Earlier this week, we posted about Kid Zoom’s upcoming solo show, This City Will Eat Me Alive, which opens on Saturday in NYC. We also promised an interview with Kid Zoom aka Ian Strange. Because I admittedly don’t know much about Kid Zoom, I asked him to find a friend who could interview him for Vandalog. He chose art collector and filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. While Spurlock might be best-known for directing and starring in the films Super Size Me and Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?, he is also an avid art collector. Here’s their interview:
Morgan Spurlock: When I first came to NY in 1991, I was overwhelmed but excited beyond words. I felt like I was meant to be here. What were your first thoughts when you arrived in NYC?
Kid Zoom: My first time in New York was only last year, but I had a very similar experience. It’s a massive, intimidating, overwhelming place, especially coming from a small city in Australia – But the great thing was exactly what you said, I felt like this was where I was meant to be. I went home to Australia, sold my stuff and 6 months later I moved here.
Morgan Spurlock: How is the art scene different here from your native Australia? What was it like back home and what drove you to come here?
Kid Zoom: The scene I was apart of in Australia is a small community of very talented artists and it seems similar here, I’ve had really positive experience as the new kid.
There’s just a lot more people around here if you want to paint walls.
Morgan Spurlock: This will be your first major art show in NY. That’s a huge accomplishment. How do feel? Any pressure? Nerves on end?
Kid Zoom: Thanks, I’m just very humbled by the caliber of people who have thrown their weight behind my career and let me basically do whatever I want with this show. There’s a lot of pressure and nerves, sleepless fumed out nights and i have taken to drinking with a lot more passion than usual. But it’s all things I love and it’s a great way to lose your mind.
Morgan Spurlock: How do you personally define success?
Kid Zoom: For me I think it’s a simple as getting to do the things you really want to do in life and being surrounded by like minded fools. I’ll feel successful if I can just keep creating bigger and stranger projects and continuing to do the dance involved in lining everything up to make them happen.
Morgan Spurlock: If it wasn’t for my parents giving me the freedom to be myself, I’d probably be working in a bank somewhere. Who are the greatest influences and inspirations in your life?
Kid Zoom: I came up in the Perth graffiti scene with some really great people and a lot of the older guys were a great inspiration and help.
My parents were also great, laid back people who always told me to do what I love – and I loved painting on walls, which when you’re 15 doesn’t really seem like anything with a future, especially when you start getting dropped home by the police. Before I could drive my mother used to drive me to walls I’d painted the night before to get photos – I can’t imagine where I’d be if I had more traditional parents.
Morgan Spurlock: What’s up with the bear?
Kid Zoom: The piece is titled, ‘Tag on Bear [self portrait of the artist straight fronting]’ – So the short answer is its me, well, it’s kid zoom with the ego intact, so it’s a projected idea of myself.
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Kid Zoom‘s show This City Will Eat Me Alive opens this weekend in NYC. Here’s the flyer (with an image of Tag on Bear [self portrait of the artist straight fronting]):
Also, Fecal Face just did a studio visit with Kid Zoom.
Photos courtesy of Kid Zoom
