God. When people feminists scream about my Rape pieces, I see the Iron Law of Opposites uniting in a spiritual, divine union of Casa Bonita splendor. PA: So, what next are you going to tell me? That you're into diversity? SP: Yeah. My Alma Mater was the University of Diversity. I attended with none other then Danny Kapelovitz, from the Partridge Family Temple. I'm like Gandalf, I have many different names. In fact, one of my street names is Celebration of Diversity. When these kids see me on the street, they say, "Behold! The Celebration of Diversity is on the street, celebrating diversity." I don't have to wear a "Celebrate Diversity" button. I am the button. I just want to keep celebrating diversity twenty-four hours a day. PA: Are you just trying to fuck with me? What, are you trying to be weird? SP: The day that I try being weird, is the day that people, who wear, "Celebrate Diversity", buttons, actually celebrate diversity. PA: What's up with Baby Fag? What's that all about? SP: Ahhh, yeah, right. Baby Fag is this new line of t-shirts we're dropping on the public. They're really funky, urban and real. They're all about keeping your shit tight. Not fronting on the UNPOP tip. You know, Baby Fag. PA: You made the infamous Rape T-shirt and have written about Rape. Why? SP: Well, the first thing I must say, I am a Marcel DuChamp fan, so of course that explains many things. Many things. Also, the big misconception is that I'm also a fan of Man On Woman Rape Action, which to be honest with you, is not the reason at all. The reason I'm enlightened by Rape is because it reminds me of Mother Nature…and it's not nice to fool Mother Nature, nor is it nice to Rape people. PA: So what's AssMachine all about? Is that a real band? What's up? SP: The name AssMachine came through a window in the spring of 1996 when I was trying to come up with a name for a band that was going to do a gig with me. I'm not kidding. I looked out the window and saw the words, "ASS MACHINE", flash before my eyes. Originally this person and me were going to do a techno band, but that didn't happen. But AssMachine never went away. It mutated into many different forms. What I would love to see is "AssMachine", the movie. This would be my magnum opus. It would be the grooviest occult movie ever made. People would think that I was trying to be offensive, when really I would be trying to show far out alchemy is. It would be so Fulcanelli!!! You dig? PA: Shit happens. SP: Yeah, shit does happen. Shit is magic. I'm a shit magician. I wear shit slippers and eat shit sandwiches. PA: So why JonBenet Ramsey? SP: Because she's a sweetheart. I mean, oh, my gosh! What a darling! She's America's number one Christmas Angel. She's going to be a really big star, really big! When she grows up, look out Hollywood! With the legs and mouth on her, she'll be the next Julia Roberts. She really is a sweetheart - really she is. Such a tasty Pop Tart! PA: Who's your favorite artist, if you had to pick one? SP: Bridget Riley because her art is perfect and because you cannot argue with it. PA: You wear a lot of psychedelic robes. It's a real cool look. When did you get into robes? SP: Well, almost my entire life, I've been very spiritual and religious. I went through a brief period in the early 90's when I hated God. That was sad. Then, the spirit of Shirley Partridge came to me from the windows of the apartment I was living in at the time, and I became very heavy on the spirit tip again. So I started wearing psychedelic robes because after all, I worship the Partridge Family and the Partridge Family are PSYCHEDELIC!!! Also, when I was a kid growing up, I had a huge crush on Mrs. Roper. I mean, she dressed so fine, with her hot robes…she was psychedelic. PA: So what is your fascination with Adolf Hitler? SP: Salvador Dali was kicked out of the surrealist movement by Andre Breton for being fascinated and trying to explain Hitler in a psychedelic manner. For this, he was excommunicated. I find this fascinating. When I was seven years old, I used to go in my bathroom, in the basement where my bedroom was. I would take water from the sink; plaster my pleasant, blonde hair to my skull to look like Mr. Hitler. Then I would stare into my blue, marble eyes and glare as evil as a seven-year-old can. I remember thinking, "I am looking into the face of pure evil." I would then feel a sense of fear and excitement. When I was seven, the one thing I knew was that I loved art and wanted to do art my entire life, and I had seen a program on the television that told me Hitler had been an artist. All I knew at that wee age was that I was an artist and that this modern day Satan had been something that I was. An artist. This perplexed me. I felt like I was connected in some way to the Devil. I believed in God completely, and so this realization filled me with a strange dread and again, excitement. I had no idea then, where this would lead me in the future. As you know, I am an Alchemist-American. I became an Alchemist-American in the fall of '97. I think it's interesting that when you bring up Hitler, people become completely irrational and emotionally cuckoo. I understand the horrors that the Third Reich created. However, as an Alchemist-American, I believe in turning darkness into light. Mr. Shit into Mrs. Gold. So my obsession with Anne Frank, alchemy and Hitler's black, square mustache finds me at the staring point that Salvador Dali left off at. So I pick up that black, square mustache, and I'll put it in my Casa Bonita athanor and try and transform it into something positive and enlightening. Also, I've gone out of my way to separate anything resembling Anti-Semitism from this difficult endeavor. If anyone sees anything Anti-Semitic in this alchemical work, then they need to see go see a psychologist. I want a Golden Head! PA: Hitler is a lightening rod for