A show by a traveling group of artists called the Fanatic Voyage will debut this weekend in St. Petersburg.
By FRANKIE HOWLEY
Published January 25, 2006
[studio@620]
Fanatic Voyage No. 1, 2005, by Philly/Kondor 8, Stephen Ellis, Carlucci, Dave Vulcan. Fanatic Voyage draws from influences in pop culture, urban punk and surrealism.
Mixing it up between performance art and multimedia artwork the Fanatic Voyage show will debut its traveling art collective this weekend in downtown St. Petersburg with the hope to inspire reaction from inquiring minds.
From New York's Lower East Side, the seven artists, including Stephen Ellis, Philly/Kondor 8, Carlucci, Dave Vulcan, Daniel Pittman, Jack Robinson and Infinity SS will exhibit their work at the Studio@620 from Saturday through Feb. 18.
On opening night Infinity SS, a live noise band, will use objects to create art and noise throughout the performance.
Using a variety of mediums from painting, sculpting, collage, photography, digital prints and sounds, Fanatic Voyage incorporates their visions, dreams and reaction to current events within their art.
"It is the idea of us acting like an antenna," said Steve Ellis, co-founder and painter of the Fanatic Voyage.
"There is so much going on in our work, it is the idea of appropriating the chaos in the air and filtering it. It is our report from the now - our transition."
Drawing from influences in pop culture, urban punk and surrealism, the Fanatic Voyage is often compared to Salvador Dali. Though the group maintains a similar tone and atmosphere, their intent is far different.
"We might take off where Dali left off. I feel that he was an innovator with experimentation," said Carlucci, co-founder and artist of Fanatic Voyage.
"Our goal and expectation is mainly experimentation. To exercise the variable of experimentation you must have the conventional and unconventional wisdom to express all variables. (An artist) should be surprised with the results without being result-oriented."
Surprised by the result of their recent success, the group was founded in mid 2004 with an offer to perform a show in Brooklyn. It wasn't until things began taking shape that the group decided to travel through Texas, and now Florida, with their message about global disasters and "echoes of chaos."
"We were looking to get everyone involved and blow the roof off," said Ellis. "We found inspiration through working together. (The idea) is to share our visions and take it out of New York to create an eye-opening experience."
For the artists, interpreting these visions and dreams is full of emerging possibilities to be translated through the creativity of others. Carlucci describes the experience as "autobiographic with collaboration, a degree of honesty, and a certain amount of vulnerability."
Mirroring images and art in tune with the past, such as pop culture, he says, should not define what's good and bad art. Rather it's about learning to think differently and appreciating the messy aesthetic for what it is.
"It's a solitary walk to express abstractly," said Carlucci. "You can't fake the funk when you do it," he said.
With the opening of a new exhibit this weekend, the members of Fanatic Voyage say they hope to entice their audience to consider the possibilities and question the unimaginable.
"Get beyond the skin and see what's really going on," said Philly/Kondor 8, co-founder and visionary artist of Fanatic Voyage.
"Think, feel, act, and do something. We want to make people think about our work. It's about moving through ideas and discovering," she said.
