Aaron Krach

Half Life, 2004

Aaron NYC, 2003

The Colorfully Queer World of Aaron Krach
Partially Explained by Aaron Krach

His name has appeared in magazines from Inches to InStyle. It's been listed on postcards for gallery shows from Tijuana to Tribeca. And this year, it is on bookshelves at Barnes & Noble on the cover of his first novel, Half-Life. But never has it been printed with a pronunciation guide. So for those still wondering…it's "crock", like rock, sock, lock or jock.

Not that it matters. What matters is the work. I should know, since I am him. On the occasion of his new installation of photographs, Beautiful and Transcendent, on view at Leslie-Lohman September,10 through October 16, Aaron has decided to sit down and talk to himself for a few minutes. Currently he is an editor at CARGO magazine, an artist and a novelist. Edmund White praised Half-Life as "funny, romantic, lusty and totally original."

AARON KRACH: SO, WHAT ARE YOU? A WRITER, ARTIST OR MAGAZINE EDITOR?
AK: I'm a conceptual artist, and a very "creative personality." That way I get to do whatever I want, which is everything. Why should I have to limit myself? I see it as all connected. Maybe I'm delusional, but taking pictures and writing, drawing and creating an ephemeral piece of mail art: Well, they're all informed by what is inside me, and what I see outside.

KRACH: AS A CONCEPTUAL ARTIST, ISN'T MAKING OBJECTS SOMETHING YOU'RE AGAINST? WHY DO YOU KEEP CREATING SO MUCH WORK?
AK: I don't know. I just have to. Being a conceptual artist does mean I don't like "stuff", but it still let's me take and show hundreds of photos. I just don't take it as seriously. No matter what the Great Conceptualists like Robert Smithson or Sol LeWitt said, it's impossible not to make something.
Right now, I like photography because it can be reproduced ad infinitum, which to me explodes any potential limitation. I like commercially produced objects, too, like stickers because it doesn't take an artist's "touch" to make something that is
beautiful.

KRACH: OKAY, OKAY. BEFORE YOU GET ALL DEEP ABOUT CONSUMERISM, TELL US ABOUT THE NEW SHOW, "BEAUTIFUL AND TRANSCENDENT."
AK: It's quite simple, I hope. It's an effort to make a new kind of pop art, to make something completely beautiful-visually pleasing-on a certain level. Yet, I know that's impossible. But I'm trying. Also, I have a constant (immature, I'm sure) urge to be ironic and sarcastic and not be pretty. So this show is another step for me to try and push my fear of intimacy, of aesthetics, out the window.

KRACH: THE EXHIBITION INCLUDES PICTURES YOU "TOOK, FOUND, AND STOLE". WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
AK: When it comes to photography, as with most art, originality is becoming obsolete. So while most of the photographs were taken myself, others were taken by friends when I threw them my camera and told them to snap. Some I found online. Some I altered after I got a hold of them. Does it really matter? I don't know. For this show, I have pictures of everything from starfish to naked men, very white dogs and sparkly blue trash bags. I know, I'm starting to sound like that kid in "American Beauty." And I hated that movie. Kevin Spacey sucks. So I'll stop.

KRACH: WHAT ABOUT THE "TRANSCENDENCE" PART: WHAT'S THAT ALL ABOUT?
AK: Art becomes transcendent when it surprises, when it takes the viewer-
even for a second-to some place new. It doesn't matter if that picture or sculpture is of something recognizable or ordinary, or brand new. When something is contextualized in a provocative and interesting way, it becomes better, more illustrious, more full of feeling.
And that becomes transcendent.