controversy, often times unpleasant. SP: You would be very correct in saying that. Something very important happened to me, when I was going to college. A friend of mine was talking about "Mein Kampf" and I had forgotten that Hitler had written a book. So I said, "Say, I have a swell idea: Let's go down to the college library and I'll pick that book up right now, and give it a good read." My friend said, "Sure, I have to get some books myself." So we went to the library, I checked out a few books, including "Mein Kampf". When I went to check the books out, something very strange and life-altering transpired. As the library clerk checked my books out, when he ran the Hitler book, he trembled and looked frightened. I thought this queer and then I looked at my friend, who had come with me, and he looked nervous and also frightened. At that moment, the veil lifted from my eyes and I saw the world in a completely new way. Everything that I considered safe and comforting died that day in that college library. It felt like I was in some Medieval library checking out some Satanic tome on witch-fucking or baby-killing. I couldn't believe that in the year 1992, that checking a book out about a famous, political figure to simply read, mind you, would fill people with dread. I knew I was on the right path. The path of reason and enlightenment. All roads lead to McDonald's! PA: So how does Anne Frank tie into all of this, again? SP: I had a most wonderful dream in 1996. In the dream I was with Anne Frank in her secret annex. She woke up and went into the bathroom. She bends over and splashed water from the sink, onto her face. Then she looked into the mirror above the sink, and low and behold, she had a square mustache. She was startled and picked up one of those old straight razors and right away shaved the mustache off. She bent down in the sink and rinsed her face off and when she looked up again in the mirror, the mustache was there again. So she shaved it off once again and again, when she looked up into the mirror, the mustache had returned. She looked frightened and started to walk away from the mirror. I then woke up. This dream haunted me for days and in a sense began my great Work Sets You Free. You know, Anne shared the attic with seven other people. These seven other people represent the seven metals, gods, planets involved in alchemy. Also, Anne Frank was hidden behind a bookcase. The ancient alchemists always said, "Read, pray, re-read and read again", which of course ties in with the bookcase and represents gnosis because, if I could be Anne Frank with you, Anne Frank is Sophia and we all can search our own secret annexes for the divine understanding of the child, Anne Frank. Remember, Anne Frank wears the Star of David as all children of the Golden Arches of Albuquerque wear. Anne Frank is my guide into the darkest recesses of human imagination and realization. I hold her hand and she holds my soul. PA: Why do you paint this Nigger Head? Why does it pop into your UNPOP paintings so often? Do you hate Black people? SP: In the year of 1990, I was staying at a friend's house and she had a catalog with a picture of the Nigger Head. I saw it and could not tear my eyes from it. I became obsessed with this image. I quickly xeroxed it and carried it wherever I traveled. It was my happiness that I could not explain. Many years later, when the African-American, Shirley Partridge pointed me in the direction of Alchemical Albuquerque, I then realized why this image was so dear to me; and on that holy day of revelation, the Nigger Head was transformed into the Nigredo Head. After the Nigredo Head, comes Marc Bolan Riding A White Swan, and after that a Red Casa Bonita, but I'm not there yet. And no, I don't hate Black people. It seems redundant to say this, but I don't particularly like people. Like Leonardo DaVinci said in his journal, "People are stupid and dangerous." This applies to White people and Black people. PA: I hear that you hate lesbians. Is that true? SP: I, Shaun Partridge, do not hate the human creature that is called lesbian. Nor, do I hate the human creature that is called female. I have, in the past, done some reactionary art that would seem anti-lesbo, but I was simply playing their game and I find their game infinitely fascinating. People, like Kathleen Hanna and Andrea Dworkin, are beyond perfection. They are the Philosopher's Stone of 'cuntfusion'. My only problem with lesbians is that they unfortunately tend not to have a good sense of humor. We all know that horrible things have happened to women and lesbians throughout history, but when lesbians act like oppressive, puritanical goofballs, I raise the All-You-Can-Eat flag at Casa Bonita and say, "Let's eat some All-You-Can-Eat reason. Let's eat some warm sophias with honey." And remember, there is not only cuntfusion in this world; there is also cockmindedness, which can be equally annoying. In a perfect, rainbow world, we would all get along. And if we can laugh, the golden laugh of Ronald McDonald, then one day we can all hold hands and teach the world to sing the Coca Cola jingle, in perfect harmony. Last summer when I was taking a bus across the bridge, I had a divine revelation from Shirley Partridge, that I was like a lesbian. Lesbians come across as angry, simply because they were born different and the majority of the world does not understand them. The world's hostility, they reflect back to the world. Sometimes I, the Partridge in the Pear Tree, probably seem hostile and angry much like a lesbian. So lesbians and I have more in common then you would think. Not to mention, I'm also a goddess worshipper. I worship Shirley Partridge, Laurie Partridge, Brigitte Bardot, Marcia Brady, Anne Frank and JonBenet Ramsey; and of course I love pink pussy and live in Portland, Oregon! |
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